luscious lemon cookies

as we grasp on to the last weeks of summer these lemon cookies are perfect for your labor day picnic! i am such a fan of lemon flavored treats…if i had to say i had a weakness for any sweets lemon is the one. hope you give these a try and if you loved them please come back and let me know. 

have a safe and fun weekend!!

ingredients

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

10 tablespoons of salted butter, softened 

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest 

1 large egg plus one yolk

3-4 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice 

3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

1 cup of powdered sugar

directions

1. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. in a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

2. in a secondary bowl mix together butter, sugar, lemon zest with an electric mixer until fluffy and pale yellow.  add eggs and mix well. then add lemon juice and extracts until combined.

3. set mixer on low speed and add dry ingredients to the butter mixture until well combined. 

4.  use a 2 oz scoop to ball the cookie dough and drop in the bowl of powdered sugar. cover generously with powdered sugar. using a round medium sized cookie cutter press the dough ball with the palm of your hand to flatten and form the dough within the cookie cutter on your baking sheet. remove the cookie cutter dip in powdered sugar to prevent sticking and repeat steps until dough is gone. i learned this trick from my mom and love the perfect shape i get.

5. bake 10-13 minutes until tops are indented slightly 

enjoy!!

sally hansen miracle gel manicure review

what really caught my eye about this polish were the colors! the colors are bold and there are such a wide variety to choose from, i was instantly drawn to the display (marketing victim…i know).  just a little history on my nails. i wore acrylic nails for over 10 years…most of those 10 years i always got pink and white acrylic so my nails were a french manicure all of the time. after having our son i wanted to take a break from them…i was mainly afraid of scratching our newborn but i had also gotten to the point where going to my appointments were more of a chore than a joy. when our son was almost 2 i started getting the itch again for acrylic nails…mainly because polish does not stay on more than an hour. after much consideration i started getting the acrylics again. well i couldn't get the acrylics to stay on either…they were constantly lifting and it was more of a hassle than it was worth. a friend told me about the at home gel manicure kits…so i went and purchased one from ulta it was $120.00. i was so excited to try it and then... it sat in my closet for at least 4 months unopened…i do not think i was as excited about it after the ulta representative told me to make sure i had time carved out because you have to follow all of the steps as directed and that takes time…a lot of time...thankfully ulta let me return the product for a full refund. i tried acrylics one last time this year and then finally decided i was done…they weren't staying on and again not worth the time and frustration.

that is when i came across this product…  sally hansen miracle gel. at first i wasn't too sure about it. i tried it the first time the manicure worked great, lasted over 10 days. then i purchased a pink color and that manicure lasted 2 days (i am realizing now that was likely more of user error). i thought i was back to the drawing board in search of the "perfect" polish until i decided to give miracle gel one more try. i had the idea to not only use acetone to remove any oils but i also used a file and roughed up my nail a little. worked like a charm. polish lasted 2 weeks that time.

after recommending this polish to quite a few friends that had never even heard of it i thought my readers may like the skinny on this.  my friends loved it and i hope you will as well. 

my best advice…

remove all oils from you nails with acetone or alcohol then lightly roughen your nail with a nail file or the course side of a buffer block.

although the brush is pretty bulky try to put 2 thin layers of polish on your nail. I actually allow the first coat to almost dry completely before applying the second coat and then allow that to dry before applying the final gel top coat.

this product is totally worth the $15.00 ish investment to give it a try. target seems to be the cheapest as far as the stores i shop at. 

if you decide to use this product or you have used it let me know your comments. 

thanks for taking the time to read my review and i hope you have the same great experience as i did. 

after 10 days

2 day old polish including a day at the pool

my favorite shortbread cookie recipe

if you have followed me for any length of time you know i am not a big fan of sweets. when i do get a "sweet tooth" its usually for something not too sweet…like a shortbread cookie. this recipe is a simple 4 ingredient cookie recipe and oh so tasty.  you can enjoy these just as they are or drizzle them with pretty much any flavor of icing (lemon maybe)…or how about dipping half of the cookie in chocolate.  we actually drizzled these with a home made fresh strawberry icing. a little more work to make the icing but it was worth it.  i will post the strawberry icing recipe and when i do i will link it up to this post as well.


ingredients
2 cups butter
1 cup of white sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
4 cups of all-purpose flower


method
1. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

2. cream butter and sugar until fluffy and stir in vanilla. slowly add in flour mixing well.

3. roll out the cookies or use a cookie press. we rolled these out and used a mini cookie cutter and made them into these cute frilly shapes. we baked these for 10 minutes or until a very light golden brown. baking times will vary depending on the size of cookie and oven. so if you prefer to do a larger cookie just do a test round and bake one or two to see how they turn out.

enjoy!! 

my first restoration project…antique cabinet

i couldn't wait to show all of you my latest project. this is my first "restoration" piece and i am ecstatic with how this turned out. my grandma gave me this white antique cabinet last year. after the hard winter we had we brought the piece in and then it sat for a month or so…between our busy life and the fact i wasn't sure what direction i wanted to go with the cabinet it sat.
i wanted some extra storage space for either my office or kitchen and decided to refinish it for the kitchen since the kitchen needed it more. my first thought was to paint it solid matte black and switch the hardware to a brushed aluminum handle…then i had a thought. our kitchen has a vintage wine "theme" so what better way to compliment the style than to distress the cabinet a little so it looks more rustic.  and this was so easy!
i sanded the white cabinet first making sure any scratches or dings were smoothed. i wiped it down with water/lysol mixture, then applied 2 coats of matte black latex paint. Once the paint dried for 24 hours i started to strategically sand different areas and voila…all finished.  i think i have created a monster though…i already have 2 other "projects" i am planning to do this too.

daisy cut-out cookies

you may have seen posts i have done before about baked happy!

meredith (the owner) is amazing! not only do her cookies look perfect every time but they taste even better. a lot of times the cookies that are intricately decorated do not taste the greatest or are hard…these little gems are soft and oh so yummy!

meredith made these daisy cookies for our women's event last month. i told her the colors and the theme and voila…she came up with this amazingness! i was so surprised and excited!

she does all kinds of custom orders and you can contact her through her website.

baked happy 

be careful though and order in advance this girl books up quickly!

there is also a direct link under sponsors on my blog to her business baked happy 

unisa lolleea wedge sandal

i picked these up on my last dsw trip. if you have followed me for a while or know me personally i love all that glitters! the only dilemma with these was choosing gold or silver… i really like these because you can wear them with anything and dress yourself up or down. they would be adorable with a cute maxi and yesterday i wore them with jean capris and a gold/silver superman t-shirt.  they are available at dsw…click here for online access and when you order online and spend 35.00 or more its free shipping!

sonja chunky wedge from shoedazzle

so after seeing a shoedazzle commercial over a year ago and signing up to receive emails only (i chickened out on the membership), then receiving emails for a year or so…these finally snagged me! the sonja chunky wedge (in pink of course) sealed the deal. i signed up for the monthly vip membership
which entitles you to much lower pricing. the only "obligation" is you have to access your membership before the 5th of each month and purchase or pass on the shoe they have listed. you can cancel at any time.

but take a look... these came yesterday and i was ecstatic. i had been looking for a cute shoe to replace a favorite pair of my aldo pink patent pumps. these come in white and yellow as well and fit pretty true to size. i wear a 6 1/2 or a 7 so i ordered the 7 and they seem slightly big but i think the 6 1/2 would have been slightly too small which small is worse. : )