Another Wonderful Upcoming CSN Review

I've been invited to do another CSN review, and my representative is so wonderful to work with, so I accepted. I found the Children's Luggage and was surprised to find these:

Hoohobbers Personalized Lunch Box- This would be a great gift for the little girl in your life.  All children love personalized gifts.

How about a Wildkin Dinosaur Duffel Bag for the little guy on your shopping list?

CSN Children's Luggage even has sleeping bags for the little ones.  These make great gifts.

So go on over and check out all the affordable merchandise and start crossing people off that holiday shopping list!

I will be deciding what item to review in the next few days. It will be a hard decision with so many choices, so be sure to come back and see what I chose!

More Easy Bake Oven Recipes

Easy Bake ovens will be going on sale in the coming weeks.
Don't let the high price of replacement cake mixes scare you from buying that Easy Bake Oven this year.

To use a regular cake mix:
3 tablespoons cake mix, any flavor
1 tablespoon milk

Mix in a bowl until smooth. Place in greased toy cake pan.
Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven. Makes 1 serving

To Make Icing:

Mix 1 teaspoon water and a couple drops vanilla. Add powdered sugar, mixing until smooth and desired consistency.


Peanut Butter Cookies

1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons sugar

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients to make a dough. Roll into 1/2 inch balls. Place 4 balls into the Easy Bake Oven pan and press down slightly with the tines of a fork. Bake for 6 minutes. Cool. Bake remaining balls 4 at a time.

The Original EBO Peanut Butter Fudge
1/2 cup powder sugar
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2 teaspoons cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon soft butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a bowl, mix all ingredients together until smooth. Spread mixture into greased pan. Bake 5 minutes. Cool completely.
NOTE: Be sure to preheat oven 15 minutes!

For more Easy Bake Oven Recipes, be sure to check out my previous post: Save Money- Make Your Own Easy Bake Oven Mixes


Linking to:
Foodie Friday
Frugal Friday

Parade of wreaths

I love wreaths, but boy they are so expensive to buy!  I like buying them from thrift stores and changing them up.

I switch my wreaths out 5 times a year. One for each season, and one for Christmas in between fall and winter.

I've been thinking about my Christmas and winter wreaths coming up and what I would like to do/have/make.

Wreaths can be made out of anything! Take a look at some of my favorites:

I made a bird seed wreath years ago. Birds actually came and pecked at it! lol

One of these days when I can get lavendar to grow, I would love to make one of these!

Burnt marshmallows!  I love it!

This is a great way to up-cycle those burnt bulbs.

This one would look perfect on my home.  Our siding is a blue-grey.

Loving all the greenery and checked ribbon!

I love succulents! This would be a great summer wreath.

A lovely recycling newspaper wreath.

A classic!

I better get to drinkn' some wine!

This white frilly wreath is actually made out of coffee filters. The Virginia House posted a great tutorial on how she made hers. I think I will make this one and change it up some.  Mine will be made out of fabric minus the starfish.  I'll post it when I get it done.

What wreath was your favorite?  Do you switch your wreaths out for seasons? For every holiday? Do you make your own wreaths? Or purchase them?

Be sure to share your wreath with all of us!

For  fabric Thursday, visit:




And for great ideas and inspiration:

$5 Hallmark Coupons

Hallmark has the $5 off $5 or more coupon again this holiday season!

You can find the coupon in several different magazines.

Nov/Dec MidWest Living Page 17 (sticky/peel off coupon)
Dec. Real Simple (between pages 74-74)
Dec. Family Circle (page 61)
Dec. Southern Living
Dec. Martha Stewart Living (page 93)
Dec. Redbook (pages 53-54)
Dec. Oprah Magazine (Page 111)

Last year Hallmark also released a printable $5 off $5 coupon! Let's hope they do it again this year.

If you find the Hallmark coupon in any other magazines that are not listed, be sure to let me know!

Crock Pot Apple Butter

I had some apples go mushy before we ate them all and decided to make some crock pot apple butter.

My mother's recipe had to be altered for such a small batch. Although I used my apple peeler/slicer, I forgot I didnt need to peel them darn it.
I used my little Rival Crock-ette. I started them at 10am Sunday.

1 1/2 pounds (6) red delicious apples
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 c water

After the apples had cooked about an hour, I chopped them into smaller pieces.
Sorry these two pics are so gold.  The light in my kitchen is yuck and my camera wasn't cooperating.

After four hours of cooking with no lid on, I took my Oster stick blender and pureed it.  We like velvety smooth apple butter.

Finally, at 11:30 pm last night I dumped it into a jar and into the fridge. 

This morning I had some on toast for breakfast.  It's so thick, velvety, and yummy!

Be sure to visit Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for some great Thanksgiving food ideas!


Now I have 3 pie pumpkins and 1 medium pumpkin I need to do something with.
Anyone have any suggestions?  I've never prepared pie pumpkins.  Do I just slice them in half and scoop out the pulp?  Can I put it in a jar in fridge until next week and make pumpkin pies out of them or should I wait until next week to do it?