March Mantle

I put up my Spring mantle a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to posting about it! AH! Life has been hectic. 

Annnnnyyyyyyywwwwwaaaaayyyy, HERE is my spring mantle from last year. I mixed it up a little bit this time with some other decor.

March Craft Club- T Shirt Scarves

This month, I had the girls work on creating spring scarves out of old 't' shirts.  I thought they did a great job, and they looked pretty cute in them afterward!  

My original post about these scarves....here.

And the tutorial I used from B.Cheniful....here

Hope your week has been fan-tabu-lous!!!!! :)

Tracy

Citrus Cream Cupcakes

OHHHHHH man. I haven't made these in a while, and they were looooooooonnnnnnnnggg over due! These little yum yums are delightful!

A touch of citrus...

+

A touch of cream....

=

mouthful of GOODNESS

What you need:

1 pkg.  yellow cake mix

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding

1-1/3 cups  Sour Cream, divided

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

2 Tbsp. orange zest

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tub   COOL WHIP, thawed

1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

What you do:

-HEAT oven to 350°F.

-BEAT cake mix, dry pudding mix, 1 cup sour cream, water, oil, eggs and orange zest in large bowl with mixer on low speed 1 min.; scrape bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into lined cupcake pan

-BAKE as directed on box for cupcakes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans 10 min.  Gently remove pans. Cool cupcakes completely.

-BEAT remaining sour cream and powdered sugar in large bowl with whisk until well blended. Stir in COOL WHIP.

-Ice cupcakes and garnish with mandarin oranges. (I put my topping in a ziploc, snip off the tip, and squeeze out my icing onto  the cupcakes. Makes it a quick process!) Keep refrigerated.

-makes 24 cupcakes

These are great for spring and summer!

Enjoy-

Tracy



Belletristic Skirt Society Meeting: Impatient with Desire

I know I have mentioned that I am in a book club before, but I don't think I have given much detail.  My book club consists of 7 fantastic ladies, and we call ourselves the Belletristic Skirt Society.

We have been meeting for almost 7 years! Needless to say, we are a very tight knit group . Each month a different member "hosts" the club meeting. She gets to pick the book for that month, and what we have for dinner. We all bring different parts to make the dinner (and dessert!) complete. We eat dinner, and talk about what has been going on in our lives. Then over dessert we discuss the book. A lot of times, the host will find book club questions for the book to start the conversation.  At the end of the meeting, we rate the book, and write the score down in our club record book.

We have a group page at 

goodreads

You can check out all the books we have read, and see what we rated them.

Now that you have been introduced to the Belle. Skirts, I wanted to share what we read for the month of February.

This is Angela, and February was her month to host. Angela picked the book

Impatient with Desire: The Lost Journal of Tamsen Donner

by Gabrielle Burton

Here is a brief description found at Amazon.com
The Donner Party
You know how some died.
Here's how some lived. 

"My heart is big with hope and impatient with desire."
--Tamsen Donner, a letter to her sister

In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed west on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives in California. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.

The Donner Party. We think we know their story--starving pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive--but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desirebrings to stunning life a woman--and a love story--behind the myth. Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire, Burton imagines this lost journal--and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation.

I really enjoyed this book. Being a fan of historical fiction, this book was very intriguing, and I couldn't put it down! It was a quick, easy read, yet not as light as many easy reads are. It is amazing what the Donner Party went through, and heart breaking to imagine being, like Tamsen, a mother just trying to keep her family alive.

 The format of the book was really well done, also. The book begins with the family already trapped in the mountains, and easily entwines the past before the journey began as well as major events during the journey.

This is a MUST READ!

Our March book choice is 

Unbroken: A World War II Story Of Survival, Resilience, And Redemption

by Laura Hillenbrand

We meet at toward the end of the month, so stay tuned to see what we all thought!

Enjoy the weekend-

Tracy