my little corner of the world: 2014

Monday, November 3, 2014

Applesauce muffins

On Halloween morning Rosebud and I tried a new recipe. Oh my. They're my new favorite.

I employed my budding chef and she did everything but the measuring.

They come together really quickly and are a great way to use homemade applesauce, although you don't taste the applesauce. They are just moist and cinnamon-y from the topping.

I love her concentration face.

After they bake, cool just slightly and dip in butter, then cinnamon/sugar. Perfect for kids to help with.

When your mom has you dipping them too soon, they might be a little hot still.

But licking the cinnamon sugar off your fingers makes up for it.

Yum!!

Applesauce Muffins
from Simple as That

Batter:

1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 3/4 cup flour (I use half white/ half whole wheat)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.
Mix in applesauce. Whisk together dry ingredients and add to mixer. Mix just till combined.

Bake in greased muffin tins 16-20 min at 350 degrees. While baking, melt butter. In a separate bowl combine cinnamon and sugar.

After muffins are baked, while still warm, dip in melted butter and then cinnamon sugar mixture. Makes 12 muffins.

Delicious! We've made them three times since Halloween. We hope you love them too!

Friday, October 31, 2014

Perfect touch

Walking in my front door...

...gives you a view of my office bookcases right away.

Nothing special, right? Wait, what's new up there?

Yeah, up there.

Come to Mama!

Meet my luuuuvely metal sphere. We'll call him Orb.

I know, they're SO 2013. Yadda yadda. But I love them regardless. When browsing Marshalls last week, it was in the clearance section. SCORE!

I bought it with my bedroom in mind, but I think Orb has definitely shown us he found a better resting spot. Welcome, Orb.

Speaking of perfect touches, this 31 day challenge was a jump start - the perfect touch I needed to get me back on my blog. Thanks to all those that have hung around for my posts this month. Due to physical setbacks, there were less posts than I was aiming for, but more than I usually post, so hey.

For the rest, go HERE.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Apples and life

I love homemade applesauce. A neighbor gave me 2 bushels of apples from her tree!

It's the perfect fall smell in the kitchen, and a delicious snack for the kids. Couldn't be easier!

Cut and peel apples (or not). Cook till soft. Run through a food mill that will catch the peels & seeds left behind. Add cinnamon if you want. Eat it warm if you're like me, or put it in the fridge or freezer till later.

Or can it.

I love me a row of mason jars. No sugar. No chemicals to make it a fake color. Just tasty apples.

Unfortunately I herniated a disk after working on only one batch, and I had to rely on others to help. As of today, this is all I have left! It sort of symbolizes the month for me.

*We accomplished a lot - together. As stubborn as I am sometimes, life really is so much easier if let others help through the rough patches. My husband, kids, parents, siblings, and friends picked up the slack and were my angels this month.From apples to surgery they were there for me.

*I would have loved to have canned both whole dang bushel baskets. But I settled for just a couple jars, and the rest is/was eaten fresh and is in the freezer. I really learned how to be flexible (not literally) this month. Life doesn't always go as planned. This was by far the hardest lesson of the month.

God is good. We can learn to be patient. Blessings abound. Take a moment today and reflect on that.

Visit THIS PAGE for all my posts this month on Finding Moments.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Easy Silhouettes

Let's face it. We all have a project that we've been 'meaning to get to'. For me it was silhouettes of the kids. It's been my plan since the day we moved in to get frames of them up and I've just never taken the opportunity to do it.

I was shopping at Ross a couple weeks ago and I knew this framed saying would be a great centerpiece to anchor the silhouette wall.

It's been ages since I've tackled a great project anyway. And with my long recovery at home, I might as well do something with my hands. They turned out amazingly well! I really love it and can't believe I waited so long.

I'll show you how I did it.

Now, when I say "the day we moved in" I'm not exaggerating. My begin-with-the-end-in-mind self took these profile photos on the day we unloaded the truck at our new house. It was nighttime, and I think they really enjoyed me forcing a pic before setting up their beds (snort).

I recommend doing it with better lighting, as I really hated the shadows I had to deal with when cutting.

Why the day we moved in? I wanted them to be the exact age in the silhouette that they were when we set foot in our new home. Sappy.

In a Windows Photo Gallery I changed the saturation and tint so I could print them with just a bit of black ink, cuz I'm cheap. You want plenty of contrast though, or the next step is too hard.

I cut them out, adding hair features and embellishing a bit (football game optional). Printing the black & white version on regular paper made them easy to cut and retain facial features. It still took me a few tries on a couple of the kids. Even though they'd eventually be facing to the right, I kept flipping them to the white side to get a feel for how they'd look when solid color.

I used my family for feedback. If a kid hated how they looked, I realized I probably had to rework their details, and eventually everyone was happy.

After the paper templates were done I placed them on heavy black paper and traced.

I had to try two different cardstocks. The weight of the first was too heavy and stiff. Impossible to cut the details out. A lighter weight one was perfect.

I found simple black frames at the dollar store and used a sky blue herringbone cardstock as a mat for the black profiles. I just stuck them on the blue background with a tiny roll of scotch tape.

I. LOVE. THEM.

It wasn't hard and it was so fun to do. I spent $5 on the five frames at Dollar Tree and already had the paper on hand.

"First we had each other. Then we had you. Now we have everything"

I decided to find a moment and do something I've really been wanting. And it's fabulous.

We hung it last night and I've been smiling all day.

Update: Nov 2015

I was nervous about the spacing of the silhouettes since we got our fireplace. But I left them in their same spot and so far I like it, even if it's a bit off balance. I usually try to offset it with some height on the left side of the mantle.

What do you think?