the glittered nest

The Art of Giving

"When I give, I give Myself"

Walt Whitman

Life is crazy busy and it is so easy to forget the little things like inviting a friend over for coffee even if it means your house is not perfectly clean and you have laundry sitting in three baskets with good intentions(yes, embarrassingly enough this is me).

How about making(or buying) some muffins with your children and walking them over to a neighbor?

I have been reading a book titled "Lifegiving" by Tammy Maltby and it has reminded me that God has made women to be unique and beautiful spirits.  We have the gift of sharing our souls, our laughter and our homes.  We are designed to enrich the life of others around us through comforting acts of kindness and hospitality. 

My mother n law is a Lifegiving women and loves to make these strawberry preserves and give them as gifts.  When I visit I am always secretly hoping she has made a batch of this ruby red goodness!  Have you ever known a friend who makes you feel better just being around her?  You feel accepted and loved NO MATTER WHAT?  You want to go to her home not because it is fancy but because you feel her kind spirit and love when you walk through the door?

Think about being a lifegiving woman this week.  How can you spread the love God has given us unconditionally to another?  I would love to hear how you like to give! The recipe below is from one of my favorite bloggers: Elyse of Tinkered Treasures

Just enough Strawberry Preserves

1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled, and sliced or chopped
2.5 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
Less than a pinch of salt

In a pot, combine the strawberries, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil and cook, stirring frequently for 15 to 20 minutes.

Let cool and serve. Keep refrigerated. Probably keeps up to 1 week (if it lasts that long)

 
 

Cool treat on hot summer days

 
First for a homemade yogurt treat and then a semi homemade that is quick and easy!

This first recipe is divine and came out of this month's Martha Stewart Food. 

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

You will need :

10 ounces of fresh or frozen raspberries

1 cup sugar

2 cups yogurt(I used organic vanilla Brown cow yogurt and cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup)

Puree the raspberries in the blender with the sugar and push through a mesh sieve to remove the seeds.  Add the yogurt and then follow your ice cream maker's instructions.  I use the Kitchen Aid attatchment and it is so easy.  You attach it and let it run for 20 minutes and Walla!  You have a homemade treat.  Enjoy!

 

Don't these look delicious!  Cherry Vanilla milkshakes with a butter almond cookie.

All you need is your favorite icecream, a little milk, a blender and some whipped cream(from a can) and a cherry.  And the best part is you didn't spend 5 dollars a piece on them!  Put in a fun swirly straw like this red one from bakeitpretty.com and now you have a fancy but cheap dessert.  Enjoy and happy summer to you!

MOPS retreat goodies

This weekend I am spending time with 11 beautiful women.

We will lay by the pool, eat delicious food, plan our upcoming MOPS(mothers of preschoolers) year

and indulge in some yummy sweets that I am bringing!

Let me share the treats with you:

 
Lavender Chocolate Ganache

 
We had french macarons, chocolate cherry cake lollies and sugar cookies!

 
Aren't these flip flops fun for summer?  You can find the cookie cutter at Michaels.

 
I used americolor food coloring: electric pink, black and electric green.

 
First pipe a border with stiff consistency royal icing. 

 
Flood the inside of the cookie with your runny icing. Let dry for 10 minutes. Once dry add your detail and package!

 
 
 
I hope you are having a wonderful summer!   

 

3rd day of art/patisserie camp

 
I couldn't help but post this adorable picture of little Lucy.  Aren't the missing front teeth priceless!  She had a hard time eating this treat...too funny.

On the last day of camp Tricia and I woke up feeling excited for the day's events but also sad because we knew this was the end of our first camp journey together. 

At the end of it all I found this was not just a trip for my girls to learn to bake and paint

but a new journey for me to get to know two amazing ladies: Tricia and Jill:

 
Jill traveled from  vacation in Rosemary beach with her daughter Lucy(above).

At the end of every day we had some amazing talks about life as a mother,

wife and most importantly a christian.  I learned so much from these beautiful women..

Thank you for everything girls!

Ok, so now for the pictures of ice cream cake lollies and beautiful art:

 
I think everyone's favorite treat of the camp were the ice cream cake lollies.

