V-day Brownie Pops

For the most part, I've shyed away from sending sweets in my hubby's care packages. With Christmas, they were all showered with more sugar than they could eat over there! Instead, he mostly asks for office supplies or healthy snacks such as granola or dried fruit. Since Valentine's day was this month, I decided to make an exception, and create a special treat for the hubby to share with his co-workers.

Cake pops have become my latest obcession. My hubby mailed this book to me for Christmas, and I've been crazy about them ever since! I love all of the fun, interesting designs you can make. My goal is to progress enough that I can have some really cute, animal shaped ones for my daughter's second birthday in a couple of months. But for now, I mostly focus on the plain, dipped and sprinkeled cake pops on a stick.

Since I had some brownies frozen and ready to be used for a special treat, I decided to make hubby's cake pops with brownie bits!

Directions:

 Crumble the room temperature, bakes brownies into little pieces and then quickly form them into small balls. Lay them out on parchment paper. My goal was to work as quick as possible, so that the brownie balls wouldn't wam up too much. (With regular cake pops, you mix icing in at this stage, but the brownies were gooey enough that they didn't need the extra help).

 

Then, place them in the fridge for awhile, until they became nice and firm. While you wait, set out the rest of your supplies:

Sticks

Candy melts

Sprinkles

Baggies and twistie ties

Styrofoam block with pre-cut holes (candy sticks work best to cut the holes)

Bowl for melted candy melts

Bowl for spinkles

When the brownie cake balls feel firm the the touch, take them out and set them on the counter. (If you have a large batch, you might want to take a few out of the fridge at a time, so that they stay nice and cool).

Next, melt the candy coating at 30 second intervals, being careful not too overcook. You want a nice, deep bowl for this, so that the pops can be covered completely in one dip (more dips cause the balls to break into pieces).

Dip the end of each stick into a bit of the candy coating, and then insert in a brownie cake ball. Stand the brownie pops in a piece of styrofoam with pre-cut holes.

After the sticks are inserted, you might want to give them a few minutes to harden inside of the brownie ball.

Next comes the fun part! Quickly dip each brownie pop into the candy coating in one smooth motion. Carefully twirl the pop to get off any excess coating. Cover with sprinkles, and then return to styrofoam block to dry!

Tada!

They're messy, but they taste amazing! Now I just need to work on creating a cleaner, more refined, finished product.

After the cake pops dry completely, cover them with special treat baggies, or saran wrap, and tie with twist ties. Share and enjoy!

Deployed Heart Wreath

I have to admit, the weekends are definitely the worst. During the weekdays, it feels almost as if my hubby is just working long hours. On the weekends, I notice even more that he's not around. To help fill in the hours, I try to come up with creative crafts for me (and sometimes little E), to do. This was a craft I pretty much did completely during E's naptime, so it really didn't take long at all. I got the idea from here:

After seeing this heart rag wreath, I looked up some information online.

If you'd like to make one as well, the directions are below:

1) First you'll need approx. 4 yards of fabric, give or take.  

2) You'll also need a straw or wire frame to work off of (some people actually bend a wire coat hanger!).

Heres a picture of the wire frame I found: 

3) Next, you cut or tear the fabric into strips.  This blog suggests 6 inches by 1 inch. This blog said to vary the widths and make it more like 10 to 12 inches long. (She also found her wreath at the dollar store, ha!).

4) Start tying!  I used about  2 yards for each color. Sometimes I tied the strips over a single rung, sometimes two at a time.

5) For the deployed heart look, I tyed half of the heart with the cameo colors, and the other half with pink.

6) Ta da! You have your own deployed heart wreath to proudly sport on your front door! I've contemplated adding some name tapes, but this is how it stands for now (sorry that the pictures are sideways) :

Fall Followers Fest

Today I'm linking up to the Fall Followers Fest. It's a great way to meet new bloggers and get a lot of fun Fall ideas. Check out Casey Wiegands blog to join up.

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 So many memories come to the forefront at this time of year. I remember highschool with its bonfires and apple orchards. Drive-in movies with friends in college. New love, ripe and fresh. Saying "I Do" to the man of my dreams. Exporing new parts of this beautiful world with my man by my side. Holding my daughter in my arms for the first time. And, this year, puting my Airman on a plane to fight a war overseas. Some memories are more bittersweet than others, but that's life, isn't it? It's mixture sweet & bittersweet that makes us who we are.

And so, this Fall, during one of those bittersweet times of life, I try to focus on the good. I immerse myself in Bible studies and playgroups. I take my little girl on long walks to breathe in the Fall air. I dress her up as an adorable little ladybug. And I send Fall to my Airman in a package.

 Homemade Granola

  "May the name of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him" (Daniel 2:20-22, HCSB).

I'm so glad that God is in control of the seasons. It gives me hope as I live through this rather bittersweet Fall. It's nice to know that Fall is followed by winter and then followed by Spring. Spring is something I'm definitely looking forward too.

What does God being in control of the seasons mean to you? What is your favorite way to experience Fall?