Soap Dispenser Jack-O-Lantern

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I've seen a lot of fun Halloween decorations in stores lately.  I can't believe it's that time of year already!  While I was at the dollar store I saw a soap dispenser that is supposed to look like an orange and thought it would make a great Halloween decoration.  I simply got a black sharpie marker and drew a jack-o-lantern face on the soap dispenser.  SO easy and it only cost $1.  Yay!

Giveaway Winner!

Pin It Thanks to everyone who entered the Bits of Blossoms giveaway.  We have a winner and it is......comment number 19.

"I liked the bit of sunshine headband!" By Lytles

And for all of those people who don't win, she is offering a 25% discount on your order!  How amazing is that???  You just have to enter the code: Wealth25 when you check out at her Etsy shop

Old Dress to Children's Dress

Pin It I'm finally starting to get my crafting back on....if you hadn't noticed I've been a bit more interested in food than crafting.  Does it surprise you that we found out I'm having a baby BOY?!?!?!  I think that explains my lack of craftiness :) 

Yesterday I made a dress for my little girl out of an old dress of mine.  I should have done a step by step tutorial, but I didn't (I was trying to hurry and make it during her nap time).  If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them though. 

Here is the original dress.  For a reference, it came down to my knees.  Why did I cut it up and ruin it you ask?  Honestly, it never fit well and the top was too wide.

 Here is the dress I made for my daughter.  It's a bit too long (remember she was down for a nap so I couldn't take measurements along the way), but I still like it.  I have a bit more fabric left over that I think I'll make a matching headband with. 

Bits of Blossoms Giveaway!!

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This giveaway is now closed

I have been really excited about this giveaway for a while now.  One of my good friends makes the most adorable and comfortable headbands.  One reason I hate wearing headbands is because they always give me a headache.  Bits of Blossoms' headbands DON'T - not to mention they are so dang cute!  She makes them in all sizes.  I have some for me and some for my 18 month old daughter.  She has a variety of color choices and styles - which is great!

Now, on to the details of the giveaway.  Larysa is giving away THREE custom made headbands to the winner!

How to Enter

1)  Follow my blog

2) "Like" Bits of Blossoms on Face Book

3)  Make her Etsy shop a "favorite"

4)  Pick out your favorite headband(s) from her Etsy shop or FB page.   Then leave a comment below letting me know which headbands you want. If the color combo you're looking for isn't there don't worry- they do custom orders!

*Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry as well as a way for me to contact you if you win!

And for all of those people who don't win, she is offering a 25% discount on your order!  How amazing is that???  You just have to enter the code: Wealth25 when you check out at her Etsy shop

Giveaway ends on Sunday September 11th at 10 PM MST and the winner will be announced Monday.  Good luck everyone!!!

Deliciously Easy Banana Bread

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I love banana bread and when I found that our bananas had gotten a little to ripe to just eat, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.  I looked up a few banana bread recipes and then came up with my own version.  Here's the recipe!

Banana Bread

1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Ripened Mashed Bananas (approx. 2 bananas)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/4 Cup Flour
Pinch of Cinnamon

Directions

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and bananas and mix well. In a separate bowl add baking soda, salt, flour, and cinnamon.  Using a fork or whisk, stir the dry ingredients together.  Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl.  Mix thoroughly, but do not over mix.  Pour the dough into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes.

Cherry Almond Cake

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We celebrated my brother's birthday yesterday and I made the cake.  We have a dessert that my family loves called cherry bars so I based his cake off of that dessert.  I used  doctored up white cake recipe which is pretty delicious.  It makes a ridiculous amount of batter though and it's a bit dense for my liking.  Does anyone here have a nice fluffy cake recipe?  I'd love for you to share it with me!

The white cake has a bit of almond extract in it which pairs nicely with the cherry pie filling.  I used Wilton's buttercream frosting recipe, but rather than using crisco, I used butter.  I think butter just tastes better!  I'm looking for other buttercream recipes right now as well.  I don't hate that recipe, but I don't want to just stick to that one in case there's a better frosting out there.

Which reminds me - does anyone have a yummy fluffy frosting for cupcakes??  I don't want a super heavy frosting because it just get's to be too much sugar for me.  I usually take off most of the frosting when eating my cupcake haha.

Back to the cake.  With my cake batter recipe, I was able to make 3 layers - if you only have 2 layers - it will be totally fine!  I used the canned cherry pie filling as my center.  I first made a dam with medium consistency frosting to keep the filling from oozing out the sides.  You do this by using tip 12.

 

Go around the outside of your cake layer leaving about 1/2 - 1/4'' around the outside of the cake since the frosting will be pushed out a little bit.  After you have made your dam, put your filling on the cake.  I made a little diagram to show you what it would look like if you were looking straight down on your cake layer.

 

If you have multiple layers, repeat the steps I explained above, if you only have tow, then place your top layer on your filled layer and you're set to frost the outside.  Don't look at my frosting job too closely.  I just started a cake decorating class and as you can see - I need some work haha.  BUT I do recommend that make a white almond cake and have a cherry filling.  It is delicious!!!!

Unbroken

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Remember when I shared a reading list a while back of books I plan to read?  Well I have read a couple of them and thought I'd share my thoughts on some.  Today I'm wanting to tell you about Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

I highly recommend this book.  It is a nonfiction book about a POW during WWII.  I am sad to say, that I actually didn't know a ton about the Japanese side of the war, I mostly just knew about all of the things going on in Germany.  This book taught me a ton about the war while sharing an amazing story.  I loved it!  Unbroken, isn't necessarily a quick read, but it's very informative.  If you are considering getting the book on tape, I'm sure it's still good, but I did like looking at the pictures of Louie and others people in the book.

Just a warning, POW life can be difficult and disturbing, so if those types of things bother you, then maybe this book isn't for you, but as for me, it was an inspiring book and I really enjoyed it.