First place mm's in the bottom of a sugar cone

 
 

Second, take your cake ball and dip into melted candy coating

 
Once you have dipped, use a piece of styrofoam to stand your ice creams so they can dry.

Third, when the bottom layer of candy is dry take a scoop of your chocolate melted candy

and add to the top to look like a scoop of sundae sauce.

Fourth, add your sprinkles and a cherry sour or gumball for the cherry on top!

(For recipes and where to buy supplies go to my website: glitterednest.com

 
Does this look like a happy girl?(love the peacock feather in her hair)

Now for the girls' amazing art:

 
This barn picture was made by a 6 year old...how amazingly creative!

 
 
Abby's cupcakes look so yummy. I'm trying to get her to give it to me for my kitchen....not happening!

 

 
 
 
I love the colors Lilliana is using. Who wouldn't want this dress.

I loved watching Tricia take the girls through the painting process. They first draw their design with chalk, paint the background and then paint and embellish the dress. Someday I will be a part of her art class.

We ended the last day with our ice cream lollies in the garden, with hugs, almond sweet tea and I made lavender chocolate truffles for the moms when they picked up their campers. 

The girls also received these bags with pretty cupcake wrappers, sprinkles and recipe cards with Tricia's beautiful art.

 

 
That brings our incredible Birmingham fairyland camp to a close.  It was so hard leaving my new friends and all the wonderful girls I met.

I thank Tricia for allowing my family to stay with her and being such an amazing kindred spirit!

Please visit her blog to see more of this amazing camp: littleredhead.typepad.com

 
Off to the airport...but this won't be the last time you see us spreading the love of our passions and for God with others!

 

2nd day of art/patisserie camp

Beautiful morning in Birmingham.

 
We started our day with worship in the garden and Tricia read this verse to the girls:

 
God made us to be unique and beautiful women. 

 When you find you have a special talent share it with the world. 

Share what you love with a friend just to make their day or to lift their spirits.

The girls learned just by simply placing cookies in a little bag with a special note is a way of sharing  love with one another. 

Hospitality is a beautiful gesture. 

I think we are loosing sight of this art and we need to teach our girls to give to others and love one another unconditionally.

Look at what our girls created today:

 
I taught the girls how to ice a border using a pastry bag and how to flood the center to get a smooth finish.  Didn't they do an amazing job!

 
The girls had homemade eiffel tower cookies to decorate.  The recipe is from Martha Stewart.  My special addition to the icing to make it extra yummy is almond extract!

 

 
 
The set up for the girls is simple: enough pastry bags filled with different colored icings so they can all be busy at the same time, runnier icing for flooding and their cookies to decorate.

 

Look at how gorgeous these colors are.  It was so much fun to see how differently the two different aged camps decorated their cookies.  More detail in the older but more color combinations in the younger.  I loved walking around seeing the girls' faces light up when they masterd the flooding technique..it was like magic to see the border and the center of the cookie connect flawlessly.

I know they are going home to teach their mommas!

I have women ask me all the time to hold some baking classes so they can learn these techniques so sugar cookies are not just for kids!

 

Here's a little peak into Tricia's beautiful house.  Doesn't this just look like a porch waiting for sipping tea and swinging in a porch swing. 
 

 
Now for some bike painting time on the porch.

I was so amazed to see the girls' creations.  They were all so talented.

 
 
Tommorow's art lesson...beautiful dresses(this is one that Tricia painted of a Kate Spade dress)

 
We are creating fun ice cream cake lollies tomorrow!

 Back to the kitchen to prepare:

 

 

 

First Day of Art/Patisserie Camp

 
 
Arriving in Birmingham at Tricia's house was like entering Magical Fairy Land.  Walking up to the house she had this sign to welcome us.  She also placed little yummy soaps on our towels in our rooms.  I knew coming that my girls and I would have a wonderful time painting and baking, but I felt God's prescence was with us throughout.

Welcome to the Patisserie

 

 
When you walk into Tricia's house you immediately feel transported to a magical fairlyland.

She has bright colors, whimsical paintings, faux candy hanging from her chandeleir and a garden with a fish pond and lots of little passageways to get lost in.

For the first day of french fairyland for the girls we made:

cupcake liner flowers

Flower Tartlets

Cranberry Raspberry Spritzers in the Garden for Worship time.

 
The girls are awaiting their group assignments for the first exciting day!

 
Strawberries, kiwi, blueberries and raspberries, premade graham shells, lemon curd, fresh whipped cream and a raspberry glaze made up our little flower tartlets. (Recipes are available to upload on my new website: glitterednest.com

 
Tricia is showing the girls what they will be painting on their first day. A row of delicious cupcakes.

 
 
I love collecting cupcake liners so I snatched up every whimsical liner I could find for this fun camp. We originally made some to pin on our shirts but then my daughter came up with the cutest idea to glue them onto ribbon and wear them as little hats.

 
While one group of girls painted, the others decorated yummies with me. I loved this way of teaching the girls except I wanted to be a student in the art portion too!  We had many moms say they wanted to come to camp.  Maybe one day we will have an grown up version(something is already in the works!)

 
The girls loved making their tartlets look like little flower pastries and adding fresh whipped pink cream.  This was an easy but yummy lesson to start camp off with.

 
 
 
 
 
Here are the girls painting their sweet cupcake canvases.

Tricia had them using acrylics, paper, gel medium and palette knives for adding texture.

 
 Madi is working on her painting.  I'll show you the girls' completed art on the third day post.

Now for worship time in the garden along with our treats and special cranberry drink:

 
Everyone loved these pretty pink paper straws from bakeitpretty.com.

 

 
What a beautiful and creative day full of bright colors, smiles and laughter..not to mention lots of sugar! On the second day of camp we learn how to decorate eiffel tower sugar cookies.

The ribbon garland in the back is a fun way to add color to your room for any party.  Simply tie different shades of a color to a long piece of ribbon and just hang.

Second day of camp: bike paintings:

 

Madagascar Vanilla cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting

This is a recipe I have blogged about before but loved it so much...wanted to share again!  Enjoy.

I am embarrassed to say this is the first time I have ever made homemade cupcakes before!  I have always made the frosting but used a box cake.  I will never never never do that again after tasting these yummies!  Of course it takes longer but you can double and freeze!

My kids love sprinkles...sprinkles on everything! Just roll the edges of the cupcake in a little bowl of sprinkles for this look.

For the recipe go to marthastewart.com (vanilla cupcakes)

For the frosting go to marthastewart.com

Here are some pics of other ways to frost these little lovelies:

   

Can you just see how light and fluffy this icing is.  It is not as sweet as buttercream icing but creamy and delicious!  To pipe the ruffle edge I used the small petal tip.  I like the two tones of pink.  

My daughter Abby made a picture of our family that we will use as our tags when we give our baking gifts to friends:

 Daddy, Mommy, Madi, Abby and Brock!  These are the little things I can never forget.  I will have this picture forever.  Sweet Dreams!

Wedding Macaron Table

 
 
What an amazing day...

I had so much fun putting together this french macaron table for a wedding.

As you can see I changed a few things from the original design.

 
Setting up a couple of hours before.

Macarons taste the best 15-30 minutes out of the refrigerator.

So I waited until just before the ceremony to set them out.

 
I used lots of spanish moss to create the bird nest setting.

I even hung it from the willow branches to tie it all together.

Can you see the little jenni horne birdies hanging?

 
I sewed their little bellies together so they looked like they were kissing.

 
 
 

 

Isn't this tag cute?  I used grace printables on etsy.com.

 

Thank you for taking this creative journey with me.

I am working on a french macaron video to share with you.

Valentine Cookie Party Part II

 
Cookie Decorating, Eating Treats and Painting little heart shaped boxes....

What a wonderful afternoon for these sweet girls.

Most importantly...

Friend Bonding Time(for the moms too!)

After the girls ate strawberry buttercream cake, strawberry french macarons, nutella brownies

 and

Apple Cider steeped in Cinnamon Red Hots

we

Broke out the Acrylics, Modge Podge, Scrapbook paper, glittery embellishments

and of course heart shaped pretties...

 
I was so impressed with the girls' ability to perfectly add paper with Modge Podge and

make their boxes so beautiful.  I heard later that some of the girls were so proud

they took their boxes to school for their valentine parties!

Materials used:

Heart shaped paper mache' boxes from Hobby lobby(you can also find them on ebay)

various pink patterned flowers from Michaels

Felt Hearts from Hobby Lobby

Acrylics in valentine colors

Modge Podge

Glue

foam paint brushes(michaels) these help spread the color quicker and over a large area

Glitter Letters from Michaels

 

These boxes were perfect for putting the decorated sugar cookies in when the girls went home.

 
 

 Cinnamon Cider

1 bottle Apple Cider

1 bag(8 ounces) cinnamon candy red hots

Put Apple Cider and red hots in a pan on the stove and place on medium low heat.

Heat until Red Hots are melted and serve in pretty china cups.

This drink has the most brilliant red color...very festive for the holidays.

The drink was so yummy, the moms were asking for some!!!!

Valetine Cookie Party

 
Valentine's Day is such a special day

I love to do something with my girls that they will never forget.

Heart shaped cookies, heart shaped candy and lots of pink treats!

What better way to spread love and joy but to invite friends to join in....

 
To prepare for this fun party you will want to make cinnamon sugar cookies and royal icing:

sugar cookie dough from Martha Stewart (I adapted it by adding cinnamon)

Makes enough for our 4 varieties of cookies

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for 5 minutes, add vanilla and salt.

Add one egg and then two cups of flour.

Add the last egg and the remaining flour(3 cups)

Add 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Royal Icing:

5 TB meringue powder

4 cups of powder sugar

1 Tablespoon Almond extract

1/2 cup of water(add a little at a time to make a stiffer icing for piping and add a little more to make runnier icing for flooding). More on these tricks later!

 
 

The table set up needs to be simple and ready for spills.  I have a plastic cover on the table to prevent staining the table.  Paper plates for decorating the cookies, tray with 4 dozen heart shaped cookies for 6 girls(this was plenty for them to decorate and the recipe above will give you that many).  I made 4 batches of the royal icing and put stiff icing in 6 bags with different icing tips.  I placed 4 bowls of runny icing for the flooding technique.  Colors used were red/pink/white. Also add a couple of bowls with Valentine Sprinkles.  My favorite are the little hearts from Williams Sonoma.

I first showed the girls how to pipe the border on a cookie with an icing bag and then how to flood the cookie with the back of a small spoon.  The girls started their cookies and I barely had to show them new techniques with different tips!  They just picked it right up and had so much fun making their own decorated cookies.

 
How amazing are these cookies from 9 year olds!!!! 

Ok...now don't forget treating the moms while the girls are busy.

 
Prosecco with framboise liquor and a couple of raspberries

Strawberry french macarons

Warm chocolate Truffle cakes(Martha Stewart-Feb 2011)

2 (4 ounce) bars bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup plus 1 TB unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cups plus 3 TBL sugar

2 TB cornstarch

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

3 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

sugar for dusting

garnish: confectioner's sugar

1.  In a small saucepan, combine chocolate and butter over medium-low heat.  Cook until melted, whisking constantly.  Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yolks, and vanilla.  Add egg mixture to sugar mixture, whisking to combine.  Stir chocolate mixture into egg mixture.  Refrigerate for 2 hours. 

3.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 6 (4 ounce) ramekins with nonstick cooking spray; dust with sugar.  Spoon approximately 1/2 cup batter into each ramekin.

4.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Garnish with confectioner's sugar, if desired.  Serve immediately.

(Batter can be prepared ahead and stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days).

 

  
 

 Strawberry cake with pink vanilla butter cream.

 
Here are the brownie bites from the previous post.  Don't they look pretty on this gorgeous tray from Paula Deen's collection at Michaels?

Candy hearts and lips are in the apothecary jar for snacking.

 
Look at how beautifully our little friend Brandi is holding her piping bag!  Future Pastry Chef right here!

After the girls decorated cookies they painted heart shaped boxes to put their cookies in.  I will show you that in the next post.(Valentine's Party Part II).

 If you want to throw a cookie decorating party and have questions about putting it together, please email me.  Happy Valentine's Day!