My Version of the 'Frozen Dress'

Elsa was a very, very popular figure among the 3-10 crowd this year, so I wasn't at all surprised when my daughter asked to be Elsa for Halloween.  I found some really easy DIY ideas on Pinterest.  I even found some easy patterns to sew my own.  So I figured between these two options, I'd be able to make my daughter's costume with little to no problem.

Then, sometime early in September, we were at a local clothing swap store called Kid-to-Kid and my daughter found this dress:

It was the right color and sparkly and she was convinced that it was really an Elsa dress.  I was totally fine with this.

I was able to buy a yard of sparkly sheer snowflake material at Walmart for under $5.  The hardest part of attaching the material was pinning it all together.  Often when I sew I get impatient and take shortcuts.  This time I promised myself that I would just go slow and it would take as long as it needed to.  It really only took me about 3 hours total (over 3 days), but it was so worth it because I think it turned out really good!  My daughter was ecstatic when she saw her cape!  Seriously, she ran through our house for an hour making it 'whoosh' behind her until I finally made her take it off before something happened to it.  (It made me really happy though!)

I looked for ideas for Elsa's shoes but couldn't find anything I liked.  And I didn't really want to buy any for her.  Then I had the idea to transform my daughter's old red sparkly shoes that she had worn out a very long time ago.  She hadn't worn them in months but I'd never gotten around to throwing them away.  I found a can of sparkly blue spray paint for $5 and this is what happened:

By the end of the week after Halloween, the blue paint had almost completely worn off, but it lasted for as long as it needed to!

I don't know if you remember the year my daughter was a cowgirl (which is still my very favorite costume.) This year was a close second!

Slow-Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

I love my slow-cooker.  It's an appliance I've had for years but have only really started to use in the past year or so.  I also love broccoli cheese soup, but have yet to find one that is easy to make AND tastes good.  This was set up to be a dinner-winner right from the start because (1) I love my slow-cooker and (2) I love broccoli cheese soup.  The stars must have aligned because this soup was delicious!

Creamy Broccoli Soup (adapted from I don't know because I, yet again, forgot to save the source...)

• 1 quart low-sodium chicken broth (or you can do what I do and just measure out a quart of water and add the necessary number of chicken bouillon cubes)
• 2 cups milk
• 20 oz. frozen broccoli cuts, thawed
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 7 oz Velveeta, cut into cubes (You know how Velveeta comes in enormous boxes?  I actually found these tiny 4 oz. boxes hidden among all the giants so mine ended up being 8 oz--2 4 oz. portions...but it was still way better than having a half-used box of Velveeta lying around my house for weeks and ultimately being tossed in the garbage.)
• 1 1/3 cups instant mashed potatoes (yes I know this sounds weird but they are what end up making this soup delicious, I promise!)

1. Combine broth, milk, broccoli, onion, pepper and 1 cup water in slow-cooker bowl.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 5 hours.
2. Whisk Velveeta into slow cooker until smooth.  Sprinkle instant potatoes over soup and whisk to combine.  Serve immediately

Easiest dinner ever and it won't disappoint you!

Homemade Corn Dogs

My husband is a firefighter which means that he's gone 2-3 nights a week.  As easy as it would be to just throw some Marie Callender frozen dinners in the microwave for me and the kids, I vowed a long time ago that I would do my best to feed my kids real food, even when it's just us.  (This actually started when my oldest was just over a year old, so it really was tempting to just microwave a TV dinner for me and let her eat her baby food.)  

Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for family/kid friendly recipes that are a breeze to make (mostly because it's just me juggling two kids and getting dinner on the table and evening is not an easy time in our house...)  I found this recipe for Homemade Corn Dogs from Pioneer Woman and, though I'm not a huge fan of (or expert at) deep frying, I knew my daughter loved corn dogs and if I could even remotely make these work, I would have at least one happy eater that night.

