Jack-o-lantern Cookie Pop Tutorial

I saw this fun idea in a Disney Family Fun magazine and thought we'd give it a try:

Dipping Oreos in Chocolate to make "Jack-o-lantern Cookie Pops."

We started with:

Double Stuffed Oreos

White dipping chocolate (I used white chocolate chips because it was all I had)

Mini-Reese's Pieces or Mini-M&M's

Popsicle sticks

Frosting

 

 First I put a Popsicle stick in each double stuffed Oreo.

Then I melted the chocolate and added orange candy-coloring.

Regular food coloring does not work in chocolate!

(You could buy orange chocolate melting wafers instead).

Next, I dipped each Oreo in the chocolate and stuck them in an egg carton to harden.

The Bloopers:

Several cookies split apart and fell off their sticks into the chocolate.

So, I had to fish them out, but they were too much of a mess to use.

So, my kids ate them :)

(They were "helping" me make them)

While the chocolate was still wet, I stuck in mini-Reese's pieces for eyes and a nose.

Once it was hardened, I used chocolate frosting to make a mouth and green frosting for a leaf.  Next time I am going to use a pretzel stick for the stem :)

It was a fun, quick, little treat for my kids and the best part is, you can make as many or as little as you want.  We only made a handful of them, and then I sealed the Oreos back up and put them in the pantry for another day.

You can use this same idea to turn the Oreos' into ghosts, eyeballs, Frankenstein...or something cute...an apple, a happy face, etc.

Just be creative and have fun :) 

Linking up at:
http://733blog.blogspot.com/

The Best Buddy Jar

As a baby gift, right before I had Saxon, a good friend of mine gave me a book called,

"Secrets of The Baby Whisperer."

It's a good book with some great suggestions.

I'll confess though...I didn't read it right away.

As a brand new, first-time mom, I had all the answers already, right?

I already knew how I wanted to do things and was sure that, not withstanding a few bumps in the road, it would all go according to plan.

After a few months, I read the book.

It turns out, I didn't know as much as I thought I did, and a little advice is always useful.

One part of the book that stood out to me is how the author classifies babies:

1. The Angel Baby

2. The Textbook Baby

3. The Touchy Baby

4. The Spirited Baby

5. The Grumpy Baby

It turns out...I have a spirited baby.

Having a "Spirited Baby" has some fun and unique challenges.

How do you rein them in without crushing their spirit?

Here's what happened to us last week:

Saxon's preschool teacher (who we love...she's perfect for Saxon and she loves him) asked to talk to me for a minute because she had some concerns.  

Saxon has a strong personality.  He is a ringleader.  He usually ends up getting what he wants in class because he is assertive.  This isn't usually a problem, but Saxon has decided that one boy in class is his "best buddy."  One day Saxon came home crying because he didn't get to sit by his "best buddy."  He made such a big deal about it, that now, everyday in class, the kids are all fighting to sit by this one boy.  Everyone wants to be his best buddy.  His teacher said that snack-time is becoming hard because everyone fights to sit by this boy, and most end up crying after.  She thinks that Saxon's example has made it "cool" to want to sit by this boy and now everyone is doing exactly what Saxon is doing.

She said that she loves Saxon and his fun little personality, but asked me to talk to him about branching out.

So, I thought about it for a while, and this is what we came up with:

The Best Buddy Jar.

Each day before school, Saxon is going to draw a name from the jar.

That day, he is going to do his best to make that person feel special, be kind to them, and be there best buddy.

He is so excited about this project.

He couldn't sleep last night because he wanted to start right away.

I'm not sure this idea would work with a child who is really introverted because it would seem scary.  But for Saxon, my spirited child, I think it will be fun.

Hopefully this will help him branch out and practice using his talents and his personality to be kind and make other kids happy :)

That's the plan anyway...

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Easy-Chic side braid tutorial

I do my hair in a side braid a lot, and every time I do, some asks,

"Wow, did you do that yourself?"

It is so easy that I'm almost embarrassed.

I do my hair like this when I am in a hurry because it is easy, fast, and keeps it out of my way.

So, I thought I would show everyone how to do it...

Here's what it looks like (after a day of playing at the park):

It holds up pretty well...

 It seriously only takes a minute to do, and it's ok if there are pieces falling out.
It fits the look of a "loose side braid".  Don't worry about making it perfect.

At the end, I usually clip my bangs to the side (as long as I'm going for easy and functional).

And that's it...

Photos: Brittany Davis Photography

Flower clip: Love Stitched

Hair band: Lizzie Starr

Give it a try and tell me what you think :)

New Fall Collection!!!

I finally have my fall collection up in my shop and I can't wait to show you!

First, I have been working on this one for a while.

It was a TON of work to paint (seriously), but I love how it turned out.

It is the ABC's of family rules.

It would also be perfect as classroom rules or playroom rules.

Inspired by a custom order that I got, I fell in love with this Audrey Hepburn quote:

I first painted just the "pretty girls" part of the quote, but then decided to paint a board with the whole thing...

Trying something new...this "I LOVE YOU BECAUSE..." sign is chalkboard :)

The idea is to leave little love notes behind for your husband, your kids, etc.

I'm thinking of painting a personalized one for each of my kids so that I can constantly surprise them by changing the message and telling them new reason why I love them.

This has always been one of my favorite quotes, so I couldn't resist.

Plus, after painting the extra large family rules, I needed some simplicity.

What do you think?

Another favorite quote and good reminder...and a new color.

"Vintage Plum".  I love it!  I thought my fall collection could use some deeper colors.

ABC - I love you.

Can you find the hidden "I {heart} U".

I thought it was obvious, but I keep having to point it out to people, so it must be more subtle than I thought it was.

I gave you a sneak peek of this one last week, but since, I've painted it in a few more colors to try it out.

