Bag of Sunshine Yellow Care Package Ideas

Mar 3, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Little Bag Of Sunshine -the perfect gift for someone who could use a little sunshine, all kinds of thoughtful yellow gifts sure to brighten anyone's day.

Bag of sunshine yellow themed gift basket.

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When someone is ill or feeling down and needs a little sunshine to help them recover, this care package is the perfect idea. A sunshine basket is full of thoughtful little gifts that would hopefully help anyone feel better. It can be tailored for the recipient. If they're ill, or recovering you can add items to your sunshine box that will help with the recovery. If they're sad, you can make this thoughtful gift to cheer them up. It isn't just for for someone going through a hard time though, it makes a great gift for sunny days too like any special occasion, Mother's day, a birthday gift, as a housewarming gift, or if you like sending college care packages.

You might also like our Wine and Cheese Basket Ideas, or our DIY Breakfast Gift Basket.

Shopping For Yellow Items

I had a lot of fun putting this package together full of meaningful gifts. We went to several stores to find all the goodies. I looked at the dollar tree, the grocery store, the drug store, and some of my favourite home stores for all my yellow gifts. It's actually so fun looking for all the yellow items to make this cheerful gift. Be on the lookout for yellow items to include in this bag of sunshine, but also look at look for items that are packaged using yellow. May of our fun gift ideas are things that come in yellow packaging, and they work really well for a gift basket like this one.

This little yellow box of sunshine gift was for an ill friend who needed some brightening up. Our gift was full of yellow things. If your friend isn't ill just leave out the chicken soup and cough drops and add some other fun yellow goodies to your sunshine gift box.

Special Touches For The Sick

Sick people need chicken noodle soup, cough drops, honey for their throats, some nice hand cream and warm socks, definitely warm socks. But then again, who won't love some hone, hand cream and warm socks?

chicken noodle soup
cough drops
honey
hand cream
warm yellow fuzzy socks

Yellow Treats

I also wanted to include a few treats, of the "wouldn't buy this for myself" variety. So I picked a few of my favs. that are yellow: chips, coffee crisps, and Werther's originals (and then I had to fight to keep my kids from eating them all). I also included a Toblerone (strictly for medicinal purposes), and some good ol' juicy fruit. I'm pretty sure every sunshine gift basket needs a little chocolate in it, and maybe even a lot of chocolate.

potato chips
mini Coffee Crisp chocolate bars
Werther's original candies
Toblerone chocolate bar
Juicy Fruit gum

Special Gifts

Last but not least a few special things: Earl grey tea, and homemade shortbread (find the recipe here, it's easy and so, so good). I also included a pretty little lemon scented candle, and a sweet pot of mini daffodils.

tea
homemade shortbread
lemon candle
pot of mini daffodils

More Gift Items

I also made another little version for my girls teachers with post-it notes, yellow highlighters, yellow nail polish, the candle, a cute little 6-pack of sweet yellow earrings, cough drops, gum, coffee crisps, and the Werther's originals.

yellow post-it notes
yellow highlighters
yellow nail polish
candle
yellow earrings

Some other great yellow items you might want to include in your

lip balm
a gift card for coffee or to a favourite restaurant
stationary
banana chips
coffee
fancy soap
bath bomb
fresh lemons, bananas, or pineapple
yellow flowers
cozy yellow throw blanket
lemon curd
herbal tea

Yellow Packaging

Gift Bag, Basket, Or Box

Once I had everything together I packaged it all up in a simple yellow gift bag, with some yellow tissue paper, and made a gift tag that said "A Little Bag of Sunshine". You could also wrap a box in some yellow wrapping paper, or use a basket and wrap the whole thing in cellophane and tie with a yellow ribbon. A basket also makes a nice gift to keep afterwards too. If you're mailing a package like this as a college care package you could use some yellow crinkle paper inside a cardboard box that you could tape shut. Why not decorate the inside flaps of the box with some hand drawn sunshines or some stickers.

Removing Packaging

I also had a few yellow items from the dollar store that I wanted to remove the packaging from. For the fuzzy socks I removed the packaging because it wasn't pretty and just wrapped the yellow socks with some pretty yellow ribbon. This is a great idea if you want to remove a dollar store price tag that's printed right onto the label.

Homemade Items and Fresh Flowers

For my homemade cookies, I wrapped them in a cellophane bag and tied the top with yellow ribbon. A yellow container or tin would be great for giving baked goods also. Because I also gave a real plant in my bag of sunshine, I made sure to position it so that the top could come out of the top of the bag and made sure that the plant won't tip over or spill in the bag.

Our sick friend loved it. These were inexpensive and fun to put together, and a very much appreciated surprise gift for the teachers too. If you're looking for a little treat for friends, this one is perfect. Just start looking for all things yellow, and you'll be surprised how many little treats you can find.

Whether you're making this basket of sunshine as a get-well gift, or for someone going through a difficult time who could use a little cheering up, or as a simple gesture for a friend or family member, I hope the lucky recipient loves it and that it really makes someones day. It's a really wonderful way to brighten up the day and send a little extra love to someone you care about.

With a little bag of sunshine, life really is a party!

More Gift Basket Ideas

You might also like our Breakfast In Bed Gift Basket here.

Breakfast in Bed Gift Basket: perfect, thoughtful gift, includes a recipe and homemade mix for pancakes, and free printable.

Also check out our Wine and Cheese Gift Basket here.

You might also enjoy our Homemade Caramel Corn perfect for gift giving, here.

White Hot Chocolate Buffet

Feb 24, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Winter White Hot Chocolate Buffet/Bar: perfect for any winter or snow themed get together, with lots of ideas for hot chocolate toppings.

It's so, so cold outside but inside we're getting warm and cozy with a yummy white hot chocolate buffet! It's certainly very white outside with lots and lots of snow, which inspired this white hot chocolate buffet. I love how pretty it turned it.

Winter White Hot Chocolate Buffet/Bar -all white ideas for winter entertaining.

The Bar Cart

I used my little bar cart, and set it all up under the chalk board message, "hot chocolate on a cold day" -which is certainly the case around here these days! I also used this string of pretty snowflake lights.

White Hot Chocolate

I used some white hot chocolate powder for the hot chocolate itself; quick, easy and delicious. You could also make it yourself by heating up some milk with white chocolate chips.

Hot Chocolate Buffet Topping Ideas

Once I decided on the theme, I had lots of fun coming up with lots of yummy white things to add to our hot chocolate.

large marshmallows
mini marshmallows
white cotton candy
marshmallow fluff
whipped cream
white chocolate chips
white sprinkles
snowflake sprinkles
white chocolate spoons
chocolate dipped vanilla wafer cookies
white chocolate coconut truffles

We had large and small marshmallows, and white cotton candy.

We also had marshmallow fluff, and whipped cream, along with a few kinds of white sprinkles, and white chocolate chips.

I also dipped a few spoons in melted chocolate and added some sprinkles to make the perfect stirrer.

Snowy Flowers

Baby's Breath in simple mason jars were the perfect flowers, since they always remind me of snow.

More White Chocolate Treats

While I was dipping the spoons, I also did a few vanilla wafer cookies. The kids loved these, and they were so easy.

I also picked up some coconut truffles, also a hit.

This was the perfect little winter warm up, and would be so, so pretty for a wedding or shower.

With a pretty winter white hot chocolate on a cold winter's day, life really is a party.

Also check out our Ho Ho Ho Hot Chocolate Bar here.

Ho Ho Ho Hot Chocolate Bar: set up the perfect Christmas hot chocolate bar with our printable package that includes labels, poster, bunting, and more.

You might also like our Coconut Milk Hot Chocolate Recipe here.

Valentine's Day Fiesta

Feb 18, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Valentine's Day Fiesta Party: Decorations, great make-ahead menu and fun family games for a family friendly Valentine's Day Mexican Fiesta.

Mexican themed fiesta Valentine's Day party ideas.

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We had so much fun escaping to Mexico (at least in our minds) last Saturday for our Valentine's Day Fiesta!

Valentine's Day Fiesta Family Party

There is a point in your life, when your kids are old enough to be fun, and young enough to still want to hang out with you, where family parties are where it's at.

A romantic Valentine's Day at a fancy restaurant is fun, and there's nothing wrong with getting a sitter and having a night out, but when Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday this year it seemed like the perfect occasion for a fun family friendly party.

And since it's feeling like such a long, and cold winter we thought a trip to Mexico for the night would be just the thing, so this year for we had a fun family friendly Valentine's Day Fiesta!

Valentine's Day Fiesta Decoration Ideas

Guests were greeted at the front door with a few fun details. The airline tags for Mexico were found on-line and I attached them to my vintage suitcases. I also printed out a bunch of vintage Mexican Valentines, that I found on-line. They were so cute, and I displayed them all around the party.

For Seniors and Senoritas

We also offered Seniores and Senoritas a fun stick-on mustache for the evening, or a flower for their hair -such a fun and in-expensive way to set the mood for the night.

Decorating the Dining Room for a Valentine's Day Fiesta

We set up the dining room for everyone to have dinner, and I had a lot of fun decorating it for a real fiesta feel.

DIY Paper Picados

One of my favourite details of the party were the pretty Mexican paper flags, called papel picado. After looking on-line and in party stores for them, I ended up making a simple version of them myself. I used tissue paper, and cut out simple patterns in red, light pink, and dark pink.

The patterns I came up with used a lot of hearts, diamonds, circles, and petal shapes. By folding the tissue paper, you're able to create the patterns over the whole paper, and repeat the patterns. I just used trial and error to find ones that worked. I also used a few paper punches, and a simple hole punch to make my designs.

Part of their charm is in their imperfections and hand-made look. I made sure they all had some holes along the top, and hung them by threading them randomly onto string, and using sticky hooks to attach the strings to the ceiling. I also used some large rectangular white paper doilies, but in half, and thought they looked really really pretty too.

On the table I used my metal lanterns from the garden, I love the rustic metal for a Mexican feel. I also used some succulents and cactus in tall glass vases. See exactly how I made the cactus centre pieces here.

The cauctus definitely added the fiesta feel! The smaller tea light holders are from the dollar store. They didn't come in my party colours, so I had to break-out the old spray paint, despite the cold-cold winter temperatures.

I was so pleased with how they turned out in bright pink and red, and added the bright hit of colour I needed to the table.

DIY Mini Pinatas

We also made some simple mini heart pinatas. I made them by cutting out two matching hearts from some thin cardboard cereal boxes, and some long straight pieces for the sides.

To make the boxes, I just used masking tape to tape the side pieces to one of the hearts. Then, I filled up the hearts with a few treats, and then taped the second heart on top.

Once the boxes were made, I decorated them with streamers. I wrapped the edge of the hearts first, then cut fringes into streamers folded in half, glued them on to the boxes, front and back, and finally trimmed around the outside.

These were such a hit with the kids. They kept shaking them and asking if they could open them. I sent one home with each of my little guests as a party favour, along with a special balloon from the kids table.

Fiesta Kid's Table

Because we had 18 guests, we sat the kids at their own little table, right beside the grown ups.

For their table, I gathered up all the little tables and chairs I could find, and used a pretty cloth, and more mini heart pinatas to decorate. But my favourite detail of the kid's table was the pretty centrepieces.

I found the balloons at the dollar store. They aren't helium, they're just air filled on a stick, which helped with being able to get them early and not having to wait until the last-minute.

I decorated the balloons by adding streamers, ribbons, gold foil ribbon, and silver tinsel yarn. I cut them to random sizes and tucked them into the top of the balloon sticks. My girls loved them and said they looked like magical Valentine wands!

Fiesta Chalkboard

One last fun decor detail, in the kitchen where the food was set up. I usually have this chalkboard there anyway, so I added this fun message…"taco bout a party".

Family Friendly Drinks Cart

I set up my favourite little bar cart for the party with some non-alcoholic family friendly drinks. I loved including the little donkey as a decoration too, I picked him up at the dollar store in a pack of farm animals, in case you're looking for some too.

On top we had a punch -not yet made when I took the pictures before our guests arrived. It was Strawberry-Lemonade, made with pink lemonade, strawberry drink, ginger ale, and some frozen strawberries as ice-cubes. It was a huge hit with kids and grown-ups.

Valentine's Day Fiesta Party drink station

Sometimes when I set up the bar cart, I make a little "cheers" banner to go over it, so this time I made one in Spanish, "Salud!".

We also served an assortment of Jarritos Mexican soda pop. I went to a few ethnic grocery stores to find them, and these also were a real hit with the guests. They liked trying all the exotic flavours.

Valentine's Day Fiesta alcoholic drink ideas

Grown-up Fiesta Drinks

In the kitchen there were a few Fiesta drinks for the grown-ups, including Corona beer and limes, and some tropical coolers. I thought about making a Sangria, but decided coolers were easier, and they were so yummy too.

Family Friendly Games

After everyone arrived and had a drink, we played a few easy games. I set up a couple in the living room on the ottoman.

Chopstick Candy Challenge

The fist game we played was with chopsticks. Players had 30 seconds to move as many pieces of candy from one bowl to the other using the chopsticks.

minute to win it Valentine's Day party game

It's always fun to see who the real competitors and strategists are at a party!

minute to win it Valentine's Day party games

Conversation Heart Stack

For the second easy game, you had 30 seconds to see how many conversation hearts you could stack up like a tower, if they fell you could start over until your time was up. The great thing about these little games was has that both kids and adults could join in, and they were easy.

Pin The Tail On The Donkey

I also picked up a classic, old school, pin the tail on the donkey game. It was fun too; easy and certainly fit our theme.

Easy Valentines Day Fiesta Centre Piece

I set up all the food on the kitchen table, just to make things easier. I used some more of the succulents in glass containers for a centre piece, as well as another donkey, a vintage valentine, and the roses my sweet husband got me for Valentine's Day.

Mexican Buffet

For dinner we had:

home made baked beans in the slow cooker (see my great recipe here)
spanish rice
tortilla chips
tortillas (ordered from a local Tex-Mex restaurant)
taco shells

Our meat options were:

pork carnitas (Mexican pulled pork, also made in the slow cooker, I got the great recipe here)
chicken with peppers, onions, and mushrooms
ground beef with taco seasoning

As toppings we had:

monterey jack cheese
cheddar cheese
shredded lettuce
diced tomatoes
green onions
cilantro
homemade guacamole
fresh salsa
hot sauce
sour cream

It was so, so yummy, and even some of the kids went back for seconds!

Mexican Ice Cream Sundaes

After dinner, it was time for dessert! I did struggle with this one a little. We wanted something Mexican, but relatively easy. I know myself. And after decorating and cooking and hosting all day, I know that by the time I get to dessert I'm starting to run out of steam.

I originally wanted to fry some churros, but I'm so glad I went with Mexican Sundaes. They were delicious and fun. I made some home made spicy Mexican chocolate sauce for the ice cream, as well as some dolce de leche and they were both amazing!

Valentine's Day Fiesta Party Food Mexican sundae sauces

Dulce de Leche Sauce

For the Dulce de Leche sauce, start with a can of sweetened condensed milk. Remove the paper label, but leave the can completely sealed. You submerge the can in a large pot of water, making sure the can is completely covered, and then boil it.

There is a warning that if the pot boils dry, the can could explode, so make sure to check it periodically and top it up with water if needed. Don't let that warning scare you, if you make sure it's covered in water you will be fine.

I've made this lots of times and never had a problem. I usually make it for Banoffee Pie, and boil it for 3 hours for a really thick sauce. For the ice cream sauce, I wanted it more runny so I boiled it about an hour. It came out perfectly. I may have even had trouble stopping myself from tasting it before the party.

Spicy Mexican Chocolate Sauce

The second sauce was the spicy Mexican Chocolate sauce. I'm not even a real chocolate fan, but there was something about the spice of the cinnamon, and the heat of the cayenne pepper that kept me coming back for more and more. And it was perfect to combine the heat with the cold ice cream. Serve both sauces warm.

Recipe

Spicy Mexican Chocolate Sauce

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Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

▢ 2 cups whipping cream
▢ 340 g bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
▢ 3 tablespoon sugar
▢ ½ - ¾ teaspoon cinnamon to taste
▢ ½ - ¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat whipping cream in a pot over medium heat.
Add the chocolate chips and sugar to the cream, and stir until completely dissolved.
Add the cinnamon, and cayenne pepper to taste, depending on how spicy and hot you like it.
Serve warm over ice cream.

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

We served chocolate and vanilla ice cream, the dolce de leche sauce, spicy Mexican chocolate sauce, and Valentine sprinkles and candies along with whip cream, and cherries.

I also picked up an easy all ready prepared plain chocolate sauce in case the kids didn't want anything spicy. This dessert was the perfect sweet ending to the night. With great friends, great food, and a quick trip to Mexico for the night in the middle of a cold winter, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Backyard Fiesta here.

Also check out How To Make Your Faux Succulents Look Real post here.

You might also enjoy our Valentine's Day Pizza Party here.

Valentine's Day Pizza Party -DIY decorations, heart shaped pizza, mocktails, and a dessert pizza recipe make this the perfect family celebration.

Love Pillow

Feb 12, 2015 · 2 Comments

DIY Love Pillow: this easy sewing project uses pink buttons to create a love pillow perfect for your Valentine's Day decor.

Since Valentine's Day is this weekend, it seemed like the right thing to do to make a little love pillow. I love to add a few pink touches for Valentine's Day. A few Valentine's Day decorations seem to help get through the long, dark winter days of February.

I found a bag of all pink buttons at the dollar store a few weeks ago, and they inspired this fun and and simple DIY Heart Pillow for Valentine's Day.

Materials

assorted pink buttons
drop cloth fabric
pillow form
pink thread
needle
disappearing ink marker

How To Make A Love Pillow

1. To make the pillow I used some cloth I had, actually a piece of a drop cloth from the hardware store. I cut it to fit the pillow form with an envelope style close a the back. I you didn't want to make your own pillow case you could use a store bought one.

2. Use a fading marker (you can find them at the fabric store and they work really great for sewing projects of all starts) and write the word love on the fabric to use as a guide line for sewing the buttons on.

3. Using pink thread, sew on the buttons following the marker lines.

It certainly helps make for a cozy and pretty spot to read on a winter's day.

It would make a lovely, inexpensive little Valentine's Day present too.

With a pretty little love pillow, life really is a party!

You might also like our Birch Bark and Gold Leaf Hearts here.

Also check out our Simple Valentine's Day Decor Home Tour here for even more ideas.

You might also enjoy our DIY Yarn hearts here.

Also check out our DIY Marble Hearts here.

Nail Polish Marble Hearts Valentine's Day Craft: use nail polish to water marble wooden hearts for Valentine's Day in any colour combination you like!

You might also enjoy our 3D Origami Hearts here.

Valentine's Day Love Potion Hot Chocolate Bar

Jan 23, 2015 · 6 Comments

Valentine's Day Love Potion Hot Chocolate Bar: kid's will love hot chocolate love potion with all kinds of fun toppings to add.

Love potion Valentine's Day hot chocolate buffet.

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How fun is this Valentine's Day Hot Chocolate Bar all set up to make your own fabulous "love potion"? This would be great for Valentine's Day get together, and kids love it. It's perfect for celebrating during the month of February with your little Valentines.

On a recent trip to the craft store, I noticed the cute glass test tubes, and my creative wheels started turning. Test tubes made me think of science, and science made me think of love potions for Valentine's Day. I thought it would be fun to create a hot chocolate bar with lots of add-ins and toppings. Instead of using glass jars to hold them, we've put everything into test tubes. Your guests will love creating their own concoctions, and adding all of their favorite toppings to make their own perfect cup of hot cocoa, or should I say love potion. 😉 Mad scientists old and young will love this science experiment.

Test Tube Hot Chocolate Add-ins

I decided to fill my test tubes with all different kinds of fun hot chocolate add-ins. We picked up all the fun treats at the bulk store, and then made up fun names for everything, so they sounded like good ingredients for a love potion. This was such a fun way to label everything.

The labels are made from some pink cardstock for Valentines day and a stamp, and tied them on with a little pink baker's twine. They came out looking so cute.

Valentine's Day Love Potion Hot Chocolate

I wasn't too sure how I was going to stand the test tubes up, but came up with the idea of a simple wood stand.

Valentine's Day hot chocolate station buffet

My sweet brother-in-law Shaun helped me out by drilling 1 inch holes in some 2 x 4's, and was the perfect way to display the test tubes.

Love Potion Ingredient Names

I used ten different candy add-ins and here's what I called them, in case you need some ideas for your own love potion.

Heart Sprinkles -"Sprinkles of Love"
Hershey's Kisses -"Kisses"
Valentine Jimmies -"Happiness Confetti"
Cinnamon Hearts -"Red Hot Passion"
Mini Valentine Nonpareils -"Pearls of Joy"
Rolo Minis -"Chocolate Caramel Sweetness"
Pink Cotton Candy -"Cupid's Pillow"
Lip Sprinkles -"Cupid's Kisses"
Pink and White Mini marshmallows -"Puffs of Affection"
Caramel Squares -"Building Blocks of Love"

Other options of fun things in your own hot cocoa bar are chocolate chips, candy hearts, or peppermint candies. You might also include some coffee syrups like caramel, vanilla, or peppermint. Have fun coming up with your own fun names for everything.

