Willow Designs WINNER!

Congratulations to Dorie!!!

You are the $15 Willow Designs winner!!!

I will be sending your contact info on to Kasey.

Thank you to everyone who entered!

Don't forget, you can still check out Kasey's cute hair bows and clips HERE!

Friday Party Feature - Pink & Purple Birthday Party

I'm finally back to featuring your all's wonderful parties and today we are showcasing Kristin from Homespun With Love

and a birthday party she helped style for her sweet niece!

It was a mixture of pink, purple, and flowers to make the birthday girl happy.

 Yummy vanilla cupcakes with vanilla cream cream cheese frosting topped with a monogrammed cupcake topper.

How clever... use an upside down martini glass as the perfect cupcake pedestal! 

 

 Soooo many yummy looking pink treats!

Super cute party, Kristin!

Congrats on being today's featured party!

If you want to see more of this party, be sure to check out Kristin's blog HERE!

If you have a party you'd like featured on Pirates-n-Princesses, be sure to contact me!  I'd love to share your hard work with everyone!

And... you have entered the Willow Designs $15 credit towards some super adorable hair bows, right????  

In case you missed it... Click HERE!

Guest Post from Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box

Have I got a TREAT for y'all today!!!
The super sweet Elizabeth of Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box is here to share a yummy cookie recipe that looks super de-lish! 
I'm so excited that she agreed to guest post today, I know you're going to LOVE her!


Hi! I am Elizabeth Ann of Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box!

I love spending time in the kitchen, cooking and baking for others, and I ADORE home-cooked meals with lots of friends and family around the table!

I am thrilled that Heather asked me to guest post on Pirates and Princesses! She is my 'go to' in the world of cupcakes and I have loved getting to know her sweet heart through 'blog land!' I am lucky to call her friend!

Today, I want to share a new favorite recipe of mine. Whether it be a church bake sale, a child's class party, or just a pot luck, throughout life we are constantly offering to bring goodies to an event. I have a wonderful cookie recipe that makes you 'look' like you have lived in the kitchen the past few days. . . (but, in truth, you just made one batch of cookies!)

 Let's start with our cookie dough. . .

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 stick Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening Sticks OR 3/4 cup Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 (6 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

HEAT oven to 375ºF.

COMBINE shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

DROP by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

BAKE 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

TIP * If nuts are omitted, add an additional 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Crisco

Now here is the fun part. 

If you want to make multiple different types of cookies, don't add the chocolate chips or the nuts to the batter. 

Instead, in each "ball of cookie dough" add 3 or 4 chocolate chips 

ORRR M&Ms!

Two different types of cookies, one bowl of cookie dough! 

Want more? 

Take a ball of cookie dough 

and. . . 

press a mini reeses into the middle

and cover it with dough. . .

Oh. My. Word. 

  

Reeses aren't your thing??

What about Rolos?

Or mini oreos?

Still one batch of cookie dough!

Have fun experimenting with the joys of cookie making!

Ideas from Pinterest, With Style and Kappa Prep


Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway from Willow Designs!
Click HERE! 

Willow Designs GIVEAWAY! ***CLOSED***

Have I got a treat for you today!!!?!?

The lovely Kasey of Willow Designs is giving one lucky Pirates-n-Princesses fan a $15 credit to her shop!  

Kasey designs and creates some amazing hair bows and clips for sweet little girls!  Check these out...

 You know me and owls....

 I love the use of the Scrabble tiles to personalize your hairbow!

Besides being super cute, Kasey's bows are super reasonable with no bows costing over $10!  

One lucky fan will win $15 to use towards a bow and clip or towards 3 clips, however you want to split it up!  

How to win...

(You know I like to keep it simple!)

Head over to Willow Designs and FOLLOW her blog HERE.

Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did and you are entered!

For additional *BONUS* entries...

*Leave me a comment letting me know who you'd be picking out bows for if you were to win.

*Be a Pirates-n-Princesses blog follower, leave a comment letting me know you are a follower.

*LIKE me on Facebook, leave a comment letting me know you do.

FOUR possible entries!

Giveaway ends July 25th at NOON and winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen!  (It helps if you leave your e-mail address in your comment so I'll have a for sure way of contacting you!)

GOOD LUCK!!! 

