Holidays | Sunshine in my pocket

Archive | Holidays RSS feed for this section

Easter Burlap Bunny Bag

By KariV on March 31, 2013 in Easter, Gift Ideas, Holidays

This is the first Easter where I have not put together Easter baskets for my kids….I usually have a basket for at least one of them! But this year they are ALL adults and all out on their own. And I’m not liking it one bit. Nope, I do not particularly enjoy the “empty nest,” it’s a little too quiet, a little too uneventful, a little too boring. We didn’t even color eggs this year.

Before you get too sad for me and my kid-less situation, I must tell you that we did have a BEAUTIFUL Easter Brunch and Easter table setting! 🙂

And I did sew up an adorable “Burlap Bunny Bag” for my daughter.

I had all the makings for an adorable Easter pouch to send to my daughter: burlap, pink gingham ribbon, pink glitter iron-on vinyl….(I’m in love with this new glitter iron on vinyl! I learned about it from The Glitter Academy…and now I’m sold. What else can I make with this stuff?!? I am sure I will be coming up with more fun projects for this new vinyl.)

I sewed up a simple bag (using a straight stitch, and then a zig zag stitch on the edges to keep the burlap from fraying), then ironed on the glitter vinyl bunny. {I cut out this bunny with my Cricut earlier.} I used a tea towel over the vinyl as I ironed it down for about a minute or two. Then I peeled off the protective covering to reveal the brilliant glitter. I stitched on the pink ribbon and Voila! An adorable Burlap Bunny Bag to send to Amber!

I’m going to fill it up with plenty of Easter candy and maybe a special small treat just for her (like nail polish or hair ties)! Do you think she will like it? I sure did miss her this Easter!

I hope your Easter is overflowing with Hope, Joy, Peace, Kids and Easter Baskets! 😉

Linking up with Lil Luna: $Lil\'Luna$

Comments { 0 }

Easter Surprise Rolls

By KariV on March 28, 2013 in Dessert, Easter, Holidays, Recipes

These Easter Surprise Rolls are simple to make and delicious! I made these growing up and I think since they are SO easy to make, we actually made them more often than just Easter time! They take only minutes to put together, and are so fun to make with kids (I know, I made them when I was a kid!)

First gather the simple ingredients: Crescent Rolls, Marshmallows, Cinnamon Sugar, Melted butter.The next steps are super easy, and I will show you how to assemble them in pictures:

Seal those crescent rolls well…you don’t want the marshmallow to escape! Dip just the bottom of the roll in butter and place it in a muffin tin. Now just bake them at 375 for 10-12 minutes! But be sure to put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin tin. The marshmallows tend to seep out a bit and they like to drip. {You will thank me later!} While the rolls are baking, prepare the glaze.

Just 3 simple ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. I used my Watkins vanilla for this one. (Read the vanilla taste test here). After I made the glaze, I realized that I could have used my CLEAR vanilla and it would have kept the glaze a nice white color.

Allow the rolls to cool a bit, then drizzle on the glaze.

The surprise comes when you bite into one of the warm rolls and find they are EMPTY! What happened to the marshmallow?!

Easter Surprise Rolls

1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
2 pkg. crescent rolls (refrigerated)
16 large marshmallows
1/4 c. melted butter

Dip large marshmallow into melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place in wide end of crescent roll, fold corners over and roll to point. Seal edges well. Dip point side into butter and place down in greased muffin tin. Place pan on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Remove rolls from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Glaze while warm.

Variation: Place spoonful of canned apple pie filling in crescent roll and then put a large marshmallow on top of the pie filling. Fold, roll and bake.

Glaze:

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1-2 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk ingredients together. Spoon over warm rolls.

Aren’t they beautiful? Enjoy!

Linking up here:

Comments { 0 }

Dose of Sunshine Monday — Easter Hope

By KariV on March 25, 2013 in Easter, Freebies, Holidays, Inspiration

Happy Monday! I’ve been singing this phrase in my head lately, so I thought I’d better put it into a printable format. (Does that ever happen to you?)

Here is my chalkboard rendition for Easter Hope:

{To see my other Easter printables in spring colors, click here.}

I hope your Easter is filled with hope, peace and joy.

To download this printable, please like my page here:

Then download the print here (the download will not have my website on it):

3-13 i know that my redeemer lives 5×7

3-13 i know that my redeemer lives 2×3

I am linking up to my first Sundae Scoop Link party here:

Comments { 2 }

Easter Trio & a Spring Thank You Gift

By KariV on March 23, 2013 in Easter, Gift Ideas, Holidays

I’ve been working on TWO holidays at once: Easter and April Fool’s Day planning. I don’t usually do much for April Fool’s Day, but this year we are having an outdoor party on that very day, and so I MUST have a little fun! (Don’t you agree?) I’ll be sharing my April Fool’s pranks in a later post, but for now here are some Easter prints I’ve been designing and re-designing.

The first one is really a reminder to me to get moving on all these projects and party plans! Ha! I need to post this one on my phone for a while as a wallpaper!

Which one would you choose to display?

I love the “Hello, Spring” in a frame. Now that I look at this picture, I think I might need some white “Spring” frames! Any suggestions on where to find some cute ones?

You might notice my little spring jars that I decorated up with some Easter vinyl. I cut these vinyl Easter creatures (bunny and blue robin) with my Cricut die-cutting machine and adhered them to the jars. Then I filled them with chocolate treats, printed a 2×3 of the Hello, Spring printable and used it for a tag on the jar.

I’m using this one as a special thanks to a friend who has helped me out so much! Hope she likes it.

Have a wonderful 2 days of holiday celebrating!

P.S. If I get enough requests, I will make these Easter printables available to you on this post!

Comments { 0 }

Dose of Sunshine (and Rainbows) Monday — Rainbow Dinner Party

By KariV on March 18, 2013 in Dessert, Holidays, St. Patrick's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day. We had a birthday dinner celebration for my Mom’s birthday! And it turned out bright and cheerful. So for this Dose of Sunshine, I decided to share the Rainbow Dinner Party we had. I hope it brightens your day!

rainbow-skittles

I was challenged to decorate for this dinner party with only dishes I already had! (Shop for dishes much? I guess my husband thinks I have too many! What? Is that even possible?) So I started out with some rainbow skittles in mini glasses and added a bit o’luck tags…can you see the gold (rolo) at the end of the rainbow? I used the “Little Bit o’ Luck” printables from here.

The gold chargers I already had, as well as the white plates (they are the buffet plates from Crate and Barrel). Other items I already had: the silverware, goblets, vases. I did supplement with some shamrock papers for the runner (from JoAnn’s), and flowers (daffodils and carnations from Safeway). I colored the water in each flower vase in a different color of the rainbow.

I love the way the individual fruit salads turned out! Strawberries, Clementines, Pineapple, Green Grapes, and Blueberries make for a happy rainbow fruit salad. (And delicious! I made a vanilla pudding sauce to go with the fruit salad, but I found that the fruit was so sweet on it’s own that we didn’t even use the pudding sauce).

For dessert, I made Texas Sheet Cake Cupcakes (a favorite around here)! And I found these sour rainbow candies at WalMart, so we of course had to make a rainbow on our cupcakes. I used a little stabilized whipped cream (from Trader Joe’s) as the clouds, cut the rainbow sheets in half and put them into the cream. My nephews loved this part! I even let them make their own rainbows on the cupcakes.

We had some cupcakes to deliver to a friend who also has the same birthday, and so we wrapped them up in this cute cupcake box, tied with a green bow, and added a “Little Bit o’ Luck” tag to the top. I decorated only 2 of her cupcakes with the rainbows…since they are a little sour. Those chocolate cupcakes are so delicious on their own, but those rainbows are just adorable. So which one wins…adorable or delicious? I will let her decide! {Note: my nephews LOVED the sour rainbows…it might be a kid taste?}

We decorated with LOTS of flowers…a dinner party is made even more amazing with flowers! The ones on the left were a gift to my mom from a good friend (thanks, Erin, she loves them!) And I printed out the Luck printable in the frame from here.