{ A Recipe } Back to School

Muffins for teachers are baked, backpacks are packed, little girls with butterflies over the first day of school are snug in their bed with all their prayers said. Back to school for the monkeys tomorrow. They got their first mani pedi at a nail salon today to celebrate and push away the blues :)

I usually try to bake the teachers a treat for the first day of school to help them ease back into their routines of minding rooms full of excited kids. This year I was down to the wire and decided to go with my favorite go to in a hurry recipe. I heard it on a podcast, Halfway There. Jessica, the host had no idea what a valuable little recipe she was sharing. My girls and .. well everyone loves it.
SO are you ready for the huge list of ingredients?

Ingredients:
One Can of Pumpkin
1 box of cake mix ( I prefer the yellow cake or butter flavored)

That's it! No eggs.. No oil... nothing!

preheat the oven according to the box
Line the muffin tin with paper liners
Mix the pure pumpkin and the box of cake till you think your arms about to fall off! It's pretty dry at first so it puts up a bit of a fight ;)
Then for tidiness as well as easy to peel away wrappers I put the mix into a piping bag and swirl the mixture into the liners till they are about 2/3 full.

Bake according to your boxes directions for cupcakes.

I normally don't add any icing, but for the teachers I drizzled a little glaze on top that I picked up at the Grocery on clearance.

That's it. The amazing thing is how moist they are. Yum!

Hugs,
Heather

Thoughts on Disney

As my girls and I start to feel the thrill of an approaching trip to Disney World I reflect on how many people don't "Get It". The Pell that brings us back to the Kingdom every year. The glee that you see on our faces and the little flicker of sparkle they see in our eyes after returning home. Of course I know we are all different, and different things make each of us happy. But how to explain what it is that makes me and my family so very happy there?

Well it's not really possible to put into words or capture the magic in an explanation. But let me put it like this, every inch of the place is themed and beautified to an unreal degree, the cast members(all of the!) are polite and go out of their way to be helpful and kind, the rides and atmosphere is kept family friendly while still delighting you with heart pumping adventures. When a child drops a Popsicle and someone runs to your aide with a free voucher to replace it... you know the place is different.
Maybe it's the ties to my childhood, maybe it's the constant smile on my children's faces.. and even my husbands face... but this place makes me happy. And since I get made fun of for being too nice... maybe I just feel finally at home :)

Here's a peek at some of the fabulous decorating they do for Halloween at the kingdom!

Hugs,
Heather

Summer is slipping Away

Hi Friends,
I can't believe its the 20th of July. Time has truly slipped by without my noticing. My girls start school in just a week and a half. I'm busy putting the finishing touches on my the first of my 2011 Halloween sets, and just plumb spinning in circles with lots happening at home. I hope you've missed me!
So here's a quick peak at some of what will be in the Witches Damask Printable Party Set. There a few items with this set that are still being designed.



I best get back to designing, but I'll have more details plus a few fun pictures of what we've been up to.

Hugs,
Heather

{A Trip and A Little Fall} Pigeon Forge, TN

Hi Sweet Friends,
I just returned from a wonderful stay in the mountains of Tennessee. We were perched in a little cabin smack in the middle of heaven. We were surrounded by art and historic southern homesteads. With all this eye candy my brain is going into over time planning future paintings.
Being in the mountains also sparked that final little flame I needed to kick off my design work for my fall collections.



I spent most of my time hanging out the car window looking through a camera lens and the rest of it snuggled with my kids or picking up rocks out of a creek. The beauty of the area can't truly be captured with a lens, but here's an idea of what we were surrounded by.





Best of all we got to reconnect with family members that we haven't seen in ages.
My cousin Heather of Sprinkle Bakes, was just as sweet as when we were kids. We had a wonderful visit with her and her mother, my Great Aunt Katie. And then as if the visit wasn't already perfect enough... she brought cupcakes! Homemade, absolutely delicious... cupcakes!



Love You Sweet Cousin!

So now the difficulty will be picking which painting in my head to get onto a canvas first. Of course there will be lots of party sets to design with fall just around the corner too. It's amazing how a short trip to a special place can set your creativity on fire. What a beautiful planet my heavenly father created for us.

Hugs,

Heather

{Art with Kids} Still Life and Father's Day

Hello Friends,
It's been very hot in our area. The kind of hot that makes the thought of going outside an unpleasant thought. These are the days the kids whine that they are board and look to us in hopes of a magic "fun" solution. Those are the perfect days to pull out the watercolors and set up a still life.
Your still Life can be their sand bucket and snorkel on a table or as simple as a piece of fruit on the kitchen table as my daughter and I did in this photo. Notice that my sweet girl even captured the pool of shadow at the base of the pear. This is a great opportunity to talk to your budding artist about light and shadow. Make it even more appealing to the kids by using their action figures or dolls as the subject.



A great way to create a sure to be treasured Father's Day gift would be to set up Dad's tackle box and fishing reel for the little artist to draw or paint from. If Dad's not a fisherman what are his interest? A baseball and glove? Whatever it is, he will be pleased to see that his little one made it with their own precious hands. Then Mommy can grabbed an inexpensive picture frame to complete the gift.

