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MINI PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CHEESECAKES

Happy Easter All! It's Good Friday and I'm excited to be sharing something yummy with you!

My husband's family is not big on dessert. They generally don't have it with a family dinner (GASP! I know). But, every Easter, they have always had pineapple upside-down cake. It's the one holiday they have a dessert tradition. I thought I would throw a little twist on it for them this year - Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecakes!

When I first took these out of the pans, I was disappointed. I thought they were a huge fail. Turns out, a few hours in the fridge was all they needed! (plus, a little help from the scrumptious hubby and The Enabler with the taste testing)

Pineapple Upside-Down Mini Cheesecakes

1 can pineapple slices, drained
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 box pineapple cake mix and ingredients to prepare
2 - 8oz. packages cream cheese (light is ok)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
jar of maraschino cherries

I used a mini cheesecake pan, but I think this would work better with a muffin tin or even the small individual squares pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter over low heat, add brown sugar and stir over low heat until brown sugar dissolves. Prepare cake mix per instructions on the box. In another bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar. Add one egg at a time mixing on low until combined. Spray the pan with cooking spray.

In each individual opening, place 1 tsp brown sugar and then top with pieces of pineapple (I just broke mine apart to fit). Top with 1 tbsp cheesecake mixture and then 1 tbsp of pineapple cake batter.

You may want to adjust the tbsp or tsp of batters per the size of your pan. Just do not fill them more than 3/4 full. Bake for 23-26 minutes). Remove from oven and cool 10 min. Run a knife around the edge and carefully tip out. Cake should be on the bottom. Once completely cooled, refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Before serving, top each with cherries. Makes 36.

Note: You can also make this in a cake pan (9 inch), but I would not add all of the cake batter.

YUM! YUM! Fresh and fun! I hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Linking up to these fantastic blog parties!! Go check them out!
Love of Family and Home Inspire Me Please Party
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$Lil\'Luna$

TV CABINET TO PANTRY

Happy Thursday! What a crazy weekend for us! The Bug's birthday was this past week and there were tons of special things going on! More on that later!

I don't know about you, but this nutty weather in March has got me all mixed up. It's warm outside, it's snowing, it's nice outside, it's snowing... you get the idea. Well, lucky for me, the scrumptious hubby and I took advantage of one nice weekend to tackle a project that has been in my brain for months!

We recently went from an old clunker tube TV to a flat screen in our basement. The problem? The previous TV cabinet was just not built for a flat screen.

It was a beautiful cabinet, but too deep to really fit anywhere else. It had to go, but you know I don't like to get rid of things so easily. I mean, I paid for it, why not use it somewhere else? So I decided it had to be skinnier. [Enter hubs looking at me like I fell from the crazy train]

It would make a great pantry in our itty bitty (no, really) teensy kitchen. Here's what he did:

We brought it outside and marked the new depth. The hubs then took the back off (save this to put back in the end) and starting from the top, removed one piece at a time to cut to the new depth.

Let me just say, that if your cabinet is glued together or particle board, this would probably not work. We tried to figure out a way to just saw it in half, but it ended up that almost the entire cabinet had to come apart.

We saved all the screws, laid out all the pieces as we went and soon we were building it back up. It may be hard to tell from the pictures but the cabinet went from 28 inches deep to 15 inches! I am so giddy with excitement!

Now, I get to "design" a pantry and get organizing stuff! At this point, I am thinking the cabinet color will change and we will also need to add shelves, but I promise to show you the finished product once I get done.

It looks great in the kitchen! It's the kitchen itself that needs a REDO!! The cabinet, though, is like a new piece of furniture and the possibilities are wide open. ;) Have you ever altered a piece of furniture in your home? Made something more functional? I would love to hear about it!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

HEADBAND HOLDER LOVE

Welcome back.. so glad you came by today!

A while back I told you about my ~~addiction~~ love of making headbands to go with everything. I admit, the novelty has not worn off. I'm still a headband making machine. The problem? Where do you go with them? I don't want them to be squished in a bin of some sort.

I also knew The Boo's room was redone, and she would need something to hold hers.

I was awaiting a trip to the hardware store to buy the needed supply for the idea that was in my noggin when something happened. Doesn't that always happen when you are totally set on how you are going to do something?

I had to order printer ink for my much used printer. When the box arrived from Staples it came with this.

And for some reason, I thought, boy that would be great to put headbands on.... weird, I know. I think my brain is programmed to not throw things away, but reuse them in some way. So, here's what I did.

I added some glittery paper to the ends with sticky tape stuff and then covered the whole thing in white fabric. I didn't use scrapbook paper for the middle because I thought the fabric would keep the headbands from slipping off better.

To match her room I added some green rick-rak and a flower just like her bulletin board. I turned it on it's side and hot glued that baby to a candlestick from IKEA. Oh yeah!!

So fun! It actually holds at least 10 headbands and looks great in her Big Girl LadyBug room. I love a cute organizer and this fit the bill! The good news is it only cost me 7.00 for the candle stick and the rest I had. Awesome!

What do you think? If you love it - pin away! You can use the little P in the corner of my pics to pin them. I added it just for you!

I hope you have a great weekend! Thank you so much for stopping in! Please feel free to say HI below in a comment. XOXO

Linking up with!
$Lil\'Luna$

Someday Crafts
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

A LITTLE ABOUT ME

I was so scared to write this blog. I was in it, feet first, but very unsure of myself. Looking back, I know now that I love doing this. It is much more work than I thought. Reading other bloggers that inspire me, I felt like they were always having fun, ya know?

So, in the interest of FUN.... I thought I would share some more.. wink, wink, personal stuff.

