Cinnamon Critters

Isaac started getting the High Five magazine (little kids counterpart to Highlights), and I might have been more excited that he was....I LOVED getting Highlights when I was a kid!  Could not wait for the mail to come, and then for all the fun games, activities, and stories inside....oh good times!  Well, Isaac yesterday settled down to read this months magazine, do some look and finds, and then he realized there were activities and recipes.  We couldn't make the mushroom bowling game (need to collect a few supplies), but we did have everything to make Cinnamon Critters....a HUGE hit!

In case you're dying to make your own, here's the recipe:

Cinnamon Critters
Ingredients:
Breadstick dough (like the Pillsbury kind in a can)
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the cinnamon & sugar together.  Sprinkle it out on a piece of wax paper.  Roll each breadstick in the cinnamon sugar mix, coating completely.  Place on a baking sheet.  Put mini chocolate chips on for eyes.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Loads of Layouts!

At the beginning of the year I decided to stop card-making and focus on scrapbooking....while I love card-making, it was becoming my fall-back.  Whenever I didn't make time to prep for scrapbooking, I just made cards.  And it turned out I was making LOADS of cards, with no layouts being done at all.  So this year, I abandoned cards (with the exception of a few very important cards), and I've been scrappin' like mad!  Here's some of my latest stuff...

The Non-Girly Baby Shower

Our dear friends are prepping to have a baby (actually, he was born last week, so this post is waaaaay overdue)...well, they were prepping to have a baby, and because it's their third baby, we wanted to do something fun for them, but not like the typical shower you might have for a first baby.  My husband was also very adamant that if it was co-ed, it couldn't include all that girly stuff.  We ended up doing a party with drinks & appetizers, with the "cover charge" being a package of diapers or wipes.  Here's a few highlights:

 Painted Mason jars...my new addiction...thanks to Joy's Hope...

 Mark was pretty mad that I took paint cards from Home Depot...something or other about the price of paint cards going up because I took 15 of each color...sigh...

Yummy raspberry vanilla ice cream cups....delish!

Me, the beautiful mom Kelly, and my fellow co-host & friend Heather

Co-host hubby Brett, dad of honor Brett, and Mark

The Neglected Bathroom

So what started out as Spring Cleaning quickly turned into "man, these towels look terrible....how old are they??", and then after seeing this post by Lisa Leonard of her cute re-do of her boys' bathroom, it quickly became a desire for a mini facelift.  Other than daily use & cleaning, we have done nothing to our master bathroom since we moved in almost 2 years ago....it received a mishmash of things...an old (albiet still cute) shower curtain, old guest bath towels, baskets from wherever.  Anyway...here's the before...

I really have to laugh about the "FUN" towel (part of a "GOOD CLEAN FUN" set)...we I registered for them for our wedding, and I was so excited to get them...Mark was less than thrilled.  The best part of this re-do for him was saying good-bye to those towels...  :)

Here's the after...loving that it's a little more cohesive...that it's a lot more us.

My favorite part of this was digging through old pictures, searching for ones with orange...great memories of this trip to San Fran in 2005...excited to remember this now every day while I get ready!

Why Sugar & Sharpies?

Domestic life doesn't always get the best reviews...hard work, no breaks, not fun.  But this girl doesn't really want to settle for boring domestic life...there is all kinds of happiness in sugar & sharpies & other wonderful ordinary every things.  So you'll be seeing a lot of everyday goodness...cooking, crafting, organizing, keeping house...just ordinary life sprinkled with all the great color and fun that comes with sugar & sharpies.