Spotted Glamour

Spotted Glam by darlenepayan featuring clear glasses

A Walk In Paris

A walk on a cold day in Paris.

Walking in Paris by darlenepayan featuring an iphone wristlet

French Delights

A "oui" bit of French in style.

Symbols of France by darlenepayan featuring paris home decor

Got The Memo

Got the Memo,"It's black and white stripes, tonight." by darlenepayan featuring pointed-toe pumps

Crush Creamsicle Cake

I wanted to bake a cake and my son, Jared, asked for a creamsicle cake. I never baked one before but I found one of the easiest recipes that I thought I'd give it a try. And since this cake required very little I thought I could just whip it up in no time.

You can find the recipe here. Although, I altered it a bit.I added 4 more ounces of soda and one small box of vanilla pudding mix. I put vanilla orange flavored wafers in between the layers and sprinkled crushed walnuts on top.






Now, I am one of those moms that never, never let my kids lick the beaters. This is what they hear me say when they ask for one, "No, it's raw egg and that can be dangerous." But this cake does not have any egg so I licked one of the beaters and it tasted exactly like a creamsicle.

This is how it looked when I added the orange Crush.

Follow the recipe for baking instructions.

First layer of cake with frosting then a layer of the vanilla wafers.Spread frosting on top to fill the cracks between each cookie.

Another layer of frosting, cake and cookies. 

The taste was absolutely amazing and quite surprisingly so it did taste like a creamsicle. Enjoy!

Touches of Burlap Thank You Cards

With a congregation of approximately 300 people, handing out invitations, thank you cards, Christmas cards, baby showers, birthday parties and announcements can be a costly event. So, throughout the years those who attend our church receive their cards at the door as they enter in or cards get handed out once church is over. We still mail cards to friends and families sharing our joyous moments with those we love.

Now that Christopher's graduation is over I wanted to make the cards unique and add a little bit of burlap to give the cards a more masculine look. For the cards that we will hand out at the church I wrapped with a burlap sleeve instead of the envelope.

   I can used the envelopes another time since there are so many paper crafts ideas for cards. The cards that will be mailed I applied burlap on the cover with a little wooden letter P. I pressed one side of the letter in blue ink.

The steam caused the paper to curl (first picture below) but a dry setting took care of that problem. Now the cards are ready to say "Thanks" to our friends and family.

Thank you for the visit today and for keeping me company while I worked on this project. I enjoyed sharing it with you.

Follow up message:

I can't believe it. Everyone gave a compliment on the thank you cards I made for Christopher's graduation gifts. Even the men liked them. One man handed the card to his wife and said, "Take a look at this." His wife spoke up and stated she likes everything country. People asked what they were and where did I buy them. "The cards at Hobby Lobby and I just wrapped burlap around the card."

I cut out cute little name tags for them.One lady of the church said she wasn't going to open it until her  husband saw it because it looked manly. Aww! I am glad everyone like the cards. You can read the original post here.

All supplies were on sale at Hobby Lobby: 50 cards regular price 9.99 I got them for 5.00, the burlap was on sale 50% off and the twine I already had in my supply box. It was worth the time and effort to be creative in saying "Thank you".

And I thank you for the time you gave me in our visit today.

God bless you.