The $555.75 Cupcake

Cupcakes 

You see them everywhere..

Who knew when I was a young mom whipping up cupcakes that one day there would  be little shops that just sell cupcakes?

Dang another one of those missed Oprah 'AH HA' moments

WHY OH WHY didn't I think of that? 

This morning while checking my emails my favorite store in the whole mall ,

 Williams Sonoma sent me an invite to look around there Internet Cupcake Shop. 

(Ok I'm sure most of you received one, but can a girl feel special if only for a moment.)

While still laying in bed drinking my second cup of coffee,

 (SHH..that's my nasty little secret to hitting the floor running in the morning. Hubby brings me coffee in bed. LOL)

I decided to take up their invite and look at their little shop.

I got an idea.... my daughter is getting ready to buy a house.

What better gift than to get her what she needs to make her own fabulous cupcakes...

HUM...

Anyway... I started adding up the basic things in their shop that she would need to be a successful cupcake princess.

HOLY MOLY

Eyes are open and it ain't the coffee...

To start she needs the mix    14.95

No need to add I'll have you a total at the end of this post...

The mixer... Blue, my favorite color...

Ok, you caught me,  the mixer would be for me and I would give her my white one. I always wanted a blue one. LOL

$399.95

The pan...yes if you have never made cupcakes before, you HAVE to have one of these.



$24.00

Silicups...Honestly never used these before, due to the fact I make far less cupcakes now and can not justify the cost.

(paper ones are about $2.00)

I am sure she has thousands of cupcakes in her future, so might be worth it for her to use those.

$24.95

Cooling rack..ok this is really not necessary, but heck if you are going to look like a successful cupcake princess you might as well throw one in the cart.

Beside she will need one, every southern girl makes peite fours. 

 $13.00

 Everyone wants their creations to be as pretty as the picture.

 She will have to show them off!  This stand to highlight the little beauties is only

$79.00

 $555.75...this does not include tax.. or the bowls, spoons, or heck I forgot the sprinkles and everyone know a cupcake is not a cupcake without the colorful sprinkles...

The local cupcake shop has a dozen for $34.00.

She could get 16.3235 dozen for $555.00.

Will she be making cupcakes in her new house you ask?

Sure...I will do what any wonderful mom will do,

 offer to loan her all my stuff. 

 But knowing her like I do, she will just come to my house, use my stuff and leave the mess.  

 But I would not have it any other way!

 Don't worry William Sonoma, I still want that BLUE MIXER!

Do You Have A Love ~ Hate Relationship?

Do you have any Love ~  Hate relationships?  Ok...be nice.

I thought if I love something, how in the world can I hate it?

See this shopping bag?  Cute huh?

I LOVE IT...because

It means that Jo Ann's has finally opened in Baton Rouge.

HATE IT...because

I spent at least $25 to get it FREE.

I LOVE IT...because

I got a bag full of stuff...some I had to have

like the Sulky (I was completely out).

It was 50% off and I had a coupon for an additional 25% off

YEAH BABY!  that was my deal of the year so far.

I HATE IT...because

Look at all that fabric..it was calling my name!

Listen closely...

"BUY ME...You have to make something out of me and I am on super sale!"

Seriously... I am so flippin happy to have Jo Ann's, it gives the Hancock's in town a little competition.
Had to laugh.. I stopped in Hancock's first. I thought they closed at 6 p.m.  The clerk was complaining that now since Jo Ann's opened they have to now stay opened till 9. 

OK...you get the idea.

Do you have a LOVE ~ HATE  relationship?    Do tell...

Computer Saga ~ Realize Blog Addiction

Ok...I have a new laptop...just charged it up.  Go get ya a cup of coffee, tea or that Route 66 from Sonic, this is gonna be a long one with no pictures. :(

I'm am not one for change...and I am just not liking it!

I miss ya'll so much and can see very little on my phone.

This is going to cost me alot, because trying to see your blogs on my phone is hard, eye squinting hard. Like, I will need glasses next.

As I type this my fingers are slipping off the keys and hitting the wrong ones. 
Oops, lost ya there for a moment!

I never take anything back to the store..never..but this little slick black and grey baby is going back in the box.

I thought that I wanted something small since we travel a good bit ...but packing the extra weight for a laptop that  I can type on is sooo worth the extra pound.

Also ... crazy as it sound the Cutie Puttootie (CP) sales guy had me so darn confused. YIKES

I refuse to pay a ton of money for a laptop to blog on ...
sorry girls, I love ya'll but a girl has to set her limits.

CP was talking all that foreign language.

You know the one they did not offer to us in high school,

" Computer Blah Blah"

(Girls, I graduated in 1985. That was when you could still bring liquid paper to school for typing class.  No sniffing for this old girl.. I was too high from all the hair spray in my bangs!)

