Another Thanksgiving Dessert (Day 2)

The other dessert that I made for our family Thanksgiving this year was also found on Pinterest. Each year my Aunt hosts Thanksgiving for our family and gives me only two rules about dessert- there MUST be something chocolate and something with peanut butter.

I found this super simple recipe for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecake and knew that this would have to be a winner (even if it failed) because it ticked off both of the necessary requirements.

My cousin and his kids were eyeing the plate of these cheesecakes from the minute they walked in and they could barely wait until the meal was over before diving in and shouting about how good they were. I think that by the end of the night we had to hide them because the kids wanted to go back for more. I would call this one a Thanksgiving dessert SUCCESS!!

Thanksgiving YUMMYNESS Day 1

Double.

Chocolate.

Bread. (which is actually not bread but instead a rich, fudgy chocolate cake)

Pudding.

Need I say more?

When I was in Culinary school this amazing dessert was one that we were fortunate enough to learn and I have made it several times over the years to much applause. No matter where I take this gooey pile of delicious chocolaty goodness everyone raves over it! No the picture above definitely does NOT do this dessert justice. (Oh, and I forgot to get an actual picture of the pan of decadence, so this is just my serving, LOL) 

To accompany this rich chocolate explosion I made a recipe that I found on Pinterest for a no churn cinnamon ice cream. It turned out awesome! My grandpa is in love with it and pondered over how it could remain so solid yet creamy for so long when out of the freezer. I will definitely make this again and it pared well with the chocolate pudding and helped balance out the richness. 

I hope that you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and I will see you again on Tuesday. 

Pumpkin Autumn Greeting

I just realized that November is almost over and I have yet to show a card for this month of fall-themed projects. How did that happen? I honestly have no idea! Usually I have an overabundance of cards and I am searching for other papercrafing projects to add in so that you all don't get tired of just seeing cards all the time.

I kept the elements of this card pretty simple since I made it about 20 minutes before this post is going live. I had some extra pumpkins that I made at the beginning of the month for the Thankful For You scrapbook layout so I used them along with some scraps of foiled patterned cardstock. I popped each pumpkin up with a thin piece of foam so that it would stand out a bit better against the orange and gold foiled papers behind them. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Fall Cardstock Mini Album

I don't make a lot of mini albums and I honestly don't know why. They are typically easy to make and you can totally LOAD them down with photos. I don't remember exactly where I saw the design for this particular album but I figured that it was about time that I create a few. I might even make some Christmas themed one to give as gifts this year, if I have the time. I chose to make this album in fall papers for a couple of reasons. Reason one, to use up some of the patterned paper in my stash. Reason two, I have some photos from past Thanksgiving's that I am hoping to group together and share with my family and reason three a mini album is much easier to transport than a larger scrapbook.

Candy Corn Trees

Do you like candy corn? It seems that everyone I know either loves it or hates it, there is often no middle ground. I personally hate it, eating it that is. I love the look of them though, and I can't really explain why.

When I was at my local Dollar Tree recently I came across some styrofoam cones in the floral section and for some strange reason (probably the overabundance of fall decor) my brain instantly thought, 'this looks like a giant candy corn.' So needless to say, I left the store with a couple of cones, a package of glass tea light holders and a bag of sickeningly sweet candy corn (which I later gave to my dad who loves them).

Now it is time to turn it into a project! Shown below are some of the pieces that I used to create these ADORABLE trees. I also used a scalloped circle punch from my stash (from EK Success, I think) the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, a hot glue gun, the glass tea light holders and some real candy corn.

It looks good enough to eat, that is if you actually LIKE candy corn.

Pumpkin Patch

The layout for today is similar to the one that I posted last Friday. They have the same paper and embellishments, only laid out in a different way. I could give you some speech about doing it so that you could see that with only a few minor changes you can get a vastly different look to any page opening up a world of endless possibilities....but let's face it, the real reason they are so similar is that today I was feeling uninspired and genuinely not in the mood to craft. I have mentioned before that lately I can't seem to get myself out of my own head when the people that I love and care about are going through stuff, my tendencies are to completely immerse myself into their problem so that I feel like the same thing is happening to me. I don't know why I do this!!

Anywho, I did make some small changes to the layout today. I used some pumpkins that I made (using the same technique that I used last Friday, only this time I used circle punches instead of oval) that are quite a bit smaller than before and made using patterned paper instead of a solid color. I also added a journaling space to this one to help fill out and balance the bottom of the page.

Pumpkin Door Wreath

Today I am feeling lazy. It is a cold and dreary day. All I want to do is curl up in my bed with a good book or a movie and not move. I don't know if it was all the excitement from Saturday's party (which was a blast by the way) or the sullen mood from Sunday (I had to go to a memorial service for a family member who passed away) but the last couple of days I have found it hard to motivate myself. The weather hasn't helped the situation any either, but since it is fall in the midwest it is not likely to improve that much for a while.

Every couple of months I try to change out the wreath that hangs on my front door so that it reflects the mood and tone of the season or holiday. But, since so much has been going on in my life lately I haven't had a chance to sit down and make a new door wreath until now, and I would say that it is BEYOND past due, since the wreath currently on my front door is from JULY.

When I think of fall, one of the first things that comes to mind is PUMPKINS. These orange little gourds are simply everywhere. So, why not on my front door? I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like in my head, (a piece of cardstock cut out in the shape of a pumpkin with orange rosettes glued onto it) so all I had to do was create it. Sounds simple, right? Well it would have been if my mom hadn't burst out laughing at my attempt to draw a pumpkin template. That plus the fact that simply cutting it out of a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock would have made the overall wreath rather small on the door. I was truly stumped. What do I do now? Luckily, my mom came through and saved the project with the perfect solution, to use a placemat or something that is already shaped like a pumpkin instead. So, off to the Dollar Tree I went and as luck would have it within 10 seconds of walking in the door I found EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I used some scrap cardstock to fill in the eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin and set to gluing on the rosettes. I have to say the final result looks exactly like the one that I had created in my head. I love when things work out!

Thankful For You

Happy Fall Y'all. It is officially November so in my book that means that fall is settling in. It is time to start a new blog series since our month of Halloween is over. As I mentioned in Tuesday's post I will be spending the month of November sharing different fall related projects and decor.

The layout for today is titled 'Thankful for You'. Once again I found a piece of patterned cardstock that I wanted to showcase by just adding photo mats, but the star of the page (in my opinion) is the pumpkins that I made to fill in around the photos. I found a tutorial on YouTube quite a while ago (if you are interested, try searching for pumpkin punch art.)

Who are you most thankful for?

For me, It is my mom. She is my rock and my best friend. Tomorrow is our annual Halloween Murder Mystery Party and I have spent the day setting up for it and making some desserts to share with my guests (posts about all decor and food will be coming but not until after the new year). My mom, bless her heart has been trying to help me where she can even though she hasn't been feeling very well since her colonoscopy.