Advertisement Space Winners!!

I loved looking at all of your blogs, websites and shops that you entered to win the 2 advertisement spaces for this month! Thank you all for entering! After MUCH deliberation 2 were chosen! (I decided to pick one blog/website and one shop)

Winner of the etsy store advertisement

the artist 

I will take literally all the help I can get advertising my new Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BisforBrown

The winner of the blog advertisement

Patrice 

I need to get some vistors to my blog design site...
http://www.purrfectdesigns.blogspot.com/

Congrats to you both! And I'll start doing these advertisement spots more often! Don't Forget...I sell advertisement spots on my front page for just $5 a month! I also give my sponsors first choice of when they would like to guest post, or do a giveaway here to help promote their blogs/stores! Email me here to inquire about spots! I have a special deal right now of $15 for 4 months of advertising!

Even if you don't want to have an advertisement- don't forget- you can always email me here if you want to guest post or giveaway! It is an awesome way to get more eyes viewing your store or blog!

Blogger Bonanza {Caramel Apple Cheesecake }

Hi!  My name is Kenzie Keck, and about a year ago I started a blog called Keck's Cakes.  I have always loved baking, and when I got married, I finally had someone to help taste test all my recipes!  My husband encouraged me to start this blog.  Some of the recipes I make up on my own, and others I find on other baking websites or on Pinterest.

For now, this is a baking blog, but I plan to start adding dinner recipes instead of just deserts.  I also love crafting, so I hope to add some crafts to this blog soon!

This recipe for Caramel Apple Cheesecake is one of my own, and it has been a huge hit every time I have made it.  I have had several people ask for the recipe.  I hope you enjoy it as well!

First, crush 1 1/2 cups of cinnamon graham crackers.  With a fork mix in 1/4 a cup of sugar and 1/4 a cup of melted butter.  You may need to add more butter, it's really important that the crumbs stick together.  Press into a 9in springform pan all over the bottom and an inch or two up the sides. Bake the crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Next, melt 14oz of caramel squares (This part takes forever.  Luckily my husband volunteered to unwrap them ... and eat a lot of them).  If you buy a bag at the grocery store the bag will likely be 14 oz, so you will need to unwrap all of the caramels.  Melt these together with 2/3 of a cup of evaporated milk over medium high heat. 

Once melted, pour one cup (about half) of the caramel mixture on top of the graham cracker crust.  It should look like this ...

Next, using a mixer, mix together 2 8oz packages of low fat cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 Tablespoon of flour and 2 eggs until the mixture is smooth and creamy. 

In a separate bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups of chopped, peeled apples, 1 tablespoon of flour, and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.  Chopping apples is also a great job for husbands or roommates. :) 

Combine the apples with the cream cheese mixture and pour into the crust. 

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  Then, pour the leftover caramel mixture over the top (you may have to reheat it) and bake an additional ten minutes.  

You can cook this cheesecake in a water bath if you prefer.  All you do is put an inch of water into a baking pan and put the cheesecake in the water.  You definitely need to make sure that no water can get into your cheesecake pan.  Putting it in a water bath can reduce cracks in the top of your cheesecake.  I normally don't do this because usually I don't care about presentation, and this one has caramel on top, so you can't really see the cracks anyways.

Let cool for about 30 minutes and then refrigerate.  I left this one in the fridge for 5 hours. The best way to cut it is with a knife dipped in warm water, this way the caramel won't stick to the knife. This cheesecake was devoured before I had a chance to take a picture of the finished product!  It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Moving

After 23 years in the same house, my parents have decided to move. It is only about 4 miles away from our current house. But they are moving nevertheless. I had the privilege to be asked to come home this weekend, and box up my life. It resulted in 4-5 garbage bags for goodwill, 2 garbage bags sent to my little cousins' for hand me downs, and 4 garbage bags of trash. Oh and these boxes which contain the important things from my life.

I had to say goodbye to mural I started working on my freshman year of high school, and never finished. And the growth chart from the inside of my closet.

But my sister and I did get a sneak peak of the inside of our new house!

So far, I am LOVING it! Especially the bookcase, that is actually a secret door. I had no idea people ACTUALLY made those! It will still be a few weeks until the actually moving process begins!

Shabby Apple {Giveaway}

This week I was contacted by the infamous Shabby Apple! Of course I jumped at the chance to do a giveaway with such a great store! First things first....I got to pick out this LOVELY necklace...that will soon be owned by one of you!

I loved the name "The White Rabbit's Time Keeper" of course I am an Alice in Wonderland lover! The have a whole line of whimsical vintage jewelry out with that theme!

Here are a few of my other favorites~ they have dresses, swimsuits, accessories...all sorts of goodies!

Gorgeous!!

Also they want to give all of you the opportunity to get 10% off using the code lawstudent10off

(the code will stay valid for 30 days)

Ready to find out how to enter for this necklace?

Be a follower here at LSJ and do one or all of the following!

1. Like Shabby Apple on facebook- then comment here saying you did!

2. Check out Shabby Apple's website, tell me what your favorite thing is there!

3. Comment telling me what you would wear with your necklace!

4. Follow LSJ on facebook-comment saying you do

And that is it...The Giveaway will be open for 2 weeks! 11/11

(must have a US address to win)

Easy $5 Garter

The best friend of my sister's (well and a good friend of mine!) got married this weekend! Last minute she asked me to make 2 garters (one to keep, and one to throw of course!) I've never made a garter before, but decided to give it a try!

I was PLEASANTLY surprised at how well it turned out. Well here is my secret! I knew I could decorate it like she wanted (with the singed flowers and rolled flower) but I worried about the elastic band part. I had a genius idea....a baby headband!!

