{Recipes} Not Your Average Cupcake!

Bacon Herb Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the latest issue of Southern Living and knew I needed to share it with you. These tasty treats are not your average cupcakes, that's for sure, and would go so well with many dinner entrees. They are simple to make as well!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup cooked, finely crumbled bacon

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup finely chopped assorted fresh herbs

2 green onions, chopped

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups self rising flour

6 ounces cream cheese softened

Garnishes: assorted fresh herbs, cooked and crumbled bacon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir together first 6 ingredients. Stir in flour until blended. Mixture will be thick. Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin pans, filling completely full.

Baket at 375 for 26-28 minutes or utnil golden brown.

Remove cupcakes from pans and to a wire rack, and cool completely.

Spread or pipe tops of cupcakes with cream cheese

Weekly Wrap Up

A few of my favorite things from the past week...

I am a breakfast person. I never miss the meal and I definitely indulge on the weekends. This Breafast Bar spotted on Celebrations at Home via Cakies is right up my alley!

Kim from The TomKat Studio makes camping look glamorous...aka "Glamping"! It's funny that I am surrounded by boys because I am ultimately an indoor girl too. So, I loooved Kim's stylish take on camping!

How cute are all of the inventive uses for cupcake liners that keep popping up?! Natasha from Fete Fanatic put together a roundup of adorable uses for the tiny things!

Gorgeous marbleized pastel chocolate bark spotted on Save the Date for Cupcakes!

A perfect idea to revamp an old cookie sheet! The Hip Hostess showed a genius idea by none other than the crew at Martha Stewart.

How cute and handy is this Cupcake Deck from Crate & Barrel, shown on Sweet Tooth by Shauna Younge?!

I am always searching for the proper outfit to wear to a wedding and each season requires a different look. The Finer Things put together a beautiful board of outfit ideas along with a great list of guidelines of the proper attire.

{Real Parties} Blush & Bashful

I just love a perfectly planned pink party! Especially since I am surrounded by all things boy all day long. So, I got a little giddy when my friend, Melanie, from Scout sent over an adorable pink shower she helped photograph! The party is full of sweet and unique details that I know you will love!

I LOVE the pink tutu table skirt; don't you?! Donna from Fabulous Fetes styled the party for her friend Susan's niece, made it herself which makes me even more impressed! She found the tutorial here.

To give the guests a glimpse of what was to come, the frilly decor began at the door. Donna, who styled the party, wrapped an "I" in a feather boa and covered the entrance with a lot of pink tulle.

A tray of sparkling pink champagne adorned with paper butterflies greeted the ladies when they walked into the party.

We have all know and love the onesie garland, but I love the wist that Donna implemented. Each onesie had a number which represented each month of the year. CUTE! The mommy-to-be was able to take them home as a parting gift.

The wishing tree was a sweet touch as well. The hostess filled a vase with branches from her yard and added spray paint and paper butterflies.

The shower game was unique and one that is new to me! "Don't Say Baby" was what they played. Each guest was pinned with a handmade silk flower made by Donna. If you heard someone say baby, you could take their flower. Whoever had the most flowers at the end won!

A photobooth was set up and the ladies dressed up and got silly with boas and tiaras. You are never too old to have fun and play dress up!

The guests took home brown sugar scrub in jars that Donna made and topped with an adorable mini pom.

This was such a fun shower! I hope you enjoyed all of the pink and special touches as much as I did! Donna, the stylist behind the party, just started her own party planning blog which you can see HERE!

{Real Parties} Jacquelyn's Skate Party & Ice Cream Shoppe

I'm excited to share this party with you because it shows how you can nicely dress up a party space, such as a roller rink in this case, without spending a lot of money. My friend and fellow blogger (small world story below!), Vanessa of One Haute Kid, hosted a skating and Ice-Cream Shoppe party for her daughter, Jacquelyn, this past weekend. In Vanessa's words, "My goal was to try and hide a bit of the gaudy roller skating decor that is standard with all roller rinks and keep it sweet, girly and pretty." Nick and I were guests at the party, and let me tell you, it was SO CUTE and Vanessa succeeded in her goal!

Here are the party details as told by Vanessa...

I covered the horrific plastic tablecloths the roller rink supplied with brown bulletin board paper I found at a teacher supply store. The paper is very thick and rolls out smoothly with no wrinkles. A big roll was $15 and was more than enough to cover three large cafeteria style tables.

The place settings were just standard party supplies paper plates, but I hand rolled the plastic wear the night before to save time setting up. The edible waffle bowls were from Walmart (and I tried several grocery stores and Walmart was the only one who had them) 10 for $2. The old fashion paper ice cream parlor hats were from Praire Moon Beverage Shop and they were the only pre-order thing that arrived on time.

To keep the details simple, easy and give the decor a cohesive design I wrapped the water bottles, whip cream cans and made the table signs all from a book of scrapbook paper I had on hand. I found all the scrapbook paper and the ceramic white square table stands at Michaels craft store.

And my silver lining in all the chaos were the ice cream straw cups I found last minute at Arnie's Party Supply in Houston. It was total luck that I found them the day before and so many for so cheap since my original favors were held hostage by UPS.

The brand is Krazy Straws and you can order them online here.

Nick and I had to scoot out early, but when the kids sat down for snacks after skating, they were treated to ice cream sundaes in their edible waffle bows that were at each place setting. Toppings included crushed Oreos, gummy bears, sprinkles, cherries and whip cream!

Vanessa wrote two cute preliminary posts before the party recap which you can see here and here.

On to my small world story! Vanessa's daughter and my son, Nick, are in the same preschool class!! For the longest time, neither one of us had any idea that the other wrote a blog!! Vanessa writes a popular blog called One Haute Kid. It is full of decor, party and fashion ideas. I always enjoy reading her posts! She is currently knee deep into her kitchen renovation, so I am really enjoying reading about the process! I think you will love her too!

A Pink & Aqua Valentine Playdate!

Valentine's Day is just a few days away, but it's not too late to pull a small party together! Mindy Kaisner of Modern Mindy quickly organized a small Valentine playdate for her daughter and a few friends to liven up a winter day!

The little get-together was held in Mindy's mother's home which she helped decorate. Mindy loved the pink and aqua colors in the room and based the party around them! Such a sweet twist on the typical Valentine colors!

The cake centerpiece was precious and perfect for this sweet filled holiday! Mindy made a strawberry cake and sprinkled it with hearts. She used scrap book paper to create a quick mini banner for the stand. Adorable!

On either side of the cake, Mindy filled clear vases with conversation hearts heart lollipops and wrapped the vases with coordinating ribbons. She also embellished the ribbon and napkin rings with scrapbook conversation hearts.

The drink and teat display is just precious! The little girls sipped on pink floats which were just strawberry soda and ice cream and they munched on heart shaped rice krispy treats.

They also made heart shaped pizzas! Can this playdate get any cuter?!

The girls worked on a simple craft of decorating felt purses with felt hearts and flowers.

The girls hard at work!

Does this photo not exude LOVE or what?!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thank you Mindy for sharing this simple and stylish playdate with us!