Classic Corn Dogs and Cheese-on-a-Stick (adapted from the Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Bisquick (the original calls for Krusteaz and I also halved the recipe which was plenty for my kids and I.)
• 2 cups corn meal
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 6 cups water, add more if you need to thin the batter
• flour
• hot dogs
• cheese (I used plain old cheddar)
• chopsticks for the dogs, bamboo skewers for the cheese
• canola oil
• mustard and ketchup

1. Combine Bisquick and cornmeal in a large bowl.  Add eggs and water, adding more water as needed.  You want the batter to be slightly thick but not gloopy.  Ree suggests starting out with 4 cups and working your way up to 6+.
2. Insert chopsticks into hot dogs (these really do work and are easy to find at the grocery store) until they are 2/3 of the way in.  The same was suggested for the cheese, but I found that my cheese was breaking too easily so I just used bamboo skewers with the sharp tips cut off.  Also, when I started deep-frying the hot dogs, the batter just slid off. I found that if I dusted each with flour before I dropped them in the batter, the batter stayed on just fine when it went in the oil.
3. Heat canola oil over medium-high heat.  (Deep frying makes me incredibly nervous so I used my enormous Martha Stewart dutch oven and it worked perfectly.)  Drop in a bit of batter, which will start to sizzle immediately, but not burn or brown.
4. Dip the hot dogs into the batter and allow excess to drip off.  Carefully drop into the oil and use tongs to make sure it doesn't hit the bottom of the pan and stick.  Flip to ensure even browning.  It took me about 3-5 minutes each, but I had 2 going at a time.  When you dip the cheese, leave it in there as long as possible to allow the cheese to melt.

This was the most success I've had frying anything and they were so delicious!

"Ready to Pop" Baby Shower

A friend and coworker of mine is expecting her first baby any minute!  Another friend and coworker of mine and I decided to throw her a baby shower.  The theme?  "Ready to Pop."  Naturally Pinterest was a good friend of ours during the planning process.  The invite idea came from here.

All of the food was 'pop' related.  There was a lot of popcorn.  I made gourmet popcorn with the recipes here and here.  (The chili lime was my favorite...)

We had some plain popcorn with a variety of mix-ins to create your own flavor.  I downloaded this cute sign from here...

...along with the soda pop labels.  I used Photoshop Elements to convert the pink on the downloads to blue.

I had found this great recipe for 'buttered popcorn cupcakes' but they turned out disastrous.  Really, I wish I'd kept a picture of them for one of those fun Pinterest "nailed it" memes.  Anyway, I just whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes and threw some popcorn on top.  They weren't the best, but the kiddos who came loved them.

We played this really cute game.  I can't post a picture of it here for privacy reasons (we used her name instead of "Baby Shower".)  It ended up being a bigger challenge than we had anticipated--both for the participants and for us finding gifts which fit each letter!

It was such a fun party!  I feel like my friend and I should go into a party planning business (and not to toot my own horn but our pathologist said the exact same thing!)

My Paint-by-number Project

So back when I was a teenager my mom gave me this kitty paint-by-number kit for Christmas.  I was absolutely intrigued, but never found the time to do it.  As I have been collecting and collecting projects to do over the last several years, earlier this year I got tired of collecting instead of doing.  I just started grabbing things from the top.  This was one of those projects.  I shrugged my shoulders and went to work.

It actually was a lot more difficult than it looked.  Initially I was too lazy to go up to my kitchen and grab toothpicks to stir the paint.  I soon learned that paint tins that have been sitting around for 15 years really work better if they are stirred up before use!  This was my only mistake though!

About halfway done.

And all the way done.

It actually turned out pretty great!  I may just attempt another one someday!  Right now it is sitting on my pile of finished artwork to frame.  (That's going to be the next pile that I tackle.)

Suncatchers

My daughter and I did this fun project late this past winter.  The weather (and landscape) was still rather gray and dismal so these suncatchers were the perfect addition to her room to brighten a winter's day.  

(Adapted from the Friend magazine.)

