An afternoon making Macarons

Maybe a year ago, a friend made me discover "Macarons". I was in love. These little things tasted like heaven!

Macarons should not be mixed with what the english knows as Macaroons. According to Wikipedia, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar and dating back to the 18th century. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base.

So it was perfectly normal that on my recent trip to France, I was to try to eat as many as I could and find the best ones. As expected, the most fabulous ones where at Ladurée. They were magnificient. The waiting line was worth waiting that is for sure. The macaron equivalent of what Magnolia is for cupcakes.

Of course, Macarons are practically impossible to find them in Ottawa so last weekend, I decided to try to make them.

OMG!!! They were so good. Not Ladurée good of course but with some practice, I might just get there! :-) The only problem is that I have been on a sugar rush since Saturday :-)

Anyway, it just takes a bit of imagination to try different filling and flavours et voilà! And they would be nice wedding favors! I so want to try to make some with Champagne jelly in the middle!

Here are some pictures of the first day of baking them:

Lucky in love favors!

These little favors are for scratchers and lottery fans! I saw something like it in a magazine and decided to make them.

Just put a scratcher and a shiny penny in a glassine envelope, stick a personalized label et voila! So cute and out of the ordinary!

This is Phoebe...

A lot of people are asking me who is Phoebe. Well, here is Phoebe. She is my big fuzzy 3.5 years old Bernese Mountain dog. She is basically 85 pounds of love and devotion and a very important part of our family. Like all Bernese, she is a very social girl who is loving attention and will sit on your feet to make sure you have nothing to do but pet her.

I'd like to point out that she does not participate in the making of any of the products I make!

This is Phoebe at 3 months old

And this is Phoebe now!

Embossed napkins

They are a great way to add some colors to a reception and they are inexpensive. I had a custom made stamp done with the logo and then simply stamped the name on the napkin, used some embossing powder and my heat gun. They look very nice!

They can be made in all colors and with anything on them. I don't recommend only stamping the napkins because the ink is going to smudge and stain your face when you use them. By using the embossing process, you are making sure that the logo is going to stay excatly where it should be: on the napkin!

Trying my hand at silhouettes

I love those old school silhouette that are popping by all over these days. Very vintage and lovely. So I tried to make one sarting with simple profile pictures of myself and Steeve and using my (limited) knowledge of Photoshop Elements.

The result is interesting! There is so many thing that I could do with those silhouettes and just by changing the colors, you can change the look completely.

Check the result! Althought Steeve thinks it is a bit to "Hitchcock", I think they are pretty cute!

How to jazz up boring envelopes

I have a lot of those very boring envelopes at home and there is an easy way to jazz them up by adding a nice paper inside. If you find a nice roll of wrapping paper for example, it would be perfect to do this little project.

Favors for a Spa Bridal Shower

I made some favors for a bridal shower last week. It is basically the Hand Scrub I make but I customized the color and the label to fit with the event theme.

We went with the ever so popular Rice and Shea Flower scent. It smells so wonderful!!

Other than that, my weekend was not as productive as I would have liked but I'll catch up with the projects. I am currently working on a cactus favor (for the adventurous type...) and always looking for new ideas!

And another centrepiece for a kid's party!

I made this one using balloons, lollipopsand some giant butterflies)
Basically everything you see here comes from a dollar store. I like how it would fit perfectly in a princess themed birthday party! Just change the colors and you can also do it for a boy!

Original centrepieces for Kid's birthday parties!

I had fun last weekend making two different centrepieces for kid's birthday. Easy to make and sure to make an impression on the small (and not so small...) ones.

This one is basically skewers of jujubes of all the colors of the rainbow. They are simply stabbed into a styrofoam cone that I painted red to start with.

So voila! Centrepiece and dessert at the same time!

Favors for the Canadian Women Golfers

I've been working on centerpieces for Kid's birthday parties last weekend but I have to wait for next weekend to be able to take quality pictures to post online. Can't wait to show them! They are awesome and not very difficult to do, even fun!

In the meantime, I am also preparing little aroma beads bags as a treat for the ladies over at the Canadian Women golfers (CWGI). I was a member a few years ago and I loved it! I was able to easily find great women to play golf with and have a good time. It was so much fun to be able to play with women of all ages and background and enjoy the game in a non-competitive way.

All that to say that I am happy to be a little part of their golf tournament that will be at the end of September.

If you are interested to join them for 2010, contact Bonnie.

Here are the little favors I am preparing for them. They are available on Etsy but if you need more than one, contact me directly!