Cake Truffles

The hot new thing now is cake truffles. I recently got a recipe and decided to try them. They are so easy to make and they didn't take long at all. They taste as delicious as they look, but hey, presentation is everything anyways, so who cares what they taste like.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

An Apple a Day.......

My newest creation is apple cupcakes, not like apple flavored, but in the shape of apples. They did turn out cute, but the stems still look a little like a worm to me. Anyways, these cupcake creations are becoming super fun. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and I think everyone that gets some, whenever I make them, is too!... I am kinda becoming known for them, scary!

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

On the last Sunday of every month our church has a potluck. Yesterday eveything was sooooooo delicious!!! I made cinnamon roll cupcakes. They are in layers, batter then cinnamon mixture, batter and more cinnamon mixture, then you swirl everything together with a knife. They have a cream cheese type of frosting on them and are also, as you can see in her picture, supposed to have a cinnamon glaze. I opted for no glaze being that would make them rather sweet and messier to eat. The recipe I got from a blog I follow, www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com . They were very delicious! Here is my picture, of course, of these yummy little things.

Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord...

Some people just make noise, some truly a joyful noise, and others a beautiful one that others don't mind hearing. Let's just say I am not the latter, mine is just really a joyful noise. Anyways, I tape myself playing the piano sometimes to see how I need to improve. It always sounds different while I am playing it than how others hear it. I did this with 2 songs this time, but the other one I will use for a different post.

Ephesians 5:19 "...singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Amy Butler Sewing Patterns

This morning I went pattern shopping online. My absolute favorites are Amy Butler's patterns. She is so amazing and her fabrics are gorgeous as well. I was looking for another great bag pattern from her, and of course I found a few.

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I still have to decide which one I like the most, although it is a possibility I will be getting all 3 of them. I wish I was this creative in desinging patterns. Her stuff is so inspiring to me! Some day I will be able to learn how to design adorable patterns too..*sigh*... but for now I will marvel at hers.

•  I already have one of her books and one of her bag patterns also

This is the sweetest pattern book! I love it, although haven't had a chance to make anything from it yet. I am planning to very soon though. I can't stand to just have it sitting on my shelf with all those great patterns and ideas!

This bag is fabulous and chic with the right fabrics. I have sold quite a few of these. I absoultely love this bag!

Fabulous Flower Cupcakes

I think I have officially lost my mind or gone insane. When I spend 30 minutes decorating a cupcake, that is the picture of completely insane. I had a great time doing it though! I even colored my own decorating sugars. That was a fun thing I had never done before. My wonderful mom helped me with some of the little time waste-y things, ya know those things that have to be done to make them fabulous but we all hate doing. That helped me a lot and cut down the time a little as well. So, here are the pictures, although they don't do them justice. They are adorable!!!

My, trying to look professional picture of them.

Leave a comment, let me know what you think!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday, I made the most amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. For some reason I was (but actually still am) in this baking mood, although our adorable little apartment was insanely hot and humid. Here is my mouthwatering recipe:

1/2 c margarine ( I always use butter, it makes everything better!)
1-1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 c. canned pumpkin
1 t. vanilla
2-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 c. chocolate chips 
Optional: chopped nuts

Cream margarine and sugar together; set aside. combine egg, pumpkin, and vanilla; blend into creamed mixture and set aside. Mix dry ingredients together; blend into pumpkin mixture. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets; bake at 350' until lightly golden, about 8 minutes (mine took about 12 minutes though).
Makes about 3 dozen

fun...fun!!!

Proverbs 17:22 " A merry heart doeth good like a medicine..."

On our way back from camp we had a few kids that were a bit hyper. Laughter is truly contagious.

Just some fun, and very crazy, traveling from camp pictures.

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ARM WRESTLING~ All of our kids placed in this fun competition. Our kids are tuff!!!!

Wallow Fire

Please pray for my brother as he is helping fight that enormous wildfire in Arizona and now New Mexico. I talked to him last night and he said it is heading toward Reserve New Mexico now. The smoke and ash is still very thick from miles away. His camp has already had to move once due to the thick smoke. It has burned many acres of wildland, burned many peoples homes, and it is not stopping anytime soon. They say by the time this fire get put out it will have been the largest wildfire. I didn't realize really how bad it was until my amazing brother called me a few days ago asking me to pray for him. He has never done that before, and has been to many different fires.
This is a news video I had watched on it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43364879#43364879

We keep looking at the pictures to see if my brother is in any of them. We haven't seen him in them yet but I will still post some here for you to see.

