Cake Balls

I made some very yummy cake balls for my grandpa's birthday this weekend. It's hard to know what to get him each year, but I know he likes German Chocolate Cake. So I made cake balls out of a German Chocolate cake mix with coconut pecan icing dipped in chocolate. Cake Balls are a wonderful invention! I'd never heard of them before someone on momslikeme.com mentioned a website called Bakerella.com. She has a website full of a million of these things!

Here are the balls before they were dipped:

I found some very cute packaging at Michaels. The label is just construction paper but at this point I was improvising.

They ended up being a big hit. I gave quite a few to my grandpa and split the leftovers between my parents, the babysitter and the office. Might have to remember this in the future.

Biting off more than I can chew

I have this awful habit of taking on too much. The word "no" is not my friend. This time I think I may be taking on too much in terms of crafts. I have already thought of presents that I can make for four people. Luckily its only August so I should have time but there still must be time for hubby, kids, work and church stuff. Someday I will learn the word "no"...

Adventures in cooking

I am not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination. But occasionally I get the crazy idea to try something new. Hubby was home this morning so I was able to cook a real breakfast, which isn't something we get to do very often. I decided to use a recipe from my cast iron skillet cookbook - the dutch baby. In theory it sounded good, kind of like a giant puffy pancake. This was the result (the picture doesn't do it justice):

Hubby is a huge sweetheart and suggested we try it anyway. Luckily it tasted better than it looks. Hubby even asked for seconds! I love that man! But maybe I should give up on being domestic.

Yarn Fun

I signed up for Ravelry yesterday. I've been getting into knitting (and blogging) more and more and noticed that many knitting blogs reference patterns on Ravelry. So I decided to check it out. How fun! They even have forums dedicated to different yarns. I feel my inner knitting geek coming out!

Vacation time

Woohoo, vacation time is here! I'm not actually doing anything interesting, just taking time off of work. I'm hoping that I can get some knitting done. Lately I just feel this need to create things or organize things or basically do something productive. It's hard right now since the kids are so young. I try to keep that in perspective and remember to enjoy the moments with them, since the knitting projects will always be there, the messes will always be there, but the kids will grow up. Still it's hard to balance mommyhood with everything. I think vacation will be a good time to find the balance in both.

Basket fun

When I am giving people a present, I like to give baskets. They are a good way to do something unique and fun. I was able to give a couple of baskets recently - my sister got married and had a baby! For her wedding I gave her and her husband a coffee and tea basket. I included two of the reusable cups, one for hot drinks and one for cold drinks. I also included chai tea, black tea, fruit tea, coffee packets and creamer.

I also made a basket filled with baby stuff for her. I included a blanket, two sets of booties and two burp cloths. I still want to add a little something for mom and big sister, but this is almost everything that will go in the basket.

The last thing is a diaper cake. While not a basket, it is still a neat way to give a creative gift! It was used as the centerpiece for the baby shower.

Funny Coincidences

Sometimes I think I share a brainwave with my husband. The renewal on tags for our car was due today and I had asked him to buy stamps yesterday because we were completely out. Well I left for work this morning without getting the stamps from him and putting the renewal in the mail. Ten minutes into the drive I remembered and picked up my cell to call him (yes I know - shame on me for talking and driving). At the very moment I started dialing, he called me. And what makes it even funnier is that he was calling me to see if he should take care of them. Too Funny!