Winter decor & a simple frosting recipe

1.30.14- 

  Happy Winter everyone!  With all the snow, below wind chills & polar freezes going on across the country, I thought it would be fun to make the best of it, embrace winter & bring the outside in to enjoy in a cute & charming way. Shared lots of ideas on Studio 5, be sure to click on the link to watch the episode.

 How FuN is this illustration?  Goes perfectly with our new favorite song around here from Frozen, Do You Want to Build a SNoWMaN?  I found this page of charming instructions for building a Snowman years ago in a Country Living magazine, I tore it out saving it to use one day. It looks perfect in this H&H curvy 5x7 frame 

{I love this grey/white print paper- one of my favorites right now!} 

Paired together with a vintage H&H Snow Day frame of my little girl ready to throw the perfect snowball when she was 4.  I put this pic in that frame all those years ago & have never changed it out.  Just too darn cute! I love how it all looks clustered together.  

Just goes to show that frames can be used for just about anything!  So glad I tore this page out while thumbing through magazines one snowy day.  It's one of my favorite things to do by the way.  I LOVE magazines!  Getting together with a few of my favorite people on Saturday to create something else with magazine pages {TRADiTION!!}  I'll post about that later. 

In the mean time if you want more Winter Inspired Decorating ideas go {HERE} One of my most popular blog posts, ever! 

I really do enjoy decorating for Winter! 

Now as promised {from my Studio 5 apprearance}  a recipe.  

This is my go-to, tastes good, everyone asks for the recipe frosting.  It goes great on cakes, sugar cookies & cupcakes & it's super EASY!  I never {I mean NEVER} use store bought frosting because this is just too simple & tastes oh, so much better.  

 No Fancy SCHMaNCY frosting recipe

 All it takes is 4 basic ingredients: 

-Milk 

-1 stick of Butter- softened at room temp. 

{you can use margarine too!} 

-Vanilla 

-Powdered Sugar 

Start with softened butter, a cup of powdered sugar, a tsp. of vanilla & a TB of milk. Cream together with an hand mixer. 

*Just had to include this pic below to show you that things don't go perfectly all the time in this kitchen but a little mess won't hurt anything! 

The first time you mix it all together it won't really resemble frosting.  Just keep adding sugar, a little bit of milk & occasionally another tsp. of  vanilla until you get it to the consistency & taste that you like. 

Remember I called this a No Fancy Schmancy Frosting.  Well, this might come a shock to some of you but this honeybee uses imitation vanilla, ALL the time!  It works great & as much as we go through this in our kitchen, it pays to get the cheap stuff. 

This next picture is after round 2 of adding, powdered sugar & milk to the creamed mixture.  Looks great but I need alot more frosting in order to frost a cake & cookies. So just repeat the step again.  Adding another tsp. of vanilla before it's all said & done. 

You want it to eventually turn out looking like this.  Soft peaks in the frosting {see in the bowl} when you stick the beaters straight down in & pull up.  One thing about a good frosting is it can't be too runny or too stiff.  It makes it very difficult to frost anything.  So if you're frosting is looking too runny- simply add more powdered sugar, if too stiff add a drop or two of milk. It's that easy! 

*you can easily flavor this frosting too. If you want it chocolate just add a TB or 2 of Cocoa powder. 

Of coarse the BeST part about making homemade frosting is getting to lick the beaters.  My girls love to be around the kitchen during in this part.  YuM! 

Valentines Day is right around the corner you can bet that I'll be making a big batch of frosting.  It is the best to frost sugar cookies with! One of the best ways to spend time with my girls is baking sugar cookies together.  Get a fabulous recipe for them {HERE}

-So excited to use this cute cookie stamp I got at To Market for our sugar cookies this year.  Isn't it the sweetest?-


Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully I've given you some inspiration for what to do in your home & kitchen.
Have a wonderful day!

{M}

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