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Monday, February 29, 2016

HURRY! LD Leap Day 12-hour Special coupon!

http://www.letteringdelights.com/?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

Happy Leap Day!

LD is running a Leap Day 12-hour special- use the coupon LeapYear to save 29% on your purchase. No minimum purchase required! You can get some great deals especially since the code will even work on the bundles that are already 60% off!

This coupon is good for today only. CLICK HERE to use it in the LD store before the offer expires.



Sunday, February 28, 2016

Jin's Favorite Lemon Loaf


One of my favorite things to bake is a made-from-scratch lemon loaf. It all started when one of my kids discovered the iced lemon pound cake at Starbucks. She loved it so much she'd ask for it every time we are in the coffee shop. Personally I thought it was way too sweet and so I went looking for a lemon loaf recipe that I could use at home.

http://www.starbucks.com/menu/food/bakery/iced-lemon-pound-cake-lb

Ingredient list for Starbucks' Iced Lemon Pound Cake


Thanks to Google, it didn't take long to find what I was looking for. The lemon loaf recipe posted by Derf on Food.com was exactly what I needed. Unlike Starbucks' lemon cake, there is no corn syrup or extra color added. In fact, the recipe uses only 2 lemons and a few basic ingredients.


I was delighted the first time I baked the cake but I loved it even more after reducing the sugar by 1/4 cup and replacing 1/2 cup of milk with 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup lemon juice (as advised by a commenter).

The following is my modified recipe. You can find the original recipe by clicking HERE.

Jin's Favorite Lemon Loaf
adapted from Derf's recipe on Food.com

Ingredients:

1⁄2 cup butter, room temperature
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1⁄4 cup milk, 1⁄4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 lemons, rind of

Glaze:
1 lemon, juice of
1⁄4 cup sugar
 
------------

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and lemon rind in a bowl.

In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until creamy.

Blend in milk and lemon juice.

Pour flour mixture into batter and stir to moisten.

Scrape into greased pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Cool the loaf in the pan for 5-10 minutes.

While the loaf is cooling, make the glaze by combining the lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan. Stir and heat till sugar is dissolved.

Place a cooling rack onto a cookie sheet.

Remove the loaf from the pan and onto the cooling rack. While the loaf is still hot, use a toothpick to poke holes all over the top and spoon glaze evenly over it.

Let the lemon loaf cool completely on the rack.

-----

Additional notes:
I love baking these lemon loaves to give away to friends. In order to make the cakes look even more fancy, I have baked them in the Nordic Ware Mini Baby Bunny Cake Pan and the Nordic Ware Mini Citrus Loaf Pan. In both cases, I greased and flour the pans really well so that the designs show up well and the cakes are released easily. I baked the cakes at 350F and for about 28-30 minutes.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Buttercream Babes Printable Cards


Have you seen the new Buttercream Babes from LD? They are so cute! CLICK HERE to check out the whole collection.

Along with the release, LD is giving away a set of printable cards for free.


If you are a Silhouette Studio user, you can easily use these printables with the software. After you have downloaded and unzipped the file,  just open the PNGs and resize them to your preference. I reduced the size of my cards to 5" x 7.5".


Next, just print the cards and trim them down to size, and they are ready for use! Easy peasy!

http://www.letteringdelights.com/graphics/printables/buttercream-babes-notes-pr-p14010c4c19?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

You can also use this set of printables if you do not have Silhouette Studio. Just open the included PDF file and you will be able to print the cards from there.

LD is giving away this set of printable cards for this weekend only. After Sunday, the file will be available for only $3 in the LD store.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE BUTTERCREAM BABES - NOTES - PRINTABLE.


Friday, February 26, 2016

LD FREEBIE: Buttercream Babes - Notes - PR (printable)

It's the weekend!! Woohoo!!! I already have it all planned out. I'm going to the mall tomorrow while the kids are at Chinese School and then we'll drop by that Japanese restaurant we found last week when we did the Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt-Seattle. On Sunday, I'm going to Kon-Mari the family room and...

Oh wait.

Did LD just release the cutest cupcake set EVAH?

https://www.letteringdelights.com/shop-all-c0?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

Oh. Em. Gee. How cute are these??!!

http://www.letteringdelights.com/cut-sets/cut-sets/buttercream-babes-toppers-cs-p14003c5c12?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

http://www.letteringdelights.com/cut-sets/cut-sets/buttercream-babes-cs-p14001c5c12?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

http://www.letteringdelights.com/cut-sets/cut-sets/buttercream-babes-cupcakes-cs-p14005c5c12?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

Forget about the mall and the restaurant. I don't think I'm going anywhere until I cut some of these out! They are so cute!! I  the whole thing!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW BUTTERCREAM BABES.

Here is your Friday Freebie:

http://www.letteringdelights.com/graphics/printables/buttercream-babes-notes-pr-p14010c4c19?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

To get your freebie, CLICK HERE or the image above to go to the LD site. Add the Buttercream Babes- Notes - PR (printable) to your cart and checkout. You pay $0.00!

Silhouette users, CLICK HERE to get your free design of the week.

https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/121625



DIY Hello Kitty Button Magnets


Just a quick little post from me this morning while we wait for LD's Friday Freebie. I'm going to surprise the kids with these button magnets that I made with some free Sanrio printables, my Silhouette Cameo, and my button maker.

