diy - vintage jewelry stand

I think 2013 is the year I am going to get organized.  I just can't stop organizing everything. Sometimes my organization projects create even bigger messes than I began with, but we won't talk about that.....

A few weeks ago, it was my endless supply of ribbon and my packaging materials {which I organized in this Ikea cart} and this week it is my jewelry.

I have so many little dishes that I use for rings, hairpins, earrings, etc but they were crowding the top of my bookshelf and I was running out of room.

I stopped by the Salvation Army last week {on 40% off day!} and bought a few brass candle sticks and two small vintage plates.  I added one plate that I already had at home, some super glue, and boom - simple, super easy, and cute vintage jewelry stand.

If you can't find candlesticks at the thrift store, try these!

 I love it!

tres leches banana cake

This weekend we had a little get together for Neil's birthday.  Neil is the social type and loves to entertain.  I am not all that social but the party was fun. I am happy we did it.

In honor of Neil's birthday - I made all of his favorite foods.  Needless to say, there was a lot of meat and potatoes and grease {his three favorites} on the menu.  

We had sausage rolls, beef stew, barbecue chicken, brussels sprout and bacon skewers, stuffed mushrooms, and cheese and crackers.

For dessert I made mini cheesecakes and a banana tres leches cake.  I have never made a tres leches cake but I saw this recipe on how sweet it is {which, btw, one of my favorite food blogs - if you don't read it, you need to do so} and it looked amazing.

I followed the recipe almost as is but made a small substitution with one of the "tres leches."  Instead of using sweetened condensed milk, I used International Delight Caramel Macchiato creamer.  Caramel goes so well with bananas. Same with chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, etc.  Bananas are the best.

This cake turned out really good but it was really dense.  Like super duper dense.  The recipe I followed mentioned that it would be dense but I was expecting a lighter texture.  If you are looking for a super light cake, this is not the one for you.  But if you are in the mood for a dense, banana flavor explosion, gooey sweet milk type of dessert - then this is your cake.

Banana Bread Tres Leches Cake {recipe found here}
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup butter, browned
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs, separated
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-4 bananas, mashed 
-2/3 cup milk {I used 1%}
-1/2 cup coconut milk
-1/2 cup International Delight Caramel Macchiato Creamer
-1/2 cup evaporated milk

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Separate the egg whites and set aside {save the yolks}.
3. Brown the butter by heating the entire stick in a saucepan over medium heat until it melts.  Once the butter is melted, stir until brown bits appear and immediately turn off the heat.  Pour the brown butter into a small bowl to cool. Set aside.
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and whisk together in a bowl.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugars and egg yolks until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and mashed bananas and mix until combined. 
5. Add half the dry ingredients, then the 2/3 cup milk, then the rest of the ingredients until just combined.
6. Using and electric mixer {or a whisk if you're up for the arm workout} beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. I used my hand mixer for this so that I didn't have to clean out the bowl of the electric mixer.

7. Use a spatula to fold the egg whites into the cake batter and pour the whole thing into a greased pan.  I used a nine inch spring form pan but a square or rectangle baking dish would work too.
8. Bake for about 35 minutes - test with a toothpick and continue baking if need be.
9. Wait for the cake to cool for a little bit and then poke it with a fork making lots and lots of tiny holes.  Whisk together the coconut milk, evaporated milk, and International Delight Caramel Creamer and pour over the cake.  My cake was on a serving platter with slightly raised edges so the milk wouldn't run all over the place.

10. Let the cake soak in the milk for about an hour before serving.  You can frost with any type of frosting you like or use whipped cream.  I caramelized two bananas {1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and two bananas, sliced....saute all in a pan until the banana pieces are gooey and slightly browned} and spread them over the cake then piped whipped cream around the edges just before serving.

I just ate a piece of this cake and it was SO much better.  Maybe the trick is to make it the day before and let it soak in the milk all night.....

If you try it - let me know what you think and if you have any tricks to make it lighter!

This Valentine’s Day, share the love with recipes and homemade gift ideas! Don’t miss the International Delight Valentine’s Day Twitter Giveaway. Enter by following International Delight on Twitter and by tweeting your favorite ID flavor  with the hashtag #IDLove. Winners will be contacted on February 15th and will receive ID Valentine’s Day Sampler Packages!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

diy - valentine's day dog scarves

I love little more than a dog in an outfit or accessorized and I am always putting scarves {and costumes} on my pups. Gordita hates anything beyond a scarf but Finn is game for whole outfits.  It's awesome.  He always looks so proud in his Halloween costumes.  I love having a dog that appreciates clothing :).

Last week I made my dogs cute little scarves for Valentine's Day.  This project is super easy and inexpensive.

What you will need ~

-lightweight fabric {Finn got dark red and Gordita gray}, about 12"x 18" 

-felt {I used two shades of pink and white}

-scissors/pinking shears

-fabric glue {if you want to sew instead of glue, the hearts will definitely hold better}

Step One ~

Fold the lightweight fabric in half and use the pinking shears to cut out a triangle, leaving two long-ish pieces at the top to serve as the ties.

Finn is pretty big so I made his 12" {from the flat edge to the tip of the triangle}.  Gordita is medium sized, so her scarf measured 10" from the flat part to the tip of the triangle.

Step Two ~

Cut a few hearts out of the felt and glue them onto the front of the scarves.  If you want the hearts to really adhere to the cotton, I would add a few stitches.  Fabric glue holds fairly well but a few stitches will ensure that the hearts stay in place.

Could they be any cuter??  

heart shaped snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are my husband's favorite cookie.  He always asks me to make them and I really don't mind because, well, buttery + cinnamon sugary = SO frickin good.  What is it about cinnamon and sugar that is so perfect?  It reminds me of my childhood and lots of loaves of my favorite Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread.  

For this batch of snickerdoodles, I decided to switch it up and make them heart shaped.  Snickdoodle dough is a lot stickier than the average sugar cookie dough, so you will need to heavily flour your work surface or roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper.

I like to use a mix of flour and mostly powdered sugar when rolling out dough - the powdered sugar prevents sticking but it won't dry out the dough as much as flour.

Snickerdoodle Cookies {recipe from the Food Network Favorites cookbook}
-2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup shortening
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups sugar {plus 3 tablespoons for dusting the cookies}
-2 large eggs
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon {I like to add a little cinnamon to the dough} plus 1 tablespoon for dusting
-extra flour and some powdered sugar for the work surface {less than a cup of each}

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Using an electric hand or stand mixer, beat together the shortening and butter until well combined.  Add the 1 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy, this will take about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each is added.  Finally, mix in the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.  Right towards the end of the blending, add in the 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

4. Flour/powder sugar the work surface, rolling pin, and your hands.  Working with about one fourth of the dough at a time, roll out until about 1/4" thick and cut with a heart shape cookie cutter.  Transfer the heart cookies to a baking sheet.  

5. Mix together the extra 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and just before baking, sprinkle with the mixture over each cookie.  Press down gently so that the cinnamon-sugar mixture sinks into the dough.

6. Bake for about 10 minutes, remove from oven, and pull the parchment off the hot baking sheet and set on the counter so the cookies can cool.  

This recipe will make about 20 or 22 cookies....I guess it depends on how much dough you eat.  I always tend to eat way too much dough, so I only got about 20 heart shaped cookies out of this recipe :).  

Enjoy!