Make your Easter parties extra special with beautiful spring inspired cupcakes!  Who doesn’t love an awesome cupcake, right?

Here’s a collection of Easter cupcake recipes that will help you create the perfect sweet treat.  Whether you need bunny cupcakes for a school party or sweet little nest cupcakes for tea time, you are going to love these fabulous ideas!

15 Easter Cupcake Recipes

Birds Nest Cupcake -  Got Chocolate

Rose and Orange Cupcake – Hostess with the Mostess

Cupcake Baked in a Real Egg -  Cupcake Project

Carrot Cupcake – A Few Short Cuts

Cadbury Egg Cupcakes – Pizzazzerie

Surprise Bunny Cupcake – Cupcake Project

Rainbow Cupcake – The Happier Homemaker

Easter Nest Cupcake -  Niner Bakes

Easter Egg Cupcakes – The Sticky and Sweet

Easter Basket Cupcake – Betty Crocker

Stuffed Carrot Garden Cupcake – 1 Fine Cookie

Bunny Ears Cupcake – Nine MSN

Little Lamp Cupcakes – Sheer Luxe

Spring Flower Cupcake – Babble

Animal Cupcakes – Annabel Karmel

These are some of the most creative cupcakes I’ve ever seen!  I love the pretty spring colors!

Which one is your favorite?

~Kim

Looking for more Spring ideas?  You’ll love 101 Handmade Easter Ideas, Spring Treat Recipes and 7 Sweet Bunny Patterns!  Happy Spring!!!

Southern Beer Battered Shrimp Recipe

One of my favorite foods in the whole entire world…shrimp.  Shrimp are amazing no matter which way they are cooked, but it’s really hard to beat fried shrimp.  Living in the south you learn a bit about shrimp and which ones are the sweetest, biggest, or best for your shrimp salad or scampi recipe.  There’s a huge difference and my favorite shrimp are always from Key West or Savannah.  Luckily, we’re close to both areas.  We’ve even caught our own shrimp in the Keys!

Now that you know just how serious shrimp are around here, you’ll trust me when I tell you this Southern Beer Battered Shrimp recipe is something you should keep on hand.  This is the best batter ever!

Here’s a look at what I made the other night for dinner.  It’s a rather traditional type meal around here that reminds us of Sunday Supper at Grandma’s house.  That’s hard to beat, right?!

I started with about 3 pounds of beautiful Savannah shrimp that Tim’s grandma brought home with her on a trip to visit family in Savannah.  Grandma Shuman usually brings back some type of food…she’s awesome like that.

You’ll notice these shrimp are large and light colored. 

Here’s what you’ll need for the batter…

• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• salt & pepper to taste

This should give you enough batter for about 1 1/2 pound of shrimp.

Slowly blend the beer into the flour.  Add salt and pepper. 

Now, cover it and let it sit at room temperature for a couple hours.

Prepare your shrimp.  You can drink any leftover beer while you work…you can’t just waste it!

Remove the shell up to the tail.  I usually remove all the legs at the bottom first to make the shell easier to peel off.

Devein your shrimp by using a sharp knife to cut along the back of your shrimp and run it under cold water to wash away and yucky looking stuff.

Repeat this step over and over again.  It always seems to take forever…but it’s worth it!

Once your batter is ready and your shrimp are cleaned it’s time to fry them up!

• Fill up a large pot half way with oil and heat it up to 350 degrees
• Pat 4-5 shrimp dry with a paper towel…this is a key step!
• Dip them in your batter and let them drip a second over the bowl
• Gently drop them in the oil and fry them for 3-5 minutes.
• Remove them and let them dry a bit on some paper towels
• Repeat until you’ve fried them all up!

While you’re waiting on the shrimp to fry you can snack on peanuts…

These are Georgia peanuts…also brought back from Savannah.  They are small, but super sweet and yummy.  If you are ever passing through Georgia this is the type of peanut you’ll find at the local fruit and vegetable stands.

They are a bit of work, but they’re worth it.

I always have cocktail sauce for me and tarter sauce for my husband.  The waffle fries just go together with shrimp and always disappear fast.

You could use this batter for fish, oysters or anything else.  It’s light and goes perfectly with seafood.

There you have it…the best fried shrimp recipe ever!

Are you a seafood lover?  What’s your favorite?  Shrimp, oysters, lobster?

~Kim

Handmade Mini Notebooks

Do you have a ton of pretty scrapbook paper you’ve been saving?  Well, here’s a simple and sweet idea to quickly create handmade mini notebooks!  They make fabulous gifts bundled up in a set, or throw one in your purse to keep track of those awesome ideas of yours.

Cut the scrapbook paper.  Fold it in half.  Secure your pages with washi tape or ribbon from the center of your little book and around the edge. 

Mix and match fun colors and patterns. add a sticker or two…and maybe a little lace ribbon.

Isn’t that easy?  I even made one for our summer vacation.  I’ll add a few notes and trinkets inside to create a little book of vacation memories. 

I embellished the pages inside with tape, stickers and rub on designs.

It’s a fun way to use up leftover scrapbooking supplies and create something cute.  Couldn’t you use a set of your own?

Have you made mini notebooks?  I’d love to hear about them!

~Kim

Scrapbook flowers make easy hair accessories…and awesome little handmade gifts! 

I found these pretty flower embellishments in a sale section.  I browse sale sections first to see if there’s something there that inspires a project…and I’m kinda cheap like that! 

This is one of the fastest handmade gift ideas ever, so you really need to make a bunch to keep on hand for birthdays and holidays. They even fit in an envelope to send off to someone and brighten their day.

One package of flowers I bought were plain canvas and I sprayed them with color. It’s the rose type flower above. Well, let’s just say I won’t be doing that again. I don’t want to bash any type of craft supplies, but spraying dye onto a flower and making a major mess just doesn’t seem worth it.

