Hey Friends!

We are officially in the holiday season, and everyone is going pumpkin spice crazy. I personally am not a huge pumpkin spice fan, but there are a few things that I can’t say no to, like pumpkin roll. I was asked to bring a sweet treat to my friends Halloween party and decided I would jump on the bandwagon and try making some sort of pumpkin cupcake. I wanted to make a dessert that had a similar flavor combination as pumpkin roll. After trying a few things I came up with something so good! Pumpkin spice cupcakes, with cinnamon cream cheese icing. I’m excited to share this recipe with all of you. I think I’ll make them again for Thanksgiving.

To begin, collect all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 350, and line your cupcake pans. Next combine your dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and set aside. After you’ve done that it’s time to combine the pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla extract in another medium bowl. Then set it aside. Not gong to lie, I used a lot of bowls for this recipe.

Time to move onto your stand mixer, in that bowl cream the brown sugar, sugar, and butter. Add your eggs one at a time. Once it’s thoroughly blended slowly add half of your dry mix, then your pumpkin mix. Alternate until all is combined.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes. insert a toothpick into the middle of a cupcake, if it comes out clean they’re done.

Remove from pan onto cooling rack. While your cupcakes are in the oven I get out my cream cheese and butter to soften. I start making the frosting while they are cooling. Begin by blending together your cream cheese and butter. I use a hand mixer for this. Add half of the confectioner’s sugar, once blended add the other half. Finish with the vanilla extract and cinnamon.

By now the cupcakes are cool enough to frost. I use a Wilton 1M star tip, and disposable bag. After frosting I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon on top to garnish. I am so happy with how these came out. The cake, and icing combination is delicious! Hope you enjoy.

XOXO, Linda

Not too long ago we bought a new house, well an old new house. After so many years of living in a tract home, on a tiny piece of property it was time to sell, and move on to something a little more us. So we bought a fixer upper! Fun right? We knew we wanted something a bit older, on a big piece of property, and that’s exactly what we got.

Our home has some great bones to it, and all of our projects have been mainly cosmetic. The very first project was Carmen’s room. Unfortunately I don’t have a before picture, but all 4 walls were covered in brown wall paper, with tan roses, and gold specs. I’m sure you can imagine how awful it was.

I really wanted a room she could grow into, but fit her fun personality. I started with a new dresser, her old dresser was cheap and falling apart. After browsing through furniture stores, and discovering how overpriced a cheaply made plain white dresser would be. I decided to go in a different direction. I started searching antique stores and found the perfect piece.

Above is the photo I took and sent to The Husband, luckily he usually goes along with most of the projects I ask him to do. So we brought it home, and he got to work sanding down the original finish.

After all of the Sanding, we went on to paint. It took me a little while to figure out the colors I wanted. I ended up choosing Tantalizing teal from Sherwin Williams. After paint we added new hardware that I picked out from Lowe’s. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

After the dresser project was completed, we moved onto the bedroom itself. Luckily the wallpaper peeled very easily. Carmen really loved the idea of stripes so that’s what we went for. It required a ton of tape, and a ton of patience. The color I chose for the stripes is Cosmic Pink from Valspar. It’s so vibrant, and fun.

After the walls were done we started to put the room back together. It was more than just moving a few pieces of furniture back. This house didn’t have a single light on the ceiling, so the room also got a light fixture, new outlets, switches, and baseboard. After all of that, we put the furniture back into place. 

I found the headboard from Amazon, and bedding from Pottery Barn. I love this room! It’s a great feeling when you have an idea in your head, and when it all comes together, it’s even better than you pictured. The best part is that Carmen absolutely loves it.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away….. My niece turned 5, and she was having a Star Wars party. I was asked if I could make a plate of cookies for the party, not just any plate of cookies, but a plate of Wookie cookies! Being a huge Star Wars fan myself I of course said yes.

So I baked the normal cookies that I always bake… Chocolate chip, peanut butter, and snickerdoodle. That was all fine, but I wanted to add something extra. Recently I had accidentally purchased a bag of butterscotch chips. I didn’t want them to go to waste so I tried a recipe that I wasn’t too happy with, then I tried another one that I was still on the fence about. After two failures, and realizing how much I enjoyed the butterscotch flavor, I decided to try something else. Behold, the Wookie Cookie! Or butterscotch and toffee cookie… They are delicious, butterscotch chips, toffee bits, fluffy, and soft.They were a huge hit at the Star Wars party, such a hit, that they were gone right away, and now I owe some to a few people. Wookie cookies are now a favorite in my home, and I’m happy to share them with you.

To Start grab your supplies.. I prefer the Heath Bits ‘O Brickle Toffee over the milk chocolate toffee. These cookies are already sweet, and in my opinion the added chocolate is over kill.

