twitter facebook instagram bloglovin google plus pinterest youtube

Thursday




This baking frenzy all started with this amazing pan!  Wilton 18 Mini Loaf pan. 
Have you seen this thing?  It can bake 18 mini loaves at the same time.  It is a serious time saver and the loaves are a super cute size!

I made meatloaves in it for my dad's Plaid Party.  They turned out fantastic--and I don't even like meatloaf.




  






I found this excellent chocolate chip pound cake recipe click here. 
I doubled the recipe and let my mini loaves bake for 25 minutes and oh, they were so good! 



Unfortunately, we taste tested too much of the dough (this always happens) so we only had enough to make 17 loaves.


Here's a couple tips:
-don't taste the dough.
(seriously, you won't be able to stop yourself!)
-don't over mix in any step.

-after baking, let loaves cool for 5 minutes.
-run a knife around the edges and pop out the loaves.
- place loaves on cooling racks until no longer warm.




We handed these out to teachers and neighbors for Valentine's Day.
Click here to print your own tags.  (These tags are not to be edited, thank you.)




Place completely cooled loaves in a cellophane bag.

These are my favorite Cellophane Treat Bags .
I use this size constantly.  You can easily trim them down if you need to.  Tie up the bags with pink ribbon and add the tag.






Now, what else should I make in my cool mini loaf pan?









 This post contains affiliate links. All opinion are my own.
 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING

Monday



Couldn't do a Seahawks valentine (click here if you missed them.)
without making a Mariners valentine. 
In case you haven't read my blog before, AH is a HUGE Mariners fan. He's actually counting down the days until Spring Training.




Cracker Jacks and baseball always go together.  Buy boxes or order these single serving sized Cracker Jack - 24/1.25 oz. bags



These Baseball Glove & Ball Erasers (12 Sets) are perfect to hand out for Valentine's Day. No candy needed, just attach a pencil.


Check out more of my baseball posts:

A 40th Birthday Baseball Celebration



End of the Season Baseball Treats



 

Baseball Father's Day Party



Organize That Dugout!









*This post contains affiliate posts. All opinions are mine.
Linking up to MadebyYouMonday, 




 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING

Friday



So incredibly sad to not see your team in the Superbowl!  Yes, we've been spoiled for 2 years in a row around here.  This year the Superbowl is just another game...no big excitement, no big party, no big celebrations, no big 'Welcome Home' parades.
Guess we'll just have to wait for next season?


I thought I'd update my Seahawks Valentines from our Superbowl win of 2014.  Remember this one?



Yes, that was a good year!
Click here to print.



This year, the sentiment has lost a bit of pride, but gained much more love.





Copy these out on card stock and attach some Skittles.




Happy Valentine's Day!





Click here to print your own Seahawks Love Valentines.




Need some Superbowl party ideas?  Click here!
Throw a Punny Football Party



  Linking up to: LinkPartyPalooza, SundayFunday,
 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING

Thursday



If you saw the 'Beary' Valentines I crafted up for my teenage daughter, you may have read about the challenge my almost 14 year old son presented me?

His exact words were, 

"My friends just want the candy. They don't care about any clever wording...in fact, they probably won't even read it." 


Well, I've always been one to take on a challenge.
Here's the valentine I came up with.







And my son's response..."Nice, mom."






Click here to print your own Snickers Valentines.




You'll have to wait until after Valentine's Day to see what his friends think... personally, I think they'll love them!
Wouldn't you?






Click here to see our past Boy Valentine ideas.




 Linking up to: LinkPartyPalooza, SundayFunday,MadebyYouMonday,
 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING

Monday



So... I'm the crazy lady that scours the holiday clearance section of the grocery store...even in the middle of January...and I'm the one that takes a picture of my purchases so that everyone will believe me when I blog about it.



Lindt chocolate bears on clearance from Christmas.  Perfect for Valentine's Day.   Not to mention...these are really good, solid chocolates (although they're milk chocolate, not dark.).  Guess I won't be sampling one of these, but I'm sure those teenager girls will appreciate them, right?  






Click here to print your own Valentine cards.



Print out the cards on card stock or photo paper. Trim cards and then attach a chocolate bear using valentine Red Hot Hearts Washi Masking Tape.



Yes, even teenage girls like to get valentines...or so I've been told. 
The teenage son however, is not into it. "My friends just want the candy," he says.
"They don't care about any clever puns...in fact, they probably won't even read it." 
Hmmm...that sounds like a challenge!

Click here to see how I met that challenge.





Have a 'beary' sweet Valentine's Day!

 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING

Thursday




Plaid wrapping paper, plaid fabric, plaid scrapbook paper and a little creativity was about all it took to pull off this PLAID PARTY!  You know I love a good theme and this one proved to be a lot of fun.  Check it out!

It's my dad's birthday.  Dad always wears plaid shirts, so I thought...why not go with plaid as a party theme?  I asked all the guests to wear plaid to the party. I scoured my fabric stash and found lots of different plaid fabrics, most of them looked a little Christmasy, but that didn't bother me. I purchased some plaid wrapping paper on Christmas clearance and some plaid craft paper and got to work.
(This theme would be perfect for Father's Day as well.)


PLAID TABLE
It was a dinner party, so I needed a festive plaid table.  I didn't own a plaid tablecloth big enough to fit my table (seats 14), so I used wrapping paper.  One large strip down the center and 2 strips down the sides.  My plaid fabric worked perfectly to use as chair covers.





PLAID DECOR
In the center of the table, I placed some pails of hydrangeas.  I used fabric scraps and jute to tie around the pails.  The pails were placed on top of silver candle holders.  Leftover plaid Christmas ribbon was looped in the center.





PLAID PAPER  
Using a few different styles of plaid scrapbook paper, I made a Happy Birthday pennant banner with my Cricut.



I also cut pennants to place under each glass dinner and glass salad plates.  I absolutely love using glass plates.  They're so easy and fun to make them fit your theme.  Place anything flat underneath them and it's instant color.







Leftover scraps of paper made perfect mini pennants for the place markers.  Glass votive holders held licorice bites, my dad's favorite candy.
Black coffee stirrers were threaded through the pennants to make flags.  I secured each flag with a glue dot in the bottom of the votive.












PLAID CAKE


Using wood skewers and baking twine, I made a little pennant banner for Dad's cake.  
DAD was spelled out with letter stickers.  Notice dad's gifts were in plaid packaging, of course!





I made a simple 2 layer dark chocolate cake with chocolate cream frosting and chopped Hershey's Chocolate stuck on the top.  I placed a wide plaid ribbon around the cake.  I'm thinking I need to place ribbon around every cake I make...it totally hides all imperfections!


PLAID COOKIES
I tried my hand at making plaid shirt cookies.  I used a t-shirt shaped cookie cutter and royal icing, but AH said they looked a bit like slices of bread.  Really?




PLAID PHOTOSHOOT
One big roll of plaid wrapping paper was taped on the wall for a fun backdrop.  A few leftover pennants were made into another banner and hung over the paper.  Of course I made all the guests (who are really family members that have to put up with me--) get their pictures taken.  How could you not take pictures when everyone looked so festive in their plaid shirts?  (How did dad get away with wearing argyle instead of plaid?)




PARTY GAME
My nieces LOVE to play games, so I had to have a party game for us to play!  This wasn't plaid related, but a really fun game that you MUST try the next time you have a large group get together. Click here to check it out!  Plastic Wrap Ball Party Game





And that about sums it up.  What do you think?  Think you could pull off a plaid party?
Let me know if you do.  I have some plaid pennants to pass on...and a bunch of fabric and wrapping paper (if you're local).



   






Want to see another birthday party we had for my dad?
Click here for our Basketball Party! 
It's full of puns and fun and I think you'll love it!



Linking up to: TatertotsandJelloLinkPartyPalooza, SundayFunDay, 
 photo arrow.png CONTINUE READING