AROUND HERE

Happy Monday! This weekend was a good one. I was spoiled rotten for my birthday! Balloons, bagels, dinner, gifts and of course cake. I have some mixed feelings about being in my last year of my 20's. I say bring it on! On top of my birthday, it was a gorgeous weekend and we had a blast with our family. It was really a great weekend. This week is going to be filled with some great projects getting ready for the oscars! Are you excited? I'm putting my ballot together and getting the decorations and menu ready for our party. Hope your week is off to a fantastic start!

POM BEANIE

We had this plain dollar store beanie that Elliott was wearing and we thought it could use some sprucing up. Enter, the pom! I let him pick the yarn and we went to work. He loves his "new" hat and I love that he actually keeps it on his head. That's the thing about kids. If you really want them to do or wear something, just have them help you make it! They will be sure to keep it on and wear it with pride. To make your own, you can see the full tutorial here on Momtastic. 

DONUT WAFFLES

I posted a picture of these last week on instagram and I got a few requests for a recipe. So here it is! I'm not a huge fan of sweets for breakfast (am I the only one?) but these make a perfect dessert. Elliott helped by taste testing and adding the sprinkles. They really are pretty easy to make and if you have a waffle iron, it sure beats using hot oil to make donuts. Essentially they are donut batter cooked on a waffle iron. I love cake donuts and these are pretty close without having them fried. The glaze is a vanilla bean glaze, but really you could add any flavor you want! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 C flour

6 T melted butter

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 C sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 vanilla beans - cut and scraped

2/3 C buttermilk

Powdered sugar

Cream or milk - I used cream because, why not?

Ok, first, melt your butter. Not so much it boils, but enough it is almost all the way melted, then let it sit while you do some other stuff. 

Next, whisk the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

Whisk the sugar, salt, and melted butter together. Stir in one of the vanilla bean's contents, and eggs and mix that. 

Next, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until the lumps are out. 

Now it's time to cook them up! You can make them as big or as small as you like, but I suggest smaller and on the crispiest waffle setting.

When they are all made and cooling on a rack, make the glaze!

Mix some powdered sugar, the second vanilla bean contents and your cream or milk until you get the consistency you want. If you like it thicker, add more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add more cream. You get the idea. 

Dip or drizzle on the glaze to each donut waffle and top them off with a few sprinkles. Then devour. Try your best to savor them, but no judgement if you can't. 

VALENTINE WORD SEARCH

Happy Valentine's Day! To bring our week to a close and keep the love brewing all weekend here's one more printable for you. A word search! It's more romantic than you might think. It is obviously more for kids who are a bit older. You know, the ones who can read and appreciate a good word search. I loved word searches when I was a kid. It felt like finding buried treasure, but with words. So if you are in a last minute valentine bind, you can print this little beauty out over here on Handmade Charlotte! The little heart guys are my favorite. I think they need to be made into a tattoo, am I right? Enjoy the word search! 

ANIMAL MASK VALENTINES

The other day Elliott and I were at the party store and we saw these animal masks for super cheap and I thought they would make for some pretty fun valentines! I'm a big fan of valentines that don't involve sugar. Not that I am anti-sugar, but I am pro fun. What kid doesn't love a great animal mask? The tags say "There's no masking it I'm wild about you". Valentine's day is the holiday for puns. Don't you think? You can download the tags here. Just print them off, cut and tape them on! Easy, right? Have a wild day!