Krista, Author at While He Was Napping

January 20, 2011 by Krista

Ready For Romance: Always Kiss Me Goodnight

There is a reason this quote is so popular. I don’t know who originally said it or where it originally came from, but it’s very sound relationship advice. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time being or staying mad when there’s a little lip action with my honey going on. Want to get your own? There have been changes, read on for more info.

Ok, so I logged on the other day and noticed my followers had dropped by like 40 people. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not in this for the numbers. What concerned me is that I sent out over 100 copies of my valentine subway art. So, how many people did I send that to that just ‘unfollowed’? And, because I don’t really have a good way to track everyone on the mailing list after you’ve been added, it’s not like I can just take those people off. It’s not fair for me to spend hours and hours (literally) sending out and adding people to the mailing list when they don’t follow through with their end of the deal.

These four prints are available on 4shared and you can download them from there. I will no longer be sending out printables in an email. All new pieces will have these stipulations on receiving them. Or you may purchase them from my Etsy Shop.

These will remain on 4shared for your downloading pleasure indefinitely.

Here are the links to the file downloads:

Click HERE for Always Kiss Me Goodnight

Click HERE for the pink edition of Love

Click HERE for the red edition of Love

Click HERE for the Valentine Subway Art

There are other printables in my Etsy Shoppe, including this international love subway art. It is listed at $7.

Enough of Debbie Downer… Wanna see something incredibly cool?

Ok… had to share this with you all. Carrie over at Dittle Dattle, which you should definitely check out… she’s amazing!… used the printable subway art to make a pillow! Yes, a PILLOW! I told you she was amazing. Head over there to check out her fantastic tutorial on how she did this. Isn’t it absolutely adorable?

Did you make something with the printables? I’d love to see it. Shoot me an email!

January 18, 2011 by Krista

Ready For Romance: Whoopie Pies

Ok, with a name like this, how could I possibly pass it up for this series? Really. My grandma makes these and they have always been my favorite, but she would spend hours in the kitchen. I really do enjoy baking, but come on, I have an 18 month old boy who constantly has ants in his pants. The kid thinks he’s being tortured if he has to sit still for more than 15 seconds. So, when I came across this recipe on whatscookingamerica.net I about wet my pants I was so excited! This was something I could do during naptime! Shout for joy! So, here we go:

QUICK & EASY WHOOPIE PIES

Ingredients:
1 cake mix (any chocolate cake mix or devil’s food chocolate cake mix)
1 (3-ounce) package of instant chocolate pudding

Whoopie Pie Filling (see recipe below)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease the cookie sheets.
2) In a large bowl, prepare cake mix according to directions on box, but using 3/4 cup of water instead of listed amount. Beat 1 minute.

3) Add instant chocolate pudding dry mix and beat 1 more minute.
4) Drop batter by the 1/4 cup (to make 18 cakes) onto prepared baking sheets. With the back of a spoon spread batter into 4-inch circles, leaving approximately 2 inches between each cake.

5) Bake 15 minutes or until they are firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make Whoopie Pie Filling. When the cakes are completely cool, spread the flat side (bottom) of one chocolate cake with a generous amount of filling. Top with another cake, pressing down gently to distribute the filling evenly. Repeat with all cookies to make 9 pies. Let finished whoopie pies completely cool before wrapping.

Wrap whoopie pies individually in plastic wrap, or place them in a single layer on a platter (do not stack them, as they tend to stick).

To freeze, wrap each whoopie pie in plastic wrap. Loosely pack them in a plastic freezer container and cover. To serve, defrost the wrapped whoopie pies in the refrigerator.

Makes 9 large whoopie pies.Whoopie Pie Filling:
1 cup solid vegetable shortening*
1 1/2 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 cups Marshmallow Fluff**
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* Butter may be substituted for all or part of the vegetable shortening, although traditional Whoopie Pies are made with vegetable shortening only
** Marshmallow Creme may be substituted.

1) In a medium bow, beat together shortening, sugar, and Marshmallow fluff; stir in vanilla extract until well blended.
2) In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat together flour, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add vegetable shortening and beat until fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.

I did substitute the shortening for butter and the Marshmallow Fluff for Marshmallow Creme. They were delicious. The second time, I also smashed up about 7 leftover candy canes and put in a few drops of red food coloring. The pink was very Valentine’s Day and the peppermint was really yummy too. Just a thought.

January 18, 2011 by Krista

Ready For Romance: Hit the Books Date

Ok, imagine this: It’s Valentine’s Day. You’ve been standing in front of the bathroom mirror in your bath robe for the last hour and that one piece of hair just won’t do what you want it to. You’ve emptied half the bottle of hairspray on it and yet it stands at attention like an Army soldier. Your amazing sweetheart pokes his head around the door frame and asks, “How much longer, sweetie?” You give him that look, yes, you know the one. The same look he gets when the kids have been wild hooligans all day and he walks in the door and cheerfully asks, “How was your day?”

