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January 2017

Food

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

We live in a town in north Orange County where there’s a cute little coffee shop called Creme & Sugar. It’s fairly new and has been popular locally but never very crowded. A few months ago they introduced some new “secret” items. One of them is Unicorn Hot Chocolate.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

It’s pink hot chocolate overflowing in a huge mug, topped with whipped cream, colorful candies and sprinkles, and pastel colored marshmallows. It looks like my daughter’s wildest hot chocolate fantasy come true! They carry several other unicorn-themed items including Unicorn Bark…

Unicorn Bark at Creme & Sugar

…and Unicorn Cake.

Unicorn Cake at Creme & Sugar

Videos about the Unicorn Hot Chocolate have gone viral and this quiet coffee shop in our small suburb town has turned into a popular hot spot for people near and far. Lines, that used to be short or non-existent, can be very long if one’s visit isn’t timed right. I’ve heard of people waiting over an hour to place an order, and up to 45 minutes to receive their order. Locals aren’t thrilled about the lines at their favorite formerly quiet coffee shop, but we’re happy for Creme & Sugar’s success! I saw this sign inside the store.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate Wait Time

Nolan and I were on our way home from an errand one weekday morning and, since we hadn’t had the Unicorn Hot Chocolate experience yet, I decided to swing by to see if there was a line. We got lucky! No line! Woot woot! So we headed inside to see what the excitement was about.

Outside Creme & Sugar

We ordered our Unicorn Hot Chocolate at the counter.

Creme & Sugar Counter

Then we waited for a bit. We didn’t wait that long. Mr. Personality was just anxious to get his hot chocolate.

Waiting for Unicorn Hot Chocolate

When it was finally ready, we were presented with a frothy, overflowing mug of pink and white fluffy sprinkle-covered yummies! I had to hold Nolan back so I could take a photo.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

My boy dove right in.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

He loved the marshmallows and ate every one of them. Then he decided was done and it was my turn. I won’t comment on the taste of the hot chocolate, but I will say that I told my pregnant neighbor that she should drink a Unicorn Hot Chocolate if she wants a preview of how she’ll feel after her glucose test in a few weeks.

It’s very pink. And very sweet.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate at Creme & Sugar

Creme & Sugar serves many other drinks. They also have ice cream and an assortment of baked goods.

Creme & Sugar Menus

Ice Cream at Creme & Sugar

Creme & Sugar Lounge Area

If you want to give your kids a cute, fun, colorful hot chocolate experience, you need to get them a Unicorn Hot Chocolate. I loved seeing Nolan’s face light up when the big mug of overflowing fluffy yummies was served to us. Considering he only ate the marshmallows and my taste buds and stomach could only handle a few sips, I felt like the $6.75 price tag was a bit steep. But it was one of those things that we had to experience once so we could say we did it. And I’m glad we did.

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Favorite Things

Kinder Joy Eggs

My kids LOVE Kinder Eggs. Heck, I do too! When I went to college in England, I bought them all the time and had a big collection of the awesome toys that are hidden inside. They were hard to find in the United States, but could be purchased at British shops and other stores that sold foreign foods. Then someone decided they were unsafe and they became illegal in the United States. BOO!

Sometimes brave people, like my mom, sneak them into the US. Here’s a contraband egg my mom brought me from Wales earlier this year.

Kinder Egg

Kinder has created a new egg that’s legal in the US and still has all of the awesomeness of the original eggs. They’re called Kinder Joy Eggs. I didn’t know about them, but while browsing a new local grocery store, Harvest Fresh Farmers Market, I unexpectedly found them! They were a bit pricey, but I knew the kids would be crazy for them, so I got one for each kiddo. The egg splits into two, and each side is covered and sealed with plastic. One side contains some yummy Nutella-like deliciousness with 2 chocolate balls in it, and the other side contains a super awesome Kinder toy that’s just like the toys in the original eggs.

My kids, being little budding YouTube stars, demanded that I make a video of them opening their eggs. So here it is. (Click Continue Reading for the video if you can’t see it.) Thanks, Kinder! We’re loving the new, legal eggs!

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DIY

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

Christmas is over, gifts have been opened and played with, and it’s time to send thank you notes. I think thank you notes are very important and try to make sure one is sent when we receive gifts. My kids are 3 and 6…not quite old enough to write notes themselves yet. My daughter, the 6 year old, could actually probably write them herself, but it would take hours and I would have to sit with her and tell her how to spell everything and we would both get frustrated so, until she’s able to do it herself (maybe next year when she’s in 1st grade), I’m the thank you note writer. Sometimes she dictates the thank you notes to me, which works well for us until she gets sidetracked by something else. She’s 6…her attention span is short.

When the kids have had a birthday, or we need to thank friends and family for Christmas gifts (in other words, if I have to write a lot of notes all at once), this is the way I like to do it. Here are some examples of what I’ve done:

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

I’ve had several friends ask, “How did you do that?” so this is for you, dear friends!

First I make sure I sort through my photos from the birthday party or Christmas that requires thank you notes. I try to find a photo that has negative (empty) space where the message can be written, or, if that’s not available, I look for a cute photo of the birthday kid that I can use on an area of the card. I save the photo in a place where I can easily find it (I usually use my desktop). Then I create my card with PicMonkey, my favorite online editing, free (unless you decide to pay $33 per year for their premium plan, PicMonkey Royale, which I’ve found very useful at times) software. I’m not a graphic designer. PicMonkey is super easy to use and you can create anything you want with it. I’ve made Christmas cards, invitations, edited photos, etc.

