Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hi everyone and Happy Halloween! I finally drug myself out of bed today where I've been being held captive by first a stomach virus and now what seems to be the flu. I had been craving something that I could actually taste. So I got up and made a big pot of chili, a pan of mexican cornbread and then I wanted something to do with pumpkin so I ran across this recipe on the internet and just had to try it. I wanted to do something nice for my boys today and for myself as well. So I just had to share with you this recipe cause it is sooooo good! The muffins are really moist and just so yummy.
I'm off to the doctors in the morning. As soon as I wake up I'm calling and begging for them to please get me in. I've taken all this mess that I can possibly tolerate.
So anyway, here's the recipe....hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (15oz can)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (I used pecans)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, melted butter, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. Beat for 90 seconds or until well mixed.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, stirring until no streaks remain.

Combine flour mixture and pumpkin mixture. Stir in nuts and raisins. Stirring only until all ingredients are mixed.

Cover batter and allow to stand at room temp for one hour.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees

Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back after lightly touched.

Brush tops of muffins with melted butter while still warm and sprinkle lightly with sugar.


Now kick your heels up and ENJOY!

Alice in Wonderland Haunted House mini album...

 Hey everyone! I know, I know...your wondering why in the world would I make another Halloween album when I barely had enough pictures to put in the first one...BUT. I had bought this Graphic 45 paper this year and couldn't stand it...I just had to use it. So I figured that each year I can sit the little album out and in many years to come I can put my grandbabies pictures in it. The front of the album is actually 3D but it's not showing up in the pictures for some reason. Alice is 3D and all glittered as well as the little pumpkin and the keyhole is completely covered in glossy accents and then of course there is the metal key in the upper corner. I also have tabs that pull out from each corner. Oh by the way this is an exploding box along the same lines as the envelope exploding box but there wasn't a store bought envelope one used in this album.

 Here is one of the side views of the little house. I used Martha Stewarts iron gate fence. This fence is actually purple but is showing up blue for some reason.

 Here is another side. All 3 sides are the same with different tags tucked behind the fence.

 When you open it of course you can see all of it but I thought I'd take you through each "layer". The first layer are all doors to mimick the doors that Alice encountered in the movie. The little playing card is moveable so you can place a picture up behind it. I used keyhole brads on each door as well.

 Then when you open the doors there is a pocket on the back side of the door with a tag and a mat on the opposite page with another moveable small tag in the upper corner.

 Here is the second "layer". Now for this layer I used the smaller black paper bags that you can get at Michaels. I tucked a tag inside and added a big pretty rhinestone brad and at the bottom of each bag there is a name plate where you can actually tuck another tag. Sorry I forgot to put my shipping tags behind there so that I could show you.

 Then here is the 3rd and last layer. This is the only envelope that is in the album. I actually used my envelope template and some cardstock to make them. and then I added tags and key brads to the tab tops.

Then POOF here is what it looks like when the roof is taken off the top. I added a big nice flower and a little mouse. I like to add my finishing embellishments once my pictures are in my albums so that's why it's a bit on the plain side. But I do hope that this inspires you all in some way.
I'm hoping that everyone is having a good weekend and I'll be seeing you soon....come on back ya'll!

BOO! My first Halloween mini album....

 Hey everyone! Well here it is.....it's not only my first Halloween mini album but it's also my first paper bag mini album as well. Let me tell ya...I had a lot of fun making this one but was a bit disappointed when I went to looking for pictures to go inside it. I still don't have them printed off and placed in the album yet but I had such a hard time coming up with pictures of my son dressed up. It was so disheartening to me. I'm not sure why I didn't take many Halloween pictures. I had thought that I would have to make 2 Halloween mini albums to get all the pictures in but that's just not the case at all. But anyway...enough of my sorrows about the pictures, let me go ahead and describe the album to you.
First off, just about everything in this album came from scrapbuck.com. I don't think that I shared my haul with you when I received all this great stuff several weeks ago. But just about everything in here came from their online store. I first used We R Memory Keepers Heebie Jeebies paper line along with some plain cardstock. The roof of my little haunted house was used cutting strips of black cardstock using the Fiskars sunflower scissors and then layered on top of one another so that it would look like shingles. I also used a Martha Stewart punch to make the top decorative piece...it was an edge punch but I don't remember the name of it. I'm thinking its something like gothic arches or something like that. After I did all of that I sprayed the roof of the house with glimmer mist (Diamond Dust) and it gave the roof a nice patina. Then of course I used the new Martha Stewart iron gate deep edge punch for the widow walk on the roof....that is what those are called right? There are little bats on the fence that I added some glitter too so that they would stand out. Now onto the body of the house. I haphazardly cut small strips of chipboard and laid them out so that they would form my windows. There are several layers to the windows...first off after I cut those chipboard pieces I used some charcoal ink to make them look old then I used some of the acetate packaging from some stickers I had used to make "glass" for the windows and added some coffee stained cheese cloth as my torn and tattered "curtains" then I added a sticker on top of the acetate but behind the "panes" so it looked as if you were peeping into the windows....or that someone was peeping out..whatever be the case. Then I used some glittered ghost stickers, an Enter at your own risk sticker above the door and then I used the Martha Stewart iron gate edge punch again at the bottom. I'll get to the door in a second...

 Here you can see that on the binding I used a small skeleton that I found at Dollar Tree. I added some googly eyes to him as well as a little black and white bow around his neck. (I just had to make him a bit cute) then I cut strips of the coffee stained cheese cloth and tied that to the binding as well. I hung Mr. Skeleton from the binding using a Tim Holtz clasp.

 Here's a peep of what appears when you open the front door....it's just an old witch stirring her brew. On the outside of the door I used a Memory Makers metal keyhole brad and then since I had an entire string of those skeletons, I decided that I'd cut one of them up to see what I could make with the "parts". So I sliced his skull in half and added some red glitter to his eyes and it now adorns the front door. (hmmm this description of how I dissected the skeleton sounds scary ) then I needed something for my hinges so I cut slits of the Iron Gate punch and glittered them to make my hinges and added an EEEK 3D sticker.

 For my closure I used a Tim Holtz Hitching post and one of his swivel clasps. Squeeeeak! Now lets open the album and see what's on the inside.....if you dare...

 Like I said this is a paper bag album and my very first one. But before I talk about the pages I need to mention that the moon in the upper right hand corner is cardstock covered chipboard with a plastic rubberised bat that I found at Dollar Tree as well. Now back to the paper bag pages.....I just quite simply slapped 2 of the black paper bags together (I found those at Michael's) and then as I glued the two flat sides of the paper bags together I only glued 3 sides to that I could have a pocket in the center of the bags for a large tags....after all these albums are all about the pictures right??? At least they are to me anyway and I like to have as much real estate as possible in one.

 So when you pull all the tags out for these pages you can see that there are several places to put the much cherished pictures. For the tag that slides in between the 2 glued paper bags I used the McGill tab punch and just alternated it as I made more pages so that they are stair stepped and on this tab I also added a plastic spider that I also found at Dollar Tree.

 Here are a few more of the pages with all the tabs pulled out or shifted. The images at the bottoms of the tags in the purple and black are actually flocked and really added a nice touch I thought.

 I will embellish the album even more once I get the pictures printed and placed.

 And a few more pages.....***note the tab pull on this one...yep you guessed it its an arm bone and hand ... connected of course (are you humming that song yet? Let me help you.....the hip bones connected to the leg bone and the leg bones connected to the ankle bone) nayyyy I'll just stick to my day job...you all don't want me singing to you...chances are I got the wording wrong anyway.

Ok so here is that last page. I plan on using the front and back covers to put notes and journaling to my son. I know that one day he will get all these albums so I wanted to first off apologize to him for not taking more pictures of him dressed up but then also talk about all the things I remember about Halloween when he was just a little fellow. It just breaks my heart that I don't have more pictures than what I do of him dressed up. However, I do still have 2 of his Halloween costumes from when he was a toddler. I used to order his costumes from The Disney Store...so he was both Pooh and Tigger.....the sad sad thing is...I don't have a picture one of him in his Pooh costume and he loved Pooh the best. Let me tell you when he was a toddler Pooh was playing on tv 24/7. I had memorized every line to every Pooh video there was and yet.....not one single picture of him in his costume. I plan on saving those costumes and one day maybe I'll get to take pictures of grand babies in them.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday! As for me I'm headed back to the craft room to see what else I can get brewing in my cauldron and as always you all know that I'll be sharing with you what else I come up with......so come on back and visit soon.

I've been blinging my world.....

 Hey everyone! Remember me telling you about this new Creative Memories scrapbooking luggage that I had bought and I was doing something to it???? Well here it is before I touched it.....but it's kind of boring and plain huh? So what's a girl to do?.....

 THIS is what she does! She pulls out her glue and bling and just starts have a good time. Now for some odd reason it isn't showing all the pretty bling that has been added to all 3 pieces but the bling is crystal and pink and anywhere there was white daisies on the bags....that got blinged! I also added some pretty pink ribbon on all the pulls. I decided on pink since the inside of all the cases are pink.

Even in this picture...you can see that there is bling there but it's not showing the correct color....I need to get better with a camera or my lightening was bad or something. Not sure what happened but trust me IT IS BLINGED! and sooo pretty. I'm starting to think that my favorite color is "Sparkle"!
Now these bags will be all ready for next month when I go to the scrapbooking retreat! I'm so excited to get to go to it again. Remember I went back in Feb or March of this year and had the time of my life! So I'm getting things ready to go again.
As far as my Halloween mini album....well I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I worked on it a bit more today but have been having some problems with my back so I can't sit for very long at all cause it irritates my back even more. So I'm just taking my time finishing that album up and babying my back. But I'll be sure to show it to you all just as soon as I get it done.
Hope that everyone is have a great start to the week and I'll be back soon, so come on back by........

Debbie's album completed and delivered!...

 WARNING! This post has lots of pictures....
So I finished Debbie's little album then had been so busy doing other projects and such that I forgot to post pictures of the final outcome. On the front cover I used some Prima flowers, a butterfly that came from scrapbuck.com, some pretty pearl bling, a paper doily and some bling from scrapbuck.com. Then I also added a pretty pearl brad that I picked up at Michael's to use as my closure. The little white hairband wraps around it to keep it snug. It turned out quite "chunky" to say the least. Matter of fact....

 it was so "chunky" that instead of using the bind it all I had to lace it up using some pretty ribbon. Actually I thought it turned out even cuter that way. On the "binding" I added a pretty flower paper clip with some beads dangling from it as well as a distressed metal heart and added the letter D on it. Then added some extra ribbon clippings from my stash.

 I don't think that I took pictures of all of the little things pulled out for the rest of the album. But that's ok cause you all have the idea of how I was making the inserts.

 This is another one of the pages that opens waaaay up into a full 12x12 piece of cardstock.

 I had to set this picture aside to stand on it's own cause Suzie's house is so pretty and it has so much CHARM!

 This was some pictures of us when we went on a shopping trip.....NO we couldn't even behave ourselves out in public....it's not much fun when you do is it??

 Those masks were so pretty. I would of bought one if I could figure out what to do with it once I got it home...they were gorgeous!

 Here is another one of the pages that opens up to a 12x12 page with loads of room for pictures.

 I will give you a total at the end of just how many pictures I was able to get into this little mini album. I think you will be shocked to find out just how many it really held.

 OOPS! This picture turned sideways on me and I don't know how to make it go the right way...so just turn your head crooked and you'll be able to see it.

 Ok that's it for the album but I did take pictures of one more of the little "booklets" that opens up into a 12x12 page so you can see how I added pictures to it.

