Bridal Treasures

It seems I'm not the only one with weddings on the mind, and all the adventure that a wedding sets one off on! Happiest days designs was included in TWO Treasuries yesterday on Etsy. A Treasury is where one etsy shopkeeper chooses pieces to promote around a theme from other etsy vendors. We feel so honored that two of Hull's Happiest Days Designs pieces got chosen, especially in the company of other fantastic handmade crafters. Please check out the following links, they wont be around for long! Also please check out GlideLT and Sweet Briar Bridal on etsy!

Sweet Briar Bridal Link

and this one too!

GlideLT Link

Seems like love is in the air...

Happy Day Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

Shawn Hull

Ingredients
2 ½ cups of Flour
1 tsp of baking soda
¼ tsp of salt
½ cup of butter
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup of sour cream
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 ripe brown bananas mashed with a fork

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a Bundt pan with non-stick spray. In a large bowl cream sugar with butter. Add eggs one at a time to sugar mixture. Add vanilla. Then layer on top the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients on the top together without disturbing the wet on the bottom. Then mix all the ingredients together and add the mashed banana and sour cream. Mix only until blended, then add the chocolate chips. Gently fold in, so as not to over mix and toughen the cake.

Bake approximately one hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center and the cake starts to pull away from the edges of the pan. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Invert and cool completely. Enjoy!

Store under your Hull’s Happiest Days Designs Personalized cake plate with glass dome!

A Wedding to Remember

We have been buried under snow for about two weeks. I do love the snow, the hot chocolate, and being burrowed in the house with my family. But, I am starting to get a little restless. I miss the sun, flowers, walking outside without 18 layers. Being stuck inside so much lately makes me think of the new things I want to do. The new directions I want my life to take and the other moments of new choice and beginnings in my life.



Above you see our wedding pictures. Kevin and I met in San Francisco. Actually, Embarcedero I (the setting for the 70's disaster film starring Charlton Heston: The Towering Inferno!). Kevin still says our "unofficial song" is Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. We got married on the Northern California coast. Today I still believe it was the most beautiful most romantic wedding I've ever been to. I probably am very biased, but I think its good for our marriage to romanticize our beginning. It was such a special day to have people who were most important to us witness our beginning and celebrate with us. We rented a Bed and Breakfast for an entire weekend. Our families flew in from all over the country to celebrate and spend our wedding weekend with us! My Grandmother who was 73 at the time took her first airplane ride ever to be with us! Although it was a whirlwind, even with two full days to celebrate, I was aware of how important and special this day was. I am so glad for all the preparation and love that went into that weekend.



Fast forward ten years and another wedding. Kevin and I renewed our vows in the backyard of our own home on the East Coast. This wedding was just as special and just as joyous but deeper for the ten years that had passed. My Grandmother had since passed away, which made me long for all those people that were with us in Northern California. But at the same time I cherished all the new happiness in our lives too. Our daughters sang at our wedding this time. They sang Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". Indeed it is.

Pictures help us capture these moments, music helps us to hang on to these moments, time together to reminisce help us to hold on. That's why Happiest Days Designs was created. We created Happiest Days Designs as a keepsake, a usable, functional keepsake to act as a touchstone for those happy moments big and small.



Since so many couples are in the planning stages for summer weddings we have launched several new china sets perfect for the wedding party and gifts for the wedding couple! Here are two of my favorites the Tree of Life (above) and the Wedding Bouquet designs (below). We have the new Bridal Head Table Suite which includes 10 dessert plates as a thank-you for the wedding party and one cake plate and glass dome for the Wedding Couple. There is also the dessert set for two, great for the Bride and Groom to use at their reception or to have coffee and cake the next morning. Check out all the options at www.happiestdaysdesigns.etsy.com.



I really do love weddings. But since I already had two with the same man, I probably should wait awhile before I do it again! Check back in a day or two, I’ll list a recipe for chocolate chip banana cake, a great cake for a homey wedding. Also, pretty good any old weekend thereafter.

Decadent Valentine Fudge Recipe with white chocolate chips

Shawn Hull

Ingredients
3 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of white chocolate chips
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp of vanilla extract

In a double boiler melt down chocolate chips with vanilla, pinch of salt, and can of sweetened condensed milk. Keep heat very low, so as not to burn. When the chocolate is smooth and has a shiny sheen, take it off the heat. Pour into a 8x8 square pan lined with wax paper. Sprinkle the top with half of the white chocolate chips. Take a butter knife or spoon and mix the white chocolate chips into the chocolate fudge mixture. Then sprinkle the other half of the white chocolate onto the surface and gentle press into top of the mixture. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours. Enjoy!

Let it snow , Let it snow, Let it Snow!

Wow, we got a ton of snow dumped on us, out in the Philadelphia countryside. We haven't had this much snow in years! I LOVE SNOW and even more I LOVE SNOW DAYS! What a fantastic excuse to play, drink cocoa, watch my dog cocoa hop like a bunny in the snow, make snow angels with my girls, watch them make igloos. The whole world, at least in my neighborhood, stops, we all slow down and look with wonder out the window. We venture outside, help each other out with shoveling and then later sled! Cuddles by the fireplace, fun movies, fondue, boy life is good. This has definitely been a happy day! What do you do on your snow days? If you don't get snow days, do you want one? Why or why not?

This blog is a new adventure for me Shawn, and for Happiest Days Designs (Shawn and Kevin). I feel like I'm in a period of reinvention. I've been ruminating on things in my life that are important: my family, art, my connection to spirit, and my livelihood. This lovely snow day has given me a little time to stop and think about how to re-order my life to reflect whats really important to me. How can I make shifts in my life to reflect the values I hold? How can I stop trying so hard and delight in just being, play, and celebrate my life. So, I'm thinking this blog might be a great place for me to chronicle the small happiness of my daily life, how it reflects into my art and our artistic dessert ware,and also check in and post the happiest days of those around me too! We will also post recipes and discount codes for our etsy store: www.happiestdaysdesigns.etsy.com.

We made these fantastic Sweetheart Valentine's mugs for V-day and weddings. They are so perfect for hot cocoa on a snow day. Kevvy and I will snuggle up while the girls watch a movie and I will ruminate on the perfection of the moment and hot chocolate!

Check out all our dessert ware: personalized cake plates, glass domes, dessert plates and mugs for life's happy occasions. Like, weddings, holidays, new baby, and housewarmings! At www.happiestdaysdesigns.etsy.com and facebook: search happiestdaysdesigns and become our fan!