Pina Colada Cake

I hope you all had a great Easter! This will be my last Easter-ish post for the year, even though it's a little late as it is :)

Today I am going to share with you the cake I made for our Easter dessert. I was in charge of dessert this year, and after a lot of searching, I finally decided to make a pina colada cake that was featured in the January/ February 2013 Food Network magazine. The cake itself is actually more of a summer dessert, but I decorated it with orange and yellow peeps and spring-colored confetti sprinkles.

First of all, I just want to let you know that this recipe is completely based off the Food Network recipe that you can find here. All I did was twist it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
- 1 box of Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- toasted coconut flakes for garnishing

For the frosting:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/3 cup cream of coconut

Directions:
1. Bake the vanilla cake mix in two separate 8-inch wide circular pans.
2. Once the cakes are cooled, poke holes into each cake with a toothpick. Brush a generous amount of the pineapple juice over each cake.
3. For the frosting, beat the butter and salt together until fluffy and smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar slowly until everything is completely combined. Add the cream of coconut, and beat until the frosting is thick.
4. Toast the coconut over the stove on low heat in a dry skillet until lightly brown.
5. Finally, spread a layer of frosting over the top of the first cake. Place the second cake on top. Then, completely cover the outside of the cake with frosting. Garnish the finished cake with toasted coconut and any sprinkles of your choice.

Voila! A delicious pina colada cake. Let me know if you try it!

Spring Nails

On Monday I painted my nails with an Easter/ spring theme. They didn't turn out perfect, but I thought they were pretty cute.

These are the colors I used (from left to right):
- Pure Ice "Peony"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Mellow Yellow:
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Lacey Lilac"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Sun Kissed"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Breezy Blue"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On"

As you can tell, I love Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear nail polish!

 

That is the finished product! What do you think? To make the polka dots I used a toothpick, which I would not reccommend doing because the polish globs onto the nails and smudges. Ugh! I got very frustrated, but it ended up looking fine.

 

Thumb- Pink base coat, orange polka dots

Pointer Finger- Yellow base coat, blue polka dots

Middle Finger- Purple base coat, white polka dots

Ring Finger- Orange base coat, pink polka dots

Pinky- Blue base coat, yellow polka dots

 

I was inspired by these two pins from Pinterest. As always, if you wish to repin either of these, please do so by following the link on the picture.

 

 



Have a great long weekend and happy Easter!

 

 

Easter Outfits

Can you believe Easter is on Sunday? It doesn't even feel like spring yet.

Today I am going to share with you three Easter outfits. Let me know which one is your favorite!

This is the fanciest outfit. It is very girly, springy, and dressy. I paired a black-and-white polka dotted dress with a coral cardigan and black flats.

For this outfit, I am wearing a floral-printed skirt, flesh-colored tights, pink flats, a white t-shirt, and a denim jacket.

If you are one of those people who just doesn't like wearing skirts or dresses, then this outfit is for you! I paired khakis with a mint polka dot top and a gray cardigan.

Happy Easter!

A Night Out in the City

Last night I went out to the city with a friend and my parents. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant and attended a phenomenal ballet. It was so much fun!

I wore a (very) sparkly pink top that I purchased from Filene's Basement a while ago. For bottoms I wore black skinny jeans from Kohl's and my tall chestnut brown Uggs.

I did my own french manicure yesterday afternoon.

 

For makeup, I just wore some light sparkly eyeshadow, a little bit of mascara, and some pink Mary Kay lip gloss.

 

I love any chance to dress up!

DIY Easter Wreath

While reading an HGTV magazine the other day, I was inspired by this absolutely adorable Easter wreath!

From HGTV Magazine on Pinterest

 

So, I decided to make my own! The original wreath called for ribbon all around, but I substituted two different kinds of fleece instead. I used a solid green fleece and a green-and-white polka dot fleece.

