The BEST Sugar Cookies EVER, St. Patrick's Day style

Yesterday my family went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis. It is a HUGE deal here. When I was growing up, St. Patrick's Day wasn't a big deal. I mean it was a fun little holiday, you wear green, you pinch people, a sneaky leprechaun might visit your classroom, but that was about it.

We have had fun celebrating this holiday more since moving to St. Louis. We always have so much fun at the parade, my kids love all the free candy and green beads they get.

On Friday I made some on my Grandma's "famous" (at least in my family) sugar cookies, shaped like shamrocks to take to the parade. I was watching my friends' boys that day, so I gave them each a ball of dough and their own cookie cutters and let them go to town! Here is what their cookies looked like...

(one really likes dogs, one really likes cow boys, and one really likes football)

And here are my Shamrock cookies...

I think I will eat these ones and let the kids eat the other ones... :)

Anyway, here is the recipe for the sugar cookies. They are honestly the yummiest sugar cookie EVER! They are so soft and thick. In my opinion they are even better than those pink frosted Granny B's cookies. Make some. You'll be glad you did.

Best EVER Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup margarine

3/4 cup Butter Crisco

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp. cream of tarter

2 1/4 tsp. vanilla

5 1/4 cups flour

Cream together margarine, shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add baking soda, cream of tarter, and vanilla. Gradually add in flour. Chill dough for one hour. Roll dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters, place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 for 4-5 minutes. Makes about 4-5 dozen, depending on size of cookies. Cool and frost.

And in my opinion, the only kind of frosting to use on these is homemade powdered sugar frosting. (Store bought frosting makes me gag!)

I usually half this recipe and still have tons for frosting left. (To put on graham crackers...another favorite treat around here)

Powdered Sugar Frosting

3/4 cup margarine, softened.

9 cups powdered sugar (about 2 pounds)

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

milk

food coloring

Beat butter until smooth. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in 1/4 cup milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar, adding additional milk if needed to reach spreading consistency. Add desired food coloring.

These are so good that I make them for as many holiday's as I can...and usually give some away because they are so good, I could eat them all, which my hips would definitely NOT appreciate! :)

More Topiaries-St. Patrick's and Easter style

My Valentine Heart topiary is one of my very favorite things that I have ever made. So, I decided to give the idea a twist for St. Patrick's Day and Easter. And again, I LOVE how they turned out.

Here is the Easter version...

Here are the supplies I used...

And once again, the Dollar Tree came through with the picks, the hanging eggs, and another lovely pot, this one yellow. The Styrofoam balls come in 2 packs...so that means I need to make at least one more topiary since I have one left!

I did this one about the same way I did the Valentine one that I showed you here.

You pretty much just take the picks and string off the eggs and glue them on like this...

Then you just fill in the spaces with floral moss, no glue required.

I love how it looks like an Easter Egg nest!

Here are some tips for the egg one.

I was going to paint the pot to cover the egg. But now I think I am going to just be lazy and turn the flowers to the back. But you could paint it or over it with paper if that would bug you. :)
The eggs come off better if you twist them off instead of pull them off.

The holes are a little harder to hide since the eggs don't lay as close to the ball as the hearts did. If you point the hole down they hide better. Plus use lots of moss.

Since just using the sticks off the picks for the trunk worked so well on the heart one, I did the same here. I actually used the egg picks on the St. Patty's one too.

I needed three packages of eggs, unlike the picture that just shows two. I had already started taking them apart when I remembered to take a picture. I get to excited to get stuff done that I forget the picture part a lot!

Here is the St. Patrick's Day version...

I again hit up the dollar store for some shamrock garland. I used another 4 inch Styrofoam ball from Hobby Lobby.

To start I just stuck the end of the garland into the ball like this...

then just started wrapping it around the ball. Every wrap or so I used some straight pins to hold it all into place, like this...

I used two garlands to warp it to cover all the Styrofoam and to make it nice and puffy looking. Then I took this lovely light green pot from the Dollar Tree...

and covered it with shamrock scrapbook paper to hide that not very St. Patty's like flower.

And this is what I ended up with!

LOVE IT!!

By the end of the year, I am thinking I will have a topiary for every season! They just turn out so cute!

I linked this post to:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff