It's Time to Dare to Share!

 

It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

If you were looking for the party last week, I totally dropped the ball.  In my defense though I was pretty sick with some sort respiratory infection all of last week and I was resting a lot. I was not really on the computer much last week, and lost track of time.  I did not realize that I missed posting the party until Monday.  Oops!  While I am not 100%, I am feeling a lot better than I was last week.  

June is going to be a very busy month for us, starting with this weekend.  We are going to be doing something really fun, that I will be sharing in a blog post in the upcoming days.  :)  You can see some of the other things I will be up to this month in my post Kick Off to Summer.

Since I am still catching up on things from last week, I am going to get this week's party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

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Kick Off to Summer

I hope you had a Happy Memorial Day! 

As you may have noticed, there was not a Dare to Share party this past Friday. I did not mention it at the last party, but I have been dealing with a pretty strong respiratory virus for the last two weeks. (yes, I caught it from one of the kids at work)  It started out as a normal cold the first week, and then last week it turned into something more. I have been congested and coughing for several days. I have been medicated, but it did not help that much.  During my time off work, I was resting a lot and not on my computer during that time. Since I was not using my computer, it was not until last night (Monday) that I wondered to myself if I posted the party this weekend.  When I am out of my routine, I find that things occasionally slip my mind like the party did this weekend.   I am finally starting to feel better, and this week will hopefully find things back to normal.  

Since it is almost June, I thought I would share what I will be up to in the next few weeks.   We will be attending a wedding, a celebrity softball game, and a concert.  June is turning out to be a very busy month, not only will we be getting ready for another outdoor market, but I am also planning a baby shower for my bonus daughter that will be in early July. 

I created this summer bucket list for my Etsy Shop a year or two ago.  I just printed out a new copy to fill out this summer. It is a lot of fun to see how many fun things you did over the summer months.  

Our June market is going to be beach themed.  I originally made these beach party marshmallow pops for my daughter's Beach Bash Birthday Party  many years ago.  It was one of her favorite parties, and fun was had by all. Hopefully we will have much better weather for the next market.  

Another memorable treat I made for her beach bash birthday were these crabby chicken sandwiches.  They were not that hard to make, and a huge hit with the kids.  They could make a great addition to your summer party.  

What are your summer plans this year?  

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Let's Dare to Share!

It is Friday night, but you know what that means..

it is time to Dare to Share! 

Now that I have had a few days to recuperate from last week's markets, I have started my next project. In early July we are throwing a woodland themed baby shower for Ds daughter, and our soon to be granddaughter.  I am creating all of the printable items, and many of the decorations.  I also plan on making another hedgehog watermelon.  I may update some of the recipes I used for our woodland themed birthday party I threw my youngest daughter when she was younger.  It was one of her favorite birthday parties.  

If you missed my post this week about our circus themed markets and what happened, you can read it here.

Well it is getting to be that time, so let us get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

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Our Circus Themed Market

As I mentioned last week, we recently participated into two outdoor markets with baked goods from my friends home bakery. We had a circus theme, and made circus themed cupcakes and cake pops.  At the first market last Thursday night, we had a night of rain and wind.  Once the lightning started about an hour into the market, we called it a night for our own safety.   

** this post contains affiliate links 

The night before the market, my friend shared my clown cake pops on her bakery page. A woman saw them and asked if she could buy some for her daughter's birthday that Saturday.  She lived near the market and bought all of them, so even though the Thursday market was rained out, it was not a total wash out. (pun intended :))

To make the clown pops you need burnt peanuts for the hair. I bought them from Walmart, but you can also from them on Amazon . I used mini M&Ms for the nose, sprinkles for the eyebrows, and fruit roll up for the mouth.  They eyes are drawn on with edible food markers. The last touch was a life savor gummy for the clowns collar.  These pops were fun to make, and we got a lot of compliments on them. I plan on making more in the future.  I found them in this cute cake pop book, which is currently on sale for under $5. 

We were looking forward to the Saturday market. It was going to rain early in the morning, but the rest of the day it was going to be sunny. I had stickers and tattoos ready to hand out to the kids.    While we did have sun most of the day, we also had A LOT of wind.  Wind that was  bad enough that several tents were blown over, and so were many displays.  Our tent stayed up, but the wind blew over our cake pop display and our cupcake table.  

Everything ended up one small table that we could hold onto to keep it from blowing over. It looked like a hot mess but at least the bake goods were safe from blowing everywhere. 

 The lion cupcakes survived being blown over, but many of the elephants did not.  