I used the images from a free Hello Kitty printable with my 1" button template that I had designed with Silhouette Studio. The magnets that I used for this project are the same ones that I had previously posted (CLICK HERE if you had missed that post). They are super strong 3/4" x 1/8" ceramic magnets that can be encased inside the buttons so they do not fall out.

Button magnets that I had previously made and posted on the blog. CLICK HERE for that article.

You can find the free printables on the Sanrio website by clicking HERE.

If you have a button maker, you can download my free 1" button template HERE.

The weekend is upon us and if you are in the Seattle area, don't forget that the Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt is still going on. CLICK HERE to find out more about it.

http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/2016/02/hello-kitty-hungry-hunt-seattle.html

Thursday, February 25, 2016

DIY Lego Stickers and Notecards

My kids are huge fans of Lego and I've been wanting to ask LD if they could make a graphic and cut set of Minifigures. Imagine my surprise when they released their Under Construction collection! How did they read my mind? I was delighted!

As soon as the kids went to school, I opened Silhouette Studio (DE) and made these stickers.



I was so tickled by the finished stickers, I went ahead and made little notecards too.



The Silhouette's print-and-cut feature makes it really easy to do these projects.

For tips on how to make stickers with your Silhouette machine, CLICK HERE for my DIY sticker article.

To learn how to make the notecards, CLICK HERE for my notecard video tutorial.



=====
Files used:
Under Construction - Build Me - CS (SVG included)
Under Construction - Build Me - Paper Pack



Saturday, February 20, 2016

Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt - Seattle

==================================================
UPDATE (3/5):
Molly Moon Ice Cream has ran out of the Hello Kitty Ice Cream pins. 

==================================================  

The kids are on a week-long school break and I couldn't have been more excited when I found out that the Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt will start just before they head back to school. Hubby had planned to take the day off work BEFORE he even heard of the event, and so I decided it was a sign that we HAD to do the hunt.

http://www.sanrio.com/hungryhunt
from sanrio.com


There are 7 stores participating in the Seattle Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt. That is a few shops less than the 11 restaurants that participated in the Los Angeles hunt in 2014 but it also seemed more manageable.

image from sanrio.com

We had hoped to complete the hunt in a day but bad weather and a horrible traffic jam caused a delay in our schedule. We ended up taking two days to finish the hunt- we visited five stores on Day 1 and the last two on Day 2.

We started out on the hunt thinking that we were only doing it to collect the limited edition Hello Kitty pins but we actually had a really great time! Even though we go to downtown Seattle fairly often, there are still a lot of places that we have not been. If not for the Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt, we might not have found the delicious cookies at Hello Robin or the yummy sushi at Japonessa. We really enjoyed visiting all the different shops and trying out their food (although they probably caused a sugar high at the end of the day. Yikes!).

The Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt in Seattle is on from Feb 19- Mar 18, 2016. CLICK HERE for the details of the event, including the locations of all the participating stores. If you are thinking of doing this hunt, please bear in mind that most, if not all, of the stores have a daily limit of pins and it may be wise to start the hunt early in the day.


1. Trophy Cupcakes, 600 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101

We already loved Trophy Cupcakes before the hunt and now we love them even more!

The Valrhona chocolate cupcakes topped with Madagascar vanilla buttercream were too cute to eat!

I was told that this was all they had for the day. Only 24 Hello Kitty cupcakes per day?!!


2. Gossip Espresso & Tea, 651 S. King Street, Seattle, WA 98105

This store sells out of Hello Kitty pins fast. Must go early if you want one.



3. Japonessa Sushi Cocina, 1400 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101

This was the store sample display. So cute!

We bought the sushi to-go and it was delish!

The restaurant looks really nice inside and we'd love to go back for a sit-down (non-Hello Kitty) meal.


4. Molly Moon Ice Cream, 917 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122

LOVE Molly Moon!

Yummy ice-cream sundae!


5. Hello Robin Cookies, 522 19th Ave East, E. Seattle, WA 98112


Hello Robin is possibly my favorite find from this hunt. We LOVE their cookies and will definitely go back for more.


6. PIE, 3515 Fremont Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103

The Hello Kitty pie was a lemon raspberry custard in a chocolate pie crust. Yummy!


7. POP Kitchen + Bar (located in EMP), 325 5th Ave North, Seattle, WA 98109

This was our last stop on the hunt. Yay!

Woohoo!!! My Hello Kitty Hungry Hunt- Seattle pin collection is complete!!

Thank you, Hubby for driving us to all the restaurants! We couldn't have done this without you!


Friday, February 19, 2016

FREE: Under Construction - Face Box

Wow. I can't believe that it's Friday again! The kids' mid-winter break is coming to an end and that means that next week, when they go back to school, I get to play with my toys and cut paper again. Hehe..

Did you see what LD released today? LEGO!

www.letteringdelights.com/product/search?search=under+construction&tracking=d0754212611c22b8

CLICK HERE to check out their new Under Construction collection.

Here are your freebies:

http://www.letteringdelights.com/graphics/printables/under-construction-face-box-pr-p13994c4c19?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

http://www.letteringdelights.com/cut-sets/cut-projects/under-construction-face-box-cp-p13986c5c13?tracking=d0754212611c22b8

To get your free box, CLICK HERE or the image above to go to the LD site. Add the Under Construction - Face Box Printable and Cut Project to your cart and checkout. You pay $0.00!

Silhouette users, CLICK HERE to get your free design of the week.

https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/116091



Tuesday, February 16, 2016