You will need:

• Waxed Paper
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Pencil Sharpener
• Iron
• Hole Punch
• String or Ribbon
• Paper Towel

What to do:

1. On a piece of waxed paper, draw whatever shape you want your sun-catcher to be.  (This was my daughter's task.)
2. Use the pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings and sprinkle them on the shape you drew (this was my task.)  Your finished shape will be whatever colors you include.  Put another sheet of waxed paper on top.
3. Put a paper towel on top of the waxed paper to protect your iron.  Iron the two layers of waxed paper together.
4. Once the wax paper has cooled, cut out the shape you outlined earlier.  Punch a hole near the top and thread a string or ribbon through it for hanging.
5. Hang your finished shapes in front a of a window or other place where the light can shine through them.  (Never put the waxed paper near a light bulb or anything that is hot.)

Shamrock Banner

It was part of my personal goals this year to make something new for each holiday from my stash of ideas.  I found this banner on Pinterest awhile ago and decided that I would make it for St. Patrick's day.

The problem is that I deleted the pin before I was able to refer to it in this post.  I cannot remember who to credit for this, which is too bad because she has copies of these awesome maps that I downloaded to make the project.  So if odds are in my favor and you've seen this project before, let me know so that I can give due credit!

Like I said, I downloaded the two maps of Ireland off of this website, but I suppose you could find any black and white image to make the background.  I free-handed the pennant shapes and cut out 16 (which was possibly a tad too many--I think 10 would have been perfect.)  I backed the paper with some tan cardstock and inked around the edges to distress it a bit.  Other than that, I pretty much copied the original.  The shamrocks are heart shapes that I traced, cut out and inked, and glued together to make a shamrock shape.  I let it dry, punched holes, laced some thread, and hung it up on my shelving unit.  It was pretty easy and fun to have something festive for St. Patrick's Day!

Patti's Brownies

We had one of 'those days' in our house a few weeks ago.  I knew what I needed to do to remedy the day: make brownies.  Problem was, we didn't have a mix in our house and, if you read my blogs, you know that I pretty much suck at making brownies from scratch.  I sifted through my recipe book and found the recipe for my mother-in-law's brownies.  I took a deep breath and dove in.  And...they actually turned out super great!  My husband walked in and said, 'that smell just seriously put a smile on my face!'  Mission accomplished.

Patti's Brownies

• 2/3 c shortening
• 9 T cocoa
• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 2 c sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt together shortening and cocoa.  Let cool slightly.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking powder.  Mix sugar and eggs into chocolate mixture.  Add vanilla.  Mix in dry ingredients until well blended.  Bake in a 9 by 13 greased pan for 25 minutes (mine were actually still gooey at 25 minutes so I baked them for 10 extra and they came out perfectly.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I feel like I am one of only a few people in this world that truly, truly love oatmeal raisin cookies.  The other two people would be my mom and dad.  I don't get it, though.  These cookies are as close to 'healthy' as it gets.  And it turns out my kids like these cookies too so it's an easy way to get a little extra fiber in their diet.  Just ignore the cup and a half of sugar.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (adapted from iheartnaptime.com)

1/2 c apple sauce

1/2 c butter

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c granulated sugar

2 eggs (I used egg substitute)

1 t vanilla

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

3 c quick oats

1 1/2 c flour

1 c raisins (I soak mine in hot water for a few minutes to plump them up.  Makes a big difference!) 

Preheat oven to 350.  Blend butter and sugars together until smooth.  Beat in eggs one at a time and add in vanilla and applesauce.  Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add to sugar mixture a little at a time; mix until smooth.  Fold in raisins.  I used a 1 1/4 inch cookie scoop and dropped the scoopfuls onto parchment/Silpat lined cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 min.

German Chocolate Brownies

I have no picture which is too bad.  These were one of those recipes I made that was gone before I had a chance to take a picture!  Also they were kind of messy, and messy isn't pretty.  Anyway, just imagine german chocolate cake except a brownie instead of cake.  Delicious!

German Chocolate Brownies (adapted from iheartnaptime.net)

Brownies

• 2 boxes of brownie mix
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1 cup of butterscotch chips

Coconut Pecan Frosting

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

1. Bake brownies according to package directions.  Allow to cool
2. Melt chocolate chips in microwave for 1 minute and drizzle with a spoon over brownies.
3. Melt butterscotch chips in microwave for 1 minute and drizzle over chocolate.
4. Combine egg yolks, sugar, milk, butter and vanilla in a large saucepan.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, about 12 minutes, stirring consistently for at least 10 of those minutes.  Add coconut and pecans.  Beat until thick enough to spread.  Pour over top of brownies.  Place in refrigerator to harden.

