Thursday, March 31, 2011

April Fool's Recipes

Pin It Family Fun has some really fun ideas for April Fools recipes.  Like this dessert that is actually made of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Go check them out!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Easter Topiary

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I bought some plastic Easter eggs at the dollar store the other day and wanted to figure out something fun to do with them.  I came up with this Easter topiary.  My husband said it looks like something from Dr. Seuss ha.  I think it's fun and considering it only cost me a dollar to make - I think it turned out pretty well.

Supplies:
- Plastic Eggs
- Wire hanger
- Basket
- Tissue paper
- Plain paper
- Plastic cup
- Hot glue
- Tacky glue - Elmer's glue would work fine too
- Wire cutters

Here's how you make it:

Just like with my Valentine's Kissing Ball, I made a ball out of plain paper. 
 I cut up some tissue paper into squares - don't worry if they aren't all perfect or the same size
 Take one square and put it on a pencil like the picture below.  Dip the bottom of the paper in glue (I used Tacky glue, but Elmer's would work too).
Before you glue on the tissue paper, make a hole in the ball where your wire will be glued inside.  Use the pencil to press the paper onto your ball. Put the pieces of tissue paper close together so there aren't any gaps. 
 The plastic eggs came with two holes - one at the top and one at the bottom, which are the perfect size for a wire hanger to be "threaded" through.  I used wire cutters to cut up a hanger.  I then hot glued the wire hanger inside of my topiary.
 Lastly, I used a small plastic cup - since that's what I had lying around for the base of my topiary.  I hot glued the last egg to the bottom of the cup.  I put the topiary inside an Easter basket and used white tissue paper to fill the basket - I think some of that fake grass would be cute in the basket, I just didn't have any at the time.  Here is the finished product:

Friday, March 25, 2011

BYU Cougar Game

Pin It We had some people over to watch the BYU vs. Florida game yesterday.  I don't want to talk about the game - what a sad loss!  But, I wanted to post a couple of the things I made for our party for you.  We had the normal chips and salsa and whatnot, but I also made a "Cougar Blue Punch" and some Basketball/BYU themed cupcakes.  Here they are:

The punch is 1/2 blue Powerade and 1/2 Sprite
Basketballs, Cougar paws and BYU cupcakes yummm!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Cardboard Easter Sign

Pin It I made a quick Easter sign the other day using cardboard that I had lying around the house.  I wish I had a Cricut or a Silhouette machine so I could have cut out some cute letters to put on it, but instead I just painted on the letters quickly.  They aren't cute, but they get the point across :)  Here's what I did:

I made an Easter egg "stencil" that I traced onto the cardboard.  Then I cut out the sign.
 I then used my acrylic paints to paint the egg shapes.
 Lastly, I painted the word Easter along the eggs.  I didn't have to make a base because the cardboard actually curled a bit after painting so it stands on its own.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Stopping By

Pin It I just wanted to pop in and apologize for not posting anything for a while.  We went on a trip to Ohio to check out OSU and I am on day 5 of being sick and fevering.  Once I start feeling better, I'll do some more projects and post about them.  I hope everyone is having a great day!

Friday, March 4, 2011

First Birthday Photo Shoot

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My daughter turned 1 a couple weeks ago.  I did a photo shoot of her in my little studio with her own cake.  I found the hat for 50 cents at Babies R Us and am so glad I did!  Surprisingly she didn't really eat too much of the cake, she was distracted by all the stickiness on her hands.  She did enjoy destroying the cake though.


 
 







Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Dr. Seuss Cookies

Pin It I have been craving sugar cookies lately....so I decided since today is Dr. Seuss day, that I should make some Dr. Seuss themed sugar cookies :)  I didn't have a ton of time to make them, so they aren't the prettiest, but here they are - a green egg, Gat in the hat's hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2.


The green yolk on the cookies is colored white chocolate.  Here's the recipe for the cookies and frosting.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla
1 TBSP soda
4 tsp. Baking powder
6 -7 cups flour

Cream together sugar, butter, and sour cream.  Beat in eggs.  Add vanilla.  Mix in soda, baking
powder, and flour until dough is just able to be rolled out.  Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.
Use desired cookie cutter shapes.  Bake at 350 for 7 minutes.

Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 or so tsp milk

Mix well.  Add less milk for thicker frosting.  Add more milk for a thinner glaze.

Easy Potato Cheese Soup

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This is a fast, easy and delicious soup.  I hope you enjoy it :)

Ingredients:
4-5 medium potatoes, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans of chicken broth
8 0z Velveeta cheese, chopped
salt
pepper

Directions:
Bring potatoes, onion, chicken broth and a pinch of salt and pepper to a boil. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes). Put most of the potato mixture in the blender - leaving about 1/3 of the potatoes in the pot if you want some chunks in your soup. Blend the potato mixture until smooth (I add all of the liquid to the blender). Return mixture to the pot. Add the Velveeta cheese to the soup. Stir until completely melted. You may need to add a little bit of water or milk to the soup to make it the consistency you would like it.  I prefer it on the thicker side.  Top soup with a bit of grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits.