Easter Bunny Bait

My good friend sent me a great new popcorn mix recipe. I was skeptical but she convinced me that once you took a handful, it would become a dangerous new addiction and she was right! It could be changed up for all occasions by using different colours of candy and sprinkles.
I also packaged up some of my other white chocolate candy mix, the Easter bunny was busy with deliveries this past weekend.

Bunny Bait
1/2 cup popcorn, unpopped
1 lb of white chocolate melting wafers ( I guestimated)
1 1/3 cup pretzels, broken (original recipe said use squares, I think it could have used a bit more)
1 cup or so M and M's ( I used the lovely pastel spring ones)
Sprinkles, as needed
I also added peanuts as I like the salty/sweet combo

Pop corn.
Melt chocolate in microwave or on stovetop.
Drizzle half over dry mixture and toss gently to coat.
Drizzle rest of chocolate over and toss. You can throw in some sprinkles here
and mix it in a big roasting pan.
Then pour it in a single layer onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.
Let harden and break into pieces.
Store in an airtight container.

They were adorable packaged in these see through cones. Everyone really seemed to enjoy this mix.

Easter Weekend

We lucked out by getting a snow/ice day making this a 5 day weekend. Unfortunately many people in the area lost power and the poor trees lost so many limbs. It was much worse as you went north of Waterloo Region, so we got lucky a second time. Today, the sun is shining and its t-shirt weather. The ice stayed on the trees for 2 days...
Here's what it looked like on Friday morning...

This is the path through the park that I take almost everyday. I guess that's why they call them "widowmakers"....

We were still able to have our egg hunt outside even though there was some slipping and sliding, the kids didn't mind...

Happy Easter everyone!

Chocolate cake

We are getting ready to celebrate our family Easter and I can't wait. My cousin is a fabulous cook and always surprises us with delicious menu items. I'm usually down for desserts so I decided to go a different route this year. This doctored chocolate cake is rich and dense and comes together quickly with a cake mix and prepared frosting if you're in a rush. I bake it in a Bundt pan but you could make 2 layer cakes and ice them together.It's very yummy!

Chocolate Cake
4 eggs
1 instant chocolate pudding mix
1 pkg chocolate chips ( I used about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup oil
1 chocolate cake mix

Mix and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes.

Coffee Loving Cardmaker

Yep, that describes me although I try to keep the consumption at a reasonable level.
I've been wanting to play along with their Blog hops for the last couple seasons but I never seem to have found the time to participate. Well today's the day.....

My card might look a little sombre in kraft but hey, there was snow on the ground here this morning so spring isn't quite here yet.

I was able to finally use my coffee dies from My Favourite Things. The teeny, tiny options are just adorable. I went with the word coffee and the heart. I thought this would make a great gift card holder. I know that I always love getting gift cards. I plan on passing this one on to make someone else's day.

The lights a little dim today as well but you get the idea... and the inside...

Freshly Made Sketches 228

I love the simplicity of the sketches from Freshly Made Sketches. My style does not include a lot of frou-frou so they work for me. I've used this die set before and I just love it, plus you can never have too many birthday cards. I just wish I could get away from the matchy-matchy. I'm not good with contrasting colours, I guess. Anyway, I love how the card turned out....

And here is the sketch that I based my card on...

I used MFT Blueprints 26...

Happy Birthday ONE year old!

A very special birthday boy turned one on Feb 14. Yep! A Valentine's baby. The theme was penguins and all the details were so well thought out, I just had to share them.

Starting with the invitation, the theme was penguins....

Of course, I had to make a card to go with the theme and it was a good opportunity to use my Stampin' Up owl punch for the first time...

I tried to choose blue paper to look like ice and put the number 1 on the flip side.

The food looked so appealing. The photos did not do it justice....

And the cake tasted as good as it looked...

There was a Valentine's photo area as well to capture the spirit of the day...

Isn't he just the cutest? Love his Cupid arrows. Happy 1st Birthday, Anson!

Roll Up the Rim 2016

I take great pleasure in keeping track during the Tim Horton's Rollup the Rim season. This year I thought it seemed to produce slightly fewer winners. Anyone else find the same?
So here's the tally...
29 large coffees purchased : 6 coffee wins and 2 donut wins
I guess that's almost 1 in 4 so not as bad as I thought.

Freshly Made Sketches 226

Sympathy - I never seem to be able to stockpile enough of these cards. I would say people ask me for this genre the most. And since I need to make a little extra to pay for the Vet bills that keep cropping up, I thought I'd better get busy. Lindor has had a sickie belly and Maya had some minor surgery and a tooth extracted resulting in this...

Despite the dreaded "cone", getting soft canned dog food for the week kind of made up for it.

So enough about the dogs, here's the Sketch I worked with from Freshly Made Sketches...

I like to follow the sketches pretty closely and here's the card I ended up with (actually I made 6 of them)...

So that is my FIRST challenge in 2016. Pretty pathetic since my goal was to do 4 a month. Oh well, one has to start somewhere.

Hockey cards

I was asked to make up 5 hockey cards in the team colours, so when I found the hockey paper last week at my local scrapbook store, I thought I better get working on them. I used a cute image from Your Next Stamp and tried to match the jersey colours as best I could. I loved the cheery colour combo and I think the recipient really liked them too.

They turned out much brighter then they appear in the photo and I glossed his helmet and skate blades.

A couple late Valentines

So I'm a little late posting but I wanted to show the cute cookies that I bought for the boys at the Dog Rescue Foster event....

Aren't they the cutest? My love for you is stronger than the Force. Love it!

And I got a little Valentine package myself...

Some of my favourite things... butterflies for my cards, a Mason Jar Stamp and chocolate. Thanks Cor.