Black and White Potato Chip Cookies

I have finished my goal of making baked goodies for each coworker on their birthday!  Unfortunately, the person these cookies were for wasn't there the day I brought them in and they had disappeared by the next day.

What I liked:
Another coworker actually pointed this out but these cookies are like Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack.  Sweet and Salty is super Yum!

What I would do differently:
I would like to try these cookies undipped.

from The Chew

1 cup butter softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
11/4 cups crushed potato chips
1teaspion vanilla
2c all purpose flour
Confectioner sugar
1c chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Reduce speed to low and add 3/4 c of potato chips and mix until incorporated.  Add vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.  Add the flour and mix just until combined--don't overmix.
3. Scoop 1-inch balls of dough into a lightly greased sheet pan, spacing them at least 2 inches apart.  Dust each cookie w/ confectioner sugar and press flat.
4. Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown and cool. Dip cookies in melted chocolate then into crushed potato chips.

Oobleck

Earlier this year I did another fun 'science experiment' with my daughter for preschool.  This time we made Oobleck.  As in Oobleck from Dr. Suess.  It's a simple 2 ingredient mixture that turns to solid in a bowl but back into liquid in your hands.  Even I, the supposed adult in the situation, had a lot of fun playing with the stuff!

from Spoonful

Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water

Instructions:

1. Take 1 1/2 cups of cornstarch and add 1 cup of water.  Mix.  If the 'goo' isn't gooey enough, add a little more water.  Keep adding water until you have a consistency that is relatively easy to stir, but not runny.
2. This may look like a messy project but it cleans up very quickly with extra water

Airplane Birth Announcement

My great-nephew was born, oh, 2 years ago so I'm finishing this up right on time!  Incidentally I just bought the kit for my one-year old son's announcement so I should be finishing it by his second birthday as well :)

This nephew is the grandson of my brother who is really into aviation so it somehow seemed appropriate.  It was really quick to put together, actually.  The longest part was getting it over to the framer.  And mailing it. 

I took it to The Framing Establishment again.  The frame is actually the same kind that they used on my daughter's except in red.  It's a really cute, whimsical frame that looks cute in kids' rooms. I apologize for the quality of the picture: I realized halfway through wrapping it that I hadn't taken a picture yet!  Plus the whole anonymity censor ugly white square thing...

Dipped Oreo Cookies

My daughter recently turned 4 and we did a big barbecue for her birthday.  It was great.  Much more low-key than my son's party.  There was a birthday cake, of course, and instead of ice cream: otter pops.  My favorite dessert item, though, were these yummy Dipped Oreo Cookies.

These are ridiculously easy to make.  Oh, and by the way, I got the idea off of Pinterest.  Obviously.

I just took a pack of Oreos, melted down some white, vanilla candy wafers, dipped half of the Oreo cookie in and sprinkled it with colorful nonpareils.  I set up my cookie rack with a sheet of waxed paper underneath it for the cookies to dry on.  Cute and Yummy!

Baby Bat-Mobile

I have a coworker who is obsessed with Batman.  And I mean Obsessed in every sense of the word.  His cute wife is pregnant with their first--a girl--due at the end of September.  We had a baby shower for her last week and I was asked to come up with some decorations.  Through a series of brainstorming I had this brilliant idea that I could string together a bunch of Batman symbols, cut out of girlish paper, make a baby mobile out of them, and call it the BATMOBILE.  I thought I was so creative.  Turns out if you Google-image Baby Bat-mobile you get all sorts of people who had the same idea.  Oh well.  My coworkers' wife's loves include the Beatles so, to include her interests in the project, I found peace sign and 60's flower clipart.

I cut out far more than I needed and, after stringing it together using a sewing machine, discovered that the mobile was twice as long as I had anticipated.  But it did look so cute hanging from the ceiling during the baby shower.

