Pink and white cupcake bar

Tonight we celebrated the 171st anniversary of the relief society in our church. We had several little service activities and at the end we had refreshments. To make the evening feel more festive I organized a cupcake bar and went crazy on white and pink:) I love how it turned out and I had a lot of fun preparing everything.

 My husband's aunt and I made a total of 100 cupcakes for the evening, we had chocolate, lemon, nuts and yogurt cupcakes. I made the little labels using the silhouette program and I got the cute card holders in England.

 I went pinwheel crazy this week. I was planning on making three to go inside the white crate like in the picture below but they were so much fun to make that I made over 30 of them in the end...

 A sister in our ward turned 75 today so I made this small pink cake for her and tried for the first time to make a ruffle buttercream frosting.

 I used a wilton #104 petal piping tip. For a first try I'm really quite happy with it.

One more close up of the ruffle cake:)

I put little pink candies in the jars and also put the different frostings in glass jars.

 I made a sign (in french) explaining how to use the cupcake bar.

 More pinwheels and I also tried making french meringues for the first time. Of course I made them pink:) Here's the recipe I used. I made mine very small, a bit smaller than an inch and made 120 with that recipe. They are cute and very yummy too:)

 It was a great evening, we got a lot of service projects done and had a great time chatting and eating! Have a great week end!!

Golf/Jeeves & Wooster desert table

Last Sunday my father in law turned 60 (no the banner does not say goth party...). The Friday before I went into a party planning mood and decided to organize a golf/Jeeves & Wooster (british TV show) dessert table. Jeeves and Wooster was a bit difficult so we had the theme music on when my father in law came in and I tried to give the table a vintage feel since the show takes place in the 1920s, Wooster also loves golf and berets. My sister in law Linda helped me a lot with the food and my mother in law as well. 

 It all started with this cake that I saw on Jenny cookies, she is so talented. Making cakes is so not my thing, I'd much rather make cupcakes! Anyway I loved the idea of putting a golf ball in the cake:)

 Sunday was also St Patricks day so green was the main color and we had some yellow too.

 Yummy lemon meringue pie and delicious little vanilla and chocolate eclairs!

 Fresh home made lemonade and oreo cake pops, here's where I got the recipe for the cake pops (it's in french though).

A couple weeks ago I discovered how to make mini pavlovas (picture below), it's a marshmallowy (is that a word??) meringue base topped with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit. I'll be sharing that recipe soon. It became an instant favorite in our family!

 So this is what I whipped up in 2 days. This Friday I'm organizing a cupcake bar for our relief society activity at church so I hope to post picture of that this week end! Have a nice week!

Pinterest recipe challenge: White chicken chili

A couple months ago I came across this white chicken chili recipe and it has become a favorite ever since. I did make a few changes because there were a few things that I didn't have but I think they are good substitutes and so far I have always made it with my changes.

1. I start by cooking the chicken breasts in boiling water and I use my stand mixer to shred the chicken. I set the mixer on 4 or 6 and it takes about 30 seconds to shred the chicken, it's awesome!

Here are the ingredients that I use:
1 cup chopped onions
1 green onion sliced
1/2 green pepper
1 thin green chili pepper seeded and sliced
2 Tbl olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
1 large 800g can white beans (partially drained)
3 cups cooked chicken breast shredded
1 tsp chili con carne mix
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 1/2 handfuls fresh flat parsley
1/2 handful fresh coriander
3/4 cup sour cream (I used crème fraîche because that's all you can get in France)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I use gouda)

 2. In a large stock pot over medium heat, sauté onions, green onion, pepper and chili pepper in oil until tender. Chop the fresh parsley and coriander and add to the pot. Stir in remaining ingredients except sour cream and cheese.
3. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Shortly before serving add cream and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

 We usually eat this with homemade french bread, I'll be sharing that recipe shortly. Bon appetit!

Pinterest recipe challenge: Carmelitas

Ever since I discovered Pinterest I've mostly been fascinated by all the lovely delicious looking recipes that are so easy to find. I've tried out a quite a few over the past 6 months and a lot of them have become favorites in our family. So I thought I'd start sharing my adventures trying out pinterest recipes with you:)

The recipe I am sharing with you today comes from luluthebaker, it is an original recipe that she came up with and I love it!! It's a delicious and very rich oatmeal/butter/chocolate/caramel dessert that is baked in the oven and tastes best the next day (if you made them in the late afternoon like I did) once the chocolate has hardened again after baking (oh and they taste best at room temperature!!)

