Feel Good Friday!

 When I grow up print by stephaniecorfee

We made it to Friday! Yahoo! No bones broken, no teeth chipped, no people to bail out of jail (man, I've been at work for too long this week). So it's time to kick back and relax. The weekend is upon us and we can enjoy the crisp weather tickling our noses.

Remember earlier this week when I told you I was going to mix things up a little on the blog. Well, Feel Good Friday is no exception. I am a HUGE fan of themes! So, I thought-why don't I make Fridays still feel good but with a different theme every week. Here is the first of many Feel Good Friday Theme Parties...Enjoy!

PS-See if you can guess the theme....

This is like a page out of my middle school diary. 

Stephanie Tillman is hysterical. She takes cute little animals and gives them crass personalities. The title of this piece is Middle School. If you like her stuff, she has an etsy shop-check it out!

When I was a kid, I wish my mom would have made me a lunch like this. I got a ham and mustard sandwich every day for a whole school year. I made the mistake of telling her that I liked ham and mustard.Every day....for a whole school year....ham and mustard....yes, I am serious. The good news is, you don't have to burn your kids out on the same old boring lunches, Just Bento has great recipes, the cutest products ever and great ideas on spicing up a boxed lunch.

As you know, I live in the Pacific Northwest where 6-9 months out of the year it is gray and rainy. I am always looking for a bag to brighten up those gray days and make me look super cute. This amazing green bag is perfect for books, laptops, extra set of clothes. The best part about it? It's affordable! Check out The Leather Store on Etsy for some beautiful bags at great prices.

I'm wondering if I can teach my little ones to read.  Knowing those monsters, they would check out books that were not age appropriate.

Are you feeling good? Feeling like you could conquer the world with cute bags and bentos? Well, get your sizzle on you little pieces of bacon! Have a fab weekend! Don't study or work too hard!

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.

Give a Hoot

Owls are cool. They can rotate their head 270 degrees, see in the dark, and have great depth perception. These owls, however are a little goofy, look annoyed and in shock. Kind of like me when I first wake up in the morning.

It's For Your Own Good

I've been sitting here for the past hour trying to figure out what to write tonight. Friendship? Strength? Speedbumps in life? Nothing...just a blank screen. My mind has been completely blank. So, instead of me telling you how you need to enjoy life, covet friendship in unusual places(not the bus station though...that's just creepy), and how you should jump over speedbumps like The Dukes of Hazard jumping over Rosco's patrol car-I'm giving you a cute picture of puppies.

No sir, I'm not gonna tell you that even when you are down, you are not out. Life may be tough, but you are tougher

I'm not even going to go into how certain people come into your life for certain reason and it is absolutely okay if they leave your life. You were able to share a wonderful moment that no one will ever be able to duplicate. Others stay in our lives for a lifetime and the older the relationship, the better it gets. I have a friend that I know I will be sitting on the beach, drinking cocktails with, laughing at all the young kids making fools of themselves. Nope, not going into all that-I'm just going to show you puppies.


Don't even get me started on problems can be viewed as adventures. Just take the picture of the puppies and be happy with it. It's for your own good.

Tie One On Tuesday!

School is back in session and I heard a collective`1 "YAHOO" from moms around the world. In order to honor back to school, I am ordering moms everywhere to pop open a bottle of bubbly, reach for that juice and make yourself a mimosa. After all, drinking just champagne at 8 in the morning, might be a bit much-even for me.

The Original Mimosa
One bottle of Champagne
2 ounces of Orange juice-if you have fresh, all the better
Crushed ice
Add ice to a champagne flute, then the orange juice and last the champagne.

You can substitute the orange juice for cranberry juice and you have a Poinsettia.

Oh hello Mama! We have a mimosa just for you!
Mama Mimosa
Orange Juice
Champagne
2 Shots of Orange Liquer
1/2 cup raspberries
Pour the carton of chilled orange juice into a 3 quart pitcher and then add the full bottle of chilled Champagne or sparkling wine.
Add 2 shots of orange liquer and stir the orange juice, Champagne and orange liquer until thoroughly mixed. Just before serving add the raspberry ice(crumble fresh raspberries and place the crumbles into narrow ice cube trays, fill with water and freeze) to the pitcher and pour about 4 ounces of the mimosa mix into Champagne flutes or if you'd like to show off more of the raspberry ice pour the mimosa mix into regular wine glasses.

If you aren't into orange juice, you can add whatever juice you like. Just mix that baby up with some champagne and you will be on your way to happy Mimosa land.

Raise your glass and shout out your happiness now that those little ones that are back in school, learning to take over the world.  I will raise my glass with you as I am celebrating my little ones going back to school-doggy day care counts as school doesn't it?

Labor of Love

Hi all you wonderful readers out there. In case you haven't notice, I have a new banner and a new background. I think it's so stinking cute! There will be a few more changes and I will be tweaking things a little bit more-adding and removing links, revamping, basically making the blog bigger and better! So here's the low down as I see it right now.....

Monday-Movie Madness Monday.
Tuesday-Tie One On Tuesday
Wednesday-Wild Card Wednesday
Thursday-Crafty/Pattern goodness
Friday-Feel Good Friday (now with themes!)
Saturday-Salivating Saturday
Sunday-Scrappy Dog Sunday

Read one day or read them all! It's up to you!

Big hugs and smooches to everyone who has stuck around and read my ramblings. You guys rocks my socks off!

Big shout out to AlwaysInspired and Digital Misfit for their awesome banner making skills. Watch your mailbox for some love!

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

I have a confession to make. OMP is not going to be happy with me. I've found a new man. He's short, dark and handsome.

See that little paw, I am officially wrapped around it.

OMP may think he has dibs on this little man

But in reality, he's all mine.

Sweet Saturday

Okay, first let me apologize for being MIA this week. It's been so crazy this week and I have been absolutely exhausted that I just haven't had a chance to keep up with everything. That being said, I made you something today. Let me begin by saying for the past three months I have pined over a donut baking pan. I saw one on another blog and wanted it so badly. I finally went out yesterday and bought one. So, today I have cake donuts to bribe you into forgiving me.

I tried the recipe that came with the pan and well, it wasn't as sweet as I wanted so I scoured a couple of sites to find one that was just perfect for you.


Baked Cake Donuts
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare donut panwith non-stick cooking spray, if you don't have a donut you can use a muffin pan.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and egg together until creamy and light-colored. Add oil, milk, and vanilla and mix well.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
Slowly add flour mixture into egg mixture until well combined.
Fill donut pan about 2/3rd way full or the muffin pan about 3/4 full and bake for 10 minutes for donuts or 15 minutes for muffins, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Do not overcook! You want a nice, dense, moist cake.

Powdered donuts: While donuts are still warm to the touch, remove from tins and immediately roll the crust with powdered sugar, until it is well coated. Dust the tops with sugar as well.

Sugared donuts: Using a pastry brush, coat each donut with a thin layer of melted butter. Roll each buttered donut in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. (Perform this step immediately before serving. If the butter and sugar cool for too long, it will make more of a “crust” on the donut)

Jelly filled donuts: Layer the donuts. Put in about 1/3 then a ring of jelly then another 1/3 of the batter.

Icing donuts: Mix one cup of confectioners sugar with two table spoons of HOT water. Dip the donut into the icing.

I made chocolate ones and they tasted more like a chocolate bread, so I still need to find a good recipe for those. These were actually so much easier than I ever imagined. You can leave the plain, sugar them or decorate any way you want. They keep for several days but I'm doubting they will be around that long. Now...don't you forgive me? Let's always be friends. Have another donut.