"Magic" Jelly Beans

On Easter Eve I saw this post over at Nothing But Country. 

She has some awesome pictures and a free printable for your magic jelly beans. 

I knew that we had to make this an Easter tradition. Basically, you plant "magic"jelly beans and in the morning the lollipops grew from the jelly beans.

 I rushed out to the store and bought up the LAST bag of jelly beans at Wal-Mart and a couple of flower lollipops. If I would have planned it better I would have planted Wheat Grass and made the cute packet for the magic beans. Next year we will... I just made due with what we had on hand.

I love this idea and it was so magical that the magic jelly beans actually grew lollipop flowers.

 My kids talked about it all day!

{It also was so fun to have lollipops before breakfast!}

Pastel Spring Cupcakes

Remember the Rainbow Cupcakes I made for St. Patricks day? I loved them so much I wanted to give them a try again.

 I made these the exact same way except this is the spring rendition. A little strawberry frosting and pastel food coloring... YUMMY 

Someday I will venture out of the "box" and make cupcakes and icing from scratch... For now Betty Crocker and Pillsbury ingredients will do just fine. :) 

They were just as yummy this time around!

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Peep + S'mores=Smeeps

 What do you get when you stack Graham Crackers, Peeps and Hershey's Milk Chocolate together?

 Then you bake it at 350* until the Peep starts to puff up?

ANSWER: SMEEPS! 

And a big Oeey Gooey SMILE!

Check out the tutorial @ Serious Eats


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Sugar Meringue Candy Dots

My daughter's favorite candy are these cute little candy buttons! She is really under the weather, and we could not make a trip out to the store.. I googled Candy Dots and found a recipe on Rachel Ray. I changed it up just a bit... So If you are a by the book gal, you should do it her way...lol. I tucked a handful of these away {hid them from the kids} for cupcake toppers!




First, cut plain printer Paper into 2.5 X 11 inch strips


Prepare your Ingredients..
2.5 cups of Powdered Sugar
2 egg whites (or powdered egg whites mixed per box directions)
Food Coloring. I used a pastel set

I did not have any powdered sugar on hand so I made my own. I have a Blendtec blender and use it for EVERYTHING! VERY COOL!

Check out this video from Will It Blend? 

Mix Powdered sugar and egg whites for 5 minutes with a mixer
Divide batter into 4 baggies {or however many different colors you are going to do}

Add food coloring to each bag and mix in bag. This will save you the huge mess of mixing in bowls and transferring to baggies later.Clip corner of baggie and pipe a line of candy. Squeeze from the top like you would toothpaste.

Let your candies dry for 12 hours and have fun!!! or see below..........

DIRECT FROM USDA:

What part of the egg carries the bacteria?

Researchers say the salmonella bacteria are usually in the yolk or yellow. But 

they can't rule out its presence in egg whites. So everyone is advised against

eating raw or undercooked egg yolks, whites or products containing them.

So... 

Bake at 225 for 15-30 minutes. Make sure they do not brown. This also speeds up the drying process so you don't have to wait the 12 hours it takes for them to dry

-OR-

Use Powdered Egg whites

 Normally, I would go to the store and buy powered 

sugar and powdered egg whites but, 

because both Aubrey Rose and Adrian are under the

weather we improvised. They turned out  

SUPER fun any surprisingly yummy!

Next time I'll add a little flavoring just for fun. 

They were like mini meringue bites.  

Baking them gave them a little puff.

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Chalkboard Personalized Easter Bucket

This tutorial was my first Guest blog I wrote last week for Lolly Jane Boutique . It was so much fun making this for them and today I'm going to share with you how to make these beautiful Chalkboard Personalized Easter Buckets.  The cool thing about these is that they can be used long after easter. Just turn the rabbit side around and place it on a shelf so you can use the chalkboard to label what is inside. I truly love these and think I will make a few more for storage in my daughter's room.

Here is how they are made...

Supplies Needed:
Metal Bucket
Paint Brush
Painters Tape
Mod Podge, Matte
Scrap Book Paper
Fine Sand Paper

I found these metal  buckets at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. Most craft stores sell metal buckets unpainted. {If yours is unpainted you can just spray paint it the color of your chioce.}

First you need to prep your bucket for the Chalkboard paint. 

Tape off a rectangle with your painters tape. 

I used the sticker decal that came on the bucket as my guide to tape off the area for the chalk board. 

Lightly sand your area so the paint will adhere . Dust off.

Apply as many coats of the paint as needed to cover the area completely...It took me 5!

Carefully remove painters tape.

Let dry overnight. 

Time to make your Rabbit.

Cut out an oval and a rabbit silhouette. Here is the rabbit silhouette I used. It is a free download.

For the name you can cut it with your die cutter or add letter stickers. 

Start Mod Podging the decal together. Mod Podge rabbit to oval then Mod Podge name to the Rabbit again,  Mod Podge over the entire decal now to seal it all together. 

Then, add a layer of Mod Podge to the bucket. It is okay that the Mod Podge is not perfect. It cleans off easily with a damp rag. {How many times can I say Mod Podge??}

Place your decal on the bucket and smooth it out making sure it totally adheres to the bucket bubble free. Clean off any mess that is on the bucket. Let dry a few hours.

TA-DA!!!!!! WOW these turned out GORGEOUS! 

Get ready for a TON of compliments on your bucket!

{Your little one can personalize the 

other side of the bucket..} 

Happy Easter!

Come Back Next Tuesday for Glitter's FIRST link Party!

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