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About Me
My name is Gloria. I scour the high seas of the internet daily to find the cutest, the beautiful, and the most bodacious.
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Category Archives: Holiday

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Wait a second, what’s that smell?
COOOOOOOOOOOOOKIES!!!!
Santa’s sleigh is on his way, so I’ll be signing off to spend time with this little cookie monster and the rest of our family :-) Hope you all have a wonderful holiday break filled with joy and laughter (and snow, if you’re lucky!) Thank you SO much for another great year here at Little White Whale – virtual high fives all around! I’ll see you back here in the new year, friends!

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Who wants to sign my petition to tack on 2 more weeks at the end of December? It’s always such a hectic month that all the cookies, parties, and twinkling lights go by in the blink of an eye! We’re not even done shopping for gifts, but I’ve managed to at least wrap the few that we have sooooo I guess we’re on the right track? I decided to go super simple this year with kraft paper and holly toppers, which will pack up nicely when we throw everything into a bag for our holiday travels!
Wrap up all your goodies in your choice of gift wrap – I used a roll of cute polka dotted kraft paper from Target. Cut out two holly leaves out of green cardstock, and use a hole puncher to create the “berries” out of red cardstock. Use a small hole puncher to punch a hole at the end of each leaf, then thread some festive string through, and wrap it around the gift once or twice. Tie a knot on the underside and trim the ends. Glue the “berries” on with a glue stick, then write the name of your lucky giftee in pen on the top leaf.
BONUS! You can use these paper holly leaves as drink markers too! Check out the DIY I put together for Mixbook – I’ll be contributing some fun projects there for the next few months :-)

24 MERRY DAYS
DAY 18: Emily Henderson is giving away a mini fridge from SMEG!
DAY 17: Coco and Mingo is giving away a fun prize pack from Everything Golden!
DAY 16: Wonder Forest is giving away some super cool “smart” jewelry from Cuff!

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White Reindeer Gingerbread Cupcakes from Kwestia Smaku | Chocolaty Melting Snowmen from BHG | Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookies from Skinnytaste | Coal Rice Krispy Treats from Mallow & Co
Tis the season for eating your weight in cakes and cookies and pies! If you’re going to indulge (just a wee bit, of course) this month, you might as well spend those calories on some cute and tasty treats like these. Aren’t those reindeer cupcakes a riot??

24 MERRY DAYS
DAY 10: Studio DIY is giving away a Madsen Cycles bike!
DAY 9: Making It Lovely is giving away 2 beautiful Ellington purses!

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Halloween Spaghetti from The 36th Avenue | Graveyard Taco Dip from Chickabug | Scary Skillet Shepherd's Pie from Kraft Philadelphia | Chicken Potpie with Crawling Hands from Delish
What will you be cooking up in your cauldron on Halloween night? I think this ghostly shepherd’s pie will be on the menu at our house (along with a pound of candy, of course)

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I always shriek with delight when my channel surfing this time of year brings me to one of my favorite Halloweeny movies, “Arachnophobia”! It’s simultaneously funny and gross and terrifying (I’m STILL severely traumatized by the jumping spider in the shower scene) and a true childhood classic for me. And is there a better way to celebrate this campy 90’s horror movie than with a batch of creepy spider cupcakes?? I think not! Read on to learn how to transform innocent cupcakes into an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare!
What you’ll need:
- a box of chocolate cake mix
- 1 can each of vanilla (I found a seasonal version that was tinted orange) and chocolate frosting
- a piping bag with a narrow tip
- small malted milk balls like Whoppers
- Lindt Lindor truffles or any other large round milk chocolate candy
- orange sprinkles and red confetti sprinkles (optional)
- Bake the cupcakes according to the directions on the box, and let them cool
- Frost those babies with vanilla frosting! I went the extra mile and piped it on using a zig zag pattern so the spider would have a flat surface to sit on, but it’s certainly not necessary
- Place a Whopper and a truffle in the center of a cupcake to create the spider body
- Load up a clean piping bag with a few large spoonfuls of chocolate frosting, and use a narrow tip to add a dab of frosting between the candy to “glue” them together. Then pipe on some long spooky spider legs
- Place two orange sprinkles in front of the head for eyes/fangs
- The truffles I used featured a little indentation mark, so I added a dab of frosting and covered it up with a red confetti sprinkle for a black widow look
- Serve up your platter of spider cupcakes and wait for your guests to scream in terror – muhahaha!

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“Are we SURE we bought enough hot dogs? Maybe I should count them again…”
Wishing you all a wonderful long weekend filled with fireworks, watermelon, and sunscreen! And hopefully not too much rain from Tropical Storm Arthur [Debbie Downer trombone sound]. Happy 4th of July, friends!