Gross...I don't know what else to say...

Me and my sweet baby Dalton.

I had to at least put a good picture, because the rest of this story makes me want to gag...still...

The day that I made Whoopie Pies, I swept and mopped my floor.

I think it's always good to start off a project with a clean house.

That way when you are done, you only have a project mess to clean instead of a house mess.

I fed my kids lunch and they made a disaster.

I sliced up peaches and the kids got sticky peach juice everywhere.

So, I swept and mopped my floor...again.

Then I let them eat Whoopie Pie.

Naturally, they made a huge disaster.

I sighed and started picking up pieces of discarded whoopie pie.

I reached down to pick up one chunk of pumpkin colored mess.

The piece I picked up felt kind of squishy.

It didn't feel like cookie.

Can you see where this is going?

If you're a mom...you might be able to guess...

So, I decided to smell it.

(I'm gagging just remembering this...)

Whoopie Pie would smell like pumpkin spice.

It didn't smell like pumpkin spice...it smelled like poop.

Like poop and peaches.

I started to gag.

I tossed it in the trash and started to scrub my hands, my arms, etc.

Then I turned to my baby...who giggled with all of the sudden attention.

"You..." was all I could manage.

I picked him up and more pooped out peaches squished out of his diaper and onto the floor.

Now that I was paying attention, I could find a trail of poop everywhere that he had been in the last half hour.

So, I spent the rest of the afternoon scrubbing the baby, the floors, the carpet, myself, everyone's hands, the floors again, etc.

To top off a fabulous day...

my 3 year old pooped in the bath that night.

And I spent all night scrubbing...again.

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

Since "Whoopie Pies" seem to be gaining popularity on every recipe blog I read, I thought it was about time I gave it a try.  I have several boxes of spice cake mix, so I found an easy cake mix whoopie pie recipe here.

 So...here it is:

Pumpkin Cookie Cakes

• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 package (18.25-oune) spice cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk  

Making the Pumpkin Cookie Cakes

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and pumpkin with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add all the remaining ingredients and beat on low speed until combined and then on medium speed for another minute.
3. Using a small ice-cream scoop (about 1 2/3-inches in diameter) or 2 tablespoons, drop tablespoonful mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use cooled sheet for the next batch) until the mounds are puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center of 1 mound comes out clean, about 15 minutes.
5. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookie cakes from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

The directions say to use an ice cream scoop, but I just use a cookie dough scoop and filled it really full.  My oven bakes hot, so I only baked it for 12 minutes.  Baking time depends on your own oven though.

For the frosting, I decided to try a different spin on their recipe.

Here is the recipe that goes with it:

Marshmallow Spice Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 of a 7-ounce jar of marshmallow cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Since the "pies" already have a lot of spice, I thought I'd try a maple cream cheese filling.

This is what I did:

1/2 cup of butter

8 oz. cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 of a 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream

1 tsp. maple extract

I LOVED the maple with the spice.  

YUM!

But...next time I won't add the marshmallow.

It gave it a fun, fluffy texture, but made it way too sweet for me.

I like traditional cream cheese frosting better.

They do make a super fun and easy holiday treat though!

I always get the urge to use pumpkin in the fall!

And here's what my kids thought of it:

Success!

Do you have a favorite holiday recipe?

I'd love to hear it...

Linking up at:
Blue Cricket Design
I {heart} Naptime

Floating French Braid hair idea

Today I thought I'd show you another fun hair idea.

I curled my hair one day and loved it.

The next day, I wanted to still have curls, but they were looking a little flat.

Since I've been seeing the "floating french braid" idea a lot on pinterest a lot lately, I thought I'd give it a try to give my next-day-curls something excitement. 

For those of you who know how to french braid, a floating french braid is the same idea.

Start your french braid, but each time you go to "add to" the bottom piece,

instead, drop it and pick up a new piece.

You add to the top piece as usual.

This way, the top is connected, and the bottom is not.

It's fun, quick and easy...

Easier than it looks...I promise.

And it added some life back into my flat curls.

My cute Saxon wanted to pose with me :)

What do you think?

Linking to:
I {heart} Naptime

Jack-o-lantern Cookie Pop Tutorial

I saw this fun idea in a Disney Family Fun magazine and thought we'd give it a try:

Dipping Oreos in Chocolate to make "Jack-o-lantern Cookie Pops."

