Chocolate Scotcharoos...

I'd been craving this treat for a very, very long time. Funny enough I had everything for this treat in my pantry beside the Rice Krispies...I had bought the Karo Syrup a few months ago, that's how long I've had this on my mind!!

This is one of my favorites!! Peanut butter. Chocolate. Butter Scotch. Man, now I'm craving them again!!

CHOCOLATE SCOTCHAROOS
Printer Friendly Recipe
Ingredients
For the Krispies
1 C Sugar
1 C Karo Light Syrup
1 C Creamy Peanut Butter
6 C Rice Krispies
For the Topping
1 C Butterscotch Chips
1 C Milk Chocolate Chips

Directions
Bring 1 C Sugar and 1 C Karo Light Syrup just to a boil, mixing well and stirring occasionally. Take off heat  and add 1 C creamy peanut butter and mix until smooth.

Add 6 cups Rice Krispies and mix until the krispies are coated well.

Put this mixture into a well greased 9 X 13 pan and press down evenly into the pan.

To make the topping you can either melt the 1 C butterscotch and 1 C milk chocolate chips together in a pan on the stove top or in the microwave. If using the microwave make sure to use 30% POWER, so that you will not burn the chocolates.

Pour the chocolates mixture over the top of the pressed down PB Krispies. Let chocolate cool and harden, then cut into 2 X 1 square and enjoy!!

Fun Frames ~ Egg Hunt

Keeping up with my Fun Frames has been really fun! This holiday {Easter} was hard for me to pick a word. I really wanted 'hippity hop' but I didn't have enough frames, and I don't think that many would even fit on the shelf. I decided on 'egg hunt' after seeing some awesome scrapbook paper at Craft Warehouse.

See Easter, for us, is about celebrating spring, family, growing, and a cute little bunny :) I called it "bunny day" and I wouldn't have it any other way. Wow, totally didn't mean to rhyme! Remember LAST YEAR's dessert?? I'm still deciding how to top that!!

Fun Frames with some additional decor {more on those later}

I'm in LOVE with my teddy bear rabbit! Also, this is the first 'subway art' I've created. It isn't quite as good as the girls at eighteen25 do, but it is a start :)

Rainbow Birthday Cake!!!

I've basically been plotting this cake for a year, maybe more...I can't remember when I first saw it here ~ at Almota Roses and here ~ at i am baker. I feel in love. I love rainbows. L.O.V.E them. Kind of (still) want a tattoo of one but I'm too chicken to do it. I've been known to pull over to take pictures of rainbows...okay, you get it :)

For some reason I was craving boxed cake, maybe it was because that's what I grew up on. More than likely it was the fact that my birthday was on a Wednesday and I didn't want to make a "from scratch" cake during the week. I also used canned frosting (gasp!) but I was CRAVING sugar...hum...weird.

Anyways, I had a blast making this cake. I used one boxed white cake in the 6 inch round cake pans from some Wilton decorating class I took. I'm not sure I'd readily make this for tons of other people but it certainly has that WOW! factor once it is opened.

Preparing the cake.

Tasty rainbow!

Teddy bear sprinkles!!!

It is GORGEOUS!!!

Taste the rainbow :)

love it.

crafty carrots...

Even as I type the post title it seems a bit weird. I was inspired by Martha's crepe-paper-carrots but thinking about my desire to use what I already have in the house for projects. Mine are certainly not as cute but they aren't too bad either :)

Directions

*The inside of the carrot color doesn't matter since you won't be able to see it. I only had 1 sheet of orange left so I used yellow on the inside.

1. Materials - 1 standard piece orange tissue paper. 1 standard piece other color tissue paper*. 10 pieces green tulle, cut into 2X6 inch pieces.

2. Cut inside tissue paper {color doesn't matter since it won't show} into 1/4ths.

3. Pinch tissue squares in the middle, crating a cone shape.

4. Gather open end of tissue paper sphere.

5. Using double sided tape adhere orange tissue paper to the inside color. Roll until the carrot looks whole.

6. Cut of excess.

7. Using double sided tape adhere the green tulle to the yellow part of the carrot.

8. Cut 1/4 inch strip of orange tissue paper and wrap around the shaft between the tulle and orange tissue paper.

shhh...I've had the flu :(

It's been pretty quiet over here because as the title of this post says, I've had the flu. This is my second fight with some version of it this year. Though it isn't as bad as in September when I was sick for 5 weeks, I'm currently on day 8 and on the up swing :)

I did feel better by yesterday, better enough to host a Pampered Chef Party! I'd never hosted anything before and it was really exciting to get to use some of the gifts we got for the wedding (which was over 1.5 years ago...). My friends from work came over, along with my Mom. Our consultant, Sara Califf, was great!!

