White Chocolate Bundt Cake... Delish!

Yep, it's definitely that time of year...

"Holiday Party" time that is. 

If you are in search of a show stoppin' dessert, search no longer, this is IT my friends! 

It's so super easy, and be prepared to share the recipe, it's always a BIG hit. 

Picture via Google

(This is not an actual picture of the cake, but this is what the actual cake does look like.  Promise.)

White Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 Yellow Cake Mix (I use Betty Crocker)

1 Sm. box Instant White Chocolate Pudding (Not sugar free, doesn't turn out)

1/2 C. Sugar

3/4 C. Water

3/4 C. Vegetable Oil

1 C. Sour Cream (not light, you need the real deal peeps)

1 Tsp. Vanilla

4 Eggs

1 C. White Chocolate Chips

Please put the white chocolate chips aside, and try not to eat them, jk, TOTALLY eat some, duh...  Mix all other ingredients together, until well incorporated.  HEAVILY grease your bundt pan.  Bake @ 350 for 45 mins.  Once it's out of the oven, let sit for 5 mins, then dump the deliciousness out of your pan onto cake stand or display plate of your choosing.  Now, melt the white chocolate chips in a glass mug or bowl in 15-30 second intervals in the microwave stirring in between.  Be OH SO CAREFUL, it's so easy to burn chocolate.  You will want to stop heating, when it gets to pancake batter-ish consistency.  You can then proceed to pour it on to your cake for a thicker more rich approach, or do small skinny drizzles with a spoon in thin threads over the cake.  Now garnish with whatever you desire, and serve with vanilla or peppermint ice cream!

Please oh please ENJOY!    

Please send me some love if you tried this out & thought it was yum!

Wallpaper Mania

I've already decided... my future house is going to have ample wallpaper. I'm always on the lookout for some cute patterned ones (especially that don't break the bank) and I recently found a fantastic website from the UK: wallpaper direct.

I'm loving the geometrics and the big, bold florals... 

I apologize that these images are so tiny, so you'll have to just go browsing on their site to get a better look. Here's some of my top picks!

 And kids ones! Adorable

Joy In a Jar

This year we did Thanksgiving in Utah at my little brother's new house. I was asked to bring the desert and I wanted to do something a little different and unique! Although I know that pumpkin is a big part of Thanksgiving, I am not really a big fan of pumpkin pie. I only wanted to do one dessert and of course you cant have thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, so I decided to do allrecipe.com's pumpkin cheesecake. My real motivation for doing this was my excitement to cook and serve them in these cute mason jars. The moment I laid my eyes on them I knew I had to find more uses for these empty jars filled with potential.

Just a heads up that I changed the cooking time from 50-60 min to 30 min, and they came out perfect!

 Mason jars add a personal touch, great portion sizes, cook the food faster and eliminate the need for a bowl, plus whimsy place designed these stylish labels and made the dessert so special!

Here is a freebie label if you would like to make this recipe yourself. You could tie on the label with a ribbon too! I think it would make a great gift. I mean who says pumpkin isn't a Christmas food?

Don't stop with cheesecake in these cute jars. Pie is so adorable in here, with a little heart made out of crust on the top. I even think you could do individual pot pies! Let me know if you have any fun ideas for mason jars. Of course the decorating possibilities are endless but i would love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment, and then follow us in the top right corner to get all of Whimsy Place Blog's great ideas!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Today I feel thankful for so much, but especially my Family & Friends.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Picture via 

 

Warm Winter Wishes

I've had Christmas music playing for the last two days. I can't get enough of it! I'm usually not one to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. But after getting back from Hawaii, where it felt like we were ages away from Christmas or even Thanksgiving, I felt an urge to get in the holiday spirit as much as possible! 

And so, to help you do the same, here is some winter stationery. Use it as a thank you to a friend, or as a tag to go along with your neighbor gifts. Everyone loves getting a pretty card!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just days away so if you don't have any inspiration for your tablescape, pinterest comes to the rescue!

I totally love the goldies, and anything with white pumpkins & florals.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fry Soup

I am posting this delicious Martha Stewart recipe because...It's stinkin delicious! Haha, that's a good reason right! My husband was craving some kind of warm creamy soup. We were thinking butternut, or apple butternut squash soup, something in that realm and came upon this fabulous mixture of sweet and spicy!

Ok, so it's called Sweet Potato and Chipotle Soup. I slightly modified it and it turned out perfect! I feel like it should be called "Spicy Sweet Potato Fry Soup". Its got such an awesome kick, perfect for a cold night.

Here you go:

INGREDIENTS: 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 medium yams (2 pounds total), peeled and cut
• 1/2 chipotle chile in adobo, chopped
• 7 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• Sour cream, for serving
• Toasted flour tortilla wedges, for serving (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook until beginning to brown around edges, about 7 minutes. Add cumin and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in sweet potatoes, chile, and broth. Bring to a boil; reduce to a rapid simmer, partially cover, and cook until sweet potatoes can be mashed easily with a spoon, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Let soup cool slightly. Working in batches, transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return pureed soup to pot over low heat and season with salt and pepper. Top soup with sour cream and serve with tortilla wedges, if desired.

I hope this warms your appetite and heart on a cold winter night! Thanks for reading.

