Busy Brunette Bakerista

Californians are known for eating healthy, exercising, and always on the go. I found a simple recipe for homemade granola in an old magazine and adapted it to just the right ratio of spice, crunch, and dried fruit. My friend and neighbors love this and I often make it for teacher gifts. Enjoy! Crunchy California Granola 4 cups of rolled oats  1 cup of wheat germ or wheat bran 1 cup of slivered almonds 1/2 cup of sesame seeds  1/4 cup of brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon  (or even pumpkin pie spice) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil 1/3 cup honey 1/6 cup maple syrup 1/6 cup water 8 oz. dried cranberries 8 oz. raisins Pre-eat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with cooking spray, then set aside. In a large mixing bowl, stir together oats, wheat germ, nuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice), and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and ad...

I had so much fun planning the big, double 16th birthday party for my twins. After spending weeks going down the "Pinterest rabbit hole" where I'd pin photos after photos of party decoration ideas, themes, food, designs and other details, I narrowed it all down and made a party plan! Since the birthday party was for a boy and  a girl I didn't want it to be confused with a Sweet Sixteen with a lot of pink, so I chose neutral colors of seafoam green, royal blue, white and silver.  My first DIY craft idea was of using various size"16" numbers for decoration. I purchased flat, large wooden numbers at my local craft store. Then I pulled photographs from our albums, and photocopied them at a reduced size - (or, you can print out photos from your computer onto copy paper and reduce the size). I placed the photocopies on each large number and laid them down to cover the entire number. Using scissors, I trimmed off the edges and then used Mod Poge glue, foll...