Heart Shaped Cake

Show your Valentine you love them with a heart shaped cake!  Don't have a heart shape pan?  You don't need one.  All you need is one square pan and one circle pan.

1.  Choose any flavor of cake you want
2.  Bake two cakes - 1 circle and 1 square
3.  Remove from pans
4.  Cut circle in half
5.  Rotate square, so it is diamond shaped
6.  Add each half circle to two sides of the diamond (square cake).  The diameter of my circle was a little longer than the sides of each square, so I adjusted a bit.  You can see in the picture below.
7.  Frost heart shaped cake
8.  Enjoy

Since its Valentines Day you might want to go with a little something more festive, like Red Velvet, but I made a Chocolate Zucchini Cake.  I still had zucchini in our freezer, left over from our garden last Summer.  And if a cake has zucchini in it, it has to be healthy right?  That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 3/4 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 Cups Shredded Zucchini
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1/4 Cup Cocoa
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Mix together dry ingredients and set aside.  Mix butter, oil and sugar together, then add eggs, vanilla and buttermilk.  Add Zucchini and dry ingredients.  Pour into greased pans. Bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 Cup Butter
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Cocoa
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla

Mix together softened butter and rest of ingredients.  Add more powdered sugar if necessary.  Wait until cake is cool and then frost.

Enjoy!

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cheers!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

XOXO

The Perfect Match

Today's post is all about collections. I've been collecting matchbooks since I was pretty young, probably around the age of 10.  I guess my parents trusted me, because I don't think I would like it if Parker and Ryder started collecting matches.  

It's getting harder and harder to find matches these days, but I guess that's a good thing, less people smoking.  So, now its more exciting when I find a place that has matches.  You have pretty good odds of finding matchbooks in Vegas, better odds than winning any money.  Chris always tries to find me matches when he is out of town.  What a guy!

Glacier National Park + Matches = Probably not the best idea

When was the last time you could get matches at Wendy's?

I remember I got these matches for Christmas one year, not your typical Christmas present.  They are pretty old.  Phone numbers with only 3 and 4 digits...

A few of my favorite restaurants I've collected matches from.  Ruth's Chris Steak House was Chris and I's favorite place for happy hour when we lived in Seattle.  We spent quite a few nights there before we had kids.  Mama's Fish House is a must for anyone traveling to Maui!  We've been to Spago a couple times in Maui and was delicious both times!  If you like sushi, RA Sushi in Vegas is a great!

What do you collect?  Wine, Pez dispensers, art, purses...?   Please share in the comments below.

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Now You Know What It Looks Like...

Every so often, something ground-breaking comes along that forever changes how we do things ... The iPhone. The Sonicare toothbrush. The Keurig coffee maker. Clairol Root Touch-Up. They make life easier. They save us time and money, improve our health, even make us more beautiful.

What if you could've started a turn-key business for less than $1000 and became the first and only distribution channel for one of these products? They weren't sold in stores, they were only available through YOU.

This is where Rodan + Fields comes in. The Proactiv Doctors are changing the world again, and they want you to get your share of the market. Business has been booming, but it’s about to get a heckuva lot better.

This week, in Dallas, world renowned dermatologists - Drs. Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields will release a new skin care device that has never been offered over the counter that is being raved about by the press and speculated to be the "largest in our history"... "game changing".

On February 9, the skincare revolution officially begins and you can lead it. You can be the go-to source, with a new tool that will take in-home skin care to a new level. Even better, between now and February 8th, Rodan + Fields is offering this tool for FREE (a $279 value) for anyone who starts their business with our RFX Express Kit. Isn’t it time we had a conversation about the possibilities, about what this could mean for you?

We are looking for consultants who want to be the FIRST to use this new device....for free.

It's called a Macro-Exfoliator. It's innovative, effective and like nothing you've ever seen and that's all I can say for now!

Leaked in Marie Claire, this means that the enormous media speculation has started. Marie Claire is circulated to over 980,000 people per issue! This is just the beginning....

After officially released, the media and press will rave, and guess what... this is all free advertising for your new business!

Thank you for your continued support. And if this just isn't for you...that's ok! But I always welcome new friends and business partners...I have a great referral program!

my product site:  https://yates.myrandf.com my business site:   https://yates.myrandf.biz contact me:  melissa.r.yates@gmail.com Cheers!

Valentine's Mantel

I put together a quick Valentine's display on our mantel.  I gathered all my vases, bowls, candle holders, etc around my house that were either red, pink or white and arranged them on my mantel.  I also included the bottles I spray painted last year for Valentine's day.  Everything I used I already had around my house, so this was a free project.  Gotta love the things you can do that don't cost anything!

Chris and I built our mantel, aka a floating shelf, check out what it looked like before here.

Does anyone else decorate for Valentine's day or have special plans for the day?  Since having kids, Chris and I usually make a nice dinner at home after the kiddos are in bed.  Chris always gets me Belgium Chocolate Truffles from Costco and usually flowers.  Very traditional, but what girl doesn't love chocolates and flowers?

Reminder:  Tomorrow, February 1st, is National Wear Red Day to raise awareness of the issue of heart disease in woman.  Wear Red and show your support!

XOXO

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Parker's Artwork Photo Book

One of my New Years Resolutions was to be more organized, which has probably been on the list a few times before.  Anyways, if any of you are like me and have kids in daycare or school you have probably accumulated quite a few pieces of artwork.  I always try to display them for a little while when they come home, but then they end up in a box.  I have a hard time getting rid of things, especially things Parker has made.  A couple weeks ago I received a free coupon code from Shutterfly for a free photo book, so I decided it would be a good time to compile all of Parker's artwork into a small, 20 page, 8x8 photo book.  The coupon code was only good for about a week, so it forced me to get this project done fairly quickly.  And it wasn't completely free, I still had to pay $10 or so for shipping, so I'm sure they are still making some money.

I took out Parker's box of artwork and took about 175 pictures of all of it, then uploaded it to Shutterfly and created a nice book of all his masterpieces.  Then I threw almost all of the artwork away.  Sorry P!  I did save a few favorites like the mother's and father's day projects Parker made for Chris and I.  I also took pictures of a few cards Parker received from teachers and included those in the book.  It will be fun to look at later down the road.

Parker was excited to look at his new photo book.  I try to make him a photo book every year of all the things we are done and he really enjoys looking through them.  I'm just hoping he doesn't ask where all his artwork went... but, it won't take long before we have another box full and I'll have to make another book.

What does everyone else do with their kid's artwork?  Anything creative?

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Champagne Punch

For Christmas Eve my mom and I made this yummy Champagne Punch.  We found the recipe in the December/January 2013 issue of Taste of Home Magazine.  It's easy, pretty and tastes great!


Line a 4 1/2 cup Ring Mold with Assorted Fruit
Add in
2 1/2 cups Pineapple Juice
1 1/2 cups Ginger Ale
Freeze until Solid
Unmold into a Punch Bowl

Stir in 
- Two 750 ml Bottles of Champagne
- One Chilled 375-ml Bottle of Sweet White Wine (half a regular size bottle)
- One 12 oz can Thawed Frozen Lemonade Concentrate

Makes 16 servings (3/4 cup each)
Anita Geoghagan - Woodstock, Georgia

We didn't have a ring mold, so we used a circular, freezer safe bowl and it worked great.  I recommend adding the pineapple juice and ginger ale first, then adding the fruit, so you can make it somewhat pretty.  We used orange slices and raspberries for our fruit.

Perfect for your next party!

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!