A Few Home Buys

I picked up these few things while passing through Dunnes Stores....I was delighted when I saw the glass jar with a lid as I had been looking for something like this for a while.....It's the new home for my hair pins and ties and it sits nicely on my vanity.
I thought the owl was cute and would also be a nice decoration on my vanity and I love the all white. The Metal "Home Sweet Home" heart is hanging in my kitchen window. I got all three for under €15 so all very reasonable. I have to say Dunnes Home Wear has loads of lovely bits at the moment I just needed more time to browse.

I finally got round to buying a Wax Burner and Yankee Candle Wax Melts. I have been a fan of the candles for years but never tried these. I have heard great things so I decided to try them out. I got this burner and set of 12 wax melts in my local Yankee Candle stockist ( I would have preferred a plainer design on the burner but the mirrors actually look quiet pretty when lit) . The set is the "Mother's Day Pure Essence Tube" and the 12 melts included in the set are;
Baby Powder, Ginger Dusk, Champaca Blossom, Lake Sunset, Pink Sands, Fresh Cut Roses, Lovely Kiku, Honey Blossom, Cassis, Garden Sweet Pea, A Child's Wish, Aloe Water. This set has a few of my faves and also some I have never had before, the only thing I would say is I tend to opt for the Food&Spice or Fruit scents for the kitchen (which is where I bought this for) but I think this set is more suited the hall/living area. I have only been using this for a few days but first impressions are very good, there is a much stronger scent than the candles and I can see them lasting way longer. The girl who sold them to me gave me a tip for getting the cold melted wax out of the dish and that's to pop the whole burner into the freezer for a few minutes and the wax will slide right out! Will definitely be trying this!! I am happy so far and think I will move this to the hall and try to find an all cream/white burner for the kitchen with some vanilla cupcake melts!!

And last but not lease a quick trip in to Penney's (is there such a thing???) got me these! I was just popping in to return something and instead of being up money, I left with a big bag and a lighter purse! I really only had a few minutes (hubby and babies waiting outside) but I would have loved some browsing time as they have all the new season children's wear and homewear in stock (I presume ladies wear also but I ran through there with blinkers on).
So I picked up this mint green cushion with a Pink Flamingo on (€6) this is for the girls room (my next decorating project - post coming soon) . I also got this metal "You are my sunshine" hanging sign (€1.50) .....not sure where this if for yet but will be one of the children's rooms. And finally these battery operated set of 20 LED lights (€4) I saw these lighting in the store and thought they would look cute in the girls room. I'll have to pop into Penney's again soon because from what I saw it deserves a bit more of my time to look around.

Karen

xxx

Birthday Cake and Tutus

It was Miss 7's Birthday this week and I thought I'd share her cake and outfit.

Her cake was semi-homemade (by myself). I decided to go for a Giant Chocolate Cupcake and it turned out to be surprisingly easy. I cheated a bit and used a Betty Crocker cake mix. I bought two boxes of the "Devil's Food Cupcake Mix" but that wasn't enough and I had to run to the shop mid bake to buy a 3rd box, the Giant Cupcake tin was bigger than I thought!!! This mix only takes 15/16 minutes if you are making regular cupcakes but it took 50 mins to bake in the giant tin.
Once cooled I trimmed the tops so they would fit together well and sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream.
I then tried to pipe roses using the ribbon nozzle in my icing kit but it wasn't turning out like the cake I saw on Pinterest (did I really think it would???) so I ad-libbed and changed nozzle and just did my own unique design. I added some Maltesers, Dr Oetker's white chocolate hearts and some 100's and 1000's and I have to say I was very happy with the finished look.

The morning of her birthday I had her cake on the table with the candles lighting and presents and cards piled up waiting to be opened.

Her outfit for her party was a tutu dress she picked herself. She loved the colour (a dusky "ornate" pink). I decided to team this with baby blue and picked up the cardigan and shoes in H&M. It looked stunning and Miss 7 was very happy which was the most important thing.

Karen

xxxx

Little Chocolate Treats

Miss 7's (turning 7) birthday is this weekend and when it's your birthday at school you get to bring in little treats for your class pals. So tonight we made these really cute and very easy little chocolate treats. As food allergies are quiet common I find it easier to just work with chocolate when I'm sending treats to school.

I had these heart shaped moulds that I picked up super cheap in Euro Giant last Valentine's Day. We started by placing chocolate smarties into each mould and then melted a bar of milk chocolate and half a bar of white chocolate.

We added one tsp of milk chocolate and 1/2 tsp of white chocolate into each heart....and then came the fun part.....

......the swirling!!!. I gave the girls a cocktail stick each and they very slowly swirled the two chocolates together.