It's National Bake Cookies Day!

Happy National Bake Cookies Day Everyone! I hope your week has been going well and you are done almost done shopping for your Christmas gifts. 

Did you know that today is National Bake Cookies Day? I fully intend on taking some time this evening to celebrate this national day by baking a few dozen peanut butter cookies. 

In honor of this holiday, I wanted to share 10 Holiday Inspired cookie recipes with you! 

10 HOLIDAY INSPIRED COOKIE RECIPES 

Christmas Cutout Cookies 

Eggnog Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Chewy Molasses Cookies

Easy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Easy Snowmen Cookies

Holiday Snicker Doodle Cookies

Candy Cane Cookies

Candied Shortbread Holiday Cookies

Aren't these all so fun?! I am going to pin all of the recipes to Pinterest for safe keeping and will hopefully make some soon!

Question of the Day: What is your favorite cookie to bake?

Egg-less Gingerbread Cookies

Hello there readers! Today I wanted to share the egg-less cookie recipe with you all that I mentioned the other day when I shared about my cookie backing with my in-laws.  These cookies were easy to make and turned out with that beautiful cracking that you look for in a gingerbread cookie.  

Yummy!

HOW TO MAKE THE GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 2 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger
• 1 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
• 3/4 Cups (1 1/2 sticks) Butter, softened
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
• 1/2 Cup Molasses
• 1/4 Cup Canned Pumpkin
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 Cup Sugar, for rolling the dough in

Instructions:

Step 1 - In a large bowl, combine flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and nutmeg.  Set aside.

Step 2 - Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl on light speed until fluffy.  Add molasses, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix well.

Step 3 - Gradually mix in dry ingredients on slow speed until well mixed.  Let dough cool in the fridge for four hours or overnight

Step 4 - Preheat your oven to 350°

Step 5 - Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar to coat. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Step 6 - Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edge of the cookies begin to brown.

Step 7 - Let cool and enjoy!

These cookies were so delicious for not having any eggs in them! I should probably note that we did not refrigerate the dough for the entire four hours (more like 2 1/2) but they still turned out alright.

For the recipe that inspired these cookies, please go here. 

Question of the Day: What is your favorite egg-less cookie recipe? 

Life Threw a Curve Ball

Hi there readers! Happy Saturday! I hope your Saturday has been excellent you have something fun planned for this evening.  

I spent most of my day baking cookies with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew and niece and I had a blast.  We started this tradition a few years back and have it is something I look forward to each year. 

 

This year was a little different from years passed because McKenna was diagnosed with a peanut and egg allergy.  I had not idea how hard it was to come up with egg-less recipes until I started really looking around for recipes that either did not call for eggs or had something you can substitute for the eggs.  We were able to find one recipe that turned out pretty delicious - I will share the recipe with you on another day for sure. 

I wanted to share a more personal issue with you today as it is something that has been on my mind and has been upsetting me for the past week or so (which is why I've been a tad bit absent).

This is my Grandma.  She is a pillar in my life and a constant source of love and joy for me.  

She also is very sick.  

The day after Thanksgiving my Grandma was rushed to the ER with issues breathing and she has been there ever since then. 

 And I am devastated.

Currently, she is stable and showing slight improvement but our family is taking everything one hour at a time and we are holding our breath in anticipation of her recovery.  Grandma has been a pillar for our family for as long as I can remember - every Christmas is spent at her house and we often end up getting together at her house just to spend time as one large family.  

I am asking for my readers who pray, to please pray for her.  Pray for her health, that she would get better, for clear minds and clear hearts for those making decisions regarding her health, for my grandma to feel the love that is surrounding her and pray for our family as we continue to surround her during this difficult time.  If you are not the praying type, I ask that you keep her in your thoughts. 

I'm sorry for a sad post today, but I wanted to share with you all a little part of why I have not been as active on the blog the last few weeks.  You all are important to me and I truly value your readership.  

Question of the Day: What is one tradition you have that would not be the same if even one person was not present? 

Christmas 2014 Craft Roundup

Happy Hump Day Friends! I hope you are having an excellent week so far.  Today I wanted to share some fun Christmas crafts/decoration that I came across on Pinterest and I thought you all would enjoy.  I have not had a chance to work on any of these, but I'm hoping to get a few done by the end of the year as I am crazy busy getting ready for Christmas myself. 

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Christmas Garland by OnePerfectDayBlog

Snowmen Cupcakes from Cake Central

Golfer's Snowman Ornament from Full of Great Ideas Blog

Handmade Christmas Stockings from Martha Stewart

Christmas Tree Napkin from Handimania

Joy to the World Sign from Lilluna

 

Christmas Cheer Printable from Makoodle

Easy Christmas Art from Lilluna

Festive Penguins from Clearly Besotted

DIY Christmas Wall Art by Pens and Needles

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 These look so cute and so fun do they not?! I'm really hoping to get some of them done before Christmas comes AND goes (which it will do very quickly).  Also, make sure to check out my other pins on Pinterest for some more inspiration.

