Monday, April 27, 2009

Here it is...In all it's glory!!

APPLE DUMPLINGS!!

They are ready for the cookbook slot promo!! (and not to mention...eating..lol)

From the oven..still in the pan:


Presentation:


Ready for it's closeup!!



Sunday, April 26, 2009

Easy Apple Dumplings!!

This recipe was shared by my grandma...I don't know where she got it..but it's the ONLY thing she's ever had a RECIPE for...my grandma doesn't like recipes and does everything from memory..because she's that awesome!! She can even add love to a store bought pie..and make it taste like it was grown, picked and made from scratch!!


Apple Dumplings

Ingredients:
1 can Crescent Rolls
1 can Mountain Dew (or A&W Vanilla)
1 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Cinnamon
1 can Apple pie filling

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl, cream butter, sugar and cinnamon. Unroll crescent rolls and place in a 8 x 11 pan. Put a slice of apple (from filling) in each crescent roll along with a spoonful of the butter mixture, roll crescent tip down and pinch bottom together, continue until all crescent rolls are filled. Place all extra apple filling in the open spaces in the pan, top each roll with remaining butter mixture. Pour the can of Mountain Dew/A&W over entire pan. Place in oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

(Optional)- add a scoop of yummy ice cream!!!

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Don't forget to stop by tomorrow...to see the fresh outta the oven pic!!

~*Carlee Rachelle*~

Friday, April 24, 2009

Score 1 for Homemade!!

After a request to have business cards placed with my lip balms.

I decided to make my own and I'll share it with you. I decided to make mine dual purpose: business card/coupon.

Ingredients ;)

First - get cardstock (I decided to get mine from walmart..it's the only thing in town and I'm impatient) :P (it was 110lb which is a little lighter than normal, but still a great thick feel and it was 5.95 for 150 sheets)

Second - get business card template @ http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-%26-Software/Templates/Blank-Templates/Cards/Business-Cards/Business-Card-_-wide-10-per-sheet_Microsoft-Word.htm?N=0&refchannel=c042fd03ab30a110VgnVCM1000002118140aRCRD

Third - Have scissors handy or a paper trimmer/cutter

Optional - 3x5 little baggies to put biz card and "freebie" in.

** I used Photoshop to create part of my design and that was because I am impatient and had to cut over 300 by myself :), the tutorial though is shown in Word**

Open go to the Avery site mentioned above and download the template.
Come up with what you want yours to look like.
(if you have photoshop or an image maker, biz cards are 3x5)

I decided to make mine look like as much of a coupon as I could. (This is where I flipped to Photoshop because the tabs and borders of Word where upsetting me)

Here comes the pics!!

Step One:
use the line tool at the bottom of the page to draw dashed lines. (hold shift down while drawing and you get a straight line)



Step Two:
To make the line dashed go to "format" then select "auto shape" and I used 4pt width for my dashes


Step Three:
I wanted dashed lines and scissors. So to do that I drew the bottom line and vertical (side) lines all the way across. Then the top lines I drew 2 and separated them with a space in-between for scissors.



Step Four:
To make the scissors, go to "insert" then "symbol" pick the font "Wingdings" from the drop down menu and the scissors are the second symbol in the chart.



Step Five:
I chose to make my scissors bold and size 22pt



Step Six:
To make your text inside the dashed lines, without the hassle of a billion enters and a trillion spaces to make sure it fit and looked right. I used the text box tool at the bottom of the screen.



Step Seven:
This is what it will look like after entering your information, of course you can doll it up and pick any font and color you want to!



Step Eight (optional):
I can't stand not being able to make the text box completely center and therefore the line around the text box looks weird, so I take it away.

Make sure the text box is highlighted ( it will have a shadow thing around it). The choose "format" then "text box" then I choose "no line"



Step Nine:
This is how it looks with the line removed



Step Ten:
This is to group everything together so you can continue to copy it straight down the page and not have to do step 1-9 nine more times.

Hold Shift down and click every line and the top of the text box. Then right click on top of one of the lines and then choose "grouping" and then press "group".



Step Eleven:
This is where you go copy & paste nuts!! :D

Right click on one of the lines and go to "edit" and press "copy" or for lazy folks like me (Ctrl + C). Then click in the next business card to the bottom or side and go to "edit" and press "paste" or Lazy: (Ctrl + V).

Notice the Scissors do not come with it..but have no fear...copy & paste is here!!
Go over to your first scissors, highlight them, press copy and then go over to your new card and press paste!!



THE END!!

oh yeah.. and here's mine.. and yes..I had to make a gillion of them because each lip balm needs a card!! and guess what...you get the discount too..score # 2 for you!







TA DAH!!!

Hope you have a great day!!

~*Carlee*~

Friday, April 17, 2009

Half Way There!!

As of yesterday..I'm a BUSINESS!!!

I got my post office box and my DBA or Assumed name recorded!!

Now...I just need an EITN (tax ID#) and to be listed in the yellow pages(that may not be needed...I'm checking up on the FDA rules of labeling cosmetics)

WOO HOO!!

for the 2nd reveal of this week!



Yep!! Soaps that look like rocket ice cream pops!!

coming soon....fudge-cicle kind!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Breakin the Silence

I've been quite and haven't blogged the past few days...but I wasn't neglecting my crafty side!!

Check these new bad boys out!!




These were made with no special clay tools...only my hands, wax paper and a barely sharp knife...cause I would cut my arm off with an xacto knife...just by looking at it!

