Pinch Proof St Patrick's Day Leprechaun Angel

I don't know why, but I don't seem to buy my kids very many green clothes.  Drama Queen and The Perfectionist have a few, but only because they have taken to buying their own clothes lately (or at least picking them out...I still seem to do al ot of paying.)

So when it comes time for St Patrick's day, we always seem to be in a panic trying to find green clothes to wear.  Sometimes, we find the littlest thing to keep ourselves Pinch Proof, but this year, I'm ahead of the game.

I'm making each one of the kids a St Patrick's Day Leprechaun angel to wear.  And they are super easy, so you can Pinch Proof your kids pretty simply too!

I started with a quick trip to Walmart.  You can probably make these much cheaper if you have a good craft store around, but I only have Walmart, so you go with what you got.

I bought a Bucket of Bling, some Faceted Beads, a few Silver Butterfly clips (from the Office Supply area), and some bar pins.

Start by stretching your butterfly clips arms out.  Add 2 of the faceted beads to each side.

Bend the arms back in and close to the body to hold the beads in place. 

Using E6000 glue, place a little glue on the back of one of the circle diamond pieces from your Bucket of Bling.  (You can buy these separately if you have a good craft store that sells them) or you can put the glue on the edges of the "shoulders" of your butterfly clip.

Using a green heart, or a shamrock button, or other lucky embellishment, glue to the center of the angle--right around where the arms meet.

Flip the angel VERY CAREFULLY over to the back.  Place a long strip of E6000 glue along the edge of the bar pin and place behind your diamond "head".  Allow glue to dry.

Now if you want to package them up and give them away to co-workers, friends, or classmates, you can print out this bag topper with the cute poem by Sue Pitchfork.  It reads:

May the luck of the Irish

Be with you today

As this Leprechaun Angel

Keeps the pinches at bay.

Just add the angel to a 3x4 bag from Walmart or other craft store and staple this topper on top.  Now you have a fun and unique gift to keep the Leprechauns from pinching you all day!

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10 St Patrick's Day Cake Pop Ideas

I absolutely LOVE cake pops.  I make them whenever possible, for any occasion possible.  But unfortunately, no matter how much I wish it, I don't seem to have any skill or talent in decorating cake pops so they look cute.

So while, I will probably have green cake pops this year, none of them will be near as cute as these guys.

1. St Patrick's Day Pops by Dollhouse Bake Shoppe.

2. Shamrock Cake Pops from jigonzalez at Cake Central.

3. Leprechaun Cake Pops by Cake Ball Addiction.

4. Leprechaun Hat Cake Balls by Frost It Bakery.

5. Four Leaf Clover Cake Balls by Sweet Lauren Cakes.

6. Pot of Gold Cake Pops by Beki Cook's Cakes.

7. Rainbow Cake Pops by Munchin Muncies.

8. Pot of Gold Cupcakes by The Kurtz Corner.

9. Spring Cake Pops by Unknown.

10. St Patrick's Day Cake Balls by Karin O'Brien.

Don't those just inspire you to want to go make cake balls?  Maybe I'll be adventurous and give them a go.  After all, the mistakes taste as good as the pretty ones!

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St Patrick's Day Candy Party Favors

I've been in the candy topper mood again.  There are just so many cute ways you can use these fun toppers that it makes it almost impossible for me to stop wanting to make more.  These would make fun classroom gifts, or co-worker gifts, or treats to leave in your kids' lunches, or friend gifts, or.... the list could go on and on.

Unfortunately, my site is down for repairs right now  (I guess my bandwidth has issues), so while I get that taken care of (Yea, who knows when my IT guys are actually going to get on that and follow through) I'm going to send you to my Hubby's etsy shop where he has some of our Printables listed.

It's kind of cool right now too.  Etsy just added a way that  you can download your files directly upon completion of purchase.  No more waiting for the files to be emailed to you.

I know I HATE waiting for files.  I get that people have lives, but when you are in the mood to create, you want to get started on it IMMEDIATELY. You don't want to wait until the file comes through.  By then the kids could be acting up, or dinner may need to be cooked, or a thousand other REAL LIFE items may come in front of the creative process.

It's really a Bummer.

But now, you don't have to wait.  You can instantly download your purchase (on everything but the personalized items)!  Pretty cool.

So now you can go get any of our new, or older, St Patricks Day Candy Treats.

We have Leprechaun Poop,  I'm So Lucky You're Mine, Smiles of Gold, and Leprechaun Kisses.

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Here’s My Heart Cookies-Improv Challenge

  

The theme for this month’s Improv  Challenge hosted Kristen over at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker is hearts and flours (pun intended).
 
