French Macarons

French macarons have been all over the internet for some time now. I've tried making these before but they didn't turn out but I've been meaning to give them another go. I was invited to a potluck and the theme was green food. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to try making them again. I have to say that after reading up on them and different techniques, I realize where I went wrong the first time. I really liked the taste of them. They still weren't perfect, but practice will (hopefully) make perfect. :)

I got the recipe from The Extraordinary Art of Cake {click here for the recipe} although I substituted almond flour for the ground almonds and I added cream of tartar to my whipped egg whites ( I also ground 3 oz of pistachios which was perfect to leave enough for a garnish). Her site is incredible and she is ridiculously talented, so you should just check it out. I also looked up a basic technique {here}. Here are some of my own tips: make sure to give them enough space on the sheet, try to make them the same size and perfect circles will take time, and last of all let them cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet. 

I made pistachio macarons for the potluck and filled half with caramel buttercream and the rest of them with lemon buttercream and raspberry jam. Personally, my favorite was the lemon buttercream but I think the fan favorite was the caramel filled ones. 

How to Flood Icing

 I have always wanted to try flooding cookies, because they make some of the most gorgeous cookies. The only reason I haven't tried this technique is because my family isn't a huge fan of sugar cookies and frosting. They complain (even my kids) that it's too sweet so whenever I've shown a picture of cookies I want to make to my husband he always talks me out of them. This year for Elijah's birthday cake I really wanted to incorporate his pilot that was part of his theme, so I thought that Elijah's cake would be the perfect chance to finally try out this technique.

I did this the day before Elijah's party so it would have time to set. First, I transferred the outline of the pilot and paper planes onto rolled out fondant using piping gel. I then retraced the images using royal icing in the coordinating colors. I thinned out the icing and flooded each part. I have to say that I was a little nervous about how this would turn out since it was my first time doing it and if it didn't work I was going to have to figure out some other way to decorate his cake last minute. I'm really happy to say that it turned out great! (Well, I think so :) ) I got the recipe {here} from Joy of Baking and she even includes a video to show you the technique (it's the last five minutes of her video). I actually watched {this video} for the how to.

Paper Plane Party

I know today is supposed to be guest blogger Friday, but I've been absent for about a month so I thought I would do it this week. Sorry if you were looking forward to a guest blogger, I'll have one again next month for you.

Since last year, Elijah has been asking for an airplane party for his birthday. I had the theme picked out for the year but I didn't plan too much just in case he wanted to change his mind, which every three turning four year old does at some point. But the airplane idea stuck, so after Chloe's birthday I started to plan out his party. I have to say this was easier to plan since plane parties are so common. I had a lot of fun with it too. It reminded me of being back in grade school folding airplanes and using poster board. I do have to admit while this was the most cost effective party I've done so far, it probably was the most time consuming. It took me about a solid week of non stop working to do everything for his party. (I really need to learn not to procrastinate!) I got pretty much everything that I wanted to do for this party (which is a first) so was really happy how everything turned out.

I wanted to make his party a little different than all of the ones I've seen, so I made his theme a paper plane pilot program. My sister in law, Bonnie, is incredible and ridiculously talented with graphic designs and she made me invitations for the party. I wanted the pilot to look like Elijah, which he was really excited about. He also chose to have Elijah Airlines and wanted everything to be blue. I also used the graphics from the invite throughout the rest of the party decorations.

 I made a poster to greet everyone at the front door.

 For decorations, I made {paper plane garlands} and strung them up to go into a point over the tables. I also strung a few planes up throughout the house. 

I really wanted to have airline posters of different destinations for the party, and luckily I have family members that travel. A HUGE thank you really goes to my sister in law, Annie, since I used most of her pictures of Europe and Costa Rica and Alaska to make the posters. My other sister in law, Kayla, contributed Hawaii for me and I had the rest of them. I put up the posters around the house.

 Sadly I couldn't find a good picture from Japan except for these two

I also made cloud and planes mobiles to hang up in his room, where we had all of the games in. 

