Chocolate Chip Candy Cookies

  

  Do you still have Halloween candy kickin' around? Ya, we do too. :) This week, with permission from our kids, I harvested all the boxes of Smarties (similar to original M&M's for you Americans) they had & made cookies with them. Our kids were pretty excited to help out & be able to contribute one of the yummy ingredients! 

  I promise you'll like these chewy, gooey, chocolatey cookies!

Chocolate Chip Candy Cookies

makes 2 dozen

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup Smarties or M&M's

Preheat oven to 350º F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter & sugars until fluffy & light in color. Add egg & vanilla & blend in.

Mix in dry ingredients & chocolate chips. Slowly stir in candies. 

Using a tablespoon, drop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just lightly browned. 

Let cool, on the sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Pour yourself a glass of milk & enjoy a couple. :)

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As well as The Weekend Potluck

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Christmas Place Cards

  

  Well, today is the day. I've been working very hard on Christmas crafts all month to get ready for today's craft fair. Of the things I've been preparing, one of them is Christmas place cards. 

  Place cards are a great thing to have on hand for your formal Christmas dinner. They're also great for buffets so you can label each dish.

Here is a set that I made a couple Christmases ago for my mom. She had started a bird theme with her Christmas decor & wanted some place cards to co-ordinate at the Christmas table. 

Sadly, they took quite awhile to make - lots of tiny pieces. I would have loved to make more of those for the craft fair, but just didn't have the time. Maybe next year.

Here are some simple ones I created for the craft fair.

I added a little bling to the gifts as well as to the snowflakes below...

'Cuz everyone loves a little bling, right? 

I'll be sure & let you know how things went today. 

I hope you're having fun getting ready for the holidays. :)

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Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Christmas Tags Using The Cricut

  What a weekend! I was busy in my craft room almost the whole time getting things finished up for this week's craft fair. I think I got everything ready that I wanted to - or at least a little bit of everything. This will kind of be a testing ground for me to see what quantities I will need in the future, providing I decide to participate again. I'm sure it will be great & I will want to do it again!

  Here's one of the goodies I created...

Christmas Gift Tags

I used my Cricut for these babies & was able to make a lot relatively quickly.

1. Cut out tags from cardstock 

(I used the Birthday Bash cartridge)

2. Cut a square for a background from patterned paper or sheet music 

(I used George & Basic Shapes cartridge)

3. Cut embellishment of your choice from cardstock

(Holly is from Winter Wonderland cartridge & Star is from George & Basic Shapes)

4. Fancy up your embellishment with some glitter 

(I used Stickles).  Let Dry! :)

5. Tie a length of twine or ribbon to your tag

6. You're done!

Make a large batch of them to go with your Christmas decor & use them in your Christmas wrapping this season.

 I hope you stay tuned for a lot more Christmas wrapping ideas, crafts, cards, & recipes all the way up until Christmas!

~~~~~

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Enjoy your day!

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How To Make Tissue Paper Flowers

Have you ever been in a card store, buying wrapping paper for a gift? You may grab a bow that goes with the gift wrap & be struck by how expensive those things are! Did you know you can make something similar out of tissue paper for just pennies? 

Yup.

Here's how...

1. Start with one sheet of tissue paper. 

2. Fold it to approximately the size you want your flower. 

3. Cut a flower shape out of the folded tissue paper.

4 & 5. You can even layer different colours together.

6. To add an adhesive square to the back, simply cut a square from an adhesive backed foam sheet or paper.

7. Staple it, adhesive side OUT, to the flower.

8. Flip over. Starting with the top layer or two of tissue, gently pinch the paper together to create petals. Keep going until most of the layers are pinched or until you get a look that you like.

9. Peel off protective sheet from the adhesive & stick to your gift. 

So easy!

Make them as large or small as you want too! 

Here, I made an extra large one for this gift bag.

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

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November Photo Challenge

After doing last month's photo challenge & enjoying it so much, I went on the search for a challenge for November.

But... I couldn't find one that I really liked, so I made one of my own!

I'll be using Instagram for my photos if you'd like to follow along (Search the name StephRichy on Instagram). You can leave me a comment with your Instagram name & we can do this challenge together! 

I'll also be posting my daily photo on my Facebook page. Come on over!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Let's rock this November!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

October Wrap-Up

  What a whirl wind this month has been! At the beginning of the month, I joined a photo-a-day challenge with some friends. It was so fun! I used my phone camera & I edited with instagram (follow me at stephrichy if you'd like) to make things easy. If you've been following me on Facebook, you've likely already seen some of them.

  Here's this month's photo-a-day recap:

1. Fall
2. Leaves
3. Bubbles
4. Stairs
5. Mirror
6. Straw
7. Water
8. Peek-a-boo
9. Something Purple
10. A Light In The Dark
11. Laughter
12. Candy
13. #13
14. Hallway
15. Pumpkins
16. Something Black
17. A Stranger
18. Stars
19. Doorway
20. Signs
21. I Ate This
22. I Am Here
23. Shoot From The Hip
24. Decorations
25. Makeup
26. Moon
27. Scar
28. Something That Scares Me
29. Panic
30. Broken
31. Spooky

I really enjoyed getting creative & brushing off some of my old photography skills. 

On to November (which I'll be posting about later today)!

Enjoy your day!

Happy Birthday Card {Cake & Party Included}

  What a busy month this has been! My son has started playing basketball which means practices twice a week as well as a game every Saturday. We've had snow for the last week now which adds some extra travel & prep time every time we need to leave the house. I'm also prepping for a craft show next week. October has been busy, but good!

I'm using the very last of my "For The Record" collection from Echo Park. Only bits & pieces left now.

Products used:

• Cardstock - Michaels
• Patterned Paper & stickers - Echo Park
• Brown marker
• Ink - Stampin' Up!
• Embroidery Floss

Thanks for reading, friends!

Enjoy your day!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins - Delicious & Low Fat!

  Confession: I like to bake from scratch. I don't like to use mixes unless I have to. I know, I know. Most of you are likely doing a facepalm thinking, "WHAT?!"  But hey, don't judge. ;)

  It's cheaper in the long run & I like knowing what's going into my food & not having all the "extras" that I can't pronounce. Can I get a witness?

  I have two favourite from-scratch pumpkin muffin recipes & this is one of them! It's low fat, has extra veggies snuck in, & is packed with yummy fall flavour!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

makes 12

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat bran

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. allspice or cloves

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or pureed from your baked fall pumpkins)

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375º. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray & set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients - flour, wheat bran, baking powder, spices, & salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients - pumpkin, carrots, buttermilk, honey, butter, egg, & vanilla. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture & stir just until moistened. Batter will be thick.

Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in centre of muffin comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan & let cool on a wire rack. 

What are some of your favourite from-scratch baking recipes? I'd love to hear about them!

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Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

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Pass It One Project - And a chance for you to participate!

  Several months ago (I'm so behind on this!), my bloggy friend, Amy from One Artsy Mama asked me if I would like to participate in the "Pass It On Project".  As soon as I heard the details I was on board! 

  Here's how it works:

  The person who invited you to participate (Amy, in my case), sends you two handmade items. One is for you to keep, the other is to give away to a friend.

  Then, you choose two bloggy friends who would like to participate & send them two handmade items, which they will keep (the first item) & give away (the second).

  When that's all done, you blog about it & have a little show & tell about what you got & what you passed on. 

  Amy sent me these adorable fabric bracelets:

I kept the grey one that I'm wearing (and wear a lot!) & gave the turquoise one to my friend, Jennifer. 

For my passing on, I gave Mandy @ This Girl's Life some of these felt pinwheel gift toppers...

As well as throwing in a little bonus - some thanksgiving/fall place cards.

If you're wondering where the second person in the project comes in, that's where I need your help! 

I contacted several other lovely bloggy friends, but none of them were able to participate. :( 

So...

If you are:

1) A blogger

2) Crafty

3) And want to participate

Let me know by email or just leave a comment! I'd love to send you some of these goodies too!!

I'll randomly pick a friend based on the response I got on Friday!

Chalkboard Verse Art

So, chalkboard art is still a huge trend.

After finding this free chalkboard background recently, I was itching to create some "art" with it.

I chose a favourite verse - Proverbs 3:26 from the Message - & went to town.

Here's what I came up with...

So, take this to heart. Don't panic.

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

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And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Charging All Your Gear {Together} When You Travel

  Picture this: You are on a trip (maybe a road trip), staying in a hotel. In the morning, you check out & are on the road for hours before you realize you forgot your camera battery, or your iPod, or your child's gaming device, or your cell phone, or your laptop behind in the hotel room because it was charging in the bathroom or on the floor beside the bed?

Nightmare.

  Hopefully, you'll be able to get whatever you left behind back before too long, but it's such a hassle, right? 

  Here's a tip to help you keep all your "chargeables" together in one place. Hopefully, somewhere in plain sight where you won't forget any of it when you leave.

  It's really simple. Pack a power bar.

Plug in the power bar in a obvious spot - somewhere near the door or on the desk, if possible. Then load up all your electronics that need to be charged. 

I've got my camera battery charger, my cell phone, my son's iPod, & our laptop all charging here in one spot!

Viola! Everything together in plain sight & charged when it's time to pack up & leave.

Problem solved.

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower on Google Friend Connect, subscribe by email (sign up on the right sidebar), 

or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

And please leave a comment when you do so I know who my new friends are! :)

Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Splash Layout {Echo Park}

  I'm almost finished showing you the pages I've done so far from our summer holiday. Which means... I have many more to get to! I will have to put the scrapbooking aside for a bit, though, while I get ready for the craft fair I have a table at in November. 

  These photos were taken in Oceanside, CA in August. After a hot day at Legoland, my mom-in-law, my daughter, & I took a walk down to the beach. It felt so nice to put our feet in the ocean!

Products used:

• Cardstock: American Crafts
• Patterned paper, stickers, tags - Echo Park
• Felt accents - Pebbles
• Badge - American Crafts

Thanks for reading! Have a good one!