Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Recently we were invited to dinner and I offered to bring a dessert. Well of course I headed over to my Pinterest "Treats" board for some yummy-licious goodies!

I found this amazing recipe from the Picky Palate's Blog for Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwiches. She got the idea from something similar they serve at Disneyland. 

These sandwiches are SO easy to make!! And you only need 3 ingredients. You read that right, THREE! ingredients! Huzzah! 

Okay Ready?

1. 3 Cups Chocolate for melting (like chocolate chips, I used Hershey's Chocolate Chips)
2. 12 Graham Crackers Squares
3. 2 Cups of Peanut Butter

If you want to thin out the chocolate you can add some shortening or vegetable oil. I used a dash of vegetable oil so the chocolate would be extra smooth & silky. Also have a small cookie sheet ready that is lined with wax or parchment paper. This is essential because this recipe, although DELICIOUS, it is a bit sticky and melty. And you will need to keep these cool, either in the fridge or freezer.

Step one: 

Melt your chocolate according to package directions... low heat is the key! No burnt chocolate. UGH.

Once your chocolate is melted, take your 12 Graham Cracker squares and dip them one at a time into the chocolate. Place them on your wax paper lined cookie sheet and then put them in the freeze to quickly harden them up. 

Step 2.  Once your chocolate is set, remove the pan from the freezer and spread the Peanut Butter on each cracker. The amount you spread on there depends solely on how peanut buttery you want these to be! Once that step is done, pop them back in the freezer for about 10 minutes until PB is firm. While the PB is firming up, turn the heat off of your chocolate and let your chocolate thicken. (But not harden! big difference!)

Step 3. Messy Messy Messy. With a spoon poor and smooth the chocolate over the PB crackers. Coat the top and each side until covered. Once they are all covered, put them back in the freezer so the chocolate can get firm. It doesn't really matter if your chocolate squares are perfect right now, because you can break them into squares once they harden.

Step 4. When your chocolate is firm, take the last of the chocolate and drizzle over the top with a spoon. It doesn't need to be fancy, just have fun. Because these sandwiches are gooey, keep them in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to eat them. They are oh so good!!! 

Chocolate Peanut Buttery Goodness!! 

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Top 10 Projects of 2011

2011 Has been a great year at Superfluous! Moving into a new house always brings plenty of projects to work on... and work on... and... And then there was the invention of Pinterest, where I was and continually am inspired to create. So I wanted to highlight the Top 10 Superfluous Projects of 2011.

DIY Fabric Lampshade Cover 

While working on E's nursery I took a boring ol' lampshade and made a fabric cover. It was a super easy project and I loved how it turned out! 

Goodwill Chair Chevron Makeover

I found a really ugly chair at the Goodwill.  I spray painted it white and put a chevron cover on the seat. 

Amazing transformation! 

Word Art Project

Canvas, Stencil and Scrapbook paper made a really fun and inspirational word art project.

Halloween Wreath

Thanks to Pinterest, I got the idea to make a Halloween wreath! Spooky! 

Knockoff Anthropologie Mirror

I love Anthropologie, but I don't love their prices. I saw a mirror I really liked, but decided to DIY my own. 

House Love Projects

Around the house I worked on a few little projects...

Chalkboard makeover and Everett Banner! 

Entryway photo collage and fresh coat of paint.

New Curtains and pictures.

Glitter House

I love collecting glitter houses, but they can be rather spendy. So I decided to make my own! I found the houses at Hobby Lobby and I had fun decorating them! 

Clothespin Wreath

This by far was one of my favorite projects I've made this year! Clothespins, scrapbook paper, glitter and decorative washi tape was all I needed to make this awesome project. 

Christmas Decorating

First Christmas at our new house and I had fun decorating and making look festive and fun! 

Baby Everett is Born!

On May 8, 2011 I gave birth to Everett Timothy! By far my FAVORITE thing I've ever created. (with help from my husband of course!)  Everyday is a delight to stay home with this little guy!! Oh how we love him! 

2011 was a great year for projects! But I have a feeling that 2012 will bring many more DIY projects, home improvements and crafts! (although I can't guarantee there will be another baby. ;)

Happy New Year! 

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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! 

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 

The Blushing Bride.

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.

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

Sierra Nevada Teal Dress

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. 

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. 

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'. 

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