{ 10 Random Things About Cheryl }

*1* I have weird, weird food dislikes... I hate cubed cheese, won't eat it; I do NOT chew gum, and I have my kids convinced they don't either. [insert maniacal laugh here]

*2* I absolutely love Shakespeare. No, really, LOVE. On stage, in a movie. LOVE. (I pretty much love me some literature...)

*3* I can make a bunny face. wrinkled nose and all. Nope, totally not showing you, but my kids think it's hilarious.

*4* My husband and I met while I was working at a school and he was a student there- GASP! It's not as shocking as it sounds.. He was 22 and I was 24. We are going to be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary in Oct!!!

*5* I have a deep aversion to certain words... slacks. pocketbook. Don't ask me why, just cringing hearing them.

*6* My favorite TV Shows are: Suits, Nashville, Arrow, The Lying Game and The Big Bang Theory. My favorite ALL TIME TV show is... Buffy.

*7* During college, I tried to learn to be ambidextrous. Listen, my senior colloquium class was SU-PER boring... even the name of it sounds boring, right?

*8* The song I sang to my kids when they were babies was "Grandma's Feather Bed" by John Denver.

*9* Scarves and coats. I am totally addicted. I love the look of a scarf, small, big, doesn't matter. And coats... if only I had more room. *sigh*

*10* When I grow up, I want to be my mom.

Just a little glimpse about me. It's fun to put a little more of yourself out there, and I thought, after a year, you might want to know more about me.

This blog is such a great outlet. I love to write, conversationally, of course. This is such an awesome way to do it.

Plus, I get to share all my love of crafts, etc. with you! I've always loved having craft night with my girlfriends over the years and now, this blog allows me to include all of you in my "crazy craft night" with big open arms. What can I say? I'm a hugger.

I can't express to you enough how much I appreciate your kind words, encouragement and at times, kick in the pants. I hope to continue sharing and would love for you to grab a mug and a blanket and hang out with me for a spell.

SQUEEZIES!!!!

SPRING MANTEL DECOR

Howdy! I hope your day is going great today! I am so happy walking into my dining room right now and wanted to share the reason: SPRING has arrived! Well... at least in our decor.

I don't really have a mantel in the traditional sense, but I like to think of my hutch as my place to get my mantel on. This season, it has a little something extra special on it.

In January, we lost my Nana. (Mom, stop reading and just look at the pretty pictures) I can't say enough about my she"nana"gans. She was so fun and devious - thus the nickname. She even owned and ran a fabric shop back in the day, and loved to be crafty.

So, I was honored that my family allowed me to have all of her "milk glass." I am a tad obsessed with dishes. The combination of my Great-Grandma's blue mason jars and my Nana's milk glass makes me feel surrounded by generations of love. I know, cheesy. This was my inspiration for spring.

The one fun thing I added in to add to the simplicity was to water color my own paper to make the butterflies.

I also made coffee paper flowers and tinted them with food coloring.

I just love the combination of the aqua and orange. It is light and fresh. Plus, adding in some green moss kept the natural texture of spring.

My absolute favorite piece of glass from Nana is this blue pedestal. OH. my. goodness. How a-mazing, right?!!? Can you see the tulips on the sides??

This is my centerpiece on our table. I didn't do an entire tablescape as I was just too excited to use the milk glass - I didn't even break out my spring dishes yet!

Wow. Simple. Aqua. Orange. HAPPY girl. That Nana would be proud, and using my middle name to show her amusement at me calling her She'nana'gins! The temperatures this weekend just added to the spring fever I've got going on!!

Everything looks so delicate and well, for lack of a better word at the moment, SPRINGY! The temperatures this weekend just added to the spring fever I've got going on!!

Have you decorated for spring yet? Getting ready for a little E.B. (BOK BOK)? Thanks for visiting! I'm so glad you are here. Please feel free to share a little comment love or pin the images. Hugs!!

I'm linking up with these incredible blogs:

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RAINBOW RUFFLED T-SHIRT DRESS

Hey! Hey! Hey! Happy Monday to ya. I am feeling fantastic after this weekend, aren't you? It was so beautiful here in the Northeast that the time change couldn't even get us down. My arm is still sore from continuously pushing The Boo on the swings!

So.... 'member when I told you I did something else with the t-shirts from my rainbow headbands last week? A bunch of old t-shirts in rainbow colors- I knew exactly what I wanted to make for The Boo for St. Patty's Day.

Super fun! OK, so here's the lowdown. This was not my original idea. I was "pin-spired" by this t-shirt dress by Ashley over at MakeIt-LoveIt. She made this ADORBS Valentine's Dress and I was smitten.

When I found the "rainbow" t-shirts, it hit me - follow Ashley's instructions, but use a rainbow shape for St. Patrick's Day instead!

I even had these tights picked out for The Boo. They worked out perfect! She was so excited about modeling for you.

Lots of spinning going on; her favorite thing to do. And certainly a beautiful weekend to be outside dancing!

I did follow Ashley's awesome instructions to do this project. The only thing I did different was to cut out a different shape. Don't forget to go over and check hers out. The tutorial was perfect!

I did get my sides a bit too tight; I wanted more of an a-line, but overall it is sooo cute. The Boo is happy to wear it for school and it only cost me $2.50 for the over-sized grey t-shirt.

I waited quite a while to make this, so the finished result makes me grin from ear-to-ear, while patting myself on the back. LOL. I love it when a plan comes together!

Do you have a project you have been dying to try? I would love to hear from you! C'mon over to Facebook or Pinterest and like or follow the blog. I love to hear from all of you!! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking up with these fantastic blogs: