Microwave Caramel Popcorn Tutorial

Growing up, this was our family 'go to' dessert for Monday Family Night's. As I've started my own family, I've made this one of our 'go to' desserts too! You just can't beat a dessert you can make in 5 minutes with limited ingredients, that is scrumptious! We have this year round, but I think it's especially great for fall too!

Put 1 cube of butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/4 C. Light Karo Syrup
in a microwaveable proof bowl.

Put the ingredients in the microwave for 3 minutes.
While it's cooking pop your popcorn (or cook it before in the microwave) and put in a bowl with a lid. The popcorn needs to be plain, ie. limited or no butter. So if you do use microwaveable popcorn buy the non-buttered plain kind. You can use as much or as little popcorn as you want, but I like about 1 1/2 bags of popcorn, or 1 scoop of the popcorn popper popcorn.
Take the caramel out of the microwave, add a 1/8 tsp of Baking Soda and give a quick stir, then put back into the microwave and cook for 30 seconds.
Pour the caramel all over the popcorn, put on the lid and shake (and dance, as my kids like). The caramel will coat the popcorn just perfectly!
You can shape the popcorn into balls. You need to do this while it's still kinda hot. Or you can pour the popcorn onto a greased cookie sheet and let cool. Break up the popcorn into pieces a little and enjoy!

Home Improvement- Laundry Drapes

My really good friend Aprilanne called me to ask my opinion about some drapes for her laundry room shelves. This room is also the entrance to the back of the house and garage, so people walk through it frequently. She was so tired of looking at all the stuff on her shelves, that she really wanted something to hide it. I told her I'd love to make her some drapes to cover it! Our only slight problem, is that I live in Orange County and she lives in LA. And we wouldn't be getting together for a while due to our schedules, so we did our project entirely via mail and email!

She took the measurements of what she wanted and mailed me her fabulous fabric choice. I made them and sent them off. I just love how these pictures turned out and I can't wait to see it in person. This particular shelf has a round bar below the shelving and she wanted some ties from the curtains to the bar just to anchor them down better. I made the ties detachable since she's only renting and will hopefully be able to use these again should she move.

Much better, wouldn't you say!

DRAPE TIPS: Drapes are very easy because it's mostly just hemming the edges. Besides hemming the edges you make a basic casing along the top for the rod to go in. I also did an extra row of stitching about 1/2 way in between the line of the casing and the edge. This made the top ruffle up and also makes it so you don't see a gap from the top of the curtain to the top of the shelf. This is how most commercial drapes come and gives you more options.

Awesome Gift

Here's a gift I got from my mom for my birthday and I love it! This would make a great holiday gift as well. She used her Silhouette SD to cut the vinyl and found the perfect plastic containers at Smart and Final! Thanks again Mom!

Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever....

I haven't had a lot of cravings this pregnancy, but last week I was really craving cinnamon rolls. I've tried and made a lot of recipes for cinnamon rolls and this is by far my favorite! I took them to a family party last weekend and they were a huge hit! I'll definitely be making these again soon. But this time I'll probably eat most of the pan myself :-)

Here's the link to the very wonderful food blog I follow regularly- Stirring it Up With Pam.

Halloween Spiders Craft

I saw this cute easy craft over at one of my new favorite blogs, Eighteen 25. They did a month of Halloween craft ideas. These were super easy, super cute, and a great project to do with my 5 year old this weekend. Try it, here's the link to the tutorial!

Witch Skirt

Jayne wants to be a witch for Halloween. I had this old cape from my mom in black and orange so we went with that color theme. I finally finished the skirt last night. I've never done this type of skirt. I got the instructions from this youtube video. I wanted to finish it early in case it didn't pan out and I'd have to made something else. But, I LOVE it! And so does my little witch.

AbraKadabra!