Stay Tuned..

Coming tomorrow.. a tutorial for Christmas! Yay! Christmas tree hairbows.. these are super cute and super EASY to make! AND of course your little one will look adorable wearing it! So get your green ribbon, hair clips, and glue guns ready, its hair bow makin' time!

Christmas Spirit

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm ready for Christmas! We put our tree up this week and our puppy, Carly Sue loves to lay under it. It has become her favorite spot. Hope you are getting into the Christmas spirit! 'Tis the Season!

Valentine's Day Treats..

Wanna make some yummy (and easy) treats for

Valentine's Day?

I saw something similar to these on http://theidearoom.blogspot.com
but it called for candy canes ..and I can't find any. So I came up with this instead.
So here's what you need:
one bag of these pretzels.. they're called pretzel loops.



You will also need some either chocolate melts or chocolate chips. I used 2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use white chocolate too. Here's the rest of what you will need:
Lollipop sticks, bags to put the finished lollipops inside, and a piping bag or large baggie to pipe the chocolate into the pretzels.
First, lay out a sheet of wax paper. Arrange the lollipop stick between the 2 loops so it resembles a heart (like this):


Next, you need to start your double boiler to melt the chocolate. I used 2 bags of chocolate chips and was able to get 35 lollipops out of them. A double boiler are 2 pots, one is slightly larger than the other. The pot that sits directly on the stove has water in it that boils to heat the pot that is on top of it. So the chocolate doesn't scorch as easily. This is what it will look like:
Melt the chocolate til its nice and thin... I had to add a little water to mine. Once the chocolate is melted, transfer the chocolate into piping bags or large baggies. Cut a small hole in the tip of the piping bag or if you are using a baggie, clip one of the bottom corners. Start small, you can always cut off more if you need to.
I found this tip after I had made my suckers so I don't have a picture of it, but pipe a small amount of chocolate under the lollipop stick before you fill in the pretzel loop. This make your heart lollipop sturdier. Then begin piping chocolate into your loops. Then smooth it out with your finger.
Make sure that you spread it out to fill in the entire loop and to cover your stick.. This is what holds your lollipop together once it has set. Then you can decorate if you would like. This was my daughter's favorite step. We used red decorating sugar sprinkles. Keep filling and smoothing until you have either run out of sticks or chocolate! :)

Then cut your wax paper into sections that can fit onto cookie sheets. Place them in the refrigerator to set. Once the chocolate has hardened, the lollipops easily peel off of the paper. Be very gentle with them, they do break! Next, package them so they can be given away or kept fresh. I used Wilton brand treat bags and cut a little off the bottom. They also come with twist ties so you can close them up. Here's the finished product. They are very yummy with the salty-ness from the pretzel and the sweet from the chocolate. Enjoy!

Etsy Baby Shower!

Etsy Baby Shower

Have I ever mentioned that I love baby showers? Well, I do! I love to see the new things that are out there in the baby world and I also love to give baby gifts..mostly because no one believes that I make the items that I give! Ha.
Etsy hosts a shower for members of Etsy or shop owners a few times a year. They find moms who are expecting or have recently had a baby and they match them up with shops who will donate items as their gifts. Very fun!
This year I was matched with a woman who doesn't know the gender of the baby..so hard to make gender neutral things! So, I decided to donate a bib and burp set in the Alexander Henry print Apples and Pears. Love it!
If you get a moment, check out the Baby shower blog (say that five times fast!) Jessica and Deniz will be blogging about each of the donating shops.
http://etsybabyshower.blogspot.com/

Here's my entry:

New Sponsor Give Away!

Make it and Love it has a new sponsor give away!
Head on over and get your entries in to win some cute stuff from MadebyMeegz
She has some very cute camera straps that I am drooling over...they would look great on my DSLR! You can click on the link in this post or on the sidebar to head on over to Make It and Love it!