I've never made one of these before so I had to kind of guess how to put it together.  I found a couple of cheap quilting hoops at Hobby Lobby and used the interior frames (if anyone has a need for some exterior extendable frames, let me know.  I have no idea what to do with them now.)  I bought some 1/2 inch pink satin ribbon.  To create the hanging apparatus, I punched some tiny holes through the wooden ring using my heavy-duty Crop-a-Dile.  (I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's the only paper-crafting tool strong enough to punch a small hole through thick wood.)  I took six lengths of satin ribbon and threaded each through a hole, knotting each on the outside of the hoop.  I used the leftover ribbon and wound it around the outer hoop to give it a finishing touch.

The most time consuming part of the project was hand cutting each of the paper pieces.  After that was done, it went together really easily.  I think I might just try this again sometime!  Just not using batman pieces.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a friend's birthday a few weeks ago and they are AMAZING!  And so easy, too, especially considering that you have to make the cupcakes from scratch.  And the frosting actually tastes like Oreo cookie filling.  I don't know how Bakerella comes up with her ideas...

The original instructions have you pipe the frosting on top but apparently I need to buy a larger star tip because mine was just small enough that the cookie bits kept getting stuck and making a big mess.  So I resorted to the good ol' spoon-it-on-and-spread method (which worked just fine.)

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes from Bakerella

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey's Dark)
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup hot water
24 Oreos, plus more for crumbs

Frosting:
1 cup shortening
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-6 Tablespoons milk
2 or more teaspoons Oreo crumbs

For the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line tray with 12 baking cups.  Break up one cookie per cup into pieces and place in bottom of cup.  Mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt with a wire whisk.  Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and milk and mix well.  Add hot water and mix until combined.  Transfer the batter (it will be very liquid) to a large measuring cup.  Fill each baking cup so it's about three quarters full.  Bake for 16-18 minutes.

For the frosting:
Beat the shortening in a mixer until smooth.  Add vanilla and mix until combined.  Add the powdered sugar in three additions.  Add a Tablespoon of milk at a time and mix until smooth.  Add the cookie crumbs and blend thoroughly.  Frost each cupcake and insert half a cookie on top of each cupcake.

Monster Party Set-Up

I feel like I should have had a sign at my son's first birthday party saying, 'This party is brought to you by Pinterest!'  I wish I could take credit for the set-up of this party, but it truly is a mix of several ideas I found on Pinterest in the months leading up to his party.

For my daughter's birthday last year, we had balloons leading up the sidewalk to our house and most of them popped.  When I saw this idea to use pinwheels I thought it was great!  I just designed the '1' emblem using Photoshop Elements, had them printed, punched a hole in the center, and slid it onto a store-bought pinwheel.  I thought they turned out darling!

The refreshment table was a big hit!  I really wanted soda bottles but thought they could get pricey really fast.  So when I found these sodas on sale 2 for $5 I felt like I'd hit the lottery!

I had pitchers of lemonade and lemon-lime water.  The cake and cake-balls, of course, were displayed (and gobbled up.)

One of the favorite ideas I found was to cut monster-face-type shapes out of meat and cheese to make mini-monster sandwiches.  I also made rice krispy treats and dipped them to look like monsters.

Along the same lines as the monster cheese cracker sandwiches, I cut up a watermelon and punched out star-shaped watermelon.  It was ridiculously easy and looked really, really cute!

Probably the best idea I found on Pinterest was to set up a mini-bar for the kiddos.  It only makes sense to have food at the party that the one-year-old and his buddies can enjoy!  This was almost too-big of a hit.  There were crackers and goodies in the jars and a basket of Plum brand toddler smoothies.  The candy in the jars was there, along with toothpicks and icing, to 'make your own monster.'  There was no candy left by the end of the party (and I'm not sure it all went into making monsters!)

I didn't have a lot in the way of favors and games, but I did find this cute idea to have a poster of pictures from the previous year for guests to guess how old my son was in each square.  Probably my favorite thing of all was the 'Adopt a Monster' basket of felt monsters I sewed together.  The kids (and some adults, too) loved them! 

