I LOVE pie!  And I LOVE caramel.  So imagine my hyperventilation when I found a recipe for a caramel pie!!!!  You can’t believe how easy this one is either…

Ingredients:

• 2 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk
• 9-in graham cracker pie crust
• 8-oz container Cool Whip
• Lg English Toffee cand bar chopped

Directions:

Pour condensed milk into a 1-qt glass measuring cup; cover with foil.  Place in a 3 1/2-qt slow cooker, adding water around cup to milk level.  Cook, covered, 8 to 9 hours on low, or until mixture is the color of peanut butter; stir with a wire whisk.  Pour into pie crust; chill one hour or until firm.  Spread whipped topping over top of pie, and sprinkle evenly with chopped candy bar.  Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Soooooooo gooooood!!!

What!!!  No way!! What a surprise to be awarded my very first blogger award this evening! I am the proud recipient of the Versatile Blogger award, woohoo!!  Thank you!  I was given this award by Monica over at Organized Chaos, she’s awesome!!!  Go check her out!!!

This is so exciting…the terms of accepting the award are as follows:

1. Thank the person, or persons who gave you the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to bloggers who you have recently discovered and think are fantastic!!

Ok, so the 7 things are:

1. I love running!  I ran a half-marathon a few months ago and am training for a relay race at the end of the summer.  It gives me endorphins and makes me a happy mama and wifey…
2. I’ve recently discovered this amazing cupcake company called the Sweet Tooth Fairy.  I’m obsessed.  And I don’t even like cake.  That would be the other reason I love running, haha!
3. I’m such a night owl.  As I sit here typing away, it’s close to midnight, and I’ve got another hour or so in me…  It doesn’t help that my hubs works from home, late nights, 4 feet away from me in the office:)
4. I grew up in the south.  I miss the trees and the humidity, the accents and the hospitality.
5. I’m not really a water person.  We live by a hot springs that we swim in all year long, kinda got spoiled, so anything below 80 degrees is too cold for me, forget about it!!
6. I was a missionary in Bolivia, which is where I met my husband.  We’ve been happily married for going on 7 years now!!
7. I’m a bargain shopper.  I can’t seem to bring myself to buy anything unless “it’s a good deal.”  It has to be on sale, consignment, have a coupon, you get the picture.  Kind of annoying i know!!

There ya go, I know, totally random info!   Now to pass it on…

Sara over at The Savvy Stitcher, and Carol at Cielo Azul are two blogs that have recently caught my eye for the incredible talent and crafting ability!  Thanks for your inspiration ladies:)  And thank you Monica!

There’s just something about teal and brown together… I love the combo, and this Whimsy line by Michael Miller is gorgeous!!!

I found the softest swirly green minkie ever, that’s to die for!! Kinda makes this quilt pretty cuddly:)

The newest member of the Johnson family…

I surprised my family and brought this little darling home last Saturday afternoon. My 3 yr-old named her Oko (I have no idea how he came up with that name). But it kinda fits. She’s sweet, and smart, and snuggly. We love her!!!

As we get closer and closer to summer (woohoo!!!!), and it’s snowing outside my window this very second (are you kidding me!!!) I thought I would share this awesome summery recipe:)

Doesn’t this look divine!!! Guess what, it is divine and super easy to make too!!!
I got this recipe from Kraftfoods.

Ingredients

3 cups sliced strawberries
3 Tbsp sugar
2 packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cup cold milk
1 package instant vanilla pudding
2 cups thawed cool whip
2 cups frozen pound cake (cut into 1 inch cubes)
1 square semi-sweet chocolate

Directions:

Combine berries and sugar and refrigerate until ready to use.
Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy, gradually meat in milk. Add pudding mix, mix well. Blend in 1 and 1/2 cups cool whip.
Spoon half into large bowl or trifle dish.
Top with cake bites, berries, and remaining cream cheese mixture. Referigerate 4 hours.
Melt chocolate and drizzle over dessert. Top with remaining cool whip.
For a fancy garnish, melt 1 more square of chocolate and dip a whole strawberry in chocolate. Let cool and place on top of dessert!

Voila!!!
So Delish!

Linking up with these fabulous blogs!!!

Thank you all so much for your participation in this week’s giveaway.  We’ll have another one soon, b/c they seriously make me giddy:)

Congratulations to comment #33, Marie, our winner!!!

