Short & Sweet Weekend

A special someone is turning one in two days, so I’m in major party-planning mode this week. To keep it simple, here is a little scrapbook of our weekend:

On Saturday night, Steve and I caught dinner alone at a Mongolian barbecue restaurant, and we did a little Goodwill thrifting. Thanks to my in-laws for watching the boys for a couple of hours! :)

I cut Nolan’s hair (Nolan disliked), and we had cake for breakfast (Nolan liked).


At church, the girls in the youth group made delicious cupcakes that they auctioned off (chocolate peanut butter, chocolate raspberry, and caramel apple). Ephraim has had a lack of appetite for a week, but still has a thing for giant loaves of bread and whole bananas. :)

That small cake stand that the cupcakes are on? I bought two of them for $6 each at Home Goods last weekend, and I love them! The little scalloped edges are precious. I have been collecting classic white and clear glass pieces for parties and holiday décor. These stands add some style and height to a tablescape or mantel—you’ll be seeing them in my house a lot!

I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for their “Favorite Things Under $10” today!

Hope you had a nice, relaxing weekend!
Here’s to hoping we don’t get snowed in today!

Xoxo.

Friday Favorites

Friday, I am happy to see you! We have had a long week of being homebound due to snow and sickness. Nolan came down with something on Sunday night, and the poor guy is still coughing through the night, not feeling 100%. The rest of us have caught it from him, though it has manifested itself differently in each of us. I am so ready to get rid of this virus and hopefully get a full night’s sleep soon!

Here are some of my favorite things from the week!


Nolan’s going through a big Mommy phase lately. “Mommy, you’re my best mommy I ever seen-d” is a sentence I’ve heard a few times :) How sweet!



Ephraim loves to crawl over to the CD player to dance! He will bounce and dish out huge smiles until someone turns on the music for him! It is absolutely adorable.



My favorite baking experiment of the week was this amazing graham cracker toffee. It is sinfully good. I posted the recipe yesterday (so easy with only 4 ingredients)!



This was my best outfit of the week. Thank you for all of your advice about hair curling with curling wands, flat irons, hot rollers, and no-heat methods! I have plans this weekend to watch a lot of YouTube hair tutorials and try out some new tactics—and hopefully I’ll find something that works for my very long, very straight hair!

And just for kicks, I saw this photo on my computer from a “What I Wore” post exactly a year ago. I was 39 weeks pregnant with Ephraim! My life was majorly about to change :)




There is still another day to enter my giveaway to win this wonderful Christian marriage book, “Team Us: Marriage Together”! If you are looking to get on the same page with your spouse, I really recommend it. Click here to go back to Monday’s post and enter to win :)



Thank the Lord for these two wonderful products! We splurged on a temporal thermometer a few weeks ago, and I am so glad we did! You just swipe it across the kid’s forehead to get a quick reading. It works much better than trying to fight the kid to keep it in their mouth or other region of the body. I have used it so many times this week!

Children under four aren’t allowed to have cough medicine, unfortunately. This natural Zarbee’s syrup is for 2 years and up. It’s a blend of honeys to sooth irritated throats with zinc and vitamin C to support the immune system. AND it contains melatonin to promote peaceful sleep. I really think it’s been helping Nolan the past few days, though I wish I could do more for him!

Hope you have a healthy, relaxing weekend! Stay warm, and see you back here on Monday :)

Follow me on Instagram @floralandfudge

Linking up for Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika, & Narci.

Graham Cracker Toffee

Over a year ago, I posted a recipe for “Saltine Toffee” that was out-of-this-world, and SO easy! I’ve seen other types of toffees floating around Pinterest, and decided to give “Graham Cracker Toffee” a try. (Pretzel is next! :)  It turns out, it is just as delicious as its sister, but a little bit thicker to bite. It also has a slightly sweeter taste since grahams are more sugary than saltines. With only four ingredients, it can’t be any easier!

