HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him"  - G.K. Chesterton

 I was feeling festive today so I decided to make some yummy cupcakes. 

These were delicious! I have to confess, I did cheat a bit and made a box red velvet cupcake, but in my defense, my son was being a total energetic young boy so I had to take a shortcut. BUT, the buttercream is ALL MINE!

Ingredients: 

4 cups of sifted powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 sticks butter, softened.

Directions:

On a stand up mixer beat softened butter until light in color and creamy. Add 2 cups of sifted powder sugar and beat on low until all sugar is incorporated or you will end up with a sugar dust cloud. Add the milk and beat on medium high for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the sugar and the vanilla extract on low until incorporated, then on medium high for 2 - 3 minutes. Mixture should be light and fluffy. Voila! 

For the blue and red stripes effect, paint a line of red gel color on one side of your piping bag and a line of blue gel color on the opposite side. Then fill your piping bag as usual with buttercream. I used a large star tip to frost my cupcakes. As a little added bonus I found Star-Spangled Sprinkles at HomeGoods and I added a few to each cupcake.

If you are curious to see more of my creations check this post. 

On Tuesday I went to the Bath and Body Works store near my house because they were running their Semi-Annual Sale which is always my chance to go crazy and buy some amazing candles and scents for my house. Here is what I got:

I am so excited to show you what I got this time. 

Lets start with the Three Wick Candles:

This is one of my favorite candles this year. I bought 5 before Easter and was super happy when I saw it in the sale bin for 50% off! It says it smells like cotton candy and marshmallow, but to be honest it smells just like marshmallow. It is like having a bonfire at home and roasting marshmallows. I LOVE THIS SMELL. In the winter there is a similar candle and last year it was called Marshmallow Fireside. It smells exactly like that candle. Bath and Body Works marshmallow candles are by far the best ones if you like sweet smells like I do. 

This is my favorite candle of all time from Bath and Body Works and probably any other brand of candles. One thing to know, they change the names of the candles constantly but the scent is usually pretty similar. I got this candle, which smells pretty much like Italy Espresso Cafe candle from their "World Cities" collection. I love to burn this candle and the Happy Easter candles together...hello Coffee and Marshmallow...who doesn't like that combo? Best thing, even my husband loves this candle. He says it smells like a coffee stout beer to him. Any candle that smells like stout to my husband is welcomed in my home, lol! 

This candle is a new one for me. When I went into the store, it was the first one that grabbed my attention, and I have to say, I love it. First thing that comes to my mind when I smell it is vacation. More specifically, our honeymoon. We went to Key West, where we consumed insane amounts of piña coladas and coconut flavored drinks. This candle smells like that.  It smells like coconuts and even though it doesn't say it has hints of it, I can smell pineapples. Its is fruity and oh so sweet. You know those smells that you can almost taste them, this candle does that. I feel like I could take a bite of it and it would taste like coconuts (PLEASE DON'T EAT CANDLES). 

I also purchased a couple of wall flowers, some where on clearance and bought them for $3.00 and others full price. 

These fragrances are so, so good. One I always repurchase is Cinnamon Stick. It smells like a cinnamon stick for sure. It is the definition of a fall scent for me and I always have this smell the second I see a yellow leaf, so this one will be used in the fall. The other three fragrances, I've never purchased. Coconut Sandalwood is to die for, and to tell you the truth it smells like a sexy, Hawaiian man. It is the best description I can give you. Sandalwood scents I always have on my bathrooms, I don't know why but I just love to get in the shower and smell it. Like I said, sexy man smell goes with shower and bathrooms in my opinion (maybe because my husband's body wash smells like sandalwood I associate it with showers). Indigo Sky smells like fresh linen and clean sheets. It is such a great scent to have year long. I always keep this type of fragrances on my bedroom since I associate them with freshly, soft sheets! Lastly Sunny Coconut is a very fruity sweet smell. I can't smell the coconut that much but I can smell some type of citrus fruit. It also smells like the beach and vacation time... I think I will have this scent on my living room. Maybe it will transport me to a beach villa somewhere sunny when my son is having a meltdown, haha, the life of a stay at home mom. 

Now for the body products:

 I love, love, love Bath and Body Works shea body creams. I have them all over my house and they go fast. I have travel size ones that go in my diaper bag, in my car and in my purse. This smell is the same as one of the candles I bought and I love it. It is very similar to Tahiti Island Dream but with coconut in it. This will be my favorite smell for summer for sure! 