 

Using a rotary cutter with scalloped edges, I cut out lots and lots of fleece strips that were 8 inches long and 1 inch wide.

I ended up with a heaping pile of green fleece strips.

Next I started tying the strips onto a wooden wreath form (can be purchased from craft stores) using square knots.

Step 1

 

 

Step 2

 

 

I alternated between the polka dot felt and the green felt. After tying every strip, I pushed it very close to the one beside it, so none of the wreath form showed.

 



After all of the strips had been tied on!

 

Next, using this tutorial, I created a tulle bow.

 

The wreath form had little holes in it, so I found one and pulled a loop of tulle through it to make a hanger. Then I hot-glued the bow to the hanger.

Finally, I hot-glued four of these adorable little guys ($1.99 for six at Michael's) all around the wreath.

And here's the finished product! What do you think?

 
Happy Spring!





Cheap, Easy, and Cute Bedroom Decor

Today I hit my 500th page view on my blog! Yay!!!!! If you haven't already, please follow me by email so you will be alerted each time I post. Also, you can follow me on pinterest here.

Today's post is about adorable bedroom decor for a low price! At my house, my room is my favorite place to hang out, and I enjoy adding new things to it all the time. Let's get started!

Use Little Boxes and Trays
All around my room I have tiny boxes and trays full of trinkets. They hide clutter in a cute and effective way. Usually you can pick up trays and boxes for a dollar or two at places like Target, Michael's, and the Dollar Store. I recently purchased this adorable owl tray from Michael's for $1.50.

Display Jewelry and Perfume
Jewelry and perfume can look cute and sophisticated. I store all of my earrings on top of a shelf in a foldable holder from the Container Store (it is usually folded). All of my perfume is arranged on the shelf underneath the earrings.

 

Black and White Photography
On top of one of my chest of drawers I placed a black and white photograph that I took last summer. I purchased the stand at Michael's. Black and white photos work with most color schemes, which makes them a very versatile piece.

Calenders
I have four calendars located throughout my room. They are practical, fun, and change every month! If you wait until after Christmas, you can buy calenders for big savings. Also, many stores have mini calenders for just a couple of dollars. This is a small cupcake calender that I bought for $1 at Michael's.

Display Lots of Pictures
There are tons of pictures of vacations, family, and friends in my room. I love getting new frames, like this one that I bought for $2 at Michael's (I haven't put a picture in it yet).

Also, this adorable cupcake has a clip that can hold notes or photos (it was $1.50 at Michael's).

Have Fun with Lighting
I have six different lights in my room. In addition to the ones pictured below, I have an overhead light mounted on the ceiling and a lamp next to my computer desk.

This adorable modern lamp I purchased from Ikea for less than $15!

I love this pom-pom filled lamp from Home Goods! It is located behind my bed.

This string of flower-shaped lights from Ikea lines my full length mirror.

My aunt made me this box of lights. I love the ribbon and it lights up pink!


I hope you enjoyed this decorating post! I'd love to know any of your tips and tricks about room decorating!

Spring Pinspiration!

Spring is (finally) right around the corner! I am so excited! I can't wait to pull out capris, flip-flops, and sunglasses. Yay! Today I'm going to share a few of my favorite spring outfit inspirations from Pinterest. Enjoy!

*If you wish to repin anything, please do so by clicking the picture and repinning directly from Pinterest. Thank you!

Cream Puffs

A couple of weeks ago I made these delicious cream puffs with my grandmother. They were so fun to make and turned out amazing! Instead of making the filling that the recipe calls for, we filled the pastries with vanilla pudding, which worked pretty well (and was much easier).

Melting butter on the stove

 

Whisking the dough

 

About to go in the oven

 

In the oven

 

Cooling

 

Making the vanilla pudding

 

We made these cracks in the pastries and poured the pudding into them.

 

The pitcher used for pouring pudding

 

The finished products!

 

Overall, I would definitely recommend making these! They are SO much fun (and delicious)!