cocoa nut

So you can see from my last post that I am a fan of chocolate. A big fan. In fact I usually look something like this.

In honor of Lent and my expanding thighs I have given up chocolate. 40 days and 40 nights of misery stretch ahead. I am in to Day 3 now and I have to say I find it most hard at night. My dreams are filled with this....

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and this...

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and this...

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and I mean, seriously?

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I have to confess this morning I ate one cocoa puff from my son's cereal bowl. It was automatic! As soon as I had crunched the sweet little morsel I realized what I had done! Too late. Oh well, from here on - no more. Wish me luck. And for those of you not silly enough to deprive yourself until Easter.

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Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

Valentine's Day is always a good excuse to make ridiculously decadent treats! I saw this amazing cupcake and I knew I had to try to recreate it. Instead of making regular size cupcakes I went with small ones. For some reason I thought I would be just able to eat one small one and that would be much less sinful than a full size one. I don't think that mentality quite worked out...these were so yummy I could not stop after one, or two, and I really had to stop after three because then I started to feel a little sick!

Not sure why I didn't think of covering cupcakes in chocolate before. Awesome idea.

I didn't have much time to put these together so I grabbed a box of chocolate cake mix and a tub of whipped frosting. My husband said they were the best cupcakes I ever made. He didn't see the box or tub so all of the credit went to me. Score.

The chocolate coating was made with 12oz of milk chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Melt it in a bowl on top of a saucepan. I made 24 mini cupcakes and I had plenty of chocolate topping left over.

Happy Valentine's Day

kisses & wishes

Here is a fun last minute Valentine's idea. It's so simple to make but I think it is pretty sweet (pun intended)! I call it kisses & wishes because that is just what it is...a jar of kisses and a jar of wishes.

I started out with two jam jars. The first one I filled with Hershey kisses and decorated with a yellow ribbon and some felt hearts that I cut out on just strung on a piece of thread.

The second one is filled with wishes. Basically I wrote my wishes for my two Valentines and put them in a jar. Writing out the wishes almost brought a tear to my eye.

Some of the things I included were: I wish you joy, I wish you courage, I wish you friendship, I wish you success. I want so much for my little boy but in the end I just wish him happiness. What else is there?

The wish jar is decorated with a stuffed felt heart heart and some white ribbon. A cute pair I think!

just add sprinkles

I think I've mentioned before that we are big fans of sprinkles in this house, well one person in particular is anyway! So for my husband's birthday this week I decided to make a cake that had a lot of sprinkles. I scouted around Pintrest and found some really beautiful cakes.

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Source: google.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

It is really only when you attempt to recreate these cakes that you realize the level of artistry and skill that goes into making these elegant cakes. Mine always look a bit flustered!

I used this recipe for the cake and I can't find the website where I got the frosting recipe. I think it was just a random google search and honestly it's better that I don't have the recipe. I have to say I was not happy with how the frosting turned out. I'm not sure if I chose the wrong recipe or if I did something wrong but it was too runny and not fluffy enough. It tasted okay though :).

Pacifier was dumped in preparation for cake eating!

I really really really need a cake stand. At the moment I use an upside down Tupperware bowl to store the cake :(. More on the cake stand need later....

See what I mean about the frosting being too runny. Boo. It's melting!

I thought it would be fun to do the teal frosting on the inside too.

I may have used too many sprinkles in the batter but it still looks fun and tasted great!

So the cake stand... I have a dream cake stand in mind and I know I could just find and order one from EBay but I have this weird need to find it in person. I have gone to a few flea markets and antique/thrift stores looking for it but have yet to find it. It's like a personal goal to find one and snatch it up, carrying it out of the store with a wide grin on my face.

The elusive cake stand

jammies

The other night my little one started complaining that his all-in-one pajamas were hurting his legs and sure enough they were getting pretty tight. He is 2.5 and I had him in 3T p.j.s but it was clear we needed to go up a size. Off to Target and of course there were no 4T footed pajamas left. I need to go online to get him some as we still have a couple of cold months left but to bridge the gap I scouted through my fabric stash and found this cute little woodland creature flannel.

Wide leg gives lots of room to move around

To cut the shape I simply traced around a pair of pants that do fit him well and sewed from memory. Since pajama bottoms were the first thing I ever learned to make a sewing class and it has been etched on to my brain. I made the leg a little wider than his regular pants so that they would be more comfortable for lounging and sleeping. I love making pajama bottoms - they take about 30 minutes for me to do and there is so little cutting and thinking involved!

The heart really makes I think!

I had some left over fabric so I took a t-shirt that had seen the last of its "day-time" wear (due to chocolate stain I can't shift!) and put a little applique heart on it. Given the time of year I think they are a super cute nod to Valentine's  Day and he really loves them so that's all that matters.

Love those toes :)

Linked to:

Pocket full of pink - Friday Frolic 

Ginger Snap Crafts - Valentine's Day Party 

30 Handmade Days - Pity Party 

Whipperberry - Friday Flair 

The Shabby Nest - Frugal Flair 


Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday 


Rae Gun Ramblings - What we wore and made Wednesdays 


The Not So Functional Housewife - Functional Friday 


Tales of a Trophy Wife - Linky #27 


Simply Designing - Friday Link Party 


I Heart Naptime - Sundae Scoop Link Party 


Flamingo Toes - Think Pink Sundays 


Itsy Bitsy Paper - I Heart Projects Link Party