Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to AmandaSue who won the flower clips giveaway! You have an email waiting for you from me! Please respond within 24 hours to claim your prize!

Yummy!

I thought I'd start posting other fun crafty-type things I like to do in my spare time. One of my favorite things to do for fun is cook. My husband and I often speculate about what we'd do if we had tons of money and one of our favorite fantasy questions is whether we'd have a cook or a maid. He would rather have a professional cook (Thanks a lot, honey! He assures me it'd be more like a trainer/nutritionist thing) but I would definately prefer a maid. Hello? Someone to clean up after I get to do the fun cooking part? That would be perfect for me! Alas, that will probably forever be but a dream. At any rate, here's one of my favorite treats to bake and especially eat! Before I post it, you should know that I haven't made up this recipe (or probably most others I'll post) but instead got it from one of my best friends. What a great gift to get from your best friend, huh! :) I also didn't make up the idea to make them heart-shaped. That idea is from one of my favorite kid-friendly recipe blogs, Gourmet Mom on the Go.

Without further ado, here are the directions, with pictures:

Mix all the ingredients, knead them, and let me rise for an hour. Cute story: As you'll see in the coming pictures, my daughter was helping me. I left her "alone" for a moment to get something from the refrigerator. By the time I got back she'd already snagged some dough! She must have gotten that trait from me...

Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape like so:
Coat the dough in butter and then cinnamon sugar. Don't try to be healthy and go light on either the butter or cinnamon sugar; it's just not worth it!
To make the heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, roll the dough on one side only to the middle. See what a good helper my daughter is? :)

Now roll the other side in to meet the roll you just did. Be sure to add a little butter and cinnamon sugar to the crease you just made between the two rolls! This is how the rolls should look when you're finished:
Next, use floss to cut each roll. I cut my to be about 1"-2" tall. Sorry, I don't have a picture of this, it was too hard to take one. But, I bet you can figure it out. :) When the cinnamon rolls are on the tray, pinch the bottoms a little bit so they aren't rounded but have a pointed bottom, like a heart. I think next time I'll make them even more pointed because as you'll see, they round out a little when they cook.
Bake them at 350 degrees for 20 min. Here's how we feel around here while we wait for the cinnamon rolls to cook:I guess an apple is a serious letdown when you can smell cinnamon rolls in the oven! :)

Here's how mine turned out when they were finished cooking. You can see the heart/scrolling much better now than when you frost them. So, if you are giving these as a Valentine's Day gift, you might want to give the person the rolls unfrosted so they can see the pretty pattern. Plus, that way they can re-heat the rolls and then frost them hot!
And here they are frosted. I'll post the frosting recipe below, along with the cinnamon roll recipe in its entirety, but here's a frosting tip: Make sure the vanilla extract you use doesn't smell like alcohol. If it does, your frosting will taste like vanilla alcohol!
Cinnamon Rolls

• 1 egg @ room temperature - add enough warm water to the egg in a measuring cup so the total of the two together is 1 1/2 cups
• 1/3 c oil
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 1/2 c flour
• 2 tsp (or about one package) yeast

*Mix all the ingredients & then knead.
*Let rise for 1 hour.
*Follow the rolling & cutting instructions above.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Frosting

• 2 tsp frosting
• 4 capfuls of milk (Capfuls being the cap of a milk jug. Very specific, I know. lol.)
• 3 tsp vanilla
• Powdered sugar until frosting consistency

*Mix all ingredients and add powdered sugar until it's the consistency you like.

Enjoy!!!!

ANOTHER Giveaway!

Not only am I having a giveaway on my own blog, I'm also having a giveaway on the blog, My Charmed Life. This giveaway has a special purpose to it. A new law has been passed that says that all products that are made for children have to be tested for lead. ALL products. That means that all sellers on etsy and anyone else who makes things for children will have to close, including me. Although, to be honest, I'm planning on staying open anyway. At any rate, check out the other blog & giveaway! The blog also has more info on this law and other examples of shops who are going to have to close thanks to this new law.

Giveaway! - CLOSED

It's giveaway time! For today's givaway you get to choose three, yep three, flower clips of your choice from my shop, Babies Beautiful.

But, before you go, let me tell you a little bit about what you'll be getting. I started making these when my daughter was a baby and didn't have any hair. In fact, she still has barely any hair *sigh*, but I digress. Before having her, I thought I didn't plan on using headbands on my little girls because they always seemed like they were squeezing the poor kid's head! But, since my daughter is a little baldy, people (ok, usually old men) kept thinking she was a little boy! So, when I recieved one of these headbands that are cute, stretchy so they don't leave a mark, and have the option to put any flower, clip, bow, etc. on them, I wanted everyone else to enjoy them, too!

Next came the flower clips. I make them for you the same way I make them for my own daughter. I've tried different adhiesives because after my daughter wearing them and then tearing them off, I realized I needed the strongest I could find! I also line the clips so they look nice, but leave the bottom of the clip un-lined so you can use them on beanies, the headband, in hair, or even as a decoration on a tutu from my shop! Lastly, I put no-slip grip on the clip so it will even stay in my daughter's barely-there, baby-fine hair! By the way, if you are interested in a beanie like in the picture, it's from Noggins Beanies. She has all kinds of cute designs!

Here are the rules for entering:
*Visit my shop, babiesbeautiful, and choose which three flower clips you'll choose if you win and then come back here and leave a comment telling me!
*For an extra entry, tell me which of the other items in my shop is your favorite.
*For two extra entries, buy something from my shop (maybe a tutu to go with your flowers?) and them come back and leave two comments telling me what you got to get your entries.

This contest closes January 27th at midnight CST. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator.

Coming Soon...

My first giveaway on this blog!!!! I've got to get the word out first, though, so check back!

T-Shirt Quilt

A couple of months ago, Lori contacted me on etsy about making a t-shirt quilt for her hubby for Christmas. After sending me the fabric and t-shirts she wanted on the quilt, here's what she got back!I may be biased, but I LOVE how it turned out! Does this quilt make you think of that pile of t-shirts in your hubby's closet, or even your own that you LOVE but never wear? Isn't this the perfect solution?!