Chocolate Waffle Bowls

I made these yummy chocolate waffle bowls for an ice cream sundae baby shower I threw. 

They are the right amount of chocolate, slightly chewy and soooo yummy with ice cream in them!


Chocolate Waffle Cones


1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
2 Tablespoons butter
2 whole eggs
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I don't have a waffle cone maker so I just spread a thin amount of batter in a pan, cooked it on both sides and immediatly put it inside a small bowl until it cools.

• Preheat a pan with a flat bottom on a medium-low temperature
• Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan and melt over low heat. Stir to combine then set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
• Beat the eggs and salt in a small bowl with a fork until well blended. Beat in the sugar and beat until sugar is incorporated and the eggs have lightened in color slightly, approximately 1 minute. Stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Add the flour and cocoa powder, stirring slowly until all flour is moistened. Beat another few seconds to incorporate the flour and remove all lumps. Stir in the vanilla extract.
• Spoon about 2 tablespoons of batter in the center of the pan.  Working very quickly, spread until thin.  Cook on both side.
• 
  
  Immediatly place it in a small bowl to form its shape.  Leave in the bowl until it cools completely. 

• Serve with ice cream and Enjoy!

This recipe originally came from here. 

I participate in the link parties found here.

Ice Cream Sundae Baby Shower

I wanted to share a unique baby shower that I recently hosted with you. 

This shower was not for a first-time mother and so I didn't want it to be a traditional "baby" shower.  I wanted it to be a bit more fun and spunky, so we had a very fun Ice Cream Sundae Party!

(homemade chocolate waffle bowls...yum!)

Stay tuned as I show you how to make some of these amazing goodies and decorations!
    
(This was originally featured on Design Dazzle.)

Happy Designing!

I participate in the link parties found here.

Weekly LINK PARTY!

I have to appologize for not making it to see everyone's link up from last week yet. 

We closed on our very first home last night!  YEAH!!!!  We are sooooo excited!

But it has been an insane week and I am very behind on...well, everything.

Today, the movers come to deliver all of our stuff, we are having blinds installed, and we are getting internet and cable hooked up...hopefully. 

Did I meantion that my husband is working today?  So that means that I am doing all of that by myself, with two kids.  Luckily I have someone coming to help me wrangle my kiddos for me! 

So, if all goes according to planned, I will have internet and there shouldn't be too much of an interuption in daily life around here.  Except for the whole unpacking thing.  Blah.

But I am excited to get my craft and cooking supplies back again!  Gosh I haven't been to a grocery store in over 2 months!  It really is quite weird.

Anyway, enough about me.  Let's talk about YOU!  What have YOU been up to?!?!

Please link up your latest and greatest!

Just remember to visit one or two (or more) other links and leave a comment, only link up things that you have created, and please no links to shops.

Enjoy!

Art Apron

My daughter loves to do art!  So I wanted to get her an apron to help protect her clothing.

I couldn't find one I really liked and everything I found was a bit pricey given the fact that I didn't love them. 

(Really?  $20 for an ugly art apron that will eventually get stained and ruined...no thanks.)

So I made my own.  (Well...sort of.)

I picked up a kids size apron at Michael's.  It normally was only about $5 but I used a 40% off coupon so it was less then $3.  And then I bought an iron on sparkly cupcake, applied it, and voila, a really cute art apron!

The final cost was only about $5.  My daughter thinks it is great and wears it when she does art and when she is pretending to cook in her kitchen!  And I don't care if it gets stained and eventually needs to be replaced!  Win win!

I participate in the link parties found here.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Yum.

Need I say more?

My daughter and I made delicious ice cream sandwiches together the other day. 

Yes yes.  I cheated and used premade cookie dough.  Hey!  I am all about keeping it simple!  What else did you expect :-)

A good ending to a great summer!

I participate in the link parties found here.

Weekly LINK PARTY!

Holy cow!  I can't believe I am over 300 followers!!  Thanks so much to all my wonderful followers!  Stay tuned...there will be a giveaway soon!

Thank you for joining me for this week's link party!

Please remember to:

1.  Link to your permalink not to your main blog page
2.  No etsy shops
3.  Only link up something that you created
4.   Check out 1 or 2 or more other links and leave a comment.  Let's face it, we all love comment-love so let's spread it around!

Enjoy and thank you for linking up!

GAP DEAL & Sponsor

Ok, before I begin, there is an AWESOME deal going on TODAY ONLY at Groupon.  Have you heard of Groupon?  It is an online store that sells one deal per day often at 50% or more off!  Some are local deals and some are nationwide. 

Today only, their deal is to buy a gift certificate worth $50 to Gap Store for only $25.  SERIOUSLY?!?!  How awesome is that!

If you choose to go and check it out or buy, here is the link http://www.groupon.com/r/uu6298217 or just click here.  (And if you dont' mind, use the link I have provided because it is a direct referal link, so I would be oh so grateful!)  Thanks!

Now on to the main event!

Did you notice, I have a new sponsor!

"East Coast Candle is a high quality soy candle company, located in the hills of Elkins, West Virginia. All East Coast Candle candles are made of high quality pure soy candle wax. East Coast Candle only uses USA grown soy wax and never imports soy. To allow for a cleaner and safer burn we use led free cotton wicks. When burning our candles you won’t experience soot or smoking, only the aromatic fragrance of the candles. We do not mass produce and store our candles in a warehouse for many months waiting for them to sell. All of our candles are hand poured when you order them allowing for the life of the candle to begin just before you receive it. We offer a range of soy candles and candle accessories, as well as custom candles. We look forward to the opportunity for our candles to become a part of your life."

And, they also will make candles with your name / business name on them!  What a great way to promote your business! 

They will custom make you candles, to order, and they have a large variety of yummy sounding scents to choose from!  They also sell very nice looking candle holders.

Be sure to check out East Coast Candle's shop here to learn more about their company to to see all the wonderful things they sell (at reasonable costs)!

Flip Flops

My daughter is facinated with shoes.  (I have no idea where she gets that from :-)

I actually think she owns more pairs of shoes then I do.

We were out shopping the other day, getting to know our new town, and found a blue pair of flipflops.  She really wanted them and told me she needed them because she didn't have a blue pair of flipflops (I'm going to try that on my husband next time I want a new pair of shoes!). 

They were on sale for 75 cents so it was really hard to say no to her. 

She was happy as can be with her new find and immediatly put them on and hasn't taken them off since. 

Yesterday, I decided to spruce them up a bit.  So. I went to HOBBY LOBBY.

Yes folks.  That is right.  Hobby.  Lobby.

I have only ever heard of Hobby Lobby through blogland, but have never been close to one! 

They opened a brand new one up near me this past weekend!  Hurray!  So off we went to check out Hobby Lobby.

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

That store is huge people!   No one ever warned me I would be so overwhelmed!

And so many things were on sale.

And then I found the clearance aisle.

Lucky for me, my hubby is off on a business trip so he didn't actually see me walk in the door with my huge bag of goodies.  :-)

Anyway, I ended up buying some cute brown ribbon with blue dots on it for 50% off.  I glued the ribbon to the straps, added a bow and voila!  Aren't these so much cuter then before?!?!

Total cost for a brand new pair of flip flops was:
80 cents for the flip flops (75 cents plus tax)
99 cents for the ribbon
glue (free)
=$1.79

Super cheap, and much cuter then just a boring old pair of flip flops!

I participate in the link parties found here.

Target gift card giveaway!

No...I'm not having a giveaway.  (But I am almost at 300 followers so I will be due to have a giveaway here VERY soon!)

No, today, I wanted to share with you another giveaway that I found so that you could enter to win also! 

Although I kind of want to win it myself, so maybe I shouldn't share it with you... :-)

But I really can't keep a secret like this very well.  SO, here goes.

Do you remember a few months ago when I had CRAZY blog issues?!?!  My posts were showing up in the sidebar and it was all a big mess?  Well, while I was trying to figure out what had happened, I posted on a blogger forum to see if anyone could help me.

No one ever answered me.

So sad. 

I felt very unloved.

But then I figured out my issues and forgot all about it.

UNTIL, I got an email from a very nice lady saying she was having similar issues and asking if I ever found a solution.  And, then she also said that she had looked at my blog, and apparently we both have design / crafty type of blogs!  No kidding!  What are the chances?!?!  She then became one of my newest followers (thank you very much Melissa!) and I headed over to check out her blog!

In the mean time, I gave her my not-so-technical advise in hopes it might help her out a little bit.

She emailed me back (such a sweet gal) and let me know that she was hosting a GIVEAWAY because she had reached 100 followers!  The giveaway is for a $25 Target gift card.

Yup.  Who doesn't LOVE Target?!?!  So I had to enter the giveaway. 

And I am desperately hoping that I win!

But, due to the kindness of my heart (and the fact that I can enter the giveaway one more time :-) I decided to share the fabulous news with you!

So, if you want to win a Target gift card (and who doesn't?!?!) head over here to Keep Calm and Decorate to enter! 

Good Luck!

Feature - Hello @ Good Gravy

I have been meaning to post this and completely forgot!

My son is now almost 6 months old, but, after he was born, a very talented designer made these cute birth announcements for me...

This was designed by Hello @ Good Gravy!  Go here to check out her blog, and here to check out her shop! She does some amazing things and is fabulous to work with on custom designs as well!