Science Beakers

I was also able to find some brand new science beakers on-line and filled them with the hot chocolate and a few other treats. This was such a fun addition to our theme. I labeled the hot chocolate "Base Formula No.1", and made some pink hot chocolate with some white hot chocolate powder and a little red food colouring, and labeled it "Base Formula No. 2".

I also added some whipped cream, labeled "Sweet Dream Clouds" and some caramel syrup that we labeled "Devotion Juice",

Specimen Cups

On the bottom of the bar cart were some paper disposable cups and straws.

I picked up some pink paper cups and customized them with a "Specimen No. ___" label. The labels are attached with a glue stick. I made a free printable of the cup labels, you can access the free printables in our Free Resource Library. Just subscribe below for instant access.

Love Potion Books

You know I love a theme, so I thought it would also be fun to include a few love potion books. Using some old books, I covered them with brown paper and scrapbook paper, and added some fun labels to the fronts of the books with a glue stick. You can get the free printables for the love potion books in our Free Resource Library. Subscribe for instant access to the free printables.

I put the pretty heart paper straws in a tall science beaker, and filled another large one with some heart lights. The lights are a fun little nod to the mad scientist.

I had so much fun putting my little love potion making hot chocolate bar together. This is one of those fun DIY projects that the kids will really enjoy. It's perfect for a party.

If you're looking for an activity that your kids are guaranteed to love, this one's a winner! It's one of my favourite Valentine's Day ideas.

With a Valentine's Day love potion hot chocolate bar, life really is a party!

More Valentine Inspiration

You might like our Hot Chocolate Valentine here.

Hot Chocolate Valentine: use our free printable valentine card and hot chocolate label to create beautiful classroom Valentines.

Also check out our Valentine's Day Pizza Party here.

You might also enjoy our Valentine's Day Fiesta here.

Frozen Themed Birthday Party Food

Jan 15, 2015 · 3 Comments

Frozen Themed Party Food ideas, including Kristoff's ice jello, Olaf's nose carrots, snowflake sandwiches, Anna's frozen heart chocolate dipped strawberries, and make your own snowman donuts. These easy, and cute ideas are the perfect Frozen party foods that kids will actually eat!

Frozen themed food ideas for a kid's party.

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Why We Love This Party Food

Frozen is just a graet movie and theme!
These simple foods are easy to make and so perfectly on theme.
All these ideas are so kid friendly, and will actually be eaten.

Yesterday I shared some of the Frozen themed activities and party games my friend Heather planned for her daughter Tara's Frozen themed birthday party. Today, it's the Frozen party food!

If you love Frozen you should also check out our Frozen themed dinner and movie with a Frozen themed dinner and recipes.

You know how we love a good theme around here, and the theme food for this party was so, so adorable.

You're going to want to use these ideas if you have a Frozen party in the works, not just because they are so sweet, but also they're pretty do-able, and the kids will actually eat them. 😉

Frozen party table with trays of themed food.

Frozen Party Food Themed Snacks

Kristoff's Ice -blue jello cut into cubes and served in a plastic cup with a snowflake sprinkles and a snowflake pick.

Frozen party food snacks on a three tiered tray.

Sven's Treats -mini carrots and dip served in individual small plastic cups. Remember how Sven kept trying to eat Olaf's nose at the beginning of the movie? Individual dips are always a great idea for a party, especially with little ones, no double dipping.

Frozen party "Sven's Treats" carrots and dip

Mixed berries -served in Frozen cupcake liners.

mixed berries in frozen themed paper cups

Snowflake Crackers and Cheese -cheese cut with a snowflake cookie cutter.

Snowflake crackers, with cheese cut out in snowflake shapes with a cookie cutter.

Elsa's Snowflakes -ham and cheese and peanut butter and jam sandwiches cut with a snowflake cookie cutter.

Snowflake shaped sandwiches for a frozen party.

Frozen Themed Desserts

Wanna Build A Snowman Donuts

I loved the "Wanna Build A Snowman?" donuts. They were just regular powdered donuts, with some chocolate chips and orange candies to design your own little edible snowman.

Wanna Build a Snowman donuts with chocolate chips and orange candies to build your own Olaf

Snowflake Rice Krispie Treat Lollipops -get the recipe for the Frozen rice krispie treats here.

Snowflake shaped Rice Krispie treats dipped in chocolate and on a lollipop stick.

Anna's Frozen Heart -strawberries dipped in white chocolate. Such a sweet detail from the movie.

Anna's Frozen Heart strawberries dipped in white chocolate.

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

My favourite treat at the party were these pretty and oh so yummy snowflake sugar cookies.

Frozen Themed Drinks

Water bottles with a "some people are worth melting for" Olaf quote label.

"Some people are worth melting for" Water -bottled water with a Olaf wrap.

Water bottle with a "Some people are worth melting for" Olaf label.

Blue Punch with Vanilla Ice Cream -There was a punch of blue lemonade, with the option of a scoop of vanilla ice cream, to make it very snowy!

Dining table set for a Frozen themed birthday party.

Everything was so sweet, and perfectly child sized and kid friendly.

Frozen Cake

And for the birthday cake, what could be more perfect for the Frozen theme than ice cream cake! It was ordered from the ice cream shop, and the kids loved it.

Frozen Themed Loot Bags

After the party we were sent home with the sweetest loot bags. When we got home we saw our $5 Menchie's gift cards "For A Frozen Treat", and our snowman building kits.

Ice Cream Gift Card

"Do you wanna build a snowman?" Marshmallow Kits

Inside the snowman kits were large marshmallows, small marshmallows, pretzel sticks, M&M's, candy eyes, orange Mike and Ike's, and two sizes of chocolate chips. In the container is some icing "glue". So much fun!

Frozen themed "Do you want to build a snowman?" marshmallow kit

We had so much fun playing, eating and celebrating with our friends.

With Frozen Themed Party Food, life really is a party!

More Birthday Party Inspiration

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the printable food labels, water bottle labels, and treat bag toppers from?

Look for something similar on Etsy.

Where is the cake from?

It was ordered from a local ice cream shop. Most ice cream shops have something similar available. Be sure to preorder.

Where is the Frozen tablecloth from?

Look for something similar at the party supply store.

If you try any of the ideas from this Frozen Themed Party Food or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Frozen Themed Birthday Party -Part I

Jan 13, 2015 · 2 Comments

Frozen Themed Birthday Party: ideas for lots of fun frozen inspired kids games and activities and frozen themed party decor.

Frozen themed party activity and game ideas.

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On the weekend we had the great pleasure of celebrating the birthday of one very special little girl, my God-daughter Tara. This year it was a Disney's frozen themed birthday party. There were so many great ideas that I can't wait to share them with you. The birthday girl loves the frozen movies, so this was the perfect theme for her.

Love Is An Open Door Wreath

The party guests were first greeted by the most PERFECT decoration on the door as the first thing they saw. Tara's mom Heather made a simple wreath by covering a wreath form with white yarn. Heather purchased the sweet "love is an open door" printable from Etsy. The saying is a line from the movie and was the perfect way to greet guests. Open door…get it?. The finishing touch was a little Anna doll -the birthday girl's favourite character! Tara can play with the toy after the party. It was the perfect welcome to a frozen birthday party.

Frozen Themed Birthday Party Decor

The party scene was set in the front entryway with some DIY frozen party decorations. On the entry table was a sweet little wintery forest inspired by the movie frozen and made of tabletop Christmas trees and some Frozen toys. The fun Disney movie poster was hung in the entry and moved to the birthday girl's bedroom after the party. It's decorated with a banner of the birthday girl's name.

The stapler on the table allowed party goers to make their own party hat. They could choose from an Elsa crown shape, or Sven antlers, (Anna was reserved for the Birthday girl on her special day). This was the perfect way to get ready to head into the frozen-themed party.

DIY Faux Snowballs

I also loved the bowl of faux snowballs, and snowflake lights that greeted us. The faux snow balls were an easy DIY craft project made out of styrofoam balls, white glue, faux snow and epsom salts. These were such a fun way to bring in the snow theme, and they'll be a perfect addition to the Christmas decor after the party.

There were lots and lots of other snowflakes hung throughout the house for the party and creating a perfect winter wonderland. Each paper snowflake was hung with clear fishing line, creating such a beautiful effect.

Frozen Themed Birthday Party Games and Activities

Puffy Paint Snow Picture

Inside, the first activity for everyone to enjoy was some puffy paint snow picture making. Heather made puffy paint with shaving foam, white glue, and white paint ahead of time. For the party it was set out in containers with paint brushes and blue card stock so that it would show up well. Along with the paint there were all kinds of sparkly and icy toned jewels, snowflakes, sequins, cotton balls, and glitter paper. Kids could design anything, including Elsa's ice castle.

The puffy paint was so much fun, because it's fluffy, and thick since it's made with shaving cream. The little kids loved creating their own snow picture. This was also a great activity to do at the beginning of the party, since it gave it some time to dry before the kids took them home.

Decorate Your Own Snowflake Cookies

The next activity was decorating snowflake sugar cookies. What a yummy activity that was!

Heather made the snowflake shaped cookies in advance and gave everyone four to decorate. She made white, purple, and blue icing and there was an assortment of white and blue candy sprinkles, jimmies, white chocolate chips, and candy to decorate them with. The icing was in sealed squirt bottles which made it so much easier than piping bags for little hands. The little guests had so much fun making their designs.

My youngest, Maddie, was concentrating hard on her very detailed designs. If anyone knows of any local bakeries that need decorators, I might know a few little girls who'd be interested.

Before they started decorating the cookies, Heather had everyone write their name on a little tag, which stayed on their plate of cookies. This was the best way to make sure we didn't mix up who's cookies were who's. After they were decorated we left them out on the counter to dry a little and then packaged them into cello bags, and attached their tags to take home. It worked perfectly and was such a big hit with the kids. These were a great addition to the party favors.

"Do You Want To Build A Snowman" Waterless Snow Globe

The next activity on the list was a really cute one, make your own snowman DIY snow globes. Everyone worked on the lid of a mason jar, and used air dry clay to create their own snowman. There were ribbons to use as scarves, branches for arms, orange clay for noses inspired by a olaf's nose, and buttons.

We also came up with the idea of making little winter toques. Heather snipped off the tips of the fingers of some dollar store gloves in different colours and had small pompoms to glue to the tops to create a winter hat. Then we hot glued the hats onto the snowmen when they were done. This was such a clever idea.

One of the great things about all these party activities is that they were fun for kids of different ages. The four year olds could do them all, and the ten year olds could do the same activity but just with more detail. Therefore all ten kids at the party with varying ages enjoyed every activity.

what to do at a frozen themed birthday party

Next we sprinkled the finished snowmen with some fake snow. Finally we screwed the top of the mason jar on to make a pretty waterless snow globe for the kids to take home with them.

Elsa Ice Castle Game

One of the last, but certainly not least little frozen party ideas was building queen Elsa's ice castle. We used plastic cups as our ice blocks.

The plastic cups resembled ice cubes and they had so much fun creating lots of different versions of ice castles, and then unbuilding them and building them again. Such a simple game, but they loved it. And when the clear cups were all stacked together into a castle, they really did have a frozen look.

Heather found three different sizes of clear cups. They used regular ones, short stubby ones, and mini shot glass all from the dollar and party store. The kids had a lot of fun building. And I love that this activity had very little prep time required, and was also easy to clean up afterward.

While they were building, Heather set up a beautiful party table of Frozen themed snacks, and a dessert table which you can read all about here where I share all the frozen themed food ideas.

If you're planning a Frozen party anytime soon, I hope some of these fun frozen-themed birthday party activity and decoration ideas inspire you. The kids absolutely LOVED them.

Happy birthday Tara, and thanks for having us at your amazing birthday celebration.

With a frozen themed birthday party to enjoy, life really is a party!

More Inspiration Here

You might also like our Frozen Inspired Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats here.

Frozen Themed Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats: inspired by Disney's Frozen these snowflake rice krispie cookies are perfect for your Frozen themed party.

Also check out our Snow Ice Cream here.

Snow Ice Cream Recipe: use fresh snow and whipped cream to make a really easy and fun ice cream from. Perfect family activity on a snowy day.

You might also like our Sleeping Beauty Slumber Party here.

"Frozen" Inspired Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

Jan 8, 2015 · 2 Comments

Frozen Themed Rice Krispie Treats: inspired by Disney's Frozen these snowflake rice Krispie cookies are perfect for your Frozen themed party.

Frozen themed snowflake Rice Krispie treats.

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Do you want to build a snowman? How about Frozen themed rice krispies treats? These are perfect for any Elsa lovers in your life. They're easy to make and a really delicious fun dessert, and guaranteed to be a hit with anyone who's obsessed with the Disney Frozen movie.

My sweet God-daughter Tara was turning 7, and having a Frozen themed party to celebrate. You can read all about all the details of the fun Frozen themed birthday party here. I thought it might be fun to make something Frozen inspired for the party. I came up with these sweet Frozen themed Rice Krispie Treats. They've got everything going for them: chocolate, and rice krispie squares. They're a really great homemade treat for a party, or to make any day feel like a party!

How To Make Frozen Themed Rice Krispie Treats

1. Make Rice Krispie Squares

I started out making regular old rice krispie squares, the classic treat, but made them a little thinner than usual, so they'd be easier to cut out with a cookie cutter. I sprayed a cookie sheet with baking spray first. Then I spread the cereal mixture out so it was about ¾ of an inch thick. It didn't fill the entire pan. Once they were set I used a snowflake cookie cutter and cut them up. And, forced myself not to eat every last piece of scrap from in-between. Then again, chef's treat. 😉

2. Dip In Melted Chocolate

Next comes dipping the Frozen rice krispie treats in melted chocolate. I have a great tip for you: put the snowflake shaped rice krispies, with a lollipop stick inserted into them in your freezer for a while before you dip them. If not, the hot melted chocolate makes the marshmallow in the cookies start to melt…and then you'll finally see what frozen things do in summer…. So learn from my mishaps and pop them in the freezer first, or if it's -19 degrees outside, put them out on your deck for a little while like I did yesterday.

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler, and dip them in. Use a spoon to help you get all the tricky spots. Once they're dipped, let them set on some parchment paper. You could just dip the top in, if you wanted. I wanted the chocolate to coat the whole square and keep it nice and fresh, since I made these a few days before the party.

3. Pipe A White Chocolate Snowflake

Next, I melted some white chocolate in a mini-ziplock bag and piped on the snowflake detail. Some of them got sprinkles, edible glitter, or coarse sugar too for a little sparkle.

The chocolate covering on these frozen rice krispy treats really seals them, and makes them stay fresh longer than regular rice krispy treats. You can make them a day or two ahead of time. These would be great take home treats in a favor bag too. Just package them in individual cellophane bags tied with some ribbon for a really cute gift.

We had so much fun at the Frozen birthday party and the Frozen theme rice krispie treats were a real hit with everyone. These delicious treats really looked like something we could have purchased on a trip to Walt Disney World. These homemade rice krispie treats would be a great addition to a Frozen party dessert table as one of the themed treats. This easy recipe is such a favorite and sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Recipe

"Frozen" Inspired Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

Snowflake shaped classic rice Krispie treats that are dipped in chocolate.

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Cook Time: 15

Additional Time: 2

Total Time: 2 15

Servings:

Calories: 185kcal

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

Instructions

Melt butter and marshmallows over medium heat in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally until fully melted.
Remove from the heat and add vanilla extract to the melted marshmallows and butter mixture.
Stir in the rice krispie cereal and work quickly to combine.
Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray, and pour rice crispy treats mixture onto the cookie sheet. Make a layer about ¾ inch thick. Use a spoon dipped in cold water or sprayed with cooking spray to spread the melted marshmallow mixture so it doesn't stick. Let them set at room temperature.
After the cereal treats are set, use a cookie cutter to cut out the snowflake shapes. If you are having trouble pressing the cookie cutter through the rice krispies, spray the cutter with baking spray, and use a small cutting board on top of the cookie cutter to push it through. Then add a lollipop stick to each snowflake. Now, put the rice krispies in the freezer for about 30-60 minutes.
Melt your blue chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl. Dip the chilled snowflake rice krispie treats into the chocolate and use a spoon to help cover the entire treat in chocolate. Set the treat on a parchment paper lined baking sheet to set. If the melted candy melts are too thick for easy dipping add a little melted vegetable shortening to make it runnier and easier to work with.
After the blue chocolate is set, melt the white candy melts, and place in a ziploc bag. Snip the corner off to make a piping bag, and add a snowflake detail in white chocolate to each of the rice krispie treats. While the white chocolate is still wet and not set, sprinkle it with coarse sugar, sprinkles, or edible glitter. Let set, and store in an airtight container or individual cello bags.

Nutrition

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

With special Frozen theme rice krispy treats for a special girl, life really is a party!

More Frozen Inspiration

You might also enjoy our Frozen Themed Dinner and Movie Night here.

Frozen Themed Party -Dinner and Movie Night: Swedish meatballs, Sven's roasted carrots, and Frozen Ice Cream Sundaes with plenty of chocolate.

Also check out the Frozen Themed Birthday Party Activities post here.

Also be sure to check out the Frozen Themed Birthday Party Food Ideas here.

Winter Tablescape

Dec 30, 2014 · 2 Comments

Winter Tablescape: beautiful Christmas or winter table with DIY mini house candle holders and place card holders.

I'm excited to share my winter tablescape with you today. This scheme would be pretty for any winter table. We used it as our Christmas table this year, and I just love how it turned out.

Wood House Candle Holders

I saw a version of these cute little houses, and really wanted to try and make some. I mentioned it to my awesome brother-in-law, who just happens to work in a place that has a workshop (I’m just slightly jealous) and I was able to meet him there on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas and he whipped these up for me. The bases are scraps of wood, and the chimneys are made of small pieces of copper pipes. So simple, and so beautiful.

We thought it might be fun to make some different sizes, and these very mini versions have a birthday candle for their little chimneys. Won’t they be fun on a cake for a birthday?

Wood House Place Card Holders

We also made some little place card holders. I bent a piece of copper wire around a round dowel to make a clip to hold the place card, and then we drilled a tiny hole in the little houses and inserted the wire.

Cement Houses

Along with the wooden houses, my brother-in-law Shaun also made these wonderful little cement ones, and I added some gold, copper, or silver leaf to the roofs.

Placesettings

For each pacesetting I set the table with the rustic wooden chargers that we made for Thanksgiving.

I love the contrast of the rustic wood, along with the fine china, and all the gold, silver, and copper that went with our theme this Christmas.

I picked up the pretty napkins with cold and silver dots, and the Christmas crackers are just from the dollar store.

Aren't the little salt and pepper shakers cute? I couldn’t resist them when I decided on the little house theme for the table.

I just love how my little village of houses, snow and Christmas trees looked for our cozy, rustic winter tablescape. With a winter tablescape this pretty, and family and friends to gather round it to celebrate, life really is a party!

You might also like our Rustic Christmas Tablescape here.

Also check out our Merry and Bright Christmas Party here.

You might also enjoy Thrift Store Christmas Table here.

Easy Homemade Eggnog Frosting Recipe

Dec 19, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Eggnog Frosting: regular vanilla cupcakes are taken up a notch for Christmas our eggnog icing recipe. Perfect for holiday get togethers.

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I enjoy a little eggnog. And I was thinking that eggnog cupcakes would pretty much be Christmas perfection. If you love eggnog flavor than this eggnog frosting is the perfect addition to cupcakes, cookies, or cake.

I was inspired by fancy eggnog lattes and starting thinking of other favourites that could be improved upon with the addition of some eggnog. If you're working on some holiday baking this weekend, these would be a nice addition, especially if you're an eggnog fan. I made up a batch of my favourite vanilla cupcakes, and then added a delicious and easy eggnog icing. This eggnog icing is great for adding a festive taste to things your baking for the holiday season. Try this homemade frosting with your favorite cupcake recipes as the perfect topping, sure to be an absolute favorite.

Eggnog

Historically eggnog used to be known as milk punch. Eggnog recipes traditionally are made from whole milk, cream, eggs, and sugar and served around the holidays and new years. It's ingredients are very similar to ice cream, or a very runny custard. Most homemade real eggnog has traditionally contained raw eggs. But a carton of eggnog from the grocery store contains only pasteurized eggs in the eggnog mixture, so it is safe to consume. Eggnog also is often served with some alcohol added. If you love rum in your eggnog, you can substitute the vanilla flavoring in our eggnog frosting recipe for a teaspoon rum extract. It's traditionally served during Christmas season. A glass of eggnog is often offered at a holiday party, or around the Christmas tree. And sharing some eggnog is a favorite way entertain friends.

