Happy Valentine's Day

I would like to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you'll be able to enjoy it with someone/something you love. 


The picture above is actually the card I sent out to my friends and family for Valentine's Day. Since I did not get it all together before the winter holidays to send out a card then, I thought why not for Valentine's Day?! I looked online on many of websites (minted.com, snapfish.com, shutterfly.com, finestationary.com) and I could not justified spending nearly $4 a card! So, after finding the perfect font at 1001freefonts.com I created this card in Microsoft Publisher, printed, stuffed, addressed, stamped and sent out. The key to this mini DIY project was patience. 


Happy Valentine's Day,

Listening to Books

     My daily commute to works gives me about an hour of time in the car to listen to the radio or drive in silence. When the commercials seem to never end of the radio I have found that audio books are a great solution. I am fortunate enough to have a great set of parents who spend a lot time in the car themselves to get audio book hand-me-downs! 

     Since the end of November/beginning on December, I have been listening to a number of books on CD.  I love just about any murder mystery/drama/conspiracy theory novel out there and will read anything by Nelson DeMille, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Michael Connelly, Dan Brown, James Patterson or Emily Giffin. With all those authors and genre of books I believe I am pretty well set for those long commutes that await me every morning and afternoon. I want to share my most recent reads/listens with you and give recommendations of more books on CD for those long (or short) commutes, where ever you might be headed. 

Recent Reads:

Killing Lincoln  By: Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Divide and Conquer By: Tom Clancy (Note: Abridged)

Lullaby Town By: Robert Crais 

Ford County By: John Grisham

Other Recommendations:

(Any book from the above mentioned authors)

Bossypants By: Tina Fey

STORI Telling, Mommywood & Uncharted TerriTORI  By: Tori Spelling

The Third Secret By: Steve Berry

Zero Day By: David Baldacci

     Other options besides buying the books on CD.... This Christmas my brother drew our father's name for our annual Christmas gift exchange. Later that evening my sister-in-law asked my brother, "Do you know what you are going to get your person?" with a short and quick reply he stated, "Yes." Our father loves listening to books on CD, so a subscription to audibles.com was the perfect gift for him. Shortly after "opening" his gift he already had about 10 books on his wish list! Every month he gets to select one book to listen to via the Internet or by download (additionally he can purchase an unlimited amount of books at a discounted rate). Probably Top 5 gifts of all time for him. Our father has three books down and many more on his wish list. Maybe someday I will join audibles too, but for now I am very happy with my audio book hand-me-downs! 

Happy Listening/Reading!

Kady

Downton Abbey

When the opening music starts I cannot help to get excited on what is going to unfold next at Downton Abbey. From the moment I heard about this show from my sister-in-law I could not get enough. I watched every episode from Season One 3-4 times. I was  thrilled when Downton Abbey returned earlier this month and was delighted to hear they won the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Miniseries. I highly recommend this show to anyone looking for a new series to follow. Many of the episodes are available on the PBS website to watch. 


A fun link I found on the PBS website lead me to a Quiz for "Which Downton Abbey Character are You?" I cannot lie to say I was proud my answers resulted in the character: Mr. Bates "You are Mr. Bates, Lord Grantham’s valet (Brendan Coyle). You are a patient, kind, salt-of-the-earth type. But sometimes your self-righteousness can threaten to engulf you."


Check this schedule for Season Two and your local PBS channel to view Downton Abbey. 


Happy Watching! 
Kady

Triangle Quilt

Last fall the newest member of my extended family was welcomed to the world and from the minute I heard about his arrival I wanted to sew something up for him. I searched and searched through blogs and books and just could not make a final decision. Many many weeks later I found the posting on how to make a scrap fabric triangle quilt and within hours I was cutting triangles. I used my scraps from the bed caddy project to make the triangle quilt. In addition to the quilt I made a quick bow tie from the Prudent Baby site tutorial to add a little spunk to the finished project. Here are some pictures of my progress throughout the project. 

Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

Just when you think everything is in place you find something that can be placed elsewhere. After a major  winter cleaning I decided to put all my cookbooks in my kitchen cabinets instead of being on display on my living room bookcase. After all the cookbooks were nicely put away in their new home I was left with a semi-empty bookcase that needed a major face-lift. 

Before Picture (Taken with an iPhone)

The cookbooks in their new home.

Initially, I had all the books arranged by color to keep things pretty. The colorful arrangement that worked before was not going to work with all the cookbooks in their new home. I had a bunch of mismatched books and chatskis on my bookcase that was quite the new eyesore. Then out of nowhere came the memory of a blog posting on The Precious Little Things in Life blog I read regarding bookcase arrangements. While an article in Real Simple started me on organizing by color that blog posting gave me the inspiration for my current arrangement. 

Cake Balls 101: Part Two

Disclaimer: Please work with me here as I am learning how to explain in writing the process of making cake balls. The last time I made cake balls, I timed the process to give you an approximate "cooking time". I made 108 cake balls and it took 5 hours over a period of 3 days. Day 1: Bake Cake, Cool, Combine with Icing & Refrigerate - 1 hour Day 2: Scoop and form cake balls into balls & Freeze - 1 hour Day 3: Dip cake balls into candy coating and decorate - 3 hours

Cake Ball Making Instructions by Kady:
1. Bake cake according to the directions on the box in a cake pan of your choosing. 
2. Let the cake cool completely before transferring to a mixing bowl. 
3. Crumble the baked cake into a mixing bowl. 

Changes and Current Music

I'll be making a few changes to my blog over the next couple of weeks to reorganize and refocus my goals for my blog. I hope you enjoy the changes!

Current Music Choices:

She & Him 

Adele

Santigold

Happy Listening!
Kady

Happy New Year

Ten... Nine... Eight.. Seven... (Quick! What's your new years resolution?!) Six... Five... Four... (something creative and different this year!!) Three... Two... One... Happy New Years!! 


I am excited about 2012... in the past few weeks I recently heard about The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Her concept is a great one and I hope to blog about it this year. Stick around and let's have an adventure together! 


Happy New Year! 
Kady

Cake Balls 101 - Not forgotten

Dear Readers

I have taken a VERY long break from blogging. I kept on forgetting to take pictures while making cake balls this holiday season... too many times. I plan on doing the pictures this next week during the day to help with the pictures! Yay! I hope everyone has had a blessed holidays. 

-Kady

Cake Balls 101: Part One

Cake Balls have become the new cupcakes, with an even bigger price! I am still in shock for a mere dozen you can be paying $13 or more! With my recent adventures in cake ball making I have come down to this equation:

Box Cake Mix $3 

Can Frosting $3

Eggs 20 cents

Canola Oil 10 cents

Coating Chocolate $4 (times 4 = $16)

Total $22.30 + Labor (Free if you do it yourself) 

I have found using a Melon Ball scoop, I can make 108+ cake balls with one box cake mix... drum roll please... approximately 20 cents each, so paying nearly 5 times as much is rip off, when you can do it all yourself. Thankfully, Paula Deen put together a mighty fine and quite delicious list of Cake Ball pairings! I have to warn you it takes time and on top of that it takes a lot of effort. Your first adventure in cake ball making might be difficult, but stay strong - you never know when someday someone will be paying you to make them cake balls! Over the next week I'll be adding pictures and steps to making cake balls at home.

Step One: Gather all of the ingredients

Left to Right: Chocolate Sprinkles, Chocolate Coating, Cake Mix, Canola Oil, Chocolate Frosting, Toothpicks, Eggs & Four-Pronged Fork. 

Left to Right: Disposable Gloves and Melon Ball Scoop

Happy Shopping!

Kady