I looked around for a white baby headband at a few stores...and surprisingly found the PERFECT one at the dollar store!! Shocking right?! It was the PERFECT size. I measured my thigh about 21 inches. It fit perfectly for me, but it could have been much smaller, maybe an inch bigger? But I'd say I have an "average" thigh for those of you thinking about trying this!

Then on the one I made for her, I used elastic lace and elastic thread to sew on the lace she wanted behind the garter. But you can make them simple like these in the above photos. Just a few flowers, and pearls.

You can even use blue thread, to add your "something blue" or decorate them with other goodies!

Now I call it the $5 garter because of the extra scrap fabric, elastic lace, pears etc that you may not have laying around. But if you have most of the material- think of it as a $1 garter!

Blogger Bonanza {Mummy & Owl Oreo Pops}

Howdy Everyone! I'm Jessica from Stress Baker and Kitty has graciously allowed me to do a guest post today on her fabulous blog! Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought I'd show you all how to make these little guys:

Mummy & Owl Oreo Pops!

Aren't they cute?  Well I'll let you in on a little secret - they're super easy to make!

Here's what you'll need:

Double stuffed Oreos (Seriously get the double stuffed - the regular ones aren't thick enough for the stick)

Almond bark (melted) - chocolate for the owls, white chocolate for the mummies

Chocolate chips - for the mummies' eyes

White chocolate chips - for the owls' eyes

Candy corn - for the owl beaks

lollipop sticks (I found mine at Hobby Lobby but I think they have them at Michael's too)

peanut butter

This is really easy!  You just start out by putting the stick into the cookie and put a good amount of peanut butter on one side of the cookie like so:

I think I probably ate about five of these before actually completing a whole owl pop, so resist the temptation if you can! Next you're just going to dunk the peanut butter side into the the melted almond bark and lay onto a piece of wax paper un-dunked side down.  While the almond bark is still wet, go ahead and set the faces up.

Let them rest and cool.  You can always pop them in the freezer/fridge in a pinch so that they dry faster.  After they're dry, go ahead and dunk the other side, making sure everything is covered. Lay them face side down. Allow them to dry completely.  And while you've got some free time, feel free to check me out at Stress Baker!

Here's where the directions divide a bit: Mummy directions are directly below and owls are a bit further down.

Mummies:

When the mummies are dry, place some melted, slightly cooled, white almond bark into a pastry bag fitted with a flat or round tip; zipper bags always work great too! When I say slightly cooled, please learn from my experience - that stuff is HOT! and it burnt my little finger.  So save your fingers!

When you're ready with the almond bark, make zig zag patterns so that the pop looks kinda like this:

You can either leave these little dudes without pupils or you can use a toothpick, dip it into some leftover white almond bark and give them little pupils.  Either way, they taste great and look really cute!

Owls:

To finish up the owls, you simply place a toothpick into dark almond bark and give the little guys some pupils.  The end result are these cute little critters!

Thanks for having me Kitty! Feel free to stop by and say howdy anytime y'all!

Have a Happy Halloween!

New Items+Discount Code!

It has been a while since I've talked about my thriving etsy shop! I recently added this new item

 the personalized initial hanger.

The wedding hangers have been SUCH a hit that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a little change with the hanger! Plus with the jewelry hanger tutorial I had here, I already had hangers with little screw eyelets available!

Oh and it's only $5 for the wire letter! You can't find a better deal than that!

I also added this new necklace

And Kevin has a few new invites in the shop as well since I've last posted about them!

So feel free to check out the new items (and old) in the shop! Use the code "FRIENDS" for 10% off!

Blogger Bonanza {Painted Frames} +Discount Code

Hi! I'm Dani....

I blog here at Me and My "new" Life

I'm super excited to be blogging over here at A Law Student's Journey.

And guess what lovelies....It's my first guest post! Special!

My little piece of blog heaven is mostly about being a single momma to this little Bug:

And in the little spare time I do have...(nap times and after about 8)

I craft!

You name it...I try it.

My life took an unplanned u-turn 2.5 months after the birth of my daughter, my husband decided this life was too hard and gave up...leaving me to figure things out for the first time ever on my own. Today we're working on things...the outcome is unknown...

So until then...Little chick and I are living it up in full on girl mode:

I've decided to go bold and go pink...

My first girl casa project besides Makena's room was jazzin' up some old picture frames...

1. Take random frames...try to be artsy and take awesome shot:

2. Base coat...not really needed, but more reason to use spray paint:

3. Take artsy shadow picture:

4. Spray LOTS of hot pink...what better way to say, "I am girl..."

5. Beachy blue...I love you:

6. Artsy shot:

7. Hang happily...

8. One day finish putting pictures in frames...

9. Admire you're lovely work of art and say..."Mi casa es bonita!" 

10. Learn spanish...my daughter is half hispanic...must learn!

Super inexpensive and soooo much fun! And really...who doesn't want to use spray paint!

So, there you have it! 

You can also check out my other crafty goods here in my Etsy Shop

Enter the code LAWSTUDENT for 10% off your order...A little goes a long way for my little and I!

Don't forget to check out my BLOG!

xo,

Dani

Glass Bottle Windchime

I showed an easy glass cutting technique here. And I thought I'd show my progress after a bit of practice. First I came to the realization I wasn't sure what to do with the tops- so I made them into a wind chime!

Just a bit of string and wire I bent to make this project!

I also have gotten better at the straight edges, and used wet/dry sandpaper to polish off the edges. Although they appear smooth enough for drinking glasses (which was my goal) I'm still looking into more projects I could do with the empty glasses!