Chocolate Cake in a Cup

Ever been in the mood for a chocolatey treat but have NOTHING in the cupboards? Or you want something quick and don't feel like going through the hour long hassle of baking? This is the perfect solution! A little too perfect actually. It's too easy to do, which can be a little dangerous :) But if you are really wanting a quick treat, this is awesome.

I've tried quite a few of these mug cake recipes and this is by far the easiest, not to mention the best tasting and the best texture. Many of them turn out very spongey, but this one is perfect.

Here's what you need:

1 egg
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup powdered sugar

And....that's it! You can add a splash of vanilla and any extra bits if you desire. We often drop in a handful of chocolate chips and/or marshmallows to kick it up a notch.

Mix them all together (the egg is beneath the sugar and cocoa in this pic).

Pop in the microwave for 30-50 seconds. My daughter likes her very dry so we go for 50 seconds for her. For a moister cake, go for 30-40.

You end up with a crazy looking lump of a cake, but it's delicious!! You can top with powdered sugar, ice cream, or whipped cream, but this cake is plenty sweet enough to not need anything extra.

(I don't remember where I found this recipe, it's been quite awhile, but similar recipes can be found at Babble, and Chocolate Chocolate and More

Book Trailers

Have you ever seen a book trailer? I love them. Like movie trailers, but for novels :) I also love to make them. It's a lot of fun and I love adding some visual and musical spice to the blurbs for my books :) Here are the trailers for a few of my books. (A Bandit's Stolen Heart has a gorgeous new cover so the one you see in the trailer isn't what you'll see if you look for it. All info on my books can be found up in the book tab) :)

Collage It!

I absolutely love art and pictures and one of my favorite things to do is create collages, both for my own home and as gifts. Walmart.com has a photo section where you can create all sorts of collages, at any size. One of my favorite pieces of collage art in my house is a huge, poster-size picture of my kids. I picked several of my favorite pictures of them, arranged them in a collage, and blew them up. I think the total was about $18 - and that included having it shipped right to my house :)

I've also done this type of thing for gifts. My parents have received these collages for holidays and a couple years ago, we did one for my husband for Father's Day. I found a bunch of pics of him and the kids fishing and let the kids decorate the mat with their own messages for him and fishing stickers.

Another fun way to use photos and pictures is to trim them down and glue them to a mat, using them to create a border for a larger picture.

These are a really fun and inexpensive way to display a ton of pictures all at once, without using every available inch of wall space :)

10 DIY Spider Repellents

I love spring. One of my favorite times of year. One thing I do not love....SPIDERS *shudder* Can't stand the little buggers and since I am out in the country, those little buggers get pretty big.

But, I also have two kids, three cats, and one dog in my house, so I'm not a huge fan of spraying poison willy-nilly about the place. So this year, I've been researching some natural repellents that supposedly work really well that I will try out.

1. Plant mint and lavender around the house
This one I am looking forward to. Both plants are lovely and smell wonderful, so even if they don't keep the spiders at bay, they'll improve the look of the place.

2. Essential Oils
You can make your own spider spray using essential oils. I've found several different recipes:

• 5 drops of essential oils, 5 drops of liquid dish washing soap, and a quart of water. 
• 10-15 drops of two scents in a spray bottle full of water
• 20-30 drops in a quart

When it comes to spiders, I tend to go with the "more is better" mentality, so I will probably try the third option :)

The oils that I've read work best are:

• citrus
• peppermint
• lavender
• cinnamon
• tea tree
• citronella
• eucalyptus 
• neem
• rose

Citrus and peppermint seem to be the ones most people swear by. Again, it'll make the house smell amazing even if the spiders don't disappear, so it can't hurt, right?

3. Citrus juice
Spiders supposedly hate this, so you can mix any sort of natural or sugarless citrus juice with water and spray where necessary. I hesitate to use this one because I don't know if it will attract other bugs and, having children, I know how sticky citrus juice can be. However, you can also use this to spray on your outdoor plants to keep spiders away, so it made the list. You can also leave citrus peels around your garden to deter spiders there.

4. Vinegar
This stuff seems to be a super ingredient. From cleaning to bug repellent, it can apparently do it all which means I'll be hitting Sam's Club soon to stock up :) For spider repellent, you just combine equal parts vinegar and water in a spray bottle and go to town. You can also add this to your essential oil spray from #2, and is needed for numbers 8 and 10.

5. Tumeric
This seems to be another super ingredient. I've read several uses for this stuff, but a spider and bug repellent is another one. It's a spice you can find in most grocery stores and all you do is combine it with some water to make a paste and smear it wherever you have a problem area. It's supposed to work particularly well for insects like ants. However, this will leave yellow stains so I wouldn't use this on anything but tile and I'd test a small area first.

6. Garlic
Just add a few cloves to a spray bottle of water and start spritzing. I think I'd prefer the essential oil scents though...

7. Tomato Leaves
Blend tomato leaves with 4 pints of water and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and use in a spray bottle.

8. Coconut Oil
Yet another use for this awesome stuff! Use 1/2 oz in 1 quart of white vinegar in a spray bottle. STAIN ALERT - this one supposedly stains as well so use with caution.

9. Catnip Oil
This one is supposedly very effective. You can buy a catnip plant, bruise the leaves, and rub them on problem areas or on baseboards/windowsills/corners, etc. I do wonder how it would effect the cats in the house though...they are already pretty crazy...

