Sassy & Sweet Notes

Whipper Snapper Release

Exciting news over at Whipper Snapper!

I have new stamp images released!

Check them out, here!

Happy Day!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Warning: These are delish... be prepared to make a second, third, fourth batch. *grin*

 

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
1lb Chocolate Almond Bark (I like using Semi-Sweet Baker's Chocolate Squares)
2 8oz (16oz) Milk Chocolate Bars
Melt together using double-boiler method; keep warm.

1 1/2 Cups Peanut Butter
3/4 Cup Butter
2 1/2 - 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
Cream together and form into small 1" balls.

Drop approximately 1 tsp melted chocolate into small paper baking cups. Place one peanut butter ball in center of each cup on top of the melted chocolate. Add more chocolate to cover up the entire peanut butter ball. (Alan likes to fill them LEVEL to the edge of the paper cup. I'm a bit more reserved.) Cool in fridge to set. 

Dig in!

Checking off my list!

Pardon me while I dust the flour off of my nose and sleeves...

Thank you for all the responses about your favorite Christmas cookies! They all sounded so delish! You were very inspiring, so I got to work in the kitchen. Every night this week I've been busy baking for our holiday treat platters. We'll be delivering our holiday treats a bit early this year as I'll be flying up to Washington a week before Christmas and I don't want to wait until the new year to deliver all of these goodies.

I've made a lot of progress on my list, and the freezer is getting full!

The LIST:
Anna Banana Bread: DONE (no photo)

 
Snickerdoodles: DONE!

 
Soft Molasses Cookies: Done - YUMM!

 
Peanut Butter (Balls) Cups: 1 batch done... several more yet to do

 
White Chocolate Pretzel Rods: DONE (I made a gajillion!)

Hershey Chocolate Kiss Cookies: Done! (no photo)
Hershey Brownie Bites: Done (no photo)

What's left...
More Peanut Butter (Balls) Cups
Possibly more Anna Banana Bread...
Toffee...
...and Peppermint Bark

Then, finally, I'll start with the assembly of the treat trays. Yay!

I've also been busy sewing, but I can't share details or photos of those projects -- nothing like ruining Christmas surprises! *grin*

Update on Little Miss Penny: A day of house-bound pampering did her well. She recovered fully, and after a quick pedicure was returned to the hen house. She chatted up a storm with all the ladies, no doubt telling them all about her day at the spa.

Favorite Christmas Cookies

Every year, I make homemade goodies to give to friends for the holiday. I thought I would make several things and create a little goody platter for some of the locals (the mailman, the gal at the post office, the neighbors, etc). Here's what's on the "list" so far -- things might change. *grin*

White Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
Toffee
Anna Banana Bread
Peanut Butter Balls (if I can pry them out of Alan's fingers!)
Peppermint Bark
Kiss Cookies
...what else?

This got me wondering, what is your favorite holiday cookie? Tell me all about it, and if you're up to it, share the recipe too!

Toe Nail Trouble

 
Little Miss Penny had kind of a rough morning today. When I went out to do my morning chores, I found her hanging upside down by one of her toe nails from the top edge of the aluminum chicken feed container. Poor little thing!

She was very cold - the temperature was hovering around 38 degrees (there was still ice on the water trough) - and she was VERY stuck! It took me a bit to wiggle her toe nail out from the folded topside of the tube feeder, but finally managed to work her free.

Her leg was very stiff, and she didn't care for me trying to get her to bend it up next to her body. Nothing seemed to be broken or out of joint, thankfully! I brought her in the house to warm her up and give her some warm scrambled eggs and some vitamin water to replenish her a bit. I have no idea how many hours she'd been hanging there -- it could have been upwards of 2 to 3 hours if she got stuck first thing this morning! 

 
At lunchtime, I took her back out to the hen house to see how she got along, but she favored her leg enough for me to feel sorry for her -- so back in the house she went! Here's how she's spending her day on my cutting table... with snacks and beverages, wrapped in a towel to keep her warm, in a shoebox-sized plastic storage tub (no lid). What a life! She coo's to me. How sweet!

This is the same hen that manged to get stuck in the WALL of the hen house before the walls were finished. I noticed her missing one day, and thought maybe she'd gotten out of the chicken yard. When she was still missing the second day, I got very sad. While I was feeding, I heard some light scratching coming from behind the shelf in the coop. At first I thought it might be a mouse -- and then I saw her WAY DOWN at the bottom of the wall, behind a 4x8' section of wall. Alan helped me rescue her -- thankfully, she's little and he managed to get her out using the "egg grabber" (one of those squeeze-handle gopher-jobbers used for picking up things).

Her and I had a little talk this morning about safety, and rescue missions. No more, Little Miss Penny. No more!

 
By the way, some places in the Dallas/Fort Worth area got upwards of 1-2" of snow yesterday ... we're expecting snow to hit our area tomorrow... Brr!

PS: Update on the new calf -- Alan liked the name suggestion of Darcy, so we've named the little gal Darcy. Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! Oh, and Robb_eeie, those little dots on her belly are, dare I say, her BOOBIES! *grin*

It's a GIRL!

Alan and I went out to the barnyard first thing this morning to check on Lucy and her little baby. We distracted Lucy with some cow cookies while we gave the little one some love...

