Sherry's Birthday on AMI

Somehow out of all the pictures I took that day/night... I did NOT get even one of Sherry...How the heck did I let that happen is beyond me.
We did get to stay in a fantastic NEW house (never been rented out before) of Tommy's...it was great especially the pool area. Too bad it was too cold to go in!

 



Cosmos...in chilled wine glasses...yummy!



Goofy pictures of me with one eye done and the other without makeup.

 



Elle's gorgeous eyes after Sherry did them in greens...rather than her normal browns.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sher...even though I dont have a picture of any of us together...what a bummer... But to remember the moment... Robin was down from Rhode Island, Ash came down from Tampa, El and I drove up from Sarasota....all to meet Sherry and celebrate her 38th birthday with her! (Sher even had her two girls with her and Ash brought baby Owen with her too!)

Red Velvet Cake Balls/Pops

Bake cake according to directions in a 9x13 pan. Cool.

Crumble cake into a large mixing bowl.

Add can of cream cheese frosting.

Mix well. Chill in fridge for a couple of hours.

Roll into balls and chill in fridge for at least 3 or 4 hours.

Stick in lollipop stick and dip in white chocolate.

My tray of cake pops..didnt have any styrofoam to stick them in to dry (which would prevent the flat side mine will have).

My finished cake balls. Some dipped in white chocolate, some in semi-sweet chocolate and then both drizzled with more white chocolate.

I must preface this by saying...this is NOT my idea, but who cares I just LOVE it anyway! I want to give credit, where credit is due... Bakerella is where I first saw these cake ball/pops and she has PERFECTED the way to make them. If you want this exact recipe from her site, click here.  On the other hand, me... not so much.  I was good until the rolling of the "red" balls into the "white" chocolate...I ended up with quite a mess...but I figured out that I did not chill them long enough. Thankfully I only did 15 and stopped. After chilling for a couple more hours and deciding that maybe I should try semi- sweet chocolate, it worked much better. I left the pops in the fridge for even longer because I really did want to make those with white chocolate. That was the trick! If your balls are not chilled enough they will fall apart in the melted chocolate.Once chilled they dip beautifully! Thanks Bakerella for making my girlfriends birthday as well as my hubby's Valentines Day.
xoxo

Preparing for Valentines Day!

Pink confetti cupcakes for Brody's Valentine party.

                                      

Charlotte peeking around my display of candies I was trying to photograph. LOL

Playing with me and the camera!

Her precious smile.

Brody's Valentine's

My cute display of sweethearts, stawberry marshmallows and my cupcake sprinkle holder!

I love Valentines's Day. It makes me so happy.
xoxo

Mason Jars.

I just love the graphic design on these 3 jars...there are actually 2 more that had a larger graph design  that I didn't photograph.

This was just some of the jars...I gave 6 to my sister in law Lori and 2 to my mom.

In the mix were  9 blue jars, 3 clear quart size ones, a couple of specialtly jars along with a canning tool (all dating back to 1920-1930). There were at least 20 other misc jars or bottles too.

This little one is my favorite...cause of the glass clear lid... a true antique

  My mom, Brody, Charlotte and I were coming back from the farmers market on Saturday when I saw a sign for a Garage Sale. Of course I had to drive by and see if it was worth getting out of the car... I jumped out at did a quick scan and almost missed the big Rubbermaid container under one of the tables. I saw that it was stacked with mason jars...and being a collector of many little items that I love to display...jars are the first choice! I held one up in my hand (one of the jars in the top picture with the graph like design on it) and asked the lady how much she wanted for her jars. I thought maybe I would pick through and take one or two of them. Suprisingly, she said to me "Well, If you take the entire container, I will sell it to you for 5 bucks". I practically ran back to the car to get the money cause after lifting the first layer of newspaper up, I saw a blue mason jar (unchipped) and I know that they sell for 10-15 dollars each.
 I was so excited to get home and unpack the entire container (3 layers deep) of jars and bottles. I jumped on e-bay to check prices on some of the jars... and just checking on a few of them, I realized I had over 200 dollars in jars...that I had just scored for 5 dollars. WooHoo! Yipeeee!

xoxo

sometimes its the little things...

I have been on the hunt for a cute little clutch... I found this yesterday and just love it. It is even made with oil cloth so it has that vintage feel to it..plus it has the benefit of wiping clean (a real plus with 3 kids dirty fingers)! The huge bonus was that it was only 10 dollars! Score.
xoxo

"On the Go" Cruise

Julie, Jennifer, Tricia, Heidi, Linda, Me and Kerry...our toes on the beach of the Bahamas.
Pina Colada...in a real coconut that they just chopped the top off and poured out the milk. It was delicious.
Bateman's Coconut Daiquiri Shack
The ship.
Our rooms.
The "On the Go" girls
Little treats I made for each of my co workers/friends.
The essentials....

Julie F and me
Kerry, Julie B and me
Thanks Julie B. for the best time. You are the BEST boss EVER!
xoxo