We started with:

Double Stuffed Oreos

White dipping chocolate (I used white chocolate chips because it was all I had)

Mini-Reese's Pieces or Mini-M&M's

Popsicle sticks

Frosting

 

 First I put a Popsicle stick in each double stuffed Oreo.

Then I melted the chocolate and added orange candy-coloring.

Regular food coloring does not work in chocolate!

(You could buy orange chocolate melting wafers instead).

Next, I dipped each Oreo in the chocolate and stuck them in an egg carton to harden.

The Bloopers:

Several cookies split apart and fell off their sticks into the chocolate.

So, I had to fish them out, but they were too much of a mess to use.

So, my kids ate them :)

(They were "helping" me make them)

While the chocolate was still wet, I stuck in mini-Reese's pieces for eyes and a nose.

Once it was hardened, I used chocolate frosting to make a mouth and green frosting for a leaf.  Next time I am going to use a pretzel stick for the stem :)

It was a fun, quick, little treat for my kids and the best part is, you can make as many or as little as you want.  We only made a handful of them, and then I sealed the Oreos back up and put them in the pantry for another day.

You can use this same idea to turn the Oreos' into ghosts, eyeballs, Frankenstein...or something cute...an apple, a happy face, etc.

Just be creative and have fun :) 

Linking up at:
http://733blog.blogspot.com/

The Best Buddy Jar

As a baby gift, right before I had Saxon, a good friend of mine gave me a book called,

"Secrets of The Baby Whisperer."

It's a good book with some great suggestions.

I'll confess though...I didn't read it right away.

As a brand new, first-time mom, I had all the answers already, right?

I already knew how I wanted to do things and was sure that, not withstanding a few bumps in the road, it would all go according to plan.

After a few months, I read the book.

It turns out, I didn't know as much as I thought I did, and a little advice is always useful.

One part of the book that stood out to me is how the author classifies babies:

1. The Angel Baby

2. The Textbook Baby

3. The Touchy Baby

4. The Spirited Baby

5. The Grumpy Baby

It turns out...I have a spirited baby.

Having a "Spirited Baby" has some fun and unique challenges.

How do you rein them in without crushing their spirit?

Here's what happened to us last week:

Saxon's preschool teacher (who we love...she's perfect for Saxon and she loves him) asked to talk to me for a minute because she had some concerns.  

Saxon has a strong personality.  He is a ringleader.  He usually ends up getting what he wants in class because he is assertive.  This isn't usually a problem, but Saxon has decided that one boy in class is his "best buddy."  One day Saxon came home crying because he didn't get to sit by his "best buddy."  He made such a big deal about it, that now, everyday in class, the kids are all fighting to sit by this one boy.  Everyone wants to be his best buddy.  His teacher said that snack-time is becoming hard because everyone fights to sit by this boy, and most end up crying after.  She thinks that Saxon's example has made it "cool" to want to sit by this boy and now everyone is doing exactly what Saxon is doing.

She said that she loves Saxon and his fun little personality, but asked me to talk to him about branching out.

So, I thought about it for a while, and this is what we came up with:

The Best Buddy Jar.

Each day before school, Saxon is going to draw a name from the jar.

That day, he is going to do his best to make that person feel special, be kind to them, and be there best buddy.

He is so excited about this project.

He couldn't sleep last night because he wanted to start right away.

I'm not sure this idea would work with a child who is really introverted because it would seem scary.  But for Saxon, my spirited child, I think it will be fun.

Hopefully this will help him branch out and practice using his talents and his personality to be kind and make other kids happy :)

That's the plan anyway...

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Easy-Chic side braid tutorial

I do my hair in a side braid a lot, and every time I do, some asks,

"Wow, did you do that yourself?"

It is so easy that I'm almost embarrassed.

I do my hair like this when I am in a hurry because it is easy, fast, and keeps it out of my way.

So, I thought I would show everyone how to do it...

Here's what it looks like (after a day of playing at the park):

It holds up pretty well...

 It seriously only takes a minute to do, and it's ok if there are pieces falling out.
It fits the look of a "loose side braid".  Don't worry about making it perfect.

At the end, I usually clip my bangs to the side (as long as I'm going for easy and functional).

And that's it...

Photos: Brittany Davis Photography

Flower clip: Love Stitched

Hair band: Lizzie Starr

Give it a try and tell me what you think :)

New Fall Collection!!!

I finally have my fall collection up in my shop and I can't wait to show you!

First, I have been working on this one for a while.

It was a TON of work to paint (seriously), but I love how it turned out.

It is the ABC's of family rules.

It would also be perfect as classroom rules or playroom rules.

Inspired by a custom order that I got, I fell in love with this Audrey Hepburn quote:

I first painted just the "pretty girls" part of the quote, but then decided to paint a board with the whole thing...

Trying something new...this "I LOVE YOU BECAUSE..." sign is chalkboard :)

The idea is to leave little love notes behind for your husband, your kids, etc.

I'm thinking of painting a personalized one for each of my kids so that I can constantly surprise them by changing the message and telling them new reason why I love them.

This has always been one of my favorite quotes, so I couldn't resist.

Plus, after painting the extra large family rules, I needed some simplicity.

What do you think?

Another favorite quote and good reminder...and a new color.

"Vintage Plum".  I love it!  I thought my fall collection could use some deeper colors.

ABC - I love you.

Can you find the hidden "I {heart} U".

I thought it was obvious, but I keep having to point it out to people, so it must be more subtle than I thought it was.

I gave you a sneak peek of this one last week, but since, I've painted it in a few more colors to try it out.

The Harvest Collection:

I wanted to add some seasonal items to my shop so Nate and I decided to try out a wooden pennant banner.  I had to go hang it by my garden since that's what time of year it is "harvest."  I also found this darling burlap ribbon that I am currently in love with.  I need to go back to the store and buy out everything they have of it :)

"Pumpkin Patch" painted on weathered wood and sitting on a garden stake.

I put mine next to the pumpkins in my garden, but it also looked cute in a pot on my front porch next to where the Halloween pumpkins will be when it gets closer to Halloween.

"Falling for You - Autumn Leaves".

This was an experiment, but I think it turned out fun.

What do you think?

Once again, on weathered wood.

"Trick or Treat"

hand painted on a weathered wood block.

Can you tell I've been loving my weathered wood this season?

Because this is a block, it can sit anywhere in your house without a stand.

I had to paint this bag to remind myself that I am an artist and not just a painter.

I love making and designing signs, but every so often, I need to really paint.

This one glows in the dark too :)

To celebrate my new fall collection, I'm offering a 15% off discount code:

FALL15

Just enter the code when you checkout from my etsy shop:

caitcreate.etsy.com

The boutique

The last few weeks have been crazy.

I ran a deal with Groopdealz and had to work around the clock to get it finished.

I was planning on attending this boutique with my friend Andi, so as soon as Groopdealz was done, I had to work around the clock to get enough inventory to show at the boutique.

So, Nate (my awesome husband) and I stayed up til 2 or 3 in the morning every night trying to get a good selection and trying to make some new products to debut.

The night before, I stayed up til 2 and Nate said that he would just finish packing up and then come to bed.  He stayed up til 5 getting things ready.  (My friend Andi never even went to bed the night before).

The morning of, Andi picked me up at 7:30.

We were supposed to set up the day before, but it was dumping buckets of rain outside.

Andi brought several of her beautiful antiques to display, and our booth turned out beautiful.  Really beautiful.

We rushed to get it set up on time and we made it.

By 9 a.m. we were ready to go.

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

A few people wandered through, but no one really bought anything.

I took a quick break to run over to my boys' soccer game and while I was gone I sold a "Keep Calm and Sew On" sign.  Two ladies wanted it, and had I made more than one, I would have sold both.  But I only had one.

When I came back, we still waited.

A few more people wandered through our booth, but it was mostly other vendors checking out what else was there.

As it got later, we really got discouraged.

The BYU vs. UofU game was on that night and traffic was going to be horrible.

Most people stay home the night of the rivalry game.

After weeks of sleepless nights and endless work, and a full day of being at the boutique (plus the set up and clean up), I sold 2 signs and Andi sold a handful of bags.

That's it.

I was really sad.  Exhausted and sad.

Some of the vendors didn't sell anything at all.

It was a very long and very slow day for everyone.

The one good thing that came of it is that it forced me to get going on my new fall collection.  I have some great ideas, but if it wasn't for the deadline from the boutique, I wouldn't have finished it yet.  I still have a couple of things left to go, but I'm almost there.

I'll be launching it in the next few days, so keep checking it...

I can't wait to show it off :)