Last Minute Homemade Gift! Fudge in a Flash!

This time of year it always seems that I need an extra present or two on hand. Here is a recipe for Chocolate Almond Fudge, that is delicious, inexpensive, and whips up fast! Perfect for co-workers, teacher gifts, or even to set out at a party! You can switch out the almonds for other add in-s, such as marshmallows, or peanut butter,or white chocolate chips. So simple and so yummy!



Decadent Chocolate Almond Fudge
Shawn Hull

Ingredients
3 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of almonds
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Non-Stick Spray

In a double boiler melt down chocolate chips with vanilla, pinch of salt, and can of sweetened condensed milk.



Keep heat very low, so as not to burn. When the chocolate is smooth and has a shiny sheen, take it off the heat.



Add one cup of almonds and stir into the fudge mixture.



Pour into a 8x8 square pan sprayed with non-stick spray.





Chill in the refrigerator for two hours.



Cut into bite size pieces and package in air tight containers.



Wrap. I used brown paper bags, (I was out of wrapping paper, plus it gives a nice rustic homey feel). Tie with ribbon.


Give to friends and family!

Happy Holidays from the Hull Family!

Save on Postage, Make Your Own Holiday Video Card!

You can save on postage and licking all those envelopes, yet still let all your loved ones far and near know you wish them Happy Holidays! Simply make your own Holiday Video Card.



How to Make A Holiday Video Card in 3.5 Easy Steps.

1. Shoot some fun holiday scenes: making cookies, singing holiday songs, trimming the tree etc.

2. Upload your video to youtube (www.youtube.com, get a free acount)

3. Embed the video using youtube's free tools and email to all your friends and family!

3.5 Sip some eggnog and enjoy the season!


Check out the Hull Family's Video Card Below to jumpstart your own ideas! Let us know what you come up with!



Happy Holidays!
Shawn and Kevin (and the girls)
Hull's Happiest Days Designs

Family Night! Trip to England with Fish and Chips

This weekend our family decided to take a trip to England. Yes, British accents, royalty, fish and chips, and trifle all set to the music of the Clash. However, we didn't buy plane tickets, oh no, that's not in the family budget and the girls need to be in bed by 8pm. We transported ourselves via food, art, and a sense of silliness.

How to take a trip anywhere in the world without leaving your home:

1.Early in the day our family discussed where we would like to go. England won the vote. However, India and China were close runner-ups. Perhaps we will visit there in the upcoming weeks.

2. We chose the menu: Fish and Chips with Trifle for dessert. Mom and Dad went about finding recipes and making an impromptu deep fryer. I've never deep fried anything in my life, and boy was the deep fryer an adventure. So for courage, Mom and Dad had Guiness Stout with the fish and chips. Yes, we know it's Irish, but hey, close enough.



3. Art was created to set the mood. Our eldest daughter made a lovely British Flag and a collage of the menu items and hung them up around the room.

4. Our youngest daughter felt this occasion warranted dressing up, since Princess Buttercup would be in attendance. Dressing properly to meet royalty takes time. So it was several hours before we saw her again.



5. Dinner was prepared, art was hung, we broke out our best British accents. The girls sounded like a Harry Potter movie, my husband the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins! Add a little Clash for musical ambiance!

6. A photo op with a princess and Dinner was served.



A Lovely Trip all in all.

Perhaps your family would like to take a trip? Let us know where you would like to go or send us pix of your travels.

Keep an eye out for our next posting. We'll be discussing how to make a VIDEO HOLIDAY CARD!

Bridal Head Table Suite..... on its way

Last April Hull's Happiest Days Designs sponsored a Bridal Headtable Suite giveaway! She chose our adorable Sweethearts Design for her Wedding!





Finally it was time to send our lucky bride, Kristinia, her lovely head table suite!



We took some pictures before we sent them off.




Imagine how much more lovely they would be with a real bride and groom in the picture.





Kristinia has promised to send us pictures of her Fall wedding!

Apple trees... and how they shaped my life

Our family has a little tiny baby cottage (really, almost an elf house) in central Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny Mountains. It’s a cute little place in the middle of the woods. Really, there is no one, nobody for at least a quarter of a mile in any direction, just trees, deer, a pond, and even bears. Which at times is tranquil and at others a little unnerving.

My daughters absolutely love the place. They love the campfire, the tire swing, the wild raspberries, and the apple tree. I love the apple tree too. Our apple tree at the cottage is huge and full of apples. It hasn’t been cut back in at least 15 years. Sometimes I wake up really early, (all that quiet makes it hard to sleep) and I’ll see deer eating the fallen apples at the base of the trunk. A simple little pleasure, a stolen moment of contentment.




One thing I love about our cottage is the fact there is absolutely nothing really to do. That has a way of sparking the imagination. Last summer, I could feel change coming upon me light a freight train. I had no idea exactly what, but I could feel something coming, just this impatience, like I better get moving. Anyway, a series of coincidences began to happen, I saw an article in a magazine about a woman who had started her own business, an art and home related business and I got really excited. It was at our cottage that my husband and I discussed the possibility of creating our own business. We had some time without the distractions of TV, internet, and the telephone to really think through this business idea. That idea has turned into Hull’s Happiest Days Designs.




When we were coming up with design ideas, I thought back to the apple tree. It’s beauty, the tradition associated with an apple tree, even the saying “ an apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” I thought it was a great design idea. So Kevin and I decided that we would both create apple tree designs and then choose which one we would use. If any of you have ever met us, as a couple, you would know that we are incredibly different. Our differences come out in our artwork as well. So when we showed each other our designs, they were so different, we couldn’t choose. So now we offer both. A fitting homage to our apple tree.
Both are top selling designs!

Certainly, Kevin is the only one I would ever sit under the apple tree with, except maybe two little girls and a dog too!

Hull's Happiest Days Designs on Great Gifts for Weddings, Fox 2 News w/the Gift Insider/Lindsay Roberts

Life's Collection of Happy Moments....

We've had a big week last week Kevin and I were in a fantastic art show with several talented small town artists, with great big talent. There is something wonderful about living in the country, in a small town, with a small community. You get to know each other really well, share in each others lives, help each other out. Community and friendship and polite exhange of ideas. Truly a room full of artists for three days is a really good thing. I so enjoyed talking with one another, throwing around philosophical ideas of art, testing them against each other, and then sharing a slice of cake. Really good times.

Which got me to thinking about friends, family, art, and all the events that bring us together. This weekend is fourth of July. Our family will have a little barbeque, go see fireworks, generally hang out and do alot of nothing together, except chat, play some, and eat. I love all of us just being together. Life is full of these tiny happinesses.

Last month it was my niece's Birthday Party! Quite a hooplay for a one year old. We had a great time. My girls running around with their baby cousin, then doing an impromptu dance recital in the yard (which they also did at the art show-not wall flowers-go figure), and of course singing happy birthday and cake for a tiaraed, smiling, and somewhat bewildered one year old. The cake however needed no explaining!

So many happinesses all little rest stops for the velocity of life. Cocoa, our dog (first picture above) has the right idea. Sometimes all you need is a little happy nap, to rest up for your next party (she doesn't have a job) .

The china cabinet was the first major purchase Kevin and I made for our first home together. Now its filled with a collection of Hull's Happiest Days Designs Dessertware. I love that the china colors are simple and restrained, yet the images are different celebrating happy moments in time, and they all go together! I can have a party using our dessertware and have little mementos of family memories all on my table. A lovely little collection of life's happiest moments! Wouldn't you like to start your collection today?