Easy As {Buttermilk} Pie

This is my family's very favorite pie.

We are the only people I know who make it.

Corned Beef Chicken

Here's a simple, but super flavorful baked chicken recipe.

I hadn't made this recipe in years, which means that

 Cowboy and my younger kids hadn't had the chance to enjoy it.

The recipe has been in my head all this time.

Yeah, it's that easy!

Best Sugar Cookie Of Your Life!

No, really, you will LOVE this cookie!

Many many years ago, when I was a young woman living in Utah, a local bakery Granny B's sold

this same type of cookie fresh daily at the gas station checkouts.

You just grabbed your cookie right out of a 9x13 pans sitting on the counter, 

not individually wrapped.

Yeah, super sanitary, right?

But they were SOOOOO good, no one cared about the germs.

A big pink cookie and a HUGE Diet Coke and I was set on breakfast!

Blizzard To Sunshine

As you can read from a previous post, these girls have been nothing but the greatest 

BFF's for the past 15 years!  

I love them dearly!  

Shelly and Janeal live in Utah, where I used to live.

We were neighbors, friends, and co-crafters for such a long time!

I love that they come to visit me here in Arizona every year!!!

This year they visited the end of March....while it was blizzarding in Utah!

We enjoyed nothing but sunshine and perfect weather while they were here!

Oh gosh, I love Arizona this time of year!

So usually the first item of biz is a mani/pedi!

The Arizona nail shops are super awesome!  I've never been this spoiled in any other state!  They offer free drinks {ahem, sodas and water} and have many extras with pedis that I've never seen anywhere else.

Pretty much the highlight of their visit was that we spent two days and one night in Rocky Point, Mexico {Puerto Penasco}.

It's a super special place full of great memories for my family, and now Janeal and Shelly love it too!  I think this is their third time there {we went last summer and two summers before that}.

It's beautiful!

The beaches are incredible!

The food is divine!

Have you ever had Mexican pastries right out of a brick oven?

Then you haven't lived!

What To Do With All Those Hard-Boiled Easter Eggs

If you're like me, you have a huge bowl of boiled eggs left from Easter sitting in your fridge.

Are you thinking, "What am I going to do with these?"

Don't throw them out or let them go to waste, cuz there are a few good things you can do with them!

A Sparkly and Fun Easter!

First and foremost, to us Easter is a religious and family holiday.

We celebrate the Savior.

We celebrate our wonderful family.

We celebrate spring and the newness and beauty of everything around us.

I love Easter!

{CRAFTS DOWN YONDER BELOW}

Neck Tie Wreath and Banner - Pies and Ties Party

Today I am delighted to introduce you to my guest poster Katherine!  

I've known Katherine a long time.  I mean, a LONG time!  

We met and became instant friends when we both bought our first homes in the same darling Provo neighborhood, back in the early 90's.  

In the past few years we've rekindled our friendship via Facebook, and now we're GREAT friends via internet.

Recently we've discovered something new about each other.....we're both SUPER CRAFTY!  

I am in awe of Katherine's creativity and since she doesn't have a blog of her own YET, 

I begged her if I could share this amazing idea of hers here on my blog.  

I am honored that she said YES!  

So here you go!  

If you have an inkling to make Father's Day extra special, 

or if you have a missionary {like Katherine's son who just left for Finland}, you will certainly LOVE these ideas!

Start planning now so you can track down plenty of ties!

The Glitter Academy Brings Friends Together...with glitter!

Welcome to The Glitter Academy Fiesta!  

Ole!!!

Life is short, so let's start with dessert!

Sweet Salvage Treasures!

Sweet Salvage lives up to it's name!

The junkin' is SAWEEEEEET!!!

I.  FREAKING.  LOVE.  THESE.  DOORS!!!

Frame, threshold and all!

Blue and Gold Banquet Centerpiece - Lollies In A Can

I love lollies!

I can't stop making them!  lol

FYI: the centers of the large lollies have no decorations in the centers because we will add circle-cut photos of our cub scouts.

How To Display Your Lovely Christmas Photo Cards

Don't you just loooove the adorable photo Christmas cards that everyone sends nowadays?

Used to be we'd get only a couple each year,

but now almost all of the cards we receive are photo cards.

I am incapable of throwing away a card if it is a photo.

I have a gajillion that I've been saving for years, but it seems kind of a waste to just throw them in a box and then never look at them again!

What to do, what to do?

Burlap, White, Silver and Gold Christmas Crafts!

My first Christmas post....

in mid-January.

I know.....

I. Am. Never. On. Time!

I've been shifting towards the naturals/neutrals/metallics and loving it!

{the sparkly fabric and the string of bells are from Dollar Tree!}

Cotton Pickin Wreath with a Burlap Bow

I've been wanting to make a cotton wreath for a while now.....

Inspired by....

the cotton from our farm!

{we have an abundance of it at the end of the year}

Yup, that's right, my big boys and I hand-picked our own cotton! 

Holy Sweet Mother of Salvage!

I am slowly discovering that Phoenix has a treasure trove of vintage and antique shops.

Seriously.......it has changed my life!

My life has become about 'The Hunt'.

Hunting for that perfect piece of junk.

{Remember my hunt for the perfect wooden box?}

There's a place in town called Sweet Salvage that is only open 4 days a month.

I just couldn't understand that.

Four days?

Why would a store only be open for four days???

I've been getting their newsletters for the past few months, but never got around to going

{family in town, holidays, illness, etc}

but this month I gathered a few of my awesome junking friends and we went to check it out.

We brought a truck.....you know.....just in case.

DUUUUUDE!

Christmas Cookie Exchange and Homemade Snickers Recipe

I love blogging for many reasons, 

but the one that was the most unexpected

 is all of the wonderful friends I've made through blogging!  

I mean, my thought process when I started a blog was, okay, I moved to a different state, 

I think I'll blog so I can keep in touch with my out-of-state family and friends.

It's turned into so much more!

It has enriched my life,

and I'm hopeful that it may have enriched someone else's too!

So one of the ways I was enriched by blogging this week was being invited to a 

fab Christmas cookie exchange by Laura of Pink Cake Plate!

I haven't been to a cookie exchange in YEARS!

I was really excited to go and it was super fun!

In fact, I was having so much fun that, as usual, I didn't take enough pictures!

You should have seen the treat table!

You'll just have to take my word for it....

it was loaded with goodies from all the gals

and everything was DEE-LISH!!!

Here's just part of what I came home with!

$50 Shutterfly Giveaway...Just In Time For Christmas Cards!

I recently got to enjoy a super fun girl's night out with a group of awesome women, 

courtesy of Shutterfly!  

It was hosted by the super gorgeous Vanessa of See Vanessa Craft, whom I just adore!

We stuffed ourselves at the oh-so-super-delicious Oregano's in Scottsdale 

{now my new favorite Italian restaurant},

 laughed ourselves silly, 

talked in depth of guinea pigs 

and got to check out several beautiful Christmas cards from Shutterfly.

I Got The Liebster Award!

I have been nominated by Kendra at Pots, Pans and Paintbrushes for the Liebster Blog Award!

Wow Kendra, THANKS!!!

What is the Liebster Award?

Best Homecoming Ever!

How do I explain how it felt to have my son return home after being gone for two years?

SodaStream by House Party {party and menu recap}

 Not too long ago Kim from A Night Owl Blog had invited me to her Keurig House Party.  

I was intrigued, so I went to check it out.

When she explained the way House Party works I was blown away.  

YOU MEAN THEY JUST GIVE YOU REALLY NICE FREE STUFF???

AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY OR SELL ANYTHING???

Word of mouth between friends and fellow bloggers is powerful stuff!

It's successful effective advertising!

And these companies are getting it for just their cost of their product.

It's super genius and I'm so excited that I was chosen to demo the SodaStream! 

{each product only has a limited number of applicants who are chosen to demo}

House Party is a liaison between top brand companies and folks like me 

who want to try products in-home for free and share them with my friends.

Basically, in a nutshell:

*I get AWESOME STUFF

*I organize a party in my home

*I get to share the product with my friends

*I don't sell ANYTHING!  

*I just hand out a coupon or rebate form and 

it's all up to my friends if they want it or not.  

I'm not the middleman and I benefit in no way if they order or not.......

I already got all my free goodies!

Once you go to House Party's website, you choose which products you'd like to demo.

Then you wait.

You'll get an email asking you to go to their page and tell why you should be chosen to demo that particular product.

That was easy.  

SodaStream is a fun way to make your own soda at home for less money and a whole lot less waste.

Boom!

I was chosen!

Once you're chosen you have to hurry and invite at least 10 friends 

on a particular date to your party.

When I say hurry, I mean like I had 30 minutes!

THAT'S the only pressure in this whole deal.  lol

Here's just some of what I got in my shipment!

I honestly couldn't believe how much was sent!

This is the SodaStream soda maker {there's a CO2 bottle hidden inside it}

and several bottles of flavors, plus 2 one-liter bottles.

Each of those small sized bottles makes 50 8-oz servings!

FIFTY!

At $5.00 retail for each bottle, that's only $.10 per serving!!

WooHoo!!

As the party drew near I put on my favorite apron from my bestie Janeal, 

and got my bake on so we'd have some goodies to go with our homemade soda!

Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Candy Cane Buttercream

from I {Heart} Naptime.

Yes, they are as good as they sound!

Pulverized candy canes are inside that cream!

Most labor intensive cookie I've ever made in my life though!  lol

Crumb Topped Cranberry Eggnog Muffins

The Rustic Wooden Box Autumn Centerpiece

So here's the rustic tool box I got at Junk In The Trunk last weekend, 

that I know you've been dying to see.  Haha!