Baby Shower Cookies

My cousin doesn't know what she's having. This would have totally driven me nuts. I had to know!

I decided to make heart cookies because in our family, we love our babies. I made pink ones for girls and blue ones for boys. Then added the girl and boy symbol to them.

Winner of the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I said that I'd mention the winner of my CSN | Stores giveaway once she responded.

She responded pretty much right away.

Congratulations Alicia!

Thank you for entering!

Winner of the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I picked a winner for the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I will announce the winner as soon as they respond to my email.

Thank you to those that entered!

Basket o' Books Review

I was happy to review a basket of my choice from Basket o' Books!

Just a handful of the many categories on their site are:

• Wedding
• Baby Boy / Girl
• Valentine's Day
• Mother's Day / Father's Day
• Birthday
• Movie Night

I chose Movie Night because I wanted something our whole family can enjoy. Basket o' Books personalized our basket to fit our interests.

Our basket was loaded with goodies. They lasted well past one movie! 

Candy, candy and more theater candy!

Plenty of popcorn and crackers! Our kids loved watching me pop the popcorn in the microwave!

The best surprise of all was the movie How to Train Your Dragon. It was a hit with the whole family!

Basket o' Books really gave us something we needed, time together as a family. They truly think out of the basket!

Disclaimer: The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

Conversation Heart Cookies

My son Mica is in two preschool's. He has an August birthday, and just wasn't quite ready to go to kindergarten when he turned 5, so he's going when he just turns 6. We thought the variety of two preschool's would be good for him. I'm glad we chose to do that. I just wish that he would of been able to start kindergarten right after Christmas. I think he was ready then.

Being in two preschool's means two Valentines Day parties. I decided to make conversation heart cookies. Each child gets two cookies, one with their name, and the other with "Cool" for the boy's or "Cute" for the girl's.

The longest name was Josephine. I actually did well on that one. Later Mica told me that Josephine goes by "Joey". I should have asked about that, but I wrote all the names out while he was in bed.

Between both schools there is three Landon's. It must be a popular name for that generation! a's and o's are hard to write with frosting. I was thinking towards the end that I should have used the edible markers. That would have been too easy. ;)

I made a lot more cookies then the pictures show. 

Wordless Wednesday - Playing with Play-Doh

CSN | Stores $35 Giveaway!

CSN | Stores is giving one of my readers a $35 gift certificate.
CSN | Stores has so many things to choose from with their 200 + stores.
I had a chance to do a review for them on my healthy food site, Finding Me Again.
I picked out the Trimmer Square Glass Digital Bathroom Scale n Chrome, which is perfect!

CSN | Stores has most anything you can think of! They have a great selection of furniture, lighting and bakeware.

 CSN | Stores is giving away to one lucky reader a $35 gift certificate! 

You can enter if you are not a blogger. Leave a separate entry for each. Make sure the first 2 mandatory entries are filled out before all others.

1. For your first mandatory entry, check out CSN | Stores Bakeware section and tell me what you'd pick out with your gift certificate if you won! one entry
2. Leave your email address. one entry

The other entries are optional. Be sure to leave a new comment for each.

1. Google Friend this blog. one entry
2. Add my Cookie Art button to your site. Leave me your site link. one entry
3. {Like} CSN | Stores on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name in your entry. one entry
4. Leave a comment on a non giveaway post. Let me know the title of the post you comment on. You are free to leave many comments, but only one entry for this giveaway. one entry
5. Blog about this giveaway. Link back to me and CSN | Stores. Leave a link. five entries
6. Vote for me on We're on the Fence! Just click on the button to vote. one entry
7. Enter my other CSN | Stores giveaway on my other site Milking the Issue. five entries

You do not need to enter all of the entries to be qualified, just the first mandatory entry.

Remember to leave your email address if it is not public in your profile.

This contest closes in 2 weeks, February 15 at 10 pm.

The winner will be chosen using random.org.

Disclaimer: The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

What Will You Get Your Lover For Valentines Day?

I was looking at products on CSN|Stores and ran across some really cool Valentines products in their Wall Art and Decor section.

I have to be honest, my husband and I don't do too much for Valentines day. These little figurines are so cute though! ;)

 I love these!

Another Wilton Giveaway!

