Happy New Year!

We just wanted to wish our wonderful followers a very happy New Year! We love you guys! Thanks for following!

Honey Bun Cake

Have you recovered from Christmas yet?  I'm still recovering from making 9 of these cakes last Saturday for the Hubby's work crew.  If you are looking for a sweet start to your New Years celebration, I've got the perfect cake for you.  It's great for breakfast and tastes like a cinnamon roll.

This is another great recipe from my dear Aunt Sue!

Honey Bun Cake

Cake Ingredients - 

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I used store brand and they came out great!)

3/4 cup of vegetable oil

4 Eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

8 ounces sour cream

1 cup brown sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

Icing Ingredients - 

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp. milk (needs to be thin, so may have to add a little more)

Directions - 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In large mixing bowl combine cake mix, oil, eggs,sour cream and 1 tsp vanilla. 

Mix well and pour into 11 x 13 prepared pan. (I use Bakers Joy).

In separate bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over cake and swirl into batter with fork.

Bake 40 - 45 minutes.

Icing - Mix powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 4 tablespoons milk.  Mix well and pour over warm cake.

If you like lots of icing, you can add another cup of powdered sugar and enough milk to thin it out.  If not, just use a spoon to drizzle the icing back and forth over the top.

Aunt Sue always makes this for us when we go up to her cabin on Lake Hartwell in Georgia.  I have lots of fond memories of our family out at the lake and like to think I'll get to see Granny & PaPa, Dad, Uncle Fred and Chrissie all gathered on the dock again there one day!

I think that's what makes family recipes so special.  All the memories we have of the people who enjoyed them.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year in 2013!

Guardian Angel Ornament

In case you haven't noticed, I am the Queen of  Late Last Minute! I saw this on Pinterest on the way to do my last little bit of Christmas shopping (don't worry - Leigh was driving). Thanks to Samantha at Southern Bell Scentz for the inspiration.

It is kind of hard to tell in the picture but the glass ornament is full of white feathers.  I only had the flat disc type glass balls on hand and think that it would look better in a round ornament.  Oh well, maybe next year.

What makes the ornament so special is the poem on the back - 

Here's a jpeg of the poem.  I printed it as a 3.5 x 5 and used my 2 1/2 inch punch to cut it out.

My Dad passed away in March of 2004 and Leigh and I both thought Mom would love this for her tree. We are on our way over to pick her up to go look at Christmas lights so I thought I would take some quick picks and post it for all you Last Minute Crafters out there! You know you are!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas as you are watched over by your Guardian Angels!

Marshmallow Lollipop Kit - Last Minute Christmas Gift

Marshmallows seem to be all the rage right now and when I saw this video on Better Homes and Gardens it gave me a great idea for a last minute Christmas Gift.

I put together a Marshmallow Lollipop kit for my boss and co-workers with a custom tag that I created in PicMonkey.

This was a snap to put together after I made the tag.  I printed mine as a  3 1/2 x 5 and mounted it on green cardstock. Here's the tag for you to download and use -

I left room for you to either sign your name below "Wishing you a Merry Christmas!" or you could even add it with PicMonkey.

Here's what you need for the kit -

Glass Jar (got these from Home Goods for $4.99 each)
1 Bag Milk Chocolate Morsels
1 Jar Caramel Topping
1 Bottle Red Sprinkles
1 Bottle Green Sprinkles
Peppermints (I used the small individually wrapped ones so they could crush them easily and sprinkle on the Marshmallows)
Stick Pretzels
1 sandwich size ziploc bag
1 bag large Marshmallows
Ribbon

Place a portion of the pretzels into the ziploc bag, then place all the ingredients into the jar.  Tie a bow and tag onto the jar and you are done! Easy Peasy!

All the ingredients, with the exception of the bag of Marshmallows easily fit into the jar.  You could also include coconut or nuts as ingredients.

I think everyone really loved them - and I especially did because they were SUPER EASY!  This would make a great gift for your friends and family too.

Hope you are having a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sonic Drink Sign - Office Version

Back in August, while the hubby was in the hospital, I created a sign inspired by Shannon at Sweet Blessings.  She has lots of great versions and different colors.

Check out our original post here - Sonic Drink Sign

Here's my original version -

I recently received a request from reader for an Office version.  So Mignon, this one's for you -

Here's the original printable - 

Hope everyone is having a Wonderful Christmas! I've been too busy to post much of anything this month.  Maybe next year I'll get started earlier....nope, it will never happen! I'm the Queen of the Last Minute Christmas!

Deco Mesh Wreath

December is such a completely crazy month for me - you too?  Every year I tell myself to slow down and take it easy, but there's just one more gift to buy, present to decorate, craft to make, Christmas event or party, project at work.......... I could go on and on and on...........  I really admire all the blogs that post daily or even several times a week during Christmas. I wish I could find the time, but it's just not going to happen. Ok, enough whining. I truly do love Christmas and wouldn't have it any other way.

