Tag Archives: CT

Birthday Macarons

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CT really loves when I make macarons. She always steals a few off the counter before and after I fill them. So of course I would make some for her birthday party!

I tried something a little new with both of the batches.

On the bottom of the tray are strawberry macarons with strawberry preserve buttercream filling. These were a bit off in color and size since I used ground up freeze dried strawberries in the batter and I didn’t tint them like usual. Oh and the buttercream was just normal ole buttercream with two tablespoons of strawberry preserves blended in. Super easy! So even though they weren’t super pretty, they tasted great!!

The macarons on the top, and in all the close up photos, were peppermint flavored with peppermint buttercream filling. I tried my hand as swirly color, which came out nice on about half of them. I also made them slightly larger than I usually do, which I think made them even better!!

I also made a half batch of peanut butter macarons, but those didn’t make it to the party. They were just too good.

I feel a lot more confident every time I bake these awesome treats, so expect more posts about them. I have loads of flavor combos I still want to try. Any combos YOU think I should try?

(oh and all the photos above were taken by my sister Ashley, not me!)

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CT’s 3rd Birthday!!

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This past weekend was CT’s 3rd Birthday! Finally. I feel like I’ve been planning and making for this party for way too long. This is really the first year she’s aware of everything going on around her, so I wanted to make the day awesome!.

We invited a bunch of our friends and family, and ended up having ten kids show up total!! Only one couldn’t make it, not bad right? Especially for a winter birthday party, where you assume someone (or everyone) would be sick.

The theme for the party was CUPCAKES! Decorating cupcakes to be exact…

My original plan was to let the kids ice the cupcakes themselves and then decorate them with any of the numerous toppings we had. As the party grew closer I realized a lot of the kids that would be attending were younger than CT, so the icing part might just be a huge mess. So we iced the cupcake beforehand, that way all they had to worry about were the toppings.

I have been collecting sprinkles and cupcake liners for awhile, with no real purpose, until this party! I was able to provide 25 different types of toppings. There were colored sugars, candies in the shape of mickey and the aliens from Toy Story, dinosaur and snowflake sprinkles, long sprinkles, metallic sprinkles, two different types of cereal and more. I made sure to have every color of the rainbow, so each kid could use their favorite.

I also made a small batch of cotton candy buttercream in pink and blue, and small squeeze bottles with them. That way the older kids could draw on their cupcakes if they wanted.

It was really fun watching the kids all sit down nicely, put their chef hats on (I’ll talk about those in another post) and then go crazy decorating. A few of the younger ones couldn’t wait to decorate and just ate the cupcakes right away, but I made a bunch so they decorated their second one.

A lot of the adults were convinced our dining room would be a disaster afterwards. They were so wrong, most of the mess stayed on the table (which I covered in kraft paper) and hardly anything hit the ground. We had a very careful bunch of kids!! Seriously parents, your kids are all so nice!!

After all the decorating everyone was encouraged to eat from the buffet (that our families helped cook), let their little ones burn off some of the sugar they ingested, and then settle down before CT started opening gifts.

There are loads of great photos of her opening her gifts, she really makes the best faces!! I just figured 13 photos was already too many for one post, even if it IS a birthday post! Oh and while I’m kinda on the topic about photos, how awesome are these? My little sister Ashley took them for me, that way I didn’t miss anything. She also edited them before sending them over, super awesome of her! Thanks Ash!

The party went way better than I expected, and I’m beyond grateful for everyone who came. Thank you to you all, you really made CT’s birthday extra special!! Also thank you to all of our family members who helped out, I really couldn’t have made it through this day without you guys. It was all a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t change a thing. CT loved it all and keeps talking about it. We did all catch a cold, but it was totally worth it!

I still have a two more posts coming up about the decorating, goody bags and sweets, so keep an eye out!