Source

After you finally give up on the hair and decide to pretend it’s supposed to be like that, you find yourself in front of the closet with two or three outfits discarded on the bed. “Our reservation is in twenty minutes, honey.” You pick the outfit you think will show of the least amount of your bulgy tummy, or your flabby thighs or whatever (those are my big problem spots). You head out the door with hurried instructions to the baby sitter.

You get to the restaurant and are told that even with your reservation it’s a 45 minute wait. You finally get your table, the waitress takes forever to take your order. Your food takes even longer to come out. It’s a little tepid. And your drink is empty and the waitress is nowhere to be seen. Again.

Ok, now that would be a less than ideal night, yeah? And don’t get me wrong, Valentine’s dinner isn’t assuredly going to turn out that way. But, with the crazy hectic turmoil that exists in restaurants on Valentine’s Day, you probably will wait longer than normal. Your hair may or may not be as stubborn as mine. And it always seems, without fail, when you need that perfect outfit, it’s nowhere to be found.

So, this is the first in a little mini series of date ideas that aren’t the cliche dinner and a movie with flowers and candy. My Mr Right and I got married six days before Valentine’s Day. At first, I thought we were crazy. But wait, we get our special day 6 days before everyone else. When the flowers are still looking great (before they are just trying to get rid of them all), the chocolates are incredibly easy to find, hotel rooms are usually still at a decent price, restaurants aren’t overly crowded. All that stuff most people have to wait six more days for, I don’t. But, it’s a real strain to try and make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, too. So, this is what we do. We celebrate big on our anniversary, and then do something fun for the Day of Love.

Our first Valentine’s Day together, we’d been married six days, less than a week. My Mr Right had taken some time off work so we could get our house rearranged. Let’s just say those days were less than wedded bliss. We were so unaccustomed to each other that we fought about everything, I mean EVERYTHING. I knew we needed something fun, easy, and relaxing. Not a big, fancy dinner. So, I came up with a Book Store Date. I have seen some of these around the internet, but we did ours different. All of the “book store dates” I saw on the internet told you to split up… What? Aren’t you supposed to be together on a date? So, I tweaked it. By the way, you can get your own kit in my Etsy Shoppe.

This is what we did:
I made up a list of things you can find in a book store. Then we went down to the local Borders. We lived in a small town… We took our list and worked down each item. It was fun, informative and we didn’t fight the whole time. Besides, I think we saw about three other people the whole hour and a half that we were there (that’s because they were all at the Red Lobster across the street). And, that included the cashier!

Some of the things on our list included:

Read a children’s book together.
Look through a recipe book together and point out ones you’d like to try.
Look at a Baby Name Book together and see where the discussion goes.

It was a ton of fun and it was exactly what we needed to stop all our bickering. We worked so well together after that! Sometimes, you need to remember to “stop and smell the roses”. One of my favorite quotes is “Men don’t quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes.

This date night kit is available in my Etsy Shoppe, if you’re interested. It’s a digital set, so you will receive it almost immediately. That also means FREE SHIPPING. And check out this post for a little extra surprise!

January 17, 2011 by Krista

Before It’s Gone!

So, I wanted to let everyone know about a giveaway I am sponsoring over at Wildflowers & Whimsy. If you have ever checked out my Etsy Shoppe, you might have noticed the Choose Your Own Adventure dates. I created this date idea after seeing a couple other ideas with the same title, but they involved choosing envelopes. I wanted the books like I used to read when I was little. So, I wrote my own. I have also written a couple that can be applied to anyone. At Wildflowers & Whimsy, I’m giving away a home-edition of this date. Don’t have Valentine’s Day plans yet? Head on over and get yourself a chance at this fun little number.

This weekend I will hit the year mark of opening my Etsy Shoppe. Check out the sale I have in celebration. Now is the perfect time to get your Valentine’s Day planned out. The “Fan the Flame” section just might help you out in your planning. I will be adding several new items through out the week, so check back often for more ideas.

Enter HAPPYBIRTHDAY in the coupon codes and get an extra 15% off!

January 14, 2011 by Krista

Weekend Wander #13

Welcome to the party! I’m excited to see what cool stuff you have going on now, so link it up. Lemme see what you got! If you’ve got Valentine’s or love themed projects, link them up here.

Please help spread the word! Thanks!

The Rules:
1. All links MUST be family friendly. Or I will delete it.

I would love for you to become a follower. It’s the little button on the side bar that says “Follow”. =] I would also appreciate any help in spreading the word about Weekend Wander… that’s what the cute little button below is for. If you like what you see and plan on being a regular, I’d love for you to add my name to your link party list (who doesn’t have one of those, right!?!) or my button to your blog, but no pressure.

However, by linking, you are giving me permission to use your photos in a feature of your project. Of course, this feature will include a link back to the original post. Thanks!