Hugs,

Heather

{Art Journaling} My day

Hugs,

Heather

{Link Party} She's Crafty

Come one over to see all the crafty ideas these ladies are sharing.

Hugs,

Heather

{Party} Pool Party Time

It's that time of year, Pool Party Season.
Check out what a blast we had last year with my mermaid collection.

The Mermaid party was a blast. My lovely little mermaid enjoyed the party and her guest. And... mommy enjoyed seeing every one checking out the decorations! You can buy the printable party favors I designed here. I had a blast creating the marshmallow fondant shells on top of the cupcakes. It's a super easy recipe and then you just sculpt like you would with Play-Dough!

Hugs,

Heather

{A Craft Project} A Sign

Hi Friends,

I don't know about you, but I love to freshen up my house with new accents with the change of season... or just because ;) And one of the best things I accidentally discovered was what a nice sign an old drawer front makes.

I was pulling apart an old armoire to use the doors as large canvases, when I noticed the drawers already had a hanging mechanism, the drawer handle!

For this project I used:

• drawer front with handle gesso

• acrylic/craft paint

• my imagination ;)

I covered the back or inside(side without the drawer handle) of the drawer with gesso and then painted what I wanted on it. It was ready for a special spot in my kitchen!

Hugs,

Heather

{Facebook} Share the Love

Hello friends,
If you like my designs and find my blog to be a treat, then I'd love for you to like my facebook fan page. And don't forget to share it with your friends on Facebook. This girl can use all the help she can get.

Hugs and Whimsical Wishes,

Heather

{Holiday Decor} Celebrate America

Once Upon a Time there was a girl who was blessed to live in the most amazing country. A country where with hard work and vision, anyone had the right to pursue their dreams. That girl was me, and I'm proud to say that I'm a hard working American. An American who still believes in the dream. As we draw close to the 4th of July and celebrate those who've sacrificed to allow that freedom and the forefathers with that vision I wanted to share this patriotic printable party set with you. It's the perfect accent to a nice day of grilling out with friends and family.



I also wanted to share the cutest idea for cupcakes at your next cook out. They do a great job of tricking the eye. I found them in the latest issue of a magazine I picked up. I 'm drawing a blank on the what magazine I picked up. That's a sure sign that I need to give my brain a break. But I did find the exact same cupcakes on Martha's website. So go check them out!

Aren't they cute! I could just see these on a table at our next gathering.


Image property of Martha Stewart Magazine.

Hugs,

Heather

{Crafty Link Up Party}

Check out all these great creative souls!

Hugs,

Heather

Star Spangled and A Painting

Hi Y'all,

I hope you're having a fantastic Holiday weekend. My girls and I spent last night painting. We had a blast. They are my favorite up and coming artists! I wanted to share what I did and show you the newest item in my shop.
So here is the painting I did. I have to tell you my secret to painting and all my art... prayer ;) Now back to the painting it's self. I painted my savior, Jesus. I used a crimson red to represent the sacrifice he made and the gold to show his purity.

Friday night I designed this patriotic printable party set called Celebrate America. It can be customized with Welcome Home instead of Happy 4th. This set would look amazing with a large glass urn of Red punch and some star shaped cookies. I hope to design a paper doll that can be purchase separately. It will be kind of like the Marie Antoinette paper dolls with a touch of Liberty.

Hugs,

Heather

{Party} Big Foot

A sweet lady in California is having a Big Foot Party for her little boy. So I put together a quick list of what I think would be great treats to dress the table up with as well as pleasing her little guys tummy!
So the Big Foot Accessories are:

Cookie Cutter I think this would be super cute. Iced in green royal icing and some with chocolate royal icing. They would be great on a plate or topping a cupcake!

Chocolate mold for feet This works great. you just melt chocolate... pour into mold along with lolly pop sticks you can get in the cake/craft /Wilton Section of walmart. You could even do some of them with white chocolate with a little green food color and then have chocolate ones too... it would totally tie the party colors together.

Hard Candy Feet could be in a candy jar on the table or topping a cupcake.

Sour Apple Stinky Feet Gummy candies these would be good on cupcakes... but they are pricey in my opinion.

Hugs,

Heather

{Handmade} Cards

Hello,

I hope you all are having a great start to your summer. We are enjoying the hot Georgia sun and lots of community craft fairs. My girls fell in love with the Cotton Pickin' Fair. They got their hair done and mommy got to see lots of inspiring artist, as well as good old southern barns and tractors!You can see a sketch of their hair as well as a photo of them in all their Fair Fabulousness.





I don't know about your side of the world, but here it seems every weekend there's a birthday. Lots of cake and fun for all. When I have time I like to make the birthday star's card. Not only is it frugal, it's a way to tell them they are special.
In this case I designed a card for a sweet friend who is a part of my bible study group and an inspiration to me as a mom. She has it all together and is the Organization Queen!
For Pam's card I purchased black pastel paper and Metallic Derwent Water-soluble Pencils from Michaels. I designed the card to match the gift bag, which is actually a tote. To top the look off I grabbed a super sized clothes pin.

Hugs,

Heather