Ingredients:
10-12 sheets of graham crackers (A little more than one sleeve)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
(Optional: 1 cup chopped pecans or almonds)

Directions:   
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, or foil sprayed with nonstick spray. Break the grahams into fourths. Line them up evenly, filling the whole cookie sheet.



In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together the sticks of butter and the brown sugar. Stir continuously.



When it begins to boil, set a timer for 3 minutes, and continue to stir until the timer goes off. Remove the pan from the stove, and pour the liquid caramel over all of the grahams on the cookie sheet.



Bake the grahams for 7 minutes in the oven.



When you pull the grahams out of the oven, cover them evenly with all of the chocolate chips. After a few minutes, they will melt, and you’ll be able to spread the chocolate evenly with a spatula. (Sprinkle the nuts here, if desired.)



Once the tray has cooled a bit, put the toffee in the fridge for it to harden. When it has set, break the toffee into cookie-size pieces.



The flavor is unbelievable! Enjoy!

I tried a few bites with almond—also delicious!

What I Wore Wednesday

A while back, I realized that my closet seriously lacked long-sleeve shirts. I’ve been on the lookout ever since, and I found this cute “Merci” tee at JCPenney a few weeks ago. From far away you can’t tell, but looking closely, the letters are made up of tiny, round black beads. I picked it up with a coupon for only $5! I like how it looks when it’s layered underneath my black puffer vest.

I saved some of my Christmas money for a trip to Ulta on Saturday. I had read on a friend’s blog that hot curlers really worked on her stick-straight Swedish hair. My stick-straight Swedish hair is notoriously bad at holding a curl with a curling iron. So I thought I’d buy the curlers she recommended—and the fancy hair setting spray too. On Sunday before church, while the baby was taking a nice nap, I used the curlers for the first time and was slightly disappointed when I arrived at church with barely a curl. I blamed it on having freshly washed hair, and the fact that there was freezing rain involved.

I tried the hot curlers again before taking these photos. I used the spray, rolled up my hair, waited for the curlers to completely cool, took them out—and nothing stayed. As you can see, I had one nice kink on the right side of my face :) When I saw this in the photos on the camera screen, I was unimpressed, and quickly pulled my hair into a ponytail. I don’t really want to return the curlers, but I also feel like I wasted my money.

Is my hair just way too long for curlers and curling irons? Any advice?

“Merci” Tee | JCPenney a.n.a. Long-Sleeve Slub Jersey Tee
Puffer Vest | Old Navy
Jeans | American Eagle “Artist”
Clogs | Troentorp

I’m linking up with Lindsey, Alison, and Shanna today.

Our Long Weekend

This past weekend was a perfect mix of fun and rest. Before Steve officially started his spring semester (which is today), we wanted to get a good shopping trip done. Saturday was sunny with no snow on the horizon, so we had a nice hour-long drive to Target. We filled our red cart with good things; Nolan got a little Thomas train as a souvenir, and Ephraim came home with a pair of leather shoes. Ephraim and I were dropped off at Ulta, where my mouth dropped open by the sheer amount of makeup and choices! I bought some hair curlers, which I have not yet mastered (I’ll show you tomorrow). Hungry at 2 pm, we stopped at Applebee’s to split a hamburger and French Onion soup. Before we headed home, we visited Home Goods and Michael’s—I love browsing at those stores!

On Sunday, there was freezing rain, and we made our way down the street to church. After lunch with my in-laws, we cuddled up at home and watched “Cars 2” for the first time. Nolan was obsessed! Later on, Nolan started showing signs of a cold (fever, runny nose), so we laid low yesterday. The boys and I hung out at home all day, while Steve worked on his youth room remodel project at the church.

These little ones have such high highs and such low lows! Every day is a rollercoaster of emotions for both of them, and I do get quite tired at the end of the day. But oh my goodness, these are the days I’m sure I will miss the most!

How was your long weekend?