Cookie exchange!!!

There is a cookie exchange party being hosted by Scrappy Jessi... if your wanting/needing some new cookie recipes go check out everyones recipes that they are sharing. I am reposting a FABULOUS recipe that I am over the moon for. Here is a wonderful sugar cookie recipe. It is absolutely fabulous, no lie. When you make these cookies you also need to make a bowl of air popped pop corn-- (for YOU to eat) and invite your super-skinny friends over because these suckers are loaded with calories! The cookies plus the frosting take a total of 5 sticks of butter!

Sugar cookies~

3 cups powdered sugar

2 cups butter or margarine, softened (thats 4 sticks!)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1. In a large bowl, beat together the 3 cups powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, 1 teaspoon almond extract and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 375°F. Divide dough into fourths. On lightly floured surface, roll each half 1/8 inch thick. I always add more flour to the dough as it is super sticky. I would say I add about 1/2 a cup to each dough (fourth....) so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin/cookie cutter and plastic cutting mat. Then cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. I put 8 on each cookie sheet~
3. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Did you know that a dark cookie sheet cooks things faster and darker? Anywho, once cooked, cool completely, about 30 minutes. Then frost away! Here is a wonderful frosting recipe that sets up nicely so you can stack the cookies...and it stays semi-soft.
Frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
food coloring of your choice & sprinkles if you desire~

Puttering~

I've been puttering.... I changed this to look like this~

This...now looks like this~ These bird cages..... look so much better all matchy-matchy~ This little gold/plastic frame...looks soooooooooo much cuter painted white~I'm off to go play with some fabric scraps... I'm still in putter mode. Wait one second... December the 1rst already? What the heck??.... when did that happen??? nuts~

Happy Thanksgiving~

Wooden blocks~

I picked up this bag of 80 wooden blocks about 6 months ago from a thift store for .50cents. I had no plan what I was going to use them for, but for .50cents I couldn't pass them up. Anywho, the blocks have been in and out of the "donation" bag for these past few months off and on-- so I thought I'd better think of something to use them for or out they go-- for real this time! I also picked up this wooden box with a hinged lid..... hmmmm then it hit me. duh~








Stringing beads!! Soooooo I drilled a hole in each one of them. Some are perfect :-) some not so perfect :-P but whoop-dee-doo right? After drilling holes in each one, I painted them with a flat black spray paint. Next comes the fun part~ I purchased these Disney Car stickers from Walmart for a dollar-- scanned them onto my computer, (I am so going to jail right?) printed them out itsy-bitsy size, cut each one out --- 160 in total (thank goodness I love to cut!) ... and then glued one onto each side of each block. Then I gave each block a coat of clear gloss. I painted the box black and added some car stickers and coated that with clear gloss as well. Now my grandson can lace them up to his hearts content.... so fun! Whew, a lot of work, but look how darn caute they are!

The other 40 are for my grandaughter, Chloe. For her set, I'm using Tinkerbell. I've got awhile before I'm needing to finish those up, she is only 10 months old~

Kimm is hosting a trash to treasure party on her blog: Reinvented... go check it out~ Kimba over at A soft Place to Land is also hosting a linky party~

Show & Tell~

Well, I never thought I would get this garage finished... what a lot of time went into this! Anywho, enough moaning & groaning, its finished and I'm happy with it!

Here is the before and after photos.

I created the brick using illustration board. I've blogged about how I made the brick here. I used real grout to set the brick into place. I made a drawer under the garage floor by cutting off a piece of the wood base and adding foam core to create the drawer. Perfect for holding all the odds & ends that the garage is going to be needing. I've managed to pick up all of whats shown in the drawer from garage sales. I used a wheel for the drawer pull~

I used illustration board for the roof as well. I cut 1 inch by 1-1/2 inch pieces using my paper cutter and hot glued that in place all over the existing roof and then just painted it with nutmeg brown paint. For the inside I painted the walls white and used black & white checkered fabric for trim on the walls. Here is the down stairs.....The photo below is the upstairs~ I created the false wall using foam core. Those little cubbies will hold 5 cars.
I printed the car signs off of the web by googling "car signs" The neon sign that says "Hot Rod Garage" was found on a site that makes & sells neon signs, I just printed it out and cut it close to the image and glued it in place. I've still got a little bit more I'm wanting to do to this little garage. The door openings are the perfect size for a hot wheel track to fit inside of... I think it would be so neat to be able to have a car zoom out of the second story window, so I'm needing to make some supports for the tracks. Geeze, I can always think of more to do can't I.... anything to get out of housework!

You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home" If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more, just click right here!

Bazillion...

thats how many projects I've got going on right now. A bazillion. Here is one that is almost near compleation... my grandson's garage. I've painted it inside and out (slight touch ups needed) added a roof, and laid the brick and grouted that. I added the name "Hot Rod Garage" in neon lights, nothing but the best for my grandson! I've even added a drawer to the underside of the garage to hold those all important car things~ (drawer not pictured)Now, comes the fun part, decorating the inside! I am trying to get this finished for this Fridays "Show & Tell" Its always nice to have a goal in mind... ignites that little flame under my butt~ I'll go into more detail of what I used, how I did it on Fridays post if anyone is interested.
Here is a photo of my grandson hiding in the base of my hall tree that I converted the bottom into a cat bed-- that they refuse to use~ Here is a link to that post...Ohhhhhhhh well... at least its getting used now!

Car shop~

I picked up this miniature doll house at a second hand store for $6.I thought I could turn it into a garage for my 2 1/2 year old grandson to play with with his zillion and one match box cars. I'm wanting an old looking building with brick on the outside and maybe a brick floor as well. So of course, I'm needing some brick! I bought some illustration board which I cut into 1 x 1/2 inch pieces (This is not to scale, so for you purest miniature doll house builders-- sowwy) and painted them to look like brick. Obviously you wouldn't want to paint each one-- one by one... so I ran some glue down some sheets of paper and glued the "bricks" to that and just base coated everything with some terra cotta paint....Then a layer of sponged on black paint....then a layer of sponged on white paint...Taaaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Brick! Now I've got to put the brick on the building. I'll just use regular elmers glue for that. Once that is finished and dried, I'll use real grout to morter the brick onto the building. (I've done this before, and it works beautifully!) Stay tuned for that part of the construction!