Nutmeg

Eggnog traditionally contains nutmeg, and sometimes cinnamon too. Our eggnog frosting recipe includes some freshly grated nutmeg. Grating the nutmeg fresh really increases the flavor and freshness. Look for whole nutmegs in your spice section, and use a small mini grater to grate it into your baking. Freshly grated nutmeg is a little stronger tasting than ground nutmeg, so don't be tempted to add more than the recipe calls for, since it can become too much of a good thing and over power the recipe. You can also use regular ground nutmeg if you don't have whole nutmegs to grate yourself. Also, you can also add ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the recipe if you're a big cinnamon lover.

Perfect Holiday Desserts

Since it's the holidays and we're all getting a little dressed up to celebrate, I baked these cupcakes in a shiny gold cupcake liner and added some glitz to the top. I love the little stars in gold, and you know how I feel about the edible glitter! These cupcakes are the perfect way to wish someone a merry Christmas. They would also be great for ringing in the New Year.

This eggnog frosting recipe is the perfect topping to these cupcakes, it would be amazing on gingerbread cupcakes too. It would also be delicious on sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, in sandwich cookies, or any holiday cookies. Any eggnog lovers would adore this on top of spice cake, or gingerbread cake. The combination of the warm spice from these cakes with the creamy eggnog frosting is sure to win over even the non-eggnog drinkers. You could also keep things simple and use a simple cake mix for spice cake or vanilla cake to make a quick and easy holiday dessert that's sure to impress.

gold food glitter and gold star sprinkles on eggnog cupcakes with homemade eggnog frosting

Hoping your holiday prep goes well this weekend, and if you're doing some baking give these yummy treats with homemade eggnog frosting a try. Any huge eggnog fan will love it. This time of year, it's great to add your favorite holiday beverage to your baking too with these Christmas cupcakes with the best eggnog buttercream frosting on top.

Recipe

Eggnog Frosting

Smooth frosting with the flavour of eggnog.

No ratings yet

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15

Total Time: 15

Servings: cups

Calories: 111kcal

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat your butter at a medium speed, and then slowly incorporate your powdered sugar, eggnog, vanilla, and freshly grated nutmeg. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl part way through.
Whip until smooth and fluffy.
Pipe onto your vanilla cupcakes, cookies, or cakes and enjoy. Store any unused eggnog frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

With beautiful Eggnog Cupcakes to celebrate the holidays, life really is a party!

More Recipe Inspiration

You might also enjoy our Eggnog Bread Pudding recipe here.

Also check out our Eggnog Cookies here.

You might also like our Gingerbread House Cookies recipe here.

Gingerbread House Cookies: a classic gingerbread cookie recipe perfect for Christmas cookie ornaments or mini houses.

Winter White Christmas Decor Ideas in the Family Room

Dec 10, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Winter White Christmas Decor Ideas in the Family Room: faux snow balls, birch logs, white poinsettias and fur pillows all in winter white.

Winter white Christmas family room decor.

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Welcome and I hope you enjoy our Winter White Christmas Decor Ideas in the Family Room! I hope you enjoyed the tour of our main floor all dressed up for Christmas with Rustic Mixed Metals, and today we're down stairs in our cozy basement family room.

Winter White Christmas Decor Ideas in the Family Room: faux snow balls, birch logs, white poseittas and fur pillows all in winter white.

Family Christmas Tree

The main floor Christmas tree is all mine, I change the theme each year, and really enjoy it, but that means that the basement Christmas tree is our family tree. My daughter calls it "the memory tree" because it's filled with keepsake ornaments, and one from our vacation each year. That makes it a little tricky to put together a theme for the basement decor. I actually started out this year trying to do a fun multi-colour theme….but it just wasn't working so after a few days of thought I went with a winter white theme, and I LOVE it. Moral of the story, don't be afraid to change things up and try new ideas. I made the tree fit in with the simple addition of some white garland and ribbon and a few white Christmas balls.

You saw my Sharpie Reindeer Pillow, and here is the other version I made. I used a simple dollar store stencil and a grey sharpie to transform this inexpensive Ikea pillow cover. it cost around $5 to make and it will be a fun addition all winter.

I'm in love with all the white fur right now, and this sweet polar bear pillow fits right in.

Fireplace Mantel

I used my deer head over the fireplace, and simple greens. I love the addition of these huge pine cones this year.

White Christmas Decor Ideas for the Coffee Table

On the coffee table, I added a few more simple white details.

I used a tutorial from Lucy at Craftberry Bush (one of my fav. blogs) to make the snowballs -so fun, and easy to make.

I also added a few Christmas treats in some pretty mason jars. These will be enjoyed while watching Christmas movies over the next weeks.

A Bucket of Snowballs

On the other side of the room a few more snowballs.

It's so cozy and welcoming down here, and lots of the decor can stay out all winter. I look forward to lots of family time here over the holidays, and present time on Christmas morning.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, we'll continue on Friday with upstairs. With my own little cozy Winter White Christmas decor ideas, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Cozy Christmas Bedroom here.

Cozy Christmas Bedroom: Linen and chunky knits, a Christmas tree, candles, and a Christmas gallery wall help create a cozy space for Christmas.

Also check out our Christmas Home Tour with Green Decor here.

Christmas Home Tour: Rustic Scandinavian Christmas Home Tour, with bit of modern boho.

You might also enjoy our Black and White Christmas Decor Home Tour here.

Black and White Christmas Decor Home Tour -Rustic Scandinavian Black and White Christmas decor with fresh greens and natural elements.

Christmas Home Tour Mixed Metals -Gold, Silver, and Copper Christmas Decor

Dec 8, 2014 · 18 Comments

Copper Christmas Decor Christmas Home Tour: Tour a house all dressed with beautiful gold, silver, brass and copper Christmas decor.

Welcome, I'm so glad you're here today. I've been working away, crafting and creating and can't wait to show you all our copper Christmas decor and mixed metals for our Christmas Home Tour.

Front Door

Let's start at the front door, with my mixed metals Christmas front porch -see more of the porch decor here. I'm loving the combo of silver, gold, and copper, and there's lots more to see inside.

Copper Christmas Decor Christmas Home Tour

Come on in where it's warmer. At the front door, on the console table, I've set up a pretty metal tree, and added some ornaments, in fact they're over flowing!

Copper Christmas Decor in the Dining Room

Along the half wall at the front door, a few pretty candles.

Here is the hot chocolate bar (see more detials arount it and how to make the DIY mugs here, all set up for guests to enjoy when they arrive on a cold day.

And this leads into the dining room.

gold silver and copper Christmas decor Home Tour

My theme this year, is mixed metals so you'll see gold, copper, and silver used over and over to tie everything together. I've also used lots of natural materials like wood, and pinecones to create a rustic feel. On the dining room table I added gold, copper, and silver leaf to some rustic wood log candle holders.

Gallery Wall

Behind the dining room table, is one of my favourite projects of late, a Christmas Gallery Wall.

I found some great printables on-line, and gathered up lots of other fun pieces to include.

I'm in love. Now onto the living room.

StairWay

There's a little surprise in the stairway. I thought it'd be fun to do something a little different from the traditional garland on the stair railing this year, and fill this fun little space between the stairs with a Christmas star mobile.

It's a long way down. I used a two gold hoops to create an inner ring and an outer ring. On the inner ring I attached long ribbons in gold, silver, and copper. On the outer ring I attached long strands of paper stars. The stars are made out of old book pages and scrapbook paper in gold, silver and copper patterns, including some vellum. I used two sizes of star shaped paper punches to create the stars and then sewed them into long strands on my sewing machine and attached them not to the outer ring. Hanging from the top of the upstairs hallway, all the way down to the main floor they look really magical.

Living Room

On to the living room, and our beautiful Christmas tree. I'm really liking the combo of all the metals.

I used lots of gold, silver, and copper ornaments, and then added ribbon in all those colours too. Another fun copper element is using magnolia leaves in bunches, since they're copper coloured on the back. One detail I really like this year, are the mini chalkboards with inspirational words on them.

Copper Christmas Ornaments

I already had lots of gold and silver decorations, but the copper is new. I DIY'd a few copper ornaments, these ones are clear glass balls filled with some copper wire scrub brushes, that I pulled apart. So easy, inexpensive, and pretty.

I also used the DIY cement star Christmas ornaments decorated with gold, silver, and copper leaf.

Cement star diy copper christmas ornament

In the living room, there's a cozy spot to curl-up by the fire.

One of my favourite copper details this year, is the pretty copper kettle and mugs on the ottoman. Makes me hum, "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens….these are a few of my favourite things".

This year our living room shelves are filled with some of my mini Christmas tree collection.

And on the other side of the room, our cozy couch, piled high with pretty pillows.

Kitchen

We have a pass through from our living room into the kitchen, and this year I added a branch, and hung a few pretty decorations on it. Underneath is a collection of candles in different metals. So simple and so pretty.

In the kitchen, I added a little greenery and ribbon to the two end chairs.

The chalk board has a sweet little Christmas message.

And on the table a simple centre piece, with my Christmas tree in a teapot, and some candles.

The kitchen got a few Christmas touches too, like a few ornaments on the counter.

And on the other counter, my famous Christmas butter crunch candy, get the recipe here. When this candy gets made at our house, it's a sure sign that Christmas is coming!

And if you have to do dishes…and I'm afraid we do…this is at least a sweet spot.

Thanks so much for coming by for my little Christmas House Tour. I hope you enjoyed my rustic mixed metals, and got inspired to make your place as cozy and welcoming as you can. On Wednesday, I'll be sharing our basement family room all decorated in winter whites, and Friday we're upstairs. Hope to see you soon.

With a house all decorated for Christmas, life really is a party!

You might also like last years Vintage Inspired Christmas Tour.

Christmas Fireplace Mantel Christmas Villiage Putz Houses

Also check out our Green Christmas Decor Home Tour 2019 here.

You might also like Pastel Christmas Living Room here.

Colourful Pastel Christmas Family Room: Inspired by Anthropologie, with bottle brush Christmas trees, mercury glass, vintage ornaments, macrame, & pastel colours.

Sharpie Reindeer Pillow

Dec 4, 2014 · 2 Comments

DIY Sharpie Reindeer Pillow: No-sew project, using an inexpensive pillow and a sharpie marker to make your own custom Christmas pillow.

I wanted to add a deer pillow to my Christmas decor but couldn’t find the perfect one, or one that fit my budget. What’s a girl to do, make her own!

Materials:

plain pillow case
sharpie marker
reindeer cut out
tiny red Pom Pom
red thread and needle
cardboard inside the pillow

To start with I was planning to stitch up a quick cushion cover with some muslin fabric, but then I found a plain off-white pillow cover at IKEA for $4.99 (it’s the Gurli incase you’re looking too). Sold. I had a pillow insert already that I could use. I also picked up a brown permanent Sharpie marker.

How To Make A Sharpie Pillow:

1. I found an image of a simple reindeer that I liked on-line, and printed it out in the size I needed to fit 3 rows of 3 reindeer. After I printed the image, I cut it out and used it as a pattern.

2. Next I CAREFULLY traced the deer pattern, onto the cushion fabric with the Sharpie marker.

Be sure to use some cardboard inside the cushion to ensure the marker doesn’t bleed through the fabric and leave a mark on the back.

Once the reindeer was outlined, I removed the pattern and filled in the image with some rough crosshatching.

I used a ruler to help space out the other 8 reindeer -with each row changing direction.

3. When I was done, I chose one reindeer and stitched a tiny, sparkly red pom-pom nose on (I could remove it after Christmas if I wanted).

I have to say I was a little nervous using a permanent marker on fabric, and kept worrying thoughout the whole project that I”d make a mistake and ruin it, but it turned out great. It did bleed a little, but I like how it doesn’t look too perfect.

Love how it turned out, and love the price too. There are endless possiblities too, any pattern could work. I was thinking a cookie cutter or stencil would work too.

With a DIY Sharpie Pillow, life really is a party.

PS. I made another one with letter stencils that you'll get to see on my Christmas home tour here.

You might also like DIY Christmas Wall Art here.

Also check out Birch Christmas Wreath here.

You might also enjoy Mini Macrame Christmas Ornaments here.

Christmas Tree for the Front Porch

Dec 2, 2014 · 2 Comments

Christmas Tree for the Front Porch: real trees, grapevine garland, lights, and a Christmas wreath with lots of gold, silver and copper create a Christmas welcome.

This year I’m going with a mixed metals theme for my Christmas decor, so lots of gold, silver, and copper. I wanted to use this theme outside too, and do something a little different from the traditional urn with greens, birch logs and ribbon. So I've added a Christmas tree for the front porch this year and I love it!

Garland Around The Front Door

The first thing we did was do the grapevine around the door. I wanted to do copper colour around the door so my sister and I found some grapevine up north, and I also got some hawthorn, since it’s very spiky.

I spray painted some of the grapevine with copper spray paint before I hung it up, and left some of it natural. My sister really did all the installation for me, she’s a florist and makes it look so easy. But, she assures me it actually is easy to do.

She started out my sticking about five 3M hooks around the door. They work great, since the large ones can hold a lot of weight, and leave no holes or residue behind when you remove them. She layered on the grapevine, and used wire to attach it to the hooks. She added each vine, one at a time, and slowly built it up. We saved the copper grapevine for the top. After the grapevine, we added in the spiky hawthorn branches, that we also spray painted copper.

Christmas Tree for the Front Porch

I wanted to use the same copper grapevine and hawthorn branches to make a kind of spiky nest for the Christmas tree in my urn. We used wire to secure the grapevine, and pushed the branches into the dirt in the urn.

We decorated the mini tree with lights and shatterproof ornaments secured to the tree with wire. I love my little tree.

Christmas Wreath

For the wreath, I picked up an inexpensive fresh one at the grocery store. My sister twisted some more grapevine around the wreath, to give it some dimension. We added more of our mixed metal ornaments.

We also added some ornaments to an old lantern and used a few more small trees beside the door in galvanized pots.

Repeating the different elements in a few places helps to bring the whole look together.

I love how it turned out, and I can’t wait to show you more inside later this week.

More Inspiration

You might also like our Christmas Front Porch here.

Also check out our Outdoor Decorating Ideas for the Front Porch here.

You might also enjoy our Front Porch Decorating Ideas for Christmas here.

DIY Christmas Story Book Advent Calendar

Nov 27, 2014 · 8 Comments

Storybook Advent Calendar: Wrap up 24 Christmas story books, and let your children pick a new one each to read together at bedtime.

Kid's story book advent calendar Christmas countdown.

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This Christmas I made my girls a storybook advent calendar. My youngest is 7, but since her older sister is 10, it feels like we're quickly getting past the little kid stage. In fact, there's already very few toys on their Christmas lists this year.

Since they're both reading chapter books now, and usually read on their own at bedtime I thought it might be nice to do a special "Read me a Story Christmas Countdown" this year.

I've wrapped up 24 books, so that each night between Dec. 1 and Christmas eve we can read a Christmas storybook together.

Any book lover will adore their own book advent calendar. With older kids, it's an opportunity for a special bedtime story again, at least for the month heading up to Christmas. It's such a fun way to spend time together during the holiday season.

I'm also a big fan of family activity advent calendars -find our printable advent activity cards here. But, those kind of advent calendars can end up being a lot of work for parents. This idea is the easiest way to create a special advent activity together.

This is such a great alternative to chocolate advent calendar, since we really don't need to start each day with more sugar. I also think it's a better option than making your own advent calendar filled with small gifts. They tend to be inexpensive little toys and trinkets that your child doesn't need, and end up being donated, or worse still in landfill. This Christmas season a DIY book advent calendar is sure to become one of your favorite Christmas traditions!

Christmas Books

The first task in making your own Christmas book advent calendar is to secure enough books. You will need 24, since you don't need for Christmas day. When I was a young mom, I wasn't too keen on buying Christmas books, since I thought something general had much more reading potential throughout the year. Ten years later, I see the value in Christmas books, it does come around every year, and reading them together brings back memories of earlier days and much younger little ones.

Mix of Old and New

For our countdown I used about half old Christmas books we already had, and bought about 12 new ones. It was actually a really great idea to use a mix of old and new books. The girls loved discovering the new books, but there was also a happy nostalgia in reading the old ones together, that we've read together so many times for past Christmases.

Thrift Store Books

For the new books, I picked them up over about a month at thrift stores, the dollar store, and a warehouse outlet, and didn't pay more than a couple of dollars each for most of them. It's great if you can to plan ahead for this activity, since it might take a little while to collect enough Christmas books. Most thrift stores put out their Christmas themed books right after Halloween, so that's a great time to start shopping. Finding the picture books at thrift stores is a great way to not spend too much for your story book Christmas advent calendar.

New Books

I also had good luck at the dollar store, and that's a great option to find an inexpensive new Christmas book.

If you're kids are younger, a board book level will be perfect. If you're kids are older you can use picture books. And if you have a mix of ages then you can put together a collection of children's books with something for everyone.

If this becomes a new Christmas tradition for you and your family, be sure to take any old Christmas books that your kids have outgrown and no longer enjoy back to the thrift store and donate them so someone else can enjoy them. If you do this year after year, I think it's a nice idea to keep your favourites, and donate the others, and replace them with new-to-you second hand books for the new calendar.

Wrapping The Books

Part of the fun of this kind of advent calendar is not knowing which book you will get each night. So be sure to wrap all the books up in wrapping paper, so that it can be a surprise each night. It's fun to use a few different kinds of wrapping paper for interest, but making sure they all coordinate together.

Number Tags or No Number Tags?

I really like the idea of reading them in no particular order. So I just wrap them up, and let my girls take turns picking a different one each night to read. If you prefer, you can number the books, so that you read a particular one each of the days of Christmas. You can use number stickers to mark your order, or use a marker or acrylic paint to add the numbers to the wrapping paper. Another options is numbered gift tags tied around each book. You could even wrap them into large paper bags with a number on each one.

Starting on December 1st, you let your family member find the wrapped book marked as number one, and enjoy it for your bedtime stories. And if you're letting them be picked randomly, you just let your little boy or girl pick out whatever one they want, unwrap it and enjoy it together.

Library Books

If you decide to use some library books, it would be a good idea to use the number tags, and make sure that they are read right at the beginning of the calendar so they can be returned to the local library on time for the other book lovers to enjoy as well.

Displaying The Books

I like to collect all the books together in one spot. We placed ours under the Christmas tree in our living room, but in the kids bedroom can be a nice idea too.

We used a vintage suitcase for our books this year. It's the perfect way to collect them all together. It's so much fun to add some little Christmas decorations too, like candy canes, a banner, or pom pom garland, and twinkle Christmas lights, for a little Christmas magic.

Other great options are to stack the books on top of each other from biggest to smallest and make the stack in the shape of a Christmas tree. We've also used a vintage crate, or special basket to hold them all in the past.

Recipe

Story book advent calendar countdown to Christmas.

DIY Book Advent Calendar

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Cook Time: 1

Total Time: 1

Servings: Calendar

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Materials

24 Christmas Books
Wrapping Paper
Suitcase basket, or box

Instructions

Collect 24 Christmas books from your home, at second hand stores, or the bookstore.
Wrap them all up with wrapping paper. I wrapped them all in brown paper; it made me think of "brown paper packages tied up with strings…these are a few of my favourite things..".
To add to the magic factor, I used an old vintage suitcase, that looks like it could have been sent straight from the North Pole. A basket, or box would work too.

Vintage Suitcase

We used an old suitcase for our books. It felt a little like we were taking a magical journey each night. Our books transported us to lots of wonderful places. I wrapped the books in brown paper, thinking of "brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favourite things". I filled the suitcase up with some cotton and faux snow. It helped add a little more magic.

We had so much fun doing this together. Picture us all snuggled up together in our big bed in our Christmas jammies with a bedtime story each night. They absolutely loved it. It's such a great way to spend some quality family time together, especially when the holidays seem to get more and more busy. Being intentional about slowing down and spending some time together without rushing seems more and more important. I love too that this an end of the day activity. We can settle down together with our children's Christmas books and do something we will all enjoy. I think this might be a new holiday tradition for us.

With a "Read me a Story Christmas Countdown" DIY book advent calendar to enjoy, life really is a party!

More Advent Inspiration

You might also like our House Advent Calendar here.

DIY House Advent Calendar: A pattern for 3 sizes of paper houses, and printable number labels to make your own advent village.

Also check out Activity Advent Calendar here.

Printable Christmas Advent Calendar Activities: with over 60 different activities to choose from pick 24 and make some special memories with your family this Christmas.

You might also like our DIY Advent Calendar here.

Tree Advent Calendar: IKEA hack, inexpensive cardboard advent calendar that's been silver leafed, and filled with printable activities.

Homemade Recycled Sweater Mittens

Nov 24, 2014 · 14 Comments

Handmade Recycled Sweater Mittens: make mittens from old sweaters, no knitting or pattern required, and the perfect gift.

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If you've ever wondered how to make handmade recylced sweater mittens you will love this easy tutorial. They're warm and pretty, and easy project even for beginnings.

Tis the season to start thinking about homemade gifts for the special people on your list. Today I'm joining a bunch of great Canadian Bloggers for the Canadian Handmade Holiday Event, just look for the hashtag #CNDHandmadeHoliday and enjoy all their beautiful Handmade Holiday ideas!

