Yummy Pumpkin Pancakes

There's nothing like the smell of delicious pancakes on a lazy saturday morning.  I usually make them with this recipe I found on big oven, but today I wanted something new!  While looking through the cabinet to gather the ingredients I realized I had a big, ol' can of Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix.  And the idea of pumpkin pancakes were born.  I instantly grabbed my phone and searched for a recipe on my Big Oven app.  To my surprise there were some and more than one! I clicked the first one I found and went at it.

This recipe calls for just pumpkin, but I went ahead and used the pumpkin pie mix.  I was thinking that  by doing so I might be able to avoid using the cinnamon, but I found I still needed as much as is in the recipe.  Also, the oil goes into the batter.  She lists to mix everything but the oil.  I cooked them on medium heat.

The recipe was absolutely delicious.  I think they'd be even better with chopped roasted pecans or walnuts in them.  They'd also be great with a cinnamon cream cheese mixture!

Ingredients

	2 cups Flour
	1/2 teaspoon Salt
	1 tablespoon Baking powder
	1 teaspoon Cinnamon
	3 tablespoons Sugar
	4 Eggs separated
	1 1/2 cups Milk
	1 cup Pumpkin
	1/4 cup Oil

Preparation

Combine dry ingredients. Beat together milk, pumpkin and egg yolks. Mix dry and wet ingredients.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter.

Cook in an electric frypan or griddle.

Sewing Frenzy

I've been working, working, working on everything for the craft show Dec. 4.  I'm getting very excited for it.  I've got my booth designed out on the computer, I can't wait to see it in real life!  The plan for this week is to get all of the minky washcloths and blankets finished! I think I should be able to make it.

Pink/White Minky Washcloths

I'm very excited for a distraction coming over Wednesday.  One of my dear friends is coming over so we can sew a ring sling together! She has the most adorable 19 month old, AND a 2 month old.  Needless to say, wearing the 2 month old has become a necessity for her.  It will be my first ring sling to make, but I have made a mei tai and moby wraps in the past.  I'll be taking pics and will post a tutorial of the process on here.  I may even video and post on you tube...MAYBE lol.

Great ring sling by LittlePeeperKeepers on Etsy.

Ring slings are a great fast way to wear your baby.  They are significantly smaller so they fit in a diaper bag more easily.  They are also easier to nurse in.  Plus the tail can be used to cover yourself for privacy while nursing! I can't wait to finish it!

Super Cutie Cloche Pattern

This adorable hat is my very first crochet pattern! I Love how easy it is and quick! I'm a fairly fast crocheter and it takes me about an hour to make, barring any interruptions from my cutie pie lol.  It fits a 12-18 month old easily.  It can be made bigger or larger by changing your hook size.  To go from baby size to child size you can add another increase row.  Please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern.  This is my first time writing one out!

Hat and Caplet Set

Materials:
Caron Simply Soft yarn
G (4 mm)  hook

Gauge:
Three rows= 2 "
3 stitches= 1"

Skill Level: Intermediate

Abreviations:
DC: Double crochet
Ch: Chain
SC: Single Crochet
HDC: half double crochet
3tog: 3 Together (explained below)

Special Stitches
3 Together (3tog): Yo, insert hook into the stitch, yo and draw up loop. Yo and pull through two loops.  Yo and insert hook into the SAME loop, yo and draw up loop.  Yo and pull through two loops. Yo and insert hook into the SAME loop, yo and draw up loop. You and pull through two loops.  Yo and pull yarn through all 5 loops on the hook.

Round 1: Ch. 4, slip stitch in first chain forming ring, ch. 3 (counts as first dc here and throughout) 11 DC into the ring.  Join with slip stitch to first stitch  (12 dc)

Round 2: Ch. 3, 1 DC in same stitch, 2 DC in each stitch around, join with Slip stitch to first stitch (24 DC)

Round 3: Ch. 3, 1 DC in same stitch, 1 DC in next stitch *2 DC in next stitch, 1 DC in next stitch** Repeat from * to ** all the way around.  Join with Slip Stitch to first stitch (36 dc)

Round 4: (last increasing round) Ch 3, 1 DC in same stitch, 1 DC in next 2 stitches *2 DC in next stitch, 1 DC in next 2 stitches** Repeat from * to ** all the way around  Join with slip stitch to first stitch (48 DC)

Rounds 5 and 6: ch 3, 1 dc in next stitch and each stitch around (48 DC)

Round 8: ch 1, 1 HDC in next stitch and each stitch around (48 HDC)

Round 9: Ch 3, DC 2tog in same stitch, chain one, *Skip next stitch and dc 3tog, Ch one** repeat from * to ** all the way around.  join with slip stitch to first stitch.

