Chocolate Cherry Mice

My daughters and I made these over the Halloween holiday. They were for a close friend that we have known for years. This friend has called my kids "The Rodents" ever since they were born. Not sure how that all came about. But now they always come up with things mouse related to give him. My daughter found the recipe and I'm not sure where. So I can't give anyone the credit they deserve. Here is one of the little rodents that we made.
These are so cute!!



This is how we made them.

You will need:
Maraschino cherries with the stems on them. I had a hard time finding them. Where I did find some was at a liquor store. :)
Chocolate bark or chocolate chips
Sliced Almonds
Hersheys Kisses
Blue Icing or Blue confetti candies

Put some waxed paper on your cupboard or in a cookie sheet.
You melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Dip a cherry in the chocolate, part way up the stem. Lay this on the wax paper with the stem off to the side (the stem will be the tail). Next you put a dab of chocolate on the flat side of an unwrapped Hershey kiss. Place the flat side up against the cherry, putting the curl of the Kiss pointing upward. Place two sliced almonds between the Hershey Kiss & the cherry for the ears. You could just pipe a dab of blue frosting for the eyes but we had the grandkids pick out the blue chips from the confetti sprinkles jar and placed them on the face with a dab of white frosting. I placed mine in the refridgerator until they were hardened together. You peel them from the wax paper and enjoy. Remember not to eat the stem!!

I didn't get a pic of the tray when it was full. But it is really cute with a bunch of them together. We've also made them using white chocolate for my oldest daughters wedding shower. They were tucked amongst the fruit and cheese on her appetizer platter. They got so many compliments!

Don't forget to enter my Gingerbread Giveaway on the post below!!!

My Holiday Gingerbread Giveaway

Hello Friends!

I've decided to have a giveaway to celebrate the holiday season coming up soon. This is going to be a primitive "gingerbread" themed giveaway.



First I have made a raggy quilted table mat using gingerbread men fabric and Christmas colored material. Then next I have made a Gingerbread girl doll. She is such a sweetie! And her dress matches some of the fabric in the table mat.
I'm sure you would be so happy to put them on display atop a shelf or table in your home.

And....guess what?
After every 25th post for this giveaway I will add something extra!! Isn't that exciting?
Now for the rules:
1. You need to be a follower of my blog or my Etsy shop
for one entry each.
2. You need to leave a comment on this post only. Let me know if you have a favorite theme for your Christmas decorating. That will be another entry.
3. Post about my gingerbread giveaway on your blog for another entry.

I will draw the winning name on November 23. Entry deadline will be Sunday the 22nd at midnight.
I wish you all good luck!!
I also want to thank all my blogging friends for their visits and comments.

Happy Halloween!! My Ghostly Friends!!!

WE have a terrific day for the grandkids to do their trick-or-treating. It was so windy , rainy & cold yesterday that I was worried that tonight would be miserable too. But it was actually rather nice. Just a bit cold.
My oldest daughter had the whole family over to her house for a Halloween Dinner before they all went trick-or-treating. It was quite fun!!
Everyone brought some sort of odd looking food item.
We had meatloaf that looked like severed feet. Yummy!!

Little ghost baked potatoes and mummy hotdogs.

Punch with a floating ice hand.

Mummy cupcakes, Bat cupcakes & Cat Cookies.

There were ham rollup fingers, homemade caramel dip for apple wedges and bone breadsticks.

What a feast! Everything was so yummy!

This is my family before they left to go trick-or-treating. What a fiendish group of characters, heh?

From left to right are: My son's partner, my son, Me, my Mother, my granddaughter Kelly, my Son-in-law, my oldest daughter, my youngest granddaughter Jordan, my middle daughter, Hubby, my youngest daughter and my grandson Zack. My other son-inlaw was taking the picture.

I hope everyone else had a safe and fun Halloween!!!

My apologies!!!!

I have totally forgotten to post about the giveaways that I won awhile ago!




I had won this gorgeous lace doily and the most beautiful smelling soy candle (lilac is my favorite fragrance)from a giveaway that Kimberly had in August. I was amazed at the workmanship in her crocheting and the candle was so pleasant to smell. I say WAS because I have been burning it almost every day.
Now she is having another giveaway! Three winers will receive one of her Autumn fragrances. So please check out her blog at Sugar Creek Hollows .
She is also having a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale on her website.



Also...I was third place winner & had won a cute hankie holder that Linda had made. I've put it in my car for those unexpected sniffles. It works so much better than using the extra napkins from McDonalds. LOL And much much prettier too!
Please check out her blog at Prairie Flower Farm. She also has a wonderful store full of her handmade items.

So SORRY ladies for being so late with this post!!
My hubby says I must have had one of my "blonde" moments. He won't be able to say that much longer. I've been letting my hair go back to natural. It's almost there. And it's mostly GREY!! :}

So now I'm thinking that I should have a giveaway too!
A Christmas giveaway. Does anyone like gingerbread men?

On Monday I will post my gingerbread giveaway and all the details. So please come back and see what I have.

Pleasant Vacation! Now back to work??

Hubby and I had such a relaxing time while on our little vacation. We visited with some friends (Ben & Laneda) at their Florida home. For the first time in a long while, we didn't have to deal with having to take kids to a theme park or try to keep kids occupied so they weren't bored. Although I did call almost every night just to keep in touch.
Since I've lived in northern Indiana all of my life, I truly enjoyed the hot weather in October. And to be able to look out the back porch and see bananas or lemons growing on a tree. Pure paradise for this country Hoosier.

But the ALL TIME BEST was when we went down to the beach and just bobbed in the water. We even saw some dolphins out in the distance.
It was truly a most memorable vacation. You see...
2 years ago, Ben had a seizure and found out that he had a brain tumor. He had brain surgery to have the tumor removed. The surgery went well. Because of his surgery he wasn't allowed to drive. So my hubby has been his driver ever since. He has been taking him to all of his therapys and to his work (Ben owns his own business). Laneda had to keep working because she had the insurance coverage. We have known both of them since our school days (many, many, many years ago LOL).
While in Florida, we noticed that his speech was getting worse and he wasn't walking very well. Hubby just let him lean on his shoulders a lot. So we just took it very easy. Swam in the ocean and played a lot of cards. After our return home, Ben went back to the doctor. It was not good news. He has another tumor that is rapidly growing and they can't do anymore surgery. They told Laneda that he only had a short time to be with us. We have been spending as much time with them as possible now. I am so glad that we decided to take our vacation when we did!

Needless to say... I am behind on getting my Etsy shop opened again. I am still working on some projects. Like this little ugly doll.

I am really hoping that I can get it going in the next week. I hope you will still come and check it out then.

Please pray for our friend Ben and his family!
Thank you

Kelly's Easter Chicks

{{{Here is the story of Kelly's Chickens that I thought I had already told}}}

I took Kelly to our local farm store around Eastertime last year and they had all these tubs full of chicks, ducks and rabbits. (They were cute) She asked me if she could get this little chickie that she was holding. I didn't have the heart to tell her NO so I said "ASK GRAMPY". Well as soon as she got home she went running to Grampy. She must have caught him on a good day. He said he didn't care. He remembered when our oldest daughter got one from her Uncle for Easter. It got loose and the cat got it. Didn't last long!


We went back to the store the next day to buy her little chickie.

We were trying to find the one she had picked out the day before when the salesclerk tells us that they don't just sell ONE. You have to get SIX...yes SIX!! So we picked out 3 of the fuzzy yellow ones and 3 of the little brown ones.
Now the fun begins!

We had to buy a feeder and some feed, a water jug, wood shavings and a heat lamp. Grampy must have forgot about all that. You should have seen the look on his face when we returned...priceless!!!
We had a dog cage stored in the attic and got them all set up in my garage.



Those things just kept growing. It wasn't long until I told Grampy that they were going to need a coop. So he told Kelly they would build them a little house. They gathered up some old lumber and started building this structure right in front of my garage. Grampy informed me that he would move it with the forklift after it was finished. It would be easier to build it there because it was closer to the saw. "OK" I said.


The neighbor across the street just had to come see what was going on. He had an old metal roosting area that we could have. Then he says "Looks a little big for a coop". So from then on our chicken coop has been named...


After they got it all built, we had to move it. Boy was that a chore. It was heavier on the side that had the roosting area and it wanted to tilt that way. I didn't get any pictures of this because I was to busy giving directions on where it was to go. But believe me it was quite a sight.
We have some pretty happy fat chickies now.


My Mom came over for a visit and she went out to see them. She says "When you going to butcher them?"

They are our pets now. You can let them out of the Chickie Mansion & they will follow you all over the yard. With all the eggs they are giving us...they know they are safe. They even have names...Omelet, Yoshie, Flapper, PeckPeck, Bossie and Peep. As you can tell, this is a learn as you go project. I don't even know what kind of chickens they are. Every time we go into the farmstore, they are probably wondering what question we are going to ask this time.
So that is the story of the Chickies!

LET ME OUT OF THE KITCHEN...PLEASE!!!!

Canning, Freezing and more Canning!!!


I'm beginning to fill like a prisoner in my own kitchen. Whew!!
The tomatoes are finally starting to end. I thank the cool nights for that.



I do want to try a recipe that I found to make Enchilada Sauce. I'll make that tonight and if it turns out ok, I will post the recipe.



The freezer is almost full also! I think I have enough zucchini to make zucchini bread for awhile. But my family could eat that or pumpkin bread every day if I would cook it.

Remember those chickens that Kelly got for Easter? (I think I posted before about the chick mansion that Kelly & Grampy built... LOL) {{{{ AFTER LOOKING THROUGH MY OLD POSTS, I SEE THAT I NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT THEM YET. SO THAT WILL BE ANOTHER POST.LOL}}}} Well, they are laying eggs now! We are getting about 6 eggs a day. So I got a pasta maker and we've been making our own noodles. Dang, am I becoming little Miss Homemaker or what???
I'm hoping to get this "Winter Food Storage" thing done soon.

On the 1st of October, Hubby & I are planning to go to Florida to stay with some friends for a few days. Thennnnn....I need to lock myself in my craft room and get some stuff done. I've closed my Etsy shop and plan on reopening about the 15th. You will have to check it out. I have some pretty cool things planned (pumpkins, turkeys and ugly dolls).

OK OK
Enough talking!
It seems that when I get on the computer, I could use up the whole day.
Later.....