 |
| He happened to have some pancake mix in the cupboard and he ALWAYS has chocolate milk ingredients (it's his favorite). |
 |
| So I just used chocolate milk where the box called for water. The batter kind of tasted like cocoa krispies! |
 |
| Who says you can't play with your food? Raspberry buttons and eyes and chocolate syrup scarf. There's nothing frosty about this snowman! |
 |
| Happy fella! So funny to see a grown man in a tie eating a snowman pancake!! Love it! |
 |
| and One more little thing : RASPBERRIES!!! Mike just happened to have some of these delicious reminders of summertime in the fridge. So I thought to myself, ' hmm, beer+ raspberries= delicious combination so why not toss 'em in?' |
 |
| I just pushed them into the batter after I poured into the pan. What's that you say? You want to know how to make this happen on your stove? Okay! First, round up these items: 1cp. flour 1/4cp sugar (or sugar substitute) 3/4tsp. baking powder 1 egg 1cp beer of your choice (he picked out Sam Adams) 1 TBS melted butter Whisk the flour, sugar, and baking powder together then whisk in everything else! Heat up your pancake pan/griddle. Spray with no-stick spray and pour out about 1/4cp of batter per pancake. Now for the raspberries <squeal!> After you pour the batter onto the pan, stick the berries in the tops. Wait until lots of bubbles appear before flipping the pancakes. This is very important for fluffy-ness. Don't worry, though, the 2nd side cooks way faster. |
 |
| Beautiful, golden, fluffy pancakes..ahhh.. |
 |
| Dig in! |
 |
| Look! It's the bridge like the one George Bailey jumped from in the movie! |
 |
| This car was parked right out front of Martini's Bar. How fitting!! |
 |
| We heard that Martini's bar was indeed an actual business in town so we had to check it out after the dance. |
 |
| Of course, there was this sweet little plaque that reads: Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings |
 |
| The bartender was so welcoming to us gawkers! |
 |
| My date and I dressed up in our finest 40s gear. My hairdo was quite a hit- 2 victory rolls up the sides and a bow made of the rest of my hair in the back! I wish I had taken a picture of it for you! |
 |
| This couple has been married for 65 years and dancing!! Way to go! I hope I am still dancing at their age. |
 |
| Instead of using a playing card to create these ATCs(Artist Trading Cards), I used a Mike & Ike box {I love those things}. I did use a playing card to trace its shape on the cardboard and cut it out. This was perfect because it is white on one side so I can put a nice holiday greeting on there. |
 |
| I covered the other side with old wrapping paper from Christmas presents past and stamps from last year's cards! In the middle is a rolled paper rose and stamped across the top reads: The Magic Of Christmas. With a hole punched in the top, these can be laced up with a pretty ribbon and displayed on the tree for many years to come! |
 |
| I went to see the gingerbread display at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY and here are some of the delights to be seen.. |
 |
| Townhouses next to the RVer's Christmas paradise |
 |
| Then, I came across this real life gingerbread house! How Gorgeous!! Someday, I will have a beautiful house like that.. |
 |
| I made this for my mother's birthday this year and she loves it! It was super easy- I cut out two pieces of fabric in the shape of a light bulb, sew them together (right sides facing) leaving an opening at the top to turn it right side out, bind the open end with a piece of ribbon folded over, then use fabric glue to put the neck and waist ribbon on. easy right? |
 |
| The neck slips on over the top of the detergent bottle and then tie the waist in the back. Or, if you have enough ribbon, you could wrap it around to the front and tie it in a cute bow! You could even put lace around the edges or buttons/flowers/ ric rac on the bib. Play with it and have fun! |
 |
| So cute! An easy way to add a touch of whimsy to an otherwise boring area! Stocking stuffer?? |
 |
| This was Gaston's first ever Thanksgiving! Here he is feasting away..I think he likes this holiday! |
 |
| As for us human folk, we went for something a little more upscale. I made this delicious 4 layer pumpkin cake and some two bite pumpkin pies. YUM! It was so pretty, I had to take a picture ! |
 |
| Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it's time to start getting ready for Christmas- my other favorite holiday! I painted these whimsical ornaments for the tree at work. The shop colors are lime green and purple so these fit right in! |