This is what the cupcakes looked like before the market.  I have  made them before for my daughter's zoo animal birthday party when she was younger.  I found the directions on how to make them in one of my favorite baking books Hello Cupcake. 

Another item we sold were these fun dipped marshmallow pops. 

My friend specializes in making flavored breads.  We sold Big Top Blueberry and Lion Taming Lemon Poppy Seed. 

We also sold some brownies for those who needed a chocolate fix.  

While the weather was better at the Saturday market, there was just not a big crowd that day.  I know a lot of families were busy with games, graduations, school events this time of year, and I think the windy weather kept some would be shoppers away.  

Our next market is in mid June with another fun theme.  I really hope we have better weather for that one.  

 

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It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

 It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

This week was another busy week. I helped make the circus themed baked good every evening this week for a vendor market that was on Thursday evening. On Wednesday evening we got a message from someone who saw our clown pops on our Facebook page, and asked if she could have buy some for Saturday.  At first we did not think we could fulfill her order with just two days notice between working at the daycare center during the day, and getting ready for the market in the evening.  We had only made a dozen to sell at the market.  As it turns out, the weather did not want to cooperate with the vendors.  The market was still open, but it was windy and raining. There were several tents that blew over. When lightning struck a few miles away about an hour after it opened, many of the vendors (including us) decided to call it a night.  It was not a total loss though, the woman who wanted to clown pops was very happy that she was able to buy all of them, and we now have extra inventory for another market tomorrow.  While we will have some rain in the morning, it looks to be nice and sunny for the rest of the day.

We will have to make some more of these clown pops again.

I did not have time to write a blog post this past week, but I will be posting about tomorrow's market. 

One last thing I am going to mention before getting this party started.  Did you see the Northern Lights tonight?  We just got back from driving a few miles away from town to see them.  While they are not as bright as they are where I used to live n Michigan,  we did got a nice view here in Ohio.   

Let's get the party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

  

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It's Time to Dare to Share (A Day Late!)

It's Saturday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

You were probably wondering where the Dare to Share party was last night.  It wasn't that I didn't want to post the party, I was unable to post the party until now.   Right after work yesterday we left for Michigan to see my grown kids.  It was my son's 25th birthday this week, and we wanted to celebrate with him.  Last night we went to the dance we go to every time we visit to see several friends. Normally we stay at a friend's house when we go to the dance, but she was out of town this weekend.  We had plans after the dance to stay in a hotel in the town where I used to live, so we could do things in the area today. We did not make reservations, because usually it is no problem finding a room. What we did not realize was it was U of M graduation weekend, and also there were two large weddings scheduled for today as well.   Every single hotel within 30 to 45 minutes of Ann Arbor was full!  We went to every hotel in area with no luck finding an empty room.  Finally we found one open room in a third town at 2 in the morning! By the time we got to sleep it was 3 a.m. and it was just too late to post. Finding a hotel today was a lot easier.  We had a great birthday dinner with my son, and are staying a very nice hotel nearby. This hotel was also pretty full, but we were given on of the last rooms around 7 p.m. Tonight we decided to go watch the new movie the Fall Guy at the movie theater down the street.  It was a fun movie especially if you like action and Ryan Gosling.  Tomorrow we plan on seeing my daughter and another friend who also had a birthday this week. 

Since I am a day late, I want to get this party started right away.   Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

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Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

I don't know about you, but I am very happy that today is Friday.  This was quite a week! As many of you know I work part time at a day care.  One of the downfalls is kids carry a lot of germs. This week I was the sickest I have been in a long time. I talked about what happened in my post Circus Party Ideas.  I know that sounds like a weird place to share, but I had planned on sharing the reason for my circus post days ago.  I am doing something with a circus theme with both my bakery job and Etsy very soon.   

Have you heard of the Wet n Wild Sesame Street line available now at the Dollar Tree? I was so excited to see almost every thing in the line at my store today.  You can see these amazing finds over on my Instagram.

Since I was sick for most of the week, I was only able to get one of my Slumber Party games listed in my Etsy Shop.  I hope to get the other one up this weekend. 

