The Art of Shaving: Review & Sale

7 days 'til Christmas! What?!?!?! Christmas is a week away! Are you done with your Christmas shopping??? I am and, wow, it feels good to say that.

I had a lot of people on my list this year including some for whom it's impossible to shop for: the men. The men in my family are hard to shop for, seriously. So what's a girl to do? I started to think of past presents they have loved and I remembered a trip we took to a mall at the end of the summer. While strolling through we walked into The Art of Shaving and had the pleasure of watching a demonstration. We learned that a proper shave includes four steps:
1) Prepare
2) Lather up
3) Shave
4) Moisturize

My husband loved the idea of taking care of his skin during a daily ritual and bought a starter set right then and there. He's been using it for two months and recently mentioned he was running out of products. I figured it would be a great idea to get him the full set for Christmas and introducing these wonderful products to the rest of the men in the family. They will be getting the Full Size Kits, each in a different scent. I got the Sandalwood scent for my husband so that he could try something different and because I love the smell. The lemon & lavender scents are very fresh and they also carry the kits in an unscented version.

I wanted to introduce my brother to these products as well but, since he's a pilot, I ended up picking the Travel Kit. He gets to sample all the different products without having to worry about checking his bag each time. Furthermore it all comes in a great leather carrying case that screams "Merry Christmas" and "Sister of the Year" :)

Are you ready for some shopping? The folks at The Art of Shaving are generously extending an offer to my readers. They will give you Free Ground shipping and $15 off your purchase of any The Art of Shaving Full Size Kit until 12/30/12 if you use Promo Code: 15offFSK at checkout. Simply follow this LINK and start shopping!

I'll be back with more holiday shopping ideas this week... until then, happy shopping!

 

Christmas Tree Cake Pops

Inspired by the famous Bakerella, I decided to try out some Christmas Tree Cake Pops for a party this afternoon. The kids loved them!

While a tad time consuming, they were relatively simple to make. The hardest part was probably transporting them to the party. I'd like to find a better method than a Styrofoam board the next time I make them.

I used vanilla cake, chocolate frosting, green candy melts and assorted candy for the decorations. While I thought the sprinkles would be more popular with the kids, the red balls seemed to win in terms of popularity.

Bakerella has published a book with all her recipes and methods which are also posted on her blog. My favorite tip is adding Crisco or paramount crystals to the candy melts. This makes the consistency smoother and liquid longer which is important if you are making a lot of them. Let me know if you try making them!

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Christmas Cookie Bouquet

Cookie bouquets are all the rage around here... especially with the holidays approaching. I recently did some research as I wanted to send one and couldn't believe the price- $60 for a bucket with THREE cookies. I decided it was time to learn how to make them myself.

As coincidence would have it, my Wilton teacher posted that she was doing a "Christmas Cookie Bouquet" mini class. I signed up and what you see here is my final product from that class. I had so much fun making it and can't wait to make more!

We learned several techniques to decorate the cookies, which in this case were gingerbread flavored. The Christmas tree was decorated using royal icing and hard candies.

Thankfully my royal icing application has improved since my last batch of cookies that I posted about here. I think a lot has to do with the fact that my teacher told me it's not necessary to use two different consistencies of royal icing, it can all be done with one. I think because of that the outline was able to blend in a bit more.

This cookie was also covered in royal icing. Once that was dried we did the extra lines on top. When those were dry we applied some gold dust over them.

I love this way this cookie looks... simple, yet elegant at the same time. And this would work for any winter or holiday bouquet. It's not necessarily attached to Christmas.

Lastly frosty who was covered with fondant and candy. This technique was super fun because there is little sculpting involved. In order to get the perfect shape you just use the same cookie cutter used for the cookie for the fondant. Depending on the fondant you use it might be necessary to add some piping gel to adhere to the cookie. The buttons are candy and the rest (hat, eyes, nose and scarf) are fondant.

My favorite part of frosty is the scarf, even though my son ate half of it before I took this picture. I especially love the fringe!

This cookie, while not for the bouquet, was decorated using a special glaze that dries shinier than royal icing and stays softer when it dries. This method is called tie dye and is SO EASY!

Here is another example of the tie dye cookie decorating method. These were a hit with the kids and I'm thinking I might make some in team colors for the next football game. They are easy and fast to decorate.

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