Real Family Fun #15

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Hi and welcome to another week of our link party. I'm really glad you have joined the fun this week. 

This weekend I went to my first blog conference. I had the best experience! I also met some fantastic women and learned a ton! We also had fun at a couple of cocktail parties. 

I was apparently a bad blogger as this is the only picture I took the whole weekend. Here I am with a few of the ladies that helped make my weekend so much fun. Me, Trish from Uncommon Designs, Rachel from Architecture of a Mom, and Jamie from Jamiemiles.com. 

I had a fantastic weekend until I tried to get home. My drive took double the amount of time it was supposed to. I drove through 6 really hard rain/thunderstorms and sat still in 2 construction zones. I did make a stop at an IKEA and got some fun goodies which when I eventually get things put around the house, I will show you what I got. Finally, I hit a deer! I was traveling 75 mph on the freeway didn't see it at all until I felt the impact and saw it go flying through the air. It was a horrifying experience. 

I ended up in a super small town, as in 1 gas station and 1 dollar store...that's it, for 3 hours at a gas station with no working bathrooms! I had to wait for a tow truck and my family to come pick me up. We ended the ordeal with dinner late, late at night at Denny's (with the girls in their PJ's). The picture above, doesn't do a really good job of showing the damage, but it was the only one that didn't have my license plate in it. It knocked the radiator off the mount, which would be why my car was smoking, and damaged the a/c compressor. Sadly, there were tufts of deer fur in my grill. :-( Thankfully, I am totally fine and our insurance will cover everything (except our deductible of course). 

I have since heard horror stories of people hitting deer, so while this really stunk and was a scary experience, I am so glad I am perfectly fine. My car will be fixed and someday I will be able to drive down a wooded highway without fear of deer.

On the blog this week, I shared two recipes (one with an apology) with you. First I shared a recipe for Vanilla Chai Latte Mini Cupcakes, then I shared a new recipe for addictively delicious Cheese Rice Krispie Wafers with an apology. Finally, today I showed you some ideas for taming your paper clutter in my post about Office Organization.

So, what have you been up to this week? Please share and link up. I'm looking forward to seeing and reading all about it.

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Organizing Ideas ~ Office Organization

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Do you have any spaces in your home that seem to be clutter magnets? I do. The area that I struggle with is my 'office.' We need to use that term pretty loosely because, since I work at home, my office is generally the kitchen table and the bar/pass through right by the table. Piles of clutter and papers were always there and they were driving me nuts. So, what's a girl to do? I've got organizing ideas for your office organization today. 

In the face of clutter and piles of paper, here is what this girl did. I turned to my coat closet. Sounds weird, right? Since the closet is right by the kitchen table and bar area, I used the unused space on the back of the door to make an organizer. Essentially creating an office on a door. You can make your own office on a door as well. It was pretty simple to make and is working really well to help keep me organized and keep things more clutter/paper free. 

Real Fun Features #14

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Welcome to one of my favorite posts of the week. Today, I get to features a few of the fabulous posts that linked up last week at Real Family Fun #14. 

First up this week, we have this gorgeous {Faux} Wire Basket from Laura's Crafty Life. You won't believe how much it cost or how it looked when she bought it!

Rice Krispie Recipe {Cheese Rice Krispie Wafers)

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Today, I've got another rice krispie recipe for you and an apology. 

About a month ago, I published a post for Cheese Rice Krispie Balls. It was a recipe from my Grandma's recipe box. The recipe intrigued me and I really wanted to try it. I made them. They were really dry. Which I did say in the post, but they really weren't that great. I didn't say that in the post. I have felt bad about posting that recipe and not being fully honest with you that they weren't very good. Then I felt worse as many of you commented that you thought they looked interesting. I was worried you would actually make them, then you would either think I am a horrible cook or have really weird taste/no palette.

Today, I apologize for putting a recipe out there that wasn't good and not telling you. I will not ever do that again...my conscious wasn't too happy about it. At the time, I just was thinking about making sure I had a post, but if I am going to stay true to one of my goals with my blog, which is to keep things real, I have to either not post when I have a flop or tell you all about my complete fail. Either is fine to me and yet it is hard to do in reality because I am a numbers nerd and I think, "Who is going to want to read a post about a recipe flop?" "My numbers are going to totally drop," etc., etc. What I can promise you today, is that I won't make this mistake again. I will only post items, recipes, crafts, games, etc. that we enjoy or I will tell you that is was a total flop. 

To make up for my mistake and because I really thought this Cheese Rice Krispie savory combo had some merit, I tinkered with the recipe and came up with something that is super yummy and super addictive. So, today I have the REAL and yummy recipe for you. Just don't say I didn't warn you that they are addictive and easy to pop a few in your mouth!

Cupcake Recipe {Vanilla Chai Latte Mini Cupcakes}

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Today I have a fun cucpake recipe for Vanilla Chai Latte Cupcakes for you.

This whole recipe started as what I thought was going to be a guest post for another blog. The post was supposed to be to make something just for me. In honor of the fact that Mother's Day is in May, The Shaffer Sisters is having a series of blog posts of Mom's making things for themselves. When they asked me to guest post, it took me a while to decide what I would make. It was kind of hard to think of something that was just for me.