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A Grown Up Ice Cream Sundae Bar

August 10, 2015 By Brandy 1 Comment

#DiscoverBrookside #CollectiveBias

Fresh fruit, white chocolate chips, chocolate covered blueberries, and a rich almond chocolate ice cream shell sauce are just a few of the toppings that set this ice cream sundae bar a notch above the rest! This isn't your basic sprinkles with a cherry on top ice cream sundae!

I'm not into traditional ice cream sundaes, but one with a variety of whole fruits and chocolates? That, I can put my name behind! My favorite toppings on an ice cream sundae are chopped nuts and chocolate sauce. Anything after that is just a bonus. Today I'm sharing my recipe for this amazing chocolate shell sauce. As soon as it touches the ice cream it hardens into a crunchy shell. It is made with chopped Brookside Milk Chocolate covered Almonds so there is even more of a crunch to it! It's delicious.

You'll definitely want to try this for your next ice cream sundae bar. It also makes a great gift! Package it up in a jar and it will stay fresh for up to a month at room temperature.

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream Shell Sauce

Ingredients:

1 (5.5 oz) bag of Brookside Whole Almonds in Smooth Milk Chocolate

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 T. coconut oil

Chop your Brookside Milk Chocolate covered Almonds by hand or in a food processor.

Don't grind, just pulse until a nice coarse texture. You'll want to still have a nice crunch from the almonds.

Pour into a microwave safe bowl. Add chocolate chips and microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth, stirring after each 30 second interval.

Stir in coconut oil. Continue stirring until fully incorporated.

Store in a sealed container AT ROOM TEMPERATURE (do NOT refrigerate!) for up to a month.

When ready to serve, drizzle over ice cream (or a frozen banana!) and watch it harden instantly.

The perfect ice cream sundae bar isn't complete without a large variety of delicious toppings. Here are my favorites:

Fresh raspberries and strawberries, chopped pecans, white chocolate chips, chopped Brookside Dark Chocolate Blueberry & Cranberry Almond Family Bars, Brookside Whole Blueberries in Smooth Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Almond Shell Ice Cream Sauce, and of course, chocolate sprinkles. Not shown: creamy whipped topping.

I love Brookside Dark Chocolate blueberries, they are such a delicious treat and the chocolate doesn't overpower the blueberry flavor at all. I found mine at Target, along with the other Brookside chocolates used in my ice cream sundae bar.

The Brookside Blueberry & Cranberry Almond Family Bar is wonderful as is, or chopped finely and sprinkled on top of French vanilla ice cream.

If you were to create a grown up ice cream sundae bar, what would your toppings include? Did I miss anything?

Back to School Night Gift Hand Sanitizer for Teachers

August 7, 2015 By Brandy 3 Comments

A quick and easy gift to bring to Back to School night gift. Give your teacher a "hand" with this calling card printable and hand sanitizer! This post has been sponsored by GOJO Industries, the makers of PURELL Hand Sanitizer. This post contains affiliate links.

A quick and easy gift to bring to Back to School night. Give your teacher a "hand" with this calling card printable and hand sanitizer!

School shopping is dreaded by many, but I actually don't mind it. I like brand new boxes of crayons, fresh pencils, and all of the things that mean the start to a brand new year. As far as clothing goes we don't go overboard. I buy clothes throughout the year, and even during the summer if they need them, so the main thing that we purchase are a new pair of shoes and a package of socks.

School supply lists aren't a huge deal, but with 4 kids in school they can become a bit daunting. Some of the items leave me scratching my head---does a 4th grader really need 800 index cards? Other things have me saying, "YES, YES, YES" like hand sanitizer gel and wipes.

I didn't really think about germs all that much when I first sent my first little guy to preschool all those years ago. Then I went in and volunteered a few times and saw some of the hygiene habits of the children. That's when I started having my kids wash their hands immediately after getting off of the bus! I'm not talking about anything out of the ordinary or incredibly disgusting. Just kids being kids. Sneezing on their hands, wiping their nose with their shirt or hands, picking their noses, licking things off of their hands. My kids sometimes do these things too, but when you multiply that by 24 kids...that's a whole lotta' germs. This is why I started sending my kids with their own small bottle of PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer to use before lunch and any time they feel like they need to clean their hands.

