Vintage Gwen Chapel-Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

Be safe!

Thinking about making this my anthem for 2012...

☺

Happy Weekend!

Chic Couture-Online Shopping!

I've been shopping this week! Online that is!  I admit I like to shop. But. When you add a 2 year old boy to shopping well...it's more challenging and makes you just plain ole tired!  And I'm talking about 'retail therapy', not 'let's get in a buggy and browse around' shopping. Thank goodness for the internet right?! 

So with Christmas cash in the bank my first stop was Sephora...

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

I could not believe they  had this in stock!! I'm becoming an Urban Decay addict I'm afraid!!

Next stop was to TOMS...

Glided Herringbone Classics

Thought a nice semi sparkly neutral would be fun to have!

And lastly Old Navy...

online shopping... by vintagegwen featuring ruffle tops

I haven't bought clothes from Old Navy in awhile.  I thought I'd give it a shot, these items were all in their sale section.  I'm excited to try these out!!  I have some new brown suede boots that I want to try skinny jeans out with...we'll see since I'm not skinny! Ha! Oh and if you were wondering my total purchase was $139.71, that's with tax and free shipping.  How'd I do?  And I needed new bras, got those yesterday...Lane Bryant is having buy 2 get 2 free.  Which leaves me with enough money to buy some new tunes!!  I might just have to pat myself on the back when all is said and done! ☺
And now you've been shopping with me!
Wasn't that fun!?

Happy Friday!!

Linking to Blonde Episodes Fashion Friday!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifle

Happy Thursday!  Since my husband is still on vacation (yay!) and we been having fun I don't have a tutorial today.  Just wanted to share an easy, yummy recipe real quick!  Remember my oven going out on me in the middle of Holiday Baking? Well Hunkie fixed it on Christmas Day! It's like new! But since we didn't get it fixed before Christmas Day I had to come up with a replacement for the pumpkin cheesecake my sister had requested back at Thanksgiving! So I whipped out my cell phone and Googled 'pumpkin cheesecake trifle' and found My Baking Addiction's Simple Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifles!  I modified it a little bit since I was not doing individual servings and it turned out so yummy that it must be shared! ☺

Simple Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifles by My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

12 Biscoff Cookies, crushed into crumbs

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup pure pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 large tub (12 oz.) whipped topping (Cool Whip), thawed, divided

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine Biscoff Cookie crumbs and butter. Divide the crumbs into the bottoms of your trifle glasses. Gently press crumbs to form an even layer of crust.

2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin, vanilla, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Beat until well combined and creamy.

3. Use a spatula to fold in half of the whipped topping. Gently combine ingredients until no streaks remain.

4. To Assemble the Trifles: Pipe or spoon a layer of pumpkin cheesecake onto the Biscoff crust followed by a layer of whipped topping. Repeat layers until your trifle reaches the top of your glass or jar.

5. Store trifles in the refrigerator until ready to serve. If desired, garnish with Biscoff cookie crumbs.

{Recipe courtesy of My Baking Addiction}

My Modifications

I used ginger snaps in place of the Biscoff cookies.  I used about 24 cookies and 2 tablespoons of butter and made 2 batches of crumbs/butter mixture.  The first batch I pressed into the bottom of my bowl, the second batch I used for layering and for the top.  So I layered 3 times....cheesecake, cool whip, crumbs on top of the bottom crumb layer.  It tastes exactly like the real thing!  And I love how easy it was!! To the favorite recipe file it goes!! Thanks My Baking Addiction!! 

I have enough pumpkin puree left over that I think I'll experiment with my new Babycakes Cake Pop maker and make some pumpkin pound cake pops!! I'll let ya know how it goes! 

Got any good trifle recipes? It's one of my favorite things to make!

Happy Baking!

See my Link Parties page for where I link to.

Show & Share #20 {& Darlings!}

Welcome to Show & Share #20!!

It's that time of the week again!! Here we go!

Most Viewed

Oh Christmas Tree by The Cottage Market

And now my Darlings! ☺

These are all Christmas but they are awesome ideas for next year!!

All Things Christmas

Winter Yarn Snowflake Wreath by Renewed Upon a Dream

Love that this is perfect for January too!

Eggnog Crumble Muffins by Inside BruCrew Life

Yummy!

Mr./Mrs. Reindeer Fabric Ornaments by Uncommon

Vintage cuteness!!  ♥♥♥

Christmas Countdown by Ginger Snap Crafts

Way cute!

Snow Guy and Gingerbread Guy by Mollie's Mom

Fun, creative use of Dollar Store items!

Nice job ladies!! Feel free to grab a button!

Time to party!

Party Rules--

*Link to a specific post--not your home page, no giveaways, or no etsy shops

*Link something you've done in the last month

*Post the party button or my button on your blog (and follow me, the host Lindsay, & my co-hosts Marie &Whitney )

*Visit & comment on at least TWO other links posted

*Come back to see if you've been featured!

Be sure and check the other hosts to see if you've been featured by them!!

Happy Wednesday!

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Soiree Day-All Things Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!  We sure did!  Santa brought Lil' Hunkie a play kitchen and he's been cooking up a storm! I managed to come away with a wad of dough and can't wait to go shopping!!  

So are you ready for New Year's?  A lot of people enjoy ringing in the new year...us not so much.  It wasn't a big deal growing up and just still isn't.  But for those of you who go all out I've rounded up some printable soiree ideas!

Free Printable Party Hat Template by Merriment Design

How fun are these? There's assembling instructions too.

Photo courtesy of Merriment Design.

Pop, Fizz, Sparkle Printable Party by Wants and Wishes Design 

via Amy Atlas

This is an extensive, fun collection! I love the Tic Tac mint sticker!

