Gooey Butter Cake

I have a really hard time with sweets. Most have some form of corn and I can't have them. I really wanted a delicious birthday cake that I didn't have to worry about having a reaction to later. If the cake mix doesn't have it, the frosting does. It made celebrating my birthday a little bit of a hassle. I wanted an easy recipe that my husband could make without having to take all day or use 100 ingredients.

Paula Deen came to my rescue. But, as fate would have it, my oven stopped working 2 days before my birthday. We were able to find a sugar-free cake that didn't have corn syrup (it did, however, have maltodextrin, but I was just so tired of trying to find a cake I just said, "The heck with it") and I saved this recipe until after my oven was fixed.

I did make changes to Paula Deen's recipe because I don't love butter as much as she does and I wanted to make this a little healthier. (I said a little, don't get too excited.) Also, this recipe uses powdered sugar. If you're watching out for corn, be sure to read the ingredients on the package. Most powdered sugar contains corn starch.

You'll need:
1 box Lemon Supreme cake mix (no corn syrup or maltodextrin)

3 eggs

1 1/4 sticks of butter, divided

8oz cream cheese, softened

3c powdered sugar

2tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cake mix with 1 egg and 3/4 stick of melted butter. It will be super thick and have the consistency of cookie dough. Press into a greased 9x13 pan.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add 1/2 stick of melted butter and 2 eggs and beat. Add vanilla and sugar, one cup at a time. Pour onto cake.

Bake 40-50 minutes. It will be soft in the middle.

This recipe saved about 800-900 calories by eliminating 3/4 stick of butter & 1 cup of sugar.

Sealing Jar

I saw this a while back and thought it would be a good wedding gift for a friend of mine who recently got married. I didn't feel comfortable including the whole letter because, well, it's kind of personal and doesn't apply to us. I think the last time I canned something was about 6 years ago. I'm not a canning kind of girl.

However, I do have some Mason jars. I'm from the South and we drink from 'em! Just kidding. I mean sometimes we do, but that's not why I have them. I was in college when the first "painting jar craze" hit & I still have one from an old college roommate.

It's the blue one.

Anyway, I grabbed one of those bad boys up and thought I would just write the general message of the original post, but the jar was kind of gross.
So I painted it. Then I just wrote on it with a Sharpie.

I found a cute lid (I think it looks better than the brass ones) & tied some raffia around the top.

Cute, simple, cheap, easy. My four favorite things in a home-made gift.

Giving money as a gift

No one complains when you give them cash, but wouldn't it be great to receive it any other way besides in a card?

My cousin recently graduated. We gave him money. Years ago my aunt received a small (about 10 inches) artificial tree with money tied to the branches. What would a teenage boy do with a fake miniature tree?

I went to the local dollar store and bought a lei and some ribbon. I used the ribbon to attach the dollar bills to the lei.

He wore it all night...I think it was a hit!

I looked up some other ideas as well to give you some other options and these are some cute things I found:

Kids Cups

We finally live close enough for my family to visit us regularly. My sister has two adorable kids-a boy and a girl. We don't have kids of our own, but we try to spoil them as much as possible!

One thing that we're not used to (since we're childless) is the constant need for something to drink. I want them to be independent and try to do things for themselves. I decided that having them take care of their own drinks of water would be a step in the right direction.

I found some cups-Avengers for him, Tinkerbell for her. I used hot glue to attach some magnets on the back.

Now they're on the fridge ready for them whenever they want a drink of water!

Shoebox Art

You all know how I feel about non-decorated walls. I think I've made my point.

However, I love an easy craft & I have a great one for you!

You'll need:
shoebox tops
scrapbook paper, fabric, or wrapping paper
spray adhesive
tape

Spray the tops of the shoebox tops (doesn't that sound weird) with the spray adhesive. Lay it flat & press down to make sure it adheres.

Use tape to secure the paper to the sides of the tops.

Hang on your wall!

It'll take all of 15 minutes & look really cute. It's practically free. You can just go to your local shoe store & ask for tops to boxes & they'll give them to you. I found scrapbook paper for $.59 at a local craft store, but you might have some on hand. Fabric and wrapping paper are options as well. Also, you're helping the environment by using your "trash". :)

DIY Febreez

I have a weird phobia: that my house stinks. I've always been worried about people coming over and it smelling weird/strange/dirty/stuffy/gross/what-have-you.

Until a few weeks ago, this fear was mostly unfounded. Then this happened:

We got a puppy! And you know what that means...puppy piddles. We're working on house training her, but she still has accidents. We've tried several different carpet cleaning tips (the best we found: baking soda & vinegar), but fabrics have a tendency to hold onto smells. I've tried many different tips on making my own Febreez (just to make it cheaper) and this is what I've found works best:

3oz water
3oz white vinegar
2oz conditioner (yep, the stuff to make your hair silky & shiny)

Stir it, don't shake. If you shake, massive amounts of bubbles form & it takes forever for them to go away. It will take a minute, but you want all the conditioner to dissolve. Pour into a spray bottle & go to town!

Paper Towel Roll Art

It seems as though I've become obsessed with reusing rolls from paper towels & toilet paper. I decided to use my latest collection to make a piece of art for our guest bedroom.

You'll need rolls from paper towels and/or toilet paper cut into 1/2 inch sections, paint, and hot glue.

I constructed the piece on my floor first to help with scale and the look of the whole project.

I kept the whole thing together, just taking out one piece at a time to glue it together. Then I painted the whole thing and hung it up.

After doing several projects like this, I've learned that it's much easier to paint the tubes before cutting them. Paint the inside & outside of the tubes, let dry, then cut into sections.

the stickers are courtesy of my niece ;) she helped me decorate
the room until we got a bed to go in it :)