This weekend I used some old wool sweaters to make some nice cozy handmade recycled sweater mittens for my daughter and husband. I love how they turned out, so soft and warm and easy to make too. It's a great way to upcycle your old favorite sweater or give some new life to ones from the thrift stores. Look for an old one at the back of your closet, even if it's damaged, moth eaten, or stained you can work around those spots and make some recycled sweater mittens.

Handmade Recycled Sweater Mittens Materials:

old wool sweaters
pins
scissors
paper for a pattern
sewing machine
thread

How To Make Sweater Mittens:

1. Felting Your Sweater Fabric

I started out with felting my wool sweaters. To turn the sweater knit into felt it's important that you use 100% wool sweaters for the best result. If you've ever accidentally shrunk a wool sweater when washing it, then you'll know how to it. To felt them first wash them in hot water in the washing machine. Then put the sweaters into a hot dryer, some people recommend adding in dryer balls or even tennis balls.

The wool will felt, and they'll be nice and thick and won't fray when cut. The can wash and dry them multiple times to achieve an even thicker felt, depending on the result you're looking for.

2. Make A Mitten Pattern

I made a simple pattern by tracing generously around the hands of my husband and daughter. Then I adding a seam allowance of about a half inch around the outside of each one.

If you wanted them to be a surprise, you could also use an old pair of mittens as a pattern -or your own hand for adult size.

3. Cut Out The Pieces

Lay out your paper pattern onto the old sweater and cut it out. Don't forget you need four pieces in total, two for the left hand, two for the right -so flip over the pattern for a left mitten and a right mitten, and the back of your mitten and the front.

We lined up the pattern with the rib section on the bottom of the sweater and used it as the cuff of the mitten. It's a cute detail you might like not use too. You can lay your pattern pieces to take advantage of a pattern on the sweater too if your sweater has a pattern detail.

4. Add Embellishments and Sew The Mittens Together

Before you sew your pieces together you can add any embellishments you like. I cut out simple hearts and added to my daughters, and sewed a few buttons on the outside of the mitten pair for my husband.

Next step is to pin them together with the wrong sides facing out and right sides facing in, and then sew them together with your sewing machine with a simple straight stitch with a coordinating coloured thread.. Before turning them right-side-out, the last step is to trim the seam quite close in the thumb, so there isn't too much bulk in the thumb when you turn them right-side-out. Then you're finished and ready to turn to them right side out.

These are so warm and cozy, and perfect for some extra warmth in the winter. And they're quite quick and easy to make. It only took me about an hour to make one pair.

These wool mittens are perfect for hand holding on a cold day. Make these into memory mittens by using an old sweater that holds some special memories for you.

These are perfect for gift giving to someone special on your list this year. With Handmade Recycled Sweater Mittens, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Ribbon Wall Hanging here.

Also check out our Mason Jar Oil Lamps tutorial here.

DIY Mason Jar Oil Lamps: Simple to make and so beautiful. Perfect for a party, wedding centerpiece, or just in your home.

You might also enjoy our Rainbow Wall Art here.

DIY Rainbow Book Art: Using old books as a canvas this DIY rainbow art in mustard yellow and pink is fun to make and inexpensive.

DIY Woodland Mugs

Nov 18, 2014 · 6 Comments

DIY Mugs: Woodland Mugs using carbon paper to transfer an image and a ceramic marker. So much better than sharpie marker mugs the don't last.

These DIY mugs are perfect for the a hot chocolate bar. Use a ceramic marker and get much better long lasting results than a sharpie.

The Mugs

It snowed here yesterday. That means time for hot chocolate. I put together a sweet little hot chocolate bar on the bar cart. It all started when I saw these oh so pretty mugs in the Christmas Chapters/Indigo catalogue. Of course I had that moment that DIYer's often have…I think I could make something like that.

Chapters has a deer, bear, fox, and owl in their collection, and here's my version.

Materials:

plain white mugs
carbon paper
woodland images
pencil
ceramic marker

How To Make DIY Woodland Mugs

I started with inexpensive dollar store mugs, and a ceramic marker. The internet is flooded with sharpie mugs, but from what I've read they're very hit and miss. I used the ceramic pen for my "give thanks" plates and they've been great, so I went with the ceramic pen again this time.

Since I'm not really an artist, and perhaps you're not either, here's my cheater way of doing the sketches. Find an image on-line that you like. I did an image search on "simple deer sketch" and then just found one I liked, right clicked to open image in a new tab, then selected print and adjusted my printing size so it would fit on my mug.

using carbon paper to transfer the outline of an image to the mug

Once you have a picture that you're happy with and it is the right size, break out the good old fashioned carbon copy paper -memories of teachers using these magical sheets to make worksheets in grade one fill my mind. Use a small piece and tape it, along with your picture on top of the mug. Make sure you have the carbon paper on the right side so that when you write on it, a line goes through to your mug. Then, use a pencil to outline your image, which should transfer it to the mug.

Trouble Shooting

I'm not going to lie to you and say this process was simple. It was a little tricky. I started out with much more detailed images, similar to the Chapter's version, but they were too complicated for me. I also started out just holding the papers onto the mug, but if the papers slip, the carbon copy lines rub off the mugs, since its a slippery ceramic surface.

When I used a simpler image, and taped the papers really carefully, and also removed them carefully so I didn't rub any off or erase it, it worked. Patience, patience.

Once the carbon copy is on the mug, use your ceramic marker to go over it. Again I made a few mistakes. The great thing about the markers is that when you're working with them, you can wash them off with a little hot water and a scrub, and then start over again. The bad part, you have to start over from the beginning again. Once you're happy with the image, my marker said to wait 24 hours, then bake in the oven (all the exact instructions will be on your marker). Once they come out of the oven, the image is permanent.

baking diy mugs in the oven to set the marker

I really do like how they turned out and the Chapter's version would have been around $50 for 4, and mine were $1.25 each for the mugs, and around $5 for the marker -so a fraction of the price at around $10.

The Hot Chocolate Bar

I used my mugs in this fun hot chocolate buffet with some different flavours of hot chocolate mix, chocolate spoons, sprinkles, and marshmallows.

Yum. My girls tried out the hot chocolate bar cart tonight, and I'm happy to say it got their seal of approval.

I love how this little cart looks for the holidays, and that the hot chocolate and the woodland mugs will look good all winter long.

With a DIY Woodland Mugs, life really is a party!

You might also like our DIY "Give Thanks" plates here.

Also check out our Ho Ho Ho Hot Chocolate Bar here.

Felted Wool Sweater Woven Pillow

Nov 13, 2014 · 10 Comments

Felted Wool Sweater Woven Pillow: felted wool sweater craft idea, make this woven pillow out of old thrift store sweaters turned into felt.

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Today I'm sharing this pretty and cozy felted wool sweater woven pillow. We made this pillow from old felted wool sweaters. Ever have the bad experience of washing a wool sweater in hot water, and putting it in the dryer and then discovering it's shrunk? That's exactly what you want to happen here.

Materials:

old wool sweaters
washing machine
thread
sewing machine
pillow insert
coordinating fabric
pins

How To Make a Felted Wool Sweater Woven Pillow:

1. I found some old sweaters at the thrift store. They have to be made out of animal fibers in order to felt. Wool, or cashmere, or angora all work well. To felt the sweaters wash them in your washing machine with soap and hot water. Then dry them in the dryer on hot heat. If the fibres haven't felted after one wash and dry, do the whole process a second time.

2.Once they've been felted, cut them into strips. Since they are felt, they won't fray when they're cut.

3.Then, weave your pillow top, to the size of the pillow insert you're using. Once the top is woven and pinned together for stability, sew a plain piece of fabric on the wrong side. This piece will ensure that the felt doesn't get pulled or stretched out of shape. Make sure it's a coordinating colour, since it will show through between some of the pieces.

4. After the top is all ready, use some more plain fabric to make an envelope style back -just like I did when I made these pillows.

Once it's all stitched up, turn it right side out again and enjoy.

rustic Christmas decor vintage crate and tree

It makes for the perfect cozy spot to curl up in.

Here's a little sneak peek of my DIY woodland mugs that you can find the tutorial for here.

I love all the different textures and slightly different shades of the various sweaters together.

With a cozy felted sweater woven pillow to curl up with on a cold day, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Homemade Sweater Mittens here.

Also check out our DIY Felt Mushrooms here.

DIY Felt Mushrooms: easy to sew red and white polka dot mushrooms with felt, and cork and wooden spool stems. Perfect for your spring decor.

Concrete Star Christmas Ornaments

Nov 11, 2014 · 1 Comment

DIY Concrete Star Christmas Ornaments: discover how to make beautiful decorations from some concrete, an ice cube tray, and some gold leaf.

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I'm loving mixed metals this year, and incorporating lots of gold, silver, and copper into my Christmas decor. Instead of straight up glam though, I'm going for a rustic look. I love the juxtaposition of the concrete in these star ornaments and the little bit of gold, silver and copper leaf.

Materials:

concrete mix
cooking spray
star ice cube tray
straws
gold leaf adhesive
silver, copper, and gold leaf
twine

To make them, I used some concrete, cooking spray, straws, and a star ice cube tray.

How To Make Concrete Stars

1. Just mix up the concrete, spray your mould and straws with a little cooking spray oil.

2. Next fill up the oiled mould.

Be careful to push the cement all the way into the corners and tap your mould to try and get everything all nice and even.

3. Lastly, just push the straws into the wet cement, and all the way down to the bottom of the mould. Let it set over night.

how to make concrete Christmas ornaments

The next day remove the straws -carefully. And then, let the stars dry the rest of the day in the moulds. Patience, patience.

Trouble Shooting

I'm not going to lie to you. I had a little trouble. Maybe I should have done a few things a little differently. I might not have mixed my concrete long enough, or carefully enough. Next time, a bigger container for mixing and a little more vim and vigour might be in order. I also maybe should have pushed the concrete into the corners more carefully, I'm thinking a wooden skewer next time to take no chances. Lastly, I would make sure to leave a little larger border for my straw holes next time, and maybe even remove them a little sooner…but then again not too soon. I did have a few causalities…and I have to admit my first reaction was that this was a project fail.

I persevered, and had some successes. I used the best ones -about seven out of twelve worked.

Adding Metal Leaf

4.Next I added some gold leaf glue. After it set, I added some different metallic leaf to them.

5. Then I used a little twine to make them into Christmas tree ornaments. And then…I kind of fell in love with them.

With concrete star Christmas ornaments with metallic leaf, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our DIY Concrete Side Tables here.

DIY Concrete Side Table: this sleek, modern concrete side table is an easy DIY project. Store bought legs and a poured concrete top create a custom look.

Also check out our DIY Faux Concrete Pumpkins here.

DIY Faux Concrete Pumpkins: easy DIY to transform inexpensive dollar store pumpkins with a concrete faux paint finish.

You might also enjoy Cement Garden Markers here.

DIY Garden Markers: these cement garden markers are long wearing and beautiful, perfect for marking any plants or herbs in your garden.

Classic Butter Tarts with Raisins Recipe

Nov 5, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Classic Butter Tarts with Raisins Recipe: My grandma's famous recipe, a Canadian classic.

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I recently learned that Butter Tarts are a Canadian thing. All I can say to my American readers is you've been missing out. I appreciate some of your specialties…the Olive Garden, Target, Hobby Lobby, Disney World. But, right up there with some of the great Canadian contributions to the world, like maple syrup and back bacon, are butter tarts!

What Are Butter Tarts?

Butter tarts are a little bit hard to describe if you've never had the pleasure of having one. The filling is made from butter, syrup, egg, and sugar. It's typically a bit runny. Butter tart filling is similar but not quite the same as a pecan pie filling, but with less or no nuts, and no cornstarch or flour used to thicken it. Butter tarts truly a Canadian fare. The earliest published recipe dates to 1900. It was published from Barrie, Ont. in a Women's Auxiliary cookbook. It may have been an adaptation of sugar pie, influenced by French immigrants in Quebec, American pecan pie from the southern states, treacle pie from the UK, or shoofly pie made with molasses from the Pennsylvania Dutch. Perhaps early settlers were influenced by the ingredients available to them and developed the recipe for the gooey filling with maple syrup. Today it's often made with dark corn syrup. Butter tarts have become a Canadian tradition, and one of my favorite quintessential Canadian dessert recipes.

Canadian butter tarts are very sweet, but the flaky tart pastry provides some contrast and relief to the runny sugary filling. They come as plain tarts, with raisins, or with nuts. Which kind is best is a great debate.

This is the butter tart recipe that my mom makes and my grandma used to make. At every family holiday or special occasion her famous butter tarts are always on the menu! When I was a little girl my mom often baked pies, secretly I always hoped she would use the leftover pastry dough and make us a dozen or two of these little beauties. Which she often did.

I'd have to say they are one of my absolute favourites, and a real Canadian treat.

Pie Pastry

I had tried to make them a few times in the past, but I've usually been a little disappointed in them because of the pie crusts. The filling is a winner, winner, but the pastry shells, are a bit tricky to get tender and flaky. My mom is AMAZING at making flaky crust…me, not so much. She has tried to encourage me, eating my attempts and praising me. Last time I made my own pastry and it didn't turn out great, she promised I was just not using her pie crust recipe. So I went back to her tested and true favourite pie pastry recipe, it's the Crisco No-Fail Pie Crust. And it didn't fail me. You can use this pastry recipe for the tarts shells, use frozen ones, or use your own favourite pastry recipe

Now that I've secured the perfect pastry recipe; on to the filling.... My mom learned to make them with her grandmother, she even still uses my great grandma's old tart tins. And the tart tins that I use, were actually my grandmas, so it's a little sentimental for me.

Tart Pans or Muffin Pans

We always make these in tart pans. Lots of people like to use muffin tin pans for butter tarts. You do get more runny filling with a muffin cups, but you also get more pastry, because the sides typically have to kind of fold over. Tart pans are more shallow, but along with less filling they also use less dough as the crust. In my opinion making these in a tart pan makes a much for delicate, tender butter tart. And again in my opinion they're superior. I was raised with them made this way, so that might account for some of my preference, but I do think they're just better proportions. Some people even make these as tart squares, similar to pecan pie bard, but again it's a question of proportions of filling to crust, that make the tarts the best option.

Raisins or No Raisins

In our family, we always make butter tarts with raisins. You can make them without raisins if you prefer. Others make them plain or sometimes use nuts. I like them best with raisins -but I have to say -I've never really met a butter tart I didn't like. I think the raisins add a little bit of texture and tiny bit of tartness to this very sweet little tart. Raisins or no raisins, nuts or plain is hotly debated by many Canadians.

Take care when you're filling your tart shells with the butter tart filling not to overfill the tart shells. If you do they may overflow and then cause the tart to stick the tart tin, and break when trying to remove them.

Store these butter tarts in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap at room temperature.

The tart filling for these butter tarts is not typically that runny. Again it's a matter of opinion how runny the filling should be. I prefer these more firm tarts.

This classic Canadian dessert is such a favorite. It is so nostalgic for me and always reminds me of my childhood and happy memories of family when I eat them. I hope you love this new recipe as much as I do.

Recipe

Butter Tarts with Raisins

Flaky pastry with a runny and sweet filling filled with raisins.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Canadian

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 25

Total Time: 45

Servings:

Calories: 95kcal

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

Instructions

To make the filling, combine the egg, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt, raisins, and milk in a large bowl, and stir to combine well.
Prepare 2 dozen tart shells from pie dough, and fill with about 1 tablespoon of filling, depending on their size.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.
Remove from the pan while they are still hot as the filling becomes sticky as they cool.

Nutrition

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

With homemade butter tarts, life really is a party.

More Recipe Inspiration

You might also enjoy our Nectarine and Blueberry Galette recipe here.

Nectarine and Blueberry Galette: literally make in minutes with frozen puff pastry, so easy and the perfect way to enjoy fresh nectarines and blueberries.

Also check out our Brown Butter Raspberry Tarts recipe here.

Brown Butter Raspberry Tarts: the perfect combination of gooey sweet filling, and tart fresh raspberries, with a really easy pastry. Great for a beginner.

You might also enjoy our Strawberry Cheesecake Pie recipe here.

Rustic Thanksgiving Table

Oct 23, 2014 · 6 Comments

Rustic Thanksgiving Table: set with diy wood chargers, candles, bittersweet, pumpkins, vintage pieces, and a pinecone garland.

Rustic fall outdoor thanksgiving table ideas.

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This beautiful rustic Thanksgiving table is one I put together with my sister. We visited their cottage for Thanksgiving and were inspired by all the beautiful scenery to put together this pretty Thanksgiving tablescape.

My sister and her family spend the summers in beautiful cottage country, and having Thanksgiving there this year was so beautiful with all the changing leaves, that we decided to set the table outside.

We began our table with some wood slice chargers.

DIY Wood Chargers

My sweet brother-in-law went out into the woods for us, and cut some slices, than sanded them smooth. They came out beautifully. I love them, and they were the perfect foundation for our rustic Thanksgiving table -thanks Shaun.

My sister found some old antique silverware, and we left it tarnished for the perfect rustic look -I kind of wanted to sneak it into my suitcase when I left.

DIY Place Cards

For an easy, fun place card we used a white paint pen to write everyone's names on fall leaves.

My sister had some gold napkins, that worked great with the tarnished silverware.

We also used some pretty vintage amber goblets, love how they looked with the bittersweet.

rustic thanksgiving tablescape centrepiece

Rustic Thanksgiving Table Centrepiece

For the centrepiece, we layered pumpkins, and candles on a piece of vintage lace. The candles were in clear glass vases, which was perfect for outside, so they didn't blow out in the breeze.

My sister wound in some grapevine, and bittersweet. It was simple and so pretty.

Pinecone Garland

Over the table, and between two trees, we strung up a pretty pine cone garland. To make it I hot clued some pinecones to some jute twine, and then tied some fall coloured ribbons in-between each one. It was really simple to make and a nice detail for over the table.

With a beautiful rustic, outdoor Thanksgiving table like this, life really is a party!

You might also like our Black and White Farmhouse Thanksgiving Table here.

Black and White Modern Farmhouse Thanksgiving Table: White pumpkins, black cutlery, and DIY macrame napkins rings make the perfect Thanksgiving table.

Also check out Fall Leaf Thanksgiving Table here.

Fall Leaf Thanksgiving Table: Hanging pressed fall leaves, and pink heirloom pumpkins, ombre leaf cookies, and cloths pin place cards make a beautiful table.

You might also enjoy our Rustic and Neutral Thanksgiving Table here.

Sleeping Beauty Princess Party

Oct 21, 2014 · 7 Comments

Sleeping Beauty Party: an almost sleepover with matching pjs, popcorn buffet, take home breakfast, and free Sleeping Beauty printables.

Sleeping beauty themed party with pink and blue popcorn bar, photo both, Princess breakfast and more.

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On the weekend we had so much fun hosting an "almost" slumber party. The party was a Sleeping Beauty party and was so much fun, and I'm so excited to share all of our Sleeping Beauty party ideas with you. I say "almost" slumber party, since we had all the fun of a Princess slumber party - with new pj's, watching Sleeping Beauty, an amazing popcorn snack bar, and a photo booth, but we sent our little friends home to sleep. We also sent them along with a Princess breakfast all packed up "to-go" for them to enjoy in the morning. It was so much fun. This would be a great as a Sleeping Beauty birthday party too.

Princess Party Planning Checklist

If you're planning your own party use can use our Princess Party Planning Checklist to help you get organized for the special event, with reminders for things like sending the princess invitations, and planning the menu. Don't forget birthday cake if it's for your daughter's birthday

-click here for your own free printable Party checklist.

free printable Princess Party Planning Checklist

Matching Princess Pajamas

We picked our date - a Friday night, and invited a few special friends. Since it was an almost slumber party we started out with all matching Princess little girl pajamas for all the girls. These were so much fun and a great take-home party favors for the party guests. I love giving something useful.

Princess Photo Booth

I picked up a few Sleeping Beauty party supplies, including this Princess photo backdrop that came with great props, such a fun and simple way to do a photo booth at the party. As soon as the girls arrived they changed into their matching pj's. A princess dress is always fun, but this was more of a pj kind of party. ;). The girls had such a great time posing. This would be really fun to do with a birthday girl too, and take a picture of the guest of honor with everyone for a keepsake of the special day.

Sleeping Beauty Theatre

Then we invited them into our "theatre". We transformed our living room, by removing most of the furniture. This set the scene for a whole lot of fun to be had.

Sleeping Beauty Party Decorations

Bunting

I strung up curtains to hide the kitchen, and decked out the couch with lots of gold and fur - the perfect Princess decor.

The wall behind the TV was decorated with fun bunting, in our pink and gold color scheme. I made it out of scrapbook paper and created a few Princess bunting flags from paper plates. This is such a fun way to add some more princess details

Now Playing

And the fireplace got the Sleeping Beauty treatment too. I made a curtain of pink tulle, and added a chalkboard with flashing Christmas lights. I found the pictures of the fairy godmothers on-line, and added them for a little fairy magic.