Now that you know what I have been up to.. I would love to see what you have been up to.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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Circus Themed Party Ideas

**this post contains affiliate links 

 Have you ever thought of having a circus party? I had planned about posting about a special circus themed event I am part of earlier in the week.  As you know as one of the down falls of working with young children, a lot of illnesses tend to go around.  On Saturday I started to not feel well, and figured it was a cold. On Sunday, I started to feel worse.  I had a fever, body aches and was tired enough I just spent the day sleeping.  On Monday I was about the same, but sore throat that I had since Saturday felt a lot worse.  I think you can see where I am going with this. Monday evening I was in urgent care finding out I have strep throat. Normally, you are given Penicillin, a day or so later you feel better.  Then you have someone like me, who is very allergic to the cillin antibiotics and found out on Tuesday that I am also allergic to an alternative antibiotic.  I am starting to do better now, and finally was able to go back to work. I am not 100% but a lot better than I was a few days ago.  

Now back to my intended reason for this post.  We are not having a circus party, but a circus themed bakery booth at an upcoming market. We are excited about this event, and all items being sold will be circus theme as well.  Things we are making for our booth can easily be used for a circus themed party. 

I bought some items from the Dollar Tree to make our booth look like a big top.   We will be using red and white tablecloths on a 12 x 12 canopy to make it look like a circus tent.  I am creating circus themed food cards and signs and putting them in clear photo frames. They will eventually be put in my Etsy Shop.  

I bought the above items through Oriental Trading that will also help with the circus feel.  We will have circus tattoos and stickers to give out as freebies to the kids who visit the booth.  The rolled item on the left is 100 ft of red and white striped pennant banner that we can use for several events.  The circus goody bags on the right were a fantastic deal.  There are 50 goody bags on sale for $4.  The last item in the picture are the red and mini popcorn boxes.  They will be great for popcorn cupcakes or actual popcorn.  They can also be used for other holidays like the 4th of July or Christmas.  

I will be working on our treats in the upcoming week making our circus treats and will be posting about them here.  

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It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

**this post contains affiliates link. 

This week was calmer at the daycare, but it was still a busy week. I think I mentioned in the past that one of my other part time jobs is with a friend at her home bakery.  We have a few very busy weeks coming up.  We have 3 events, and two birthday orders due by mid May.  I am especially excited about a market we are doing earlier in May.  Since I love a good theme party, we are planning a really fun theme at our booth. I will share more about it as it gets closer.   We are making some of the cupcakes in two of my favorite cookbooks of all time, Hello, Cupcake and What's New, Cupcake. If you like to make fun cupcakes you will want to check them out.   If you like to make cake pops, this Cake Pop Book is my favorite.  

Over in my Etsy Shop I have a new Mother's Day hunt, and I am going to be launching two new party treasure hunts in the next week. :)  

Now that you know what I have been up to, let me see what you have been up to.. Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

 

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It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

** this post contains an affiliate link 

Were you able to see the solar eclipse on Monday?  I am blessed enough to live in an area where we had totality.  I was able to see the partial eclipse in 2017, but this one was completely different.  It was also really cool to see, and something I will always remember.   I am kind of bummed that the next one in the United States wont be for 21 years, and the next total eclipse in my part of the country wont be until 2099.  One fun thing that we did was we break into our Solar Eclipse Survival Kit and ate a Moon Pie during the actual eclipse. 

There was not a blog post this week, because it was a crazy week at work. We had two teachers out of sick for a few days (out of 6 total) and pretty much all the kids in attendance. Once I got home after work I was too tired to do much of  anything. Thankfully everyone is on the mend now, and both should be back next week.  

Have you heard rumors about changes at the Dollar Tree? Over on Instagram I shared a reel  this week that explains what is really going on with their new price structure, and what to expect. There have been a lot of false headlines and misinformation, but what is happening might not be as bad as you think.  One of my stores is already adding the new products and signage. 

Did you miss joining the Gold City Ventures Printables Side Hustle Course  when it was open for enrollment a few weeks ago?  They are opening the course again for the weekend, and they are offering a payment plan.   I do want to disclose I am an affiliate for this course, but I personally took this course a few years ago when I opened my Etsy shop, and I can 100% say that it is one of the best courses I have ever taken.  :)  

Now that you know what  I have been up to this week, I would like to see what you have been up to.  Link up and HAVE FUN!!  

 

 

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Let's Dare to Share

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

This was a crazy week for me with a lot going on.  I am kind glad it is over.  We had a holiday, crazy weather, some online issues, and some traveling.  I am visiting Michigan for the weekend and then we are heading back just in time for the eclipse.  Where I live in Ohio is expecting HUGE crowds since we will be in totality.      

Over in my Etsy Shop I have some solar eclipse listings that have been selling as a bundle and as single sheets. I think my favorite is the scavenger hunt if you are going to a viewing party.  

On the blog I shared my favorite meal to make with Easter leftovers, Easter Leftover Ham Casserole. It is a family favorite, and a great way to use up that ham.  