The chocolate fountain was a hit, though a bit messy and troublesome at the beginning. It wasn't working quite right so I read the directions (duh!) and voila! problem solved. What was happening was it didn't have a "curtain" affect - because it had air bubbles in the center shaft where the auger is. After switching off the power for 10 seconds and then restarting it it worked like a charm. I am so happy. It was a bit messy to clean up so I"m not sure I'd want to take it anywhere else besides my own house...we will have to see.

I had 5 items you could dip in the chocolate - strawberries, graham crackers, pretzel rods broken into 3 inch pieces, Nutty cookies (the ones shaped like a peanut with PB inside), and marsh mellows.

cakepops {apples and suitcases}

One of the second grade teachers at my school is retiring at the end of the week and today we threw her a little party to wish her BON VOYAGE!! I thought it appropriate to make apples and suitcase cakepops! What, truly, is more fitting for a teacher who wants to travel!!

I had the help of my wonderful assistants Sabrina, Carol, and Patty P!! Thanks ladies for making this happen!

Here are my eight favorite apples and one suitcase! I just L.O.V.E. how they are all so different!!! There were many, many more!!

So when I make cakepops I use 2x4's with holes drilled a bit bigger than the lollipop sticks for drying. It works wonderfully, they are durable, and it was all scarp wood we had lying around the house. Well...last week I broke my vase that you've become accustomed to seeing the cakepops in, the glass one with the ribbon. So I had to come up with something new and I didn't want to spend any money. My solution...

...wrap the 2x4s in wrapping paper and poke holes through for the sticks. Genius!!

It even makes for a good mode of transportation. Though, with 3 boards I had to make a few trips into school. Next time I will bring the pops all on a tray and the board in a bag :) Plus, I only drive 7 miles to work...so that might be why they survived!

The cool apples got to sit in the front ;-)

All ready for the food!

All most all of my staff. Plus a few community members and the Superintendent.

It was a very nice party for a very nice lady :)

PS. The "timer" setting on my Canon ROCKS!!!

We decorated the library and it was a potluck event. It all turned out very nice!!

a jar full of rainbow...

Well, not really a jar but you get the picture.

I LOVE rainbows and I think rainbows go hand-in-hand with St. Patty's Day!! Now only if I was crafty enough to make a little leprechaun :)

I've tried this month to cut down on my crafting spending...I went a little crazy between November and well, the beginning of this month. In trying to work with it yet still find projects to do to make our house nice I had to think outside the box, or in this case, inside a vase.

I found the deal of the year at Craft Warehouse!! I had been thinking about getting a glass vase for decor items for a few months because of the versititly of it. Well turns out that Craft Warehouse puts their display vases/items up for sale for like 95% off! I kid you not, I bought a $22 vase for $1.99 - and I didn't even mean too!! I got up the cash register and the cashier discovered the little $1.99 sticker and said "Wow, I'm surprised you found this, usually employees snatch them right up!" Now I will forever be on the hunt for the item that looks worn and has a little, tiny sticker on it. All I had to do was wash it! That was totally worth the twenty dollar savings!

Okay...on to the project!!

I wanted to do something with rainbows. Something in my new vase. Something cheap and that I already had on hand. Somewhere from the depths it hit me...tissue paper!!!

I actually had all but one of the colors {blue} which I got pretty easily :)

happiness

In action!

This project took about 20 minutes to make - another bonus! I took half a sheet of tissue paper in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I folded the half sheet of tissue paper into a long roll. I cut that roll into strips, held them all in my hand and snipped into about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch pieces. I should have taken step by step pictures but it was SO EASY that I kind of forgot too!

I am very happy with the results. Most of the tissue paper {except for blue} I had on hand in my wrapping paper station so that was free and then I got the stellar $1.99 deal on the vase. I'm happy because it is a rainbow decoration and I'm happy because it was cheap!!