Guest Post with Scraps and Scribbles Plus A Giveaway!

Today, I will be swapping blogs and guest posting over at Scraps and Scribbles!  Come by and see what I've been up to and check out Courtney's great blog!

Hello Freckled Bug readers! I'm so happy to be visiting Andrea's awesome blog today.

I'm Courtney, author of Scraps and Scribbles. That's me with my goofball brother. I'm wife to my hunka-hunka hubby and a stay-at-home mom to one busy little 20-month-old boy. When I' not chasing after him, I love making beautiful things-be it crafts, food or photographs. I'm a bit of a fashion and make-up junkie-I just can't get enough of either! I started Scraps and Scribbles as the resting place for my projects and thoughts. Here are some of my projects:

Picture frame turned earring organizer

Scrabble tile pendant necklaces (I sell these in my Etsy shop)

Use your old mismatched silverware to make garden markers

This has to be my favorite-my Anthro-inspired Ruffle Tee

Today I'm going to share with you a delicious and easy cupcake recipe. It was one of my favorites as a little girl. Here we go!

Surprise Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar

Filling:

1 egg, unbeaten
1 cup chocolate chips
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all cupcake ingredients together and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl, blend filling ingredients together. Line or spray a muffin tray.

Fill muffin cups 1/3 full with cupcake batter,

drop in a large spoonful of filling

and cover with a spoonful of cupcake batter. Bake for 25 minutes. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. Or you can do them in a mini muffin pan for parties!

And there you have it-a simple, delish desert! Thanks so much for letting me visit today, Andrea!! I hope you all come by Scraps and Scribbles to say hi! I'd love to meet you!

Courtney has graciously offered one of her super cute rag bracelets as a giveaway to one of my readers!

Here's how to enter the giveaway:

1. Go and visit Courtney's Etsy shop and come back and leave a comment to tell me your favorite item.

2.  Be a follower of The Freckled Bug.

3.  Be a follower of Scraps and Scribbles.

There are three chances for entry.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

The giveaway will remain open until Monday, August 16 and the winner will be announced on Tuesday!
(winner will be chosen randomly!)

Thank you Courtney, for stopping by for a visit!  I must go make those cupcakes now!!

My new kitchen!

Recently, we revamped our kitchen!  I've been wanting to share, but had to round up some photos!  We really got brave and made some drastic changes, but I love it!

Check it out.

I forgot to take before pictures!!!!  I can't believe it.  I was so excited and preoccupied with emptying out the entire kitchen, I forgot.  Sorry.  So look beyond my little chef and see the back splash and stained cabinets.

I am an equal opportunity mother, so here in this background, you can see the walls, cabinets and back splash.  I promise, this was not a shameful ploy to show you more pictures of my girls!!

So here is the new kitchen!  We are still working on some new decorations and replacing the little lights over the bar area.  But it's definitely colorful and fun!

My dining room is the same color red as the island, so it kind of ties it together since you can see through to that room.

Well, I am off to make some breakfast!  Have a great day!

Let's get serious for a minute

Did you hear about the six teenagers who recently drown in the Red River?

Oh my gracious.  It's so sad.  The newspaper said that this is an area frequented by people who don't know how to swim.  Apparently, this is a place to go and barbecue and wade in the river.

This group of people had really just arrived when this happened.  They didn't even have the barbecue pit out of the car yet.  The adults watched helplessly as the kids drown.  None of them could swim.

My older daughter started taking swim lessons when she was 6 months old.  She went once a week until she was 5 and is now a great swimmer.  When my youngest was around 6 months old, I wasn't sure how I could make it work.  The swim school was 45 minutes away and I always had my older daughter with me.  If I were in a pool in a Mommy/Baby class, what would I do with her?  When the older was 1, they took her into a semi-private class and I was no longer needed in the water.  I was hoping they'd do this with my little petunia, but they had changed the rules and said they wouldn't take her in the pool without me until she was around 2 or 3!!  Well, folks, we all know that the second child is usually a bit more outgoing the the first and I thought if we waited that long, it would be like playing with fire.  I wanted her to learn to swim sooner.

I was then sent an email with a video attached to it.  My heart nearly beat out of my chest as I watched.

All I knew, was that I needed this program for my baby.

