My favorite little dessert..these days

It's gooey cake. If you haven't heard of gooey cake, well you are in for a treat! A decadent, delicious, and very fattening (but so worth it) treat. I have experiment with this recipe several ways. My favorite has been to exchange a yellow cake mix with devil's food cake mix and adding Ghirardelli chocolate to the top mixture. OMG good! I promise there won't be any left no matter who you serve this to! My husband took it to work for their Thanksgiving potluck. It didn't even make it to the potluck. They did all but lick the pyrex dish!


EASY GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 c. butter
1 egg
1/3 c. cream cheese softened

GOOEY BUTTER:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 lb. box confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together cake mix (just the mix, not the other ingredients called for on the box) with butter and 1 egg. Pat into an ungreased 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Cream together cream cheese, 2 eggs, powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour over cake mixture. Spreading to the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Thanksgiving

I'm a little late posting this, but oh well! We had an amazing Thanksgiving and hope you and your families did too. We did little crafts with the kids + pinecones + Elmers + construction paper. You will have to try it next year. They are super adorable and awesome centerpieces and keepsakes.

Sock Monkey Santa Ornaments

Let these adorable sock monkey santa ornaments brighten your holidays and your tree! They make perfect little gifts for your sock monkey friends.

Free holiday cards

OMG is looking for people to volunteer their family picture to design Christmas & Holiday cards. Please send submissions to ohmygluestick(at)yahoo(dot)com with FREEHOLIDAYCARD in the subject. Deadline for submissions is November17th.

Submitting your picture gives OMG the right to use it in card samples on ohmygluestick(dot)com and/or ohmygluestick(dot)blogspot(dot)com. These will not be used for any other purpose. In return, you will receive a free digital card to print for friends and family.

Get your craft on with a Michaels coupon!

Take 45% off one item at Michaels. Expires October 31, 2009.

Click here to get the printable coupon:
http://www.aaasouth.com/newsletter/1009/michael_45Offer.pdf

Crafty Halloween

It's that time of year and we are gearing up for our second annual costume party. I haven't been able to do any Halloween crafts this year and I am a little disappointed. However, I did so many last year that I think I'm covered. It's my absolute favorite time of year and the crafts are my favorite part. My oldest is now to the point she really gets in to it. We have all had our yucky stints of illness, so there haven't been any opportunities for us to craft. Now we are in a mad rush to get everything together for the party and I am so thankful I did so much last year.


The Haunted House was constructed out of random size boxes glued together and painted black. The picket fence was constructed from wooden sticks (which I cut to give the peak at the top) and hand wired, then painted black. The windows were made of construction and tissue like construction paper. Dried moss was stuff in painted toilet paper rolls disguising as planters.

At night, the house is all light up to give an extra creepy effect and to highlight the ghost shadows in some of the windows.

This spider was made from dough and hung with decorative ribbon.

The egg sack was made with bandages, glue, & a balloon. After the glue dried, the balloon was popped and the spiders were added.

My daughter made the fuzzy spiders with black balls and pipe cleaners. Hubby glued on the googly eyes and I adhered the finished product to our thank you notes and attached them to

the guests' goody bags. The mummy were so simple. I cut strips from a clothe diaper and wrapped around pop sickle stick then added googly eyes.

Luminaries are awesome at night. It gives the house an orange glow. All you need is a milk jug, strand of orange lights, scissors, and a marker. Voile!

These little ghosts were stuffed everywhere. I had gobs of this white sheery fabric that I stuffed with plastic grocery bags, secured with a pipe cleaner, and shoved a skewer inside to give it a stick for placing in vases and in the ground. These lined our driveway as well. I used the same ghosts without the skewers and hung them from fishing line one to each end. Then I threw the line over a tree branch and had instant party atmosphere.

Easy peasy with this wreath. Pretty ribbon, branch wreath painted black, a few pieces of leaf garland, and some handmade fleece owls. Secure with glue and hang.

I have a few more fun things to share, so keep your eyes peeled. Enjoy!

Are you a re-gifter?

As we approach the holidays there is always the mention of re-gifting. Personally, I think it's tacky and it has happened to me on a few occasions. I understand the practice of giving something you don't need to someone else, but I think it's distasteful to disguise it as a thoughtful gift. You are lying about the fact you thought of this person, came across X and thought, "this is SO perfect for so and so!"

For instance, one of my bridesmaids had given me a crystal frame as a wedding present. I have no crystal anywhere and have never expressed an interest in crystal. Here's the kicker, a few months before she was cleaning out her storage closet and showed me the mass of wedding gifts she received herself that weren't her taste. These were items she couldn't return, because she hadn't registered for them and didn't know where they came from. Guess what was in her pile? Yep, the crystal frame. I don't think she recalled showing it to me, and I didn't have the nerve to call her out on it. Instead, I politely thanked her and sold it for 50 cents in a garage sale.

Another time after my daughter was born, I received one piece of a three piece set. I would never have known it had three pieces had the tag not been left on that said "three-piece-set." My only assumption can be that the piece left wasn't needed and was re-gifted to yours truly. I couldn't bare to ask my friend where the other pieces were. More than re-gifting, I can't stand to be all-out lied to and can totally tell when this person does it.

For my son's baby shower, I got a mishmash bag of items that were so obviously re-gifts that it made me want to cry. The person giving this bag of items had just had her baby shower months before and I couldn't be there due to another commitment. I felt like this was a punishment for missing her shower.

Money is tight, and I of all people understand that. I would just rather not have anything at all than to be the person who gets the junk you can't return for store credit. If it's not from the heart, don't give it. If it's something you think someone else can use, be upfront with them about it. Tell them you have something you can't use and ask them if they need or would like it. That earns bonus points with me. More than gifts, I would prefer time with my friends and especially like the offer of a sitter for an hour so I can go to the doctor or run an errand the kids wouldn't enjoy.

An alternative to re-gifting is Craig's list. It's amazing! For free you list your unwanted item and you get money in return to buy something you do want or really need! That's the best gift ever! I paid for my kiddo's car seat selling unwanteds on Craig's list. How awesome is that?

What's your take on re-gifting? Do you have yucky stories you want to share? I'd love to hear them!