What Spring

Does anyone know the definition of spring? Well I am so confused that I had to go and look it up in the dictionary and this is what they say:

SPRING: the season of the year following winter and characterized by the budding of trees, growth of plants, the onset of warmer weather, etc.

I know for sure now I am living in Utah. The backwards state. You see this is what our SPRING looks like at 1:30 am. Than I asked myself "self have you been kidding yourself all these years just thinking Utah had a SPRING?" So hoping that in the morning this nightmare would go away I awoke to this.

Are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now mind you just the day before I could of sworn that the weatherman said it was 70 degrees outside so I took my grand kids outside to play and asked them to sit while I took there picture

(for my new frame I just bought) for the first day of SPRING? Are you getting the picture yet? What the hell happened to SPRING. Was this just my imagination playing ticks on me?

I have always had a visual image spring to be like this with beautiful blooms and the smell of fresh air with the boldest of colors.

Please someone tell me if you know when Spring in Utah will arrive. I am thinking we never really have them. I am so excited to be going to Phoenix on Wednesday where the weather will be in the 80's and I can just lay back and suntan.

Grandchildren teach us Life's simple joys

My grand kids are the best. I told them that I had bought bunny huts for them to decorate on Saturday. Big mistake because I told them this on Thursday and now they had to wait for 2 days to decorate the houses. Jaxon was not real pleased with grandma. You would think grandma would know not to do this for god sake I raised 3 boys and they would not of waited either. Anywho, I got up early on Saturday morning still in my sweats and decided I would try and get this ready before I went and pickup up all 3 grand kids. I thought I would give mom and dad some time to themselves today so they decided they would go and get Easter for the kids and have lunch.

The bunny huts are already put together which I loved because the challenge is to make the darn things the night before with royal icing and have them harden. Well mine usually fall apart or tilt before I can get all my side together. Thanks Wilton for putting these together just for me.

All I had to do was divide all the candy up into bowls.

I picked up the kids and it was close to lunch to we stopped and picked up "Donalds" as Ava says and took it to grandmas house. The kids ran inside the house and of course Jax had started to eat the candy. He just smiled at me when I came in. I told them we had to put the houses up until we ate than we would decorate. "Donalds" always has toys inside so that was a distraction until I told them that we could not decorate until they ate. That was all it took and the gobbled up there meals.

I started mixing the royal icing for the houses and they all had to sit on the counter and watch. The white powder turned into blue frosting and that was a real hit. As I went to grab a cup I could see all 3 putting fingers into the frosting quickly. Ava said "UM" as Colin and Jax said "I love frosting." I made up 3 batches of frosting and than went over and started frosting Colin's so he could start decorating. Little Ava was not happy she did not have frosting yet. I told her I would do hers so she decided to just eat the candy. I preceded with Jaxon's than onto Ava's. I knew if they did not have there own huts to decorate it would be a huge mistake.

As you can see it was great fun. What hams they are when you ask them to smile. They did a great job all by themselves. Well Ava needed a little help or hers would be just frosting since she ate the candy at times.

Our weather is about 68 degrees today so the kids wanted to run around outside in our backyard and catch butterflies. Both Colin and Jaxon have butterfly nets and Ava does not and she was mad she did not so I gave her a badmitten racket and that seemed to work. Off we went to butterfly hunt. As they ran around they found snail shells without the snails and started making a huge collection of them. Ava was right there saying "OOOOOOH GROSS" and off she went thinking she was catching butterflies.

I had told the kids if they gathered the acorns and put them on the rocks that the squirrels would find them so they were running around gathering the acorns.

I promised them a trip to Kmart to get Starwars there favorite toy right now. In fact Colin says "he is never growing out of starwars" I asked them to sit on the rock and smile and they kept saying CHEESE over and over again. Finally my camera caught them.

Thanks for making grandmas day special. I love you XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Is Spring Here Yet???

I know what you were thinking when you saw Is Spring here Yet?

You know with warm weather approaching we should be seeing some buds coming on. Well if you live on the mountain side you plants are so confused as to what they are to do. When I went outside today to get the morning paper I saw this poor little plant in the snow. Yes the blooms were on and they looked so darm cold. The poor little flowering blooms were just trying to stay warm. They are trying so hard to show me that Spring is just around the corner. I wanted to go into the snow and cover the poor thing up. As I approached the snow I quickly turned away saying to myself. "Self are you serious this is just another one of your ideas to blog about." Yes this is true now that I am blogging you seem to come up with some really weird ideas. Seriously though is it EVER GOING TO TURN WARM???

Disneyland

I had my whole blog done for our trip to Disneyland when the site erased all my photos and script even after I hit save all the time. Sometimes this blogging is enough to through out my computer. Anyway, I added a slide show of our trip so that will have to do for now.

The Best Gifts Ever

If you do not know who she is you did not join in on the festivity and you really missed out. About a month ago I posted about signing up for Mamarazzi's Favorite Things Swap. I was paired up with Terri for it. She has a really great and inspiring blog. So, I just got the package from her and it was AMAZING!!









As I got home from Disneyland with my grand kids. I arrived to open the gift from YES MY MAMARAZZI pal Terri. It was so fun to see what I was receiving. To

MY SURPRISE was this gorgeous embroidered "C" bag tied with a bow. She even had my favorite color embroidered on. HOW DID SHE KNOW?????

Inside the bag was the cute poke a dotted bag filled with delightful gifts she had so carefully thought about and tied with ribbon. Sorry I got so excited to see inside I cut the ribbon off before I shot the photo. Are to as excited as I was to see what is inside?

