It seems like I was just running around doing Christmas shopping and now here I am trying to figure out Monkey's Valentine outfit, photo shoot, and what to get or make her teachers for this Hallmark holiday known as Valentine's Day.





And well the initial scrabble tile necklaces with matching earrings were selling like hotcakes!  And they were selling to all ages, about 7 years old to little old ladies in red hats.  I kid you not!  I saw that moms and teachers and grandparents were getting these sets for themselves and decided that these would make cool presents for Monkey's teachers.  So that was nice to have that part of Valentine decisions taken care of.



I love that they are handmade with love, have put the thought into it for the receiver, and that it didn't cost me much.

I'm bagging them up in little bags with a special note and candy for Monkey to give out.  I'm pretty excited about it. 

I also realize that not everyone has the supplies or maybe not the time to make these and so for those of you interested, I do offer these and have lowered the price to try and help make your Valentine gift giving a little easier on your budget.  So now through Feb 4th, instead of $15 they are now $10.  And if you want them sent regular postal mail without insurance it's free shipping.
What's even cooler?  I have a set to giveaway to one of you readers.  I will announce the winner on Friday the 28th so that I have time to make it and get to you in plenty of time.

How do you enter?
Mandatory Entry:

• Become a fan on my Facebook page.  That's it.  Pretty easy. Just leave a comment with your facebook name.    

Bonus Entry

• Suggest us to your friends and tag Texas Monkey Boutique and leave me a seperate comment telling me your name it will show up under on my wall and you're entered again. 

That's it, easy entry, and a fun gift to give! 

Happy Hump Day!

I was looking for some cute favors to make for our July 4th events this weekend and came across this adorable idea on Family Fun and wanted to share it with you here.

Don't be nervous -- these fireworks aren't the exploding kind. In fact, they're meant to be grabbed (and eventually eaten!). Made from candy rolls, they add a sparkling touch to a Fourth of July party.


Materials
Roll of candy like Life Savers
Colored tape
Foil party picks



Instructions

For each firecracker, remove the outer wrapper from a roll of candy. Wrap the inner lining with colored tape.

Insert foil party picks into the center of the roll, snapping off part of the pick if needed to get the correct length.

I know that everyone who gets one of these will just ooh and aahh over them. 
Here's another link for making these at UCreate.
How cute!!!! 
Happy Thursday Ya'll. 

I'm one of those people that wants to do everything myself when it comes to party planning or holidays or events.  I don't want to hire someone, I certainly don't want to buy store bought, but I want it to look like I hired someone and not scream MOM MADE.  That's just who I am, Poppa has learned to love me inspite of me.  This little personality trait of mine can drive loved ones crazy.  I tend to be controlling and the finest detail has to carry through with whatever theme is set for the event.  So why am I revealing this not so loveable trait about myself?  Well one of the things that usually goes along with events and parties is cake.  And I prefer to make my own cakes rather than buy but I'm not a cake professional and getting a cake to not scream MOM MADE can be tricky without experience, lessons, or practice. 
Over the past 4 years I've made quite a few cakes for friends and family and I've learned a lot of cool tricks and tips and thought that maybe some of you might also want to make homemade cakes but have them look more professional.  And in my opinion nothing tastes better than my recipe that has taken years to perfect.  One bite and Poppa knows if it's mine or not.  (Toot Toot haha)

So today I wanted to show you some easy ways to decorate and dress up a cake, whether it's a cake disaster or lack of experience, anyone can pulls these off. 

Let's start with a few tips. 
To get even shapes without the middle dome, tap your pans filled with batter down on the counter gently before baking to release air bubbles and to help settle the batter.  Also don't over fill your pans, put the same amount of batter in each pan by using measuring cups.  If you do get the dome shape after baking, just trim and cut to make it even and smooth.

Although store bought frosting is quick and easy, it's not going to leave a professional look due to not being able to crust.  Your icing/frosting needs to crust over so that it can be smoothed out.  But this can be tricky and time consuming so here comes my easy decorating ideas that can look professional but allows you to use store bought icing.

Items You will Need for Decorating These Types of Cakes:
Icing/Frosting
Spatulas
Longer thin candies or cookies (ie: kit kats, twix, Wafer Roll cookies like Pirouette by Pepperidge Farm)
Toppings ie: strawberries, M&M's, jeally beans, etc.