This may seem like a lot of work but, once you get familiar with PicMonkey and your card is created, it takes about a minute to type and save each card.

After picking my digital photo, I go to PicMonkey and click on “Design” at the top of the window. I’m then taken to a window with a blank white canvas on it. On the left side, I click on “Crop” then, because I print my thank you notes as 4″x6″, I change the size of the photo to 1200×1800. (This means 1200×1800 pixels per inch. If that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry about it. Just know that these dimensions will give you a nice looking 4×6 photo.) If you prefer a horizontal thank you note, make it 1800×1200. Then click the green “Apply” button.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

After your thank you note is the size you want it to be, you can change the color of the background if you want to. Click on “Canvas Color” right below crop and pick your color! Since the thank you notes I need to write are for Christmas, I’m making the background red. Don’t forget to click “Apply.” I’ll add embellishments later.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

Now it’s time to add the photo! Click on the butterfly on the left side of the screen. This will take you to the overlays. At the top of the bar on the left, click on “Add your own.” A window will open up. Find your photo (mine was on my desktop) and click “Open” and your photo will magically appear on the thank you note you’re creating! Move it to where you want it by clicking and dragging. If it needs to be resized, just grab a corner or edge with your mouse and change the size as needed.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

I wanted to give my photo a more finished look, so I decided to add a frame to it. To do this, while in “Overlays,” I scrolled down, on the left side, to “Geometric.” I clicked on the rectangle, changed color 1 to green and color 2 to transparent, and had my frame! Then, using my mouse, I changed the size of the rectangle to match my photo, moved it into place with my mouse, and my photo was framed.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

Next I wanted to add some pretty embellishments to my thank you note. I thought some faded snowflakes around the edges would look nice and wouldn’t distract from the text that I would add later. I clicked on the snowflake icon on the far left towards the bottom. *This is where PicMonkey stashed the holiday stuff. These items can also be found in the Overlays (butterfly icon) section.  Sorry…sidetracked. Back to my card design.* Then I clicked on “Winterland” on the top on the left under “Themes.” About half way down on the left, I clicked on “Flakery.” Hello snowflakes! I clicked on them to add a whole bunch to my page, then moved them to the edges of my card. Using my mouse and holding the mouse button on the little circle at the top of each snowflake, I was able to tilt them to different angles and I resized them to make some smaller so they wouldn’t all look the same. To lighten the snowflakes, I slid the “Fade” slider to 80% for each snowflake. I added more snowflakes as needed.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

Then it was time to add text. I wanted to write “Thank you!” across the photo. So on the far left side, I clicked on the button that says Tt. I clicked “Add text,” wrote “Thank you!” in the text box that popped on the screen, changed it to white, and moved it into place. Then I changed it to the font I wanted and enlarged it a bit. And my blank card was done! This was the blank canvas upon which all of the thank you notes would be written. I saved this to my computer’s desktop in a folder called “Thank You Notes” and could then close the window (big X in the top right corner) because I was done with the design part of the process!

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

To create individual thank you notes, I went back to PicMonkey and clicked on “Edit” at the top of the window. I found and opened my blank card. I went back to the text (Tt) section, clicked on “Add text” and wrote a thank you note on the red area of my card. Then I saved it and named it according to who it was for. After saving, I didn’t close the card. I changed the text for the next thank you note recipient, and saved it again under their name. I continued this process until all of my thank you notes were written. They were all saved in the “Thank You Notes” folder on the desktop of my computer.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

I then uploaded the completed cards to the Costco Photo Center online, ordered them printed as 4×6 with luster finish, and they were ready an hour later! I had the kiddos sign them with a silver sharpie and mailed them off to their intended recipients.

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

How To Make Cute, Personalized Thank You Notes by Life As A Mama

I ordered these envelopes for mailing the cards.

I get a lot of compliments on the thank you notes the kiddos send out. I hope you like them too!

~ This post may contain affiliate links. ~

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Food

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes by Life As A Mama

I got some awesome Betty Crocker ice cream cone cupcake baking racks for Christmas and my daughter has been begging to use them!

Who doesn’t love an ice cream cone cupcake?! She wanted vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting and pink sprinkles. So that’s what she got!

My little bakers!

The baking racks were easy to use. We got regular ice cream cones and set each one in one of the little holes and set the racks on a baking sheet. (Please excuse the condition of my well-loved baking pan. It gets a lot of use.)

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes by Life As A Mama

I wish I could share the recipe we used, but it’s the recipe that an Orange County cupcake business, Fairy Cakes Bakery, uses, and we’ve been sworn to secrecy. I’m sure any boxed mix would work and a quick search on Pinterest should provide an awesome frosting recipe.

My favorite dyes are the AmeriColor gels. For this frosting I added a squirt of sky blue. I used a piping bag fitted with a big round tip to apply the frosting.

We filled the ice cream cones a little too full with batter. I think next time I would leave around 3/4″ of space at the top. Several of the cupcakes overflowed. But they for us so we didn’t care! We had fun and the cupcakes were delicious!

~ This post contains affiliate links. ~

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Kids

Nolan Had The iPad

My kids LOVE to use our iPads. They play games, watch videos, and apparently make little videos of their own. My husband recently found this little goody on his. I have no idea what app he was using to do this. My silly boy will be 4 in a few months. Enjoy! (Click Continue Reading to see the video.)

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