Twiggie Makes by Candace Grahl

So after the massive amount of snow that was dumped on us this winter, we have gotten a taste of warmer weather and spring has hit Virginia. Every opportunity I get to drag the boys outside and let them unleash their pent-up energy, I do it! Our city has an abundance of parks and I am pretty sure we have visited them all in the last few weeks as our days have been longer, warmer and all-around more enjoyable now that winter is gone. So what better flickr Friday edition than one that involves spring!! Soak it in people - seasons are changing and that is always a good thing. Have a great weekend everyone!

1. sakura : cherry blossoms, 2. Bubbles in the Grass, 3. Spring Trifle, 4. crocheted flowers, 5. summer love, 6. Easter Tree Hangers, 7. Peony L.O.V.E, 8. Babies!, 9. picnic, 10. Faux chocolate bunnies!, 11. Carlsbad Flower Field March 2007-DSC_3575, 12. summer quilts-ready for a picnic, 13. Orange and Blue Spring Cupcakes, 14. Pera Picnic Basket, 15. Pink Peony Macro 001, 16. Yummy yarn

My mother in law was in town this weekend to help out with the monkies while hubby was away. This meant a little more free time to myself and I got to tackle not only my inbox but also my feed reader (which I knocked out completely on Sunday, went back to check on it today and am yet again waaaaaaay behind. Blergh.) But while sifting through literally hundreds of updated feeds I found some little gems along the way that made my back straighten and my eyes perk up just a little bit more. So here ya go: Top Ten Pretty-To-Me Links.

1) Vintage Paper Parade I just love this etsy shop. Super simple but super cute stationery - I can not narrow down which is my favorite, love it all! (and Pepper Design Blog is doing a giveaway so head on over to score some adorable and f-r-e-e goods)

2) Red & Teal Wedding While perusing the archives of one of my favorite photography blogs, I found this little gem and it blew me away. I would love to say I have the cahoonah’s to do such a bright color scheme for my wedding but isn’t it gorgeous?! And the cake, did you see the cake? OhMyGoshIJustLoveIt. LOVE. IT. *swoon* *drool* *sigh*

3) Best Easter Baskets Easter is one of my favorite holidays but sometimes the “cutesyness” of it overwhelms me. However, I am always a sucker for a beautifully designed and executed Easter basket. My favorite? The dyed Easter basket. So incredibly simple but so lovely.

4) Beautiful Cherry Blossom Cookies Aren’t these cookies amazing?? I don’t think I could bring myself to eat one! Wait, who are we kidding - of course I could. But I would take tons of pictures first.

5) DIY Ruffles and Lace Tank Top Sewing can be such a fussy process, one that irritates and bores me but I think I will blow the dust off of my sewing machine to make one of these - pink puffy *heart* this.

6) Only the best cake ever Today. (cuz we all know I will change my mind when I find another one tomorrow) but still, so stunning (Brandi, I think you should have this cake for Bug’s 2nd birthday party. Just a thought *wink*).

7) Macaron pops Love me some macarons. Love me some lolli’s. Love me some Bakerella.

8) Shauna Younge I am a huge Amy Atlas fan and love seeing what her genius-mind comes up with but I found another pro in the dessert bar field and I can’t get enough of her stuff either! Her “LOVE” dessert table knocked my socks off - so sweet and I am totally digging the silhouette’s.

9) Pentunia Pickle Bottom Cosmopolitan Carryall I mean, the name is just fabulous on it’s own (Petunia…so lovely). But then the description makes my eyelids flutter “Sapphire blue and Ocean Mist vintage inspired floral European cut velvet with coordinating sapphire blue wool tweed and sapphire blue water resistant lining” What does it all mean? I don’t care. All I know is she takes my breath away.

10) Simple yet Adorable Cuppie Today kicked my butt, especially between the hours of 3pm to 7pm, so to stumble upon this little gem really brought a sense of peace and tranquility to my mind. Is it weird that food does that? No? Good. A little yummy topped with sweetness on a backdrop of happiness. I know it’s weird but I’m 10% auditory, 90% visual so it just happens that way. But man, isn’t it a beauty.