I decided to see if I could make a cookie using  jellied heart candies.  I adapted a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie Book 2011, added almond extract and used a two-step baking method.  I tried putting the hearts on the cookies at the start of the baking time.  They held up OK, but the sugar on them melted.  Baking the cookies for a time and then adding the hearts worked better.

The recipe will make 48 to 54 cookies.  A bag of jellied hearts contains about 38 pieces of candy.  Buy two bags of candy and eat the excess or buy one bag of candy and make some plain cookies, depending on how many heart cookies are needed.

The people I tested these on liked them a lot and thought they were very cute.

I did find that I needed to chill the dough and keep it very cold so kept it in the refrigerator between baking the pans of cookies.

Here’s My Heart Cookies
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1 t. almond extract
2 T. milk
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
1 to 2 pkgs. jellied candy hearts

In a large mixing bowl combine shortening, butter, brown sugar and sugar.  Beat well.  Add egg, almond extract and milk, beating until well blended.  Combine flour, baking powder and soda.  Stir into liquid ingredients and mix until well blended.  Chill dough at least 1 hour.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.  (I used a cookie scoop.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes.  Remove cookies from oven and quickly place a jellied heart in the center of each cookies.  Return to oven and bake an additional 3 to 4 minutes, just until edges begin to brown.  Remove from oven and let set about 1 minute before removing cookies from baking sheet.  Cool on a wire rack.  Makes 48 to 54 cookies.

The ingredients for next month's Improv Challenge are peas and carrots.  Now that should be an interesting one.  If you would like to join us, you can find all the necessary information on Kristen's Improv page.

Check what other bloggers did with hearts and flours in the links below.

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Texas Pecan Brownie Fingers-Guest Post

I am posting this with somewhat of a "red face."  Kristen over a Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker was gracious enough to allow me to do a guest post on her blog.  I sent her a recipe for Texas Pecan Brownie Fingers which she posted on February 13.  I totally forgot to put up a post here letting people know about it.  

Kristen wrote some very sweet things about Grandma Loy's Kitchen, and I thank her very much for that.  If you want to try a scrumptious brownie recipe, hop on over and pick this one up.  While you're there, stick around and check out Kristen's blog.  She has great recipes and is hosting a month of chocolate with other guest bloggers.

I will be back tomorrow for Improv Cooking Challenge which Kristen just happen to host.  See you then.

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Lucky To Have You St Patrick's Day Party Shopping

I had planned to show you a few more Valentine crafts last week, but the holiday just got away from me.  That, and we had a few unexpected, "hiccups" in our life.  We found that we have to move in the next 4 weeks, but only have a few days to actually find a place to live.  So we are busy scouring town for a new house.

So, I don't know how much St Patrick's Day decorating I'll actually get done, but I am living vicariously through my online shopping today.  I was searching the small shops of Etsy looking for some fun St Patrick's day party items to show you, when I stumbled upon a super fun shirt (yes, it's featured today!)  I had to immediately order it for the Drama Queen. (Yes, because she needed ANY more close to have to move.)

But for those of you who aren't in a panic trying to find a new place to live, here are a few fun party items to make your St Patrick's Day party a little sweeter.

Fun St Patrick's day items to make your holiday party a little more lucky and sweet.

St. Pat's Top of the Mor... BobsBetts $15.00	St. Patrick's Day Hand-p... SunnyBelleDesi... $16.00
I Mustache You Not to Pinch ... XOXOAsh $22.00	St. Patrick's Day Photo ... BeBopProps $22.00
St. Patrick's Day Mini F... AmyMillerDesig... $10.75	Rainbow Fabric Pennant Banne... SweetOctoberSh... $26.75
Lucky wood blocks for St. Pa... SummerScraps $21.00	Table Runner Quilted St. Pat... skdesignorigin... $35.00
Leprechaun St. Patrick's... 4allseasons $34.99	One Dozen Pot of Gold Cake P... MelindasMarvel... $30.00
25 St Patrick's Day Kell... EnchantedFrogE... $4.00	St Paricks Day Candy Sticker... digitalartstar $6.00
Lucky St. Patrick's Day ... nattysuedesign... $15.00	Rainbow Party Game St. Patri... PartyPlanItDes... $16.00
St. Patrick's Day Leprec... PeadenScottDes... $2.60	Fondant Toppers - Leprechau... TheCakeDiva $11.95

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

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Cloud Cake Hearts

 

This is a fun and easy dessert idea for Valentine's Day, anniversaries or even birthdays.  This is more of a process than it is a recipe and comes from an idea I saw in Women's Day magazine a number of years ago.

The photos are of Twinkies as I took the photos before Twinkies were taken off the market.  The best substitute available now seems to be Little Debbie's Cloud Cakes. 