Happy Monday!

Weekly LINK PARTY!

Thank you for joining me for this week's link party!

Please remember to link to your permalink, only link up something that you created, no etsy shops please, and please stop by at least 1-2 other link ups and leave a nice comment!

But before we begin, here are the most popular links from last week's link party (there was a 4 way tie for second place!):

Fabric Covered Notebook with Flower

Shopping Tote from a Pillow Case

Fabric Rag Basket

Baseball BedRoom

Fancy Shoe Re-Do

And now for this week's link party!!

Vintage Pillowcase Halter Dress

I am so excited to welcome Simply Designing's Featured Contributor, Rebekah from Potholes and Pantyhose today!  I always am so inspired by her ideas and I hope you are too!  So without further ado, here she is!

I’m Rebekah from Potholes & Pantyhose and I am excited to be a guest blogger today! I blog about my adventures as I tour with my musician hubby, my home life-which usually involves some type of remodeling project, my photography, and the 'arts and crap' that I happen to make. I try to maintain a somewhat normal life. However, normalcy keeps escaping me.

Today, I wanted to show you how to make a super easy Vintage Pillowcase Halter dress using an oversized pillowcase and a little bit of elastic.

The dress is oh-so comfortable and best of all, it's machine washable with no ironing needed.

Hallelujah!

Here's what you'll need to make your very own Vintage Pillowcase Halter Dress:

• An oversized pillowcase
• Tape measure
• Straight Pins
• 1/4" elastic (about 25-35" in length)
• Scissors
• Iron & Ironing board
• Seam Ripper (if you are as experienced as I am)

Cut the seam from the bottom of the pillowcase and fold over the material 1 1/2" and iron flat. Next, cut the folded material (which is a total of 3") from the pillowcase. Do this same procedure twice, creating two strips of material.

Cut the seam from the side of your strips, opening them flat. Iron the strips with right sides together. Sew the strips separately with the right sides together, allowing for a 1/4" seam.

Turn the strips inside out (I use a chopstick to shove the material through) and iron flat. These strips will facilitate both the halter and your belt.

Fold the material on the bottom of your pillowcase over 1/4" and iron flat. Next, fold the material 1" more and iron flat. Sew what will be your top hem, leaving an opening for the elastic.

Measure your chest (above your breasts) and subtract 6". This will be the amount you will need of elastic. I needed 25" of elastic (now you know all of my secrets).

Using a safety pin, feed your elastic through the opening in your top hem. Remember to hold onto the tail end or round and round she goes...

Once your elastic has been fed through the top hem, sew the two ends of the elastic together. Next, sew the opening closed in your top hem.

Slip on your halter dress and find the center at the top of your dress. Measure from center, around your neck and then back to center. I needed about 22" of material for my halter. Using one of your strips, cut the amount needed for your halter, saving the excess.

Sew your halter onto the center of your pillowcase (my center was at 9 1/2"), making sure not to sew onto the elastic, following the same seam line as before.

Feed the excess of your cut strip into the untouched strip and sew it together. Sew each end closed of your now one complete strip. This will be your belt.

Slip on your dress, tie the belt and enjoy!

Here is the front of my very Vintage Pillowcase Halter Dress.

And here is the back of my comfy dress. Please ignore the awful tan lines.

I tried to keep the post simple, so if you have any questions, or need further instructions or pictures-stop by Potholes and Pantyhose. I would love to hear from you!

Thanks Ashley for having me. I really enjoy guest posting for you and your readers!

Rebekah

Folded Hair Flower Tutorial

Are you sick of hair flowers yet?!  I hope not...I have a couple more I want to make when I get my crafting supplies back and when I no longer live in a hotel...

I made this one for my daughter a little while ago and it is a HUGE hit!  She loves it.  It is a tiny bit labor intensive, but the result sure is pretty!

Oh, and I appologize in advance for the blurry photos.  I soooo need a better camera.  (*hint*hint* oh wait...my husband doesn't read my blog...darn it :-)

Cut as many circles as you want petals (I did six). 
Cut them the same diameter that you want the finished flower to be. 
Fold in half.

Fold in half again.

Fold in half another time.

Take the back corners and fold them down to meet the bottom edge.

Shape your petal.  I take the pointed edge and fold it down and kind of puff up the middle so the petal looks like this.

Take a needle and thread and sew through the bottom edge making sure to get all layers of fabric in the stitch.

Continue adding all petals on the thread.

When all petals are added, tie the thread in a very secure knot.

Make a fabric covered button or use another embelishment for the center.  Hot glue that on.

Add a felt circle on the back for extra support and security.  Hot glue that on.

Add your prelined alligator clip.

And enjoy your super cute folded fabric hair flower!

I participate in the link parties found here.