Ladybug Birthday Party!

Hi! Long time hey? I have to admit that the 14 days in a row really played me out! So I had a little hiatus  to plan for my little bug, Giselle's first birthday party!

It all started with an Oreo truffle from I Wish I Was Martha! Dang you Stacey and your cream cheese deliciousness!!! 

 

All lady-bugged-up!

I just love these colors together.

Hattrick Designs Etsy shop supplied all my lady bug printables, including the favor tags, water bottle labels and the adorable banner!

The kids treat bags.

My attempt at a mini-ladybug cake with marshmallow fondant.

Hattrick Designs water bottle labels. Check out the nutritional value!

The treat table!

The birthday girl!! Black & red tutu also from Hattrick Designs Etsy shop! Love it!

Giselle with GG!

My little dolly niece, Olivia.

Venice and her BFF Lexie. 

Frozen banana pops, dipped in chocolate and nutella.

Instead of cupcakes, I thought I'd try my hand at cake pops. Turns out they are not as easy as they look, and were extremely frustrating to decorate. Maybe it was the sprinkles or maybe it was the gel icing that never set up, but either way, I'm sticking to cupcakes.

She was VERY excited about the candle!

First bite!

YUM!

Into the sink to clean up and on to the presents!

We had such a good afternoon playing with all our friends and having yummy treats! I can't believe how fast that year went by, but I'm excited for the year to come. Giselle was showing us how old she was by taking a few steps today.

I just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

Happy Valentine's Day! We Made It!!!

To all you love birds out there, Happy Heart Day!

I'm going to keep this post like me, short and sweet! This recipe comes from my baking hero, yes, Sprinkle Bakes again! I'm sorry I can't help it if every recipe she comes up with is a no-fail, gorgeous success!!

Here's my tribute to Heather of Sprinkle Bakes Heritage Red Velvet Cake. In cupcake form.

This was my cocoa and coloring mixture. 

The batter all coming together.

My first valentine. I heart you Peanut! 

My second valentine. I heart you Bug!

I piped the cream cheese frosting, but really there was no point. The icing was just too thin of a consistency, I was afraid if I added more icing sugar I would lose the cream cheese flavor.

The famous red inside! If you click on these pictures, they will show you their true color.

This truly is THE best red velvet recipe you will ever come across. It's moist, flavorful, perfectly colored and best of all, beautiful. A perfect treat for any ones valentine. Mine are making an appearance at my mother-in-laws annual Valentines Tea tonight!

Paper Flower Valentines and a Missing Charger.

Not that that title leaves much to the imagination, but just so we're clear people, I'm missing my camera charger, not a car.

This is the main reason why my post has been so late, and we went tobogganing. But mostly I've been searching the house high and low for my battery charger. I know as soon as I go out and buy a new one, I'll find it.

I feel as though this post is going to be somewhat of a letdown, good thing it's not the final one! I'm basically going to give you the link to see Martha's version of what I made, it was her idea originally, but I think I made a way easier way.

What you need to make Paper Flower Valentines for someone you love:

Any color of paper, I like red and red glitter paper

Heart paper punch (optional)

Some pretty brads. . .

Yes, these are pretty Brads, but I'm talking crafting brads ladies! FOCUS!

Cut out your hearts, keep them all the same size, which is why a paper punch is nice, and write a word on each or a few words, like your favorite quote, or even little love coupons, such as good for one free back rub etc.

I did 6 small hearts, one word on each, that say "I'll follow you into the dark" from one of my favorite love songs.

Poke the brad through the point of each, starting with the first word first. Spread out the brad tines so they secure the hearts and they don't slid off.

Bend the paper hearts just slightly in half so they resemble the petals of a flower.

And you're done!

I am really sorry I have no pictures, but Martha has some cute pictures that will give you an idea of what they look like. These are a really awesome kids craft too. And they are really easy to do up all fancy like if you're giving them to a certain special someone. 

And just because this post kinda bit the big one, tomorrow's is going to be show stopping. . . Or is it blog stopping?

I am going out to buy a charger. Now.