For the games, I wanted them to go along with learning to be a pilot, so for the first game we played red light green light to "learn how to take directions" and earn their compasses. The kids had a blast with it. Each round they had to do something different to get to the "air traffic controller" and the first person to get to them got the next turn of raising the flags. 

(this was the kids doing the kangaroo hop)

The next game we played was "learning to navigate a plane on the ground" so they had to go through an obstacle course riding little airplanes and they were able to earn their survival toy which was a paratrooper. The kids had fun going through the obstacle course, but I think they had more fun playing with the paratroopers which they had races throwing them down the stairs. 

 (Jed showed the kids how to do the obstacle course)

Our last game, they had to check their "flight skills" and make their own paper airplane and do a plane toss. The little kids got to stand on a stool and even Chloe was able to get hers to fly through the holes. 

After the last game, the kids earned their wings and their pilot licenses.

For this party I made the food table really simple. 

Over the table, I made a "Happy Birthday Elijah" garland using the same technique as the paper plane garland.

I decided to do "pilot pop" for drinks and found {this tutorial} for the pilot hats ( I was planning on making a hat for Elijah too, but ran out of time). I also made labels for all of the drinks using the same graphics from the invitation.

 Elijah had been asking me for rice krispie treats so I made them for his party and covered them in melted vanilla. I tried to make them look like paper planes. I did the cake for his party and have to admit that this might be my favorite looking cake that I've done so far. I made fondant cutouts of clouds and paper planes and even made one of the little pilot in the paper plane then piped on dashes after the planes to show their flight patterns. His cake was dark chocolate filled with blackberry jam and cookies and cream buttercream and covered in blackberry chocolate ganash. 

Since I had an extra 15 minutes before the party I quickly sewed on a paper plane to a shirt for Elijah. (I like when even their outfits fit the theme, I know I'm ridiculous) It was a really good thing I made the shirt for him too, because he pretty much ruined it with stains and it was only $3 for the the shirt so I'm okay with it. :)

For party favors, I made little " pilot suitcases" out of cereal boxes with each child's name. I filled them with "an advanced flight manual" which was a booklet of how to make complex paper planes. (You can find directions all over the internet for them) and I did a "complimentary of Elijah Airlines" bags of homemade cinnamon and sugar pretzels and honey roasted peanuts.

I also wanted to add another thank you for everyone who helped me with this party and all who came!

Create a Date!

Hello all!  My name is Ashley and I am from Privilege Days, a blog that assists families with date ideas so that you'll never wonder where to go or what to do, when you want to spend time with your family.  I started this blog because family time is quite the privilege in my home, what with my husband's night shifts at work and his school schedule on his days off.  I decided to make a resolution to prioritize family dates so that we can get that quality one-on-one time to enrich our family and see how everyone is doing.  We call these dates our 'PRIVILEGE DAYS'.








We hold our Privilege Day dates four times a month, usually on a Friday or Saturday.  Since it's almost the weekend, I'm going to share with you a few date ideas that you can do with just you and your spouse, you and your children, and as an entire family....  {continue reading!}

Flower Party

This year for Chloe's birthday party, I went a little simple. Not by choice but mainly because I've been a bit under the weather (or like my husband likes to say the weather's been on top of me) so I originally had a huge over the top party planned, but I think this one still turned out really cute.

The colors I chose were yellow, pink and white. I did a combination of fabric and paper flowers for decorations. I only spent about two days on the party too so it really wasn't time consuming at all. I also kept changing my mind and tried to simplify what I wanted to do. Everyone seemed to like the party and Chloe had a blast and in the end that's all that mattered.

For the invitations I made fabric flowers in yellow, white and pink and wrote the party info on leaves.
Sorry this is such a horrible picture these did turned out really cute though.

For decorations I made flower pom poms. I know I use these at a lot of my parties, but this time I tried to make them look more like flowers. You can grab the tutorial for them on {this earlier post}. The only thing I did different was for the centers I used a napkin that was smaller than the tissue paper so they looked more like stamens. I put these up over the dessert table. I also strung them up with paper lanterns I had from Chloe's party last year.