A little rose bush seemed like a fun detail, since Aurora was re-named Briar Rose by the fairies. I also made a simple "Once Upon A Dream" banner, and added a little gold glitter for fun.

Sleeping Beauty "Make It Pink, Make It Blue" Popcorn Buffet

The star attraction was the Movie Popcorn Buffet, which was really a dessert table, given all the sweet treats included. Over the buffet I hung a pretty Princess chandelier, and for added sparkle I wound a string of tiny lights around it -it was so pretty.

My favorite scene from the movie has to be the fairies arguing over whether Princess Aurora should have a pink dress or blue dress, so I used this idea for the popcorn buffet. One side was "Make it Blue" and the other was "Make it Pink".

Free Sleeping Beauty Printables

I made these fun free printables, get them here -Make it Pink -Make it Blue, and set up lots of fun treats.

We started out with popcorn - pink and blue of course, as well as caramel corn and regular popcorn.

Sleeping beauty make it pink make it blue snack popcorn buffet

Along with the popcorn, I added lots of fun candy add-ins, so everyone could personalize their snacks.

Popcorn Add-ins:

pink popcorn
blue popcorn
caramel popcorn
regular popcorn
blue candies: Hersey's kisses, chocolate coins, cotton candy, sprinkles, and chocolate balls
pink candies: cotton candy, goldfish crackers, star marshmallows, sprinkles, jellybeans, chocolate coins, and chocolate balls

The girls used the pretty Princess cups to make their personalized popcorn mixes.

Sleeping Beauty Drinks

For drinks there was blue sports drink, or pink lemonade, in pretty bottles with paper straws, and Princess fairy wands.

Sleeping beauty make it pink, make it blue popcorn buffet

Once we had our snacks, it was time to enjoy the movie!

Princess Take Home Breakfast

One of my favorite details of our "almost" sleepover was to send the girls home with a special Princess breakfast to enjoy in the morning.

almost slumber party take home take out breakfast

Click here for the free printable "wishing you sweet dreams and an even sweeter breakfast" sign.

Sleeping beauty slumber party breakfast to go

I used some gable boxes to hold all their goodies, and decorated them with some princess washi tape. On the top of the boxes and tied with a bow was a thank-you card - since Princesses always remember a thank-you card, that had directions on the back for the breakfast. Inside the each box was a breakfast fit for a queen - or a Princess, lol.

Sleeping beauty slumber party breakfast princess waffles 1

I made regular waffles and cut the tops to make them into crowns! We also included an individual maple syrup, and "Briar Rose's Berries" and some edible fairy dust to have on top of their waffles!

I used little glass jars and combined pink sprinkles and some edible gold glitter. The little princesses loved them.

Sleeping beauty almost slumber party take home take out breakfast

Along with the waffles, I bought fun mini cereal boxes and added a pink spoon with some more washi tape, and a package of hot chocolate. So much fun!

Princess Breakfast Menu

crown waffles
Briar Rose's Berries
edible glitter pink sprinkles
individual maple syrup
cereal box
hot chocolate

I hope you love all these great ideas for decor, activites, and snacks. With a Sleeping Beauty "almost" slumber party, life really is a party!

More Princess Party Inspiration

You might also like our Beauty and Beast Birthday Party here.

Also check out our Snow White party here:

You might also like our Princess and The Frog party here:

The Princess and the Frog Party -Dinner and Movie: all the party ideas, decor, recipes and printables for a themed family movie night or party.

Easy Homemade Caramel Apple Fondue

Oct 16, 2014 · 3 Comments

This Easy Homemade Caramel Apple Fondue is the perfect solution for anyone who loves caramel apples but hates the mess and hassle of eating them. This warm caramel dip takes just 15 minutes to make with simple ingredients, and it's so much easier than traditional caramel apples -especially for kids.

Caramel apple fondue recipe and topping ideas.

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A Quick Look At This Recipe

📋 Recipe: Easy Homemade Caramel Apple Fondue
⏲️ Ready In: 15 minutes
👪 Servings: 2¼ cups (serves 8-10)
🔪 Difficulty: Easy
💭 Top Tip: Choose all your favorite toppings like chocolate, nuts, coconut and sprinkles to take this fondue to the next level!

Why You'll Love This Caramel Apple Fondue

No candy thermometer needed - Simple double boiler method means foolproof caramel every time.
Ready in 15 minutes - Quick enough for weeknight treats, impressive enough for parties.
Won't burn or crystallize - Condensed milk creates stable, smooth caramel with no fussing.
So much easier than traditional caramel apples - Perfect for kids and way less messy.
Everyone customizes their own - Endless topping combinations keep it fun and interactive.

Traditional caramel apples can be tricky to make and even trickier to eat. The caramel slides off, it gets stuck in your teeth, and little hands struggle to manage the big sticky apples.

This fondue version gives you all the delicious caramel apple flavor without any of the frustration. You get to dip apple slices in warm, rich caramel and then roll them in your favorite toppings. Every bite is a new combination, and everyone gets exactly what they want.

The best part? This recipe uses a simple double boiler method with condensed milk, brown sugar, and maple syrup. There's no candy thermometer needed, and you don't have to worry about burning the caramel.

It's perfect for fall gatherings, Halloween parties, or Thanksgiving dessert tables. We served it at our fall fondue party here. You might also enjoy our Mini Apple Crisp in a Jar, Christmas Fondue Party, or our Pumpkin Blondie Recipe.

My husband and kids are huge caramel apple fans, but I always found traditional caramel apples frustrating to make and messy to eat. This fondue version gives us all the flavor we love in a format that's actually enjoyable for everyone. It's become one of those recipes that gets requested at every fall gathering. As my kids have gotten older they're become more adventurous with their toppings. Salted caramel is everyone's new favorite. It's great for kids and adults.

Ingredients

Sweetened condensed milk is what makes this recipe foolproof. Unlike heavy cream, it's already sweetened and thickened, which prevents crystallization and creates stable, smooth caramel every time. Don't substitute with evaporated milk, they're completely different products.
Real maple syrup adds incredible depth and warmth that pancake syrup can't match.
Brown sugar brings more than sweetness, the molasses content adds moisture and rich, complex flavor.
Fresh apples - Granny Smith are my top choice because their tartness balances the sweet caramel beautifully. Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, and Fuji also work great. Any crisp, fresh apple variety will be delicious. To prevent your apples from browning, cut apples just before serving when possible. If prepping ahead, dip slices in lemon juice or soak in lemon-lime soda for 30 minutes, then pat completely dry with paper towels before serving so the caramel fondue will stick to each slice.
Toppings of your choice - See topping ideas below.

Topping Ideas

One of the great pleasures of creating a caramel apple fondue is including different toppings to sprinkle on after dipping. This gives you endless taste variations and turns a simple dessert into an interactive experience. Every apple slice becomes a new adventure.

Shredded Coconut: Adds tropical sweetness and great texture.
Chocolate Sprinkles: Classic choice that never disappoints.
Rainbow Sprinkles: Makes everything more festive and fun for kids.
Chopped Walnuts or Pecans: The nutty crunch is perfect with caramel.
Mini Chocolate Chips: These stick to the caramel beautifully.
Chopped M&M's: Colorful and crunchy with a candy shell.
Popping Candy: This is so fun for kids and adds an unexpected element.
Crushed Graham Crackers: Creates a cheesecake-like flavor combination.
Toffee Bits: Adds extra caramel crunch.
Crushed Pretzels: The salty-sweet combination is incredible.
Mini Marshmallows: Creates a s'mores-inspired combination.
Crushed Cookies: Oreos, vanilla wafers, or gingersnaps all work great.

Dippers:

We love this caramel fondue served with apples, but you can also serve it like a traditional chocolate fondue with bite-sized pieces of various dippers. For a special party, serve both caramel fondue and chocolate fondue so guests can enjoy both together.

Other great dippers include:

Angel Food Cake or pound cake cubes.
Pretzels: The salty-sweet combination is incredible.
Nuts: Whole almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
Fresh Fruit: Strawberries, pineapple chunks, banana slices are all great addtions to the apple slices.
Marshmallows: Regular or jumbo size.
Rice Krispies Treats: Cut into bite-sized squares.
Belgium Waffles: Cut into strips or squares.
Graham Crackers: Broken into dippable pieces.
Cookies: Shortbread, vanilla wafers, or gingersnaps.

Variations

Salted Caramel Fondue

If you're a fan of salted caramel (and who isn't?), add some flaky sea salt over the top of the finished caramel sauce. Just sprinkle the finished fondue with about ½ teaspoon of flaky sea salt like Maldon or fleur de sel.

This caramel has a very rich flavor, and the salt is a great way to cut through the sweetness and create that popular salty-sweet taste combination. Don't use regular table salt. The large flakes of sea salt give you little bursts of saltiness that work much better than fine salt distributed throughout.

Other Flavor Additions

While this caramel is delicious as written, you can customize it:

Bourbon or Rum: Add 1 tablespoon for an adult version.
Espresso Powder: Add ½ teaspoon for a subtle coffee flavor that enhances the caramel.
Pumpkin Pie Spice: Use 1 teaspoon instead of plain cinnamon for a more fall-spiced version.
Nutmeg: Add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg along with the cinnamon.

Equipment -Fondue Pot

Serve your fondue in a warm fondue pot. I highly recommend a fondue pot that has a ceramic bowl, inside the metal pot, where you can add water and create a double boiler to keep your fondue warm, without letting it burn on the bottom. You can also use a regular fondue pot, just keep your eye on it and stir it occasionally. Another option is a mini crock pot or slow cooker, or an electric heated fondue pot that you can control the temperature of, and keep it on low so it doesn't burn.

How To Make Caramel Apple Fondue

1. Step 1: Put the butter in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a small saucepan filled with about 1-2 inches of simmering water. This creates a double boiler that heats the caramel gently and prevents burning.

2. Step 2: After the butter has melted completely, then add the brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, water, condensed milk, and cinnamon. Stir the mixture constantly and cook until completely smooth with all sugar dissolved. You'll know it's ready when the mixture is uniform in color with no grains of sugar.

3. Step 3: Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

4. Step 4: Pour the warm caramel into your fondue pot to keep warm. Serve with apple slices cut into wedges for easy dipping, along with your choice of toppings.

Expert Tips & Tricks

Use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup for the best depth of flavor.
Pack brown sugar firmly into the measuring cup for accurate measurements.
Stir constantly while cooking to ensure even heating and complete sugar dissolution.
Pat apples completely dry after treating for browning - any moisture makes caramel slide off.
If caramel gets too thick, stir in a tablespoon of condensed milk or cream to thin it.

Serving Ideas

Use small bowls or mason jars to hold each topping. This makes it easy for guests to sprinkle their choices over their dipped apples. For larger parties, consider using a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners - each cup holds a different topping, and it creates a fun, organized display.

Slow Cooker: A mini slow cooker set on warm is perfect for keeping the fondue at serving temperature for parties. You can also use a traditional fondue pot with a tea light, or an electric fondue pot on the lowest setting. For young children at parties, consider pouring individual portions into small bowls to prevent double-dipping.

Individual Fondue: Especially if you're entertaining children, giving everyone their own small individual bowl of fondue can help prevent the dreaded double dip. Add a small ladle to your fondue and let everyone help themselves to a small bowl. Mini mason jars work great for this, or use small bowls, or even cups or mugs. Serve these on a small plate so everyone can add apple slices and fun topping to their own plate.

Storage & Make-Ahead Instructions

Storing Leftovers

Store any leftover caramel fondue in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. The caramel will harden when cold, which is normal.

Reheating

Microwave method: Transfer cold caramel to a microwave safe bowl. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until smooth and warm. If it's too thick after reheating, stir in a tablespoon or two of milk or cream.

Stovetop method: Reheat gently in a double boiler setup, stirring frequently until warm and smooth. This is the gentlest method and best preserves the texture.

Slow cooker method: Place cold caramel in your slow cooker on low and let it warm slowly, stirring occasionally. This takes about 30 minutes but is very forgiving.

Make-Ahead Instructions

Yes, you can make this caramel fondue ahead of time. Prepare the fondue as directed, let it cool completely, then store it in the refrigerator. On the day you want to serve it, reheat using one of the methods above and transfer to your fondue pot.

For parties, you can make the caramel up to 3 days ahead. Just reheat it before adding it to the fondue pot. I recommend reheating on the stovetop or in a double boiler before transferring to your serving vessel, rather than trying to reheat it in the fondue pot itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make caramel apple fondue without a double boiler?

Yes, but watch it carefully. You can make this directly in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. The risk is burning, which happens quickly with caramel. The double boiler method is more forgiving and foolproof, which is why I recommend it.

Why is my caramel grainy?

Graininess happens when sugar crystallizes. This usually means either the sugar didn't dissolve completely during cooking, or sugar crystals from the sides of the bowl fell back into the mixture. Make sure you cook the caramel long enough, stirring constantly, until completely smooth. You can also brush down any crystals that form on the bowl sides with a wet pastry brush.

Can I use evaporated milk instead of condensed milk?

No, these are very different products. Condensed milk is sweetened and has a much thicker consistency. Evaporated milk is simply milk with some water removed and it's not sweetened. Using evaporated milk won't give you the same stable, sweet caramel. Stick with sweetened condensed milk for this recipe.

My caramel is too thick. How do I fix it?

Stir in a tablespoon of condensed milk, heavy cream, or whole milk until you reach the desired consistency. Do this while the caramel is warm. If needed, you can return it to the double boiler to help thin it out while stirring.

Can I double this recipe?

Yes! This recipe doubles easily. You may need to cook it a few minutes longer to ensure all the sugar dissolves completely in the larger quantity. Use a bigger bowl or pot for your double boiler setup.

More Recipe Inspiration

If you try this Easy Homemade Caramel Apple Fondue or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe

Caramel Apple Fondue

Dip apples slices in warm caramel and then add toppings.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 15

Servings: ¼ cups

Calories: 268kcal

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

Instructions

Put the butter in a heatproof bowl, set over a small saucepan of simmering water to create a double boiler and melt it.
Add in the brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, water, condensed milk, and cinnamon. Stir the sugar mixture and cook until the fondue is smooth, and all the sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove the fondue from the heat and add the vanilla. Stir to combine.
Pour into fondue pot, and enjoy with your choice of dippers.

Notes

Make-ahead: Can be made up to 3 days ahead and reheated before serving

Storage: Store leftover caramel in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week

Reheating: Reheat gently in microwave (15-second intervals) or double boiler until smooth

If too thick: Stir in 1-2 tablespoons of milk or cream

Apple tip: Pat apple slices dry before dipping so caramel sticks properly

Nutrition

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

Fall Fondue Party

Oct 14, 2014 · 5 Comments

Fall Fondue Party: Easy and relaxed fall entertaining with cheese fondue, oil fondue, and for dessert caramel apple fondue. The perfect fall dinner party.

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I love fall; I love the colours of the leaves, I love the cooler days, I love the food, I love the pace -the return to school days, and lessons, and schedule. Fall is also the perfect time to slip in some casual entertaining before all the fuss and pressure of the holidays begin.

Today I'm sharing with you a fun, and no-fuss, easy fall entertaining idea -a Fall Fondue Party. I used frozen chicken strips to make this into truly easy entertaining, and so delicious.

The Fall Table

For the party, I put together a simple fall table, and brought out the fondue pots.

Cheese Fondue

I picked up a ready made cheese fondue at the grocery store, and cut up a fresh baguette for dipping. Yum.

We served apple cider as the perfect fall drink. I made a dish of scalloped potatoes as an easy side dish.

Oil Fondues

For the Oil Fondue, I heated peanut oil on the stove to 375 F (190 C), and then kept it hot on the fondue stand, with the fuel.

Chicken Fondue

I used Maple Leaf Prime Chicken Strips. To prepare the chicken, let them come to room temperature and cut them into bite size pieces.

When it was time to cook the chicken, guests skewered a piece and cooked it in the hot oil until it was golden brown on the outside, and white in the middle. (Chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F or 74 C).

Tempura Vegetable Fondue

I also made Tempura Vegetables -such a yummy way to eat veggies.

Recipe

Tempura Vegetable Fondue

Crispy fried battered vegetables.

No ratings yet

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Asian

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 20

Servings:

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Ingredients

▢ 6 tablespoon Cornstarch
▢ 1 egg
▢ 1 cup ice water
▢ 1 cup flour
▢ 1 head broccoli cut into flowerets
▢ 227 g white mushrooms cut large mushrooms in half
▢ 2 small zucchini sliced into bite size pieces

Instructions

To make the batter, beat egg and water together in a bowl. Add in flour, and stir briefly being careful not to over work -it should still be lumpy.
Place the cornstarch in another separate small bowl.
To serve, invite guests to skewer veggies, dip in cornstarch to lightly coat, then dip in batter, and fry in peanut oil until golden brown.

Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @LifeisaParty or tag #lifeisaparty!

Fondue Sauces

We had several fun dipping sauces to enjoy with the fondue; there was:

ketchup
soya sauce
plum sauce
French's Honey Mustard
Honey Mustard Mayo (mix honey mustard with mayonnaise)

Fondue is perfect for relaxed fall entertaining. It takes a while to cook your food, and that leads to fun, laid back conversation, while everyone takes their time and lingers at the table.

Caramel Apple Fondue

For dessert, I made a caramel apple fondue with lots of fun sprinkles and add-ons. We had nuts, coconut, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles and popping candy. It was a sweet end to the meal.

With a fun fall fondue party, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Christmas Fondue party here.

Also check out our S'mores Milk Chocolate Fondue recipe here.

You might also like our easy Fall party here.

Easy Fall Party: easy fall party decor, pizza and donuts, a fun family game, and pumpking painting ideas for a wonderful fall get together.

How To Throw A Cozy Soup Party

Oct 6, 2014 · 15 Comments

A soup party is the perfect idea for entertaining in colder weather. Our party was a huge hit with friends and we're sharing the easy menu and recipes, our top tips, and decor ideas for the perfect family party.

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Why We Love This Party

Just about everyone loves soup, and it's the perfect food for cooler weather for cozy vibes.
Soup is easy to make ahead of time.
It's relatively inexpensive to feed a large crowd.
You pretty easy to make vegan, vegetarian, or dairy free options for any guests with dietary restrictions.

Where are my soup lovers at? Fall is the perfect time to host a soup party. You can do all the prep ahead of time, it's warm and hearty on these cooler days, and it can feed a crowd.

On the weekend, we had about 25 friends over for a simple lunch of soup and bread.

We made all the soups from scratch. Homemade soup will feel like a treat to your guests. Nice fresh bread with butter is also such a crowd pleaser. This simple lunch was such a hit with all our guests and the whole afternoon was so much fun.

Want more party ideas that guests will love? Check out our Pie Buffet Party, and Fall Themed Party with Leaf Raking, perfect for fall, or our Toast Themed Party, where the whole menu was toast, or our Pasta Bar Party.

The Soups

I wanted to offer a variety of soups, so our guests could try a few. We wanted to offer a variety of different ones, so hopefully everyone could find something they liked. We did two creamy soups, and two broth based soups. Two of our soups also had meat in them and were more hearty.

We didn't have any dietary restrictions to worry about, but if you did you could make a vegan, vegetarian, or dairy free option.

We made:

Cream of Mushroom Soup
Roasted Garlic Potato Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup
Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

On Saturday afternoon, my husband and I made four different homemade soups. For several of them we made a double batch.

First we made Cream of Mushroom. This was my favourite. This creamy soup has a fairly mild taste. Making it homemade makes it extra special.

Next we made a Tangy Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup, it gets its tang from the buttermilk, can also easily be made veggie. This is another creamy soup, but a little different from usual with it's tangy taste from the buttermilk.

Next, I made a classic chicken noodle, always a hit with the kids. It was nice to have something kind of basic for those who are a little less adventurous.

Lastly we made Italian Sausage and Tortellini, and it was probably the most popular soup. It's nice and hearty with the tortellini in it, and has a great mix of meat and veggies with a tomato broth base.

Top Tip: don't add the tortellini until you reheat it to serve. The pasta can get a little overdone and mushy if it's added the night before.

Bread

In the morning we stopped at the bakery and picked up lots of fresh bread, then came home to re-heat the soup before our guests arrived. We served the soup in the large pots we made it in. A slow cooker for each soup would have worked really well too.

The store-bought fresh bread was the perfect, easy accompaniment. We bought four different kinds of bread plus different buns. It's nice to have a mix of things like sourdough, whole wheat, white, cheddar and herb.

Bread table at a soup party with different bread and buns and butter.

Again lots of our guests went back and tried lots of different kinds of the bread too. We left the loaves whole, and put out a cutting board and bread knife for guests to help themselves, but it might have been easier for serving if we had asked the bakery to slice them.

Drinks

Soup party drink cart with iced bottled water and punch with glasses and straws.

We set up a little drink cart for guests to help themselves. We had a bucket of ice water, and another of drinking boxes for the kids.

Punch bowl with plastic glasses and fall leaf straws.

I also made a simple fall punch of peach juice, white cranberry, and ginger ale. Apple cider would be a great choice too.