We found an instructor and signed her up.

This is my 11 month old baby floating in a pool.  You can learn about this program by visiting the Infant Swim Resource site.  I am so grateful for the survival skills this course has taught my child.  She has been to a refresher class each year and has since learned to swim as well as float.  Luckily, she hasn't had to use her survival skills for any accidental falls into the pool.  She has however, had a great time playing in the pool, fully supervised by adults, and swimming to her heart's content.

Right now, Infant Swim Resource, is in the running for a grant from Pepsi.  This would allow them to teach survival skills to underprivileged children who may not have access to lessons otherwise.

I have a button at the top of my sidebar.  You can go and click once a day to vote for this program.  You can also vote by texting a number to Pepsi.  It is also listed when you click through.

(The video is also on that page for you to watch!)

I am a true believer in giving kids tools in life to keep them safe.  I think this is a great program for helping to keep them safe...and alive.

P.S.  Please don't tell me I am a bad parent by teaching my kids to swim early in life.  I am not using swimming lessons as a way out of being a good parent who supervises my children.  I just want them to have EVERY CHANCE TO SURVIVE SHOULD AN ACCIDENT OCCUR.
I just had to say this.  Believe it or not, there are people who don't believe in teaching their kids to swim.

A real sweet heart

Many of you have heard of Locks of Love.  An organization that makes hairpieces for children that who have lost their hair due to different medical conditions.  About 5 years ago, I donated my hair to Locks of Love.  It took me two years to grow it long enought to get the 10 inches needed for a donation!  I was inspired to do this because my oldest sister was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2003.  Today, she is a healthy SURVIVOR!

This brings me to my real sweetheart.  My older daughter decided a while back that she wanted to donate her hair when it got long enough.  She wanted to get it cut at the beginning of the summer, but it wasn't long enough yet.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I was going to get my hair done and she decided it was time.  We got out a ruler and started to measuring.  We were still short for Locks of Love.  I had heard about a program that Pantene was doing that made wigs for women with cancer.  So I checked it out.  It is called Beautiful Lengths and you only need 8 inches!  So my little girl with a really sweet heart decided to go for it!

Here she is!

Before

After

She looks completely adorable with this haircut and she makes me so proud!

Birthday outfit

Summer is filled

with birthdays for my family.  June and July are pretty heavy.

My great niece Raegan just turned two and I made a little outfit to send her way last week.

I made the Modkidboutique Julia skirt and embellished a little tank.

The pattern has an option to make the skirt "less full".  I thought for this little peanut, I would try that.

If you have or sew for little girls, I highly recommend Modkidboutique's patterns.  They are so cute and very easy  to follow.  They even have patterns for matching doll clothes! 

I had considered putting two ruffles on the top, but decided to do something a little different and made a bow out of the second piece of fabric.  I then covered a button with fabric and finished it off!

I hope she likes it!

Happy Birthday Raegan!

Birthday Chair

Awhile back I came across a super cute birthday chair at SnowyBliss.  I thought it was the cutest thing

and vowed to make one for my kids.  So a couple of weeks ago, I went on the hunt for an old chair and a friend of mine came up large for me and got me one for FREE!

I recovered the seat, spray painted it and went to town with some rhinestones, ribbons and flowers for finials.

I know it looks a little over the top, but this is Texas and there are a lot of things around here that are over the top!

The birthday girl sure felt special sitting in it and it's ready to go into the attic until the next birthday.

I hope it will be a fun tradition for my girls to look forward to each year on their special day.

I am linked up for some more party time!

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It was a rip-roaring party!

Well, my big girl is now 7!  We can't believe how she has grown.

How does it go so quickly? 

We had a pool party on Saturday and had such a great time.  I asked her if she had a fun party

and she said, "I had an awesome party."  What a sweetie.

I wonder what she wished for...

Here she is with some of her friends and little sister.

She saved the gifts from us for yesterday, which was actually her birthday, to prolong to gift opening.

She loved it all.  See the little lounge chair on the table?  It's from Build A Bear and her American Girl fits in it perfectly.  She louged by the pool in it yesterday while we swam!

After a nap for mom and the little petunia, we headed out for some sushi and fried oreos to celebrate

the birth of our first princess and off to Target to spend a gift card.

It was a great day!