I ♥ BLOGGING

I've been blog stalking lately! No surprise there, but I have some blogs that I want to share with ya'll. I love spreading the word about blogs I'm into and take part in link ups. I love when I see a new comment or a new follower, and I like to return the favor! Here is a spotlight for my top 6 blogs currently! I encourage you to check them out, follow them and leave a comment! It's time to love our fellow bloggers! {if you're here from the Swap Followings, Hi ♥, visit my about page! I'm so glad to have you!}

Courtney, my friend from elementary school, who I've somehow managed to stay in touch with since then, just started her own blog, We Three Dyes! I am so excited that she has decided to join us blog addicts and share her life with us. She's catching on quickly and I have no doubt in my mind that she will be a successful blogger. She's already mentioned me in one of her blogs ♥ {I can't wait for her to get a button so I can sport it on my sidebar, I'm a button addict as well. I grabbed her header from her blog so I could post it as a picture for her! I'm a visual person!}

I look forward to seeing her family grow through her blog. She has an adorable family with her daughter & husband. She just posted a recipe for Chocolate Eclair Squares that look to. die. for. I just added them to my recipe binder! Go check her out, follow her, and leave her a comment letting her know you came from here!

 

I've recently joined Homemaker on a Dime. If you don't know about it, check it out! It's a great way to gain followers and friends in blogland! I love her Filing Cabinet morphed into a side table project. Seeing all of her 'Goodwill' projects, makes me want to head to our local resale shops right now and grab some steals from them. Last week, the hubbs-to-be and I were searching for a simple shelving system for our gap next to our stove and we found out that these shops had some pretty nice stuff. I was shocked at how much furniture one shop had. Once the middle of the month comes around, there's no doubt in my mind that I will be heading straight there! Go check out her $$ saving projects and here swap following!

Little Miss Momma is one of my new favorite blogs to stalk. She has an adorable Etsy shop with some great accessories. She has a beautiful family too! She is constantly hosting giveaways, and I love them. She often has guest posts that show DIY projects {I'm a sucker for them}. She's honest, and doesn't have a problem with sharing her secrets on her blog, and her sister blog Sisterhood of Secrets. Go check her out, you will thank me later!

 

Good Morning Girls is a Christian based site that I am so blessed to be a part of. GMG is hosted by two amazing women Courtney, of Women Living Well {another amazing blog}, and Angela of Dallas, TX. GMG is a group of women who gather online, or even in person and communicate about their quiet times with God. I am in a group called Giggles {Girls in God Growing Loving Encouraging Serving} and we communicate via Facebook. They also have a wonderful bible study going on with the Book of James. Check them out, follow them & let God's word spread!

 

My all time favorite food blog, How Sweet It Is, has some pretty amazing recipes. Jessica loves bacon and chocolate, and even loves them when they're put together. Alot of her posts consist of her disgust of veggies and love of other foods. It was her version of beef bourguignon that I made. Some of my fave recipes of hers are: Oreo Balls, Orange-Coconut Cupcakes, Hot Cocoa Cookies, and Grilled Tomato Basil Chicken. You will start drooling as soon as you see her incredible food photography!

  

Mrs. Tillery is a blogger that has been following me for a while now. I love reading what she shares and I love her homemaking journal! She just started a new blog Mrs. Tillery's Kitchen, where she will be posting recipes of all sorts! I love her Avocado Basil Pasta!  

 Other blogs of importance in my life are on my sidebar! ------------------->>Visit them as well, see what they're sharing in blogland!Leave a comment, and follow them!  {Update on the weather here! We have ICE and SNOW on the way!}  

Block of ice in our water trough

peaches...squirrel?

i'm cold mama!

CRAZY...playing with the ice

garage pups

white as snow, sooo purty

winter sky

snow sky

weather forecast

HAHA!!! yum

STAY WARM! 

God Bless,



Pumpkin Cupcakes ♥

Good Afternoon Blog World! ♥

Today I woke up in an exceptional mood, and I figured I would share my happiness with ya'll. The weather is cool, chilly and wet today, and it's the perfect day to snuggle up on the couch and watch some movies. Instead I'm watching DVR'd shows and blogging! Unfortunately, I wish I could just sit all day and lolly-gag, but I have an entire messy house to clean. I'm heading to Johnson City this weekend to spend time with my parents, and take care of some much needed wedding planning! I have alot of laundry, dirty dishes, and all around tidying to do. I wish I could be a little more consistent on cleaning on a daily basis, but that subject is for another day.

In my last post, I said that I would be adding more Pumpkin Recipes...well here is one that I absolutely LOVE. I have no idea what the nutritional facts are, I just know that these are moist, decadent and sweet cupcakes. They're so good, but there is NO way that I could have more than one in one sitting.