Photo via Amy Atlas.

Hollywood Glam Party Printables by Anders Ruff 

via Hostess with the Mostess

Vintagey with a touch of pink!! Love!

(Note: the collection is updated to 2012 in her Etsy shop.)

Photo via HWTM.

Sparkling New Year Party Printables by Piggy Bank Parties 

via Etsy

This a simple yet effective pack.  This proves that you can make a big impact with a few items!

Photo courtesy of Piggy Bank Parties.

Of course Etsy is an excellent source for party printables!! And all of these are so affordable!  If some free stuff comes available in the next few days I'll post them on my Facebook page!

Happy planning and Happy Soiree Day!!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Happy Birthday Jesus

Keeping today simple.

Wanted to share a beautiful new to me Christmas song by Francesca Battistelli, 'You're Here'.

It's what Christmas truly means to me.

May you and your families have a blessed day!

Birchbox Beauty Bash {1}

Welcome to the first Birchbox Beauty Bash! 

I'm excited to be partnering with a fellow Oklahoma gal,
 Allison of Feeding My Temple for this 4th Friday of the month shindig!!

Last week I shared my first Birchbox!  

Go HERE to see it.

I had a request to see the Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in action.  Because of leaving a little early to visit the in laws for Christmas you are getting the lipgloss action. However, I didn't put my usual makeup on nor did I have the usual hair done.  This is somewhat of a natural me. ☺

Swatch.  Pay no attention to my dry, scarred hand!!

Natural Lip

Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink.

I really like it!  It's not overly sticky and I think it's a nice shade on myself!  

I did try the Mythic Oil and it smells heavenly! And makes my hair soft, I don't think I've been getting enough out of the vile to see a difference in smoothness (which you can tell I need help with!).  And I've been using the POREfessional and really like it too! 

Thank you Birchbox for my goodies!

Now let's have a Bash!

Rules:

*Link up your Birchbox posts and anything beauty related such as beauty advice, tips, reviews, tricks, secrets, DIY/handmade products, tutorials.

*Link to a specific post, not your homepage.

*Follow myself and Allison and post the party button somewhere on your blog.

*Visit others and have fun!

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The link will be open until next Friday night so take your time and join us!Happy Friday!

Holiday Baking

The Big Day is almost here! I must say this Christmas has had a whole different kind of fun to it since Lil' Hunkie is a little older.  We've been reading about Baby Jesus, we've got Buddy the Elf here and he knows who Santa 'Caus' is.  ☺ I'm actually not really caring about myself...shhhh..don't tell Hunkie!

I don't have the normal tutorial today just thought I'd share a little bit of one of my favorite Christmas traditions...baking.  Things haven't quite gone smoothly this go round but ya gotta 'roll with the punches' sometimes! My normal procedure is to make sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies (they are my pastor's favorite!) and then some goodies not requiring the oven like easy fudge. Well I got the oatmeal raisin cookies done but then 2 'pops' later and the baking element in my oven was not working!  It broke in 2 places! And I planned on making cute tags for my containers with my new stamp from Pick Your Plum but it just didn't work out for me!  I was proud of myself for not getting upset at these things and just making do!

I did experiment with my Babycakes Whoopie Pie maker and managed to not waste my sugar cookie dough and at least got to include those in my neighbor boxes! As my sister said "nice save"!!

Here...what do you think?

I also made Peppermint Chocolate Marshmallows.  Just dipped a marshmallow in white chocolate then in crushed up candy canes!

I made the ever so popular Saltine Toffee for our church's Ladies Christmas party.  So easy and yummy!

Hunkie said it tastes like a Heath Bar and it really does! I followed Gallamore West's version, thanks Lori!

And earlier in the month I did get to make some sugar cookies for a friend, she was having her work party at her home.  At least I got to make some this season!

We ordered a new baking element today and so I'm probably going to have to have a Plan B for cookies for Santa!  And I also plan on making Santa Hat Party Mix to give to my siblings...thank goodness no oven is required!  

How about you? What yummies do you make at Christmas time?

{Tomorrow is an exciting day here!!  I'm partnering with Allison of Feeding My Temple for our 1st Birchbox Beauty Bash!  It's a beauty themed link party! We'd love for you to join us!!}

See my Link Parties Page for where I might be sharing.

Happy Thursday!

Show & Share #19 {& Darlings!}

Welcome to Show & Share #19!

Thanks for another great party last week!  

Hope everyone is ready for the weekend! I should be after today!

Let's get right to party business!

Most Viewed

Ruffle Tree Forest by Domestic Imperfection

These are wonderful!

And now my Darlings! ☺

Christmas Cuties

Tea Party for One {Gift Kit} by Defrump Me

Such a cute idea!

Dryer Sheets Tree by Petites Passions

I featured this on Facebook and had to do it here too! Who knew dryer sheets could be so pretty?

White Christmas by A Blonde's DIY Life

I love this unique tree theme!! So fashionable!

Christmas Beauty

Christmas Nails by Chronically Creative

So fun!!

Glitter Lips by A Little Slice of Special

Perfect for those Holiday parties!!

Wonderful work ladies!! Be sure and grab a button!

Let's Party!

Party Rules--

*Link to a specific post--not your home page, no giveaways, or no etsy shops

*Link something you've done in the last month

*Post the party button or my button on your blog (and follow me, the host Lindsay, & my co-hosts Marie &Whitney )

*Visit & comment on at least TWO other links posted

*Come back to see if you've been featured!

Be sure and check the other hosts to see if you've been featured by them!!

Happy Wednesday and Merry Christmas!!

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