If you're stacking your cakes and let's say it starts to crumble or fall apart, have faith in knowing that frosting acts like a glue and those pieces can be "glued" back together.  Take this cake for example.  My Nana over Easter weekend informed me she wanted me to decorate her a cake like some I had done in the past.  She'd already bought the decorations and would make the cake.  Now normally I'd prefer to make the cake myself and get the decorations I wanted but this is my Nana and it is still important to her to be able to do some things for herself so when she brought me the baked cake it was literally in 5 pieces.  But like I said, no biggie, just used frosting to piece it back together. 

I've finally gotten around to doing another Dream Book Experiment.  If you aren't familar with what that is I do a weekly post on Friday's called Dream Book where I showcase awesome ideas I'd love to do, ideas I think I can do someday, just not today.  Then when I get around to doing one I blog about it in a post called Dream Book Experiments like this one here.
Anyways, last week I showcased Easter and Spring ideas and you may recall seeing these awesome little Easter Pops.
Well I just had to make something like this for Monkey's Easter party tomorrow at school and so here is my version of Easter Pops.

First I cut my Rice Krispy Treats into Egg shapes using a metal cookie cutter.  I didn't have an egg shape but I had a few circle shapes so I just kind of shaped a circle one into an egg shape since the metal is bendable.

I then inserted popsicle sticks into the bottom.

Then the most important step and ingredient, dipping them in chocolate.

If I were making these for me I would have just stopped here, oh who am I kidding if they were for me I would have just grabbed a spoon and ate the melted chocolate like it was cereal but this is for adorable toddlers so I wanted to make the eggs adorable.
I used striped icing and decorated them and added colored sugar sprinkles.  YUM O MY GOODNESS.

And don't worry I'm sending grapes and cherry tomatoes too to help  balance out the sugar rush the kids will have.  Feeling a bit sorry for her teachers LOL.

Here's a little teaser of a tutorial coming to you soon, stay tuned.



And I leave you with a picture of Monkey saying cheese while eating cheese.  Happy Thursday to you.

I've seen the Pinch Proof shirts around the blogs like here at That's So That's So Cuelgy and here at LuLu's Tiles and on some online t-shirt stores like here so I thought I'd give it a go for the monkey.  I had my awesome sister in law over at Bree Bee's Binkies and Boxes cut me out the words Pinch Proof on her cricut since I don't have one but oh so want one and she mailed them to me.  She rocks.  I then drew a clover for the front pocket and a larger one for the back of the shirt on freezer paper and cut them out.   First I tried using the spray paint fabric paint and well that just ended up in a big mess.  I'll need to start a crafts gone wrong label. LOL.

Once I had the correct supplies it was easy peasy, just use fabric paint, iron on the freezer paper and paint.  Be sure to paint from outside in so your paint doesn't run up under the paper. 





   












 

Well the Day is upon us, are you getting pinched today or are you pinch proof and wearing green?  If not then it might be a little too late but if you're anything like me you're always seeing ideas and saving them for planning for the next year so this is my little posts of ideas to do next year for St Patrick's Day. 

I really wanted to make these to take to the monkey's class today but she's been home sick with a virus and well momma did good to make her a bow so we did not get around to this but next year for sure.


Simply Designing posted this yummy recipe and idea for Rice Krispy Treats and well I think it's just too cute.


I love the block letters and wood letters but have yet to do any cause I'm a slacker like that but Craft Rookie is no slacker and her Lucky Letters are just dolled up and make me swoon.


I love the idea of playing tricks on your kids or co workers or husband and usually save that for April Fools but I think as monkey gets older I'll get into doing more little tricks and tell her to watch out for those little lephercauns as they're sneaky and do things like tinting the milk green or hiding their shoes but I'll also need to school her on some tricks that she can pull on her friends that won't get her in trouble either and this Tricky Game from Family Fun is perfect.

And of course I was busy making St Patty Day bows and tutus for my awesome customers, so next year if you need one you'll know where to look.

I can't wait to post pics of the monkey all dressed up in her Green from today, so check back later.  But here she is from last year.  Just look at those cheeks, makes me want to pinch her evern though she's pinch proof with green.