It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, and in an effort to help you keep things sweet and simple this year we wanted to share with you our favorite sugar cookie recipe. Bake up a bunch of these delicious treats and decorate them with your special someone or your little sweeties!

Easy Sugar Cookies

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Servings 48 (unless you eat the dough when no one is looking!)

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

>Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

>In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

>Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

>Enjoy!

To keep your Valentine’s best looking clean and cute, try one of our lovely vintage-inspired aprons!

And, for perfect measuring every time, you can’t beat our ceramic measuring spoons and cups- as pretty as they are functional!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Love, blonde birdie

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For us, 2010 begins the first full calendar for blonde birdie. Starting in August, our first few months of operation were a blur of packing, shipping, staying up late, seeking out advertising opportunities, locating unique products and then bringing them straight to you. By the end of December we were tired. We drank too much coffee. We had bags under our eyes.

And we loved every single second of it! With any luck, 2010 will bring more of the same.

As we begin what we hope will be a fast-paced & fun year, we just want to say thank you for helping make 2009 a wonderful time!

Love & sweet tweets to you!

I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas…

The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping and yes, friends, the holidays are steadily creep, creep, creeping their way upon us. To take some of the stress and pressure off of you this holiday season, we present our first annual blonde birdie gift guide. Below you will find suggestions for those hard-to-shop-for people on your list as well as helpful tips on how to make your holidays brighter and more beautiful with barely any stress.

Ø Your Fashionista Sister: amazing gold vermeil jewelry from Beau & Stella is perfectly on trend. Our fav is the Golden Vine Necklace.

Ø Your detailed-oriented brother: set him lose with one of our BYO Dinosaur Kits. He’ll be distracted long enough for you to steal some of the candy from his stocking.

Ø Your I-Don’t-Need-Anything Mother: who doesn’t need a sweet reminder that they are loved? She will be reminded ever time she looks at our Family is Everything Printer Block.

Ø The Last Minute Hostess Gift: give our Tuscan Wire Bowl a try. (Tip #1: Fill the bowl with sweet seasonal goodies and a pretty towel for a gift that will also show off your domestic goddess side.)

Ø Your Mother-in-Law: Lemon Meringue Full Apron. She whips up a feast every holiday, so make it easier with a cute apron to keep stains at bay.

Ø Your Best Friend: our leather Origami Clutch Bag. She always stands by you, now you now she’ll be standing there with a hot bag. (Tip #2: If you want to really impress your gal pal, fill up her new bag with all the essentials so she’s ready to go. Be sure to include mints, a pocket mirror and lip balm.)

Ø Co-workers: bubblicious Bubble Bath Dough in five delicious scents. Just add water to soak away the worries from work.

Ø For the Person who has it ALL: we betcha they don’t have our crazy cool handsoaps! (Tip #3: Surprise the recipient by putting these quietly in their bathroom or sink area and wait for their tickled reactions. Great to try in your own home as well on the night of your big holiday soirée.)

Tip #4: Stuff the Stocking with Sweet Treats! Filling the stockings this year will be a breeze- all these goodies are $10 and under!

Tip #5: Last, but not least, leave the work to us! We can do most of the work for you this year. Don’t forget- we are able to wrap your gifts for you, enclose personal gift cards, and mail them directly to your loved ones. The gift wrap is just $4 per box and we can work with you on combining several gifts into one box for the same low price.

Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping from blonde birdie!

Well, Halloween has come and gone and we can now get down to the serious business of the holiday season. Have you been naughty or nice? There are only 53 days left til Christmas and even fewer left til the Biggest-Shopping-Day-of-the-Year-Eve (or Thanksgiving to some). We are starting to stock up on darling holiday décor items with more on the way. Olive & Fritz have been going on and on about our Naughty and Nice Guest Towels. They are fighting over which one is the nice one- but doesn’t fighting make them both naughty? Quite a pickle. What do you think?

Now in stock, check out beautiful feminine jewelry designs from Beau & Stella. Handcrafted in Dallas, TX, these sweet pieces are sophisticated and simple yet really make a statement. Try layering the Golden Vine Necklace with the Branch Necklace for a great more-is-more look.

Also on the horizon, gift-wise, are delightful aromatic perfume oils, bath salts, and a unique sugar cube shower scrub. All these bathroom essentials and more are available any day now in our bath & body subcategory. These fragrant items are from our friends at Flourish and are handmade in small batches in the USA. The scents are all rich and inviting, yet subtle. Our favorite is the perfume oil in Black Tea & Mint- maybe it’s because we are southern guys and gals at heart.

As always, we have boxes arriving nearly daily with spectacular goodies, gifts, and more. Check back often to get the best selection of these unique, beautiful or just plain fun products!

]]> http://blondebirdie.com/blog/2009/11/01/the-countdown-is-on/feed/ 0 http://blondebirdie.com/blog/2009/10/02/thank-you-friends/ http://blondebirdie.com/blog/2009/10/02/thank-you-friends/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:06:18 +0000 admin http://blondebirdie.com/blog/?p=9 Happy  October!

We want to start by thanking all of our friends and family for a spectacular September! Our first month was everything we could have hoped for and more. Our best-selling item was by far the Handsoaps by foliage for $20. These unique bubbly bars will bring charm and interest to your kitchen or bathroom. Don’t worry- we plan to keep these interesting bathroom essentials in stock and ready for gift giving! Check back  in October for more new and exciting items…

We’re proud to present what will surely become your new favorite site.
Visit us for unique jewelry, scarves, accessories, home decor items, and gifts for kids and kids-at-heart.

Check out our children’s section for items that benefit our favorite kids’ charity: Project Linus. 

To guide you through the website, we have employed our two favorite birdies, Olive & Fritz. For more information on your guides, click here.

Since Olive & Fritz are still learning the ropes here we welcome all feedback- requests, suggestions, anything- we want to hear it all! Somewhere in the nest they have a computer to check their email so send them a note at customerservice@blondebirdie.com.

Happy shopping from blonde birdie!