So here's our post for the week!!! Mom has a friend from Church that went to Canton to buy Deco Mesh wreath supplies in October and guess what I got for my birthday in November?  Thanks Mom!  I've fallen in love with Deco Mesh.

Here's the wreath I made for our front door. I'm going to make another one for the mantel this week -

Leigh really like it and said I should make them and sell them!

If I had a clone, maybe I could find the time!!! Ha Ha Ha!

I tried to get a close up of the adorable tinsel lights from Kirklands that I used on it.  All of the other ribbon and snowflakes came from Wal-Mart.

The new "In" color right now seems to be this Chartreuse green that everyone

is using  and since the Deco Mesh had it a small stripe of that color, 

I decided to really play it up with the ribbon and accessories.

Reminds me of The Grinch!

Don't you think? 

You're singing the song in your head now - aren't you? 

Your a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Anyway, I love how it turned out.  So bright and cheerful!

Hope you are having a joyous December!

Christmas Gazebo Pictures

Our subdivision homeowners association recently built a beautiful gazebo near the entrance to our subdivision and they have decorated it for Christmas.

It is so just gorgeous at night with the lights and I decided to stop by tonight and snap a few pictures with my Iphone.  I added some effects with PicMonkey and thought I would share them with you.

Look! It's SNOWING in CROSBY!! 

Just kidding! It was 82 degrees here today and we are running the A/C! 

Added the snow in PicMonkey - where else?

Here's a shot without all the special effects.  

Just in case you want to use it for your own PicMonkey Christmas Card!

Christmas Countdown Printable

Can you believe that it is already December 2nd???? I know I say it every year, but where has this year gone?  Leigh has been home for six months now and the time has just flown by.

Since I seem to loose track of time, I decided that I needed an easy Christmas countdown for the fridge!

I made the countdown in PicMonkey and printed it out as a 5 x 7, spray painted a $ store frame and added a little ribbon/snowflake combo in the corner.  Add magnets to the back and dry erase marker and you are all set.

Here's the printable if you would like to make your own version -

I'm usually all about traditional red and green for Christmas, but think this is very wintery and fun in blue and white.  Heavens knows we need some winter around here!!! It's been 80 degrees the past two days. 

Here's wishing you a Winter Wonderland! At least for a day or two!

Christmas Deco Mesh Centerpiece

The ladies at our church always decorate the tables at our annual church Thanksgiving Feast and this year they made the most beautiful Deco Mesh centerpieces with candleholders.  I was so inspired by them that I decided to make a couple for our office Christmas party.  I must admit that mine are quite a bit larger than the ones at church. I wish I had taken a picture of theirs!!!!

Here's my version - (don't look at the crummy candle - I haven't bought new ones for these so I used an old one that I had on hand)

 These are very quick and easy to make and if you buy the supplies from Hobby Lobby with a coupon or on sale they aren't too terribly expensive.

Here's what you need -

1 roll 21" red Deco Mesh (got mine from Hobby Lobby for 1/2 price - $5.00 - Takes a little more than 1/2 a roll to make one centerpiece)

1 foam disk - I used the 1 15/16" x 9 7/8" size so that it would be big enough for the glass hurricane

1 roll sheer red/gold ribbon - mine was wired which helped me arrange it to fill in the gaps

1 glass hurricane and candle

1 pine floral pick - mine came from Wal-Mart

1 box of Floral Greening Pins

Directions -

1.  Cut one length of deco mesh the same width as your foam disk

2. Fold the length in two and pin to disk with 4 pins - one on each side

3.  Cut the corners off the Deco Mesh to form a rough circle - this is just so that the green doesn't show through your glass hurricane.

4.  Gather the edge of the roll of Deco Mesh and pin it to the side of the disk

5.  Make 6 Poofs of Deco Mesh around the edge of the disk pinning evenly around the disk.

6. Start the next row of Poofs in the middle of one edge Poof  on the top edge of the disk (does that even make sense to you? Let me know if it doesn't)

7.  Continue making 6 Poofs pinning evenly around the top edge of the disk.  You will end up with 2 rows of  Deco Mesh with 6 Poofs each around the disk.

7.  Cut the sheer ribbon in 2 - 6-7" long pieces with angled edges and pin around the wreath to fill in

8.  Add your floral pick and the glass hurricane and you are done!

It is really hard to tell how large these are, but they are about 2' in diameter.  This was the first time that I've worked with Deco Mesh and the best thing about it is that you can easily mold it with your hands to achieve the shape you want.

Our First Crafty In Crosby Christmas post!

Now if I can just get my own house decorated!!!  I promised Ty that we would decorate this coming weekend.  So many houses in our neighborhood already have their lights up and I feel like a  Slacker!!

How about you? Have you decorated already? Do you have it all done in a day or does it take you a while like it does me?





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