Round 10: Ch 3 and turn work, DC 2tog in ch 1 space, ch 1, *Skip next stitch and dc 3tog in next ch 1 space, Ch one** repeat from * to ** all the way around.  join with slip stitch to first stitch.

Round 11: Ch 3 and turn work, DC 2tog in ch 1 space, ch 1, *Skip next stitch and dc 3tog in next ch 1 space, Chain one** repeat from * to ** all the way around.  join with slip stitch to first stitch.

Round 12:  Ch 3, 1 dc in next stitch and each stitch around (48 DC)

Round 13: (scalloped edging) Ch 1, SC in next stitch, Chain four, skip next stitch, *SC in next 2 stitches, chain four, skip next stitch** Repeat from * to ** all the way around.  

You are Finished!! This hat looks absolutely adorable with a Crocheted flower or a cute hair bow attached!

I'll be posting the caplet pattern sometime in the next few weeks!

Instructions for more sizes will be added as I work them out.  It's as easy as changing hook size!

Feel free to sell items created from this pattern, but please do not claim it as your own, or sell the pattern itself.  Please mention that the pattern comes from Lilly Bunns Boutique in your listing.

Halloween 2010

This Halloween was quite the success for us!  The festivities began on Friday the 29th with our church's Fall Festival.  It's a great event that they hold every year.  They have tons of games and activities for the kids.  This was the first year Lilly could really do a lot, and she had a blast!  She's been asking for about a month now to dress up as Snow White.  A few times she's asked to be super girl, minie mouse, Ariel, or Belle, but almost always it's been Snow White.  So that's what we dressed her up as!   She made the most adorable Snow White EVER!

We didn't do much on Saturday, but on Sunday we went Trick-or-treating with some friends in League City.  Boy did we rack up on the candy there! Lilly was soooo cute going up to the doors and saying "Tick-or Teat". lol  She was amazed that they were just giving the candy to her!  It was also Steven's Grandparent's 51st wedding anniversary so we had dinner with them before we headed out.  It was just a great night! I love family time!

I'm Hearing Jingle Bells

It's 64 days until Christmas! Woo-hoo! I love the holidays.  There's nothing like getting together with family and friends and celebrating the birth of our savior!

A Christmas tradition I absolutely love was going to my Grandmother's house and making various crafts and cookies and candy.  Every year we would go down too her house and she, my aunt, and my three brothers and I would sit around the dining table creating lots of little Christmas goodies.  Christmas is still synonymous with peanut butter balls for me! I'm so excited that Lilly is now old enough to participate! I'm especially excited that we will be in South Carolina this year for Christmas--at least that's the current plan--so she will get to do it the way I did--around my Grandmother's table!!

This year will be very crafty for me! My business is in full swing this year and I'll be doing my first craft show!  I'm so ready to get started on all of my Christmas crafts for the year!  It's going to be a handmade Christmas this year.  I'll be making or buying handmade gifts for everyone on the list and Etsy is certainly the place to do it!

I'm thinking these great ornaments by The Quilted Turtle done with pictures of Lilly, Steven, and I would make great presents for Lilly's grandparents and great-grandparents.

The Quilted Turtle Photo Ball 

I'm also in love with Glitter Ball ornaments.  And they are SOOO easy to make.  I'm thinking I might do those for the Aunts and Uncles.  GameCocks colors anyone? This you tube video has a great tutorial!  The creator of the ornament pictured has a fantastic tutorial as well using stamp pad re-inkers,  but I love how cheap doing it with pledge is!  I do love the idea of using scrap-booking rub-ons to add an image to the front.  I haven't seen a blog tutorial on how to make them, just videos, so I may make one and try to post next week.  I'm thinking about selling them at my craft show and offering them to be personalized with monograms!