Hubby went out of town this past weekend to Austin, TX to attend SXSW. Seeing that he and his crazy diet were going with him, I decided to break out one of my favorite (and super duper easy!!) breakfast recipes, chocked full of processed, buttered and sugary goodness to cook up for us to enjoy. This is one of those recipes that makes the words “comfort food” come to my mind. I remember my mom making this for us on Sunday mornings before we went to church. It is so amazingly delicious and smells just as good when it is baking that it would quite literally wake us from our Sunday morning sleeping. When I tweeted that I was going to devour my weight in monkey bread I received three twitter responses of “What is monkey bread?” and I just about fainted. Only because I am so sad that these women have lived for so many years without ever tasting it. And actually, you might have had it as a child only called it something else. I can not for the life of me understand why they call it monkey bread, but whatever I don’t care. It is so good. And I drop my voice as low as I can when I say gooooooooood. So here it is, my beloveds: the monkey bread recipe.

Monkey Bread

3 cans of refrigerated biscuits (regular size - we get the 4-pack)
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups confectionery sugar
1 to 3 tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9″ or 10″ bundt pan (or tube pan, as some call them, altho I like calling it a bundt pan mainly because I love the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the grooms mom brings the bundt cake to the family dinner and the mother of the bride can not pronounce “bundt” but then turns to her family, totally confused and says “This cake has a hole in it.” *snort*). Pour the sugar and cinnamon in a ziplock freezer bag, seal the bag and then mix it together until evenly combined. Quarter the refrigerated biscuits, pull them a part…

…and then place in the bag with the cinnamon-sugar.

Seal the bag tightly (and make extra sure it is closed or else you will have a big ol’ mess on your hands. and you can trust me on that one.) and then toss the bag around in your hands to make sure all that dough gets coated in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Take the cinnamon-sugar coated dough chunks and place them evenly around the greased bundt pan.

Combine the melted butter and the remainder of the cinnamon-sugar mix and drizzle on top of the dough. Place in the oven, bake 30-35 minutes. Once done, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Invert onto a plate or cake stand. In a small-medium sized bowl combine the confectionery sugar and water, adding a tablespoon at a time and whisk until all lumps are gone and icing consistency is achieved (in between runny and sludgy. or sludgey. is that even a word?). Drizzle on top of warm monkey bread.

Pull a part and be ready to eat so much you will make yourself sick. But in one of the best ways possible!

*You could also add raisins or nuts before you put it in the oven, if you so desire.

Since I am swearing off refined sugar for a month *gulp* I thought what better week to do a Flickr Friday showcasing my favorite sweet treat: cupcakes and frosting. Especially buttercream frosting. Lots and lots and lots of buttercream…so beautifully delicious.

1. Cupcake Pops, 2. Colorful Engagement Cupcake Samples, 3. pink cupcakes, 4. Marie Antoinette cupcakes, 5. Strawberry Cupcakes, 6. what’s for dessert? // vegan mint oreo cupcakes, 7. Bright Flowers 21st Cupcakes, 8. Pretty pink cupcakes, 9. Easter Cupcakes & Minis, 10. Pink & Blue Vanilla Cupcakes, 11. Baileys flavour white cupcake, 12. rose cupcakes, 13. cupcake, 14. cupcakes, 15. green tea cupcakes, 16. red owl and bird cupcake box

So if you didn’t already know, Flickr is a rabbit hole. It is up there with StumbleUpon in Life’s Handbook, Chapter 11: “Ways to Blow Hours on the Interweb”. Seriously though, I have been blown away with the talent & creativity that people possess! So much to see, drool over, drink in - I finally had to step away from it, not because I began to feel incredibly inadequate (which I totally did) but because I looked at so many pictures that I kept going cross-eyed. However in preparation for the upcoming holiday, which, by the way, do NOT understand why I’m so excited about. I have always hated Valentine’s Day but am succumbing to its squishiness very quickly & I found some fun pictures to hopefully inspire you to create love. And not in that way. Or maybe - I’ll let you decide!

1. Handwritten “Love” Chocolate Heart Cookie, 2. Pink roses close-up on the red background, 3. mini cookie “cakes”, 4. So yummmm, 5. shadows of love, 6. Sweeter Love, 7. sweets for my sweet!, 8. Love without demand {Explore FP}, 9. cookies, 10. Happy Valentine’s Day!, 11. LOVE revisited, 12. I love you, 13. happy valentines day!!!, 14. Rubber Ducky Love, 15. Assorted Box of Cake, 16. Pink Martinis…All in a Row!