Ok.. back to the computer saga.  
 I was over whelmed...CP was losing me, even with his baby blues and blond wavy hair, my head was spinning! 
 Over Whelmed!  
I could hear Camo Man in a distance saying, "So which one do you want baby?" 
Have you ever just picked something to just get it over with?

Yes, that is what I did!  

When we were at the checkout, I asked  little Cutie Putootie what he was majoring in college  ... Mechanical Engineering.

Hell, that explains why this old Cajun housewife could not understand what the heck a Quad processor is or why I need the Intel Core. 

Then this morning the kids both asked "Why did you get that one?"  

 UGH!

I hate when they do that to me.  I had asked  them for a week to help me pick one. Of course they would never let me use their laptops. 

They said that I have a bad track record.  Three laptops in four years. 

Is that bad?  How long have you had yours?

It's ok be honest, I need honesty.

All I know is that I WANT to blog! 

 I NEED to blog!

I miss ya'll more that you will ever know.

 I can not function without my blog!

Miss Ya'll ...I will be back soon...well as soon as I find a laptop I can type on.

How To Preserve A Husband

I was not really excited at the age of 18 to win a cookbook at an office Christmas party...fast forward 26 years.

   This morning while looking for a new recipe to try, I pulled out that cookbook. 

In the Food a' la Louisiane Cookbook, I came across this little recipe on How To Preserve A Husband.  Though I would share...

How To Preserve A Husband

First, use care and get one not too young, but tender and a healthy growth.  Make your selection carefully and let it be final, otherwise they will not keep.   Do not pickle or put in hot water, this makes them sour.  Like wine they sweeten with age.

Prepare as follows: Sweeten with smiles according to variety. The sour bitter kind are improved by a pinch of common sense.  Spice with patience. Wrap will in a mantle of charity. Preserve over a good fire of steady devotion. Serve with peaches and cream.

Note:  The poorest varieties maybe improved by this process and keep for years in any climate.

I am sure all those years ago, I laughed when I read this and said, "Yeah Right". 

Recent trip to New Orleans

 With our 25th wedding anniversary in March,
I read it and say "Gosh, He preserves really well (like fine wine)
and can you believe I still have this cookbook."  LOL

 Which beloved cookbook do you have that has fed your family wonderful meals... but has a few tattered pages,

showing its age and devotion? 

Pull it out today...you just don't know what great memories you may find in those pages.





'Foods a' la Louisiane' written by 
 Lousiana Farm Bureau Women
P.O. Box 15361
Baton Rouge, LA 70895

IT'S TIME FOR SOME LOUISIANA FOOTBALL

OK...I am not really a huge football fan ...

I just like to make and eat the party food.

BUT this weekend is going to be the weekend all Louisianans have been waiting for!

Saints tomorrow night and LSU  Monday night.

I just could not have a blog called

'Made In The South' and not make a  reference to the games.

GO SAINTS & TIGERS!!!

Tomorrow I will attempt to make cake pops,

this should be interesting. If any of you have made them before, PLEASE share any tips you may have.

Catchin Up

Well...Christmas is over..and  I am lagging behind. 

Let me try and get you caught up!

After all my whining and complaining about this flocking tree, my son said one night,

"Momma, I think that is the prettiest tree we have ever had."

...can I tell ya, Santa was really great to him!

I plugged those lights in from the minute I woke up,

and they stayed on till I went to bed.

LOVED IT

Now ... on to the PARTIES!

WoW,  Can I tell you I had the "BEST CHRISTMAS" ever.

Every year I get sick at Christmas 

(no, like really sick...IBS, nervous stomach, can't stay out the bathroom kinda sick, even to the point of having

to go get IV fluids.)

Well this year, I stood my ground and chose not to attend a few parties that always stressed me out and

WAAA   LAA ...

I think I found the answer to my Holiday IBS!

I felt GREAT this holiday season...

 Sometimes a girls gotta just say,

"I am not attending a party where I really do not feel welcomed by some of the guest!"

I really felt bad for my husband, but after 26 years of being together for these parties, he put on his big boy drawers and went on to the parties by himself!  LOL

On to the fun stuff...We did have a little party at my house.  Susie and her family came by for some potato soup and a few Christmas laughs...

Kaylee, Susie's daughter made us these super cute cookies.

and

Madison, Susie's other daughter

 made this colorful cookie cake.

YUM

Heck at this rate I won't have to make the sweets anymore...

This is a picture of our kiddies and

their boyfriends/ girlfriend...

In every picture one of them was doing something to mess up the photos..

Fixed that, just told them all to make a silly face!

  From all the girls in the Melissa / Susie family

Merry Christmas!

Please Call Me CLARK !

Here it is ...

The FLOCKIN...oops .... Flocked tree...

