BFF Open House Link Party #143

Happy Friday Eve! Still recovering from yesterday's record breaking Super Bowl parade in Seattle and I only watched it on TV! Fun to see the hometown pride. Valentine's Day is one week away people! Every body panic and freak out so I'm not alone OK? 

If like me, you've done NOTHING ( sorry honey!) then here are some ideas from last week's party to inspire you. 

Loving this sweet ( literally) idea from Crafty Lumberjacks. Use candy sprinkles, clear votives, and tea lights to make festive decorations. 

Likewise, loving this upcycled wreath from 3 Little Greenwoods. Great way to repurpose those plastic bags!

Almost no sew works for me every time and these adorable pillows from Steph at Silly Pearl are perfect for Valentine's Day or all year round. 

I have two chocolate features for you this week. After all what's Valentine's day without chocolate? 

I couldn't resist this heart shaped display of handmade chocolate peanut butter hearts. Pop on over to Organizer By Day to see how to make your own. 

And if you want to make your someone special an extra special Valentine's dessert: 

Almost too pretty to eat isn't it? For the how to on this Chocolate Hazelnut Tart, visit Karyn at Dieter's Downfall ( still the most accurately named blog I know) . 

Time to get the party started! 

The Let's Put More Chocolate In Thanksgiving Roundup

When you think of "chocolate" holidays, I'll bet you Thanksgiving is not at the top of the list. Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, check check and check. Hearts, Eggs, Pumpkins, Trees... easy to find. Thanksgiving? Not so much. What's a chocoholic to do? Most years I just complain about the lack of chocolate. This year I asked some bloggy friends to share some of their chocolate related Thanksgiving goodies and I also rounded up a few from around the internet.

Malia from Yesterday on Tuesday shared these fun, gobble worthy ( and no bake!) Turkey Cookies which would be fun for younger guests:

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin. I bake pumpkin pie and don't eat it. But Jessica from Mad In Crafts has a recipe I may just have to try and which I love just for the name: 

Say that three times fast "One Pan Chocolate Pumpkin Thanksgiving Wacky Cake". Look at that fudgy goodness! I may just be able to have my pumpkin and eat it too :) 

Viv, from The V Spot reminded me of an old episode of Friends where Monica tried to bring some more chocolate to Thanksgiving. I was right there with you Monica.  I think Viv's Mocha Brownie tart would be a great addition to any dessert table don't you? 

Do you have any leftover Halloween candy? Natalie from The Creative Mom has a wonderful way to use it up and decorate your Thanksgiving table with festive placecards. 

Here are a few other ideas I thought were fun to share.

Your favorite candy bar can be wrapped up in this downloadable label from Martha Stewart (see Martha, we bloggers still reference you!)  and serve double duty as a place card. 

Stephanie from Back For Seconds blog guarantees you'll be back for seconds of these Pumpkin Spice Fudge Brownies. 

I stumbled upon a new blog I need to follow called Sugarplum where I found this Double Chocolate Pecan Pie. YUM!

I hope you've found some chocolate inspiration for your Thanksgiving table. 

BFF Open House Link Party #125: Chocoholics Unite Edition

Happy First Friday in October! Our weather here in the PNW is a little confused and it's been more like late November with torrential rain and windstorms. Hopefully, not a sign of things to come. Given that I have a blog with chocolate in the title, I thought I'd focus on chocolate this week so all of this week's features are, you guessed it: CHOCOLATE!  Get your pin finger ready. 

So last week I featured truffles by Karyn from The Dieter's Downfall. They were dangerous enough on their own but not content to make us drool over just the truffles, she went and put them on a cake. ON A CAKE! 

Then, along came these Oreo coconut cheesecake bars from Mary Frances at The Sweet-Tooth Life. Chocolate and coconut oh my and yes please!

True confession time. I don't love pumpkin. There I said it. How College Boy ended up in love with Pumpkin Spice Lattes is beyond me. BUT, these Pumpkin Spice Fudge Brownies from Stephanie at Back for Seconds, may just win me over. 

Fall is the perfect time for oatmeal raisin cookies. But these Oatmeal Raisinett cookies from Life With the Crust Cut Off, bring them to another delicious level.  I have a thing for Raisinetts so there might not be any left for the cookies. 

Finally, you know how your family will want hot cocoa and you may or may not feel like making it from scratch and you may or may not have some packets of mix leftover from last year because it hasn't been hot cocoa season yet this year and you haven't bought any and oh...go make this now to have it on hand! You can thank The Pin Junkie

Still with me or are you in a chocolate sugar induced coma? On to this week's party. 

Lazy Person's Chocolate Croissants

I made these last week and now Mr. Chocolate wants me to make them all the time. I call them the lazy person’s croissant because you are not making the pastry from scratch. They are fast, easy, and yummy!

For these "fauxsants au chocolat" you will need:

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• Chocolate Chips
• Powdered Sugar

I just used store brand puff pastry. You can find it in the frozen aisle at the grocery store. The longest part of making these is thawing the pasty dough out which takes about 40 minutes.

Roll out your thawed pastry. It’ll come folded in thirds.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface then cut into strips.

Roll out each of your strips a little more and sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips onto each strip.

Fold the pastry over the chocolate chips and then again.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, drizzle with melted chocolate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Vintagey "Chocolate" and Rose Egg

Of course it’s no secret that I love chocolate, and this time of year, chocolate eggs abound. This one is not edible but still delicious I think!

For this project you will need:

• 6” plastic egg
• Tissue paper ( not fancy, whatever comes in a bag when you buy something at the store)
• Mod Podge
• Acrylic craft paints ( I used a dark umber and Martha Stewart Glitter paint in “Brownstone”
• Embellishments ( I used a scrapbook border by K&Co )

I first shared this technique in this post: Twine and Tissue Paper Egg. Tear your tissue paper into small pieces, apply to your egg using Mod Podge. Cover all over and let dry. Then paint with you choice of colors.

I like the unevenness and texture of the tissue paper. I applied one coat of the plain acrylic paint and three of the glitter paint.

Once my paint was dry, I applied a decorative scrapbook border and sealed it with some more Mod Podge.

I had some paper roses in my embellishment stash and decided to hot glue those to the top of my egg at an angle.

While I was waiting for my Mod Podged border to dry, I  cut a length of  crepe paper streamer ( a roll from the $1 goes a long way!), folded it in half then in half again and cut strips of it and plopped them in an ice cream dish I found at Crate and Barrel for $1.95.

Sharing At:
Alderberry Hill: Make The Scene Monday
homework: The Inspiration Board 
The Well Crafted Home

Double Layer Chocolate St. Patrick's Day Bark

Top o the mornin’ to you. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We’re just celebrating quietly at home. Since College Boy’s home for Spring Break, I’m making a big dinner including “drunken” pot roast, slow cooked all day in Guinness.

For dessert, I decided to make some “Leprechaun Bark”. I loved the one that Leigh Anne from Your Home Based Mom shared at a previous link party and have seen variations around the web. Here’s my version. For this you will need:

• White chocolate candy melts and/or white chocolate chips
• Dark chocolate candy melts and/or white chocolate chips
• Almonds ( I roughly chopped whole unsalted almonds)
• Green M&Ms
• Wilton Edible Gold Stars ( cake decorating section of craft store)
• Wilton Color Mist, gold ( cake decorating section of craft store)
• Green Gel / paste food coloring. I used Wilton

Melt your white chocolate. You can do this using a double boiler method or in the microwave. You’ll notice I didn’t include amounts…I just kind of eyeballed my measurements.

Once your white chocolate is melted, tint with food coloring. You could also add some mint flavoring here if you want. Spread on parchment lined cookie sheet; sprinkle with some of the chopped almonds. Stick sheet in freezer. Press almonds down with the back of a spoon.

While this is setting up, melt your dark chocolate, add in remaining almonds, remove sheet from freezer, spread dark chocolate layer.

Just try to get it to cover your green layer. Then sprinkle with green M&Ms ( I bought mine at The Sweet Factory store at the mall so I would get only the amount I’d need).  Sprinkle on gold stars, put back in freezer for about 30 min until set.

Lightly spray the color mist…just enough to get a light coat and shimmer. Let dry then cut or break to size.

Love and Chocolate Chalkboard Printable

First, did you know that Michele at The Scrap Shoppe is a mind reader?! She must be because just as I went to look for a red chalkboard background, up she popped in my reader offering not only red, by 7 other colors of chalkboard backgrounds on her blog FREE for you and me to download. She had to have read my mind.  Thank you Michele.

I like to think that Charles Schultz wrote this just for me but I’m not that vain. Still, it is one of my faves. 

So in preparation for International Chocoholics Day , er I mean Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d make a printable to share. Click to bring to full resolution (it's sized to 8x10) then right click to save as. 

You should also check out Michele’s collection of chalkboard fonts!

Happy Heart Day!