Je'taime Mon Petite Coeur

I am basically in love with all things french. I think there's a term for it, but I don't want to use it wrong then look like an idiot. So instead I pretend to know how to speak french and do a post title en francais.

This is common knowledge to my close people. Once I got 3 of the same toast stamps, which is a stamp that you press onto your toast leaving an imprint of the Eiffel Tower so you can have 'french' toast (I know! how flippin' cute is that?) . PS. I bought one too.

I have in fact been to Paris, if you can call 3 days, actually being in Paris. I'm holding on to that, so please don't try and take it away from me! I am determined to go back one day and spend a little more time than 72 hours of frantic racing around.

So right now, I am vicariously living in France through some baking, buying almost anything with french writing or an Eiffel Tower on it in sight. This includes shirts, art, clothes for my little girls, subtitled movies and keeping all my food in the fridge and pantry turned around so the french labels all face out. 

 In keeping with the french spirit of things, such as love and pastry, I whipped up my easiest treat yet! And when I say 'my' I mean my baking hero, Heather from Sprinkle Bakes. She's one of a kind, Artist/Baker, who is taking the foodie world by storm. And she also is kind and answers my stupid questions really fast!  If you click on the link above, it'll take you right to her site and the recipe for her French Palmiers. If you don't want the recipe, you should just go to her site simply for her pictures, they are art all on their own.

So here they are, my version of the French Palmiers, made in to hearts (shocking, right?).

What you need:

1 package of puff pastry, thawed.

1/2 - 1 cup of sugar.

Rolling pin

Spread 1/2 of your sugar on to a cutting board (I like to use a cutting board simply for easy clean up, but you can use your counter top too.)

Spread out your puff pastry on top of the sugar.

Put the remainder of your sugar on top of the puff pastry.

Roll out the sugar-covered pastry until its 1/4 " thick, or resembles a large rectangle.

Roll the sided into each other, until they meet in the middle.

Flip over your tube of pastry and slice into 1/2 " slices.

Place your slices on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I unrolled mine just a little and pinched the middle so my cookies resembles hearts.

Put in a 450 degree oven for 4 minutes, spin your pan around and bake for another 4 minutes. Best to stay around and watch them juuuuuust in case, that's one hot oven.

The only thing I actually did differently was that I didn't flip my cookies over. I've tried it that way, it just hasn't worked for me, these have been my best batch to date.

So crunchy and flaky.

I love these cookies!

Scrub Me Tender.

I'm terrible at math. Did any of you know that? Yeah, so when I made up my list of all the things I wanted to make for my Valentine's count down, some how I miss counted and ended up with only 13. Now, I knew I was bad at math, like say fractions, but counting?! Not to mention counting to 14!!!  wow.

So as of yesterday I was scrambling like mad to think up something cute and easy, with stuff I had at home to make for today's post. I just couldn't let my followers down! 

What I came up with was a party favor I had made for my dear Christie's baby shower. A sugar scrub! Now, to make it perfect for Valentines....HHMMMMM. Chocolate and sugar scrub?! Maybe?

Here's what you need:

Coconut oil

Cocoa

sugar

Vanilla

Now the measurements are not an exact science, here people. I used probably a 1 cup of oil to 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sugar... Now, you remember who is telling you this, right? The girl that can't count to 14. So take those measurements with a grain of sugar OK?

Really I just kind of mixed oil and sugar together until it resembled a thick, grainy, paste. Then just give a little splash of vanilla, and dump in the cocoa. As much as you want, to make it as chocolaty as you want.

Place in a jar that seals, any kind with a lid will do, just to keep out the moisture from the shower. I just happened to come across a super cutie, old fashioned jar at our local Sally Ann for a sweet $ 0 . 59 !

Have a nice hot shower and scrub away winter with chocolate!

Happy Day 11!

Heart Tart ! Day 10

I'd like to start this post off with an apology. I'm sorry there are so many posts with hearts in them. As of Feb 15th, there will be no more hearts. We've only got 4 more heart related posts, so if you can hang in there with me, I know we can make it through this.

With that said, on to my de-lish Heart Tart!

Yum Nutella. I totally did that and I'm not even ashamed to admit it.

