Care Bear Birthday Cake and Rainbow Cupcakes (Little Sweets turns 3!)

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Our "baby" girl turned 3 recently, and I have to share a few photos from her special day! Her favorite books right now are the Care Bears books (the old school ones that were mine when I was little) so she wanted me to make her a Care Bear cake. Here it is!

It was interesting trying to transform the Wilton Care Bear cake pan (which was one of the new Care Bears) to Wish Bear from the old books. Little Sweets' favorite color is blue so I wanted to make a blue Care Bear... the other options were Grumpy Bear and Bedtime Bear, hence our choice to make Wish Bear!

And on to the cupcakes, which made because there were a lot of people coming to the party and we needed more cake. Here's a close-up shot of them, inspired by a Pinterest find!

The candy rainbows are Airheads Xtremes (rainbow berry sour candy). I found them in the Dollar Spot at Target--one package was enough for 24 cupcakes (cut them in half). If you're going to make these, wait until you're just about to serve them before adding the rainbows. I used homemade buttercream frosting and it worked well because the frosting hardened a bit and could hold them up better.

For the favors, I made some rainbow candy lollipops. I bought the candy mold from a local craft store and painted in the rainbows with those candy melts you get from craft stores.

Happy Birthday to our Little Sweets!

Christmas Shopping at SweeterThanSweets

Anyone considering purchasing Christmas gifts from my Etsy shop, SweeterThanSweets?

This Thursday, December 15th will be the last day to order to guarantee Christmas delivery (for U.S. customers). My shop will be closing starting on December 18th so I can spend more time with my family this Christmas.

What to buy, you wonder?

Shoe Clips for Women and Girls

Boutique Burp Cloths for Baby Boys and Baby Girls

Mini Felt Fascinators for Women and Girls

Hooded Towel Sets for Babies, Toddlers & Kids

Hair Pins for Women

Headbands for Women and Girls

Appliqued Clothing for Girls and Boys

Also in my shop: Hair Clips/Bows and Gift Sets. Want a coupon code? There's always one available to my Facebook Fans, just look for "Coupon Code"in the left margin.

Thanks for considering shopping at SweeterThanSweets this Christmas!

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins (from scratch) - Recipe

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Who needs a family's-in-town breakfast recipe? Blueberry Muffins from scratch are the perfect treat during the holidays... filling, crowd-pleasing and (mostly) healthy. Time to use up your stash of late-summer blueberries in the freezer!

When my mom and her sisters were young, they would go to a department store in Boston, Massachusetts called Jordan Marsh where they sold Blueberry Muffins. Somehow, someone got the recipe and the rest is history.

If you've never had blueberry muffins made from scratch, just you wait. These are so yummy and you definitely won't miss that sugary crumb topping that I usually love so much on (store-bought) blueberry muffins.

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

(Click here to download printable .pdf file)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk

2 cups blueberries

nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease muffin pan or line with paper baking cups.

In a small bowl, stir flour and baking powder together. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk to creamed mixture, mixing well after each addition.

Fold in blueberries (if frozen, toss with 2-3 tsp. flour from the measured amount to keep them from sinking and leaking) and nuts.

Pour or scoop dough into muffin pan (dough will be thick). Bake for 30 minutes until gorgeous and golden.

Craving more yummy creations? Check out my other recipes here!

Advent Calendar to teach the True Story of Christmas - start today!

It's December 1st... time to start your Advent Calendar to teach kids the True Story of Christmas!

It won't take too long to gather the supplies if you already have an Advent Calendar, so go check it out and get started a few days late if you have to!

I bought my advent calendar with boxes from Hobby Lobby for less than $10 and decorated it using Skip To My Lou's free printable numbers (with help from Photoshop).

Do you want to make your own Advent Calendar? Check out Tip Junkie's DIY Advent Calendar Roundup or search OnePrettyThing for tons of great ideas! Here's one way to make it from Adventures of a DIY Mom!

Our cruise to the Bahamas: Celebrating 10 years of marriage!

We just got home from our first cruise! We celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary, which fell on Thanksgiving this year.

We enjoyed a delicious bottle of wine on our anniversary which we had bought on our 5-year anniversary in Napa Valley, California and saved for this special occasion! (In case you're wondering, it was V. Sattui Cabernet Sauvignon from 2004.)

Little Sweets enjoyed her special window seat in our cabin. I freaked out right after I took this picture--I saw dolphins playing in the water while we were still in the port in Charleston, South Carolina! One of her favorite parts of each day was coming back to our cabin after dinner to discover what animal the housekeepers had made from towels. The monkey hanging from the ceiling was definitely a favorite!

Okay, now on to the photos you all want to see: the Bahamas! Our first port was Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. We went snorkeling and I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any photos from that day.

In our second and last port, Nassau, we got an awesome tour of the island. We had lunch at Compass Point and it was definitely the most colorful place I've ever seen!

 

The water there was so beautiful. I could've eaten every meal of the cruise with this view.

I couldn't resist walking around the property and taking photos.

Our last day of the cruise ended with a beautiful display of God's creativity...

...a rainbow on one side of the ship:

 ...and a sunset on the other side:

God is good and He has blessed us so much in the past 10 years of marriage. It was so fun to be able to celebrate this milestone with our little family!

Handmade Christmas Shopping Guide: My Favorite Etsy Shops

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Are you buying Handmade for Christmas this year?

Acrylic Laser Cut Ring by CABfayre

I do a lot of shopping and browsing on Etsy, so I thought that on this Cyber Monday, I'd share with you a Handmade Christmas Shopping Guide with some of my favorite Etsy shops:

For the Artsy Ones:

  

For the Ones Who Travel:

  

For the Ones Who Decorate:

 

For the Ones Who Eat:

  

For the Ones Who Love Fashion:

  

For the Little Ones:

 (You didn't think I'd leave myself out did you?)

 

For the Ones Who Love Vintage:

(not handmade, but hand-picked!)

  

For the Ones Who Already Have Everything Else:

Time to get shopping!