My Favorite FREE Fonts

Hello everyone! Hope you all are enjoying a beautiful 4th of July!!!

Being an illustrator, I'm always looking for fun, funky, and fantabulous fonts to keep things looking new and fresh. So what I wanted to do, was share my favorite fonts with you all! Hopefully you can add them to your colletions and create some fresh new items to share with the creative world!!! Just be sure to follow the guidelines of the creator of the fonts so that we can all continue to enjoy such pretties!!!

1. Albemarle Swash 2. CK Holiday Spirit 3. East Market 4. Impervious 
5. Jaggy Fries 6. Loyal Fame 7. Market Deco 8. Michaels Plain 
9. MFT Cupcake 10. My Own Topher 11. PHARMACY 12. Appleberry 
13. Ribbon Happy 14. Santa's Sleigh 15. Scrappy Looking Demo 16. Smiley Monster 
17. Susie's Hand 18. Tangerine 19. Upper East Side 20. Waterfalls

21. Wish I Were Taller 22. Wigwam Light

Hope you enjoy and have a fabulous 4th of July! Until Next Time!!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Traditional Frosting

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!!!

I've got a wedding coming up this weekend that I'm making the cake for, but it's for a recipe I've not tried before. So I thought I would do a moch-up of the recipe today to test out and OMG I just had to share!!! I did your typical Red Velvet Cake Recipe into mini cupcakes with a traditional Red Velvet Frosting that I got from Ree Drumond the Pioneer Woman! That woman is absolutely amazing and she's totally correct when you won't be turning back after trying it! Sounds really weird to make, but it is absolutely the most delicious and creamiest frosting I've ever tasted! Will possibly be trying to adapt this to chocolate and different flavors as well!!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 48 mini or 24 normal

1/2 c. Butter
1-1/2 c. Sugar
2 Eggs at Room Temp
2 Tlb. Cocoa Powder
3 Tlb. Red Food Coloring {1 oz.}
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Buttermilk at Room Temp
2-1/2 c. All Purpose Flour
1-1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tlb. White Vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare mini muffin pan {24 liners}
2. In a stand mixer, cream butter & sugar until smooth.
3. Make a paste of cocoa powder & food coloring, add to stand mixer and cream until combined. {about 3 minutes}
4. Mix Buttermilk, Salt & Vanilla in a small bowl. Alternately add flour & Buttermilk mixer to stand mixer beginning and ending with flour. Mix until smooth.
5. In a small bowl, mix together baking soda and vinegar and fold into batter.
6. Using a mini scoop, fill mini liners 1/2 full of batter.
7. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

*Note, I only have 1 mini cupcake pan, so I have to make one batch of 24 and then another, but the recipe will yield 48 cupcakes.

Traditional White Frosting for Red Velvet
Frosts 48 mini cupcakes or 24 regular sized cupcakes

1 c. Whole Milk
5 Tlb. All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Butter
1 c. Granulated Sugar

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat milk & flour together until a thick consistency. Set aside to cool completely. {DO NOT SKIP this part, allow it to cool completely before moving on!!!}
2. In a stand mixer using whisk attachment, cream together butter & sugar for 8-10 minutes until smooth and not grainy.
3. Once consistency of butter/sugary mixture is smooth and creamy, add the milk/flour mixture to stand mixer. Whisk all together on medium speed for about 10 minutes until light and fluffy and resembling whipped cream. {If the frosting is separated, you haven't whisked enough, so keep going!!!}
4. Once desired consistency is achieved, frost and enjoy! Be sure to taste a little before you frost so you are able to get a bite!!! LOL...

Until next time...

Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken

Hey everyone!

I'm loving roasted Chicken lately, so thought I would share with you are quick, easy and super juicy roasted chicken!

Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken

3-4 Chicken Breast {bone in or out skin on or off, doesn't matter}

1/4 c. Olive Oil

1/3 c. White Wine

3 Tlb. Minced Garlic {or 9 cloves, minced}

1 Lemon, Juiced & Zested

2 Tlb. Fresh Dill, Chopped

S&P

Dried Oregano

3-4 Tlb Butter

1 Lemon cut into 8 wedges

1. Heat oil in pan, add garlic and cook for 1 min, don't let it burn. Add white wine and cook 5 min. on medium heat.

2. Juice & Zest a lemon into a small bowl. Add chopped dill, S&P & Dried Oregano.

3. Place chicken in a 9x13" baking dish. Pour White Wine sauce over the chicken. Top each breast with 1 Tlb. Butter. Place lemon wedges through the dish to bake along with the chicken. {I like to squeeze them over the top a bit just before adding them}

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 min.

Hope you enjoy & until next time...

Butter Dill Glazed Carrots

Hey everyone!

If you are like me, during the summer, you want to eat light by adding fresh side dishes. Nothing to me speaks more fresh than garden carrots or dill. I didn't want my carrots to have extra sugar or maple or brown sugar, so I created a recipe that would create summer carrots and still keep it simple and fresh...Makes a fabulous addition to any meal!

Butter Dill Glazed Carrots

1 lb. Carrots, tops trimmed 1"

1/4 c. Butter, Salted

1 Tlb. Fresh Dill, Chopped

S&P to Taste

1. Heat Butter in sauce pan until melted.

2. Add carrots {keep whole} and dill and saute for 5-6 minutes until tender.

3. Season with S&P to taste...

Hope you enjoy! Until Next time...

Gina K Designs June 2012 Release!

Hey everyone! Hope you are enjoying a gorgeous Friday! It's gonna be a beauty today here...hopefully I can get outside and enjoy the day with the boys!

Anyways, just wanted to share with you some stamp sets I've illustrated that have released with Gina K Designs!!! Be sure to head on over and pick yours up and see what else she has released as well!!!

Hello Sunshine Stamp TV Kit- RUBBER STAMPS VERSION

{I've only designed the Beach Images/Summer images of this set...the flowers are gorgeously illustrated by another illustrator!}

The Good Life

Life's a Beach

DANGER: Dark Chocolate Tort!!!

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!!!

So last week I was watching Giada at Home and saw a super easy recipe for a chocolate tort and thought to myself...hey, that looks super easy and delish! I had forgotten to write down the recipe, but remembered most of the ingredients and here's what I've come up with. Gotta put my own spin on things, but Giada is enough to inspire anyone!!!!!! I advise anyone who makes this to proceed with caution because it is EXTREMELY addicting, and EXTREMELY rich!!!

Dark Chocolate Tort with a Graham Cracker Crust

12 oz. Dark Chocolate Chips

3?4 c. Heavy Cream

1/4 c. Honey

1 Tlb. Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

1 Tlb. Orange Zest

For the Crust:

9 Graham Crackers

1/4 c. Emerald Almonds {I like the Cinnamon flavored ones}

1 Stick of Butter Cubed at Room Temp

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a spring form pan by lightly greasing the outsides and base with butter.

2. In a food processor pulse graham crackers until crumbled, then add the almonds and pulse until fine. Then add the butter & pulse until combined.

3. Pour graham cracker mixture into spring form pan and press down. Bake for 12 minutes.

4. Allow to cool completely.

5. In a saucepan, heat heavy cream, Butter & Orange Juice & Zest until just starting to boil.

6. In a medium bowl filled with 12 oz. chocolate, pour cream mixture. Let it sit for 10 seconds before you begin to stir. Once the mixture is creamy, pour over the graham cracker crust. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Hope you enjoy & until next time...

Free Monthly Budget Printable

Starting something new with me and my family. Life has been getting more and more expensive and lots of stuff we can cut back on to be sure that we blossom as a family as we want to. Hoping this helps us to grow closer as a family, live more frugally and more spiritually!

This is the Monthly Budget form we are using here at home and thought someone out there may find it useful for their own family as well, so I'm putting it up here in hopes that you can put it to use!!! If you have any tips or tricks for me as well, feel free to share!<---To print this, right click with your mouse and have it open in a new tab...

Until next time...