{This was my first time at ever icing a cupcake with a piper, horrible disaster, but they tasted so amazingly good, seriously these WILL be made again!}

I got this recipe from Hoosier Homeade.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin
• 2 1/3 cups flour, all-purpose
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk on hand, make your own, its super easy. Take a measuring cup, pour 1 tbsp vinegar in it, then fill the rest with milk. Now you've made your own buttermilk!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin tins with paper liners.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add pumpkin, beat well.
In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients, sift together (I use a whisk to mix). Add to pumpkin mixture, alternating with buttermilk, and beating well after each addition.
Bake cupcakes 10 – 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center, comes out clean.

ButterCream Frosting
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
4 cups of powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of vanilla

Directions:
Whip butter until it’s creamy and fluffy
Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, I alternate with milk and vanilla. Beat well after each addition. You can add coloring after you completely mix it, if you'd like. I didn't add any coloring for these cupcakes.
 
Here is a picture of the cupcakes I made! We added candy corn on the tops to jazz them up for Halloween!
 

On another note, Halloween treats have hurt my weight loss! I went to my WW meeting last night, and just weighed in since I had plans that conflicted with the meeting. I gained 4 pounds back in 2 weeks. But I still didn't gain ALL of it back! I had lost a total of 11 pounds, but now I'm back to a total of 7 pounds. I've been slacking when it comes to tracking what I eat. So I kind of figured I had gained some back. It's a setback, but it's not going to stop me in my tracks. I am a little more aware that I can't play around when it comes to my health. I have to be a little more serious about this entire situation. I just love food so much! So my plan is to make things like normal, and substitute when I can, and just eat a lot less than I usually do. I'll be eating like a bird from now on! I just can't eat meatless burgers, or meatless spaghetti. I have a hard time NOT drinking sweet tea daily. I LOVE comfort food, and most comfort food has more than one serving of carbs! So wish me luck on eating like a bird, and drinking nothing but water. I'll be needing it!

 

For Now & God Bless, *Amber*

Hues of ORANGE!

IT'S FINALLY FALL! <3

I have to say that this 40 degree nightly weather is extremely exciting to me!  Winter and Summer are a close 2 and 3, and Spring, well Spring is more like a 10 for me! I guess that's why Brian and I are getting married in October. It happens to show nature's true beauty more than any other season of the year. Leaves turning, cooler weather, Halloween is only days away, savory and sweet recipes full of fall flavors are ahead of us, and winter is approaching, and QUICKLY! Fall is my favorite season of the year! Speaking of recipes and cooking...

Ok, so lately I've been staying up LATE, barely watching TV, but being an internet junkie...more like a blog junkie...I LOVE BLOGS!!! Food blogs mostly, but I often read faith blogs more often than food ones. I often just look at my subscriber reader and check and see if its a recipe I would like to try. However, I often find a new blog, and stalk the heck out of it. I read as many posts as my little eyes can interpret. In fact it's 12:50 as I'm writing this and I KNOW I should be in bed sleeping like a normal person, but I can't help myself with adding new recipes to my list! <3 Tonight I've added ALOT of new recipes...most are of a FALL theme, pumpkin being the main ingredient. I will be trying out a few tomorrow, being that it is the day before Halloween and we celebrate the heck out of it here in El Campo. But more on that tomorrow or soon...depending on how busy I will be...stay tuned for those recipes...let me tell ya, they're AMAZING!!!

For Now & God Bless, *Amber*

Soggy Days

It's been soggy in EC since Thursday. No sunshine, no birds chirping. Just a wet, sloppy, soggy mess. The weather has brought my mood down with it. I've been unproductive since Thursday.

On a better note...I've actually stayed to my plan of weight loss. Don't get me wrong, I'm starving, but hopefully (key word here) by Oct. 1, my hunger will disappear. Today, I joined Weight Watchers. I get to track points of food, and it's mostly for me to have some more structure to my "weight loss program". It's alot like AA. I need to have a program, so hopefully WW will be a great way to start out.

Brian is doing good in WV. We're both struggling with not being able to speak much. However, tonight we had a good conversation about some wedding details and genuinely talking. It was nice. We've recently started emailing each other, because we seem to have more time to read emails, than talk on the phone.

Tomorrow I have to get the ball rolling on getting my house cleaned up from this ugly weather, finish the tutu's for EC prairie days, go get plywood and sawhorses to make items for prairie days, and do a bit of crafting in between. I may be a little stressed, but at least I will be accomplishing things. 

It's getting to be my bed time, lol...so I shall update more tomorrow! Thanks for following! :)


For Now & God Bless, *Amber*