Question of the Day: What do you look the most forward to for Christmas?

Disclaimer: None of the items featured in this post are sponsored. The items featured are simply items I think would make fun projects this holiday season.

GlamST: Experience the power of makeup

Happy Tuesday Readers! How are you doing this Tuesday? I have been super busy spending time with family and friends which means I have been away from my computer a lot lately - I must apologize.  I'm working really hard to keep up with it and life is keeping me super busy!

Today I wanted to share with you a fun new iOS app that I was able to try and play around with over the weekend: GlamST.
About the Product
GlamST is an app for iOS that allows you to discover new makeup by choosing the styles you love and trying makeup on your photo. You can freely experiment from the comfort of your phone, try on makeup by snapping a selfie, choosing your style and seeing how makeup would really look on your face. Our goal is to make women feel comfortable with their choices and who they are daring them to experience the power of makeup and find the best-looking version of them.

Pros of the App:
This app is fairly simple to use, it has a wide variety of styles and inspirations to pick from, you can save the pictures for yourself for later reference, and you can get direct links to the makeup you would need to recreate the look.  Plus, you can try on different makeup looks without having to go through the hassle of buying the makeup and putting it on.  It allows you to not "like" a look without hurting your skin or wasting any time.   I should also add that you can do a side-by-side comparison of your plain face to the makeup look - such a neat concept!

Using the App:
Take or upload a photo of your face - it helps when your hair is pulled back to allow you to see your facial features.  Once your picture is loaded, adjust the red dots around your face to semi-match the sample in the lower left corner.  I had to move things around a little bit more because of my widows peak, but it was simple enough to put the dots around my face.

Adjust the red dots around your eyes and your eye brows.  The app did a good job framing my eye brows on it's own, so I did not adjust the eyebrow portion at all.  For the eyes, I had to play around a bit to get them to shape to my eyes.  I should note that you need to be as concise as possible with the placement of the dots around your eyes or the eyeliner/mascara will look silly.  It took me a few tries, but I got it right and the results were awesome.

Adjust the dots to match the shape of your lips.  You do have the ability to have your mouth open or closed - for me the mouth open function did not work for my teeth so I ended up closing my mouth, but it could very easily work for others.  

Once this is done, your photo will upload to the app and you will be able to try several different looks out.  It was so much fun watching my face transform as I tried the different styles out - I even tried out a few celebrity looks, but they were not all that awesome for my skin tone.  haha

Which one do you all like the best? I think I'm leaning to either the top left or the top right which is funny because I never thought I would like myself with "darker" lipstick on. 

Cons of the App: 
The app does not account for uneven facial features.  I am not smiling in the pictures because it could not work with my lips/eye when I would smile.  My left eye and left side of my mouth tend to lift higher when I smile and the app was unable to accommodate that "difference".  I would have preferred to have a smile on my face to get the full effect of what the makeup would look like. 

So what do you think? Don't I look so glamorous? It really was fun checking out the different looks and experimenting with different styles of makeup.  I think I would for sure fall under the "fresh" category as I tend to shy away from the more drastic looks, but I really liked seeing them on me none-the-less.  

For more information on the app and how to get it, please visit these links:

GlamST | iTunes Preview | Get the App
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

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Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by GlamSt, but the opinions expressed are my own.  I did not receive any compensation for this post.  Some affiliate links may be present, and as always, I appreciate the support.  

December: Month @ a Glance

Happy December Friends! 

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I trust you had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and were able to relax and enjoy yourselves and the good company of family and friends.  Justin and I were rather busy spending time with family but we had so much fun!

The month of December has some fun and exciting things on the calendar and with Christmas being my favorite holiday, I am looking forward to all of the exciting things on our calendar this month.

In Chronological Order:

• Craft Show with Infantly Cute
• Friendsmas Sleepover Extraordinaire  
• Cookie baking with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law
• Mani/Pedi with Danielle
• Family Christmas with my mom's family
• Cousin sleepover
• My grandma's 80th birthday party 

Other happenings in December: 

On top of all of those fun things, I am also going to try to keep up with my 2014 goals.  I missed the mark on my book last month, so I will try to make up last months book and read this months choice as well.  

• Read This Year I Will by M.J. Ryan
• Completed the 30 Day Burpee Challenge
• To do #JackabeeDaily2014 every day

I'm also hoping to get some Christmas craft tutorial up on the blog today to share with you all.  With Christmas right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to try and do some tutorials of my own.  

Also, I hope you all have been enjoying the #photoadayRWJ posts I've been hosting on Instagram! Here is December's copy:

Question of the Day: What fun things do you have planned in December?
I'd love to hear from you all! Either comment on the blog or reach out to me on Facebook.