Homemade Cookie Cake

I love making homemade cookie cakes! They are so easy and inexpensive. They taste just like the ones you would buy, too! The hardest part is the decorating. The more you make them the better you will get, I promise. 

If you try it out, let me know how it goes! I would love to see pictures :-)

Ingredients
Cookie cake
- tube of refrigerated cookie dough (I use Nestle)
- parchment paper
- pizza pan

Buttercream Icing
- 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter, room temperature
- 3 cups of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Decorating
- ziploc bags (or icing bags)
- piping heads

Directions
Cookie Cake
1. Cover a pizza pan in parchment paper.
2. Roll the cookie dough onto the parchment paper. I normally use my hands to press it down first and then use a rolling pin. I also use my hands to shape the cookie into a circle.

3. Bake at 350 for 15(ish) minutes. Watch it. You want the edges to brown a little.

Mine was actually a little browner than I like

Buttercream Icing
1. Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.

Decorating
1. If you are wanting different colors, separate some icing into different bowls and add food coloring. Wilson has some great colors (you can find them at Hobby Lobby).

2. If you don't have icing bags, use a ziploc bag. Cut the corner off and stick a piping head in the bag. Then load it up with icing.

3. Decorate!

I usually do one color at a time and guess on the space between. If it is a tad too much room, just squeeze a little more icing out when you are filling in the gap.

A Dream Come True

It was four years ago TODAY that Jeremy and I started dating. So crazy!

I thought it would be fun to share my very first Christmas gift to him. I was trying to think of something original and decided to make a book about how we met and started dating. I didn't want it to be too serious so my thought process was to make it so corny that it was funny. It was perfect! He opened it in front of his family and we were all laughing while he read through it. It is also a great memory book. We talk about how we'll have it 50 years from now. All I had to do was come up with the wording for each page and do some major facebook picture creeping. That's how I got all of our shots. It made a great (and cheap) gift!

I hope y'all enjoy!

Jeremy is very sarcastic so we did a lot of picking on each other at T-Camp...

This is A&M lingo. Humping it just means bending (like above) while you do yells.

We were walking around playing the question game when Jeremy asked me what my favorite number was. Once I answered, I asked him and he said 24. He used that as a lead into asking me to be his girlfriend!

Jeremy's words were, "Will you make me the happiest boy in the world and be my girlfriend?"

Our Wedding Video

Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

Jeremy bought my wedding ring through a local jeweler in College Station while we were there. At our last appointment with him, he gave me a recipe for a homemade jewelry cleaner and told me that it would make my diamonds look brand new-- and it does! I love using this cleaner because it is so easy and my rings always come out so beautiful and sparkly! Since I love it so much, I thought I would share!

**This should only be used for cleaning gold, white gold, platinum, palladium and diamond jewelry.

1. Use a plastic/microwaveable cup or bowl with a lid. You will use this only for jewelry cleaner from now on. Write "Jewelry Cleaner" on it with a permanent marker .

2. Add 1 cup water.

3. Add 1/4 cup windex.

4. Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

5. Microwave with lid vented until a few bubbles rise to the top and along the side of the container. You will have to watch it the first time. Do not let it boil.

6. Write the time it took on the container. This is the time you will use from now on.

You can tell that the face of my diamond is dirty. It looks a little dull.

7. Remove from microwave and add your jewelry. You can soak it for a few minutes or overnight (overnight is my favorite).

8. Rinse under running water and gently brush with a toothbrush for at least 30 seconds.

9. Pat dry with a lintless cloth. Blow against the underside of the stones. Pat dry again. 

The awesome thing is, you don't have to make this cleaner every time! You can keep it in the container and reuse it until you feel like changing it out.

I hope y'all love this just as much as I do!