Marie said,

“Hello sweet Staci – I love your inspiration boards! They are fabulous! I received a pair of handmade slippers that my Mom made YEARS ago. They are different shades of bright orange. And at the toe is a big ball of the same color yarn. Now, I love my Mom so don’t get me wrong. But I never used them. Sat in my closet. I felt so bad! A couple of years ago I hid one of them in my sister’s house as a joke. Now we have this thing where we pass it back and forth when we least expect it. It’s been hidden in all kinds of funny places. It has turned out to be my favorite handmade treasure!”

Very cute story, thanks for sharing!  I will contact you to let you know you’ve won:)

33 

Random numbers generated May 22 2010 at 0:3:17 by www.psychicscience.org 

Thanks you all again for stopping by!

Does this not have “boy” written all over it?!!

I made a rag quilt for my husband not too long ago with these fabric prints.  I had just enough leftover to make this quilt.

I love the polks dot back!  It’s just so, happy!!

This one is machine quilted with a stippling design.

It makes me want to grab my boys, wrap ‘em up, and snuggle all day long!!

My oldest is still my baby and this was her last day of preschool… She’s all grown up, sniff sniff…

My kids’ last week of school is this week!!! I can’t believe my oldest will be a kindergartener next year. Just thinking about it makes me get all weepy and teary-eyed…
Anyway!! My kids’ teachers were so great this year, and I really wanted to thank them with a special gift for the end of the school year. What could I make them that would be fun, useful, that they may even keep and use next year? Hmmm…

My 5 yr-old gave me this idea…
She is constantly writing notes and drawing pictures for her friends, family, and teachers. And I figured most kids probably do it too. Where would a teacher keep or “display” all these love notes and drawings…

How about a Fabric Covered Ribbon Corkboard!!!

Supplies Needed:

12X12 inch square sheet of cork (plus an additional one if you decide to put a mini covered thumbtack holder in the corner)
1 square of fabric 14X14 inches long
3 pieces of cut ribbon 20 inches long
4 pieces of ribbon 13 inches long
Approximately 8 buttons, or any other embellishment for crossover sections.
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Ribbons, flowers, and embellishments.
Step 1:
Cut your fabric to desired size (I cut mine to a 14 inch square).

Place the square of cork on the wrong side of the fabric. Fold one side up at a time and secure to the cork with hot glue.

Repeat for all four sides, making sure you pull the fabric tightly around the cork.

Step 2:
Cut your ribbon into 7 strips. I made three of them 20 inches, and the other four 13 inches. You can use the same color of ribbon, or two different colors like I did. Starting with the long piece, wrap it as close to the center, from corner to corner. Secure the ends to the back of the cork.

Repeat with the other long piece for the opposite corners. Next, wrap each additional ribbon, weaving between the other ribbons, forming a crisscross pattern.

Finally, glue the ends of the last long piece (20 inches) of ribbon to the back of the corkboard. This will be used to hang your board.
Step 3:
At each criss-crossed intersection, hotglue the ribbon together, and then secure to the fabric. I then used some pearl buttons I had on hand to decorate each intersection. Simply hot glue them into place.

At this point your board can be finished. Or you can cover another rectangle piece of corkboard with a scrap of fabric (following the same steps for the big board) and embellish with ribbon, notes, buttons, or your own handmade thumbtacks. I used some flowers and brads to create a couple of thumbtacks to use to attach the teacher’s name to the board… I then used hot glue to attach this to the upper right corner of the board.

Giveaway Time!!!

You could win this…

Well, not this one in particular (I gave this one to my son’t teacher today!) But one pretty similar:)  Could be used for a teacher gift, or keep it for you!!

Here’s how to win…

1.  Tell me your favorite hand-made gift you ever received.  Or just favorite gift…

2.  Become a follower of Just Sew Sassy by clicking on the Google follow link, or let me know if you already are.

3.  “Like”  Just Sew Sassy on facebook.

 Leave a comment for each one, 3 chances to win!

Good Luck!!!!  I will announce the winner Friday night…

Linking up with these great Blogs!!!

Including:

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations Marie!!!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Ingredients for Pizza Spread

8 oz package of cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Blend together all ingredients.

Create/Design your Pizza

After your crust has completely cooled, spread the cream cheese mixture over entire crust.

Add desired slices of fruit.  I used blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, mangoes, apples, and bananas.  Yum-O!!!