Baked Lemon Donuts

I'm a huge fan of citrus especially in a dessert form. These lemon donuts are light and fluffy and are covered with a lemon glaze that will completely satisfy any citrus craving.  

I'm loving this donut pan. It makes baking donuts so much easier and in my mind makes the donuts semi healthier, right? Okay, probably not.  

I've found that by putting the dough in a pastry bag like this, will make it easier to divide the dough in the pan.

Baked Lemon Donuts

Ingredients

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powcer

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

6 oz. container lemon Greek yogurt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup milk

zest of one lemon

Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar

juice of one lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease donut pan with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, yogurt, oil milk and lemon zest. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Divide batter evenly into donut cups, filling each cup about half full. Bake for 10-15 minutes. 

Remove from oven and cool donuts on a cooling rack for a few minutes. While cooling make the glaze.

Whisk together the confectioners sugar and lemon juice until it's a thin glaze. Drizzle glaze on donuts.

Yield: 12 donuts

Recipe adapted from Barbara Bakes

DIY Cake Stand

While browsing through the craft store last week, I came across these darling flower shaped charger plates. They come in a variety of bright fun colors. I decided to turn them into some cake stands that I could use for parties or family get togethers. They're so simple to put together. Here's what you'll need:

Glass candlestick-can be found at dollar store or craft stores

Spray paint of choice

Charger plate- I found mine at Micheals

E6000 glue

Step 1: Spray paint your candlestick holders. I chose a metallic silver to go with the bright colored charger plates.

Step 2: Once the candlesticks are dry, place some glue around the  top ring of the candlestick. Wait a couple minutes.

Step 3: Turn the charger plate upside down and place the candlestick with glue in the middle of the backside of the plate. Let it dry.

Now you have a fun stand to display all your goodies! I'm using mine for my daughters birthday party this weekend.

Lil Luna
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Thank You Basket + Printable Tag

Here's another simple gift idea for a teacher or anyone really. I found this cute container at Micheals and filled it with some note cards, a cute pen, a pad of paper and rubber stamp that all had my sons teachers initial of her last name on them. We're also going to add her favorite treat in there as well. To add a little more cuteness to it, I added a clip on flower to the front of the basket. I love the bright and cheery colors!

Download tags here

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"Write" Teacher for me

With teacher appreciation week just around the corner and the end of the school year coming to an end, here's another simple gift to give. 

I got these darling pencils and notepad in the dollar section at Micheals. Teachers are always in need of pencils and paper! Tie them all together with some fun ribbon and a tag, or note from your child and you've got a simple but useful gift.

Download tag here

 
Lil Luna
Whipperberry

Bee-ing a Great Teacher + free printable

It's that time of year when school is coming to an end and we're all trying to come up with a little something to show our appreciation to all those fabulous teachers.  

Here's a simple gift idea using products from Burt's Bees. You can buy the products individually or use a small kit like this one that contains a variety of their products. 

Add some bakers twine and a tag and you're ready to go.

Download tag here

Simple Baby Blanket Gift

 

I'm so excited to share this little project with you. It's always fun to try something for the first time and have it turn out the way you envisioned it. 

I've never worked with minky fabric before, just for the fact that I've heard how hard it is to work with when sewing it. Well, I was adventurous and set out to make a blanket for my sweet neighbor who just had her baby.

I followed this great tutorial from How Does She. The only thing I did differently was that I added a LOT more pins. After sewing three sides of the blanket, I noticed that the minky fabric had slid to one side so much that it was all lop sided. So after unstitching the entire thing (not fun) and starting over, I decided to add more pins and it worked like a charm. It also helped me to sew slower because I had to remove all those pins as I went, which I think helped keep the fabric in place as well.

 

I also used the left over minky fabric to make some wash cloths.

Besides having to start over on the blanket the first time, it really didn't take that long to sew the blanket. I'm excited at how well it turned out and can't wait to make more for quick baby gifts.

 

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Toasted Coconut Symphony Treats

It's been such a great week here! The weather has been warm and has felt like Spring! I love spending more time outside with the kids. We even cleaned and organized both garages, not my favorite thing to do but it feels so good to have that done.

Here's a quick treat to make so you can spend more time outside! All you need for this chocolate goodie is coconut and a giant sized Symphony candy bar.

Take the coconut and spread it onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes. Watch it carefully so it doesn't burn.

Next take your chocolate bar and break it into pieces then melt either in the microwave or on the stove top. I get a pot and fill it half way with water and let the water warm up. After the water is warm I place the chocolate in a glass bowl and set it on top of the pot of water and let the chocolate melt.

Mix the coconut and chocolate together until all coconut is covered. Scoop onto wax paper or into mini cupcake liners.

Add a Cadbury egg to make tasty birds nests. These would be great treats for  Easter!

Spring Burlap Banner

For the first time in a while the sun has been shining and it's gotten me super excited for Spring and to get the kids back outside playing! 

I don't normally put out decorations for every holiday or season but I'm so happy about the sun being out that I thought it would be fun to make a banner to let Spring know that it can come and stay!

Thanks to the Silhouette, it made this project a breeze. After cutting the burlap into the shape I wanted, I chose various fabrics and ironed Heat N Bond to the back of the fabric. I used the Silhouette to cut out the letters and bunnies then ironed them to the burlap. To hang the banner, I hot glued a pom pom ribbon to the burlap then added a couple white pom poms to the bunnies for their tails.

Here's hoping Spring will come soon!

DIY Alphabet Box

 

As a mother and former preschool teacher, I'm always on the lookout for great activities that will help children learn to recognize letters in the alphabet and their sounds.  In preschool we focus a lot on this, so I'm excited to share the Alphabet Box I made.

Thanks to Counting Coconuts for inspiring me with this idea. Check out her blog for ideas on she uses her Alphabet Box. It's quite easy to put together. 

For the box, I used a plastic hardware box with plastic drawers. I found this one at Wal Mart in the hardware section. It was black with clear drawers so I jazzed it up a bit with black and white polka dot washi tape around the entire outside. I also used two different  gray washi tapes on the drawers. Then used my cricut to cut out vinyl lettering for each drawer.          

Now for the fun part, gathering a bunch of small objects to go with each letter. You can find a lot just laying around the house but you can also find some on Etsy,  Lakeshore Learning, the dollar store, or a party supply store. I tried to get a least 6 objects for each letter. Some letters like X are harder to find that many objects for.  For this letter I found objects that had the letter x in them like ax, fox, box, wax.

Here is an example of the objects for the letter B. I'm excited to keep adding objects to the drawers because it's fun for the kids to  open each drawer and see what's in there!

You're Sweet Valentine Treat

Valentines Day is just a few days away so if you're still looking for a Valentine to give, here's a simple but oh so sweet one. Who wouldn't love a Granny B's frosted sugar cookie? All that pink frosting on a super soft sugar cookie!

Every year on Valentine's Day I like to surprise my kids with a  treat, so this year I'm taking an easier route with these premade sugar cookies. They would make great treats to give at your kids classroom parties as well. You can download the tag below.

Hugs and Kisses Gift Idea

Here's another gift idea to give to a friend, teacher, neighbor, or that special someone in your life. It's super easy to put together and filled with some yummy Hershey's Chocolate Hugs and Kisses.

I used Crystal Light containers like this one and just peeled off the outside paper then decorated it with scrapbook paper. Add a tag and fill with the chocolate then tied it with some tulle. See, super easy!

Download tag below

 
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