Love this with the rub-on! Stampin it up comes highly recommended! 

I'm definitely going to be posting lots of tutorials (mine and link-loved) and yummy recipes over the next few months! There's no time like the holidays to get Crafty!  Got a tutorial or recipe you'd like featured just let me know or post in the comments section!

Woohoo! The Net is Back!!

Wow! Do you know how annoying it is to have to go to McDonalds to use their wifi everytime you need to list something? I'm so thankful we've been able to get the internet at the house now! I'll now have lots more time to post on this blog, and to list products in the store! It's especially great since Christmas and my (cross my fingers) huge Christmas rush.  Be on the look out for many more products!

Keeping it Real

This is now my second time to be a stay-at-home-mom ful time. The
difference between the satisfaction I felt the last time and now is
HUGE! And you know what? It has absolutely nothing to do with how my
husband behaves, it has everything to do with my own attitude and most
importantly my walk with God.

Now let me preface this by saying that one, motherhood is hard and I'm
not perfect and don't always have the best attitude and two any
remarks made about my husband are how I felt because of my bad
attitude and are not meant as a cut-down to him.

I used to sit around at home all day mostly on the computer and
playing with my daughter. I wouldn't clean all day except til about an
hour before steven came home then I'd run around like crazy making it
look like I'd done something. He agreed to let me stay home as long as
I kept the house up, so you can only imagine his feelings toward me
since he was working 12 hour days to allow me to stay home and I want
even doing what I was supposed to do. I used to be so mad that he
would come home and be in a grouchy mood. A mood that I most likely
perceived to be there though it may not have actually been there. I
began to harbor resentment for his not helping me out around the house
even though the responsibility was really mine. And it was completely
my fault for letting my house become the mess it was. Writing this now
I can see that I ws focussing the disapointment I had in myself on my
husband.

Now what made such a big difference?One day I asked him a simple
question "how do you feel about your job?" I'd always thought he loved
it since he'd come home and think about work so much, plus he was do
darned good at it! His answer astounded me "Its just a job, the
money's nice, but it's certainly not my ideal job". I was amazed. Then
it hit me. I'd been complaining and harboring resentment toward a man
that worked almost 68 hour work weeks, and gave up his dreams just so
that o can have my dream of staying home and selling things I've made.
Talk about an attitude changer!! Now when I get to feelin miserable
with staying home and such I look back on his answer to that one
simple question. I think it's something every stay-at-home-mom should
ask her husband. Or every wife for that matter.

Sneaky Peak #1

New contoured burp cloths! They are the perfect gift for a stylish
expecting or new mom!

Things Are Finally Settling Down

Praise God for all of the comfort and provision he has provided for my
little family! I never doubted for a minute He would! After all he
does love me more than the birds who He provides for, right? I'm so
glad that S and I have both been able to forgive, and keep forgiving
and make a wonderful new start. I've learned many lessons, some of
which I'll share over the coming weeks. We still covet your prayers!
And a great thanks to all who have been lifting us up to the throne!
We are blessed with the greatest family and friends!

I have finally settled into a routine that's been working for our
family. Now it's time to get Lilly Bunns Boutique back up and
running! My goal is five new listings a week--let's see if I can make
that lol. I'm thinking Fridays will be the new listings day! I will
be shipping on Mondays and Thursdays. I'm really excited about many of
the things I've got planned and hope everyone likes them! Keep an eye
out for all the great things! Lillybunnsboutique.etsy.com

My Crazy Life

I know anyone who at least knows that there have been some changes in my life recentl are curious to find out what's going on.  I've decided to write this blog post so that everyone will at least know a little bit, and be able to be understanding and supportive.  I am not writing this for people to be judgemental, to try and figure out the intimate details for themselves, or to have people pity me because of what has happened.  I just want to answer questions all at once.

