Handmade Thursdays- Heart Shaped Cookie Bouquets!

When I was a young girl, I would go to my grandmother's house every year to make Valentine's Day butter cookies. We'd roll and cut the dough together, then the best part... we'd use all kinds of frosting and candies to decorate the cookies. She'd always have fun heart and other holiday-inspired shaped cookie cutters to make cookie-baking even more fun! This year I'm excited to start the holiday tradition with my own daughter.

While looking for a new way to decorate these great cookies, I stumbled upon The Decorated Cookie's creative idea for heart 'lollipop' cookies. For a change, Meaghan used lollipop sticks and licorice to decorate and 'mix things up a bit'! What a fun way to serve up these treats as a 'cookie bouquet' to friends and family!

You can use any dough for these cookies... but if you'd like to try 'Gam's Best Butter Cookies', here's the recipe:

4 cups flour
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup Crisco
(mix as pie dough)

2 eggs
1 heaping cup sugar
4T milk
1t soda
1t vanilla
Beat together and pour over dry mixture. Mix together and make into 4 balls.

Wrap dough balls in wax paper. Refrigerate overnight before rolling on floured board.
Bake 10-12 mins @ 350.

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Look for more ways to make it handmade each Thursday on The Downtown Boutique.

Got a unique craft, recipe or decorating idea for 'Handmade Thursdays' and want to be featured on The Downtown Boutique? Contact us! We'd love to hear your feedback on items featured, too!

Win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card!!!

Can you believe it? We've had almost 20,000 hits here on The Downtown Boutique since its inception in January! Not only that, but we've had some WONDERFUL giveaways, and some FANTASTIC sponsors too! I'm just so thrilled that we've been able to feature SO many different artists and crafters from all over the world. I am so grateful for my wonderful readers, who keep coming back again and again!

So, to show my appreciation, I'm going to give away a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com!!!

I hope that you will visit the shops of those who have made this gift certificate possible. It is sponsored by the 5 paid ad spots we got during the month of September:

Annie Howes

Mazer Design

Second Sister Jewelry

Very Vintage

Cookie Dough

I hope that you will visit each of our sponsor's shops or websites and show them a little love.

To Enter:

Leave a comment, letting me know what you are thankful for, or a short story of a time when someone went out of their way to help you with something.

For one extra entry, you can blog about this giveaway. Please leave a SEPERATE comment with a link to your blog post about the giveaway.

For FIVE extra entries, purchase something from any of our sponsors, located on the right hand side, starting from "Cookie Dough" and going all the way down through "Ambrosia Delights", and leave a seperate comment with the link to what you purchased. I WILL be checking with the shop owners!

Deadline to enter is Thursday, October 2nd at Midnight PST.

Giveaway is open worldwide.

NOTE: You MUST, MUST, MUST leave a valid email address, or have one attached to your Blogger profile, or you will not be entered to win, and your comment will be deleted. I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to track people down.

Have fun!

Angie

Drumroll Please..........

.....................and the winners of the 100th Post Great Big Giveaway are:

Jessilyn gets first choice of four of the 10 prizes.

Terri Fisher gets second choice out of the remaining 6 prizes.

Cpullum gets the remaining 3 prizes.

Congratulations!

Thank you all for entering, and for the wonderful comments!

Thank you to our sponsors for the FANTASTIC giveaways!!!

Jenni B Originals

Cupcake Courier

Moondog Cottage

Glory Gifts

Jamie Noel

Cookie Dough

The Downtown Boutique

A Bushel and a Peck

Wyred on Wire

**************************************

Upcoming Posts:

Friday Feature--Featuring Moondog Cottage

Le Papier Designs Feature

A Review for Cute & Sweet

Gas Card Giveaway

Special Surprise Giveaway

Scrapbooking Contest

What You're Working On

Have a wonderful day!

Angie

We've Hit Our 100th Post!!!!!

This giveaway is now closed.

Please raise your hand if you are raising a toddler and a teen and are exhausted!!! (This is me raising my hand...!) Who knew it would be so challenging and fun and exhausting and fun and frustrating and fun? Hubby and I sure love our boys, but we haven't been on a date since April, if even then! I know it's only a matter of our friends getting finger-printed so that they can watch the little guy, but we need some us time really SOON!

Ok, on to something different and possibly cool and maybe fun and a little apologetic and definitely long. We are celebrating 100 posts here on The Downtown Boutique!!!!!! YAY!!!!! Thank you to all of you who have visited our blog over the past 6 months.

My apologies to my 100th post giveaway sponsors. I originally said I'd do this post over the weekend, then I changed it to yesterday, but alas, it did not get done, so I am working diligently at it today (in between refereeing, feeding babies, doing dishes, refereeing, putting babies down for naps, putting myself down for a nap---NOT happening probably!, refereeing.....).

