Vicky Barone

Frozen Banana Pops

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 25, 2014

Frozen banana pops are one of our favorite Summer treats. While an entire chocolate covered banana is delicious, these little pops are a lot less messy and they’re the perfect size for kiddos!

Ingredients: ripe bananas, melting chocolate, sprinkles, and Popsicle sticks.

Directions:
1. Peel a banana and cut it into about four of five pieces.
2. Put each piece of banana onto a Popsicle stick.
3. Melt the chocolate and dip the banana pops into it. We only covered half of each banana piece with chocolate, but you can dunk the whole thing!
4. Dip into sprinkles.
5. Place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and place in freezer 1 hour or until completely frozen.

Instead of sprinkles, crush up your favorite candy. Reese’s Pieces and Butterfinger make great toppings as well!

Once frozen, transfer the banana pops to an airtight container and keep in the freezer. Or eat them all in one sitting. We wouldn’t blame you.

Tags banana, DIY, frozen, Kids, Popsicle, recipe, summer, treats

DIY Products Things I Love

Things I Love: Flower Crowns

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 23, 2014

1. Paper Flowers | 2. Yellow and White
3. Fresh Flowers | 4. Bridal Headpiece
5. Baby’s Breath | 6&7. Spring Flowers

We have been seeing the most beautiful flower crowns all over the Internet, from buy to DIY and we wanted to share some of our favorites! Floral headpieces make the perfect wedding day accessory or rainy day activity! Which one is your favorite?

Tags DIY, Etsy, flower crown, spring, summer

DIY Recipes

Chocolate Raspberry Rumsicles

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 21, 2014
1 Comment on Chocolate Raspberry Rumsicles

We have another tasty 21-and-over Popsicle that’s easy to throw together on a hot afternoon: Chocolate Raspberry Rumsicles. Oh and did we mention they’re healthy too? That’s right, they’re made with yogurt and fruit! Rum and chocolate are healthy too…right?

Ingredients:
3 oz fresh raspberries (about 1/2 a carton)
3/4 cups of greek yogurt
2 oz flavored rum (we used vanilla, but you can use any flavor you like!)
dark chocolate candy melts

*optional: sugar, honey, or agave syrup for extra sweetness

Directions:
1. In a blender, combine raspberries, yogurt, and rum.
2. Pour mixture into Popsicle mold.
3. Cover Popsicle mold with aluminum foil and make small slits over each Popsicle opening (this will hold the sticks up straight!).
4. Insert Popsicle sticks and place on a flat surface in the freezer. Freeze overnight.
5. Remove frozen Popsicles from mold and place on a plate or tray.
6. Melt candy melts in a bowl and scoop the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag.
7. Cut a small tip off of the Ziploc bag and drizzle the melted chocolate over the Popsicles.

Garnish with the remaining raspberries if you’re feeling fancy!

Make sure you label these Popsicles clearly so they’re not accidentally given to kiddos!

Use more rum if you’d like, but eat them quickly as they melt much faster than alcohol-free Popsicles. Enjoy!

Tags boozy popsicles, popsicles, recipe, rum, summer

Products

New Summer Greeting Cards

Check out some of my new Birthday greeting cards available this Summer! You can find them wherever Recycled Paper Greetings Cards are sold or at independent retailers nationwide.

Here they are if you’d like a giggle!

And have an amazing birthday!
*Please note: this refers to your actual age, not just the one you tell everyone.

And enjoy your special day!
*Please note: this may result in embarrassing videos of you on the Internet.

And may all your birthday wishes come true.
*Please note: especially if your heart it telling you to share your birthday cake with me.

Happy Birthday!
*Please note: Yes, this card was absolutely meant to gain brownie points that will be cashed in at a later date.

And have a Happy Birthday!
Please note: I don’t mean this literally.

You totally deserve it! Happy Birthday!
*Please note: if this involves ditching kids, husbands and/or pets, you have permission to do so.

So relax and enjoy! Happy Birthday!
*Please note: tomorrow will be about everyone else again so please take a moment to realize the gravity of this statement.