Being a Alumni to Girl Scouts I loved she sent me MY FAVORITE COOKIE. Thin mints!!! Again HOW DID YOU DO THIS????? Just perfect for the getting home.

I began to dig deeper to find OH MY GOSH another embroidery of a "C" on my thermal cup. This was tucked inside the insulated part able to look out she tied this with a PINK bow (MY FAVORITE). Love this now my hubster will not take my cup anymore when I enjoy my coffee.

Next was a photo album tied with a PINK bow to put my Disneyland photos in of our trip. Great idea and yes again " HOW DID SHE KNOW"?

As I dug a little deeper I found these fuzzy Chip Chatter letter sets and yes a PINK bow wrapped neatly around the pack. These will be perfect to scrapbook my albums with. Especially because I hate doing letters they take sooooooooooo long to cut out.

I love good wine and now I have the adorable heart cork stopper to put in my opened wine bottles. It is so adorable I will be using it tonight to cork my wine.

At the bottom of the bag was a key chain. Love this because I do not have a cute one and now I will have one and NOT loose my keys in my huge handbag any more.

OH wait there is another thing. A card that has just where to order Simply Beautiful handmade accessories. If you want to own some of what was given to me log onto sewgracious.com or visit her site at sew-gracious.blogspot.com and she will assist you.

NOW FOR WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING TO SEE. TAHDAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Terri you are the best I loved everything. If you want to see what I sent her go here.

How to Prevent Muffin Top in Fashion

I was trying to tell my sister today that after loosing 20 lbs I would of thought that I had dropped 2 or 3 sizes but NO I only went down 1 size. Not that I am complaining I have not been in a size 8 for years. So, I was asking her about some Maddie pants but could not find any BKE capri's that I did not have a little "muffin top". My sister asked what is a "Muffin Top". which prompted me to write this blog. So for all of you that are not familiar with this term PLEASE read on.



There is nothing worse than walking down any street in America and you will see the muffin top. No, it's not a baked good. Even though these are WONDERFUL.










A muffin top is a condition that happens when the belly spills over the waistband. It is a curable condition; just follow these steps to get rid of your muffin top.










This is how to avoid this mishap.

Step 1. Wear clothes that fit all of you. Your hips may fit a size 8, but your waistline is busting out of a ten. Wearing clothes that fit your whole body prevents the restriction on the abdomen, which leads to a muffin top.


Step2. Wear a size larger. The long-standing myth is to make yourself look smaller by wearing smaller clothes. Well, this is how a muffin top is formed; the tight waistline constricts the belly fat, pushing it up and out of the pants. Find your size, and then go up one. Contrary to belief, a size larger is flattering on a woman's figure. The clothes lay on the body, accentuating it, not clinging to it for dear life.


Step3. Get rid of the belly fat. There are several ways to rid the abdomen of the fat that causes a muffin top. Weight training, cardio exercises and eating well are a few ways to reduce the belly fat, and eliminate the muffin top.

Step4. Banish those low rise jeans. They were once thought to prevent a muffin top, but low rise jeans actually create one. Go for the mid rise jeans which have an added bonus: they prevent the showcasing of your underwear to that world--an unwanted feature of low rise jeans.

Now that you are hungry here is a true Muffin Top recipe

Blueberry Muffin Tops Servings: 12 regular size muffin tops or 6 jumbo muffins.

Ingredients:

Batter: 3/4 stick 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large whole egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping: 3 tablespoons (1.5 oz/42g) COLD unsalted butter, cut into bits

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Special equipment: 2 muffin-top pans, each with 6 (4 x 1/2-inch) muffin-top cups (1/2-cup capacity
Instructions:

1. Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Generously butter muffin pans.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat, then remove from heat. Whisk in milk, then whisk in whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract until combined well.

3. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest (if using) in a bowl, then add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries gently but thoroughly (if using frozen blueberries, do not thaw. Also, whether using fresh or frozen blueberries, toss blueberries in a little flour so the berries don't sink to bottom of muffins or muffin tops).

4. Divide batter among the 12 muffin cups, spreading evenly. For Topping and Baking Muffins:

5. Rub together all topping ingredients in a bowl with your fingertips until crumbly, then gently pat evenly over batter in cups.

6. Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick or skewer inserted diagonally into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes.

7. Cool muffins in pans on wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edge of each muffin top and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Where To Buy Muffin Top Pans Muffin top pans are available at cookware shops and can also be purchased online at Cooking.com, Amazon.com, King Arthur Flour's website, Crate and Barrel's website and at many other Internet cookware stores. How many Muffin Tops does this recipe really make?

***Even though this recipe states that it makes 12 muffin tops, I have found that it can easily make 6 very large (jumbo) muffin tops OR 12 regular size muffin tops. Using almost all of the batter and filling the 6 muffin top cups to the top is easily achieved without having to use 2 muffin top pans. You may have a small bit of batter leftover which you can spoon into a paper muffin liner and bake along with the 6-cup muffin top pan.

ENJOY

Anal Organizing

As I have said many times I like to organize. An anal trait I have I guess. Since my business has been very slow with the current economy I decided it was time to start Spring cleaning. I have 1 room at a time and started to do deep cleaning. Isn't that what we all do? Right cleaning is on the top of your list I know. This was last weeks project.

All cleaned and in order. I had NO idea just how much crap was expired. I threw away 6 bags of stuff that either expired or had NO expiration date on this stuff. I can see once again every thing I have and my kids will not be able to tell me. Mom this expired years or months ago.

Try this. One day at a time and see just how good you feel.