Muffin Top

I love the phrase muffin top.  It just one of those phrases that never fails to make me smile.

Today is our Thanksgiving Potluck at work.  I decided to bring breakfast so last night I whipped up two types of muffins (and their tops).

Top row: 3 ingredient Muffins

• 1 package chocolate chip cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice. (Okay, 4 ingredient…powdered sugar on top.  Powdered sugar makes everything look and taste better.) (Thanks, Cait!)

Bottom row: Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins from Baked Perfection

Nate and I taste tested both.  They are both delicious and super easy to make.  I think I baked both in under an hour.

Ike is usually impartial to human food on the counter but he would not leave the Donut Muffins alone.  Always good to get the dog’s approval!

What’s your favorite muffin recipe?  What phrase makes you smile every time you hear it?

And for all of you wondering, the farmhouse table will be revealed on Monday!! Woo hoo!!

Easy Sew Baby “Quilt”

If your name is Lisa and you are Nate’s sister and you are expecting your second child in a few weeks….look away.

Everyone else……read on!

Hey, guess what?  We’re expecting our 3rd niece in a few weeks.  I’m that crazy aunt that makes something for the wee ones.  My skills are slowly improving.  This may be my favorite “quilt” so far.

I used a tutorial from The Purl Bee . I liked this tutorial because there wasn’t any actual quilting and it didn’t have ties.  I have made a few blankets with ties and they never turn out the way I want.  This tutorial uses a couple of stitches every few inches in place of the ties.  These stitches bind the quilt together but aren’t super noticeable.

I don’t know the baby’s name yet (darn secrets).  I used the first letter of their last name instead.  I cut out a “T” and pinned it on and then used a zig zag stitch around it.  I was super scared to do this because I was afraid to ruin my pretty blanket…but it turned out cute.

This is the end of sewing projects……for this week.  I’m getting crazy with the sewing machine.  I’m trying to forget the first blanket I attempted for this child and then had to trash because it was not pretty.  I’m going to stick with easy. Easy is better on the self-esteem.

Do you give handmade gifts?  I’m always slightly nervous about them but family can’t complain…too much.  Any other great easy blanket tutorials out there?

Models

We took our Christmas card photo this week-end.  That’s always an adventure.  A self-timer plus a dog plus two humans equals chaos.

I won’t show you our family photo yet but I will show you that our lovely fuzz ball isn’t always so cooperative.  We just take a lot of pictures to get the good ones.

Here’s what happens when Nate takes photos of just Ike and I. I’m too lazy to edit these so enjoy some straight outta the camera goodness…

Chelle blinks.

We both blink.

Chelle, your ear smells funny.

I love you, human.

Why are the neighbors chopping down their trees?

Chelle is angry.  The dog is hot.

And finally (plus about 15 more of these type of photos), we get something decent...



I love how annoyed he looks. You may also notice a red mark on the center of my neck that occurred after he tried to paw me away.  He's not the fuzzy angel he appears to be.  Okay, yes he is.  He just grows horns on occasion.

Who has their holiday card photos taken already? (We usually wait until about Dec. 13th so this is not normal.)  Do you include the pets?  Do you include yourself?