Peppermint Brownies

Here's a quick and easy {altered} brownie recipe.

I made these for connection group, and then shared them at work as well.

If you love peppermint and chocolate {like me!},
these will be a big hit!

Even though they were a gooey mess, everyone seemed to enjoy them!

 

Peppermint Brownies

{I used a jelly roll pan for these…so doubled the recipe}

1 box fudge brownie mix
mini chocolate chips
mint of your choice:  Andes mints, York Peppermint Patties, crushed candy canes, etc.

Make and bake the brownies as directed on the box,
but add in some additional chocolate chips.

As the brownies are cooling, prepare the frosting.
1 tub of white frosting
Peppermint flavor
Food coloring {red or green}
Toppings of your choice

When I make these next time,
I believe I will use crushed candy in the brownies themselves,
in addition to adding some to the frosting
and on top of the frosting to finish off the look.


A quick and easy recipe to add some great taste
and fun color to your holiday plate of treats.

Sister Countdown!

Christmas is almost here!

Which for me, means that my sister and BIL are almost here!

I don't remember the last time I saw them in person.

Sister...do you remember?

As of today, there are

scheduled days until they arrive in Iowa at the farm.

But, with the snow storm/blizzard that is brewing,

I might get to see my sis earlier than planned.

I guess we'll see what happens with the weather
and the vehicle she might be traveling in.

Until I see her in person,

I'm planning on seeing my little sister in 4 days!

Do any of you have a countdown for seeing your long-lost family members?

Windmill {Display} Blades

Christmas Decor continued.....

In addition to my ladder mantle,

my other favorite piece happens to be my
windmill blades!

I decided to do a little something different with them this Christmas season.

They are now displaying my Christmas photo cards!

I used some mini clothes pins that I picked up from Wally World,

in the office section.

{I think I might need to pick up a couple more boxes.
It seems I use these a lot!}


Since I'm missing some of my decor,
I'm looking for some new ideas.

I do have some bakers twine, 

that might be making an appearance if need be.

How do you display your Christmas cards?
Ideas are welcome!

Decking My Halls

Howdy!

I do {still} exist!
I guess life just took over for awhile.
And I'm okay with that.

But, I have a moment,

{and maybe I was harassed about not blogging....Jessica!},

so here we go!

After Thanksgiving 'break', I decided to start decorating my place.

As I was decorating, I quickly realized I was missing

one, if not two, tubs of Christmas decor!

That set me back a bit.  Jeesh!

But lucky for me, 

I feel that I was still able to decorate well with what I did have on hand,

in addition to some 'new' purchases.

{By 'new', I mean junk finds.}

This wreath was new new...
and I LOVE IT!!

On my sofa table, I had a tin container that was full of 'N's, 

so I dumped them out and added a bunch of
found ornaments.

The jumbo clothes pin is something I crafted last year,

and just change out the month flash card every month.

Well, for the most part.
I might have missed October and November.  :)

Next to it sits this...

The blue Ball jar has a chalkboard label on it.
I bought it with the bulbs inside for a great price,

from Rescued Junk a couple years ago.

My ladder mantle.

I kind of love it!

After I took this picture, there have been a few changes to it.

I can't get a new picture now,

because the top lights of the big tree blinked off a few days ago.

Any ideas on how to fix it?

I know I'm a little behind on the bottle brush trees scene,

but now I have 3 of them,

in different sizes.  :)

I like this little guy, hanging out with my little boot.
{They are on the far left side of my ladder mantle.}

This little truck was another junk find.

I believe I first saw the idea of using an

old toy truck for decorating

from Farmgirl Paints.

I'm still on the hunt for a different truck though.

I'd prefer Chevy or Ford, or even an IH.

This truck, I have never heard of the name.  

But at least it looks cute!

To wrap this up,

my obsession with 'fun' socks.

During the month of December,

I have enough Christmas/winter socks

to wear a different pair each day of the month....

and not repeat them!

Hopefully I'll be back in a few days

to share some more pictures from around my living room.

Have you ever lost/misplaced/forgotten

any of your decorations?

At the Farm! {LongView Farms}

Instead of harvest pictures from the family farm this year,

I have been taking LOTS of pictures for LongView Farms.  

 {They are in the process of getting a website up and going.  Once that happens, I'll share!}

I still hope to make it back to the family farm one of these days before harvest is over

I just have no idea if it will happen or not.  

So, until then, I'm making sure to make the most of my time by visit other people's farms.

Whether that is Center Grove Orchard, which is also a working farm,

or LongView Farms.

To round up my Friday,

how about some Instagram pictures over the past couple three weeks.

 

 

 

 

 I haven't been out to their farm at all this week, and I've missed it.

I'm hoping I'll find a few spare minutes next week.

Have a great weekend!

Center Grove Orchard Play/Work

Finally...HARVEST season and fall have arrived!

 

If you didn't already know, harvest time is my favorite season of the year.