I love these sweet fall leaf paper straws and flowers in mason jars. Love is in the details.

Dessert

For dessert, my husband made two big pans of apple crisp -see our recipe here, and we served it with vanilla ice cream. Yum! It was the perfect way to finish a fall meal since apples are so perfect this time of year.

Buffet Style Soup Bar

We set everything up in the backyard, starting with the soup table. Love these chalkboard buntings, they're so handy since they can be changed for any party. I also used one on the drink stand.

"Soup's On" chalkboard bunting banner at a soup party.

I used little chalkboards to label all the soups, which worked really well so our guests could see exactly what kind of soups they were.

Soup buffet at a soup party with large pots of soup and chalkboard signs.

We had so much delicious soup, and we needed a separate table for all the bread! It worked out well this way for traffic flow too, so I recommend this if you're hosting your own soup party. We used soup bowls from our regular set. If you don't have enough though, feel free to mix and match small bowls from the thrift store, pick up some inexpensive white ones from the dollar store, or use disposable dishes.

Soup party with soup buffet table and a table for bread and butter.

We served the soup in each large saucepan or dutch ovens we made them in. It was casual comfort food, and our serving style was casual too. A crock pot would work well for this too, and have the added bonus that you could leave it plugged in on a low heat to keep the soup nice and warm throughout the party. And don't forget you'll need a large ladle for serving each soup too. If you don't have enough be sure to pick up some extras so serving is easy. It might be nice to have some salt and a black pepper on the table too, for guests who might want to add a little more to their soup.

Easy Fall Decor

Our party was on a very warm fall day and we set everything up outside. Most of us sat under the pergola. I added some fall mums, pumpkins, and fall garland.

Back deck decorated for fall with pumpkins and mums.

This menu worked out really well too. Lots of people tried a bit of everything, and everyone could help themselves to as much as they wanted.

I was able to freeze the leftovers the next day too.

I was tempted to add a veggie tray and salad and cheese and crackers as side dish options, but really there were lots of veggies in the soup main course, and everyone loved that all the different soups were homemade, so I'm glad we spent our energy on them and resisted the temptation to add other options.

Soup Party Tips

Do offer different options, having some creamy, some with meat, and some with broth so that guests try a variety.
Do space things out enough so that the line isn't too congested and slow. Have one area for soup, another for bread, and another for drinks.
Do think through options for kids who might not be soup fans, maybe check with their parents before the party, and have some pb and j on stand by.
Do give yourself enough time to re-heat the soup. This took a little longer than we expected because the soups were quite cold from being in the fridge overnight and were in such big pots.
Do make sure you have enough serving ladles to have one per pot of soup.
Do use your crock pots for serving, if you have enough, or consider borrowing some for the party, to keep the soup warm the whole time.
Do have extra containers to send leftovers home with guests, or to put in the freezer after the party.
Don't worry about having side dishes or appetizers, the simplicity of soup and bread is perfect.
Do keep dessert simple after making all those homemade soups.

It was a great menu for a get-together of this size, since it could all be made ahead of time, and was easy to have guests help themselves too. A fun buffet is one of my favorite ways to host a crowd, and soup parties are so perfect for the fall and winter especially. Lots of guests thought the best part was getting to try all the different soups and breads.

This would also be great as a potluck party. Have guests each bring their different types of soup. You could even have a friendly competition and have everyone vote for their favorite soup recipes at the end of the night. A simple soup buffet is such a great idea for your next party. Try it for a ladies luncheons, football games, souper bowl, a fun dinner party, soup club, or potluck luncheon.

With a fun fall soup party like this, life really is a party!

Frequently Asked Questions

How far ahead can you make the soup for a soup party?

We made our soup the day ahead, you can make it up to a few days ahead of time. Top tip, don't add your pasta until you're ready to serve so that it doesn't go soggy and become overcooked.

Did your soup buffet get cold without slow cookers?

No, we didn't have a problem with the soup staying warm. It was a warm day outside. If it was cooler you could use slow cookers. Or if you're party is indoors, serve the soups from the stove and turn them on if they start to get cold.

How many soups do you need for a soup party?

It's really nice to offer some variety and our guests really enjoyed trying all the different soups. We recommend at least 3 options to make it feel special. Try to include some broth, some creamy, some with meat and some without for variety.

Do I have to make all the soups from scratch?

Certainly not. Look for prepared soups in the deli section for a great store bought option. Also if you are short on time and making homemade versions look for time saving options like already chopped veggies or garlic.

More Soup Inspiration

If you try having a Soup Party or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Fall Back Deck

Oct 3, 2014 · 2 Comments

Fall Outdoor Decor Ideas -the back deck is styled for fall with pumpkins, mums, straw bales, pinecones, lanterns for a cozy fall.

We added traditional fall colours and lots of fall outdoor decor ideas to add warmth and interest to the back deck for fall.

Mums, Pumpkins, and Straw

This year, for the first time, I decided to add some fall decoration to our back deck. It usually goes right from summer planters to everything put away for the winter, but I'm so glad that we added a little fall back here this year -it's so lovely to sit here and look at the forest behind our house, with all of it's changing colours for fall. Of course I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it, but for under $30 I love how it turned out.

Fall Outdoor Decor Ideas pumpkins mums and straw bale

I picked up a mini bale of straw? hay? -I never know the difference? at a local farm stand. I like that it's mini, adds texture, and height, but not too big of a commitment.

I found the more unusual "pink" pumpkin at a farm stand, for $5. Here's my tip, buy a few interesting ones, like this one, and the minis, but for the rest just pick up pie pumpkins at the grocery store and mix them together.

I've found the pie pumpkins for just 50 cents each after a little looking around. And if you're on a budget, buy your mums at a discount grocery store too, these were $3.66, and they're a good size.

I had this cute little gold bee, love how it looks in the orange mum.

Cozy Spot To Sit

The two white Muskoka chairs are new replacements this year. We had a wooden set, but after many years, and many times of re-staining them, we switched to these no maintenance composite ones in the spring and they've been great .

On the other side, more mums and pumpkins.

Fall Outdoor Decor Ideas mum and pumpkins

I love how the mums look in the vintage galvanized pails. They couldn't have been simpler to do, I just emptied out the summer plants and dirt that were already in them, and inserted the mums, still in the plastic pots from the nursery. Easy peasy and will make putting things away for winter in some weeks, that much easier too.

Pinecone Garland

outdoor candle lanterns for fall and mums

I made the pine cone garland with some pinecones, hot glue, twine and ribbon. Such a fun little detail.

Lanterns

And in front of the garland, my dollar store candle find. These pretty pumpkins lanterns were only $2 each -love the rope handles.

And, they add a warm glow as the sun goes down.

It's calling for rain, rain and more rain this weekend, but hopefully there are still some warm fall afternoons and in our future to enjoy the back deck.

With fall outdoor decor ideas like these, life really is a party!

You might also like our Fall Fairy Garden here.

Fall Fairy Garden: How to make a sweet little Fall themed Fairy Garden with an easy to make fairy house, mushrooms, pumpkins, and miniature fall leaves tutorial.

Also check out our Fall Tea Party in the Garden here.

You might also enjoy our White Fall Outdoor Planter here.

Fall Home Tour -Easy Fall Decor

Oct 2, 2014 · 6 Comments

Fall Home Tour: easy fall decor and ideas, vintage milk glass collection dressed up for fall, and black and white enamelware collection too.

I'm excited to share a little fall home tour with you today filled with lots of easy fall decor ideas. Welcome! Grab a cup of coffee or tea, and come on in.

I've been enjoying my succulent planters so much, I didn't want to change them, so I just added a bunch of white pumpkins to the front door to add a little fall.

Easy Fall Decor in the Dining Room

At our front door, we have this little console table. The suitcases were found at antique fairs and garage sales this summer. Love the touch of vintage they add.

I've kept most of the fall decor on the main floor quite neutral, but I couldn't help myself from adding just a few fall colours, like these gorgeous maple leaves. Such a simple touch, but so much impact.

Just inside the door there's a little spot that changes from time to time. Recently I got this beautiful chair from Stuctube, and set it here when I came in the door. I didn't plan on leaving it there, but thought it looked great, so it got a few pumpkins added to it for fall and has stayed.

Our house is very open concept on the main floor, and you walk into the dinning room.

Milk Glass Collection

I've used my milk glass collection in here this fall, and I love it. I've been trying to stop myself from buying more, but I came across a few great pieces this summer while thrifting and so the collection continues to grow.

To make the milk glass work for fall, I've added lots of natural bits and pieces, all in neutrals and whites.

On the dining room table I used this chevron table runner -it's become a favourite, and layered on lots more milk glass and candles.

There's also a few book page leaves added in.

So simple, but so pretty.

what to do with your milk glass collection

With just a few acorns, leaves, and pine cones added in.

Easy Fall Decor in the Living Room

The dining room then leads into the living room. I've kept it neutral and cozy in here this year.

In the corner, is the fireplace.

I love how the mantel turned out this year, you can read more about it here.

White and Black Enamelware Collection

On the other side of the room is the couch and a shelf that I've decorated for fall with white and black enamelware.

The shelf holds toys in the baskets, and lots of cookbooks and magazines, but I always try and leave a few shelves clear for some decor.

This summer I've kept my eye open for white and black enamelware, and the more I find, the more I love it.

So simple and so pretty. The more I buy white, of anything, the more I love it.

Easy Fall Decor in the Kitchen

Finally, in the kitchen, the table is sporting a few little fall touches too.

My girls love lighting the candles when we're having dinner.

Just outside our kitchen, through the sliding doors, we have a back deck. This year I decided to decorate it for fall, and I'm loving looking out on it each day. Here's a little sneak peek of the back deck you can read all about the Fall Back Deck here.

Thanks for joining me for my little fall home tour. With easy fall decor like this, life really is a party!

You might also Fall Home Tour 2019 here.

Fall Home Tour: Full of autumn decor ideas for Vintage Botanical Scientific Decor with Boho Maximalist Influence with lots of plants, insects, and pumpkins.

Also check out our Fall Home Tour 2018 here.

Fall Home Tour: With a nod to science this botanical scientific vintage decor brings the outdoors in, with lots of neutrals and mustard yellow.

You might also enjoy our Fall Home Tour 2017 here.

Fall Home Tour -Vintage fall decor, botanicals, scientific decor and lots of natural elements to bring the outdoors in and celebrate the changing season.

Moist Pumpkin Bread With Walnuts

Sep 27, 2014 · 1 Comment

Looking for the best pumpkin bread with walnuts? This moist and tender loaf combines pumpkin puree, warm spices, and crunchy walnuts for the ultimate fall treat. What makes this recipe extra special is the addition of red lentils, which keep the bread incredibly moist while adding a boost of protein. Topped with cinnamon honey butter, this pumpkin walnut bread is a cozy snack, breakfast, or gift during pumpkin season.

Ginger pumpkin loaf with walnuts on a cutting board with a cup of tea.

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Why You'll Love This Recipe

This pumpkin bread stays extra moist with the addition of red lentils.
The combination of fresh and dried ginger in this recipe give a depth of warm flavor.
Walnuts add the perfect crunch.
This recipe makes two loaves, enjoy one and gift or freeze the other.
The cinnamon honey butter is the perfect accompaniment.

This pumpkin bread with walnuts makes the best afternoon snack, or breakfast. It's really pretty great anytime with a cup of coffee or add it to your kids lunch boxes. If you are a lover of pumpkin recipes, you will love this one.

We love pumpkin recipes this time of year. These Pumpkin Blondies are the first recipe I make every fall. If you need a pumpkin dessert, check out our Cream Puffs with Pumpkin Custard and Caramel Sauce, Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats, Pumpkin Shaped Dinner Rolls, or this Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe.

"What makes this pumpkin bread with walnuts different? A secret ingredient - red lentils - makes it extra moist and adds protein, without changing the flavor."

Ingredients

Pumpkin -The star of the show here is the pumpkin. We used canned pumpkin puree for our pumpkin bread. Be sure to look for canned pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which has sugar and spices added. You could also make your own pumpkin puree by cooking pumpkin and pureeing it in your food process.

Lentils -This pumpkin bread has a secret ingredient that makes it extra moist. You really can't taste the lentils in this dish, but they keep the loaf from being too dry and give the bread a nice texture and tender crumb, and they add 11g of protein to the recipe. Lentils are easy to prep for the pumpkin bread. Just cover them in water and boil them for 15-20 minutes until they are softened, then drain and add to your pumpkin mixture.

Fresh Ginger -The fresh ginger combined with the ground dry ginger adds a richer more intense ginger flavor to the dish, but isn't overpowering. Look for fresh ginger root in the grocery store in the fresh produce aisle. To prepare the ginger, first peel off the outer skin, and then finely grate the ginger, being sure to preserve the juices which are so rich in flavor.

Walnuts Or Other Nuts or Seeds -My favourite add-in for this homemade pumpkin bread is crunchy walnuts. They add the perfect crunch and nutty flavor to the loaf.

Honey Cinnamon Butter -Lastly you have to make the honey cinnamon butter -have to. The sweet honey butter adds the perfect buttery sweetness to the pumpkin loaf.

Substitutions

Ginger: If you don't have any fresh ginger you can substitute more ground ginger for the fresh ginger. Use an extra ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger in place of the fresh ginger if necessary.

Walnuts: You could substitute the walnuts for another nut or seed, like pecans or pumpkin seeds if you prefer.
Chocolate: If you are a chocolate lover you can do half walnuts and half chocolate chips, or just chocolate chips.

Two loaves of ginger pumpkin loaf, one on a cutting board and one on a cooling rack beside a bowl of cinnamon honey butter.

Storage

Store your cooled ginger pumpkin bread with walnuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days. Store the cinnamon honey butter in a small sealed container like a small mason jar at room temperature on the counter or for longer in the refrigerator.

You can also freeze the pumpkin bread, especially the second loaf if you would like to save it for later. After it's cooled completely, just wrap the bread in plastic wrap, or place in an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

How To Make Pumpkin Bread With Walnuts

Step 1 and 2: In a small pan, cover lentils with about 2 inches of water.

Step 3: Bring the lentils to a boil and simmer 15 -20 minutes until they are soft.

Step 4: Drain the lentils with a wire sieve and discard the cooking water.

Dry ingredients for pumpkin loaf in a bowl and wet ingredients in a. food processor.

Step 5: In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir to combine the dry ingredients.

Step 6 and 7: In a food processor, combine the lentils, pumpkin, oil, buttermilk, eggs, fresh ginger, and vanilla, and process until well blended and smooth.

Step 8: Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients.

Making the pumpkin loaf batter and pouring into the loaf pan to bake.

Step 9: Stir to combine the ingredients fully, but don't over mix.

Step 10: Add the walnuts to the batter and stir to combine.

Step 11: Spray two loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and divide the pumpkin loaf mixture evenly between the two pans. Bake the pumpkin bread until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Honey cinnamon butter in a small pink bowl.

Step 12: To make the cinnamon butter, combine the softened butter, honey and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix to fully combine, or mix vigorously by hand in a large bowl. Serve a slice of ginger pumpkin bread spread with cinnamon honey butter.

Pumpkin bread with walnuts, spread with cinnamon honey butter and a cup of tea.

Expert Tips: Make a gift of the extra loaf of ginger pumpkin bread with walnuts. Wrap it in some parchment paper, tie it with a bow and add a small mason jar of the cinnamon honey butter with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many days is pumpkin bread good for?

This loaf is best eaten as soon as it's made. It will last at room temperature in a sealed container for 3-4 days. If you need to keep it longer consider freezing it.

Can I substitute dried ginger for the fresh ginger in this pumpkin bread?

If you don't have any fresh ginger you can substitute more ground ginger for the fresh ginger. Use an extra ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger in place of the fresh ginger if necessary.

Can you make pumpkin bread from an actual pumpkin?

Yes. Look for a pie pumpkin, because they're sweeter and more flavourful than larger decorative pumpkins. Cut your pumpkin in half and remove the seeds, then roast in a hot oven, until the center is soft. Then scoop the cooked pumpkin from the skin and puree the flesh until smooth. Or peel the pumpkin, remove seeds, and cut into small cubes. Cover the pumpkin cubes with water in a pot and boil until soft, then drain and puree.

More Pumpkin Recipes

If you tried this Pumpkin Bread With Walnuts Recipe or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe

Neutral Fall Mantel

Sep 23, 2014 · 3 Comments

Neutral Fall Mantel: For all who love to decorate with whites and neutrals, no matter what season it is, here's how to bring a fall feel to your mantel with out any orange, yellow, or red. So pretty, simple, and calming.

Happy first day of Fall! It’s been a busy day around here, but I wanted to share my Neutral Fall Mantel with you before the first day of Fall drew to a close.

Deer Head

I found this great deer head last Christmas, and he’s hung out a few different places in my house since then. I decided to use him in the living room this fall, for a bit of woodland feel. He’s made of paper mache, and I spray painted him in a glossy white. He’s light enough to hang easy on my vintage window pane, which makes a great backdrop for my corner fireplace.

More Neutral Fall Mantel Decor

I used these pretty log inspired white vases to hold some dark sticks, and love how it came out.

I thought this book page pumpkin tied in well with the neutral colours too. It’s made from a faux pumpkin with simple book page flowers hot glued on, click here to see all the instructions.

On the other side of the mantel I used this fun white ceramic squirrel and put him in my vintage drawer. I love how it acts kind of like a frame, and then another white pumpkin, this one ceramic.

Oak and Acorn Garland

Along the front of the mantel, I made an oak and acorn inspired garland, with an old stick.

I just cut out some simple, oversized leaves from brown kraft paper, white paper, and old book pages, and tied them on with some twine.

The acorns are my favourite. I made them a few years ago, and they would have to be my most popular project ever. They are made out of a plastic Easter egg, with burlap and pinecones -click here for all the instructions to make your own. I love how they look here as part of the mantel.

I really like how it turned out, and how simple it is -neutral colours, lots of texture, and nature inspired. With a fall mantel like this one, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

20 Fall Project Ideas

Sep 15, 2014 · Leave a Comment

20 Fall Project Ideas: great diy's, projects, and recipes for fall.

I love fall. Today I'm sharing a round-up of 20 Fall Projects to inspire you -and they are some of my very favourites! To see all the instructions on how to make any of them, just click on the title or the picture. I hope these past Life is a Party projects inspire you to take on some new projects for fall!

20 Fall Project Ideas:

Pumpkin Blondies with Pumpkin Frosting

Paper Flower Pumpkin

Ombre Pumpkin Tower

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

String Pumpkins

i20 Fall Project Ideas: great diy's, projects, and recipes for fall.

Pumpkin Chocolate Truffles

Fall Leaf Book Page Garland

Fall Front Door -in Lime Green and White

Mini Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Maple Glaze

DIY "Give Thanks" Plates

Simple Inexpensive DIY Fall Pillows

Pumpkin Filled Cream Puffs with Carmel Sauce

Burlap Acorns made from Easter Eggs

I hope these ideas get your creative juices flowing. Can't wait to share more great projects and recipes for fall with you.

With 20 Fall Project Ideas, life really is a party!

Aqua Themed Pool Party Birthday Ideas

Sep 5, 2014 · 1 Comment

Pool Party Birthday Ideas: aqua themed pool party with ideas for DIY decor, party games and activities, and an aqua dessert table.

Pool party dessert table, favours, and activity ideas.

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Today my daughter's turning 10! Happy Birthday Paige! I can't believe we've hit the double digits! This year Paige requested a pool party, so last weekend we got together with friends and family to celebrate. Today I'm sharing all my pool party birthday ideas with you.

We were so blessed to be able to borrow a party venue and have the party at my sister-in-law and brother-in-laws house, since they have a lovely pool and live only a few minutes away -thanks Keers and Steve. I did worry about rain -since it's rained on Paige's parties for about the last 3 years, but the forecast was for sunny skies. Despite the forecast about 15 minutes before we were set to begin, guess what? It started to rain. Picture me holding an umbrella over the desert table and praying. The prayers were answered, and it only rained a few minutes. By the time the guests arrived it stopped and it was time for the fun to begin.

Weather is one factor that you can't control for a pool parties, but other than that it's the perfect summer birthday theme. But, a summer pool party is a great idea even if you aren't celebrating a birthday.

Pool Party Birthday Invitations

Paige's favourite colour is aqua, and it went great with the pool party theme, so it became our color scheme for all the party details. For the invitations, since Paige loves art, we came up with the idea of ombre watercolours. I designed the invites, and then printed them onto watercolour paper with our home computer. Paige then painted with watercolours to create the aqua ombre effect. These were really simple to make and perfect pool party invitations.

Pool Party Activities

Water Table

The main event at the party was, of course swimming. But I had a couple other little activities set up, just in case. One was this fun water table. We've had it for years, and every spring I bring it out and it's like a new toy. This worked great between lunch and dessert, when the kids were done but the adults were still eating. We set it up near the pool area and especially the youngest party guests really enjoyed it.