The humidity is so bad here it took four days for the nursery to have a day nice enough to flock it.

  I really did not feel like messing with this tree,

The lights are the worst part...

My son wanted blue lights...not really what I wanted, but being he is the only one in the house that really wanted a tree, we bought the blue lights.

Oh heck no, 

 do you  see the green wires?

No one told me...

I saw it when I  stepped back.

(It was 10pm and I was not stopping now)

Look a little closer...

This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here!

Yes,  there they are!

(I am starting to feel like Clark Griswold)

Kinda like that BIG ole piece of spinach on your front tooth and not one person is gonna speak up!

Don't laugh you know what I mean...

It's ok,

I am working on a plan...

Because the flocking falls off so bad there is

NO WAY IN THE NORTH POLE

 I am taking those blue lights off.

PLAN #1

Call to Camo Man (Hubby)...tell him, we need

 lights with white wires...he says,

" NO, use the lights we've got, cause we have

spent to much on the FLOCKIN tree."

moving on to

PLAN #2

 I am going to shove those  blue little monsters down in the tree and put the so many ornaments we

won't need the lights...

(ok for the rest of the season, call me Clark!)

PLAN #3 

 Hey, maybe I could pull one of the spotlights out of the landscape, wire it to the ceiling and have that shining down on the tree ...

 Just to get an idea of the FLOCKING,

look at the socks I wore last night.

Can someone send me some socks and vaccum cleaner bags?

THIS TREE IS GOING TO WORK!

I have got to save this tree and my sanity...well guess you will have to check back and see if I make it through the day or  even the whole flocking season!

Sincerly,

CLARK

Hoarding In the Make~Up Drawer

Hoarding In The Make~Up Drawer 

 Don't Laugh, It Can Happen!

Have you ever just lived with something day in and day out, never noticing what it has turned into...

(No this is not about my husband)

Sometimes the things that are supposed to make you pretty are in such a mess, its just not that pretty.

Ok...are you ready for the excuse? 

 Well every weekend, I travel to our second home, so on Sunday night I just stuff the makeup bag back into the drawer..on top of the other makeup that I do not use often...

Lord...these are all those "Free" lipsticks.

You know they give you the colors

 NO ONE would ever wear...

Flaming Red, Outrageous Orange,

 Poop Brown 

 yeah yeah, you get the picture.

Can't throw them out...I may meet someone that can use that Outrageous Orange or the Poop Brown.

My daughter gave me this awesome

 pink face goo...about three years ago.

It now has white dots in it...I don't think they are moving, but maybe I should throw it out.

Crazy huh? 

 I really only wear make~up about twice a week, so how did my drawer get this way?

Well time for a clean out!

I just love these little baskets...they make my make~up routine sooo much easier now.

AHHH  CALM...How I love CALM

Maybe that is the true preventive for

wrinkles...CALM

All Saints Day

St.Fancisville, Louisiana

This post is not supporting any one specific Christian religion, but to share my view of the day.

All Saints Day 

 It is a fact we are all going to face death, whether you are christian, atheist, or somewhere in between. 

 For me All Saints day means going to the graveyard and placing flowers on the graves of family and friends  that have left this earth. 

I do not worship the dead, I simply recognize what my loved ones brought into my life. I totally understand that going to the graveyard is so very hard for many people.

Don't get me wrong, I do not place those that have passed in the back of my mind and only think of them on All Saints Day.

Not one day goes by that I do not think of my baby brother, Wesley.  ( I replace his flowers often, as I feel that it is my gift  to him on his birthday, Easter, Christmas, etc.)

On this day as my husband and I go together.  I stand at my brothers grave, my husband brushes the leaves off, places his flowers, he asks me a question. I am so absorbed in looking at Wesley's picture on his headstone, deep in my own thoughts. I did not really hear what he was saying, nor could I answer.  It was one of those moments that if I spoke my voice would crack and I would not be able to control the tears,(my brother would not want that).  My husband looks over at me waiting on his answer and then silently understands with just a nod. 

We actually walk around three different graveyards.  We pass graves of  friends and extended family taking  a brief moment to stop and remember what that person brought to our lives.

  At some we stop in amazement, as we notice the date on the headstone. It is then that we  realize how much time has passed.

 One date we noticed that my mawmaw was 27 before she married, that was "old" in her day (their  anniversary date  is etched in the vase between mawmaw and pawpaw.)  We  shared a laugh, because  now marrying older is the norm. I must note, she lived to be 100, so she enjoyed many years with my pawpaw.

As I pass graves, I think of my husbands aunt, a friends mom, friends, some are even my children's friends that have been tragically killed  ... I think of their loved ones, and the sorrow that must certainly still burden them.