Add all of your dry ingredients into a small bowl, mix together, and set aside.

Using an electric mixer combine the butter, and sugars. Then add the eggs, and vanilla. Mix until blended.

Slowly add, your bowl of dry ingredients, once everything is combined you can add your toffee bits, and butterscotch chips.

Using a spoon, or dough scoop place 12 balls of dough onto your baking sheet, 1-2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. immediately remove from pan and cool on parchment paper. The reason I say parchment paper instead of a cooling rack is because the toffee is hot and will stick.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family.

XO, Linda

Today I’m going to share with you one of the easiest ways to make pillow covers. My new sofa had been needing some throw pillows to add a little color, and I also needed to make some for a party I was throwing. It was time to get out the sewing machine, and get to work. This tutorial is so simple anyone with a sewing machine can do it. This is an easy, and inexpensive way to add a fun pattern, or pop of color to your home decor.

Supply list:

• Pillow form
• Tape measure
• Fabric scissors or cutting wheel
• Pins
• Thread
• Sewing Machine
• Iron

First, I always suggest washing and ironing your fabric. This will allow for any shrinking that may occur, and it’s always easier to cut and sew on freshly pressed fabric.

Next step is doing the math. Don’t worry, it’s simple math. Whatever your width is add 1″. This will allow for a 1/2″ seam allowance on each side. Now you need to double your length and add  6″. This will give you a 1″ fold on both sides and a 4″ total overlap. The pillows I used for this project were 12″ x 12″. So for my width I did 12″+1″ = 13″ and my length (12″ x 2)+6″ =30″

Once you have cut your fabric to the appropriate size it’s time to start pinning. Begin by folding over your short sides 1/2″ and press, then fold over an additional 1/2″ press and pin. Hem each side.

Once your short sides have been hemmed, place your pillow form in the center of the fabric, and fold each side over. Make sure each side is lined up evenly and the fabric is close-fitting to the the pillow form. Pin both sides. 

Now that the top is pinned, carefully remove the pillow form and pin the top to the bottom along the sides.

Time to Sew, you have enough fabric to give yourself a 1/2″ seam allowance on both sides. Once you have hemmed both sides, trim any extra threads, turn right side out, and press. Insert your pillow form into the cover through the open flap in the back. Your project is complete!

This is such a fun, and easy way to change out your decor. I’m already thinking about flannel fabric for the holidays.

I hope this tutorial with clear, If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments.

XO, Linda

Once again Southern California is on fire. It’s been 6 very dry years, which has made fire season awful. This last week it hit a little too close to home. Not my home, but my best friend Ashley’s. The fire came fast, there was no warning, and right away everyone was on mandatory evacuation. So Ashley, her husband, their 5 year old daughter, 3 dogs, and 1 cat came to stay with us while they waited it out.

Lets see, with my family of 3, plus our 3 basset hounds, and I was also dog sitting for my dad.. That makes a total of 6 people, 7 dogs, and 1 cat all hanging out at my house. I was tripping over a lot more than bassets this week. Luckily we live on a good size piece of property so there was plenty of room for the dogs to run and play. Ashley and I have been best friends since high school, and we’ve been through plenty of highs and lows together. So when she called and asked to come to our house there was no hesitation. It was a pretty stressful situation. Watching the news and seeing how close the flames were coming was awful. But, we had to make the most of it. We filled our days with manicures, movies, and a ton of really good food. We really did make the most of a stressful situation, and thankfully our husbands and daughters get along really well too. After 4 days they were finally cleared to go home. The fire got as close as .8 miles from their house. We are incredibly thankful for all of the first responders that worked tirelessly to save our local communities.

Fun fact about Ashley’s husband Nick, he likes to cook and bake just as much as I do. Their first morning here he woke up and made scones for everyone. I was so excited to learn the recipe and now I’m going to share it with all of you! Hope you enjoy.

I’ve never made a scone before, I think I’ve always been a little intimidated by them. Turns out they aren’t difficult at all. The recipe originally called for dried cranberries, but I didn’t have any on hand. I thought mini chocolate chips were a good alternative, I also decided to top it of with a simple vanilla glaze.

First mix all of your dry ingredients, then add the butter.

Nick told me the trick is to freeze the butter and grate it instead of letting it soften. This made mixing a lot easier. Next add your chocolate chips, sour cream and egg. Once everything is thoroughly mixed together place the dough on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7 to 8 inch circle about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle a little sugar over the top and cut into 8 triangles.

Next place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 12 minutes.

While they are baking you can work on your powdered sugar glaze. It’s simple, and adds that little bit of extra sweetness. Once your scones have finished baking transfer to a cooling rack and drizzle the glaze over the top. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.