A New Aid in the Kitchen

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I got a new toy over the weekend. I'm pretty sure from the hint I gave yesterday that most of you figured out that I got a new mixer:) And you are right! I got a brand new shiny KitchenAid mixer this weekend....kind of an early Mother's Day gift {and a Hey, I've got a 20% off coupon at Kohl's kinda thing too}!

 My old KitchenAid mixer was still kicking after almost 9 years, but it was just barely getting by. When I bake, I bake big...meaning dozens of dozens of cookies, and my old mixer honestly just wasn't big enough. So I did a little research and little price comparison and decided to go with the Professional 600 Series mixer in a lovely shade of Pearl Metallic.

 The box said it could hold up to 14 cups of flour! As soon as I saw that I was sold....that means I can make a triple batch of my chocolate chip cookie dough without straining my new mixer when before my older model was groaning with a double batch.

Here is a shot before she even took her first spin....full of sugar, brown sugar, and eggs:

 And this is what she looks like with a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough:

 And one of the best parts about making cookie dough....getting to clean the beater:) This beater is way bigger than my old one too which means twice as much cookie dough left on the beater!

Now I'm off to scoop, bake, and cool dozens of dozens of cookies for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Miscellany Monday

A.

Teacher Appreciation Week starts today, which means my craft room is full of fun teacher gifts that have to be glued, painted, and assembled. Today I sent a fun little bag of highlighters with THIS cute printable on it! Such a fun and easy idea! I have few more things started, but I still have a lot to make too:) Plus I have to send cookies Wednesday and Thursday! I think this may be a busy week!

B.

This weekend I got a new toy that is going to make mixing all that cookie dough a lot easier! I will share a picture with you went I get it up and running on her maiden voyage tomorrow:)

C.

We officially started using our Countdown to Summer Board today....19 days until summer!

If you haven't entered the Elmer's Craft and Tell giveaway, you still have a few more days to win some crafty goodies that you could use to make your own Countdown to Summer Board!

D.

We finally got all the boys' Easter candy put away last night. Seriously there was just so much stuff that it was daunting....so I let it sit on the kitchen counter for over a week! Sad I know, but I told Jason he had to help me clean it up because if he didn't I would want to eat all of it:) Easter candy is evil...and clearance Easter candy is even worse!

E.

Jason and I did the Cinch 5 Day Fast Forward again this week. I am down 10 pounds this morning from what I was last Monday morning! I am SUPER excited and I am also determined to keep it off this time and lose more. I am slowing inching my way toward my Disney World goal:) We are going to Disney in August of this year, so I know I need to be in pretty good shape so I don't die of heat exhaustion....and so I can wear some cute shorts too:)

F.

I have a few giveaway posts I hope to get ready for y'all this week and I have a few guest post to work on too so there may not be a whole lot of crafting going on this week {other than all the teacher appreciation stuff I'm working on}.  I do have a fun Cinco de Mayo snack to share with you and hopefully I can get it up before the actual holiday so if you want to give it a try you can!

Countdown to Summer Board

Yesterday I shared with you how I won a great giveaway full of fun Elmer's craft supplies, and I also gave you a sneak peek of the project I created with them. Today I have the full step by step for you just in case you want to create your own Countdown to Summer Board....and if you enter the Craft and Tell Giveaway {you still have a few more days to enter}, you may be the lucky winner and get some of the same crafty goodies that I used:)

I started my Countdown to Summer project with the Elmer's Bi-Fold Foam Board and some fun summer fabric. I sprayed one side of the foam board with spray adhesive and attached my fabric to it.

To hold down the edges of the fabric on the backside of the board, I used the Elmer's Glue Dot Runner.

I used my hot glue gun to add some decorative trim, ribbon, and a fun polka dot paper clip to hold the countdown numbers.

I printed out my countdown numbers on blank 3X5 notecards. I used a fun font {Summer Funkyness from Kevin & Amanda} to give the board a little bit of whimsy:)

I used my Cricut to cut out letters that say "Days til Summer".  If you don't have a Cricut, you could easily write this by hand or print it out in a fun font that matches your numbers. I attached the letters to a piece of colored cardstock and then I attached the cardstock to the fabric covered board with the Elmer's glue dot runner.

 I used my X-ACTO knife to cut two small X's in the top of the foam board for my ribbon hanger.

For the ribbon hanger, I simple pulled a piece of ribbon through the board and then tied a knot on the front to hold it in place. To finish off the project I added a cute fabric flower and a little more ribbon.

And now we are ready to Countdown to Summer!

The boys last day of school is on May 20th so I'm thinking our countdown is going to start May 1st and we will countdown to the last day of school!