 

 

 

 

This picture is the smoke in Albuquerque New Mexico! I couldn't believe it when I saw this picture. It is so unhealthy to be breathing all this stuff. It is amazing how fast this fire is moving.

Camp Adventure

Our trip getting to camp was rather interesting as I  mentioned in my last post. So we left at 5:00am to head for camp. We got to Shamrock and the van started being weird and dying every few miles. We took it to a shop there, which took a few hours. They didn't really know what it was so they told us they thought it would be alright to keep driving. We got right outside of Erick and it commpletely died. After waiting in 80 degree, humid weather for about 2 and 1/2 hours Bro. Rice and Bro. Carter came to pick us up and we had to get the van towed to Elk City. We did finally make it to camp a little after 5:00 in the evening.

To get home, Bro Rice and his group from Fritch took us to Elk City. We had lunch with them at Mazzios and we picked up the van. We had a great time with them and the young people they brought to camp. We ended up making it home with no problems. Through all of this God was good. We had a wonderful time traveling and just getting to know eachother better, as we haven't been here that long.

Thurday night we all played volleyball in the dark. It was super fun!

Brother and sister that went with us. Very sweet kids!

Our whole group, acting crazy. Our trip home was so much fun, as you can see.

The very cute song they sang for me to record.

Cedar Hills Baptist Youth Camp

We just got back from taking the most amazing group of young people to camp outside of Binger Oklahoma. Although it was rather eventful on the way there, God is good and we all had a wonderful time. God knit our hearts even closer together through this trip. He also worked in many young people's lives.

These are our marvelous, talented young people that went with us. They won a trophy for 3rd place. Very Exciting!!!!

They also won ribbons and placed in many of the competitions they competed in. The competitions are amazing as they are all areas of ministry. They do teaching (girls), preaching (boys), flannel graph, music, soul winning, puppet shows, and many other areas that they can use to serve in their churches.

Me and my only girl camper. She was a great blessing to me!

I will be posting more on our crazy adventure and how we finally got to camp.

Ugandan Beads

As many people know, I have been selling the most amazing beads from Uganda made from magazines. My cousin is a missionary in Kampala Uganda and is working with street kids. Street children are extremely hated in Africa. They are sold into prostitution, shot like rats in the streets, and even sometimes killed and given as sacrifices to gods.
 "According to the U.N. there are an estimated 120 million street children in the world- 120 million children sleeping alone and cold at night under bridges, in trees, or in any filthy hiding place they can find. These children have no one to love them; they feel completely forgotten and abandoned in the world. Street children are the "perfect injustice" and no child should ever be alone on the streets. Hope for street children exists so that every street child in Kampala Uganda could know they are loved unconditionally, and live out the amazing God given potential inside of them." www.hopeforstreetchildren.com

 Aren't the beads absolutely fabulous!!!!

She has been doing this for many years, anyways, now these beads are becoming very popular and Reef has started putting these beads on sandals. Their Ugandal sandals sell for between $40.00-$60.00. Reef is only giving the women making them 1% of the proceeds, you do the math, that is hardly anything for them. They talk about it being fair trade, but is this really a fair trade. The proceeds from the jewelry I sell for my cousin all goes back to them. The sandals, and the beads my cousin's boys do in the home, are in no way related. We need to really care about and love these marginalized people, not just turn what they do into a moneymaking market for ourselves.

You can look at my cousin's blog at www.africa-love.livejournal.com. You can order beads and read more about her on www.globalhoperesources.org, Or you can contact me to order some of the jewelry also. There are bone bracelets and earrings and beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings. The pictures at the top are actual pictures of the jewelry I have right now.

My Brother

My brother is the most amazing brother ever. A lot of people probably think their brother is the best, but that isn't possible because the best is already taken, he's mine! He is a wildland fire fighter with the BIA. Yesterday he was sent out to a fire 30 miles south of Taos, which he is super excited about. I am so thankful for my wonderful brother!!!