A Sweet Painting and a Fond Farewell

I recently received a wonderful gift from Holly. She is such a talented artist. She made this beautiful watercolor with Chelsea's name. In a full circle moment, I had some vintage wallpaper I had purchased from Holly a while back and thought it would make the perfect mat for her darling painting. I got the frame on sale and spray painted it with some paint I had on hand.


It is now hanging in Chelsea's room and she loves to look at it. I do too!

Photo by Sue

On a more somber note, I want to take a moment to pay tribute to Kipper. He was the best friend of one of our own, Ms. Susie Q of Rabbit Run Cottage. Kipper crossed the Rainbow Bridge earlier this week. Sue's Kipper posts always brought a smile to my face. There are some great ones here, here and here.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I was checking out my Facebook newsfeed when I came across Monica's status stating she was making chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Immediately I was intrigued and went straight to the link she provided. There I found a new to me blog that immediately captured my attention. Amanda is full of good ideas and I knew I wanted to make these cupcakes asap! Amanda's photos are much better but here is my process starting with the cookie dough balls. These go into the freezer overnight so that they don't bake inside the cupcake. Genius! The dough also does not contain egg so no worries about raw egg contamination.

I took the easy way out and used a chocolate cake mix for the cupcakes. You simply fill the papers and plop a frozen cookie dough ball on top.

I think I put a bit too much batter in my cups as they runeth over but the frosting will fix all that.

Topped with yummy cookie dough frosting - these things are so darn good!

A cross shot of the yummy cookie dough goodness lurking within. For Amanda's full recipe and post - click here.

P.S. My blog is in the process of being spruced up by Lindsey at Sweet Simplicity Designs. What do you think? I'm going to be changing the sidebar content over the next few weeks. I'm really liking the more streamlined look and the non-squished appearance my blog had before.

What I Am...And What I'm Not

Yikes, it has been a while since the last post. This has prompted me to think about my blog and the direction it should take and what I am, and what I am not.

What I am not...
...a gramatically correct writer
...a frequent poster
...a mini Martha Stewart (or anywhere close to her for that matter!)
...a person that always has interesting things to share
...a good photograher
...someone who downloads their photos as often as she should
...someone who edits their photos as much as she should

What I am...
...a mother to a growing toddler
...a wife
...a daugther
...a friend
...a full-time employee of a university
...a person who gets infinite joy and ideas from blogging
...a person who is constantly (nearly daily) reading/perusing blogs even if I'm not updating mine
...a person who simply cannot keep up with frequent blog posting at this stage of my life
...a person who so enjoys connecting with you via my infrequent posts and via your posts

Phew, now that I've gotten that off my chest I do want to let you all know that this blog will be underoing a makeover over the next several months. I'm looking to create a more visually appealing page and a place that gives me joy and motivates me to sit down and download those photos! (Trust me, I want to, but the Babes has been waking every night due to a persistent cough and as a result I'm going to bed right after she does!). I have several half written posts and things I want to share. It may be infrequent and not accompanied by the best photography but that is me and I've accepted that my blog can't be as beautiful as some and it wouldn't be an accurate portrayal of my life right now anyway! My house isn't picture perfect (I'm in a constant struggle to better organize the toy area that is a part of my living room since we don't have a family/play room). I don't have the time that I used to to create jewelry and crafty things but that is okay because that time is now spent on my little girl and slowly but surely those creative things sneak in here and there.

All of this is my very round about way of asking - what do you like about my blog? What would you like to see me include more of? Is there anything that really turns you off? Would you like me to post more photos? Are there things you'd like to see me talk about (My travails as a new mommy? My crafty adventures when I do get to them? More info about CT?)

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.