 

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Thanksgiving: 2012

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So this past week, we had TWO Thanksgivings! One on Thursday at my uncles house for my side of the family, and then one this past Saturday at our house for my husbands side of the family. I didn’t take any pictures Thursday, I was too busy catching up with my sister and grandmother. I miss seeing them.

Like I said, Saturday was at our house and I had this huge plan to have a beautiful set table. Well, I forgot about a tablecloth, and it started to get a bit hectic before setting the table so everything was kinda just thrown together. Oh and to add to it, I had my camera set on a high ISO and my camera battery died after taking the above photos! Grrrr. So I was unable to get all the pictures I wanted. (I did also get the Instagram photo below before my phone died too!! haha!) I was told all the food tasted great, (I was only able to eat the foods that were gluten free) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I’m guessing that means we did everything right as hosts!

I’m very thankful I was able to spend time with all our families, and I’m also very thankful for a reason to clean the house! It’s so clean I’m afraid to do anything to make it a mess again. CT on the other hand has no problem making messes.

The rest of this week I plan on sewing, sewing and sewing some more. I have huge plans for handmade Christmas gifts this year and I’m only halfway through finishing the first one. I also need to start putting together everything for CT’s third birthday in two week. It’s her first themed party, and were planning on a bunch of kids coming. So I need to make it all super fun!!

Oh and a friendly reminder, our Cyber Monday sale is still going on! 25% off everything in the shop, and all orders over $50 will receive a free accessory set!! It all ends tonight at midnight EST.

 

Holiday Decorating Early.

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Last week we decided we wanted to get a new Christmas tree. We have been using the same tree since our first apartment together 9 years ago. It was bought on clearance after the holidays, and was pretty much the only one we could find. It was a little short, and a little sparse, but it always looked super cute when we put all of our ornaments on it. You can see a photo of it from last year (CT is really cute and tiny in the photos too!!). The reason we decided to upgrade was because we felt it would be nice to have a bigger tree, since we have such large ceilings. Plus we found the perfect tree for us by accident and needed an excuse to buy it. Ha.

The new tree is 7.5 foot, instead of 6 foot. It has those plastic feeling branches on the outside and tinsel on the inside instead of tinsel all over. Oh and the best part… The lights are LED’s and can switch from colored lights to white lights!! That last part is what sold me and made me spend my hard earned cash on a new tree! I’m a sucker for new technology.

We apparently waited to long to buy it, and ended up with the floor model. Which bring me to why we set it up so early. Since we bought the floor model, it didn’t come with a box. So our options were to have a huge tree in pieces in the middle of the library, or set it up! We set it up, and of course I couldn’t have a naked tree standing around. So we decorated it too! CT’s decorating skills have improved greatly since last year. She put ornaments on the bottom half of the tree, and I did the top half for the most part. JC had to put the star on, I’m just too short.

I’m happy the main tree is up, along with a few other decorations. It’s been slowly lifting my spirits. Everything is so shiny and bright. I still have my white tree to put up, but I’ going to wait until after CT’s birthday in mid December. That way I have more space in our dining room for the party! Which I really need to start preparing for…

Has anyone else already set up their tree, or decorated for the holidays? Or am I the only crazy one?

 

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My Extended Weekend: Very Little Sleep and a Movie

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This past week has been pretty stressful. My husband was on call in addition to his regular work schedule. So we weren’t really able to go out, and there was the possibility he would have to go in at any minute. He luckily wasn’t called in at all during the week, but he was called in non stop the entire weekend. Middle of the night, early in the morning, seriously non stop. We were all on edge, and lacking sleep. I already wasn’t feeling like myself lately, so this just added to it…

One good thing that came out of it all was since he worked so much during the weekend, he was able to take off yesterday. We used the day to actually do some fun stuff! We went out to eat, did a teeny bit of thrifting (I found a Disneyland cookie jar and CT found loads of books), some “window shopping” and we saw a movie!! Everything was nice, but that movie was great!!

We don’t really have a way of going to the movies often, timing is just never right. If we want to go, it has to be a kids movie that all three of us want to see. It pretty much has to be cartoon and can’t be scary. We learned our lesson about scary when we saw Brave, I still haven’t seen the second half (though I did buy the dvd this past week, so I’ll know what happens soon) Anyway, we decided to check out Wreck it Ralph.

CT has been asking to go see this movie for months now! It’s been hard explaining that movies come out at different times, sometimes in theaters, sometimes on DVD. She’s starting to catch on. We didn’t tell her we were seeing Wreck it Ralph until we bought the tickets, just in case. She was excited once we got in. We all were, ha. Truthfully we’ve all been looking forward to seeing this movie, and I’m so glad we did.

It was seriously one of the best Disney movies I’ve seen in a long time. The characters were all done so well, and the story kept your attention the entire time. They were able to make you feel something for the bad guy, the main character Ralph. You wanted him to be the hero! CT loved Venelope the best, of course. She was adorable!! I won’t get into the full story line here, because I really feel that anyone reading this should see this movie! It has a nice retro feel, it has loads of video game references from different decades, it has a little love story and a hero’s quest! Perfect! I loved it so much I MAY try and convince the family to go see it again. Maybe when it’s at the $2 theatre.

Now it’s Tuesday and my week is about to get crazy. We are headed to my uncles for thanksgiving on Thursday, and I said I’d make a pie and some macarons. Then we are hosting our own Thanksgiving for my husband’s side of the family on Saturday, which involves a lot of cleaning, prepping, baby proofing and baking too. I’m also hoping to get some antique shopping in on Friday during a huge sale at one of our favorite shops. It will be my only plan for Black Friday. Hopefully.

I hope everyone else is having a calmer week than me, and a great time with family!!

(the above two photos were courtesy of disney.com)

 

Thrift Finds: October 10th thru November 14th

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As I’ve said before, this time of year is just crazy for our family. Between craft shows, get togethers, holiday shopping, horrible weather (and dealing with insurance companies), and lots of other stuff, I don’t really have time to do the things I really enjoy. I haven’t been able to sculpt much, or sew anything that isn’t a gift (which means I can’t share until the new year). I also haven’t had much of a chance to thrift. There just wasn’t enough time in each day.

Well, this past weekend my husband thought it would be a nice to go treasure hunting again. We didn’t have too much time to go all over the place, plus CT has been very curious and has to touch EVERYTHING, not a good thing when their glass everywhere. Even with those limitations we still found some neat things…

The two pieces of Pyrex in the middle weren’t from this weekends trip. The bread loaf dish on top my mom found and gave to me and the casserole on the bottom I found for $1 during a quick pop in at a Goodwill, a week or so ago. I try not to buy pieces that are similar to ones I already have, but it was $1 and it’s a good size to use for Thanksgiving (which I’m having at my house for JC’s family).

The blue and yellow mini casseroles were an awesome find! I have been wanting the 8oz size for awhile now and was so happy to find them. Apparently friends of mine had seen them too, but left them behind! Thank you friends! Ha.

The Pez are for CT’s collection. She didn’t have the weird blog monster in middle, which she has named the “milk man”, so I picked them up for her.

Another awesome find, from the same shop as the mini Pyrex, was this Disney themed metal dollhouse! It was 50% off! This thing combines two of my favorite things to collect, Houses and Disney! I already have a metal dollhouse in my library, but I think I like this one better, so I may be switching them out.

These awesome holiday themed Corelle plates were the last of my finds. Like, they were actually the last thing I found before checking out. I was super excited because they mostly complete my set. The woman in line in front of me was also excited and tried to convince me NOT to get them! Ha. Who does that?!? Apparently I’m not the only one trying to complete a set.

So now that I have these holiday plates, I guess that means I have to actually use them? Maybe I’ll do a family dinner or something. Maybe.

I have plans to go out again this weekend. I’m on the lookout for some specific types of holiday decorations, I’m in winter decorating mode. Is it to early?

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