Birth Announcement

I have always loved making cross-stiched birth announcements for little babies (remember this one?)  The problem is that I am usually really behind on finishing them.  For example, the one I made for my daughter.  She turns 4 next month.

I had initially bought this pattern several years ago for a nephew being born.  In the catalog's tiny picture it seemed perfectly masculine but as it arrived and I started working on it I realized this would be more appropriate for a little girl.  So I put it away and kind of forgot about it.

Then when I was cleaning up my upstairs craft room to move to my new one in the basement, I found it and decided it would be perfect to finish for my daughter.

I got it framed at this place.  They are amazing!  It costs a little more to get things professionally framed but it is well worth it, especially when it comes to fabric.  And these guys do the best job of anyone I've found.

My daughter knew just where to put it.

Monster Cake for a First Birthday

I found an idea similar to this one on Pinterest and I thought it would be perfect for my one-year-old's first birthday party.

Again, being short on time, I made the cake layers the week before the party.  I made 9-, 8- and 6-inch rounds out of boxed funfetti cake mixes (it took 2 to make these 3 layers.)  Once they had cooled I wrapped each layer in a sheet of waxed paper and then a sheet of aluminum foil.  This time I took the layers out the morning that I frosted the cake (I figured they might be easier to handle if they were still partially frozen.)  I used a can of vanilla frosting to do the crumb coating.  This is the beginning of the monster cake:

The frosting I used for decorating is a Meringue Buttercream recipe from Martha Stewart.  It's yummy, but it is much more time consuming than regular ol' powdered sugar based frosting.  I chose this recipe because it stated in the recipe that it was good for decorating--which it completely was!  I frosted the day before the party and the frosting held it's shape perfectly.

I used Americolor gel paste to color the frosting again (they really are the best!!!)  The bottom layer was made using a large star tip (I forget which size.)

The middle layer I used a grass tip.  It totally blew my daughters mind away when she saw that the frosting really was starting to look like monster fur!

The top layer was made using a smaller star tip.  I loved how the colors turned out!

After I was done dipping my monster eyeball cakepops, I used the leftover white chocolate and milk chocolate pieces to make extra eyeball candies.  (Also my daughter is in a major playing-dressup-phase which includes all of her old dance costumes.  Adorable.)

I used 6 of the large eyeball candies for the cake.  Here is the final product again!  With advance planning, this cake really wasn't hard at all to make!!

The man of the hour.  He got to demolish the top layer while the rest of us enjoyed slices of the bottom layer.

Monster Eyeball Cakepops!

I decided on a monster theme for my one-year old's birthday party (which was last week.)  For the next several weeks I will be posting about some of the things I did for the party.

I've always, always wanted to try making cakepops but for some reason they have always intimidated me.  I've heard several people say how easy they are but I've also read several accounts of how time-consuming they are and that they ended up with disastrous results in the end. 

I did a lot of research and ended up finding this web tutorial.  It worked perfectly!  I'm linking up here so that, not only can I give credit to my source, but that I can easily find it again to make more in the future!

I found all of my monstrous ideas on pinterest, including one for these cakepop eyeballs.  I thought they were so adorable!

I was a little short on time the week leading up to the party so I made the cakeballs and attached the sticks a few weeks before the party.

I found a lot of tips on freezing and thawing cakepops but ultimately I decided to take them out of the freezer the night before I would decorate them and then let them sit at air temp while I prepped the dipping chocolate.  I had no problems whatsoever so, according to my limited knowledge, my technique worked just fine.

After I dipped them in white chocolate, they took a long time to dry so it was several hours before I was able to put the blue 'eyelids' on.  I melted down chocolate candy melts a few weeks prior to make they eye centers and stuck them on while the white chocolate was still wet.  I felt like they needed something a little extra so I made washi tape banners for the sticks (I also needed an excuse to go buy more washi tape.)

Here's the final product!

If I were to do anything differently, I would have opted for white candy melts instead of white chocolate.  Like I said, the white chocolate took forever to dry whereas I feel like the candy melts dry a lot quicker.  I also would have bought 2 styrafoam blocks to use as cakepop stands.