 

For the dessert table I decided to do a small 6 inch cake along with cupcakes. I know this is just my obsessive compulsion but I wanted the food to match the color scheme too.

 I made a white cake filled with lemon curd, strawberry cream cheese and fresh strawberries and I frosted the cake with white chocolate whipped cream. I added a pink fondant flower mainly because my husband made a comment to me the night before how my flowers were really simple for the party favors. I wasn't sure how I wanted to decorate the cake and I did the desserts the morning of, so I just threw it together last minute. To get the tutorial for the ruffle look go to {this link} and you can watch {this video} for the fondant flower. Since I did the flower the morning of the party, I shaped the petals in an empty egg carton and covered them and let them set up in the fridge so they could harden.

I made cupcakes just in case some of the kids didn't like lemon curd so I just filled theirs with fresh strawberries instead. I made five sets of fabric and paper flowers in the three different colors for the cupcake toppers. Also, I was planning on adding leaves and I think it would've looked a little bit better, but I was simplifying.

For the backdrop of the food table, I made wall flowers out of napkins using the same technique as the pom poms but you can check out {this tutorial} from Made. I combined the wall flowers with a few paper pinwheels (get the tutorial from my {robot party} link) and a couple of fabric flowers.

For the food, I kept it really simple and served brunch this time. My father in law made cinnamon rolls and I made a few quiches. My family came into town for Chloe's party and they helped prep yogurt berry parfaits  (topped with corn flakes which is the Japanese way) and fruit kebabs for me.

I had my mom cut out different melons and pineapple in different flower shapes and attached grapes to look like leaves. For the containers for the fruit, I recycled a few large soup cans and wrapped them in fabric and attached a flower onto them.

I served lemonade for drinks. I bought some really cute pint size canning jars from Walmart and printed out some labels. I also bought pink striped paper straws from Little Yume on Etsy to go with the drinks. My husband was really against me getting the jars and straws since they cost a little extra, but they were a huge hit, and after the party he admitted that it was a good idea (plus I can reuse the jars as gifts or to actually can with later). The grandparents were nostalgic over the paper straws and everyone loved the cute jars.

I did take pictures of the rest of the party decor and party favors but I think they got erased because I can't find them anymore. Oh well. For the rest of the decorations I just hung balloons upside down along with the left over paper lanterns. For party favors, I made lemon ricotta cookies (my family's favorite) and added a small pink fondant flower.

You can check out these different link for different flowers I used for the party.
Organza Flowers by Little Birdie Secret
Lace Flower by See It Again Saturday
T Shirt Flower by A Bit Of Sunshine
Star Flower by The Letter 4
Peony by Ruffles and Stuff
Fabric Flower by Simply Vintagegirl

This was a fun party and it was great to spend time with family to celebrate Chloe turning two.

Achieving Your Goals

Hi, I’m Hillary, a stay-at-home mom of two, soon to be three boys. Thanks Joyce for the opportunity to be a guest blogger! Joyce suggested I talk a little about goals, which I’m passionate about. This is the perfect time to do so, since we’re all starting fresh with a whole new year before us!

If you’ve already broken your New Year’s resolutions, don’t worry, you can still start over! 

First, pick one realistic goal. Most people have an easy time coming up with things they want to achieve, the hard part is being realistic and having the gumption to keep trying after a failure. If you’re new to goal setting, and especially if you’re new to goal keeping, I suggest you start out with one goal. We all have plenty of areas to work on, but we can’t work on everything. Once you get the knack of truly accomplishing one goal, you can add more.

Second, WRITE IT DOWN! A goal really isn’t a goal if you just keep it in your head. And it must be specific enough that you can measure it and set a date to accomplish it by.

Example:    I want to lose weight. Not specific!

                   Lose 5 pounds. Still not specific enough!

                   Lose 5 pounds by February 14^th. Ah, now 

                   there is a specific goal.

Third, write down the ways you plan to accomplish your goal.

