Marshmallow Snowmen

I'm still coming off the holiday break and definitely not fully back in the swing of things yet. So I'm little late with my sweet treat of the month for January. But since snowmen in general are so cute and these are easy to make I hope they were worth the wait.

And because outfitting your snowman (or snowperson because I think there are a few ladies in this bunch) is definitely more than half the fun of making one I'm showing a few different ways you can dress them up.

The base design is pretty simple-

I used a jumbo marshmallow for the body and a regular sized marshmallow for the head. To attach them together simple wet the bottom of the head with a few drops of water and stick it to the body.

The arms are pretzel sticks, stuck into the sides of the big marshmallow.

The eyes, mouth and buttons are chocolate dots made with a tooth pick.

The nose is a candy coated mini chocolate chip sprinkle. I attached it using a small dot of melted chocolate.

The scarves are made from candy clay. The recipe can be found here... and if you've never worked with it before it's basically like edible play-dough (YUM).

Some have rosy cheeks (drawn on with a food coloring marker).

And a few have knit hats (made from more candy clay)

And if you want a more traditional look try a top hat.

To make the hats slice off 1/4 of the marshmallow (go ahead an eat this piece cause it's extra.. or save them for cocoa). Dip the 3/4 piece into melted chocolate and let it dry. Once that's set, spoon a circle of melted chocolate into parchment paper to make a brim and place your chocolate dipped marshmallow in the center. Allow the entire thing to dry then place onto your snowman's head and glue in place with a little melted chocolate.

These snowmen are simple and fun to make. They'd be a great project for the kids. And I can tell you first hand they go perfectly with a cup of hot cocoa.

When I had them all on the cake stand and put the cover on it instantly made me think of a snowglobe. So I punched some snowflakes out of paper and stuck them to the dome with double stick tape. I love how they look all together with the snowflakes "falling" around them!

Then I thought you could package these individually to look like a little snowglobe if you used an inverted mason jar.

All it took was a little frosting and coconut "snow" on the lid to help hold the snowman in place and more paper snowflakes to decorate the glass. (Although I bet you could probably use white chocolate to draw a few flakes or punch some out of fondant or candy clay.) Packaged like this I think they'd make cute little party favors or something nice to leave on a co-worker's desk!

Bad Cats!

Last weekend is typically when we would take the tree down. But other things came up and we figured we'd just take it down this weekend instead.

We really should have taken the tree down.

Since last weekend the cats (who have been interested in the tree and constantly shooed away from it but so far hadn't destroyed it) have knocked down the tree not once... but twice.

Both times I came into the living room before breakfast to find it on it's side. (I'm going to apologize now for the pictures to follow. Since it's still been a little dark outside I needed the flash and well... when you haven't had your breakfast and are furious at two cats it's hard to take good pictures).

Both time once it's been picked up there have been pieces of ornaments under it.

So heartbreaking to have made them all only to have them destroyed by bad cats!

The first time a bunch of eggs broke. They tore a pair of mittens in half. Ripped a few snowflakes. And broke the straws off a few hot chocolate mugs.

The second time half the tree was undecorated since so many things broke the first time but they managed to knock it onto the other side and destroy even more.

And the tree was in a totally different direction then it would have been if it simple fell over. I think they actually dragged it a little bit!

All but one or two of the eggs that were left broke.

The garland had been chewed in several places.

More hot chocolate mugs broken/eaten. And sadly the snowflake tree topper is in two pieces.

For next year maybe I could get some sort of alarm that would alert us of impending tree disasters. Either that or fashion a tree out of a cat climber and decorate it with cat toys. That way they can climb it, claw it, and eat it to their hearts content.

Valentine's Day Craft Roundup

I'm notorious for making a holiday project right before the holiday it's intended for. So this year I figured I'd start off Valentine's day nice and early by revisiting some of the my past projects.

Doily Pops.

These white chocolate hearts are much easier to make than they look. The perfect sweet for your sweetheart!

Hearts and Flowers Wreath, it's made with coffee filters but I think it looks just like carnations.

Free Printable Love Potion Labels

Homemade bath salts, lotions, tea blends, or linen spray make great gifts. I've made the labels in both lavender and pink.

Chocolate Strawberry and Champagne Muffins. The love and the hearts are baked right in.

Glitter Heart Dog Collar- cause the pup likes to celebrate Valentine's day too!

And we can't leave the cats out. Make an easy peasy knit cat toy in just a few minutes with a pattern from Martha.