The other flowers might not last forever, but they will last a long time. Grab a couple packages of any sturdy flower embellishments, get your glue gun and bobby pins together, and get ready to make pretty stuff!

These bobby pins were purchase from a lovely Etsy shop, Whimsy & Pop.  They have a nice finish and a flat area to glue your flower on easily.  Just add a dot of glue and press your flower on.  Let it cool and attach it to small cards to have them ready to share.

I put them in small plastic bags to finish the packaging.  You can find packages of small zip lock bags at any craft store.

Now you need to make some!

Can you ever have too many pretty hair accessories??? I think not!

Have you made any handmade hair accessories lately?  I’d love to hear about them!  They always make a great little gift!

We all know handmade gifts rule…lol!!!

~Kim

Summer is here and watermelon recipes are at the top of my list for picnics and afternoons by the pool.  How can you go wrong when you start your recipe with sweet watermelon?  You can’t, I’m sure of it!

Try Watermelon Pops or Watermelon Margaritas!   You’ll be able to create refreshing recipes to entertain all summer long.

Enjoy these sweet watermelon recipes…

{Frozen Watermelon Margarita – The Kitchn}

{Triple Melon Sorbet – Bakers Royale}

{Watermelon Sorbetto Recipe – Indochine Kitchen}

{Watermelon Frosty Recipe – Lunch Box Bunch}

{Watermelon Pops Recipe – Kraft}

{Watermelon Granita Recipe – Baking With Basil}

{Watermelon Sorbet Recipe – A Sweet Pea Chef}

Don’t they look amazing???  I know you want to try a few of these! 

The sorbet looks so tempting I might have to try it first!  I have major watermelon fans in my house so new watermelon recipes are always helpful.

Which one is your favorite?

Have a fabulous summer!!

Strawberry Jam is one of life’s little pleasures.  We always have fresh strawberries around when they’re in season.  This is one of the best things in the world to do with strawberries…for real!  You won’t believe just how easy it is tom make your own Strawberry Jam.

Strawberry Jam

• 2 quarts fully ripe strawberries
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 7 cups sugar
• 3 ounces liquid fruit pectin

1. Wash and hull the strawberries, and place them in a medium bowl. Using a potato masher, crush the berries. You should have 4 cups of crushed berries.

2. In a heavy saucepan combine the crushed berries, lemon juice, and sugar. Over high heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly; boil, stirring, for 1 minute.

3. Add the liquid pectin; boil and stir for 1 minute longer. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, skim off and discard any foam that rises to the surface.

4. Spoon the hot jam into 8 wide mouthed, warm sterilized 1/2 pint jars, leaving a 1/4 inch space between the top of the jam and the rim of the jar. Wipe the rims, cover, and process for 10 minutes in boiling water. {You can always research more about canning…I have been known to call my Mom during this part to make sure it’s right.}

This jam makes an amazing gift for friends and neighbors!  They will talk about it forever and ask for more…trust me!

Try this recipe for Strawberry Shortcake…another great way to use fresh strawberries!

Enjoy your homemade goodness!

I can’t imagine a dog every turning down a dog treat like this one!  These sweet doggie peanut butter cookies are simple to make and way, way cute!  I’m sure you have a few dog lovin’ friends that would be thrilled at a little gift basket full for their special pet.  {Dogs rule…just saying!}

You only need 5 ingredients and dog tom do the taste testing.  Get the full recipe for Peanut Butter Dog Cookies at Yuki the Dog.  You will love the beautiful photos!

Flavored salt is an excellent way to kick up you next recipe.  You can cook with it or leave it for the finishing touch.  Oh, and doesn’t the little tin look amazing?!  Well, you can download the printables to create these at home.  What a great gift!

Choose from Chipotle-Orange, Mesquite-Porcini and Chile-Lime!  Yum!   You can find all the details on creating your own flavored salt at Minamally Invasive.  It’s a beautiful blog full of great ideas!  Enjoy!

I love handmade wedding and this is one of those DIY wedding projects that makes escort cards something for the guests to talk around the punch bowl.  You can gather vintage brooches from family members, flea markets, garage sales and fun little thrift shops.  The beauty is in the simple style and variety.

Intimate Weddings shared this lovely, lovely idea for vintage escort cards you can make in an evening.

Wow!  Isn’t this one stunning?!  I love this creative wedding  idea!

Handmade wedding are the best!  Keep it simple and beautiful with easy cards like these and be sure to check out all our other DIY Wedding Projects while you’re here.

Creating a simple DIY wedding bouquet can make your special day even more beautiful!  Use vintage fabrics, antique brooches, love notes, paper and so much more…get creative with your supplies and think outside the box {or bridal magazine} for your unique wedding bouquet.

You’ll love these inspiring DIY wedding bouquets complete with tutorials…

{Fake Flower Wedding Bouquet – Wedding Chicks}

{Giant Paper Rose Bouquet – Green Wedding Shoes}

{Vintage Brooch Bouquet – Junk Shop Bride}

{Hydrangea and Mum Bouquet – Wedding Chicks}

{Love Note Paper Flower Bouquet – Poptastic Bride}

{Sweet Fabric Flower Bouquet – Elizabeth Ann Designs}

{Felt Heart Wedding Bouquet – Labelle Bride}

{Vintage Fabric Flower Bouquet – Rock N’ Roll Bride}

{Modern Fabric Flower Bouquet – Elizabeth Ann Designs}

{DIY Fresh Flower Wedding Bouquet – 100 Layer Cake}

Are you creating a beautiful handmade wedding??  Check out these101 Simple Handmade Wedding Ideas for tons of inspiration and tutorials!