A Mom's Balancing Act is hosting a great giveaway full of all kinds of Wilton products! I'd love to win!

I have plans to make heart sugar cookies for Valentines day that say different things on each one! They will be made for my son Mica's friends at preschool. I thought I'd put them with the Valentines instead of candy.

I also want to make some for my Grandma that just had to go to a home. She has Alzheimer's disease. Maybe she can share with the people there. My Grandpa will get some too! I think he'll be lonely without my Grandma. He might like getting a few I Love You hearts.

Wilton ROCKS!

Two of a Kind Working on a Full House is hosting a $50 giveaway for Wilton.
These are all the items that you can win:

Two of These Pans!

Beansoup - Magic Cape Review

Do you believe in magic?

Beansoup does!

I certainly think it is fun to make things disappear and appear again!

Beansoup is a company that is filled with imagination.

They sell aprons, magic capes and a few accessories. They have products for both boys and girls.

We were lucky to get a Magic Cape and a set of Magic Silkies to review! Our youngest son has been wearing the Magic Cape around the house.

I love how the material feels! The cape is hand sewn with high quality polyester and silk. It is easy to put on. My 5 year old puts it on by himself, while the 2 year old need a little assistance. It has a Velcro neck closure. 

Sometimes my son Isaak will stash things away in the hidden pockets that are meant for his 3 10.5"x11.5" silkies and a wand.

The Magic Cape is not too long for my 2 1/2 year old. The cape is 38" wide and 24" long. It fits up to age 10.

My 5 year old loves wearing this cape around as well. I didn't use him as a model because he likes to fling the cape around so much that I can not get good pictures.

Beansoup is a wonderful company! Every part of the product we received had excellent attention to detail.

They even sent with the package temporary tattoos.

The next gift my boys will receive is a magic set {a wand, magic cards and more} to go along with their Magic Cape from Beansoup!

I'm thinking that one of Beansoup's aprons is on my Mom's {to get list}.

Disclaimer:
The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.
I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out.
If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

CSN | Stores Product Review

I was contacted by CSN | Stores once again. I was up for anther product review! I've done a few other reviews and giveaways for them.

CSN | Stores has so much to choose from. I could seriously find just about anything for my house or work at one of their stores.

This time I picked out a juicer. I want to knock out as much sugar out of my diet as possible. I know, I have a blog full of sugar. Much of the stuff shown on here gets shared with many people.

I spent some time picking out a juicer. It was not an easy task. I ended up getting the Total Chef Juicin Juicer. 

It was on sale from the original price of $129.99 marked down to $96.86.

I looked up many sites to check out reviews before it was purchased. Every place I looked rated it high.

I love the recipe guide that it comes with!

The recipe I tried out is: Carrot, Apple, Lemon and Parsley:
Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups

• 2 Carrots, trimmed
• 1 apple, peeled and cored  
• 1/2 lemon, peeled
• 1 cup packed parsley leaves

We really didn't have to put much pressure on the juicer to push the veggies and fruit down. The machine took care of that!

My top five favorite features of this juicer are:

1. 700-Watt motor base
2. Dual speed selector
3. Dishwasher safe parts
4. Surgical steel juicing blade
5. Removable pulp container

 A couple things that were missing from the product:

1. It was supposed to come with a lid, we didn't get one
2. It was also supposed to come with a cleaning brush, we didn't get one

Overall we were pleased with this product. I like that we can make our own juice!

My son Isaak said, "More please!"

Please take some time to visit CSN | Stores! They do have such a great selection.

Disclaimer:
The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.
I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out.
If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

1 Cookie Plate

I made about 3 of these.
I made less then last year since I'm trying to watch what I consume.
In the middle are cake pops. I made the cake pops with chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and ground up peppermint. Then I dipped them in chocolate almond bark.

Oh Christmas Tree. O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! How are thy leaves so verdant!

I had to look up what verdant means?!? Verdant means: Green with grass or other rich vegetation.

Here are my verdant trees {one with green grass, one with snow flakes and one with snow}:

The Reindeers Food Left Out at My House

We leave a couple of these carrot cookies out for Santa's reindeers.
They also look good on a plate of cookies with snowmen. Carrots are usually used for their noses.