I know I normally post more for my party post, but it is getting late and it is time to get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!

 

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Easter Leftover Ham Casserole

Are you having ham with your Easter dinner? One meal my family looks forward to every year is Leftover Ham Casserole.  We almost always have plenty of ham leftover after Easter dinner so this is a great way to use it in another form. 

To make this casserole you will need 

2 cups uncooked rice

1 can cream of mushroom soup 

1/4 c miracle whip 

2 cups milk 

about 6 ozs of cubed ham 

frozen broccoli or peas 

shredded cheese 

Preheat oven to 425  

Mix together the rice, mushroom soup, milk, and miracle whip 

Add in the ham, and either the  broccoli or peas. I make the casserole both ways. We like, I usually use whichever vegetable I have on hand. 

Once the ingredients are mixed together, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  

After 20 minutes cover the casserole with 2 to 3 handfuls of cheese and put back in the over uncovered.  

When it comes out of the oven it looks like this.  This picture is making me hungry.  

This casserole disappears fast! If you do have some left over, it tastes good warmed up as leftovers the next day.  

 

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It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

*this post contains affiliate links 

This week on the blog I posted one of my favorite holiday recipes, Make Ahead French Toast. It's a great recipe for guests, brunches, or just because.  You put everything together the night before, and then pop it in the oven the next morning.  My favorite recipe for that leftover Easter ham will be up tomorrow.  It is another one of our family favorites.  

Over on Etsy this week,  I recently shared a Solar Eclipse Activity Bundle.  Living in Ohio, I am lucky enough to be in the path of totality.  We are preparing for huge crowds heading our way for the big day. Until it actually happens, I am not really sure what to expect, but I am excited to experience this.  The last eclipse I experienced in 2017 was only partial where I lived.  Are you excited about the eclipse? 

If you have ever thought of creating and selling printables yourself, the course I took to get started is currently open to new students. It is by Gold City Ventures . I loved this course, and the support I received from the Facebook group for the last few years.  It is some of the best money I ever spent on a course. I learned a lot, and now I am doing what I love while also making money in my own small business.  If you do want to join the course, open enrollment is only open until Monday at midnight.  

Well it looks like it is time to get the party started.   You have seen what I have been up to this week, I would love to see what you have been up to.   Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

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Easter Make Ahead French Toast

Here we are just a few days before Easter.  While I love that it is already Spring, I'm not sure how I feel about having Easter in March this year. I feel I have so much more time to get ready, when there is more than two weeks between St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  

This week I am going to share two of my favorite Easter recipes that are both easy to make, and some of my families favorites.  The first recipe is Make Ahead French Toast.  It is such a great holiday recipe, because you put everything together the night before, and then pop it in the oven Easter morning while you are celebrating with family.  

You will need 

a loaf of your favorite bread (we love cinnamon raisin) 

4 to 6 eggs

1/2 cup milk 

vanilla 

cinnamon sugar (if desired) 

cream cheese (your preferred flavor) 

If you are making this for more than 6 people, double the recipe. 

You will need two slices of your chosen bread per person.  I have made this recipe is so many different ways over the years.  I will be sharing pictures from some of the different variations. 

On this particular day we did not have cinnamon raisin bread on hand, so I used Aunt Millie's Country Buttermilk bread.  My cream cheese of choice that day was strawberry, and added it to each of the bottom pieces of bread. 

On the top pieces of bread I added some cinnamon sugar.  

This picture was from a different day, but at the same step.  I wanted to fit more bread into my pan, so instead of using full pieces of bread, I squeezed in 12 half pieces.  Mix the eggs and the milk together in a bowl, and then pour it over the bread.  Cover the casserole dish with foil, and put it in the fridge overnight. 

In the morning, let the pan sit out for a few minutes so the casserole dish is not too cold when you put it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once in the oven, bake for 30 minutes. I removed the foil the last 5 to 10 minutes.  I would put this in the oven before my kids looked for their Easter eggs, and when they were done  breakfast would be ready. 

I made this variation just a few years ago. I added cinnamon sugar and used regular cream cheese.

I think this year might have been my favorite version. I used cinnamon raisin toast, regular cream cheese, and then covered the toast with strawberries and syrup. 

I believe we had guests this particular year, which is why it looks a bit fancier.  I used thick bread, strawberry cream cheese, sliced strawberries, and Redi-whip.  

No matter how you decide to put together your make ahead french toast, it is always a great dish to serve for Easter morning.  

 

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