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Cinco de Mayo free printable

By KariV on May 4, 2013 in Freebies, Holidays

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, which for us means homemade Mexican Food! I have been out of town so I haven’t had much time to prepare or plan this year. But that is not going to stop me from still having a delicious menu and bright colors to decorate with!

If you are prepping last minute like me and need some colorful printables, I have one for you (actual size 2″):

All you have to do is download, print and cut.

Use this on your table (I’m using it on my plates to add a little flair!), as a fun sign for food (think guacamole) or as a cupcake topper. My favorite idea is to tape 2 of these back to back on a long shish-kabob skewer and put it in a vase with flowers. I’d love to see this in a bouquet of sunflowers!

Our menu plan is: Carne Asada tacos with all the fixings, homemade garden salsa, chili con carne, and corn chips. For dessert: Fruit Salsa and cinnamon pita chips. I found some beautiful mangoes, apples, pears, blackberries and kiwi for our fruit salsa. Ole!

And because my husband insisted we may also be having TAPIOCA PUDDING! (Does that even qualify as an approved dessert on Cindo de Mayo?!) Either way, it is delicious!

Here are the free printables for you: (be sure to like my page first here:

Then download the printables with the link below this picture:

fiesta tags full page (personal use only. I’d love for you to share these, but point back to my site for credit. Please do not alter, sell, or claim as your own. Thanks!)

I’d love to hear about your plans for Cinco de Mayo.

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The Flower Fields

By KariV on May 3, 2013 in Favorite Things, Inspiration

We just got back from a glorious vacation to Southern California and oh, how I loved the weather over there! But my absolute favorite part of our trip was the visit to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California. The Flower Fields are only in bloom in April (thru Mother’s Day) and the flowers grow in beautiful stripes of color on the side of the hill!

I probably took well over 100 pictures while we were there because I was so delighted at every angle of these fields of flowers. The ranunculas are certainly the star of the show and they cover about 55 acres of land.

These pictures don’t even do the beautiful scene justice, but I hope it gives you some of the inspiration we felt while we were there. You are not allowed to walk into the fields of flowers (don’t try it because there are guards in little golf carts watching you!), however there are some green carpets laid down so you can walk into each color stripe of flowers about 5 feet in. That is how we got to take some really fun pictures that look like we are in the middle of the field of flowers:

The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing and it was a perfect 72 degrees that day. Haven’t you always wanted to frolic in flowers?! Opa didn’t want to kneel in the flowers, so he stood there holding a yellow ranuncula…he doesn’t have the same look of wonder on his face, but believe me, he loved these flowers fields like the rest of us did!

The workers at the Flower Fields are busy picking the most beautiful ranunculas to bundle up in a set of 10 flowers. They bundle 12,000 up in a day to be delivered asap to the shops and stores that have already ordered them. 12,000 a DAY!! That’s a lot of flower bundles. And I must admit, I wanted to take a bundle home with me!

They did have other flowers there besides ranunculas. Like this Planter of Petunias. And a trellis garden filled with amazing-ness:

There was also a greenhouse filled with Orchids, a greenhouse filled with Poinsettias, and a maze made out of sweet peas. And of course a complete Nursery of flowers available for sale as you leave. And don’t forget the ROSE garden!

The flowers that grow in Southern California are just amazing! My husband and I have always loved flowers and gardens, and it is such a treat for us to notice all the color and beauty growing in California.

If you get an opportunity, go see the Flower Fields at Carlsbad…it may be the perfect Mother’s Day gift to take your mother (or grandmother)! I hope you enjoyed this tour of the Flower Fields!

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Dose of Sunshine Monday — Choose to Be Happy

By KariV on April 29, 2013 in Inspiration

Happy Monday! Today, I will leave you with one simple idea: If you have a choice, choose to be happy.

I am working on this at times there are things that bother me, but I remind myself that I do have a choice! And I can choose to continue to worry, or I can choose to be happy. It’s much more fun to be happy! Have you mastered this?

Have a super-great week filled with happy!

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How to make an Orange Slice out of Felt (and a free printable)

By KariV on April 26, 2013 in DIY, Freebies, Paper Crafting

Today I am going to show you how to make that felt orange slice that we used to adorn our Orange Blossom Cookies.

It is incredibly easy to make and looks surprisingly realistic next to real orange slices. You only need: Orange felt in 2 shades, white felt, ribbon, needle & thread, fabric glue.

Watch the quick video tutorial below: (and please leave some nice comments if you are watching on YouTube)

Voila! Nice and easy, right? And it adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to your orangey gifts! Think of using it for more than just orange cookies; Tie one around a mason jar or carafe of Orange Juice, Wrap up a bag of oranges and use it to dress them up. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be an orange gift, but it does let the recipient know what to expect.

If you are ready to try the best orange cookies ever, then click here for the recipe!

Now, as promised…here is the free printable to use with your felt orange slices. (This is for personal use only. Please do not reproduce, claim as your own or sell. Thank you!)

(The download will not have my website on it)

Like my page here:

Then download the pdf version here:

thinking of you

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Orange Blossoms (a favorite recipe)

By KariV on April 25, 2013 in Dessert, Favorite Things, Recipes

We have four beautiful orange trees and today they were calling to me. One of my favorite things is to enjoy the fruit from our CITRUS trees here in Arizona. We have a new lemon and lime tree, too, and I’m hoping soon they will produce! But now, it’s time to harvest the rest of these sweet oranges and MAKE something. I went to pick some low hanging fruit and came in with a basket just full of oranges ready to juice, zest, and slice.

Aren’t they beautiful!? Of course, we love our fresh-squeezed orange juice, but today I’m thinking my very favorite orange cookies: Orange Blossoms. My sister, who lives in Utah, made these the other day and sent me a picture…she said “These cookies always remind me of you!” So thank you, dear sister, for the inspiration!

I will warn you now: this post has a lot of pictures! I couldn’t help it…these darlings made such a photogenic subject and I got a little carried away. I even got my husband in on the picture taking (you will see his picture at the end of the post).

I love the simple ingredients: oranges, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, eggs, butter, and buttermilk. We just happened to have some buttermilk on hand that I needed to use up, but if you don’t have buttermilk you can add a little lemon juice to regular milk (see how to do this here).

{Have you used one of these microplane zesters? It’s one of my favorite tools in the kitchen, especially when I’m working with citrus!}

Mix up the ingredients and drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet. Today, I made them regular sized, but if I’m having a ladies’ lunch or tea party, I will make them half this size. And they turn out so cute!

Bake them up and while they are baking, make the orange glaze. It’s a simple mixture of butter, powdered sugar, orange zest, and orange juice. You will want to frost these cookies while they are still warm because the frosting melts and enrobes the cookies a little bit.

I love these little cookies. They are more cake-like and when you bite into them it is just. like. heaven.

Can you see the bits of orange zest in the frosting? There is zest in both the cookie dough AND the frosting, which adds up to a great citrus-y kick of flavor!

Doesn’t this make a pretty picture? It screams luncheon (or tea party) to me! Or the next best thing: which is to wrap them up pretty and take them to some of my favorite people.

OK. That orange slice (out of felt!) and printable is so cute for this little gift! Click here to get instructions on how to make it AND get the free printable!