DIY Paper Boats

We also set up some origami to make paper boats. The paper boat idea became part of the decor and went well with our water theme. I just cut up some pretty aqua scrapbook paper and printed the instructions. Paige had fun teaching her friends how to make them and it was one of the unique ideas that everyone loved.

Pool Party Centerpieces

I wanted to add some centerpieces to the tables for part of our pool party decorations. We used the paper boats and some water -coloured with a few drops of blue and green food colouring to make aqua, to make easy centerpieces for the tables. Luckily we'd tried it at home first, and discovered that paper boats actually absorb the water and sink fairly quickly. We used parchment paper, and some basket liners that had a waxy finish to make the boats for the centerpieces and they worked great and lasted the whole party. These would be a fun addition to a beach party as centerpieces too.

We continued the origami boats into a bouquet of paper lanterns and pom-poms. I made lots in different aqua paper, and sizes, and strung them into a few fun garlands. I love how this turned out and gave a real wow factor to the party area, and was a nice reusable alternative to balloon garlands. We hung them from the deck and over the lunch table.

We also picked up some pool floats that matched our aqua color scheme. It was fun to scatter beach balls in the pool for the party.

One more tip, when your setting up your next pool party is to buy some extra swim goggles and beach towels, and have them available in a basket in case any guests at your kid's pool party needs to barrow them. It's also a good idea to have some extra sunscreen on hand and remind guests about constant sunscreen reapplication throughout the party.

Pool Party Lunch

For lunch, we had hamburgers, hotdogs, and salads around the pool. It's always good to stick to the classics that are kid friendly for birthday parties. And an easy way to make it adult friendly too was with a variety of really yummy salads as side dishes.

Pool Party Games

We also played a few typical swimming pool games at the party, like Marco Polo, and colours. These are such fun games, that most kids are familiar with. It's always nice to add some age-appropriate games to your child's birthday party, as well as some free pool time.

Paige also wanted to have a "diving contest". It was such a fun idea. The kids had to name their dive and then jump in -with marks for creativity.

Before the party, we printed out a few number signs and designated some judges. There were a couple younger kids who didn't want to jump in the deep end so they helped judge. It was hilarious, and I highly recommend it for a birthday pool party.

Pool Party Dessert Table

After lunch it was time for dessert! We had a lot of fun putting together the aqua/blue dessert table. Weeks and weeks before the party, I happened to see at One Krieger Chick, an adorable ombre "Make a Splash" sign, so Paige and I gave it our own twist and used it as the pretty backdrop for the dessert table (and now it's in her bedroom).

To add some height to the table I used my vintage suitcases. I was reminded again how great it is to have serving pieces in white and glass -it doesn't really take too much of your colour, here mainly just the actual food, to really create a great effect.

I also made a little drink table on the side, with cold drinks.

Now, for the desserts! -our favorite part.

Cupcakes

I made vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with different shades of aqua blue icing. I just started out with the lightest shade, and then kept adding more gel food colouring as I went along. The little flags are made out of toothpicks and washi tape. I always like cupcakes instead of birthday cake because you don't have to worry about cutting it up to serve it. Finger foods are always easier with kids or with a crowd.

Blueberries

I found fun mini Chinese takeout containers and used them for blueberries. It's always nice to include some fresh fruit on a dessert table, and the blueberries fit our color scheme.

Rice Krispie Treats

When it comes to blue food, you have to get a little creative, so just think of your favourites and add a little blue chocolate. We made Rice Krispies and dipped them in blue candy melts. They were the first thing gone, and a fun way to include a blue treat.

Sugar Cookie Bars

I also made sugar cookie bars -they were a first and so, so much easier than sugar cookies, but with all the same great taste. I used the same icing as the cupcakes to make them ombre too. And the pom-pom pics are just pom poms from the craft store hot glued to a toothpick -love is in the details, and little touches like these help take your dessert table to a whole new level.

Candy

I also wanted to include some candy, and there were little bags so our friends could take some home too as party favors. We served:

rock candy
gummy sharks
homemade lollipops.

For the lollipops I used the same recipe and technique I used for our homemade lollipops here, except we used aqua food coloring, and added lemonade flavoring this time. They looked so, so pretty. And this a really great make ahead treat for a special event. You can make them in any color or flavor to match your party theme.

Homemade Macarons

I also tried my hand at making homemade macarons for the party. They were my second attempt and still not perfect, but they were still really good. We made them blue and filled them with a raspberry butter cream. What I do love about these special little cookies is that you make them a couple of days before you need them and let them mature in the fridge, so it's great for a party since it isn't last minute.

Jello

Last, and almost forgotten in the fridge, which is why they aren't in all the photos, classic blue jello, with a squirt of whip cream. All the kids loved them and they were certainly easy peasy.

Pool Party Favors

One last detail, I used another vintage suitcase to hold the little goodie bags with the origami boats, bookstore gift cards, and candy from the sweets table.

Miniature Boat In A Bottle

The tiny little bottle, beside Paige's picture, is a little origami boat in a bottle. We used Pudding Fish Cakes AMAZING video to make them and they turned out great.

One little issue, cause nothing is ever quite as easy as you hope it will be, was some of my boats started to sink. I followed the instructions on the video, but maybe because I had a different kind of resin or because of the heat and humidity when I was making them, after waiting the two hours for the resin to harden to a certain consistency I added my boats and noticed about 15 minutes later that they were sinking into the resin. After all the work of finding mini bottles, finding resin and chalk pastel, and then folding all those tiny, tiny boats I was feeling beyond sad to see the shipwreck.

I put on my timer and used tweezers every 15 min. for about two hours to pull them up and reposition them, since they weren't totally submerged, and I thought I could still rescue them. Some did sink too far, so I pulled them out and waited to add in new ones. At the end of the day it all worked out, but if I were doing it again, I'd do a test one to make sure before making 10 of them! Here's a shot of the one beside my camera lens cover, just to show you the scale of how tiny they actually are. We put them into tiny organza bags and included them in the loot bags for our guests. These are not your standard goodie bag fair, but I thought they were a really special addition.

We really had a wonderful afternoon and successful bash celebrating Miss Paige turning 10 with an outdoor pool party. With warm weather it really was the perfect to celebrate our girl. Happy Birthday Paige.

With all these great pool party birthday ideas, life really is a party!

More Birthday Party Inspiration

You might also like our Rainbow Art Party here.

Also check out our Rock Climbing Gem Party here.

Rock Climbing Gem/Jewel/Geometric Birthday Party -rock climbing party with DIY gem decor, rock themed dessert table, and favour ideas.

You might also enjoy our Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party here.

Back to School Family Dinner

Sep 3, 2014 · 4 Comments

Back to School Dinner -start a new tradition with a Back to School themed dinner after the first day of school. Lots of easy decor ideas here to help create some special family memories.

It's become a bit of tradition around here, to have a special dinner on the first day of school to celebrate -see last year's here, and the year before that here.

Vintage Back To School Decor

This year I wanted to set the table with a bit of a vintage vibe. I started out with the fun table runner. Using an old dictionary I found at a second hand store for a dollar, I sewed the pages together to make the table runner. I love how it turned out. I think it might stick around and work it's way into my fall decor.

Back to School Family Dinner -start a new tradition with a Back to School themed dinner after the first day of school. Lots of easy decor ideas here to help create some special family memories.

The centre of the table is decorated with different vintage inspired pieces -a few old books, some old fashioned wooden rulers, and some crayons, and pencils, and chalk.

The vintage globes were the perfect finishing touch, that I borrowed from my friend's collection. I love them, and I think they might be on my garage sale list for next year. 😉

I found the sweet little chalkboards at Michaels. Love how the metal edge looks with the gold cutlery. The little milk bottles and paper straws were a sweet detail too.

Along with new school supplies, back to school always makes me think of "an apple for the teacher". So I added apples around the table, and piled some into a tin lunch box.

One other little detail, and a sweet one, was this adorable vintage inspired alphabet card banner. I found the free printable at Rook No. 17, and

Vintage Menu

We had old fashioned meatloaf and apple pie for dinner. As we ate we also heard about everyone's highs and lows of the day, and the details of the first day of school.

Family Tradtions

I wasn't sure on the weekend that I'd have time to put a back to school dinner together for them this year, since we were super busy on the weekend celebrating Paige's 10th birthday -see all the details of her pool party here, and then we were busy getting back packs sorted and laundry done for school. My daughter Maddie's face literally lit up when she saw the table after school. It reminds me of how we're making memories these days, and little family traditions are to be treasured. As I always say, but am feeling more than ever, life is what we make it, so we may as well make it a party.

If you love this Back To School Dinner, click here to check out this one from last year:

Here's another great idea -click here for Easy Back To School Marshmallow Treats:

Here's a another great idea -click here for Note Book Sugar Cookies:

Flamingo Party Ideas

Aug 28, 2014 · Leave a Comment

A fun Pink Flamingo themed dinner party with ideas for a signature cocktail, menu and recipes, and fun flamingo party decor.

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Why We Love This Party

Flamingos are such a fun summer party theme, and make everyone smile.
Pink!
Simple decor ideas that really fit the theme.
Great menu ideas and recipe links.

I've always had a thing for Pink Flamingos. It seemed the perfect whimsical theme for a fun, end of summer dinner party!

We are a part of a super club, you might remember me sharing our last "fiesta night" at our friends house, and this time it was our turn to host. We love a themed dinner party, like our toast themed dinner party, and fondue themed dinner party.

The Strawberry Flamingo Signature Cocktail

We started off the night with a signature cocktail, which I named "the strawberry flamingo", which consisted of a half and half mix of cranberry strawberry juice, and ginger ale with a shot of vodka, and a garnish of fresh strawberries. They were a sweet start to the evening.

I love setting up a little drink station, and my daughter did the fun feather art with pink chalk on a small chalkboard, to go with our theme.

I picked up the flamingo straws at the Dollar Store, and just swapped out the plastic straws for pretty striped paper ones.

Pink punch flamingo party drink station.

Party Appetizers

We set up appetizers in the kitchen, and asked guests to help themselves, while we finished cooking the main course.

Cheese, cracker, and charcuterie appetizers for a flamingo themed party on a wood table with flowers and napkins.

I made a batch of my easy homemade crackers, which I have to say, never fail to impress. We also picked up some nice bread. At the farmer's market I found some lovely cured meat, in spicy and mild options. We served this along with some nice cheese, chutney, cashews, cherry tomatoes, grapes and a fresh, sweet melon, also from the farmer's market.

This is one of my favourite ways to entertain, and it felt casual and summery.

homemade crackers
cheese sticks
crusty bread
Swiss cheese
marble cheese
havarti cheese
spicy cured salami
farmer's market tomatoes
cashews
grapes
cantaloup
caramelized onion and balsamic jam
red pepper jelly

Flamingo Decoration Ideas

I wanted to incorporate some fun flamingos, so I used some flamingo confetti on the table, flamingo toothpicks for the melon, and some funny flamingo napkins.

One of my fav little details from the party was this sweet little flamingo jug.

I found him at a nearby antique mall, and couldn't resist bringing him home. I filled him with a few pink zinnias and coriander flowers from the garden. Love the pink feather too.

In the dining room, I used more pink feathers. On the chalk board "Birds of a feather flock together", seemed like a fitting saying.

I picked up the feathers at the craft store and made the simple garland. I also used these fun free printables, to add a little flamingo art.

It was all inexpensive, and turned out so cute.

Flamingo Party Tablescape

For the dining room table, I started with fun glittered pink flamingos, found at the dollar store. I spray painted their legs gold, and inserted them into a vase filled with floral foam, and lined with hosta leaves -which worked great to hold my little friends in place, and covered the top of the floral foam with a few flower blossoms.

These guys are big and bold and really make a statement, so I felt like I need some flowers that fit that bill too. I found the fun gladiolus flowers at the farmers market, and thought they were the perfect accompaniment to my flamingo friends -and they had every shade of pink to choose from.

Ribbon Table Runner

On the table I made a fun and easy runner out of different pink ribbon, just laid out across the table.

Look for ribbons at the craft store, dollar store, and fabric store. I just laid them along the table and they turned out looking great, and are reusable. Look for different materials like satin, sequins, glitter, and velvet.

I found just laying the ribbon on the table was fine for the evening, but another option would be to attach to a simple plain white or light pink runner using an iron-on tape, or liquid stitch product.

Everyone also had their own flamingo wine glass, picked up at the party store, and sent home as a fun little favour at the end of the evening.

Dinner Menu

salad with roasted potatoes and green beans
flattened chicken
marinated flank steak
butter garlic shrimp skewers

For dinner we served a big salad with roasted potatoes and green beans -a real favourite of ours. We also served a bit of a mixed grill, with marinated flattened chicken -recipe here. cooked and low and slow on the bbq, marinated flank steak -recipe here, and butter garlic shrimp skewers -how could you have a flamingo inspired evening without some shrimp, right?

Dessert

After dinner, it was time for a light, and summery desert. I made Pavlova -recipe here with whip cream and summer berries. And just for tonight, I made it pink to match by adding a little pink food coloring to the mix before baking -so easy and another fun detail.

We had such a fun time, with our whimsical and fun flamingo supper club night, the perfect way to celebrate the end of summer together.

With pink flamingo party ideas, life really is a party!

More Dinner Party Inspiration

If you try any of the ideas from this Flamingo Themed Party or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make the food ahead of time?

Yes, prep your homemade crackers, salad, marinade for the meats, and dessert ahead of time. Right before the party set your appetizer table for guests to enjoy while you grill the chicken, steak, and shrimp.

Where did you find the pink feathers?

I found the pink feathers at the craft store (or look online), and they had the pink glitter embellishments, but you could add the yourself to plain pink feathers.

Where did you find the flowers?

The flowers were all from the farmer's market. If you are looking for gladiolus, check with your local florists. They may be able to order them in for you.

How To Train Your Dragon Party Ideas

Aug 19, 2014 · 14 Comments

How To Train Your Dragon Party with ideas for themed food like dragon poop, dragon claws, viking cupcakes, fire breathing dragon cake and more! Plus cute DIY decorations, and really fun kids games and activities.

How to train your dragon themed party food ideas.

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Why We Love This Party

Most of the food ideas are simple to make, or store bought.
The DIY decor was so cute.
The themed activities and game ideas were so fun for the kids.

Today I'm sharing my little friend Allie's "How To Train Your Dragon Party", and all the great How To Train Your Dragon themed food her Mom made for the party. Plus there's DIY party decorations. And the kid's favourite part were the themed party activities and games.

You might also like our Oscar The Grouch Themed Party.

How To Train Your Dragon Themed Food: perfect dragon themed food for a party -dragon poop, dragon claws, viking cupcakes, fire breathing dragon cake and more!

Drinks

Let's start with the drinks. The Dragon Drool was delicious -also known as lemonade, and the perfect Viking thirst quencher.

Dragon Drool -Lemonade

How To Train My Dragon Themed Snacks

And for anyone working up a bit of an appetite while training their dragon, there were some lovely snacks.

Dragon Scales -Doritos: Like these delicious Dragon Scales -also sometimes know as Doritos.

Viking Shield -Fruit Tray: All Vikings enjoy their fruit more when arranged to resemble a Viking shield.

Dragon Veggies and Dip Tray: And veggies and dip are so much better when they look like a dragon.

Dragon Food -Fish Crackers: And since Dragons always enjoy fish -even fishy crackers, it's always good to have some on hand.
Dragon Claw -Bugles: Vikings also enjoy Dragon Claws, you might know them as Bugles.

Desserts

We all enjoyed the snacks while we were training our dragons, but when that hard work was done it was time for some sweets. Every Dragon party needs some Dragon inspired desserts.

Viking Hats -Chocolate Cupcakes: The Viking Hats were made from chocolate cupcakes and icing toped with a two-bite brownie, and viking hat horns were made from white chocolate. They were adorable and they were delicious.

Dragon Eggs -Pudding Cups with Chocolate Eggs: There were also Dragon Eggs. They were made with chocolate pudding, that was topped with chocolate rocks (that were actually really delicious) and some Cadbury eggs.

I love the detail on the cups and the spoons wrapped with leather, plus the food labels with the "dragon scale" tape (found at Walmart one day). Everything was so very Viking-ish.

Dragon Poop -Marshmallows and Chocolate: A big hit with the kids was the "Dragon Poop" made out of mini-marshmallows, green chocolate and green sugar sprinkles. Yum.

Dragon Cake

My fav. had to be the amazing Dragon cake that my friend Heather made.

She used a round cake, cut in half and on it's side to create the main body, and than cut up another cake for the head, arms, legs and tail.

All the details were amazing. Loved the wings made from some tissue paper and chopsticks! Also loved the Toblerone triangles used to decorate the Dragon's back.

Best of all, had to be that this Dragon actually breathed fire! The orange and yellow birthday candles were inserted where his mouth was and looked amazing when lit.

How To Train Your Dragon Birthday Party: Make your own shield, train your dragon stations, sensory table, and dragon training survival loot bags!

How To Train Your Dragon Party Decorations

The theme was set as soon as we arrived with this fun wreath. It was decorated with dragon scale ribbon, moss, and a fun little toy dragon making a nest on top of the "A" for Allie.

And after the party the wreath moved to decorate the birthday girl's bedroom door.

How To Train Your Dragon Birthday Party: Make your own shield, train your dragon stations, sensory table, and dragon training survival loot bags!

Around the party space there were lots of plants and ferns with dragon toys tucked inside.

How To Train Your Dragon Book of Dragons

At the front door first we received our official "book of dragons".

It was a little blank notebook for us to take notes in. The front was decorated with some clipart and everyone's name was added in Viking Font. A leather cord and a "dragon tooth" charm wrapped the dragon notebooks. After we unwrapped our books, everyone used their dragon's tooth as a necklace.

How to train your dragon party games and activity ideas.

Make Your Own Viking Shield Activity

Our first activity was to design our viking shields.

The handles were made out of duct tape on the back. And the front was made with a round cardboard piece used for cakes.

The kids decorated their shields with paper plates, black HTTYD cutouts, washi tape and jewel stickers.

Everyone received a foam sword once the Viking Shields were finished. We were all ready to start actually training the dragons in the backyard.

Dragon Training

The backyard was full of fun activities for the kids to visit as they wanted to.

Feed Your Dragon Bean Bag Toss

One was a dragon feeding game. Heather used a bean bag toss game she already had, and decorated it with some dragon cutouts from the movie. The kids could throw the fish bean bags in to the holes to feed them.

Catch a Dragon

Next there was also a game to catch the dragons with a small net. The dragon toys hide in the rocks. There was a small net to use for catching.

Dragon Flying Practise

The favourite activity might have been the flying practice. Heather found a flying Toothless toy, and set up a ring of fire for flying practise. A hoola-hoop with streamers attached created the ring of fire for the kids to fly the dragons through.

How To Train Your Dragon Sensory Table

Meanwhile there were also some little ones at the party, so Heather set-up a great sensory play table for them. The kids loved the sensory table, including the bigger kids.

She filled the table with sand, rocks, moss, moss balls, paper shred, blue glass pebbles, faux plants, and dragon toys.

Find A Dragon

The backyard had lots of little dragon toys tucked all around. One of the final games was for everyone to find their own to bring home with them in their loot bag.

Dragon Training Survival Kit Loot Bag

There was also a piñata, and one of my favourite little treats was the Dragon Training Survival Kit.

The kit contained a cookie shield, chocolate rocks, a licorice lasso, a lollipop war hammer, and gummy eels.

More Party Inspiration

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the candles from that you used in the dragon cake mouth?

We live in Canada and found them at the Bulk Barn. Look for something similar on-line.

How do you make the dragon poop?

Melt some green colored chocolate and stir in some mini marshmallows. Scoop it out onto some parchment paper and sprinkle with green sugar or sprinkles before it sets.

How did you make the viking hat cupcakes?

Start with regular chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing, add a two-bite brownie on top, upside down. Make some chocolate horns with melted white chocolate on parchment paper. When they are set, push them into the sides of the brownie.

Is the loot bag printable available?

Unfortunately, we don't have the loot bag printable, but you can make your own using the Viking font and some HTTYD printart.

If you try any of the How To Train Your Dragon Party Ideas, or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Forest Tea Party

Jul 31, 2014 · 8 Comments

Forest Tea Party: tea and scones all set up in the woods with fun glamping camping accessories, and a camping inspired menu.

A highlight of my recent camping trip was putting together this forest tea party. I'm excited to share the oh so pretty pictures with you.

The Forest Tea Party Table

I started with layering some pretty vintage tablecloths. They are old ones vintage ones and they're prefect for glamping.

I found the pretty old aqua mason jars at a garage sale for 50 cents, bargain of the summer, and filled them with some wild flowers. The cute little lantern was another great garage sale find and the perfect camping piece.

I used some simple white plates, along with some pretty vintage enamel mugs, I've been collecting at antique sales since the spring. Still need one more.

The large napkins are cotton tea towels, from the dollar store. I bought the acrylic stemless wine glasses, because I thought they were perfect for camping, or just out on the patio this summer. The pretty pink candle holders from Ikea have citronella candles in them to help keep the bugs away.