Back to School Night Hand Sanitizer Gift for Teachers

Each classroom always has a bottle next to the sink and on the teacher's desk and they are good about reminding the kids to wash their hands.

I plan to continue to volunteer in the kids' classes this year and decided to make a quick and easy gift to bring to Back to School Night for their teachers in elementary school. A "calling card" so they know that not only am I willing to help out, but that I want to! Call me crazy, but mindless work like stapling papers, laminating projects, and grading spelling tests are fun for me. I also like catching a glimpse of my children interacting with friends and classmates.

This printable fits perfectly on a bottle of PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer and says, "Call Me If You Need a Hand" with a space for a name and phone number.

These will print 4 to a page and I've created several different ones for you to choose from for a quick and easy Back to School Night gift!

To print a Back to School Night printable tag for a bottle of sanitizer, right click to open image in a new page. Click on file and print image.

Tie Dyed Painted Toast

August 3, 2015 By Brandy 8 Comments

Tie Dyed Painted Toast is an art project and snack all in one! Add a few food coloring drops to milk then paint it onto your bread! When the bread has been toasted the paint will show up in bright and vivid colors and isn't soggy.

I feel like I had my kids in groups; 2 boys, then 2 girls. Lately I'm noticing that I've skipped out on doing some of the activities with my girls that I did when my boys were their age. Like Tie Dyed Painted Toast! It was time to fix that, and I had some English muffins that needed to be used up so we got busy painting them! Ruby ate 3 slices---and that's saying something for Miss Picky.

Tie Dyed Painted Toast

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Supplies:

Milk
Food Coloring
White Bread
Paint Brushes
Toaster

The "paint" for the toast is actually just milk that has been tinted with food coloring. I like using concentrated food coloring paste because it produces such vibrant colors.

Tie Dyed Painted Toast is an art project and snack all in one! Add a few food coloring drops to milk then paint it onto your bread! When the bread has been toasted the paint will show up in bright and vivid colors and isn't soggy.

White bread works best for vivid colors after toasting. To make tie-dyed toast simply have the kids paint the bread with any variety of colored milk paints.

When done, toast it in the toaster, brush it with butter and it's ready to eat! The more paint they use the soggier it will be so toasting it helps dry it out.

They weren't satisfied to just paint one so I gave them a whole stack and they were entertained for quite a while. I especially love Kaylee's design. She used every color in the rainbow, beginning in the center and working her way out.

Sewing: 10 Minute Camera Strap Cover

July 23, 2015 By Brandy 1 Comment

Sew a camera strap cover for your DSLR in 10 minutes! Perfect use for fabric scraps and a fun way to customize your camera.

I've had a DSLR camera for a little over 4 years and LOVE it. And I use it ALL THE TIME so the camera strap cover can get dingy and dirty. This is the 3rd one I've made for my camera and it is so easy to do! A quick, 10 minute project. The last strap cover was getting to the point that I didn't want to touch it so it was time to start fresh. I snapped a few pictures of the process in case you'd like to make one too.

10 Minute Camera Strap Cover

The straps that come with these cameras are pretty much all the same size. I will share my dimensions as a reference.

You can see my old cover in the first photo. I like sewing the straps directly over the cover (just on the ends) so that it doesn't move around. It takes about a minute to remove the stitches when getting ready to make a new strap.

1. Cut a 25" x 4" rectangle of fabric. I got this measurement by adding an inch to the length of the strap area and doubling the width (+ a seam allowance).

2. Fold strap in half, right sides facing, and sew up the side.

3. Turn right side out and press.

4. Slide the cover onto your camera strap and fold down ends, tucking them under for a finished look.

5. Stitch right over each end of the strap.

Easy, right?

Printable: Quick Cleaning Checklist

July 20, 2015 By Brandy Leave a Comment

Given 15, 30, or 60 minutes of time to clean, how much can you accomplish? Probably a lot more than you might think!

How much time do you usually spend tidying up the house? I used to follow the kids around all day and pick up the toys as they dropped them. Sad, but true. To think of how much times I wasted when I had my first two kids trying to keep up with it all! Now I do a quick power cleaning of the house once or twice a day. Today I'm sharing my quick cleaning checklist with you and I'd love to hear what works for you in your home!

I always think of it as a game and I've enlisted my kids in this logic too. I look at the clock and think to myself, "I'll just see how much I can get done before I pick up the kids from school in 30 minutes." And, woah! When I focus that 30 minutes on cleaning and not on other things like checking my e-mail or Instagram I can get a lot done! We do this before bedtime too. I'll ask my kids to clean up as fast as they can to see how much we can get done in 10 minutes. And then there's those times that I get a text saying that a friend is stopping by in 15 minutes. Aren't those the best motivational boosts to get a little tidying up done? I don't feel like I have anyone to really impress, but I don't think they really want to see Ruby's undies laying on the living room floor or globs of sticky toothpaste all over the bathroom sink and counter.

There are household tasks that I do every single time I tidy up the house. Regardless of if I have 5, 15, or 30 minutes like decluttering and wiping down flat surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom with a cleaning wipe. Then there are tasks that I only do if I have an hour or so to clean or if the house really needs it like mopping or cleaning the toiletss. I made a Quick Cleaning Checklist in case anyone else would like to take the power cleaning challenge and I'll talk more about that at the end of the post!

My kids think I'm crazy, but I love to vacuum. Nothing brings faster results and instant gratification than nice vacuum lines across the carpet. Even if the counter has stacks of mail, school flyers, or groceries that still need to be put away. I only vacuum the second story once or twice a month, but I vacuum the main living area downstairs 4-5 times a week (we have a dog).

I was thrilled to add the Dirt Devil® 360° Reach™ to my cleaning arsenal this month. Look at all of those attachments! When I have 15 minutes to clean I usually vacuum, sweep the kitchen floor, and do a quick dusting of the first floor. My Dirt Devil 360 Reach can do all of that, and without even unplugging it thanks to a 27' cord.

After I do a quick declutter, I wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters and load the dishwasher. Then I'll vacuum and dust the kitchen floor, getting up all of the dog hair and crumbs with the vacuum + dusting SWIPES microfiber pad.

Then I switch to the carpet and rug attachment to quickly spot vacuum under the kitchen table. I can also vacuum the living room carpets with this attachment. It is great for a quick cleaning, but I still like vacuuming with my full size vacuum when I need to do the entire first floor.

Then I decide on another area like the stairs, ceiling fans, or tall bookcases that might need a quick clean. I don't do clean them every day, but I'll go ahead and show how the attachments work for those areas too. On days when the stairs need to be vacuumed I can switch to the power stair and upholster attachment which makes it easy to vacuum the stair fronts as well as the steps.

The pivoting tool works great to get those hard to reach spots and angles like on top of bookcases.

It wipes and vacuums the dust at the same time!

I don't clean the ceiling fans every day, weekly, or even on a monthly basis because it is super annoying to do. Usually it isn't until I notice a thick layer of sticky dust building up and over the blades that I'll pull out a step stool and sprinkle my carpets with dust bunnies. With the ceiling fan attachment I no longer have an excuse for laziness. I can stretch from floors to ceilings and catch everything in between. This makes dusting the fan blades quick and easy. No step stools, no more dust bunnies all over the carpet.

When the SWIPES pads look disgusting I just pull them off and toss them in the wash.

When I'm finished with sweeping, vacuuming and doing a little dusting with my Dirt Devil 360 Reach I can put everything away in the storage bag.

The final thing to do is change out hand towels. Are your bathroom hand towels always wet or is it just my children that drench them when they wash their hands?!?!

That completes the 15 minute section of my Quick Cleaning Checklist!

*wipe down flat kitchen surfaces

*quick declutter (kids usually help with this!)

*wipe guest bathroom down with disinfectant wipes

*change hand towels in kitchen and bathroom

*vacuum main living area

*spot clean kitchen floor (sweep/dust, spot mop)

How much can you accomplish in 15, 30, or 60 minutes?

Feel free to print out this basic checklist for a quick reference!

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Dirt Devil, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #DirtDevil360Clean http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Homemade Pioneer Dress, Apron and Bonnet Costume for Girls

July 15, 2015 By Brandy 6 Comments

This homemade pioneer dress and bonnet are easy to make and so cute for little girls! A simple elastic pioneer dress, apron, and bonnet. Perfect for any Pioneer Day or Little House on the Prairie activity!

homemade pioneer dress little house on the prairie

The kids are going to a Pioneer Day activity this weekend and costumes were encouraged. I knew the girls would love to have their own bonnet and pioneer girl clothing so we went "shopping" through my fabric stash. These outfits were so easy to make and the girls adore them! They will get a couple of chances to wear them this summer. Not only to the pioneer day activity, but to Gold Rush days in Old Sacramento Labor Day weekend!

Homemade Pioneer Dress, Apron and Bonnet Costume for Girls

We love going to Gold Rush days; a fun California history weekend complete with gold panning, corn husk doll making, and blacksmith demos from folks dressed in period clothing. The boys are planning on dressing up too, but we were able to find enough things without having to sew costumes.

Here is how I created these darling homemade pioneer costumes for my girls:

How to Make a Pioneer Dress

Once again I used my peasant pocket dress pattern that I got from Whimsy Couture. I've lost track of how many peasant dresses I've made for my girls. This pattern takes an hour start to finish and is a simple pull on elastic dress, nice and stretchy, and very comfortable. I made them with ¾ sleeves and lengthened the dresses to the floor. It requires 1 pattern piece. SO easy.

How to Make a Pioneer Apron

A rectangle of fabric twice as wide as their waist measurement and long enough to go below their knees. I hemmed the bottom and sides, gathered the top to fit the waist, and added the ties. I sandwiched the apron front into the waist band ties similar to how I did it for our princess aprons.

A simple elastic pioneer dress, apron, and bonnet. Perfect for any Pioneer Day or Little House on the Prairie activity! These homemade pioneer costumes are easy to make and so cute for little girls!

How to Make a Pioneer Bonnet

On my goodness, I can't get over these! I used a step by step tutorial from The Waag Blaag for the bonnets. They have elastic in the back to keep them snug around their little heads and long ties to make a nice droopy bow in front. Ruby's is a little big for her, but she still loves it and it will definitely keep her face shaded from the sun.

I mentioned how pioneers wore bloomers for their underwear and Ruby said that she would like to have some. As cute as those would be, I decided that I had to draw the line at making pioneer underpants. I think the bonnet, dress, and apron will work just fine for this year's festivities!

Sewing: Simple Star Quilt

July 13, 2015 By Brandy 1 Comment

I made this throw quilt in two nights. Two nights! A simple pattern and medium sized blocks made for quick sewing. My favorite kind.

Simple Star Quilt

50"x60"

2 yards printed fabric

1 ½ yards aqua

2 yards purple (also used as binding)

fabric for backing (I used a twin sized flat sheet)

I used this method for making my triangle squares. They come together so quickly! I added ¼" to those squares so that after they were sewn and cut that they would be 7" like the basic square patterned quilt blocks.

Then I laid them out and started sewing the rows together!

I sent it up to Alaska as a birthday gift for my mother in law. She likes purple so I based my color choices off of that.

Finishing a quilt, not matter what size, is so rewarding. I just love pulling it out of the dryer all crinkly and fresh!

Kids Craft: Paper Animal Lanterns

July 6, 2015 By Brandy 1 Comment

#ProjectAmazing #CollectiveBias

A darling summer craft for kids! These paper lanterns are fun to transform into your favorite animals! We'll show you our favorites. What animal would you make?

It's amazing what you can get when you give a child a stack of art supplies. Kaylee has been wanting some paper lanterns for her room. They are bright and cute, and she sees them all over in craft stores and at birthday parties. I decided to buy a rainbow pack of paper lanterns and let her transform them into her favorite animals! Aaron and Ruby got in on the action too and I absolutely love what they came up with.

Paper Animal Lanterns

Supplies Needed:

Cardstock

Paper Lanterns

Scotch® Brand Double Sided Tape and Multi-Task Tape

Scissors

Markers for details

Cut out eyes, ears, and other details out of cardstock.

Use a marker to create the pupils in the eyes and other smaller details.

Tape to the paper lanterns using Scotch® Brand Double Sided Tape or Multi-Task Tape.

Hang outside or in a bedroom!

The lanterns are thin and we didn't want glue to soak in and discolor the paper. This is why we used Scotch® Brand Double Sided Tape and Multi-Task Tape to add the details. It was easy for them to use and required very little pressure to adhere all of the details.

My kids think tape is pure magic. They use it for absolutely everything (ahem...check this out, lol!).

These lanterns would be so easy to use for a summer backyard beach party!

Mr. Fish's face cracks me up.

Ruby had to have a pink piggy.

Aaron loves cats and did a great job on all of the details!

And Kaylee's frog is just too cute!

What animal would you make with your kids?

From masking tapes to spray adhesives and everything in between. No matter the task, there's a Scotch® Brand product to match. I recently picked up a package double sided tape from Walmart and the kids been using it for all sort of projects. You can find a variety of Scotch® Brand products in the craft aisle that will make crafting with the kids a breeze! Be sure to also check out Command™ Brand products to hang up your crafts and frames for a damage-free hanging solution! Command™ Brand products hold on strongly and remove cleanly.

https://instagram.com/p/4zQ7KXwdyz/?taken-by=gluesticksblog

Here are more amazing summer craft ideas!

Recipe: No Bake Summer Desserts

July 6, 2015 By Brandy Leave a Comment

“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and EDWARDS®, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #EdwardsPies http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV”

Delicious no bake summer desserts that won't heat up your home! The perfect way to end a busy day. Just thaw and serve!

The last thing I want to do on a hot summer day is fire up my oven. Especially this past month when our air conditioner has been struggling to keep up with the outdoor temps of over 100 degrees. Today I'm sharing a few of my favorite 'no bake' summer desserts that are perfectly refreshing for a summer get together or casual night at home.

I first discovered EDWARDS® Thaw & Serve pies on a girl's weekend trip that I went on with my sister. We stayed in a beautiful home in the heart of San Francisco for 3 nights, just the two of us. It was so fun to visit, eat delicious food, and explore the city. I was in charge of going grocery shopping and was looking for quick and easy dinner ideas since we wouldn't have a lot of time to prepare our meals. Of course that included desserts too! I found individual servings of Edwards pies in the freezer section at Walmart and have been hooked ever since! Now I buy the whole pies so that I can serve our family of six.

With no baking necessary, and quick thawing time, these are perfect for a quick and easy after dinner dessert! Our absolute favorite ones are EDWARDS® HERSHEY’S® Chocolate Crème Pie and EDWARDS® HERSHEY’S® SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Crème Pie. Last year Aaron wanted a cheesecake for his birthday so I bought a EDWARDS® New York Style Cheesecake and everyone enjoyed that (except me, I don't like cheesecake. Crazy, I know.)

You can save $1.00 on any ONE (1) EDWARDS® Whole Pie by taking advantage of the Walmart EDWARDS Ibotta digital rebate (while supplies last).

Edwards pies are awesome because they require zero prep time. If you have a bit more time, but still don't want to bake, you might enjoy one of these other summer recipes!

No Bake Chocolate Eclair Dessert

Chocolate Cream Angel Food Cake

Fresh Strawberry Pie