I have decided to separate from my husband for a while.  We are truly trying to better our relationships with God, and then come together to really give our marriage a fighting chance.  There have been some indescretions, but I don't blame him at all for what he did.  I was a terrible wife to him and caused him a lot of pain just as he did me.  Now, do not sit there and tell me that i'm not the one to blame and he's this big aweful  person.  I'm not the ONE to blame, we both are.  He is an amazing man who slid away from God.  Please don't act like you know what was going on with us, because you don't.  Only S and I know what our marriage was like.  We became truly toxic to each other.  Neither one of us was ready to support the other to have a better relationship with Christ.

All of that said, I'm extremely excited to see what direction God is going to take this.  It has been something absolutely earth shattering, but my hope is that we both learn to rely on God and let him create an amazing marriage that glorifies Him in everything we do.  WE just needed time appart to work on ourselves.  I'm now staying in SC with my family for a while.  Im not sure how long it will be, but hopefully not too long.  My guess would be a month minimum.

I'm writing this to beg for your prayers and emotional support.  I don't want to rehash the past, and i don't want anyone bad-mouthing me or him.  Things happened and we are working hard to forgive each other.  Please pray that God will quickly restore our marriage and give us each the strength to forgive each other.  Please also pray for others around us to be forgiving.  Please pray that we will be able to forgive ourselves for the actions that led to the demise of our marriage.  We've each got to learn how to best be supportive of the other, and how to allow God to be the ruler over our home. 

Now as far as LBB goes, I have all of my sewing things with me, but it's all in a box now.  I've got to figure out who I'm going to be staying with (right now I'm with my parents but they have no room whatsoever).  I should have everything unpacked and organized within a week or two.  I'll be posting things i've made to craigslist and selling more in the area.  I'll also be doing Photography as a means of supporting myself.  I can do product photography as well as portraits.  I'm working on getting my portpholio (flickr) updated and will be doing shoots with a few friends and family so you can see what I can do.  Please feel free to email if you're interested. 

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and understanding during this time. 

Yummy Coconut Pie

Cocnut and I have always had a love/hate relationship. I used to hate the stuff, in fact I'd always tell people I was allergic in order to get them to not give it to me.  But oh how our tastes change as we grow up! I now LOVE coconut, especially coconut pie. 

This past Christmas I went to visit my family in SC and my grandmother (yes, we have to call her grandmother :)) served this amazingly wonderful coconut custard pie. I was in heaven! Each bite was a taste of two of my faves, coconut and egg custard--Yummy!  I can taste it now just thinking about it. So I went on the hunt for a similar recipe one day when I wasn't able to get ahold of her. I went to my alltime favorite place to look for recipes--the big oven app on my Iphone (also found at bigoven.com). I stumbled accross a recipe called Best Ever Cocnut Pie, and boy is it ever the best! (sorry grandmother). I add more coconut than what it calls for but man is that recipe amazing.  The best part is quite possibly the fact that it makes it's own crust when you cook it, so it doesn't require you to make or buy a crust! And other than coconut, chances are you already have the ingredients in your pantry.

Here's the recipe, please remember that it's not mine, I'm not sure the exact link go it but if you search "best ever coconut pie" on bigoven.com you'll be able to find it. Happy cooking!

  4 Eggs Beaten

1/2 c Butter 
1/2 c Flour 
1 3/4 c Sugar 
2 c Whole Milk 
1 1/4 c Coconut 
1/4 tsp Salt 
1/2 tsp Vanilla 
1/4 tsp Baking Powder 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large pie pan with canola oil.

In a bowl mix together the eggs and butter. Add in the flour, coconut, salt, vanilla, sugar, baking powder and milk. Pour the mixture into the pie pan being careful not to overfill. Place pie pan in oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until the center is set.

This pie creates it's own crust but you can vary the recipe by filling two 9" frozen pie shells with this filling and baking approximately 40 minutes or until set.

Note: I always make sure I have a liner under this pie when I bake it.

Minky, minky, minky!

The stuff is amazing! So soft and cuddly. It's just the perfect thing
for babies to lay on, get bathed with or any other number of things
you can do with this wonderful stuff.

Minky products will be hitting lillybunnsboutique.etsy.com in the next
month or so! I'll be making burp rags, washcloths, blankets, and more!
Be on the watch for them!

Little things you and your baby will love at

LillyBunnsBoutique.etsy.com
Facebook.com/lillybunnsboutique
Lillybunnsboutique.blogspot.com