Apple Topping for Pancakes

Have alot of apples and running out of ways to use them.  I found myself in this spot a few weekends ago.  And I hate for food to go bad.

So, I found this recipe on Pinterest and was intrigued. So, I whipped it together when we had some guests over for breakfast.  They loved it!

 Warm Apple Topping

Ingredients
4 medium apples, peeled and diced into bite sized pieces (any good baking apple will do)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a small pot over medium heat, mix together the cornstarch and the brown sugar. 
2. Add all of the ingredients except for the butter and  stir to combine. 
3. Bring to a boil and let boil for at least a minute then reduce heat and simmer until apples are tender (about 8 minutes). 
4. Add the butter at the very end and stir to combine.

We gave it a 5 out of 5 stars.  Enjoy.

Wrap Presents to match the Party Theme

We were invited two little boy birthday parties over the past few weeks.  We have some standard gifts that we tend to give - books.  I love books and am a big proponent of the "you can never have too many books" club.  But, I wanted to dress them up a bit.

The first party was a pirate party.  So, I wrapped the box in a brown shopping bag and then used my new Silhouette to create pirates.  I downloaded this little pirate boy.  I had to ungroup the object and then move the parts of the boy onto different files.  I printed three different colors of the boy -- red (for the shirt and smile), beige (for the skin), and black for the rest.  It came out great.  I also created two Xs for the treasure hunt part of the gift.  I  found a treasure chest and printed it out of the beige paper.  I try to send paper through the Silhouette only once and I hate to waste it.

And now for the second party, he had a dinosaur theme.  So, I downloaded some dinosaurs from Silhouette and cut one for each letter of his name.   It came out so cute.  I wrapped it in white craft paper and then added the dinosaurs.

Supposedly, you can run the paper through the printer and put the letters on with the printer.  Then, you run it through the Silhouette and it cuts out the shape.  I haven't perfected that yet, so I hand wrote his name and the from part of the dinosaur.  I then ran the dinosaurs through my sticker maker - and they easily stuck to the paper.

They both came out cute and added a little something to the gifts.