Archive | February, 2012

DIY Painted Bag

29 Feb

Who doesn’t love a cute casual bag? The potential uses are endless…beach bag, grocery bag, gym bag, shopping bag, or even something simple — an anything bag. Every Spring I start seeing these cute bags around and think I should make my own rather than buying them, and it has yet to happen. Not anymore. I have conquered the DIY painted bag.

The Goods:

  • paint & sponges
  • canvas bag
  • freezer paper or painters tape for stripes
  • an iron
  • scissors

Do It:

  1. Iron out the wrinkles on your bag
  2. Cut the desired shapes out of your freezer paper or lay the tape for stripes
  3. Iron the paper into the bag, careful to seal the edges
  4. Paint your design
  5. Let dry and remove the freezer paper

Happy Leap Year!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Dancing in the Rain

27 Feb

As the rain pours down outside, I couldn’t help but make a quick post about my love for rain.

Reasons why I love the rain:

The smell

Its sound

The empty streets

Using an umbrella

Cuddling by a fire

Drinking hot cocoa {possibly with baileys}

If you aren’t a rain lover, I would highly recommend stomping around in some puddles, with or without an umbrella, while singing {yes, in the rain}. It is so worth it.

*photos via: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

Tags: , ,

Coconut Whoopie Pies

26 Feb

Holy goodness. I’ll be honest these are amazing! If you have time and need a treat these are a must.

The Goods:

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • White of 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup lite coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • About 1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Coconut Fluff Filling:

  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup marshmallow crème
  • 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
  • 2 tablespoons lite coconut milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

Do It:

1. Position oven rack in center of oven.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy at medium speed of an electric mixer.  Add egg and egg white, and beat until incorporated.  Add half of flour mixture and half of coconut milk to creamed mixture; beat at medium speed just until blended.  Add remaining half of flour and coconut milk and vanilla; beat until blended.

4. Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, drop batter into 12 mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.  Or drop batter into 24 mounds by well-rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle half of the mounds with coconut. Bake, one baking sheet at a time, until cakes begin to crack and are firm to the touch, 12 minutes for large cakes and 10 minutes for small cakes.  Remove from oven and slide the parchment paper, with the cakes, onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Use a thin metal spatula to lift the cookies off the parchment paper.

5. Spread flat side of the plain cakes generously with Coconut Fluff Filling.  Top with remaining coconut-topped cakes, pressing down lightly to seal them together.

Coconut Fluff Filling:

6. Beat butter and marshmallow crème in a large mixing bowl at medium-high speed of an electric mixer until fluffy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Beat in confectioners’ sugar, coconut, coconut milk, and extracts until smooth.  Makes about 1 3/4 cups.

But don’t take my word for it. Give them a try!

Recipe from Paula Deen.

Tags: , , ,

Smile Summary

23 Feb

{coconut whoopie pie goodness – recipe to come}

{weekend home depot trips}

{dead pup – too tired}

{DIY beach bag fun – post to come}

{finished product}

{sushi date with friends}

{dreaming of future projects}

{celebrating the long weekend}

{finally wearing one of my Venice finds}

{feeling blessed}

Tags: , , , , , ,

Cap Shoe Fetish

21 Feb

I cannot get over cap toe shoes right now, just had to share.

And that is my excitement for the day, dreaming of shoes…

ASOS, J Crew, Yoox, Saks, Zara,

Tags: , , ,

Bananas For A Long Weekend

19 Feb

Finally a three day weekend. Walking out of the office on Friday felt so much more freeing than usual. I couldn’t wait to get home, take a walk on the beach and get ready for my double date. I typically don’t like setting people up but with these two I just couldn’t resist {being that they both are super duper awesome}, and we hadn’t been out with them both since that fateful first date. So we headed down to my new favorite sushi place in Encinitas, Hapi Fish. We filled ourselves on sushi, saki, beer, and best of all-laughs and fun. All in all it was the perfect start to President’s weekend. Yes, it is a whole weekend of celebrating for me.