Baby Shower Freebie

Tonight I threw a baby shower for a neighbor and friend. It turned out to be a great success and I had so much fun that I didn't take a single picture. Figures. But I don't buy the blogging idea that if it doesn't get blogged, it didn't happen so we're good :)

Anyways, the shower was pretty low key as far as decorations go. I was keeping it simple yet sweet and on a whim I decided to add a place where guests could give their one piece of advice to the mother-to-be. After the last guest had left and the last decoration had been taken down, I sat down to read the notes. They touched me deeply and I realized that I had happened upon something that was invaluable. Here were women who had all gone through mothering: some had given birth just months before and others had children older than the mother-to-be! The advice was incredible. And the best part? Most of the advice told our mother-to-be to just trust in herself and her instincts.

Some of my favorites:

"Enjoy each stage and cherish the time you have with your new baby. And when things get tough, just remind yourself, 'This too will pass'."

"Let them be the reason for your day, not the interruption."

"Laugh with your kids. Don't be afraid to be silly. It makes you approachable when they need to talk. Read with them everyday."

I can only imagine how much she is going to love these! I hope she treasures them for a very long time.

Click here to download the free PDF

Ombre to the MAX

I gotta admit, the ombre thing has really grown on me. Didn't we all see the dark roots at first, and think OMG how ugly?! And now I've done it to my own hair... twice.

Takes me a second to adapt to the new trends but now of course I'm hooked.

via pinterest

Are these nails the bomb or what?!

 via pinterest

I love how ideas are popping up everywhere in decorating as well..

 via pinterest

 K chevron was awesome enough, but then making it with an ombre effect?! Rad

via apartmenttherapy.com

 I'm infatuated with this desk. The coral-y pink colors, PLUS that awesome chair...

 via censationalgirl.blogspot.com

If you haven't seen ceiling medallion art yet, here it is, to knock your socks off. Bump it up a notch and make it ombre.. amazing

 via chatelaine.com

A little DIY art is always a good idea, especially if you're artistically challenged, like perhaps, me

 via danielleoakeyinteriors.blogspot.com

Wedding flowers tablescape... totally digging it

 via marthastewartwedding.com

And some more wedding bliss in purple. lOvE

via pinterest

I've been searching for an image of someone who's painted walls with this effect. It could look so awesome!

It's ok to be a follower.

Hello to our lovely Whimsy Place readers!! We are so thrilled to have you here with us, as we seek to inspire a more beautiful life. We are nothing without you, and we appreciate your love and support immensely!

If you haven't already, go ahead and "follow" us. Find the "follow" heading on the sidebar, then click JOIN THIS SITE.

Because sometimes, it's just ok to be a follower :)

And because I wouldn't dare post without adding some loveliness, here is a picture of one of my favorite bathrooms! Isn't it gorgeous? I think I would prefer to add more color through curtains and a rug. But when you start with such a gorgeous clean slate, pretty much anything you added would be perfect.

Thanksgiving Freebie

I have always loved Thanksgiving. There's a nice crisp feel in the air and the changing leaves are so beautiful. There is something unspeakably safe and warm about gathering with loved ones and eating lovely, yummy food. One of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving was the year we each went around the table and told what we were most thankful for. Maybe this sounds silly to some, because you do it every year, but for us it was a rarity and I appreciated it so much! 

Even if you do say what you are thankful for each year, what a better way to document it than with these thankful tags? They are the perfect way for each person to write down how they feel, then hold onto from year to year. 

Oh how excited I am to someday have a card, sloppily written by chubby little fingers, to show my grownup son. Cherished moments that if missed, you can never get back..... Anyways, I digress.

To celebrate getting 100 "likes" on our facebook page, we are giving everyone the tags as a freebie! You can download the PDF from our facebook page or you can simply click on the image to enlarge and Save As.

Enjoy!

My dream home

One of my husband and I's favorite thing to do together is daydream about our perfect home. We have talked at great length about the size, number of bedrooms, layout, feel, etc. We have even made detailed lists! While thinking about the actual home is wonderful, I think we enjoy it mostly because we are also daydreaming about what our family and lives will be like somewhere down the road. We both want a large family and look forward to the laughter and memories that will fill our someday dream home. *Sigh*

Imagine my delight when I stumbled across this gorgeous town home located in New York that resembles my dream home more closely than anything else I've seen to date! At 7,000 square feet, it's quite a bit larger than I would ever like but the vaulted ceilings and spacious rooms are just perfect! Of course, we would want a large back yard and our own lot, but other than that this house would be very close to our dream home. Oh, and it's just a bit over our budget at 14 Million.

The exterior is vintage and classic, simple yet modern. Maybe add a large front porch with 8 or so rocking chairs in a pop of color.

This entry is to die for. Those curving stairs are incredible! 

 The view isn't too bad either :)

 I love the large arched doorways and the large chandelier. Trade out all the cherry wood floors and doors for black or white painted wood and we'd be in business.

 Doesn't this just feel so cozy and homey, but mod and ritzy at the same time? I just want to snuggle into that feather couch!

 I think I would prefer a little larger kitchen with black wood floors, but they hit it square on with the white cabinets, tile backsplash and marble countertops.

 I think the only thing that could make this room better would be penny tile on the floor.

While I don't love the curtains (and again I'd want black or white wood floors), the large windows and comfy couches are spot on. 

Definitely not my favorite room but after a little redecorating, this could be an incredible master suite. 

Oh my goodness! I definitely have my head in the clouds after this post. Better come back down and go

 finish folding the laundry :)  Do you like to daydream about your "someday" home?