Just when you thought I couldn't possibly come up with an easier recipe with less ingredients POW! Right here is a lip-smackin' , 3 ingredient, crowd pleaser!

Pre-made pie-crust from the refrigerator section at the grocery store, Aw heck, it's Pilsbury, I'm name dropping OK? Maybe they'll sponsor my blog? 

3/4 cup of Nutella

1 pint of raspberries or strawberries.

Pre-heat oven to 450.

Fold your premade pastry in half and cut out a heart. 

Bake heart crust on a sheet of parchment lined cookie sheet for 9-11 minutes.

Let crust cool.

Heat your Nutella in the microwave for 15 seconds, just to loosen it up a bit.

Pour Nutella and spread evenly on crust,

Top with berries and serve. (with cool whip if you want or icing sugar or whatever you want really . . )

 Isn't that spectacularly easy?! But Simple doesn't mean it has to be boring. I made this simple dessert look cute and classy by rolling up the extra pastry I cut off into little balls and placed them on the edge of the pie crust. 

I've made a few pies in my time, and let me just say that while I was making all those teeny,  tiny ,  little balls, all the pastry knowledge I've accumulated from my Mom and my Grandma's went sailing right out the window. WOW .  How could I have forgotten that 50 or so pastry balls will not just  ' bake ' onto the crust with out sticking them there with something like water or an egg wash ? ! Yeah,  so when I went to pour the nutella onto the crust, I had to offer back up to save my pastry cuties . Not fun .  

Speaking of not fun, can I tell you something else that's not fun? Of course I can! This is my blog! There's not a thing you can do to stop me! BWAHAHAHAHAHAH (villain laugh). 

But seriously, what's not fun is baking all these treats and having a husband that can't taste any of it because he has Man Cold. Just kidding he really is sick! So I have to do all the sampling to make sure all these things are edible before I send them to you. It's a tough job , but I'm up to the task.

I could probably drink this stuff . Oh wait . . .  

And yes, if you're all wondering, I did in fact shimmer up the edge . . . What can I say, I love the shimmer !

Broken - Tarted *snicker*

(sorry I just couldn't help myself)

But all turned out well in the end ! And not to toot my own horn , but TOOT TOOT! This little tart is too cute!

Day Nine : Heart Wreaths

There are a few household items that I really shouldn't own but do. The following are everyday (for me anyways) items that cause bodily harm to myself and therefore need to be Ali-proofed. 

1) Glue Gun - Top of my list mostly because I JUST burned myself making these cutesy heart wreaths.

2) Any Sharp thing- I think this is pretty self-explanatory.

3) Stacking Washer/Dyer  - This is really only on the list because of my height. At an impressive 5 ft. I manage to walk into the dryer door almost every time I'm in the laundry room. This could also be because I leave the dryer door open . . . 

But I digress. Back to burning myself on the glue gun.

I was planning on doing this craft this afternoon with Venice while Giselle slept, but her Nana and Papa came and got her for a playdate, YAY Grandparents!! Good thing too, cause I'm tough and can handle a glue gun burn, but that little peanut has a few more crafting days until she develops the dragon calluses of a seasoned crafter. 

I digress again! Enough rambling you say, on with the show!

OK,OK!

Cut out the center of a paper plate. 

Cut out a buh-zillion paper hearts of all different sizes and colors. I used many tones and textures from the same color family. I like the monochromatic look. 

Glue gun (caaaarrreeeeffuuuulllllyyyy) all your hearts on to the paper plate rim.  

PS. Did you know that there are glitter glue gun sticks ? !  GLITTER,  PEOPLE ! ! I thought about the fact that no one will see the glitter AFTER I bought them. But I'll know. And know you'll know. 

Glue till your heart is content. And remember,  More is More!

I made one for Venice, using all pinks and I added some fabric covered brads to send her a little message from her Mamma.

Here's the finished project, hanging on my peanuts door.

I can't wait for her to come home! 

I was on a roll so I did 2 more for my front entry closet doors. I used my accent color.

Now if you like these, then I made them. If you think they look like a child made them then Venice made them and you can ignore my story earlier about her being gone, OK? OK!