Ladies Bachelorette Weekend at the Beach

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There are so many things about this photo shoot that make us happy. Not only do we love the girly bachelorette party happening, and the custom gold foil shirts with numbers on the front and Mrs. on the back, but also the candid beach shots and the tradition behind the whole thing {keep reading}.

These women make us…
1. want to take the time away from our busy lives to make special memories with our girlfriends
2. remind us that we’re never too old to play with balloons on the beach
3. before there was a Mr. in our lives, there was a Ms./Mrs. by our side

We’ve been blessed by amazing girlfriends in our lives, and what a gift it is. Never underestimate the power of a good girlfriend. When you surround yourself with smart, strong, respectable, kind and honest women that bring out the best in you, you are surrounding yourself with joy, friendship and love.

This is such a cool story to go along with these beautiful photos from Linda Fourie Photography, so make sure you read it in Lizanda’s {one of the ladies} words.

We are a group of friends from University, and when the first one of us got married, we pledged to have a weekend away dedicated to each one of us, where the Bachelorette does not know about anything, and gets surprised and spoiled.
 
Margot was the last of the seven to get married, so we decided to have a shoot to celebrate the last weekend and our friendship. 
 
The plan would be that Linda would start taking ‘stalker’ photo’s of us in a local coffee shop. It was really funny when Margot said “Guys, I swear that woman is taking pictures of us!” So she was quite happy to find out that we had a shoot planned.
 
We just had fun walking around Hermanus and Linda, our photographer, was great!
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Vendor Love
Photography: Linda Fourie Photography
Location: Hermanus, South Africa
Coffee shop: Oskars Delikatessen 
Beach: Harbour and Grotto beach

 

Poke the Rainbow Activity for Kids on St. Patrick’s Day

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St. Patrick’s Day is a favorite among adults to raise a glass with Guinness or Jameson in hand. For kids, it’s all about the leprechaun, a colorful rainbow, wearing green and the gold. We made an easy, fun and non-candy Poke-the-Rainbow activity for kids on St. Patrick’s Day.

The rules of the game are simple. Each child takes a turn to pick one cup to poke through. Once the leprechaun is found, everyone can reach for the gold. The best part…everyone walks away with a treat. Who will be the first to poke the cup with the leprechaun?

Important side note: this game could be really fun and adult-friendly with each cup filled with a mini shot of Irish liquor. Cheers!

Materials:

  • plastic cups {white}
  • napkins in every color of the rainbow
  • pot and gold coins
  • white tissue paper
  • mini leprechaun or photo of leprechaun
  • non-candy gifts such as bead necklaces, buttons, bracelets
  • rubber bands
  • foam core board, white
  • hot glue gun and glue
  • stickers, shamrock cut-outs

Directions:

Randomly place the non-candy items in the cups. Pick one special cups for the leprechaun.

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Cover each cup with a napkin, and wrap a rubber band around the top.

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Once all the cups have colors, arrange in a rainbow-like pattern on a foam core board, and glue all of them in place. Glue the bottom of the cups so the top of the cup is facing outward.

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Make white tissue paper clouds, and glue them on the end{s} of the rainbow.

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Write, stencil, glue or stick letters on the foam board for simple directions.

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Set up in the classroom {this will be a hit if you’re in charge of this year’s classroom party} , or at your St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and make sure the pot of gold is under the rainbow.

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DIY Tropical Leaf Eggs

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We are seeing green! The color is not exactly visible on the snow-covered ground outside yet, and we know Colorado has more snow in her, but inside we have Spring fever. We’re dreaming of warmer days, and the vibe is showing up in our eggs. We love the clean, modern, tropical eggs that adorn our kitchen this year. Here’s how you can do it.

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Materials:

Directions:
Step one: Tape a piece of white tissue paper onto a piece of cardstock.

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Step two: Print a photo of palm leaves on the tissue paper. We were able to print 9 at a time with our printer without editing the file {thanks for sharing the file, Studio DIY and Balloon Time}.

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Step three: Cut the leaves out in small circles, leaving some white around them.

Step four: Paint a small amount of Mod Podge on the egg where you will place the photo.

Step five: Press the photo of the leaf down gently onto the egg. Try to get out all the wrinkles by pressing down on each of them to smooth it out.

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Step six: After about 2 minutes, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on top of the leaves, and the surrounding area. Do not swipe the paintbrush too many times over the leaves, or it will make the ink run. Just paint it enough to cover it with a thin layer.

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Step seven: Let the eggs dry, then display.

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Cocktail to Cupcake: Gluten Free Champagne Cupcakes

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Pop. Fizz. Clink. Bake.

Yes, you read that right – we added the word bake at the end of Pop. Fizz. Clink.

We can do that because we had some bubbly action in our kitchen as we participated in the Wayfair Cocktail to Cupcake Campaign. The fun challenge was to make a yummy cupcake with our favorite cocktail on the ingredient list. We love our Italian bubbly, and we wanted to make it gluten free so we could actually eat it. The result is a delicious Gluten Free Champagne Cupcake.

Sip and bake – now that’s something we can get use to.

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Gluten Free Champagne Cupcakes
servings: about 16
recipe adapted from DC Cupcakes

Ingredients:
Champagne Cupcakes

  • 1.5 cups gluten free flour
  • 1 cup gluten free oat flour
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon Champagne

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

  • 16 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3.5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp half and half
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup champagne
  • 1 cup strawberries, diced

Directions:
Champagne Cupcakes

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Set cupcake liners in the cupcake baking pan.

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and slowly add the sugar. Blend with an electric mixer until combined.

Add the eggs, and blend.

Pour the vanilla, champagne and milk in a separate measuring cup.

Combine the flours, baking powder and sugar in a separate medium bowl.

Pour 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by 1/3 of the milk mixture. Continue this process until all the flour and milk is fully combined. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners {fill 1/2-3/4 of each liner}.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool.

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and add the sugar slowly. Beat with an electric mixer until well mixed.

Add the vanilla, milk, salt and champagne, and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Then, place in piping bag and decorate your cupcakes.

Top the cupcakes with your diced strawberries, then place a safe, indoor mini sparkler on top.

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Enjoy! And remember, you don’t always have to drink your cocktail. You can eat it, too.

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This #Cocktail2Cupcake post is sponsored by Wayfair, but we would love them and their products even if it wasn’t. Thanks for supporting the wonderful companies that support us. 

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DIY Watercolor Animal Cards

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Valentine’s Day is one of the top holidays when the puns just can’t help themselves! Some are cute, some are cheesy, some are just plain genius – all work because we become big piles of love mush {or love stinks grinches}, so on Valentine’s Day we eat them up {most of the time}.

An easy and pretty way to decorate a card for someone you love is with watercolors – you don’t need to have an ounce of artistry for this one – just add color to the paper. We hopped on the train of puns with these! Embrace your creative side, brainstorm the puns, get the kids messy in paint and send a little extra love in the mail this year.

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Materials:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Watercolor paints
  • Paintbrushes
  • Water
  • Blank fold-over notecards. If you don’t have any, cut card stock and fold them.
  • Elmer’s glue
  • Sharpie marker, thin tip

Directions:

Trace and cut out animal shapes on watercolor paper. You can find images online, trace and cut. We used our Silhouette electronic cutting machine to cut the animals for us. If you like to create, the machines are worth the investment. We love ours.

Paint the animals with watercolor paints. Let them dry.

Apply glue to the back of the animals, and stick them to the cards.

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Write your words with a thin black Sharpie marker.

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