 |
| There they are nestled into our fun little tree. Who doesn't love decorating the tree, I want to know? With some sweet Duke Ellington Christmas tunes in the background, pretty garlands and well, I , might have been dancing around while I was decorating...guilty. |
 |
| After all that turkey, Gaston needed a bath to get all the gross turkey grease off his little precious face. He did not approve of this idea to say the least..haha, too bad Gaston! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, laughter, and love. |
 |
| Here's the recipe: 2 cp flour 1 1/4tsp baking powder 1tsp baking soda 1tsp cinnamon 1/4tsp nutmeg 1/4tsp ground ginger 1/8tsp ground cloves 2 eggs 1 1/4cp brown sugar (I cut mine with a no calorie sugar substitute by 1/2) 1/2cp oil 1tsp vanilla extract 1cp pumpkin 1cp dried cranberries 1cp white chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350F Whisk dry ingredients (flour-cloves) and set aside. Combine eggs and sugar until well blended. Add oil, vanilla, and pumpkin. Stir in dry mixture a little at a time. Add cranberries and chocolate. Drop cookies onto cookie sheet and bake 8 min. They are like cloud cookies so light and fluffy. Bet you can't eat just one! |
 |
| There's Steven Mitchell & Virginie Jensen teaching at the fabulous swing and blues dance workshops that kept me from my blog all weekend! |
 |
| I went out to visit my friend this weekend who had a four day weekend. Before starting out on our adventures, I made a nice seasonally appropriate breakfast of fluffy apple cider pancakes. MMMMMM..... |
 |
| Naturally, we had to go dancing and Perpetual eMotion is one of the best contra dance bands. With only two incredibly talented members, this band makes incredible sounds! Among their many instruments are a fiddle, digeridoo (sp?), guitar, percussion (with their FEET!!!), and vocals. Here, Ed Howe wanders among the dancers while playing a waltz. |
 |
| After the big dance events, we headed out to see MacKenzie-Childs studio, gift shop, and show house in Aurora, NY. This is the stunning victorian mansion that dates back to the 1800s! Sigh, one day I will live in beautiful house like this.. |
 |
| The inside of the house was even prettier than the outside! It is decorated, as to be expected, in MacKenzie-Childs style. I'm in love. |
 |
| A chair in my favorite color!! and look at the footstool-it's a flower!! |
 |
| and this amazing fireplace! |
 |
| I love wicker furniture! and it's painted so beautifully. These colors are so perfect. |
 |
| The first room you walk into upon entering the show house. |
 |
| This lamp is so cool! |
 |
| Can you imagine going out and seeing this everyday? What an amazing trip! I didn't want to leave. If you haven't made it out there yet, this is a place worth seeing. Just be sure to leave plenty of time so you can see everything! We were there most of the day! |
 |
| I made this shirt all by myself with no pattern or directions! It is basically just a big rectangle, hemmed on all sides with a circle and a slit cut out of the middle plus a long strip sewn along the bottom of the back end to tie around the front. |
 |
| I saw a vintage picture of a woman tying her shirt on and thought, I have to attempt this it looks so easy to make! and it was.. It even went dancing with me last weekend! |
 |
| Ingredients: 1 box white cake mix 1cp. sour cream 1/2 cp vegetable oil 3eggs 1tsp almond extract 1/2tsp each of yellow and orange food coloring white frosting-homemade or store bought(I have a link for frosting recipes below) Put everything except the food coloring and frosting in aa medium bowl and stir until combined. |
 |
| Put 1/2 of the batter into another bowl. Mix yellow food color into one bowl and orange into the other bowl. |
 |
| Put cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and fill 1/3 of each cup with yellow batter. Try to smooth out the top so the layers will be nice and even. |
 |
Put some of the orange batter on top of the yellow. These cupcakes rose nicely. I filled the cups about 2/3 of the way. Bake them for about 20 minutes at 350F . A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean if you are not sure. Let them cool before attempting to frost. |
 |
| I'm fussy about frosting so I mixed up a nice, light vanilla frosting but here's a link to several different frosting recipes you can try: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/p/my-ten-favorite-frostings.html She has 10 delicious looking varieties there! YUMMO!  |