10. Spicy Spray
Use 1/2 vinegar and 2 tablespoons chili powder or hot chili sauce, shake, and spray. This is supposedly very effective but I think the smell would kill me.

Now I know spiders are good (theoretically) and they help keep other nasty bugs away. So I do try to leave them alone when they are outside. (Except for my porch area....my kids won't go out on the porch if the spiders are there and we've had them get big enough that my husband was able to shoot one with an air gun instead of using a fly swatter which means the sucker was REALLY BIG. So, I keep the porch as spider free as possible.) Other than that, I use a "I'll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine" approach to spiders.

However, one got into my husband's shower poofy last year and chomped him when he went to use it. It was huge and nasty and the bite felt like a bee sting and was fairly horrible looking for several days. So this spring...my house will be awash in the aroma of lavender, mint, and citrus and I'll keep you updated as to whether or not the spiders make an appearance :)

Do you have any tried and true spider or insect repellents? 

St. Patrick's Day Dinner!

Usually for St. Patrick's Day my husband makes corned beef and cabbage, carrying on a tradition my mom always did for my family while we were growing up. But, today he won't be home for dinner so I'm left to my own devices *dun dun dunnnn* My hubs is definitely the gourmet cook in the family. I'm usually in charge of all things baking related :)

But for today, since I didn't want to attempt the corned beef thing on my own for the first time, I thought I'd do something fun for the kids. So this is what's on our menu for tonight :)

Mini meatloaves - found on 5minutesformom.com

My son has been asking for meatloaf for weeks and I'm hoping the fact that these cute little things look like muffins will entice my uber-picky daughter to try it out :)

Sweet Irish Soda Bread - found on thevintagemom.com

I love this stuff. LOVE LOVE LOVE it :D Though I usually make it without raisins because no one in my house will eat them lol

And for dessert.....

St. Patrick's Day cupcakes - found on allgoodinmommyhood.blogspot.com

These look sooo yummy, and the kids will love them! :)

Do you have any St. Patrick's Day traditions or yummy treats in store for today?

Birthday Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of the birthday giveaway is.....

Tina Myers!!

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and participating. I hope you keep coming back :)

Tina, look for an email from me.

Thanks again everyone!!!

Star Wars Birthday Party

For my son's 8th birthday, he wanted a Star Wars party. And we had a blast with it :D

I downloaded a bunch of Star Wars music and had it playing while the kids arrived and had one of the movies going for the kiddos to watch until everyone got there.

Upon Arrival

When each child entered, he/she got a padawan training badge. I can't find a close up picture but you can kind of see it here. I printed it out on paper with a cloud background.

Each child got to choose a sticker of a Star Wars character for their ID photo and we entered their Star Wars name (their real name spelled backwards - my son Connor became Ronnoc). Their species (human) and planet of origin (Earth) were also listed. These were quickly covered with clear contact paper to laminate them, and strung on a string to hang around their neck.

Below their picture and info were their training tasks (the party games) - when each task was completed, they received a star sticker to place next to the task. And on the back were fun Star Wars trivia questions with multiple choice answers.

I'd also planned on making padawan robes out of cheap brown sheets (just cutting a large square with a neck hole, secured around the waist with twine) for each child, but ran out of time. The kids loved their badges though.

Task 1 - Learn how to build a light saber

I bought several foam pool noodles, cut them into light saber size sections, and bought several rolls of different colored duck tape for the kids to decorate with.

Task 2 - Light saber training

This mostly consisted of roping off an area with streamers and letting the kids go at it (with Daddy as referee calling the winner, who would fight the next padawan). I think this was the most popular game of the day :)

Task 3 - Locate the enemy fleet

I found a fun "Pin the Laser Blast on the Spaceship" game at Party City for about $5. I'd been looking for a poster with all the Star Wars figures to play Pin the Light Saber on the Jedi, but couldn't find one, so finding this game was perfect.

The lanterns above the poster are regular tea party lights that I painted gray to look like mini Death Stars. My son still has these hanging over his bed two years later lol They make perfect night lights!

Task 4 - Destroy the Death Star

For the Death Star pinata, I bought a soccer ball pinata and painted the white areas gray. I've seen some more elaborate versions of these, but this really worked great. We wrapped a bat with duck tape to look like a light saber :)

(my stepson wearing the defeated Death Star on his head) :-D

The Food

Along with pizza, we had:

Padme Pineapples, Greedo Grapes, Organa Oranges, and Skywalker Strawberries

Wookie Cookies

I really lucked out with the Pringles - these were on sale at WalMart (I think a Star Wars anniversary had just happened so Pringles had all these Star Wars character themed chips). We also served Yoda Soda and Vader Juice :)

There was also Jedi Jello squares (black cherry for the awesome color), and light sabers (a bowl of Twizzlers and pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate). You can also sort of see the padawan badge here around Little Man's neck...I printed them out on cloud paper.

The Cake

My son wanted a cake depicting the Battle on Mustafar between Obi Wan and Anakin. So I found some figurines for the top, made a black bottom layer covered in black sugar, a top layer with brown fondant breaking apart with oozing red lava, and the red light sabers along the bottom layer are made with Twizzlers and Tootsie Rolls. I also made a couple T-fighters out of cookies, a large marshmallow and pretzels with details piped on in icing, but they ended up being too heavy to suspend from the cake :) We found the cool Star Wars candle at Party City also.

This was a really fun, and fairly inexpensive, party. For party favors, Party City had a ton of fun stuff. Each child got a little bag with Star Wars tattoos, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notepads, and pinata candy.