Banana Nut Bread and Orange Spice Cupcakes!

I started Weight Watchers 3 weeks ago and it is going great. The weird thing is, I generally hate to bake and now it is all I want to do. I don't necessarily want to eat what I bake, I just want to bake. Weird, huh? Today I made banana nut bread, my husbands favorite and Orange Spice cupcakes!  Forgive the mismatched seasonal wrappers, I am trying to use up all the extras I have and am going to just buy white from now on!

Orange Spice cake

• 3 cups cake flour sifted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp grated orange peel
• 1 1/2 orange extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together flour, baking powder, spices and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs, orance extract, orance peel and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute. Pour into cupcake liners. Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove and cool completely before decorating. Yeilds about 12 standard cupcakes.  ( I doubled this recipe)

The frosting is 3 tbls butter, 8 oz cream cheese, 2 tsp orange extract, and orange food coloring creamed togerther then slowly add 4 cups powdered surger.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Peppermint Bon Bon Cupcakes!

Peppermint Bon Bon icecream is my absolute favorite icecream.  I figured if it is good as icecream then it has got to be good as a cupcake. Not only are they delicious, they are super cute too!

I used a dark chocolate cake mix and a super simple cream cheese frosting, then decorated with mini chocolate chips!

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1/4 tdsp vanilla

2-3 tbls milk

green food coloring

Mix all wet ingredients, cream till well blended then add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time till smooth.

Super simple, right?

I'm back!!!!! In in my NEW Scraproom!

Wow - it has been forever since I have posted here on my blog.  I really have missed it, but have a good excuse, really, I do!  As most of my followers know, we live in rural North Dakota, out in the country.  But not any more!!!!  Once again, it is proven to me that good things come to those who wait!

Last April we got a letter from the county that the land right next door had been sold and they were planning an asphalt plant, gravel pit, shop, office and quarters for their staff.  Devastated, we went to the hearing and of course all of our concerns and pleas fell on deaf ears and the plan was approved.  Long story short, we sold our place in the country and started the house building process in town.

Our home sold in 2.5 weeks and we were out 10 days later.  We are experiencing the largest oil boom in the areas history, so housing is non-existent.  Part of the sale of our home was that the buyer provide a suitable home for our family till our house was complete.  My husband, our 3 teenagers and I moved into an apartment (sans all scrapping stuff, which was carefully packed away awaiting it's very own room in the new house!!!)  What an adventure apartment living was.

In addition to all that chaos, I quit my old part time job and started a full time job.  So with that, moving into our new home, the holidays and a wicked case of bronchitis that has held on for 6 weeks, this blog had to be put on hold.

The house turned out lovely, room for everyone.  We have had more company in the past 2 months than we had in 5 years out in the country.  We are settled in nicely and I finally have my scraproom all to myself and I'd like to share it with you.  I still have a lot of decorating to do but it is finally functional.  Voila:

I love, love, love my work table, plenty of room to scrap with friends!

I had this hutch at my old place but love it in my new space.  It closes up to hide all the mess but I rarely close it up!  The top shelves hold all my card stock, the drawers are so handy for all the things I constantly use.  It also houses my Cricut Expression.  So convenient.

Here is a peek inside one of the smaller drawers,  all my Stickles and embossing powders.  Pop dots are in another and adhesives in yet another!  So handy.

I used legal size hanging folders and pocket files to store my scrap paper in the large drawer to the lower left.   Each is for a different color and I have made it a habit to check here for paper before I cut a new sheet.  I am using way more scrap paper than I used to.

In this corner I placed my huge metal drawer cabinet and old printer table that my dear hubby painted black.  The printer table holds my Cricut Imagine and cannisters of primas sorted by color.

Here is a peek at how I store my cartridges in the huge file cabinet.

And my ribbon and Primas

And my stamps and ink.  I have converted many of my Stampin' Up! stamps to cling and they are stored in the CD cases on the right.

More importantly, I have begun to scrap again and am over the moon!  Please to enjoy my first few pages from my new favorite place on earth!

Happy New Year Everyone!