Cupcake Monday - BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Soooo.... I realize these are NOT cupcakes, but aren't muffins just healthier versions of cupcakes?

This past weekend we went into town to the Farmer's Market.  We went for sweet corn, but it was all gone by the time us non-early risers got there, so we ended up bringing home some green beans, orange tomatoes, yellow squash, peaches, and blueberries.  When I got the blueberries I figured they'd either get gobbled up before we could bake with them, or I'd put them in some blueberry pancakes or waffles.  Then my mom and sister raved about some blueberry muffins my grandma had made so I figured, hmmm... let's do muffins!  And boy was that the right choice!  These are delicious!!!

And bonus... not going to crash your diet!  Well, unless you eat a whole bunch, which is entirely possible.

I think if you're doing Weight Watchers, these may add up to be 2 points, but I used unsalted butter instead of margarine, so that may alter the points value a bit.  If you do WW and find it to be different PLEASE let me know!

Grandma's Blueberry Muffins

(Even though she got the recipe from her Health Alliance mailer!  Hee! Hee!)

Ingredients:

2 C all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 C light softened margarine (I used softened unsalted butter)

1 C Splenda (I had about 3/4 C and used regular granulated sugar for the rest)

1/4 C honey

2 eggs (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C 1% low-fat milk (room temp)

1 C fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed (My blueberries were pretty big, so I think next time I may use more, if when I'm folding them in it looks like it could hold more.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat butter at med. speed until creamy.  Gradually add Splenda and honey, beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.  Add in vanilla.  Alternately add flour mixture and milk.  Beat on low until all ingredients are combined.  DO NOT OVERBEAT!  Toss your blueberries in flour before folding into mixture.  I was able to get 21 muffins out of this, but probably could have gotten 22 if the remaining batter had any blueberries left in it!

Bake 15-16 minutes or until golden.  Do not overbake, watch them carefully!   

And yes... those are blueberry muffins in watermelon cupcake liners....  They were the first ones I grabbed!  :)

My Top 5 CRUSHES

Just thought I'd share the Top 5 things I'm totally CRUSHING on lately!

 

Mio Liquid Water Enhancer

Seriously, have y'all tried this stuff yet?  

It's about all I drink these days and saves a TON of money when we go out to eat.  Now instead of spending $2.50 on a soft drink, I can have flavored water for FREE(of course after having bought the Mio, which comes in quite a few flavors!)!  Just make sure the waiter doesn't forget you ordered water and accidentally refills your glass with iced tea like what happened to my Mom!  LOL! 

 

Jennifer Aniston's New Perfume at Sephora

Smells sooooo good!!!

(And when I run out of my current perfume, I'll stop going to Sephora and asking for samples!) 

 

This salad dressing is DE-LISH!!!

I usually get burnt out on dressings and try something new, but this one has stuck for quite awhile now!

 

 

Dial Soy & Almond Milk body wash

Doesn't sound like it'd smell too good... but you just go take a whiff the next time you're in Wal-Mart down the body wash aisle.  Trust me. 

I don't know about your kids, but mine HATE putting sunscreen on!  I don't know what it is, Brock puts up a fight every.single.time!!!  Soooooo annoying!  Finally I bought this sunscreen in a stick, tell them they're getting chapstick on their face, and for some reason they don't squirm.  If only I could apply it over his entire body...

So, those are just a FEW things right now on my list of favorite things.  I left off the all important lip gloss, since I'm a lip gloss junkie, I couldn't pick just one favorite!  

Are you all crushing on anything these days????

Cupcake Monday (A Day Late) - Nothing Bundt Cakes

We're finally home from our little vacation down in Texas.  I of course had to look up some cupcake places while we were there. 

One we found in Southlake was called Nothing Bundt Cakes.

The little shop was so cute and their little cupcake size bundt cakes were delicious!

 They have all sorts of cupcake stands you can purchase.  This one I thought was too stinkin' cute!

 

Here's their display case.  I got the Cinnamon Swirl Bundtlet, which is a little bigger than a cupcake as you can see there on the bottom row.  It tasted just like a cinnamon roll... YUM.  They said their most popular flavor was Chocolate Chocolate Chip, so of course I had to get one of those, too, but haven't gotten to try it yet.  

I didn't realize you could make bundt cakes so pretty and cute!  You must go check them out if you're ever in the Southlake area!