I’m glad you were born!
*Please note: otherwise I’d have to come up with another good excuse to eat cake today.

And may all your birthday wishes come true!
*Please note: you can also celebrate tomorrow and the next day if you want – in fact, why don’t you just take the whole week for yourself.

Tags Birthday, birthday cards, disclaimers, Funny, greeting cards, recycled paper greetings, Vicky Barone

Kids Products

New Artwork on Etsy: I Love You Because You’re You

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 16, 2014

We are very excited about this new canvas wall art now available on Etsy! The original I Love You Because You’re You design is one of the most popular canvases and we are so happy to now offer it in a new design!

Because You’re You | Because You’re You Stripes

These two beautiful canvases are also available as fabric wall decals!

Because You’re You | Because You’re You Stripes

Check out my full Etsy shop to find the rest of my canvases, wall decals, and much more!

Tags art for kids, canvas, Etsy, wall art, wall decal

DIY

DIY Stamped Tea Towels

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 14, 2014

These tea towels make the perfect personalized hostess gift or even just a fun and simple rainy day activity. Create your own design or choose an inspirational phrase or quotation to decorate your tea towel and add a sweet touch to your kitchen.

Supplies:
– Tea Towels
– Flower stamps or alphabet stamps
– A paint brush
– Fabric Paint (we used regular acrylic paint because we don’t plan to use these for anything other than decoration).
– Cardboard

Directions:
1. Wash and dry tea towels.
2. Arrange a tea towel over a piece of cardboard (so that any paint that may seep through does not ruin your work surface).
3. Using the paintbrush, paint a thin layer of paint on a stamp. Test this stamp on a paper plate or a piece of scrap fabric to see if you like the paint thickness.
4. Stamp the towel and let dry completely!

To make the “Be Yourself” tea towel, we taped off the section where we wanted the words to go and marked off where each letter would fit. We also tested it on a piece of cardstock first to see how the letters would need to be spaced out. Have fun with it! The handmade look is the best part!

For the floral tea towel, we started the stamping at one of the corners of the towel. We stamped the flowers in a concentrated pattern in the corner and made them more spread out as we worked our way up.

Have fun and enjoy your handmade tea towels!

Tags black and white, craft, DIY, hostess gift, stamping, stamps, tea towels

DIY Recipes

Baby Food Dog Treats

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 9, 2014

Do you have leftover baby food taking up space in your pantry? Maybe a couple jars of your baby’s least favorite meal, or just some pouches your “big kids” no longer want to snack on? Don’t throw them out! All you need are two more ingredients and you have some healthy and tasty treats for your dog!

Ingredients:
1. A pouch or jar of baby food. *MAKE SURE it does not contain any ingredients that are harmful to dogs! We had a couple jars that had raisins as an ingredient so we skipped over those!
2. Flour
3. Oats

Directions:
1. Mix equal parts of each ingredient until you reach a consistency similar to pizza dough.
2. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and roll out mixture.
3. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes and place them on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. You can also use a knife and cut the dough into rectangles or squares.
4. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Let cool.

We hope your pup loves these treats as much as Cooper does!

*Read ingredients of baby food carefully to make sure there are only all natural ingredients, no added sugars, and no fruits or vegetables that are harmful to dogs.
*Serve in moderation.

Tags baby food, DIY, dog, dog treats, recipe, recyle, reuse

Recipes Things I Love

Things I Love: Refreshing Summer Drinks

Post author By vickybarone
Post date July 7, 2014

1. Hibiscus Iced Tea Sparkler | 2. Macha Mint Iced Tea | 3. Strawberry Pineapple Shaker-Upper
4. Citrus Infused Water | 5. Blueberry Lavender Lemonade | 6. Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade

As much as we love a good crisp cocktail on a hot Summer day, there’s really nothing better than a sweet and refreshing non-alcoholic drink to cool you down. Then again, you could easily add a shot of liquor to each of these and we would not blame you.

We hope everyone is enjoying their Summer! Stay cool 🙂

Tags DIY, drink, non-alcoholic, recipe, summer