First things first. I will no longer be doing a "Tots on Tuesdays" feature. I have tried to get a co-author for it, and have been a tad unsuccessful. No worries! We will still have our Friday Features, with a giveaway each Friday. We will still have our Wordless Wednesday, where my co-author Sydnei will be featuring an EtsyMini each Wednesday. And we have now begun to get some "corporate" sponsorship, who have agreed to give away some GREAT gifts! If you are a "corporation" and would like to sponsor an awesome giveaway, please let us know, because we would love to give you a month of free advertising in exchange!!

Our giveaways will be random, and not always on Mondays, so be sure to watch for them. You might even want to subscribe to our blogfeed so that you can be tuned in when we give something away. No hints in the title either! Ha ha ha ha ha (that's my semi-maniacal laugh).

We will also be doing some product reviews, where people send me their product, and I review it here on the blog. I may or may not decide to give it away, so be sure to check out the blog each day! If you have a product that you would like us to review, please email us and let us know.

Alrighty then, we have TEN things to give away to celebrate our 100th post. We will be giving away four items to our grand prize winner, three items to our second winner, and two items to our third winner. The cool part is that the grand prize winner gets to CHOOSE their four prizes!!!! Then the second gets to choose, and the third gets the "leftovers"...but I'm sure you'll love them all!!! How awesome is that???!!! Are you ready? Here we go!!!

In no particular order, here are the prizes:

1. Walk in The Park Duck Pull Toy from Cookie Dough.

(We actually have one of her giraffes, so I can attest to just how cute they are! We were her first customer, having bought the giraffe for our new little guy we are adopting.)

2. Paris Journal from A Bushel and a Peck.

3. Set of Three Mini Faux Cupcakes from Jenni B. Originals, who was a guest on the Martha Stewart show, earlier in the year.

4. A Link Listing Ad Spot for one month, here on The Downtown Boutique.
(You can find it on the right hand side of the blog, under "Go Shopping".)

5. Topaz Colored Earrings from Wyred on Wire.

6. A Pair of "French Country/Shabby Chic" Pillows from Glory Gifts.

7. "Vintage Lion Tamer" Earrings from Jamie Noel.

8. Any item up to $25 from Moondog Cottage.
Here's an example of what you can find at Moondog Cottage:

9. A 125x125 Ad Spot for one month on The Downtown Boutique Blog.
(Your shop must comply with the policies of The Downtown Boutique.)

10. And last but certainly not least, a Cupcake Courier from CupcakeCourier.com! These Cupcake Couriers mean no more smooshed cupcakes going to the bake sale, the PTA meeting (do they still have those?), the church potluck, or the kid's classroom! Your Cupcake Courier will hold up to thirty-six cupcakes.
(They're actually sending me two of these for myself! I will be able to use one and give one to someone I love. Look for a review further down the line.)

So there you have it! I would love for you to visit each of these shops, and if you really like them, please be sure to let them know you found them on The Downtown Boutique!

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Please leave a comment telling me where you are visiting from (no specific towns please, for your own safety, unless it's like LA or NY), and how you found The Downtown Boutique. ONLY ONE COMMENT PER PERSON PLEASE. Please make sure we have a VALID email address for you. If I have to go searching for you, I will just go and search for another winner.

*BONUS:

2. For an additional entry, please refer someone to The Downtown Boutique, and make sure that they mention that you referred them, when they leave their comment. If there are three comments from "jenny", please make sure they know which "jenny". If you refer several people, you will receive more entries. Refer 1-10 people, get one extra entry. Refer 11-20 people, get two extra entries. Refer more than 20 people, and you can be my new best friend. Either that or my new co-author! Just kidding (well, not about the co-author thing!). Seriously though, if you refer more than 20 people, you will get three extra entries.

Deadline to enter is Wednesday, June 25th at Midnight PST, so you have a little over a week.

Have fun! Oh! And I'd love to hear what you love (or hate) about The Downtown Boutique.

Angie

Tots on Tuesdays No. 14

Happy Late Tuesday. How was your Memorial Day weekend? Ours was fairly quiet. Hubby worked on Saturday, then we went to church on Sunday. It was our new little guy's first time and he was a little overwhelmed, but he did very very well. So many people wanted to love and hug on him, because there are a LOT of people who have been praying for him to come into our lives for a LONG time now. Yesterday, we went over to the in-laws to spend some time. It was a nice time, and the little guy is getting more and more used to being over there.

Well, I don't have a featured artist or shop for today's Tots on Tuesdays segment, because I've run out of people on the calendar! So, if you sell great and fabulous items for little ones, and would love to do a giveaway and be featured, we'd love to hear from you.

For now, I will feature a few of the items that I have been loving from Etsy shops, as I look for things for our new little guy.

We bought this darling giraffe from Cookie Dough, and were her first sale on Etsy!

This slouch bag from Punky Kidz makes a great looking diaper bag, and can be used as a regular carry-all purse or bag after the need for a diaper bag has passed.

I just love Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Redmag.

How fun is this onesie from Relly Beans??!!

I adore this fun little nautical shorts set from Silly Pants.