We remember  those that are buried in other places or chose cremation. My grandparents and nephew in Santa Fe, the great aunt and uncle who donated their bodies to science. 

 Why do this you ask?  Why should my husband and I take a moment out of our busy life, to open our hearts and go back to those sorrowfull emotions that we try to hide away deep in our soul.

It is on this day that we may laugh and cry  without  an explanation.   

 All Saints Day helps us to remember that we are only here for a short time.  

 As we reminisce about the  memories our loved ones have left us, we realize all too well, that   memories  will be all that we leave behind. 

All Saints' Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas^[3]), often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown.

Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways; for example, in the Methodist Church, "saints who have helped extend and enliven God's kingdom" are remembered—that is—the entire Church universal and those significant to a particular local congregation.^[2]

In Argentina, Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and American cities such as New Orleans, people take flowers to the graves of dead relatives.
In Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Catholic parts of Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.
(Information source is Wikipedia)

Beauty In Anxiety ? Yeah Right.

Fog...

Mornings that I awake to fog, my anxiety builds... 

The thought of my children on the foggy road gives me

 that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I call up to the kids...need to leave early fog ahead,

Silently hoping that the worst of the fog is just at the end of my driveway and they will soon encounter a clear path.

As with anything that causes anxiety...we seldom find beauty...

But, this morning was different...as I walked my daughter to the door, I let out a sigh.  The fog was lightly waifing across the field.

At that moment, there in the distance I see the fog and ever so slowly...there like the answer to a prayer,

the sun rising behind this majestic tree.

What beauty, I stood and just smiled that God allowed me to see beauty in the thing that gives me my morning anxiety...

My prayer for you today ...

May you find beauty, even with life's little anxieties.

Today I will be linking to

Inspirational Friday @ The Picket Fence

Please join me in visiting a few of the others linked there...

And Duty Calls...

Crying...no Country Living Fair for me...

Sniff Sniff

I have been selected for jury duty...

Still crying...

 but proud to live in a country that we have the opportunity to serve.

Stay tuned...while being bummed out, 

 my sister and I decided to just grab the saw and make over her headboard on her four poster bed...

Some Tips for Those Dirty Little Deeds

Today I am sharing some of my tips for getting some dirty deeds done around the house.

After talking to my sister, I realized there maybe a few of you that had not heard of these.

TIP ONE

 This actually is my biggest pet peeve. 

 To have my hands full of something gross,

open the trash can and there is NO bag! 

I HATE holding the styroafoam from ground meat, chicken or a dripping coffee filter to realize there is no bag in the trash can.

YUCK

Don't get me wrong I am happy to have someone take it out...

but put in a new bag!

I learned this at my last job... put a roll of bags in the bottom of the can.

Then when the bag is pulled out, the bags are

right there. No digging in the cabinet or pantry.

TIP TWO 

Lint...we ALL have it, unless of course you are a millionaire and have your laundry sent out.

But what do you do with it...

Ya hate to thow it out...there is just so much of it. 

 No, I am not a hoarder...I do throw some of it away.

Oh what can we do with all that lint ? 

I love DIY's,  but no we are not going

to make the dog a sweater.

I read this tip in a backpacking magazine,  

dryer lint makes a wonderful fire starter.

 I have a ziplock at home for our outdoor fireplace and one at the camp for the kids to use

when they want to build a fire in the fire ring.

Back packers use it because it is very very light and it can be stored in a medicine bottle to keep it dry.

  TIP THREE 

Microwaves...that great thing we use day in and day out in our busy home.

Boy do they get nasty...Go ahead...open the door...

Take a look around...now look on the top..GROSS

Oh the big brown spot in the back?

I know you just have to ask.

Cause of  the Big Brown Spot....

 The child that thinks he is smarter than me,

just because he is taller ...  HAHA

He put popcorn in the microwave without the

 glass turn-table

(it was right there in the unloaded dishwasher).

Let's just say....he did not eat his popcorn, he had to unload the dish washer and use this tip when the fire alarm went off.

Put a few tablespoons of vanilla ...real or imitation and water in a microwave safe bowl. 

Put it on for about two minutes. The steam will losen all the grado (gunk) off so

all you will need to do is wipe it clean.

You will be left with a nice clean smell in the mircowave and kitchen.

Actually everyone in the house will come running, because they will think you are baking. HA

Let them unload the dishwasher...

TIP FOUR

Sweet tip

I was suprise this morning when I told my sister this tip and she had never heard it.

When  bananas get freckles at my house...they sit.

How many times did I throw them to the chickens because I just did not have time to make muffins.

Now I put them into a ziplock and freeze them.

YUM

Frozen banana...taste just like a

Banana Fudgesicle.. well close. 

 If there are any frozen ones

left I will thaw them and make bread.

 Hope todays tips will help you with some

 dirty deeds around the house.