That one sheet of paper will hold a lot of pictures huh?
Ok are you ready for the GRAND TOTAL of how many pictures I was able to get into this little mini album? ..... Drum roll please.......97 pictures!!! No, you aren't seeing things. I actually was able to get that many pictures in this one little album. I had the most fun making this little album. I laughed so hard as I was adding the pictures cause it took me back to when they were actually being taken and believe me if you can't have fun and enjoy yourself at Suzie's house then there is something seriously wrong with you. I can honestly say that this is by far my most favorite mini album that I've made so far. I just loved it and hope that Debbie gets many of good laughs out of it and enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for her.
So what else have I been working on??? Well I have been working on a Halloween mini album. I just about have it all complete except for my pictures but as soon as I finish with the pages I'll go ahead and show it so you don't have to wait for me to get the pictures printed out and put in the album. I've also been working on blinging my my new scrapbook luggage that I got this past weekend at one of the crops. I've been wanting this piece of luggage forever cause it's so big! Plus it's Creative Memories stuff and if you've ever bought anything from them you know that it's good quality stuff that's built to last. So I'm working on personalizing it so that it will be all ready to go next month when I leave for the scrapbooking retreat. Looks like I'm going to have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby though before I can finish that project cause I'm out of rhinestones. I'll show you all that finished project once it's done as well.
Hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and I'll be seeing you real soon.....

Happy Fall Everyone....

I'm wondering if the chill of fall is in the air in the area of the world that your in....it sure has hit here in the hills of Tennessee. It was downright chilly this past weekend while my husband, son and I were away in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. But that didn't keep us from having a good time! We were away celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary and only got to spend one night but we made the most of it. It was so refreshing for me that I came home full of energy and started in on my fall cleaning. I'm still working on it but took time out yesterday to put out a few of my decorations that I've made. I'm not going to do a big display at all this year...just a few things here and there around the inside of the house and I'll call it good.

 I thought that I'd put several of my favorite decorations in this tall glass vase so I could see them all at once while I'm doing the dishes.

My super simple centerpiece for  the table.

And last but certainly not least here is my husband and myself from this past weekend. We were on our way to play putt putt and listen to the live outdoor band. It was such a peaceful and relaxing weekend for all of us.
Today is actually our anniversary although we celebrated early. I'd like to say Happy Anniversary to my hubby of 11 years....I love you dearly!
Hope that everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday...it's back to work on fall cleaning for me tomorrow. I'm wanting to hurry and get it done so I can get back to my craft room.......

Belated birthday gift! What a joy!....

What a wonderful surprise!! I went to lunch with one of my good friends this week and since we hadn't seen one another in months she brought my birthday gift! Squeeeal! Brenda you really overdone yourself! Look everyone at everything I got! First she bought me the Creative Memories Daisy tote to put whatever you like in. I'm using it for all my brads, eyelets and bling! Loooove it! Then she bought me a memory maker bracelet where I can add my own pictures! How neat is that? Then there's a clipboard for me to alter. That will be a fun project. A beautiful metal key! I just about drooled when I saw that cause it will be soo perfect hanging on the side of a mini album. She bought me a Creative Memories luggage tag! Love it and desperately needed it since my HUGE piece of scrapbooking luggage will be here next week. (p.s. I got the best deal on that thanks to the help of my friends!) Thank you all!!!! Then Brenda found some of the cutest file folders ever. I love them. And she picked me up some hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works. Look at the beautiful card she gave me...I just love it! Thank you thank you thank you Brenda. I really appreciate and love it all.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Money saving tip for scrapbookers and crafters...

Hi everyone! I know that most scrapbookers, card makers and crafters in general have been using Tattered Angels glimmer mist. Now I don't know about you all but that stuff is expensive, so I searched the web high and low to find the best deal on it and what I found was www.scrapbooking-warehouse.com they sell if for only $4.75 a bottle. That's the cheapest I was able to find it. Sometimes you kind of have to wait til they get another shipment in but it's the cheapest place that I've found for them.
Hope that this has helped someone out there that is trying to save a few dollars.
I have many things that I want to share with you all but will be MIA til Sunday night probably. Hope that everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend!