Valentine's Party Treats

How was your weekend?  I have a three day weekend, so it is still going for me!  We have the day off in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr.  I originally was looking forward to a sunny weekend, but the fog has not been lifting until late in the afternoons, so it has been cold.  I have been working on getting some of the details together for my son's Valentine's party.  The invites are going out tomorrow.  I am using the colors red, pink, kraft and white.  I am also going to incorporate owls into the party.  One of the food items I have been fascinated with lately are cake pops.  I bought the cake pops by Bakerella.  There are some great ones in there.  Of course the owl pops are ones that I am going to attempt. 

I am going to attempt them hopefully next weekend, so I can practice because they look a little complicated.  I'll let you know how they go.  I also bought a heart=shaped whoopie pie pan from Michael's.  I thought I may try to make these for him to bring to preschool the day of Valentine's Day. 

We'll see how worn out I am after the party.

Cupcake Stands

A month or so back I discovered these adorable cupcake stands from Farmhouse Wares.  Aren't they just adorable?

I really haven't had a reason to buy them and I don't want to store them, but if I do find that need I have also discovered a do-it-yourself version. The DIY ones are fun because you can customize the color you want.  They won't have the same feel as the ceramic ones, but they are very cute. 

Aren't these cute?  The tutorial is on Modern Moments Design.  I may have to try this out sometime.

Valentine's Printables- FREE

Shinding Parties has come out with another free printable.  This is perfect for my first grade class because we are the first grade froggies! 

Their printables are so cute and easy to do.  I love the tic tac toe games. 

Sunday Mornings

I love Sunday mornings.  We are lazy around our house.  Either my husband or I do venture out to get a yummy coffee drink, we read the paper (I scour the adds), and  I make a yummy breakfast.  Now my first choice for breakfast would be some sort of egg and potato dish and maybe some soy sausage. But my son won't eat any of that, so I usually make something that involves syrup, and ebelskivers have been my breakfast of choice lately.  Two years ago I received an ebelskiver pan for Christmas, this one:

Well I tried and tried, but I wasn't very good at making them.  I was just using wooden skewers to turn them.  So I put the pan away until this past December.  I was in Williams-Sonoma one day and decided to buy the turning tools for to go with it: 

And wow!  I am successful at making these things now.  They are really yummy.  I have been making them every weekend (and many days during Christmas break).   I also bought the cookbook and am excited to try some of the non-breakfast recipes.  I'll let you know how that goes.  Maybe I should have a ebelskiver party!

All of these images came from William-Sonoma.

Ribbon Heaven

Happy Friday! It's always hard to get back into the swing of things after a vacation, but I did survive a week with those cute little first graders. Well after an afternoon of meetings and planning time at school (oh, and a pit stop at our local brewery with friends; Sierra Nevada. I love Chico!), I was doing a little blog surfing and came across this blog that featured a store of ribbon!

I am seriously ready to hop in my car right now and do a Bay Area shopping trip, with this store being a must stop! It is called The Ribbonerie in San Francisco. Have you been there before? What is it like? I am a sucker for ribbon. I buy it, hoard it and salivate over it. There are so many fun things to do with it. I will probably refrain from driving down this weekend, but I do have a trip planned there in a couple of months and it will be on my agenda!

Valentine's Day

It's hard to believe that I am already planning for valentine's Day considering Christmas just ended, but I am.  I going to have a little Valentine's Day party for the Brad and his friends, so I must plan.  I have lots of ideas floating around in my head.  I will share my ideas as well as others I find blurfing (blog surfing).  Here are the invites I made up.

I'm going to incorporate owls into the party to add some "boyish character."  

Penguin Party Ideas

Okay so aren't penguins just so darn cute! We are learning about penguins in my first grade class and we will end the unit with a black and white (penguin) celebration. I have always thought it would be fun to have a penguin party for kids. These ideas are a little elaborate for a class party, but fun to drool about.





















How fun are these brownie pops.
















Penguin cake



















And my favorite penguins from Oreos. See the tutorial here. So fun!

One Word Necklace

I am debating if I should get a necklace with my word simplify on it. I really don't need another neckalce (simplify, simplify, simplify), BUT I really do love the hand-stamped silver necklaces these days. I have ordered two from The Vintage Pearl and have been very happy. I am thinking about getting this one:

I'm sure I will get it, may even just get the charm, since I have plenty of chains I could add it to. What do you think? Are you making/buying something with your word on it?

Simplify.

Simplify. That is my word for the year. I have never picked a word, but this word has been haunting me (in a good way) for a while now. This is my focus word for 2011. I have a lot going on in my life; a wife, a mommy and a first grade teacher. I feel as if sometimes I am constantly going and I need to stop and enjoy the moment more often. We have all heard it, "time flies" and yes it's true. It does. So my goal is to slow down, let go, and simplify my life so I can enjoy every moment possible with my family. I also have a lot of stuff that needs to be purged. Organizing and prioritizing are both part of my word. I know what you are thinking, slow down and start a blog. How do those relate to each other? I am hoping I can use this blog as a way to refelct about things I enjoy, create and do. I am hoping this blog will help me to organize my experiences so I can better document them for my family.

Simple. Enjoy.