Tomorrow...there's ANOTHER crafty reveal!!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Joyus Texas!

I'm ecstatic about being back in Texas for Easter/Spring Break!!!

The 4 hour drive..is very worth it....oO(well the going to Texas trip is worth it..not the returning to Louisiana trip..lol)

I've got many new things up my sleeve...that will be posted shortly. I will also be posting my favorite yummy foods with recipes...that won't leave your wallet empty!!

I'm the queen of EMPTY WALLET...but that's what happens when you return to school full time...and in a different state. :P

Well I'm off to bed...(couch actually).

~*Carlee Rachelle*~

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sneak Peek!!

I'll be opening up a new shop a few weeks from now! Yay!!

Here's a preview of some of the items:




Custom Scented Bath and Body Items!!

If you'd like one leave me a comment or head over to my etsy site (cutesiecrafts.etsy.com)

Have a great weekend :D

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Midnight Sweet Tooth!!

So after watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.....( I love Guy <3)...


Homemade Glazed Cinnamon Rolls......Yum !!!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Saving Money!!

To introduce my new BLOG...
I'd like to share how I save some money and keep my A.D.D. hands busy!

I make my own laundry soap and it's super easy(AND CHEAP).  You can make Liquid or Dry. I chose Dry because it's less work for me and I don't have to stand over the stove. I will include both here today :)

How to make Dry Laundry Soap:

1 cheese grater or if you're lucky a food processor (I'm envious...lol)
1 huge bowl

1/2 cup of  soap grated with a cheese grater. (real soap like Ivory, Fels-Naptha, Irish Spring. No dove or any moisturing bars with lotions)  - (I used ivory and got a 10 bar pack for around $4.99)
1/2 C. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda ( NOT baking soda ..this is super hard to find but it's sodium carbonate or "PH ADD" in the swimming pool)  $6.00 for 4lbs!! (I found PH ADD@ walmart)
1/2 C. Borax ( I use 20 Mule Team )  -  around $4.00 (walmart & brookshires)
---optional--- 2 scoops of SUN Brand oxygen cleaner..to help whiten ($1.86 @ walmart)


Buy all the ingredients a day before and unwrap all your soap bars!! They need to dry out if you are grating them. (when grating it causes friction which makes the bars heat up a little and then they become kind of gooey) This is my favorite part..I have a shopping addiction and I have to tear into the packages immediately when I get home..or when I get packages out of the mail box (..it's terrible I know)

Measure the grated soap and mix all together and use 1 tablespoon per load. It's easier for me because I can store it in a small/large containers (old cool-whip, butter or yogurt containers) rather than a large bucket.

I used all but 2 bars of soap (so 8 bars) to make over 500 loads of laundry soap

Cost Breakdown
1/2 cup of soap (roughly 1 bar 4.99/10) = .49
1/2 cup of Washing Soda/PH Add (6.00/128)= .04
1/2 cup of borax (3.89/19)= .20
--optional--2 scoops of Sun brand oxygen cleaner ( 1.86/15)= .12
Total No Oxy: .73/(32 loads) equals= .0228 cents per load 
Total with Oxy: .85/(36loads)  equals= .0236 cents per load

Tide Powdered Detergent @ Walmart: 7.25 for 15 loads = .48 cents per load!!

Sun Brand Detergent @ Walmart: 6.48 for 112 loads = .0578 cents per load (btw: this is the cheapest brand at walmart)

Total Savings:
4.99+3.89 *2+6.00+1.86= 20.63 for well over 500 (roughly 573) loads (plus all the left overs you have because you didn't use up all the borax or PH ADD)
Sun Brand:6.48*5.11=33.11
Tide Brand:7.25*38.2= 276.95

--Savings of $256.32 for exchanging Tide and $12.48 for exchanging Sun Brand--
What are you going to do with your extra dollars now?? 
I spent $4 of mine to buy 2 one gallon storage containers to hold it all. Also don't worry about no scoop! There's one in the Sun Brand Oxygen cleaner...just use a HALF scoop in each load.

This is safe for HE washers and front loading washers...since there are no bubbles!! Yes, that's right you paid at least $12 dollars extra just for useless BUBBLES and the NAME BRAND!! 

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

How to make Liquid Laundry Soap:

Here is the ingedient list: 
1/2 bar of  soap (real soap like Ivory, Fels-Naptha, Irish Spring. No dove or any moisturing bars with lotions) grated with a cheese grater. 
1/2 C. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda ( NOT baking soda ..this is super hard to find but it's sodium carbonate or "PH ADD" in the swimming pool) 
1/2 C. Borax ( I use 20 Mule Team ) 
2 gallons total of hot water. 

Take a 6 qt. pot and add 3 qts. of water. Put this on the stove on med/hi heat ( you want the water hot but not boiling). 
Add Fels Naptha soap and stir gently till soap is dissolved. 
Add Washing Soda and stir till dissolved. 
Add Borax and stir till dissolved. The mixture will thicken up a bit at this point. 
Take a kitchen bucket ( or any thing that will hold 2 gallons easily ) and add 5 qts. of hot water and pour in your soap mixture. 
Let it cool and mix it up and pour into your containers. 

This mixture does get "goopy" so you will have to stir it to loosen up the "gel" like properties. Use the same amount (1/2 cup) of liquid which happens to be the little cups that already come with the liquid detergents!