 
Lookie LOOKIE! Our first girl of the year!! YAY!

She is the smallest calf we've had delivered on the farm. Houdini was little, but not THIS little! We haven't named her yet, so if you've got a suggestion we'd love to hear it! Her mama's name is Lucy.

And now for some more modest photos...

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

A Fine Saturday Afternoon...

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure had a delicious dinner, and the left-overs have been just as super! Having the extra couple of days off work this week sure was nice, too. Today, Alan and I went to the Homestead Heritage Thanksgiving fair near Waco. The festival features local craftsmen and shares a bit of insight to their sustainable living lifestyle. I loved it! They had lots of handmade things for sale (pottery, jams/jellies, cheeses, baked goods and grains, fiber arts, wood crafts, soaps, etc) so I was able to pick up a few holiday gifts, and even a thing or two for myself! But, I did manage to leave all of the BABY CHICKENS there... I'm very proud of how strong I was to resist the cute little fluff balls!

When we left the farm today, Lucy was doing just fine, enjoying her huge pile of hay. We figured she would be having her baby in the next 24-48 hours, so last night I made sure she had her own area in the barnyard where the other animals couldn't get in her way.

  

We got home just as the sun was setting, and LOOK what we found in the barnyard with Lucy! Her BABY! We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but it's very obviously black. With Lucy's beautiful red coloring, we were HOPING for a red baby. Dang it... Now, just cross your fingers that it's a GIRL! We'll know tomorrow.... And I'm sure we'll be open to name suggestions, so get your thinking caps on! This little baby is unbelievably tiny...I don't think it's face (from top of head to tip of nose) is as long as the palm of my hand. TINY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Wishing you all the happy-est, and tasty-est of Thankgiving holidays!

After a morning of cooking and prepping, Alan and I will be having turkey dinner at his parent's house. I'm looking forward to baked turkey, delish veggies, and some ooooh so good homemade pumpkin pie!

Gobble till ya Wobble!

PS: I'll try to give an update on the farm in the next day or two... Lucy, our little red Dexter heifer is due to deliver her baby any day now. I've GOT to get an updated photo of her! The transformation has been incredible since you last saw her! Can you say MILKSHAKE, anyone?!

Cheers to you!

Inspired by Amy!

On Friday, Amy posted the CUTEST holiday tags in her Splitcoaststampers gallery, that she made with images from my recent Whipper Snapper sets.

So that I remember her fantastic idea when it comes time to make my holiday tags for the year, I whipped up a little "reminder" tag for myself.

I chose to use the shorty snowman from Gardening Snowman, and a sentiment from Think Snow.

Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!!

The Man in TAN!

 
After using my snowman image on the crazy rainbow striped Cosmo Cricket paper earlier this week, I decided to do something a little less WILD.

I present ... THE MAN IN TAN!

Simple does it these days. Not such a bad thing, you know?

PS: I love Glee.

PSS: Thanks for all the suggestions on my nail polish post! Quite helpful! I found a couple of your suggested items on ebay, and look forward to amazing results!

Nail Polish

Here's a random question for you ... do you have a favorite nail polish that does NOT chip or peel off within a day's wear? I prefer natural/neutral colors, or even a bit of sparkle. I'm currently using Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength "no chip" nail color. It's pretty good about not chipping, BUT, it peels off like you wouldn't believe!

Suggestions?

Ice Skating Chicken

 

Yesterday I announced the release of my two new cling stamp sets with Whipper Snapper. Here's a project I put together using my favorite ice skating chicken, from the Think Snow set. The sentiment on the card is also from the same set.

What's not to love about an ice skating chicken?!

Weeeee!

Introducing Think Snow & Gardening Snowman

It's that time of month again! Time for another Whipper Snapper cling set release! This month, there are two sets being released: Think Snow and Gardening Snowman

I chose to use images from Think Snow for my first couple of projects, and I had a ball! The set has this cutie snow fella, a chubby cozy penguin, and an ice skating chicken (of course!), and is PACKED with cheery winter holiday greetings.

The second set being released today is called Gardening Snowman. The set has a couple of fat fellas, along with all kinds of gardening themed items to accessorize them with. I'll share something with this set later this week.

Click on the images for a larger view...

 

 

It is also my pleasure to introduce you to five new Whipper Snapper Featured Designers as well! Be sure to check out the galleries and blogs of the November/December Featured Designers as they showcase these sets! You're sure to be impressed!

The Who's Who of November/December Featured Designers:

Amy Rohl
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/rohla
Blog: http://inkaboutme.blogspot.com

Carla Murphy
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/cardsbycarla
Blog: http://cardsbycarla.blogspot.com

Gabriela Divine
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/gabydee
Blog: http://gabiwithaneye.blogspot.com

Jennifer King
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/jkincolorado
Blog: http://lookiewhaticando.blogspot.com

Randee Elsing
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/Randee_E
Blog: http://www.mystampingground.blogspot.com

and Me! Anna Wight
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/sweetmissdaisy
Blog: http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com

Just a reminder, you can see all of the projects current and past Featured Designers have uploaded to their SplitCoast galleries by viewing the Whipper Snapper Featured Designer Gallery. Have a look -- it's a great place to find all KINDS of great inspiration!

Have fun!