 I didn't change anything in the recipe. For the caramels I used an entire 165g bag of Werther's soft caramels

 So you have a bottom layer of oatmeal/brown sugar/buttery goodness, then a layer of chopped chocolate, a layer of melted caramel and heavy cream and the whole thing is topped off with a final layer of the oatmeal mixture and then baked in the oven.

 I think I'm going to go make some for tomorrow! hope you enjoy this and let me know if you try it out!!

A few cards

 The day before Christmas we had a big family reunion on my moms side of the family, we celebrated 4 birthdays (not Christmas eve...). So the week end before I made 4 cards, two big ones that everyone could sign for two of my cousins and then two smaller ones for us to give to my aunt and uncle. I forgot to take pictures of the bigger cards (I forget to take pictures a lot lately....which is too bad because we finally got a new camera!).

So here is the card I made for my uncle...masculine cards are not the easiest to come up with but I like how this one turned out (both my husband and my dad really liked it so it's a good sign)! The stamped image is from a Hero arts cling stamp set.

 This is the card I made for my aunt, I used a beautiful stamp from a company called Flourishes. You'll be seeing me use their stamps again this year I'm sure:)

 A close up:)

The last card I want to show you today is one that I made for my niece who turned 8 this month. The stamped image is from Waltzingmouse stamps as well as the sentiment. I'm experimenting with embossing folders a lot lately so you'll be seeing more of that as well.

I have a few more masculine cards that I'll be posting soon and I'll show you my favorite embossing folder for masculine cards:)

Christmas decorations...finally

I've taken forever to post my Christmas decorations, time flies in December and I can't believe Christmas is in 2 days!! I hope most of you are more ready than I am!

Anyway here we go!

As I mentioned in my previous post I went for a Scandinavian/shabby chic theme this year. On our tree I used silver glass ornaments and a lot of zinc ornaments as well that I picked up at Ikea this year:) I also love to add real candles but we never light them.

 I made these Christmas count down blocks last year and I'm glad they still fit in with my theme this year:) Of course I love adding vintage items in my decorations!

 My advent candles were very easily and quickly displayed this year. I didn't make a wreath because once it gets dry it gets so messy when you have to move it on and off the table so I went for this zinc planter and put the greens directly inside that way when I move it around nothing falls onto the table:)

 I made a fresh green wreath for the living room and added some fresh red apples for a little pop of color.

 I made this plaque and used distress inks to make the plaque look vintage, very easy and mess free (except for the ink on your hands..).

 To display the greeting cards we receive this year I went to the woods and picked up some dead branches. I put them in a vase and wrapped some jute around it that I secured with some white satin ribbon.

 When I get a card I simply punch a small hole on the top and add some white satin ribbon and then I hang it on a branch.

 And here is my mantel for this Christmas. I made a fresh wreath to hang on my fake window. I set up our willow tree nativity on the mantel along with an Ikea lantern and some vintage touches.

Every year I've said I'd make stockings for our family and every year I was never able to find the time. This year I finally made a set of stockings for us! I wanted them to be very simple and neutral. I used jute and lined them with a thin cream colored fabric. I made stencils with my silhouette so I could add our names with acrylic paint. If you're wondering what font I used it is called 'Zelda' :)

 I am in love with chalkboards at the moment, so I put one in a chicken wire basket filled with branches and pine cones.

 Last but not least, I made these little wooden signs for my kids to hold for our Christmas pictures. I didn't use chalkboard paint, just regular black acrylic paint and white acrylic paint. I retraced the swirls with a silver paint marker and used a sponge and some white paint marker dabbed on it to sponge the surface of the plaques making sure to take the excess paint marker off on some scratch paper before applying it to the plaque. And if I added too much white here and there then I just grabbed some sandpaper and sanded it down as much as I needed to.

Thank you for all the nice comments and remarks this year! I wish you all a very happy Christmas with your loved ones!!

Scandinavian/shabby chic inspired Christmas

For the past year I've been eyeing Scandinavian decor. In June a friend of mine gave me some of her old Jeanne d'arc living magazines and I fell in love with their Christmas edition, I have the one for 2011. 

This is the picture that most inspired my Christmas decorating this year:)

Today I'm just going to share with you how I decorated our front door. This year I mostly used white and silver for my colors and a lot of fresh pine branches.

  I made  a few fresh wreaths for inside and outside but left them plain with just a big white fabric bow. I love zinc, so I tried to add some zinc decorations everywhere I could. I fond a whole bunch at Ikea that I used for our Christmas tree but I'll show you those in a separate post.

 I found these used ice skates on ebay for 5 euros! I dont think they are very old but I mainly wanted them to look used:)

 I also love this old Davos sled that I got on an auction site in Switzerland for 15 dollars. The silver lantern is from Ikea;) I'll be back soon with more pictures of our Christmas decorations!