Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Final TWD ~ Thumbprint Cookies!

 

Thumbprint cookies (picture is from a previous baking session)


What is TWD you ask? Those of you have been reading my blog for years and years know that I used to bake alongside other cyber bakers in a weekly baking adventure. We are part of a group called Tuesdays with Dorie, an online baking club of sorts. For four years bloggers got together on Tuesdays and posted the weekly recipe out of Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From my Home to Yours. It was quite serendipitous that I had found this book at a thrift store and within the week found the Tuesday with Dorie baking group.
This past year I have not been doing much baking and TWD fell by the wayside... you know with getting married, getting pregnant and a new baby in a 9 month span.  
But when I was baking with TWD I truly enjoyed so many things about it! I made so many fun blog friends, where each week we would encourage each other with our successes, mishaps and sometimes total failures. 
For myself, I learned how to bake things I never thought possible, improving my skills and gaining insights into baking that I would've never learned otherwise. 
This is the final week of Tuesday with Dorie. And although I haven't contributed to TWD in awhile, it's bittersweet to see the group wind down. Dorie Greenspan even posted about the group coming to an end on her blog. I love what she said about our little group, "TWD is proof of the power of community and yes, of baking, of learning to make something with your own hands.  That you can share what you’ve made with those you love is another gift."
I can't tell you how heartfelt and true this is to me. Sharing what you have made with your own hands, whether in baking something or crafting or sewing is so much sweeter than anything store bought. 

Thanks for the fun memories and farewell to a wonderful group! 
Happy Baking! 


Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas!


I hope your days are Merry & Bright! Happy Christmas! 

Shabby Apple Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner for the Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway! I used Random.Org to generate a random number.


The winner of the Azure Coast dress is:




#11 SHARDI!
Congratulations!! I sent you an email so be on the look out for it! :)
Shardi also has a cute blog 
I just checked it out today and it's a new favorite! 

Thank you to everyone who entered! I am planning on having a lot more giveaways in the future, so check back often.


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway

**********Giveaway is now Closed**********


It was so excited when Shabby Apple contacted me to host a giveaway for one of their beautiful dresses. There are so many gorgeous women's dresses to choose from. They also sell Maternity dresses and little girl's dresses. Along with so many beautiful accessories like pretty blingy earrings, necklaces and rings! 

This teal dress and earrings are some of my  favorites
Teal Floral Neck Dress with Cap Sleeves Side Zip and Tie Waist
Sierra Nevada Teal Dress
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Fiamma Earrings


Today's giveaway is for this awesome Azure Coast Dress. Wrap dresses are flattering on anyone and this one would look great dressed up or dressed down with some tights and boots. 


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Azure Coast Dress
To win all you need to do is leave me a comment and tell me what you are looking forward to most this Holiday season?


Here are some extra ways to win!
(Leave a separate comment for each one.) 
  1. Like Shabby Apple on Facebook and then come back here and leave a comment.
  2. Visit Shabby Apple and come back and comment telling what your favorite dress or accessory is that they sell.
  3. Follow Superfluous blog via Google Friend Connect and then leave me a comment.


Giveaway will be open until December 23rd at noon CST. Giveaway is open to US residents only, and there are no exchanges/returns for the winning dress. 


If you see something on Shabby Apple that you have to have now, Shabby Apple has given me a code for 10% off your order for the next 30 days! Use the code SUPER10OFF to get your discount. 



Sunday, December 18, 2011

Christmas Clothespin Wreath

So now with Christmas almost upon us, I wanted to take the last few days to make some Christmas Crafts. This weekend I spied this AWESOME clothespin wreath on Pinterest which lead me to Hambly Screen Prints Blog. Not only is it a fantastic blog with fun projects, it's also an online store full of the coolest scrapbook\crafting supplies. If you haven't been to Hambly Screen Prints... GO NOW!


The clothespin wreath was so fun and easy to make! 
Supplies you need:

  • Wooden clothespins
  • scrapbook papers
  • Washi tape (or decorative tape) You can buy washi tape at Hambly, Amazon.com, etsy, Michaels or most craft stores)
  • Glue
  • Thick cardboard for circle (or Michaels sells pre-made circle forms)
  • Felt to cover cardboard (although I skipped that step)



Decorate your clothespin however you like. Mine were a combination of scrapbook paper, decorative tape from Martha Stewart and glitter. 
The longest part was cutting all the strips and gluing them on, but once they are done it's just a matter of putting the clothespins around the ring. It was fun and easy. 
I didn't decorate the other side of the clothespins. But you could easily do them in a different color scheme or  Holiday. Then if you wanted to take apart the wreath you could use the clothespins for a different project. Because I'm sure if you typed "Clothespin" into Pinterest you would have a plethora of projects. Just sayin'. 









Linked up at:

DIY Club

ikatbuttonThe Shabby Nest










Design DazzleBubbly Nature


Visit thecsiproject.comPhotobucket







The Pinterest Challenge

Monday, December 12, 2011

Welcome to my Home...

Welcome to my little Christmas corner of the world! This is our first Christmas in this house and I wanted it to look just as cute and cozy as some of my past homes. Things are a little different now that we have a crawling-standing-cruising baby. I had to put less decorations out and made sure they were up high out of his reach. I usually go all out with decorations, but I decided to scale back this year and just put a few of my favorites out. 


I hope you enjoy a glimpse into my home...


























My new favorite ornament! 

I am excited to be linking up at Jennifer Rizzo, Hooked on Houses, kelly's korner, and The Inspired Room! 

Friday, December 9, 2011

Starbucks Cocoa & Christmas Music

I'm so glad it's Friday. I think most people like Fridays because it's a break from their jobs. But being a mom is a job and I like to have some family time (and a break). I'm still trying to convince my husband to take Monday off too.
For now these are a few things getting me through my day....

Starbucks Peppermint Cocoa, Peppermint Star Peeps and Rosanna's 12 Days of Christmas Mug

Box of beautiful Rosanna Mugs! 

I love anything Rosanna makes and I've been collecting her dish sets for awhile now. By far my favorite set by Rosanna is the 12 Days of Christmas. They are so cute and whimsical! Don't be jealous but a few years ago Macy's had the appetizer plates on CLEARANCE for about $30 a set!! Needless to say I picked up a few!


One other thing to make my day Merry & Bright is a Christmas playlist I created on Playlist.com
A mix-up of old and new, classic and non-traditional songs. I pretty much have this one on play the whole day long.
(And if you are a Pandora fanatic, She & Him Holiday Station is by far the best one out there!)




Merry & Bright Christmas Playlist


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

Books I Read in 2019

Here it is, my once a year blog post. This year I read 38 books. I always aim for 52 books, but life happens. I read more non fiction last ...