Finally this body wash. I have never bought a body wash from Bath and Body Works so this will be my first experience. I haven't tried it yet, but from the smell I am looking forward to it. It really smells super flowery, fresh and clean. I really hope it foams well, since I love lots of bubbles when I lather. 

Let me know which are your favorite Bath and Body Works products!!! I love to try knew scents!

One thing I hate to do is chores. I am sure every person on the planet will agree with me on this statement. Who wants to spend hours at a time cleaning and scrubbing when we could be binge watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? When I decided to stay at home to take care of my son one thing I vowed to do was to keep the house clean and organized. Hey, I am at home all day, at least I want it to be pretty and clean? But, one thing I do not like, is spending a whole day cleaning and missing quality time with my family. So I have been using this schedule to stay on top of chores around the house. 

First thing that is important is that the first time you do this you will have to spend at least one day of deep cleaning to get your house perfectly clean, then it will be just upkeep. This is my schedule:

Mondays

Mondays are bedroom days. I start my day by taking all sheets from our bedroom and my son's bedroom and washing them. While they are in the wash I dust our nightstands, blinds, windowsills, door frames, baseboards and crown moldings. I wipe every surface with cleaner and put new sheets on the beds and crib. I also do a load of all the blankets we have on our couch. It seems like a lot but it takes me an hour tops to do all this, which I do while my son naps. 

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are bathroom days. I wash all towels, washcloths, changing table cover, hand towels and bathroom rugs. While they wash I clean showers and toilets, and wipe down counters and mirrors. I sweep the bathroom floors and dust the bathroom door frames, baseboards and crown molding. After towels are clean I fold them and hang new towels to be used that week. This is by far the hardest day since it takes me around 2 hours to do this, but again, it is not that much in comparison to doing the whole house in one day. 

Wednesdays 

Wednesdays are kitchen days. As soon as I wake up in the morning I put a load of whites on the washer. Then I scrub and sanitize counter tops, wipe any spills on the microwave, wipe the stove top, wipe the cabinets and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. I also dust the floorboards and the door frame. Finally I go through the fridge and toss anything that is expired and wipe any spills. I also do a quick tidy up of the pantry. Before going to bed I fold and put away that load of laundry.

Thursdays

Thursdays are my easiest day! As soon as I wake up I put a load of light colors. During the day I sweep the dining room floor and mop it. I clean the table and dust baseboards, crown molding, door frames and picture frames. I also clean my son's high chair. In the afternoon I do a load of my son's baby clothes and then fold them. I also fold the load of laundry I put in the morning.

Fridays

Fridays are living room days. In the morning I put a load of dark clothes on the wash. During the day I sweep the floors of the living room, mop, dust the floorboards, crown molding, door frames, blinds and furniture. I also wipe my son's toys and organize them. 

Saturdays

Saturdays I vacuum the house and dust our stairs picture frames and floorboards. 

Sundays

Rest, rest and rest some more. 

Because I have this routine I have a decently cleaned house every day. There is always chores I do every day like put away my son's toys and do dishes. Every morning I unload the dishwasher and during the day I load it again. At the end of the day I run it and so I have clean dishes in the morning. By keeping this schedule at any given day I have less than an hour of house chores except on Tuesdays. This gives me plenty of time to take care of my son and have time to prepare dinner. This is what works for me and my family and keeps my OCD in check. It drives me insane to have a dirty house. I don't want to be a slave of cleaning, and I really, really like to binge watch Real Housewives! 

I hope this helps you to create a cleaning routine that works for you!

PRINCESS BIRTHDAY CAKE

Last week I had the honor of making my neighbor daughter's first birthday cake. I chose to make her a princess cake. I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself with this one. I decided to make a giant cupcake and add a tiara of course. 

I thought it would be a nice idea to share how I make these. They seem to be very hard to make, when in reality, they are pretty simple. With a little bit of time, lots of sugar and a little bit of creativity you can create this giant cupcake at home and wow your friends with a cake they will remember.

For this particular occasion I decided to make a chocolate cake, with a candy case and vanilla buttercream frosting. 

First thing you want to do is make your cupcake liner. You can make them with dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate or candy melts. I decided to go with the candy melts, in the vanilla flavor. You can get them at your local baking store, Amazon or Michael's. They are rather inexpensive if you do not want to worry about coloring your white chocolate or if you want a color that will require tons of food coloring. To make the liner I always use a silicone giant cupcake mold. These silicone cases are the best way to make giant cupcakes. I will explain later why. Once you melt your chocolate, or candy melt per the manufacturers instructions all you need to do is pour it onto your silicone case and spread it around. I usually put the mold on the freezer for a couple of minutes so that the case settles a little bit faster. Once your chocolate is nice and hard you can remove it from the silicone mold.

For the cake, the sky is the limit. You can make your favorite cake recipe or even a box cake if you want to. Any flavor and type of cake is allowed. Really whatever you prefer, just make enough to make about 24 cupcakes! Once you have your cake batter you want to fill your clean cupcake mold (not the chocolate cupcake liner) two thirds of the way. If you are using a silicone cupcake mold (which I recommend you do) the mold has a line already marked of how much to fill. The rest can go on the mold for the top of your cupcake. Be sure to spray a generous amount of cooking spray to prevent the cake from sticking to the mold and it will make it so much easier to remove later. The top of the cupcake usually takes a little bit less to cook than the bottom, so check it at around 40 minutes. The bottom will usually take around 45-50 minutes. 

Once your cake is done, let it cool without removing it from the silicone case. Once it is completely cooled you can remove it from the mold and you can take all the edges out with a serrated knife. Divide it in half so you have two lovely cake layers. You want to coat your chocolate cupcake liner with  buttercream or frosting of your choice. Put the first layer of cake in the liner and frost the top. After that put the second later and frost again. After this you can frost the top and all the areas that have a little gap, add the top of the cupcake and give it a nice crumb coat. Pop in the fridge for 20 minutes so that the icing hardens a little bit. After that, I decided to do flowers using a star tip and a piping bag, but you could use fondant, if you prefer.  

That is all there is to it. People will love how fancy and beautiful these look and will love the special touch of the chocolate cupcake liner! 

This cake was a huge hit at the party and it usually feeds about 20 - 25 people. 

Just so you know, I am self taught and have never taken baking classes, although I have taken cake decorating classes. I learned how to make this cake by watching Elise Strachan from My Cupcake Addiction tutorials, so click here to check her out. She is very creative and talented and you can learn so much from her recipes! 

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a lovely day! 

I must share this product with you guys! I stumbled across this product, Pearl Bath Bombs, when Instagram suggested their page. I cannot tell you how much I love taking baths, so obviously I clicked on the link and then went to their website to check them out. 

What's their concept? You purchase a bath bomb and inside each of them there is a tiny pink pearl with a ring and a code. Each ring is valued at $10 and the code could reveal a $100, $1,000 or $5,000 ring. If you do get one of the wining codes, you get a ring sent to you IN YOUR SIZE!!! If you don't get one of these prices, you still get pearl points that you could use later to purchase more products. 

I think this product is genius! Who doesn't want to take a luxurious bath and get a ring and the possibility to win another more expensive ring?! Hashtag winning! I immediately purchased one. 

What do I think? 

I LOVE THEM!!! First of all, wow! Shipping was insanely quick! Like 2 days quick! I wasn't even expecting it when I got the package on my doorstep! Packaging is perfect, it comes in a really big box filled with packing peanuts which prevents the lovely bath bomb from crumbling or cracking during shipping. The bath bomb I purchased was the Lavender bomb! It smelled so good! It was not too much or too potent! It was perfection! It fizzled really nicely and the water turned a lovely pink color and the coloring did not stained my bathtub. The product was very silky and it felt really nice to relax with the lavender smell! It doesn't make a bubble bath though, but I was ok with it! As of the ring, I loved mine! For being a $10 ring, it was pretty nice in my opinion. It was a blue oval stone with a halo around it! I didn't win the more expensive ring, bummer, but all in all, I was so pleased and impressed with them. The only thing I would love for them to improve is their website, or at least the mobile website. It was a bit "buggy" so I had to register like 5 times in order to actually take it and still I could not use their 5% first buy discount. I don't know if it is because they are slightly new and the website needs some tweaking... but other than that, I will certainly purchase more bath bombs! I loved them!!!!!!! Definitely check them out! 

Here are some pictures of my first Pearl Bath Bomb experience!