24 Olive Street

Sweet Stamp Shop + Avery products

This past week Sweet Stamp Shop collaborated with Avery products and the result was pure fun! I've used Avery products for years and as a Sweet contributor I got to play with some of their products, some I had never used before!

So here's a look at a few projects I created:

How about some cleaning stickers for your planner? I love using Avery labels along with Sweet stamps to create my own custom labels. For these stickers I used the Clean It Up stamp set from the May release and colored with Tombow markers.

Treat bags anyone?? I paired Smart Cookie with the round kraft labels to create these fun treat bags.

I used Tombow markers to color in the cookie jar. Even the blender pen worked nicely on the kraft labels.

Every year I make homemade salsa with tomatoes I grow in my garden. These scallop circle labels paired with the Outline Lower Alpha and Groceries stamps were perfect for labeling my jars of salsa.

And sometimes you just need to celebrate making it to Friday! How cute are these Avery flags paired with Small Victories.

There's also a sweet giveaway over on the Sweet blog that ends TODAY so head here to check it out!

To see more projects you can head over the Sweet blog and Instagram!

 

 

2.14

I was very busy yesterday preparing some special Valentine's Day treats for my hubby & kiddos. We don't go over the top at Valentine's Day...maybe because we just got done with Christmas and 2 of my kids' birthdays. By the time February 14th rolls around I'm a bit worn out with all the planning from the last few months!

I've been a slacker the last few years with the festive decor but I do still like to do a few special things for them.

So here's a few of the treats I made for this special day :)

All recipe links at the end of the post.

I made these heart soft pretzels for my kids' lunch today & paired it with a little but of hummus for dipping (keeping it a little healthy on this candy filled day!). I was a little nervous cause the dough wasn't very stretchy so I thought I did something wrong. But when they came out of the oven they were sooooo good!

I only used all-purpose flour...wasn't even going to mess with whole wheat flour. Maybe next time I'll try half and half to see how it turns out...now that I know how a 'normal' batch tastes. I also used my Kitchenaid mixer to knead the dough instead of doing it by hand.

I baked at 400 for 7 minutes and then turned it up to broil for the last 3. That seemed to be the magic numbers for my oven...just be careful cause they can burn fast when you turn on the broiler. I set my smoke alarms off but thankfully didn't burn them!

I also brushed with melted butter when they came out of the oven. Mmmmm. Just an FYI - once they've cooled the butter gets a little mushy so I would only brush on the butter of the ones that you're eating right away & leave the other ones plain.

These cookies are the traditional peanut butter kiss cookies that a lot of us grew up with (and one of my absolute faves!). Just switch out the kiss for a Dove heart!

Since I couldn't find my recipe (or the 2 that I had from my cookie swap last December) I just hit up Pinterest to find one that was similar. Clearly this shows my recipes are in serious need of some reorganizing!!

Pretzel hugs are a favorite and super easy. We've been doing these for years. If you're not trying to surprise your kids like I was it's fun to have them help out :) Seriously, unwrapping all those hugs is a pain!

Now, I will tell you, my pretzel hugs look a little weird. They should flatten more when you put the m&m's on them but I think my oven was still too warm from making the pretzels that the chocolate didn't melt right (or maybe cooked a little). I thought I had left enough time for it too cool off but oh well. They're still yummy :)

Rice Krispie treats are a pretty standard and easy treat to make. But putting holiday sprinkles makes it fun! My kids got one of these in their lunch...and I sent a few in with my hubby along with a heart pretzel :) I also tried a different recipe using marshmallow fluff and I really liked it much better. The taste wasn't dramatically different but I noticed my pan wasn't as sticky and it was easier to smooth them into my baking dish. So I'll probably make them this way from now on.

Btw, is there a difference between marshmallow creme and marshmallow fluff?? Cause if there is I made them wrong! The recipe called for 'creme' but all I had on hand was the 'fluff' and I couldn't find the other stuff in the store.

Still good :)

I haven't figured out what we're doing for dinner tonight yet. Heart shaped pizzas would be fun but we already had pizza this week and the kids also had pita pizzas one day for lunch. I'm thinking of making it a fondue night. I know the kids would dig it!! So I'll be searching Pinterest today for recipes and we'll be running out after the big kids get home from school to get all the fixin'

This one looks yummy. And this. Trying to stay away from the recipes with white wine...not a favorite of the kids.

We kept it simple for Valentine's this year. Once my son saw these Minecraft Valentine's he immediately wanted them.

My daughter only did a couple since this year her class "wasn't allowed" to pass them out in class. Don't even get me started. So she just made up a few to give to her close friends. {sigh} She used the girly version of the Minecraft Valentine's.

I hope you all have a wonderful day spending it with special people :)

For any other last minute Valentines ideas you can check out my Pinterest board here.

Recipe links:

Heart pretzels - Recipe, Pin it

Pretzel Hugs - Recipe

Rice Krispie treats - Recipe, Pin it

Dove Heart cookies - Recipe, Pin it

rainbow cake

Well, we did it!

We made a rainbow cake. And to be honest, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I enlisted my helpers to help mix all of the colors.

I used disposable pans but didn't realize til they were baked that they had a scalloped edge which made it a little more difficult to frost. No biggie. This wasn't for a party or special occasion...just for fun :)

I went easy & used two white cake mixes. For the frosting I went with my favorite from the best chocolate cake ever recipe.

Couple tips:

Make sure the cake is cooled completely before trying to frost it. My yellow layer started to fall apart because I didn't realize that layer wasn't totally cooled. We may have been a wee bit impatient. Didn't matter though...two pieces fell off & I still managed to piece it back together & it stayed in there under the other layers just fine (even when cutting it).

Chill the cake for a few hours before cutting if you want the layers to look all pretty when you cut it. And be sure to clean the knife between each cut. We were dying to cut into it so we only held out for an hour :) Again, we didn't make this for a party so it didn't matter.

I think it'd be really fun to do this in Halloween or Christmas colors!

I have a few ideas pinned on my Cakes & Cupcakes, Halloween & Christmas boards. You can head over to Pinterest to check it out!

Although, I will confess that as pretty as it looks it's still not as good as the best ever chocolate cake. Then again, is anything better than chocolate??

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

It's 2 days before Christmas! I know I've been a bit MIA on the blogeroo. I know I mentioned in this post that my little one had a trip to the ER.

Well, turns out a week (and another seizure) later she actually had a UTI that was causing her fever to keep spiking. It had originally turned up negative at the ER and the lab screwed up and didn't notify her pediatrician that the results were actually positive. I hadn't checked into it because after a few days her fever started coming down and since my other 2 kids had been sick, one of them also with a fever, I assumed that she just had some kind of virus.

Then less than a week later it spiked again & her doctor looked into her lab results at the hospital. After 2 days on antibiotics she finally started feeling better.

Check out these red cheeks when her fever spiked out of nowhere in the middle of Toys R Us...

I was praying she wouldn't have a seizure in the middle of the store but I also didn't want to leave in case she had one in the truck. So I dosed her up with Tylenol & Motrin & walked around the store til she cooled off a bit.

Let me tell you, febrile seizures are scary shit. There's nothing like seeing your toddler shaking uncontrollably all while she's drooling & her eyes are rolling back in her head. It feels like it lasts an eternity. And now that she's had a few she will be more prone to them for the next few years so I need to watch her when she gets a fever & try to attack it with medicine before it spikes.

We also have an ultrasound scheduled for next week to see if her UTI was caused from reflux into her kidneys. I guess there's a small chance of that since she's so young.

Sooooo....

other than that, this is what we've been doing the last week or 2...

Having lunch with daddy. Mmmm...gyros!!!

Teacher gifts - peppermint fruit dip with an apple. They all seemed to love them!

I picked up my new glasses...turquoise of course!

Snow!!!

We also had some high winds that knocked out some of my lights. Boo :(

We've been making lots and lots of cookies, some that were sent to the grandparents :)

L-R: (click on the name for the link) Iced Soft Ginger cookies, Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter cookies, Cinnamon Toffee Pecan Oatmeal cookies, & Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. I also made some Mint Chocolate Cookies that aren't pictured...we were too busy eating them :)

Couple notes: I was trying to stick with drop cookies & cookies that would package well since I was shipping some of these out. The cinnamon toffee pecan oatmeal cookies were very good but as much as I love cinnamon it was a little overpowering. Next time I'll decrease the cinnamon chips just a bit. Same with the mint cookies, I'll decrease the peppermint extract just a bit next time. I also found some Andes mints already cut up in the baking section so we didn't have to chop a bunch for our cookies.

They were all very yummy!!

And since we sent out a bunch I'll be making more this weekend so we have plenty for ourselves and the big man in red tomorrow :)

I also want to make this layered jello. I've always wanted to make it but it looked too intimidating. But Pioneer Woman makes it look doable so I'm gonna give it a try!

I have lots more recipes pinned on my cookies & Christmas treats boards.

My oldest daughter has her own list of 'treats to bake'...

I think she's overreaching a bit this close to Christmas but we'll try!

I've been pulling out my ebelskiver pan several times this week.

Chocolate chip ebelskivers. I served them sprinkled with powdered sugar. Mmmm....

Seriously, everyone needs one of these. My step-mom got us this one year for Christmas. It's something I would have never bought myself but I love it! They're a lot easier to make than they look and super yummy! I've been using recipes out of this book. I really want to try these lemon marscapone ones. Oh man!!

Lots of elf-capades going on...

Wrapping lots of presents...and using the tubes as lightsabers!

I'm soooo behind on my December Daily. And Project Life. And there's still a bunch of decorations that didn't make it out of their boxes. But that's ok. My kids are finally all healthy for Christmas and we can spend the next few days together enjoying the season.

Merry Christmas!!!

last game of the season

Well, baseball season officially ended for us this week. The regular season ended and then we had the playoffs...playoffs that should have ended already but with this rainy weather we've had several games postponed.

I'm glad and sad for it to be over. I love watching the games. I've said this before but I never realized how fun having a boy would be! But I'm kind of exhausted with all that's been going on so it'll be nice to not have a set schedule (for the most part) for the next few months.

My son's team took 1st place for the regular season and 2nd place for the championship games. Not bad!

During the last game we had a quick downpour so while all of the kids were huddled in the dugout, Addie & I were snuggling under the umbrella!

I made up these little goodie bags for a special 'last game of the season treat'.

I wanted to make them up all cute but you do what you can with the time that you have! I was excited to find the baseball cupcakes at the grocery store and I had to run to 3 different Safeway's to get enough of the Big League Chew...definitely going to plan ahead next year!

The last day of school is tomorrow!!!!

rainbow cupcakes

When I was browsing Pinterest to find ideas for cupcakes to bring to school for my daughter's birthday, I came across this pin:

Source

Perfect! Not too girly so the boys won't go 'ugh' when they see them...cause, ya know, we're getting to that age.

So here's my version of them:

You'll have to excuse the cruddy pics...it was 10 o'clock at night when I was making these! They actually looked much better in person.

So I set out to buy the stuff for them. Thankfully, I was able to find the 'rainbows' in the first grocery store I went to.

Airheads! Each package made 16 rainbows. Now, since all I had was a photo to go by I had to figure out how to make these on my own. So if you decide to make these, here's a few tips.

First, to get the airheads into your cupcakes (cause you can't just push them in without totally ruining your frosting), cut a slit on either side of the cupcake where you want to put the airheads

Don't worry about it not looking pretty. You can cover that up with frosting. Now put some of your white frosting (the clouds) just on the inside of the rainbow.

Now place the airhead/rainbow into the cupcake & add white frosting around the outside and Voila!

I didn't really get any good shots of the cupcakes before Olivia took them to school. But you get the idea.

I was happy with them, she was happy with them :)

You can follow me on Pinterest here.