The Harvest Collection:

I wanted to add some seasonal items to my shop so Nate and I decided to try out a wooden pennant banner.  I had to go hang it by my garden since that's what time of year it is "harvest."  I also found this darling burlap ribbon that I am currently in love with.  I need to go back to the store and buy out everything they have of it :)

"Pumpkin Patch" painted on weathered wood and sitting on a garden stake.

I put mine next to the pumpkins in my garden, but it also looked cute in a pot on my front porch next to where the Halloween pumpkins will be when it gets closer to Halloween.

"Falling for You - Autumn Leaves".

This was an experiment, but I think it turned out fun.

What do you think?

Once again, on weathered wood.

"Trick or Treat"

hand painted on a weathered wood block.

Can you tell I've been loving my weathered wood this season?

Because this is a block, it can sit anywhere in your house without a stand.

I had to paint this bag to remind myself that I am an artist and not just a painter.

I love making and designing signs, but every so often, I need to really paint.

This one glows in the dark too :)

To celebrate my new fall collection, I'm offering a 15% off discount code:

FALL15

Just enter the code when you checkout from my etsy shop:

caitcreate.etsy.com

The boutique

The last few weeks have been crazy.

I ran a deal with Groopdealz and had to work around the clock to get it finished.

I was planning on attending this boutique with my friend Andi, so as soon as Groopdealz was done, I had to work around the clock to get enough inventory to show at the boutique.

So, Nate (my awesome husband) and I stayed up til 2 or 3 in the morning every night trying to get a good selection and trying to make some new products to debut.

The night before, I stayed up til 2 and Nate said that he would just finish packing up and then come to bed.  He stayed up til 5 getting things ready.  (My friend Andi never even went to bed the night before).

The morning of, Andi picked me up at 7:30.

We were supposed to set up the day before, but it was dumping buckets of rain outside.

Andi brought several of her beautiful antiques to display, and our booth turned out beautiful.  Really beautiful.

We rushed to get it set up on time and we made it.

By 9 a.m. we were ready to go.

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

A few people wandered through, but no one really bought anything.

I took a quick break to run over to my boys' soccer game and while I was gone I sold a "Keep Calm and Sew On" sign.  Two ladies wanted it, and had I made more than one, I would have sold both.  But I only had one.

When I came back, we still waited.

A few more people wandered through our booth, but it was mostly other vendors checking out what else was there.

As it got later, we really got discouraged.

The BYU vs. UofU game was on that night and traffic was going to be horrible.

Most people stay home the night of the rivalry game.

After weeks of sleepless nights and endless work, and a full day of being at the boutique (plus the set up and clean up), I sold 2 signs and Andi sold a handful of bags.

That's it.

I was really sad.  Exhausted and sad.

Some of the vendors didn't sell anything at all.

It was a very long and very slow day for everyone.

The one good thing that came of it is that it forced me to get going on my new fall collection.  I have some great ideas, but if it wasn't for the deadline from the boutique, I wouldn't have finished it yet.  I still have a couple of things left to go, but I'm almost there.

I'll be launching it in the next few days, so keep checking it...

I can't wait to show it off :)

Fallow Field Farm Marketplace

This weekend I'm teaming up with Handi Andi and we're going to be at Fallow Field Farm Marketplace...
We can't wait to show off our new designs and be a part of the marketplace!
If you live in Utah, make sure you come by and check it out.
Make sure to stop by our tent and say HI :)

Pretty Girls

I made this sign as a custom order, but I really love it, so I think I'm going to offer it in my shop...

What do you think?

Rainbow Jello Tutorial

My cousin Brittany gave me the idea a few months back to make rainbow jello for Dalton's 1st birthday party.  So, the night before, I googled it and read a few different ways to do it, and chose The Funky Polkadot Giraffe.  Theirs seemed the easiest and most straightforward.  Plus, it used sweetened condensed milk in the middle of the layers to make each layer stand out.

First, we started with 2 mixtures.

Mixture #1:

1 1/2 cups boiling water

3 packets of Knox gelatine

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Mixture #2

1 1/4 cups boiling water

3 packets of Knox gelatine

(obviously I was working on the cupcakes at the same time)

Then you mix one package of jello with 1 cup of boiling water.

Then add 1/4 cup of the gelatine/water mixture.

Pour it evenly among the cups and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add some of the sweetened condensed milk mixture to each cup.

I found that most of them were set up enough to handle the 2nd layer, but every so often, one would leak and I would get a swirly rainbow instead of a layered one.  30 minutes might be a safer amount of time.

Can you see what I mean about this project taking ALL DAY!

Next refrigerate the white layer for only 10 minutes.

It sets up pretty fast.

If it doesn't seem set when you jiggle the cup a little bit, give it an extra 5.

Then continue this way...jello...milk...jello...milk...until you have all of the layers.

I tried to buy all Wal-mart brand jello because it is cheaper, but they don't have as many cool colors as the real "jello" does.

After hours of layering jello, we added a blob of home made whipped cream and some colored sprinkles, and voila:

Rainbow Jello Cups.

Check out this fun idea I found online...making it in beakers.

(found at momofukufor2)

Here's my opinion (for what it's worth) on rainbow jello:

I wasn't brave enough to taste it because the gelatin/water mixture stunk so bad, that it ruined it for me.  My kids however, loved it.  My husband (also a jello fan) thought it was really good, but a bit too gelatin-ish.  I wonder if it would work to add less gelatin but let it refrigerate longer?  I may have to try it because that much gelatin kind of grossed me out.  But, overall, it was still a huge hit at the party!

And FYI, since I made it in cups instead of in a 9 X 13 pan, I needed an extra batch of the sweetened condensed milk mixture to have enough to go around.