Banana, Pineapple, Coconut, Whole Wheat Muffins

Once again, I had a challenge.  My daughter's Assistant Teacher's birthday was less than a week after my daughter's birthday.  I had to come up with another healthy treat to celebrate her birthday.  I came up with a delicious recipe!  It was made with no added sugar too! Here's the recipe I created:

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Pray Picture Frame Tutorial

The other day while browsing Pinterest, I found a great metal board that had "Pray" on it.  I loved the idea so I decided to come up with something similar that used up some of my on hand items.  Here is what I made.

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Halloween Ideas Recap!

It's almost time to start decorating for Fall.  We started the blog in November of last year.  This didn't give us time to highlight many Halloween items. Let me share a few previous ideas in this recap post.  I hope you enjoy!  More Halloween ideas will be coming up soon!

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Shrimp and Romaine, Light and Tasty

It was 4:30 and I had to get dinner ready by 5:00.  Yep, that's right!  Our dinnertime is 5:00.  Nope, that's not my idea, it's my husbands.  If he isn't eating by 5:00 the drama kicks in.  He pretends like he's too weak to stand, complains of a headache, threatens to pass out, etc.  Please don't feel sorry for him, he's completely fine.  Anyone who thinks women are the dramatic ones hasn't witnessed John at 5:00, if he isn't eating.

The problem was, I had nothing planned. So, I hit the refrigerator and cabinet.  This is what I grabbed:

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Pinterest Picks of the Week

Thank you to all the new followers on Pinterest!  I hope that you are enjoying some of my finds.  Now for all of you not on Pinterest yet, I want to share some great ideas with you and hopefully sway you to join me!  Each week I will give you just a sampling of things I am pinning to make in the future or for ideas around my house.  I hope you enjoy what I have to share.

Click on any of the pictures to see more details.

Simple Gift Wrap that is chic and cost effective!

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How About Amazingly Healthy (Not to Mention Delicious) Cupcakes?

Simple Goodness....

Okay, so here's where the dilemma starts: today is GraciAnn's, (my oldest daughter's) 5th birthday. Now, if I think about this long, I get very emotional.  It's so hard to believe that the blue-eyed beauty entered our lives five years ago.  I never knew I could love someone so much.  She is amazing.

My Birthday Girl!

So, here's where the problem comes in.  GraciAnn goes to a Montessori school that strongly focuses on healthy eating; therefore, a birthday treat means something extremely healthy.  So, I searched for a healthy recipe and found these Pineapple-Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Because I always want things to be a little healthier I changed them up a bit more.  They turned out DELICIOUS!  I'm pretty sure the kids will love them and even more sure the teachers will.

Here are the changes I made to the original cupcake recipe:
I omitted the white flour and used 1 1/2 cups of  organic whole wheat flour
I substituted the 1 cup of white sugar with 2/3 cup of agave nectar
Instead of using oil, I used 2 tablespoons applesauce
*I used organic zucchini
*I used cage free eggs

As far as the icing goes, I used fat free cream cheese but couldn't figure out how to get the right consistency, for the icing, without the powdered sugar.  I thought about agave nectar or honey, as a sweetener but thought the icing would be a little runny.  Next time, I think I'll try honey. I can't imagine how powdered sugar could be healthy.  The good news is there's only 1 cup of sugar for the entire icing recipe so it's not too terrible.  The icing isn't very sweet. It's just right!

I promise that these are scrumptious!

Shell Baby Blanket, Cloche & Flower Hair Clips

Back in July, my brother and his family came to visit.  It is so nice to get to see them and their kids.  I love my two nephews and niece.  My kids had so much fun playing at the pool with them and having fun at a state park.  We usually only see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas so it is very nice to get to spend time with them.

My sister-in-law was telling me how much my nephews like the crochet blanket I made for them.  She likes to make their birthday special by having them wake up to their birthday blanket.  While having this conversation, I realized I never made my niece Claire a baby blanket!

I am such a BAD Aunt!

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Making a Bulletin Board that Blends with your Decor is EASY!

My new craft room needed a place for me to post ideas, for projects, I plan to create.  Of course, since it's in a craft room, the board needs to be somewhat crafty, right?

Here's my final project.  It took less than 10 minutes to create this one. Here's how...

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