Two cakes are needed for two hearts.  Cut one cake in half diagonally from upper left to lower right starting and stopping approximately 1-inch from the top of the cake.  Cut the second cake in half diagonally from upper right to lower left starting and stopping approximately 1-inch from the top of the cake.  See the photo below.

 Place one half of one cake together with half of the other cake to form a heart.  Repeat with the second cake.

Place a heart on a dessert plate.  From here what you do is only limited by your imagination.  The hearts can be topped with various sauces or ice cream and sprinkled with whatever you want.  In the photo below I topped the heart with some slightly melted cherry jam and some chocolate-covered toffee bits. 

This is a fun idea for a children's party.  Have an adult or older child cute the cakes.  Set out various sauces (ice cream sauces are good) and items to sprinkle on the top.  Let the children choose the combinations they want.  We all need a Twinkie (Cloud Cake) heart once in awhile.

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3-Way Pizza Sauce

I call this recipe 3-Way Pizza Sauce because, depending upon the amount of time you have it can be a no-cook sauce or a cooked sauce.  The recipe uses tomato sauce and herbs most people have in their kitchen all the time.  I usually make the no-cook version, just letting the mixed sauce stand on the counter in my kitchen for the hour.  I use one recipe of the sauce per each 10x15-in. or large pizza pan of pizza dough.

3-Way Pizza Sauce
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 t. oregano, crushed between your fingers
1/2 t. marjoram, crushed between your fingers
1/2 t. basil, crushed between your fingers
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/2-1 t. sugar (depending on how sweet you like pizza sauce)

Combine ingredients in a small bowl.  Mix well and let stand for 1 hour.  If you only have 30 minutes,  place the ingredients in a microwave-safe container, cover and microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir and let stand for 30 minutes.  If you need sauce right now, place ingredients in a small saucepan, stir bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer gently 10 minutes.  Watch carefully and stir often.

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Easy Under 1 Hour Pizza Dough

When I made the pizza dough for the Cheesy  Breadsticks I posted yesterday, I used a recipe that has been in my computer files for quite some time.  I chose this recipe because it said it could be made in less than an hour.  That is my kind of deal.  Unfortunately, I do not know the source for the recipe.

The dough can be made using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook or conventionally if you don’t have a mixer.  With the Kitchen Aid, the ingredients can all be  tossed in the bowl and kneaded for 5 minutes.  It will take a bit longer if done conventionally, because it will be necessary to knead the dough for about 10 minutes.  After that, the dough needs to rise just 30 minutes.  It is then ready to make pizza or bread sticks.  The recipe makes enough dough to make two 10x15-inch pizzas or one 10x15-inch pizza and 16 breadsticks.  With a dough this easy to make, I will be using this recipe often.

I use a quick, no-cook pizza sauce to make my pizza.  I will post that recipe tomorrow.

Easy Under 1 Hour Pizza Dough
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 packet fast acting yeast
1 c. warm water (110 degrees)
1 T. olive or vegetable oil

If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, put all the ingredients in the mixer bowl and allow the mixer to knead the dough for 5 minutes.  If you don’t have a mixer, put the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large mixing bowl.  Add the water and oil.  Stir until well blended.  Turn dough out on a flour-covered surface and knead 10 minutes.  For either method, after kneading, place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel.  Let rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Divide dough in half and place one half in a oil-sprayed 10x15-inch jelly roll pan or a large pizza pan.  Pat and push dough out to almost cover the pan.  Top with your favorite pizza sauce, toppings and cheese.  Bake at 425 degrees 12 to 15 minutes.  Cool slightly and cut into squares.  Repeat and make a second pizza with the other half or make Cheesy Breadsticks.

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10 Classroom Valentine Collection Boxes

There are only a few days left until Valentine's day.  For those of you who are lucky enough to be able to do Classroom Valentine parties, you may be in a pickle trying to figure out a last minute Valentine box for your child to collect his or her sweet treats in.

Since I don't have that particular problem this year, I wanted to share some ideas I've collected.  Maybe they'll help you turn that last minute box into a Prize Winning Valentine Collection Box.

1. Picture Classroom Valentine Exchange box from Parent Hacks.

2. Sweethearts Candy Valentine Exchange Box from Mommy Palooza.

3. Silly Monster Valentine Box from All Free Holiday Crafts.

4. Valentine Candy Train from Unknown.

5. iPod Valentine Box from Mommy Lessons 101.

6. Batman Valentine Box by Ruminations on Education.

7. Minion Valentine Box by Birthday Blueprint.

8. Castle Valentine Box from Unknown.

9. Fire Hydrant Valentine Box from Unknown.

10. Lego Darth Vader Valentine Box from Talk about Blackberry.

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