Crisp weather. 
Time spent in fields during harvest. 
Fun at Center Grove Orchard!

 

Again this year, I have the joy of playing working at the Orchard.  

What started out as mainly weekends has turned in to many more hours.
And I'm thrilled with that!

Any time I get to spend on a farm is fabulous in my eyes.

I'm sure getting my fill this fall.

Doing farm photography for LongView Farms.

'Playing' at Center Grove Orchard.

Just too bad I haven't had time to head back to the family farm for some fun.  :(

This year, I have 2 main jobs/duties at the Orchard.

1. Driving the hayride tractor.

 

 

2. Making the fudge that is sold in the store.

 

 

{And watching entire pans of it 'disappear' in only 1 work day...
leaving only the sample piece left.}

Pretty different jobs if you ask me.  

But it's a good thing I enjoy both.

If you are in the central Iowa area or are wanting a road trip, check out

Center Grove Orchard!

If you haven't liked CGO on Facebook yet, do it!
You can find more updates and pictures there.

If you are lucky enough, you just might have me driving the hayride tractor in my pearls and flats.

Which is what happened on Monday, when I was asked to fill in for a driver who could no longer drive evenings.  My response, "Sure!  As long as you don't care how I'm dressed."
 I didn't have time to run home to change after my real job before the fun job.

 

As I made my last round to the pumpkin patch that evening to pick up a mom and an excited bunch of boys, I was greeted with a big pumpkin!

 

 My first thoughts...I wonder how they are going to lift that to the hayride.

The mom and boys tried.  No success.

I tried helping them out, but that was just not working.

Then the farmgirl in me took over.

I lifted the whole thing up to the hayride...on my own.

{Remember, I'm still in my cute work clothes and wearing my pearls.}

In the end....I lifted the pumpkin to the hayride, moved it off the hayride to the pumpkin barrow, pulled it in the pumpkin barrow to the store, the pulled it, moved it, and lifted it again to weigh it....

all while wearing my pearls.

Here's the pumpkin.

The weight of it.....

 

{photo taken from the Center Grove Orchard Facebook page..faces blurred by me}

Did you read that?

102 POUNDS!

No wonder it was a little heavy.  Jeesh!

Last night I decided to show my true farmgirl self,

and sport my cowgirl boots.

 

It's kind of dusty out there!

Even though harvest is going on, I don't think a little moisture would be bad right now.

Things are dry and dusty in the corn and bean fields as well.

One of my {many} favorite things about the Orchard/farm....

the sunsets!

They are absolutely amazing!

I just can't get enough of them.

Which is why I feel like I have a different sunset picture every night.  :)

Yup.  Love it!

Oh, and if you are sneaky like me,

you just might catch the boss-man himself

having a little 'play time' in the kid area.

{Okay...maybe he was just back-filling the dirt in to any holes kids dug.}

:)

Farmgirl In...Colorado

Thanks to another database training for work, I had the privilege of going to Colorado again!

Every time I go there, I love it!

Here are some pictures from my trip.  

Day 1...a trip to Mt. Evans, immediately after landing.

Do you see the elevation?

My recommendation....

don't go to the highest road in North America within a few hours of landing in Colorado.

We all got dizzy.

There wasn't enough time to adjust to the new altitude.

Next time, or for you to take note,
don't make the trip up the highway until you get use to the elevation.
After getting off an airplane and getting the rental car, this was our first destination.
The higher up we went, the worse it got.
My sinuses hurt, and so did my ears. 
I got a little dizzy if I moved too fast.
So I just took it nice and slow.
It was weird.

But the scenery and views were awesome!

  

   

 

 

 There are even some fun little critters that pose for you.  :)

 

 

How can you not enjoy Colorado with the beautiful scenery it holds?!

Cupcakepalooza!

I survived the

WEDDING CUPCAKEPALOOZA!!

This past Friday morning,

I headed a few miles down the road 

to the wedding/reception venue.

It was time to get my baking on!

I decided to bake the cupcakes at the venue...
because there were 3 ovens!  

As well as lots of counter space.

 

The 3 recipes I used are all from scratch.

No boxed mixes for this wedding!

{I'll share the recipes another day.}

 

Flavors:
Strawberry Lemonade

Red Velvet

Chocolate

 Saturday, I frosted the cupcakes.

I thought it would be best to break it up in to two days.

Plus, I didn't know how the icing would hold up.

The red velvet had cream cheese.

Chocolate has chocolate buttercream.

Strawberry lemonade with strawberry lemonade wedding cake frosting.
{I made this recipe up myself.  Kind of proud of it!}

 In the end, there were over 300 cupcakes.

I made sure each of the piping tips was different, 

so each cupcake looked different.

 When I left the reception Saturday night, there were only a handful left....

and there were still over 2 hours of the reception/dance to go!

Believe it or not, I think I'd do it again if asked!

So, who needs some cupcakes?

:)