Cutlery and Tray Makeover

I really loved Poppytalk's pretty cutlery for Target, and it inspired me to make my own re-usable version. I shopped some second hand stores, and collected some mis-matched cutlery. I tried to choose some that all had a similar swirly patterned handle.

I found the perfect hot pink spray paint for metal at Home Depot, and taped the cutlery to just paint the handles so that there's no risk of the paint coming into contact with food.

I also did a cute little silver tray, also picked up at the second hand store.

I love how it turned out. It's so, so pretty. Just make sure to hand wash.

And, the silver tray turned out great too. I used it here to hold some pretty paper napkins.

One of my other favourite details of the table was the pretty chandelier. My brother made this one for me years ago, and it's never looked prettier than hanging in the woods.

The pretty bunting in the background was made from some vintage sheets, and hung in the trees.

Forest Tea Party Menu

tea
scones with jam and clotted cream
shortbread
gourmet s'mores

On the menu for the tea party, scones with jam and clotted cream, and the left overs were great for breakfast the next day. Find our scone recipe here. We also had some yummy shortbread -find the recipe here. One of my favourite tips for a great camping trip is do some baking the day before you go.

I also made some yummy homemade marshmallows and graham crackers -find the recipes here.

And what's better for a gourmet s'more in the woods, than assorted chocolate bars in yummy flavours like oreo, cookie dough, caramel corn and peanut?

I really, really loved how this table came out. I bought a few new pieces, but most were thrifted, or found at garage sales. It's all perfect camping gear, non-breakage, durable, up-cycled, and pretty. It really made me think about how it doesn't really take too much more effort or money to make everyday beautiful.

With a pretty forest tea party in the woods, life really is a party!

You might also like S'more Charcuterie Board here.

S'more Charcuterie Board: this s'more themed dessert board is perfect as a summer treat around a campfire, or for your camping themed party.

Also check out our S'more Kit here.

Smore Making Kit -use a picnic basket to store everything for s'more making. Add different flavours of chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers.

You might also enjoy our Woodland Forest Party here.

Woodland Forest Party Food Ideas: Easy to put together woodland forested themed party food ideas with store bought ingredients that are cute and delicious.

Camping With Kids

Jul 28, 2014 · 1 Comment

Camping With Kids Ideas: ideas for activities for children to enjoy on a camping trip, including around the campsite ideas, and rainy day ideas.

Today I'm sharing all my fun camping with kids ideas.

Last week was a week of oozy, gooey homemade marshmallows roasted over the campfire, bug spray and after bite, and lots of lots of giggles, laughs and memories. We went camping with friends and had a great time, and I wanted to share some of the simple things we planned for the kids to do around the campsite. With a little planning ahead, you’ll hopefully keep everyone happy and out of trouble for hours. 😉

Camping With Kids Activity Ideas

The majority of our time was spent at the beach, bike riding, hiking, or enjoying the campsites activities, but for those times when you’re hanging around the campsite or cooking meals here are some great, and really simple ideas to keep the kids busy and happy. Before we left, my friend Heather and I planned out a few things and packed them all up into a big bag to be pulled out when ever we needed them.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

One fun and simple idea was a little scavenger hunt, my friend Heather printed them from here, and attached them to some little paper bags. The girls had a great time finding their items and checking them off.

Watercolours

I made a simple watercolour bag with some watercolour paper, paint brushes, and a couple sets of watercolour paints. Our girls had a great time painting, and were inspired by an artist painting the water and horizon at the nature centre. When we came back to the campsite, they went down to the lake and tried their own versions.

Then, they discovered feathers on the shore and started painting with those.

Then, they decided to paint some rocks. I loved their creativity!

Cup Stacking

Heather also packed some simple small plastic cups from the dollar store, for stacking and building. She pulled them out one night as we were cooking dinner and the girls played with them for ages.

Journals and Colouring

We also packed some journals from Stuck On You. The girls loved their personalized journals, and fun pencils and pencil crayons all personalized for our trip.

They had fun writing about the trip.

Adventure Backpacks

Another fun treat from Stuck On You were the sweet little personalized key chains. We put them on the girls backpacks, which they filled with treasures like flashlights, binoculars, and their new journals, and walked around the campground together playing a little game of adventure explorers.

Beading

Another fun activity for around the site was a bag of beads, for make your own necklace or bracelet -this one would have also worked inside the tent if it had rained.

New Magazines and Lego

The other rainy day activities that my friend Heather brought along and my girls LOVED, was a new favourite magazine for everyone, and a few new lego toys to build together. Luckily, we didn’t get the rain that they were calling for, and the girls enjoyed the activities outside.

Campfire Ideas

We planned a few fun night time activities too. We had amazing gourmet s’mores, with homemade marshmallows and graham crackers -see the recipes here.

But there were a few other little treats too. I picked up some glow bracelets, and Heather brought jiffy pop popcorn that we made over the campfire.

Matching PJs

The best treat of all though, were their matching personalized pj’s.

It was so much fun for the girls to have matching woodland themed pj’s, they looked so, so cute. I love the little deer and bunny on them, perfect for a camping trip, and lots of fun memories for them at home later when they wear them. They are very well made, from soft cotton, and speaking from experience, they wash very well too….and of course, they’re adorable.

With best friends, and so many fun camping with kids ideas, life really is a party!

Stuck On You generously supplied the pi's, journals, pencils, and key chains but all the opinions are my own -I really love their stuff!

You might also like our Orange Peel Candles here.

Also check out our Campfire Cinnamon Rolls here.

You might also like our Forest Tea Party here.

How To Make Orange Peel and Olive Oil Candles

Jul 25, 2014 · 1 Comment

Orange Peel Candles: the perfect camping activity. Make a candle out of just 2 items, an orange and some olive oil.

How to make a candle with an orange peel.

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This fun camping hack is sure to impress. Make an orange peel candle with only 2 ingredients: an orange peel and some olive oil. Yes it really works. It looks great at night, and the smell of the orange is great too. It only takes a few easy steps to create. We made our candles on a camping trip and used the candles around the campfire at night. This would be a really fun craft during the holiday season too. It uses all natural elements, and look really beautiful as it burns.

This craft only needs two materials. No need for paraffin wax, or natural soy wax, or a double boiler, or cotton wick for this easy craft. These natural candles are made with just regular zesty mandarin orange peels and olive oil. With these all natural ingredients they are naturally lead-free wicks, and even cleaner than soy candles, soy wax blend or beeswax candles.

Olive Oil

This is a wonderful all natural craft. Olive oil was used in ancient oil lamps. It is a clean burning fuel, and it doesn't spread toxins into the air as it burns. It is odourless and smokeless and makes a great fuel for our orange peel candles. Each orange peel candle should give you a burn time of about 3-4 hours, depending on the oranges size.

Oranges

We used oranges as the container for our candles. One trick is you must cut the orange in half in the right direction. The orange stem in the center of the orange becomes the natural wick for the candle. You must slice your candle so that the orange stem wick is in the center. Notice a small round circle on the outside of the orange where it attached to the orange tree, this is where the orange stem that we used for the candle wick is, so let it guide in which direction to slice the orange.

You can use any oranges for your orange candle. An orange with good thick orange rinds works well. You can also experiment with different kinds of citrus peel like grapefruit, lemons, or limes. Different citrus fruits will give you slightly different scents from the natural essential oils in their peels. And when you're all done with them, they can go into the compost bin.

Recipe

Orange Peel Candles

Make your own candles using orange peels as the base.

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Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 15

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Cost: $5

Equipment

knife
lighter

Materials

orange
olive oil

Instructions

Cut your orange in half and scoop out the flesh, being careful not to damage the white middle stem. This is really important, because the stem will become your candle wick.
Pour olive oil into the half of the orange, letting it flow over the white stem. Try to get the stem as saturated as possible, maybe even let it sit for awhile.
Light the stem and enjoy your candle.

how to make a candle out of an orange peel

Troubleshooting

I found it kind of hard to light the wick for the first burn.

We tried different oil, but the olive oil seemed to work best.

I had a good bbq lighter, and just kept it on hoping it would light…it would light and then go out. I tried to trim wicks but that didn't help. So, I kept re-lighting it with my lighter, until my lighter run out of lighter fluid.

My friend poured a small amount, like a spoonful, of lamp oil from a lantern over the wick and it lit very easily. So if you have lamp oil it might work great.

My sweet friend drove to the camp store for a new lighter. The orange had been sitting with the oil at this point for about 20 min. I tried again and after a min. or two it lit and stayed lit the rest of the night. Sweet success.

If you're having trouble you may need to let your olive oil sit a little longer so that the stem wick can soak up the oil through capillary action. It's best to make these a few hours before you want to make them.

The orange candles are super cool looking as they burn. Activities like this are such good things to do on a camping trip. It was totally a fun hanging out around the campfire kind of an activity. These would also be gorgeous inside as beloved year-round candles. They make a lovely orange-spiced fall candle. They're especially nice as a winter favorite at Christmas time. Arranged them with some dried orange slices for the holidays and enjoy the natural fragrances of the orange zest. No need for a tea light, wax melts, or orange essential oil when you have an olive oil and orange candle to enjoy.

With a homemade orange peel candle lighting up the night, life really is a party!

More Camping Inspiration

You might also like our Campfire Cinnamon Rolls here.

Also check out our Campfire Paninis here.

Campfire Paninis: make your own DIY campfire paninis press with a foil covered flat rock and enjoy a campfire panini in the woods.

You might also enjoy our Campfire Muffins here.

Homemade Slow Cooker Baked Beans

Jul 17, 2014 · 4 Comments

Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans Recipe: once you've tried homemade baked beans you'll never want to go back to the canned version again.

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This Slow Cooker Baked Beans Recipe is a favourite of mine. These beans are sweet, and a little spicy, and definitely worth making from scratch.

A few years ago, we were at ribfest, and my husband ordered ribs that came with a side of baked beans. I didn't dislike baked beans, but they weren't on my fav. list either. Until, I tried homemade ones. They were sweet and spicy and awesome.Since ribfest is only once a year, it seemed like a good idea to try and make some at home. I've made these so many times since then, and tweaked them a little to perfect them.

Sweet and Spicy

I like them sweet, but if you don't like them too sweet, you can reduce the sugar alittle. I also like a little spice so there's a teaspoon of chili flakes in these, but you can adjust it up or down depending on your taste. They'd be great with fresh hot peppers in them too.

Soaking Beans

If you've never cooked navy beans from scratch, the first thing you need to do is soak them. I also like to give them a pre-cook to soften them up. If you don't pre soak and boil your beans as part of the cooking process, the beans can come out hard instead of soft and tender. Soaking and pre-cooking the beans ensures perfectly cooked, soft beans every time. Soaking your beans is easy. Just put them in a bowl and cover them with cold water, and let them sit overnight. In the morning drain off your soaking water and you're ready for the next step.

Pre-boil

Some people don't take the extra step to pre-boil their beans before cooking, but I've found that it ensures soft tender beans. There's nothing worse than going to the trouble of cooking beans in your slow cooker all day, and then finding out when you're ready to serve them that they're still hard. Pre-boiling the beans eliminates this problem. It's an easy step to include and ensures success. Transfer the pre soaked beans to a large pot and add water. You want enough liquid to cover them plus a few inches. You can check the water levels as they boil, to ensure they remained covered. We boil our soaked beans in a large saucepan for one hour before adding them to the slow cooker. They should be soft beans after an hour of boiling, and they'll continue to cook in the slow cooker as well. Drain off your cooking liquid, and add them to the slow cooker after boiling them.

Can you skip the pre-boil? The short answer is yes, especially if you did soak your beans overnight already. If you forgot to soak your beans overnight, then I would be sure to pre-boil them before cooking in the slow cooker.

One other factor that can contribute to your beans not getting nice and soft and tender is if they're old beans. Be sure to use new beans. Buy them from somewhere that you're confident they haven't been sitting on a shelf for too long. If you only make this recipe very occasionally, make sure you're using fresh beans to start off with each time.

Slow Cooker

This bean recipe is made in a crock pot so, once you add the beans and all the other ingredients in the crock pot, you can forget about them for awhile. This is perfect for entertaining or focusing on other foods at the last minute. This is one of my favorite slow cooker recipes. I love serving this dish in the summer as a side dish at summer bbqs. So many times, my guests have never had homemade beans before, they've only ever tried canned beans and not enjoyed them very much. After trying this recipe, they usually ask for the recipe because they're so good.

If you don't have a slow cooker, you an make this recipe on the stove top in a large pot or baked in the oven in a dutch oven. You will have to adjust your cooking times.

Pork

I'm not a big fan of pork in my beans. The pork braises in the beans and the fatty bits don't have a chance to render or get crispy. The texture of the pork is soft and it's often very fatty. If you love the flavor it adds to the beans though, you can add it in. You can use thick-cut bacon, or regular bacon. Just cut your raw bacon into small pieces and add to the slow cooker at the beginning of the cooking time.

Vegan

If you want to serve this recipe to a vegan, be sure to not add pork. Everything else in the recipe is suitable for a vegan.

Boston Baked Beans

What makes Boston baked beans difference from regular baked beans? The use of molasses. Traditional baked beans are often sweetened with brown sugar and corn syrup. Boston baked beans use molasses to add sweetness, but also a depth of flavor. They also often contain pork, although we don't add it to our recipe, but you could if you like it. And since I'm a Canadian, I've also added maple syrup to bring some more sweetness to our baked beans. I think it's a great addition to these. You could substitute brown sugar if you prefer.

Give the slow cooker boston baked beans a good stir after adding them and the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker. Then stir them occasionally during the cooking if you're around. As they cook you'll see the thick sauce develop. When they're done they're a perfect meal on their own, or serve them as a great side dish.

Store any leftovers in a airtight container in the refrigerator. These are delicious as leftovers. The flavors continue to infuse into the beans the next day, and the they are the most flavorful beans.

The first time I had homemade baked beans, I couldn't believe the difference between homemade and the canned stuff I'd had before. These are the best baked beans I ever had. If you're a fan of baked beans and never tried a homemade version you are going to love these and they're really easy to make in the slow cooker. We make these often to go with ribs, and this week I made them for fajita night. They're also a great make ahead for a camping trip, just make them at home and re-heat on the camp stove. Or make these for your next potluck. They're pretty much awesome any time really. You're going to want to add this to your favorite bean recipes.

Recipe

With this slow cooker Boston baked beans recipe, life really is a party.

More Recipe Inspiration

You might also like our Homemade BBQ Sauce recipe here.

Also check out our Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning recipe here.

You might also enjoy our No-Cook Homemade Hot Sauce recipe here.

No Cook Homemade Hot Sauce: Make this sauce in minutes in your blender and enjoy the hot tangy homemade hot sauce. The perfect Homemade Father's Day gift.

Homemade Canadian Fried Dough -Beaver Tails Recipe

Jul 1, 2014 · 2 Comments

Canadian Fried Dough: Beaver Tails recipe for a Canadian classic, fried donut like flat pastries with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.

Homemade Canadian fried dough beaver tails.

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Happy Canada Day! What better way to celebrate than with a beaver tails recipe. Beaver Tails are a Canadian classic! They are a favourite around here, so we thought we'd give our own version of Canadian Fried Dough a try -and they were a big hit!

This Canadian fried dough has few different names. It's something called beaver tails, and something called elephant ears. They are a large flat pastry that resembles a beaver's tail, thus the name. They're the kind of special treat that you get at county fairs. They're similar to funnel cakes -get our recipe for homemade fair funnel cakes recipe here.

The dough for these donut-like friend dough pieces is traditionally made from whole wheat flour, and adds a delicious flavour to them. They are made with a yeast dough, which makes a wonderful soft dough and tender treat. Baking with yeast can be a little bit intimidating, but for best results just follow the recipe closely.

The dough rises, to a lovely soft, and smooth consistency. Then the dough is formed into the beaver tail, or canoe paddle shape. Next it's fried to a lovely light brown and then topped with a delicious topping.

Toppings

After frying, there are all different ways to top these off, but we kept to the traditional and my favorite topping of cinnamon and sugar, and they were so, so yummy! This is my personal first choice when it comes favorite toppings. But there are lots of other fun possibilities. You might like to try one or a combination of any of these ideas:

chocolate hazelnut spread
powdered sugar
banana slices
caramel sauce
cream cheese
vanilla icing
mini m and m's
sprinkles
apple pie filling
maple butter
maple syrup
jam
chocolate bar pieces
chocolate chips
brownie pieces
cookie pieces

Recipe

This treat is best enjoyed the day that you make it. If you have more dough than you need you can store the un-fried dough in the refrigerator in an airtight container for a few days and fry it anytime you want it.

This is such a wonderful sweet treat. Weather you add lots of fun toppings or just use the traditional cinnamon sugar the best part is sharing it with family and friends. This is sure to become one of your favorite recipes. You might even want to set up a topping buffet so that your guests can top their own fried dough with their favorite thing each time.

With a wonderful homemade fried dough recipe like this, life really is a party!

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Vietnamese Baguette Sandwiches -Banh Mi Recipe

Jun 25, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Vietnamese Sandwich Recipe: the Vietnamese baguette Banh Mi combines grilled pork, tangy pickles, cucumbers, pate, spicy lime mayo and cilantro for the perfect sandwich.

Vietnamese Baguette Sandwich Banh-Mi Recipe.

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I love this Vietnamese sandwich recipe. Love it. And I hope you will too. Every time I've made it, it's always a crowd pleaser.

I first heard of this sandwich on a cooking show quite a few years ago, but never had a chance to try it. Just from the list of all of the ingredients, I knew that it would be yummy. I really like Vietnamese food, so I experimented with a few different recipes and versions, to come up with all the elements of these amazing Vietnamese sandwiches. It turned out so great. I love this sandwich. It is hearty enough to be a meal in itself. The best part about this sandwich is that it has an amazing combination of textures and flavors. It's spicy and sweet and sour and savory and fresh. It's also crispy and smooth and chewy all at the same time. This version is not the quickest sandwich to throw together. But it's well worth the time it takes to marinate and grill the pork, and to pickle the fresh vegetables for this bahn mi sandwich recipe. If you're lucky enough to be in a Vietnamese neighbourhood you can pick on up. But you can also make it at home with this recipe and have it whenever you want.

French and Vietnamese Fusion

There's a lot of French influence in Vietnamese cooking, and you can see it in this sandwich with the baguette and the pate. This comes from the time when Vietnam was under French colonial rule beginning in 1858. French colonialism impacted the vietnamese people in many ways including their food. Some French cuisine was introduced including French bread. The crispy baguette become a stable. Over the years, there was a fusion between the French influence and the Vietnamese cuisine. The traditional banh mi sandwich is made with a French-style baguette, and bahn mi is actually the vietnamese word for the baguette bread this perfect sandwich is made in. Along with the crusty baguettes, it also usually has French influenced pate in it. A Vietnamese banh mi is also filled with asian style pickled veggies, spicy mayo, some kind of Vietnamese pork, and fresh herbs. This delicious sandwich is the perfect fusion of French and Asian influence. This Vietnamese street food is perfect for on the go eating. It usually contains some kind of pork meat. We've used lemongrass pork for ours, but it's also served sometime with pork meatballs, pork loaf, or roast pork.

Pork

We used pork shoulder for our lemongrass pork for the sandwich. It has a good bit of fat in it, which makes the grilled pork nice and moist. You can also use pork butt, pork belly, or pork tenderloin for this. Don't skip the lemongrass in this recipe. Look for it at any asian or Vietnamese grocery stores with the fresh veggies and herbs. Be sure to marinate your pork for at least a few hours, and up to overnight. If you're making this sandwich for a party or company, you can do this step the night before so that all you have to do is grill it the day of. You can also freeze the pork in the marinade. Do yourself a favor if you're making a batch of this and do an extra one at the same time, place the marinade and pork in a ziplock bag and freeze it. The next time you want to enjoy this yummy sandwich, all you have to do is take the pork and marinade out of the freezer, let it thaw and grill, and then assemble the rest of your sandwich and enjoy.

Pickles

The pickled carrots and daikon radish don't take long to make. Use a mandoline chopper to make slicing them much quicker. Let them sit in the pickling liquid at least a few hours before serving. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. Enjoy this pickled crunchy vegetables on the sandwich, with more on the side for pickle lovers.

I served this sandwich on the weekend at a summer get-together with some old friends in the backyard. This sandwich really is perfect for summer entertaining.The pork is done on the bbq and the pickle can be made the day before so all you need to do the day of is assemble.

These pork banh mi sandwiches are something different and really fresh. They have a great balance of textures and taste. The crusty Vietnamese baguettes is contrasted with the velvety smooth texture of the pate. The pickled carrots and daikon have the perfect sweet and sour taste, Along with the taste, the pickled vegetables add more of the great crunch. The cilantro leaves add some freshness. And the spicy element is covered with the spicy mayo. The pork is perfectly seasoned and also sweet, and a little bit fatty in the best sense and wonderfully unctuous. This really is one of the best sandwiches. I hope you love it too!

Recipe

How to make a Vietnamese sandwich -banh mi

With this yummy Vietnamese pork sandwich recipe, life really is a party!

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