Valentine Goodies: Cake mix cookies.

Yay!! Today is the first day of the valentine goodies series!! Our first tutorial is on Cake Mix cookies. I have been making these for about 10 years. they are fast, easy, and can be made a lot of different ways. Today's are chocolate chip red velvet !! Yummy!!

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix (of your choice)

1/2 c. vegetable oil

2 large whole eggs

choc chips, nuts, coconut, white choc chips. Whatever you want to put in!

To the right are what you will need to make them.

What to do: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

1.Crack eggs in to measuring cup. Just in case the shell breaks you can easily swoop it out with a larger part of the shell. Now you can put first 3 ingredients in to the bowl and mix.

Now you can add Choc chips, and any other goodies.

2. Roll cookie dough in to 1.5in balls. Make sure to give them plenty of room to grow, because they will. You can just drop spoon fulls but the come out so perfectly round when you roll them that people will think you bought them!!

3. Bake for 8-10 Min's. Let cookies cool on sheet for 5Min's, then transfer to cooling rack. The cookies will deflate a little but it makes them crispy.

All done. Beautiful cake mix cookies.

They are great with a glass of milk. Don't wait around to eat them though..... They disappear fast.

The next Valentine goodie tutorial will be on a cute way to package cookies for your sweet heart. Romantically yours..

Valentine goodies...

A few romantic things on the agenda for this week. First I need to clean my desk so I can work!!Its pretty bad. In my Etsy store I am Giving away a free button for valentines day with every purchase. I will put up pics soon but their is a choice between valentines and anti-valentines day button.(There is a link to my store in the side bar)

In the spirit of Valentines day I have decided to do a few tutorials that are great hand made gifts and are not hard to do :) They will all be up by Friday and are all things I just happen to be making for valentines day for my sweethearts. I hope you like them and share with your friends and family.

I have been slacking on my posts here, and am hoping the tutorials will get me back on the ball.

Keep living romantically.....

New year new me .

Hello romantics,
It has been a while ! Life has been out of control. Lots of ups and more downs than I really know how to handle. It is a new year though and I think its time for a new me. (Maybe just a modified me )
I have lots of plans for this year, de-clutter my life, create more, and spend some time on me . That is one of the wonderful things about life, every year you get a new start. It's up to you how you use it. I just had a birthday so this is the begining of my 28th year . I'm gonna make it a great one !!
My first order of de-cluttering will be my bedroom. Bedrooms are always left for last, but they are supposed to be a clean organized place for rest. Mine is not so much.... I'll post pics soon !! 
The part about spending more time on me I have already started. I set a goal to do an 8k in Feb . Every day I push harder to get there !! I know o can do this !
I have also already started creating more also. I opened an Etsy store late last year and hope to go far with it. I love creating and I thought it was time to share my creations. Below is the link to my newest listing !!
I have a lot of hope for 2012. I'm sure you do to. Until next time keep living romantically....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/90337891/look-what-the-cat-brought-in-beanie?utm_source=etsyforandroid&utm_medium=api&utm_campaign=api

My Etsy store...

I opened an Etsy store!! I know i have been gone a long time, but im back. Life has been busy, crazy, hectic, and yet somewhere I found some time to create and open a store! I love crafting and hope that I can share my creations with people. For their own joy and to give to others. I have always wanted to share my creations with others and now I can. Their is a link in the side bar, I hope you will check it out... Keep on living Romantically....

A pillow , a doll , and a desk.

Just below are a few things I have been working on. I have been seeing the cutest pillows and me being me I decided to try and make one rather than spend $$$ on one :) I came up with a small rectangle pillow with a floral pattern in the center and a ruffled green around it with lace around all edges and satin peach on the back. The ruffles were a lot of work but totally worth it!! Its new home is now in the office by the window. I hope to make a few more now that I know how.

Another project I finished up was an outfit for my daughters doll Doria. It was a little confusing considering Doria has a huge head!!! She only came with pj's and I thought she needed some day clothes. I hope to make her an outfit that matches one i made for my daughter !

Lastly I would like to share my Beautiful sewing desk it is a 1970 Singer Golden touch and sew Deluxe zig-zag sewing machine. My amazing grandmother passed away this year and I was so lucky to inherit her sewing machine. My grandfather purchased it for her brand new and she has made many things with it; now i have it to make many more things with. I love this sewing machine , I am so honored to have it in my home. I now hope to post lots of things made with it.

The kittens also love the desk it is a wonderful afternoon napping spot :)

Things have been crazy in life and i have not had much time to craft... In another week or so I should be up and crafting again, as well as making my home romantic......

.......... until then live romantically........ MJ

Sleeves and Lamps...

This week has been a busy one!! Made a nook sleeve, set up my old/ new lamp, made a grad cake for my husbands little brother, and a couple other little projects.

First I want to show off the nook cover ! My good friend I made the charlie bag for last post , for graduation, from her family, got a nook !! She asked me if id do her a favor and make her some sort of cover for it. For some reason I was thinking crochet :) I then remembered I had recently made a laptop cover for myself! all I had to to was shrink the dimensions. The picture above is of what i used, and the ones below are of the finished sleeve, some with the nook in it. She loved it and I hope she will get years of enjoyment from it :)

Secondly this week I took some pics of my "new" lamp I brought home from California. When I was younger my grandmother moved back home to Denmark. When she did she left me a few things, a roll top desk, a chair to go with it, and a lamp. I have had the desk and chair for years but had forgotten about the lamp. My other grandmother passed last month and it was given to me then. Since I have moved towards the romantic decor I was lucky it goes along with everything :)

They are two lamps but on one mount. they have hurricane glass and a decorative gold cover. they put off a perfect amount of light for the living room. they are in front of a sliding glass window and I love the way the light hits them in the afternoon. Their just happens to be a chair in front of them that works out (The chair is broken). The above picture has the newest copy of Romantic Homes on it which I love!!

Our mama cat decided this was a good spot to get away from the kittens. She thought it was quite comfy she also enjoys Romantic Homes. I also took a night shot so you could see the lamps on and as you can see they are beautiful.

Next week I hope to have a project on an outfit for my little girls doll Doria, and to have my inherited Piano and sewing desk in the house. Until then live Romantically.........

-MJ

Floral Fabric

Since i have decided to try to turn my home in to a romantic, I have been paying more attention to floral fabric and vintage patterns. One day I had a Brilliant idea to make vintage looking aprons! I went out bought a few yards of adorable fabric , had tons of ideas of how to make the aprons, and I got distracted with life and my daughters ester outfit! Eventually I got to the fabric.

My moms birthday was lats week and I thought of the best gift for her. A VINTAGE LOOKING APRON!! It was completely my design, and i had a few mess ups , but it turned out adorable. It is in pictures below (Modeled by my lovely friend Jen).

A good friend of mine graduated college this week and I had thought about making her some candies, or hair flowers , but i wanted to make her something she could really use. I recently learned how to make a charlie bag and decided that was the perfect gift! Since i had fabric (that was supposed to be for aprons) all i needed was patients and time. :) Two hours later it was done. I loved it so much I almost kept it!!

Finally after all the gift making I wanted something vintage and floral for me too!! I came across a laptop sleeve on http://www.burdastyle.com/ (which is also where the charlie bag came from). It is simple yet useful. I had a Yard left of floral fabric and really needed a sleeve for my laptop. It only took an hour and I love it!

I do hope to make some more aprons, just have to get more fabric! I still have some ideas for half and well as full aprons. I think you should look fancy while your making dinner for family, friends, or even just yourself. sometimes though it is nice to create something totally different with what you have then what was originally thought.

Keep on creating romantically. -Mj