Party Perfect - DIY Dyed Carnations

Have you ever wanted a flower in a particular colour only to find out that it either doesn't exist in nature or it costs way more than you wanted to spend? Say for example, you want a specific shade of blue for your wedding or a boutonniere for him that perfectly matches your dress. No worries - it can be done and on the cheap! All you need are white carnations and some dye or food colouring. Simply place the flowers in a vase with a mixture of water and food colouring in your preferred colour. Then wait a few hours or overnight for your flowers to soak up the colour.

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Pretty, right? It's not too late to make yourself a lovely green St. Patrick's Day bouquet!

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Hurry, Spring!

I've been on the run today having special scans of my jaw joints (long story best saved for a forum other than my crafting and baking blog) and didn't really have time for a proper post but wanted to share a little bit of Spring with you in the form of some lovely pink tulips that just begged to be photographed.

I "planted" them in a vase that we picked up at the local dollar store a while back. I knew I would find a good use for it!

I think they're just the right pink to inspire thoughts of Spring. I'm told it's just around the corner.

I love that I can plant the bulbs outside and enjoy these every year that we're in this home.

And I love that they add a little sunshine in my living room.

And while repotting tulips in your kitchen is not a great idea (I am speaking from experience here)...

...beautiful flowers that make you smile when you walk into a room are definitely one of the loveliest ideas I've had a in while.

Are you counting down the days to Spring too?



By the Batch - Guinness Chocolate Cake

In honour of St. Patrick's Day and the world's most delicious beer (yes, I'm talking Guinness) I decided that I couldn't resist making Nigella Lawson's Guinness Chocolate Cake for this week's bit of baking. I know I'm a couple of days early but this way you still have time to whip one up yourself!

Ingredients for the Cake:
Butter for pan
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar (granulated will do just fine as well)
3/8 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

Ingredients for the Frosting:
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Using a food processor or by hand, mix confectioners' sugar to break up lumps. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable. Remove cake from pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.

According to Sarah:
This cake is amazing and the flavour of the Guinness is mild enough that it won't bother anyone who doesn't like to drink it. It was so easy to make, you mix most of it up on the stove top, and it turned out moist, dense and delicious. The frosting is just the right amount of sweet to compliment the rich chocolate of the cake.

I will say that mine got a bit hard around the edges while the middle fell a bit but I think that's the fault of my springform pan and not of the recipe. I will be watching it more carefully next time as it bakes. Also, don't ignore the part about mixing the lumps out of the sugar - I did and you can totally still see them in my frosting.

We have definitely found a new St. Patrick's Day tradition at our house! Have you tried making this recipe before? Do you want to give it a try now?

Grow Your Own Rainbow

The other day I was wandering around Michaels and came across little terracotta pots for $1 each. I wasn't sure what I would do with them but they were cute and cheap so I bought a couple. I Googled a bit for inspiration and then decided to turn my pots into little leprechaun hats in which I could grow a rainbow!

I gave the pots two coats of black paint. I would have preferred green for my leprechaun hats but I already had black paint and I was making this craft on the cheap. Once they were dry I hot glued green ribbon (actually an old Christmas bow that I pulled apart - I'm talking really cheap!) and yellow foam buckles on to them. Next I made a rainbow using my circle cutter - I started with a 4 3/4 inch red circle and then worked my way through the colours losing a 1/4 inch on each circle. Then I glued them together, cut the whole thing in half and cut a half circle out of the bottom. I glued toothpicks on the back to help it stand up in the pots.

The last touch was little green felt leaves to add a little filler to the pot and to make it look like my rainbow was actually growing ;) And what's a rainbow without a little gold underneath? I picked the coins up at Michaels for about $1.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. What do you think? Would you like to grow a rainbow of your own?

Irish Blessing Printables

I'm seeing a lot of St. Patrick's Day printables around blogland lately so I thought I'd add my own to the mix! There's already enough subway art and "Keep Calm and Carry On" parodies out there so I went in a different direction and used traditional Irish blessings. Who wouldn't want to look at either of these sweet messages every day?

Click on either image to get the full-sized version (the green one has a texture you don't see in the smaller version) and then print to fit a frame you have on hand. They were done as 8x10s but I printed the rainbow one for a 4x6 frame and it looks nice at that size too!

I hope you like them :)

Party Perfect - St. Patrick's Day Sweets

Last week's Party Perfect post took care of the drinks for your St. Patty's Day party. This week I've rounded up some great ideas for sweets and treats.

Don't these Mint Oreo Cookie Balls from Oh My! Sugar High look amazing?

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These Plaid Cookies from The Decorated Cookie might be more Scottish than Irish but I love the colours and the fact that I could actually pull these off!

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I really want to try my hand at these Rainbow Cupcakes from Wee Kitchen - they would be a total showstopper!

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And last but not least, how delicious does this Guinness Chocolate Cake look? This one was made by Peeps from Abroad and is based on a recipe from Nigella Lawson.

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Is your mouth watering yet?

The Blog Guidebook

If you're looking to drive some additional traffic to your own awesome blog then look no further than the Blog Guidebook. It's a huge directory of blogs that you can link up to for free and attract readers that might not have found you otherwise. In addition to being a directory they've got how tos and other resources for bloggers. Defintely worth a visit!

And while the guidebook might appeal most to my fellow bloggers, rest assured that readers of blogs should be interested in visiting the Blog Guidebook too because they've got thousands of lovely blogs broken down into pretty much every category you can imagine. Like crafting? They've got blogs for that. Want to read about Going Green? No problem, they've got blogs for that. Photography, travel, adoption, allergies (yes, allergies!) - they've got blogs to meet your every reading need.

And the best part is that now they've got Sugar and Shimmer too :)