                           Lose 5 pounds by February 14th by:

1.       Cutting out all drinks except low-fat milk and water

2.       Running three times a week

3.       Having a piece of fruit or a vegetable before eating any dessert

And Fourth, you need to find a way to remind yourself regularly throughout the time allotted for the goal. You can do this by:

• Finding a friend or family member to check in with once a week
• Writing about it on your blog
• Taping it to your fridge with a check mark system (who doesn’t like checking things off?)

Just some way that keeps you thinking about it throughout the time so you don't forget and then feel discouraged. 

Remember to be realistic! I think that is one of the most important parts of setting goals. I think we all know whether we are truly ready to commit to a goal or not. Otherwise you’ll give up on the goal, and we don’t want that!

And at the end of the goal, find a way to celebrate. I believe the best reward is to share it with someone and say, “I did it!” and let them celebrate with you. Have a dance party with your kids, watch your favorite movie, or take half an hour to relax. You’ve earned it!

I love this quote from President Monson: "Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve."

Now what are you waiting for? Start a new goal today!

DIY Handmade Gifts

This year I did a lot of homemade gifts. My friend Ashley asked me to be a guest blogger and show some of them on her blog. It was really exciting to actually be the guest blogger this time. It was my very first guest appearance and it was really sweet of Ash to ask me. I thought I would share it also here too.

This year, I made my niece her own coloring book. I took pictures of all her family members (including extended) and took it into Photoshop to turn the photos into coloring pages. I just sent it off, so I'm not sure how she likes it yet, but my kids loved it. They thought it was so much fun being able to color their family members. You can get the how to from Photojojo at this link. Also, if you want to do this but don't have Photoshop you can also do at the Crayola website. A few tips if you use Photoshop: use the burn tool to help darken the edges and use the brush tool to create better outlines. I bought a cover for it but I was originally planning on making a cover for it. You can find the tutorial from Angry Chicken here.

This is a page from the coloring book of my adorable niece.

Since I'm always making accessories for Chloe, Elijah gets left out sometimes. To compensate, I make him ties. He loves them. He picked out some fabric and I'm making him some for Christmas. He also loves bow ties. I also made a few bow ties for my nephew this year. For babies I always attach elastic instead of a clip since they normally try to pull at them. This is something my sister in law can do (and has done) but I loved the fabric he chose. For the tie tutorial I used these two tutorials: Purlbee and Sharing the Wealth and for the bow tie I used this link from Prudent Baby.

Chloe loves backpacks right now and I thought I would make her one for Christmas. I looked at this tutorial from Prudent Baby for the drawstring backpack. I haven't finished it but this is the look I'm going for:

* this is from Goodies

I'm always making headbands for Chloe, or flower clips, and I made her this one for Thanksgiving. These make great gifts though and are easy to make and less than $1 to make. I used the tutorial from Mary Jane and Galoshes.

If you're not into sewing try this tutorial from 'A Girl and A Glue Gun' for a car mat. You can see her boy and girl versions. I haven't started this one yet (I might wait for his birthday in February). I thought this was cute and affordable. I also wanted to try a Batman theme since Elijah is really into Batman right now.

If you remember my earlier post that I did for Jed's Christmas gift, here it is. He loves it! He loves getting to open one each day and one of the things he liked the most were outings for him and the kids. He also likes the notes that I have attached to each day. Elijah also loves this. He is so excited to give it to Jed and even gets excited about the date ideas. He wants to come with us. 

Since I'm also really into baking and I'm loving the mason jar gift ideas right now, I thought these were a cute ideas. I found a bunch on Tip Junkie and Under the Table and Dreaming. I thought these would be really cute to give to neighbors, friends, co workers or for the people I visit teach. Another cute idea is to give hot chocolate with a dessert tasting spoon for a stirrer. My husband's co worker gave us one and it reminded me of these dessert tasting spoons that I once saw. It's such a cute idea and easy and affordable to do.

*image from Tip Junkie

*image from shutterstock

I hope these help you with your own Christmas projects. Merry Christmas!

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