Scentsy Giveaway

Happy Wednesday everyone! The weekend is just around the corner. I'm sure most will be busy thinking about their Thanksgiving preparations! When I was just a wee child (okay in high school), I use to say..."okay today is Wednesday, so all day today we can say, all day tomorrow we can say tomorrow is Friday!" Did anyone follow that?

Anywho... I found a new blog today that looks to be a lot of fun! Over at Peanut Butter and Pickle Reviews, they are having a giveaway with one lucky winner receiving a Scentsy Plug in Warmer, and a Scentsy Sample Bar! I totally want to win this one! I almost hesitated "spreading the word" because seriously, it does decrease ones odds of winning! But.... I just LOVE this picture, and wanted to put it on my blog!

Gooey Butter Cake

I thought today, I would share one of my favorite recipe's with everyone. It is "Gooey Butter Cake". There are two things that make this cake one of my all time favorites. First of all, it is soooooo sweet and good. In fact, it is really more of a cake to have with coffee, rather than as a dessert. Secondly, it is SUPER inexpensive! It's origin is said to be St. Louis, Missouri. In the 1930's a German baker was making a cake. He goofed up his recipe, and mistakenly created the Gooey Butter Cake!

This is the only picture I have right now! I plan on making another one to enjoy with my coffee while cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

There are many different variations of this cake floating around out there. This is just the simple, no frills recipe.



Mix together; 1 yellow cake mix, 3 eggs, and 1 stick of melted butter. Spread into an ungreased 9x13 pan.

Mix together; 8 oz cream cheese, 1 pound of powdered sugar, and 2 eggs. Spread over the cake mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30-35 minutes. It is done when the center surface is beginning to brown slightly.


This photo is from the Hollyberry Baking Company. That's it! I must confess, that I do not under any circumstances like cream cheese, but I love this cake! I tend to cook mine a bit longer than is necessary to "harden" it up some. If you love cream cheese, go ahead and take it out of the oven just when the center begins to brown. It is best if you can let it cool completely before serving. This gives it a chance to "set up" a bit.



I've read recipes that add a can of pumpkin to the cream cheese mixture, and some that add vanilla, or chocolate chips. This is a pretty flexible recipe, so go ahead and experiment with it! I've always thought that adding a bit of lemon juice to the cheese would be good too!

Edited on 11-19-08
Just wanted to add a few things to the recipe to help out all of you lovely bloggers from abroad!

What is a Yellow Cake Mix? Really it is just a basic cake. The difference between our White Cake Mix (boxed dried cake mix) and the Yellow Cake Mix, is white cake mixes do not use the yolks of the eggs. Yellow Cake Mixes call for the use of the yolks. They are generally lighter than a pound cake, but heavier than a sponge cake. Here is a picture of our boxed yellow cake mix.

If you want to make the yellow cake from scratch, here is an easy recipe. I've altered the recipe to compare to a boxed mix, that being said, you DON"T want to use this recipe for an ordinary cake that you will just bake and frost.

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Here is a picture of our stick butter. One stick of butter is equal to:
1 stick of BUTTER = 1/2 Cup or 2 dl or 2 oz or 60 g.

I hope this helps answer any questions! Thanks for looking everyone!

Another Quilt Giveaway!

Camille over at Simplify is giving everyone the opportunity to win a quilt! The winner picks the pattern (she has some lovely patterns), and she will choose the fabric! There are many ways to enter, so go check it out!

Good luck to everyone! A nice warm quilt right now is exactly what I need!

I'm not ready for this cold, drafty, rainy weather!

Keeping Up With The Joneses

Do you keep up with the Joneses? I was watching an episode of Andy Griffith the other day, and it was about this very thing. It got me to thinking..."Do I do that"? I came to the conclusion that I don't exactly try to "keep pace" with the things that other people have, (you know things that keep the social ladder even or whatever), but I certainly do try to "Keep Up With the Joneses" on a different level. For example:

I raked the leaves in my yard a few days ago. They were deep. I just kept hoping that the neighborhood kids would trample through them, scattering them to the wind. But then I remembered that neighborhood kids don't exactly trample much anymore, for the most part. My neighbor has a humungo pine tree that is shaking it's needles to the ground with every little puff of wind. They have raked them (this is no lie), about 6 or 7 times so far this fall. So I didn't want the yard to look shabby compared to the rest on the block, so 20 bags later it is clean.

Nobody in the neighborhood (at least that I've ever seen) goes outside in their pajama's. I took my dog outside last night, for what I thought was the last time for the evening. When I got back inside, naturally I put my PJ's on. Approximately one hour later he decided that he needed to head back to the great outdoors! I was tempted to just throw a coat on over my PJ's, but decided that I didn't want to get caught by the neighbors, so I changed back into my clothes.

I visit the neighbor lady when she walks her dog. Her dogs name is Dutch. He is a Scottish Terrier. He is always clean. I gave my dog a bath today.

I stayed up late last night and couldn't tear myself away from the computer. Many ladies have their blogs decorated for Thanksgiving, and other bloggers have started with Christmas decorations already. I understand the early Christmas thing because some bloggers have a business that thrives during the holiday season. So in the spirit of "Keeping Up With the Joneses", I went ahead and went the Christmas route on my blog. I figured if it takes me two hours to publish a post, I had better get started on changing the layout for Christmas!

So the moral of the story... I think this "Keeping Up With the Joneses" thing is still around.

Anyhoo...Have you ever read the comic strip Get Fuzzy? It is my absolute favorite! The dudes name is Rob, the dog is Satchel, and the cat is Bucky. If you're an animal lover, you should read some of them! Bucky is such a cat!

SheetLoad's Blog Candy Blow Out

Over at Sheetload of Cards, they are having a BIG giveaway! Today is the last day to enter, so hurry up and scadoodle on over there to sign up! You can check out the details right here! Good luck to all that enter!

12 Days of Junkie giveaway!

Over at Tip Junkie, they are into Day 5 of their "12 Days of Junkie" giveaway. They are having 2 winners (yep, two!) each day! Head on over there to check it out. I hope add this link thing, and do the Mister Linky doom-a-hicky correctly! I still haven't figured out this whole process yet!

Tag Challenge and Some Trivia

The challenge this week over at Tag You're It, was to create a tag with the theme "red & green". It didn't have to be Christmas, but I try to create the first thing that comes to my mind and this is what I thought of...sort of!


Any who... Here is a little back story on the song "O Holy Night" in case you've ever wondered!

"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas Carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877), a wine merchant and poet. Cappeau was asked to write a Christmas poem by a parish priest. It has become a standard modern carol for solo performance with an operatic finish.

In the carol, the singer recalls the birth of Jesus. It was translated into English by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music in 1855, and lyrics also exist in other languages.

On December 24 1906, Reginald Fessenden a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program, which included him playing "O Holy Night" on the violin. The carol therefore appears to have been the first piece of music to be broadcast on radio. It later appeared in an edition of carols by Josiah Armes, published by Oxford in 1936, subsequently increasing its popularity.

information from Wikipedia.

The Old Red Barn Co. is having a quilt giveaway! Three winners will each get one of these lovely quilts! You'll have 4 ways to enter, and one of them you earn 50 extra entries (if you're brave, which I am not)!! So go over there and check it out....Good Luck!

Good News This Morning!

Why oh why does it take me forever to complete a post!! I thought I would start with that, and get it out of the way. I'm just not very fast at this stuff! So... I have some awesome, good news to share with everyone (doing a little happy dance here). I am the lucky winner of one BEEEAUTIFUL bracelet crafted by Aleta over at Fleur de Aleta! Woo Hoo! I left a comment over there stating that I had never won anything in my life, and I thought that was true, until I spoke to my Mom and told her the good news! So I thought I had better clear up my faux pas!

Apparently when I was only 4 years old, I attended a Christmas party for my brothers' Cub Scout pack. There was a drawing, and (according to my Mother) I won a fabulous espresso machine. When I was four. I don't remember winning that machine, but I do remember it sitting on our kitchen counter taking up TONS of space! From what my Mother tells me, (since I didn't seem to excited about the ginormous metal machine) they let me choose a "prize" also. I chose this plasticky, glittery, el-cheapo nativity scene. Which I totally remember, and I totally loved it! And I totally still have it! So... I didn't mean to fib about not winning anything, but can you blame me for forgetting it!? I don't consider the Nativity scene a prize that I won, I always remembered it as a gift!

These are a few "girly" Christmas tags I made over the weekend. I thought they would be cute for my nieces.


Have a good week everyone!