This morning was not so fun as I spent all day cleaning, doing laundry and even scrubbing the inside of my over. Worst thing to clean, ever. So when it was all done I couldn’t resist doing some baking. I had a couple bananas needing to be used and decided on banana bread. Easy, yummy, not too sweet, and I can convince myself that because it has real fruit it isn’t so bad if I eat too much.

I came to the realization while preparing the batter that I am a super messy baker. I turned on the mixer without the cover on, dropped into my dry mix 10 tablespoons of cold butter and poof…flour and sugar EVERYWHERE. All over the stove top, the fridge, the knife set, the floor, and cabinets. Who knew such a tiny amount of flour could go so far?

Well here it is. Can’t wait to have some with my coffee.

I followed this recipe.

The Goods:

  • 10 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts

Do It:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Lightly grease a 9 1/4 by 5 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan with 1 teaspoon of the butter.

3. Puree the bananas, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in a food processor.

4. Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fixed with a whisk attachment. Add the remaining 10 tablespoons butter and mix on medium-low speed until blended, about 30 seconds. Add the banana mixture in 3 batches, scraping the sides of the bowl and mixing on medium speed between each addition. Fold in the nuts.

5. Pour into the loaf pan. Bake until lightly browned and bread bounces back to the touch, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

I recommend enjoying with a warm cup of coffee!

Tags: , , , , ,

Orange + Vodka-sicles

18 Feb

Living in Southern California I know I have nothing to complain about during the winter, but for some reason this year I am really looking forward to Spring! I am simple loving the pops of color I am seeing everywhere, so rare for this girl who loves black. I figured these gray days could use a little color and today orange has caught my eye. I wanna throw on this adorable orange lingerie, a white sun dress, bike down the Coast and pick flowers. Hmmm sounds like a cheesy movie. A girl can dream, right?

 Although the biking/flower picking bit might be too much, I will be making those vodka popsicles the second this weather warms up  a bit! Do you have any must-do plans for some warmer weather?

 

photos from: Endless Simmer, Lotti Dotti, Real Simple, Dress Design Decor, Gypsy Mess, and This is Glamorous.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Smile Summary

17 Feb

{funny memories}

{getting crazy}

{storm moving in}

{my hairy beast}

{valentine’s in my cubicle}

{not so bad with an appointment}

{desert friends at work}

Not too much excitement this week, but I am so excited for a three day weekend! Any big plans?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Royal Round 2

14 Feb

You may remember back at Christmas when I took my first stab at royal icing and it didn’t go so well {aka big gooey mess all over the kitchen}. I decided to give it another go and try it out on some Valentine’s cookies and was pleasantly surprised.

Rather than using my tiny sifter I ran {literally ran cause it is FREEZING tonight} over to my sister’s and borrowed her normal sized sifter. Somehow this time it turned out much thicker, easier to work with, and I think I finally made some headway. The only problem is the cookies themselves just aren’t sweet enough. So Martha, your royal icing recipe  was great and worked for me, but not your cookies. I’ll have to find another, anyone have any recommendations?

The Goods:

  • 3 1/2 cups of sifted powdered sugar
  • 5 tablespoons meringue powder
Do It: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugar and meringue powder. Mixing on low speed, add a scant 1/2 cup water. For a thinner consistency, usually used for flooding, add more water. A thicker consistency is generally used for outlining and adding details. Mix until icing holds a ribbonlike trail on the surface of the mixture for 5 seconds when you raise the paddle. {I mixed mine for about 8 minutes}

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tags: , , , ,

Love Is In the Air

12 Feb

Well I have put my distaste for Valentine’s Day aside and sent out of few cards and gifts, have heart shaped cookies baking right now in the oven, and got a couple cutesy things for around the house. See mom, all your holiday fun when I was a kid paid off. I wonder how the Hubby would feel about pink pancakes…

I might even wear pink or red on Tuesday! What a change!

Design swan, Some the Wiser, Martha Stewart, Etsy, Beautylish, FashionLuxx, and pinterest.

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 54 other followers

%d bloggers like this: