Bridal shower Card

I made this little card for D, whose shower was Saturday. I also made the cake, but realized too late that I forgot to take a picture of it! I'm waiting on the hostess-with-the-mostest, my friend Kimberly, to send me a picture she took at the party.

Anyways, I originally made this card larger, but didn't have an envelope for it, so I whipped up this one, in a A2 size, in just a few minutes using the same design. I love the veil! It's cut from a heart printed vellum paper that I've had forever and had never found a good use for.

I learned at the shower that the bride to be hates the color pink. Oops!

My Pink Stamper Challenge

Today My Pink Stamper issued a challenge: Make something with a bird in it.

Since I had no cartridge with a bird in it, I had to improvise. This little birdie is made from a pear! I cut off the leaves of the pear to make the wings, beak and feet. You can find this pear on the Potpourri basket cartridge.

What do you think, not bad, right? :)

Bird paper-Recollections "Garage Sale" line from Michaels-bird cut at 4"
Bird shadow-random cardstock cut at 4 and 1/4"
Leaves & shadow-Random cardstock cut at 2 and 3/4"
Sparkles for wings-dollar bin glitter glue from JoAnn's (Love this stuff!)
"Chirp" rub-on- miniMarks via Ross (10 packages for $3!!)

Go. Make friends!

If you haven't discovered Erin Lee Creative yet, go! She's a (super cute) crafter who makes mostly cards using her Cricut and Peachy Keen and Pink Stamper stamps. I'd never heard of either of those brands before, but I follow both of their blogs now too (and watch mypinkstamper on youtube!)

And when Erin hits 400 followers (she only needs a few more) she's giving away a set of Peachy Keen stamps. So go follow, because I want some of those stamps!

Michaels Make Your Own Sale Coupon!

I came across this coupon yesterday and had to share:

50% off coupon

it's a printable 50% off any regular priced item at Michaels, good through this Saturday. My Michaels is moving (yay!!), but that means that their selection is really picked over and sparse right now (Boo!).
EDIT: You can use this at JoAnn's too, if you have one.
I ended up getting some Wilton gel food colors (regularly 14.99- I paid 7.50 for 12 colors), four stamps ($1/ea. The new ones are so cute!), a versamark stamp ($7.99) and 10 very cute 12X12 scrapbook papers (5/$1!).
I think Martha Stewart knew about the sale, because her entire line was 20% off, so the coupon doesn't work for them. Too bad, because what I really wanted was this:
Martha Stewart Essential Colors Glitter Set

I just think the colors are gorgeous and would make for fun card accents. Oh well, some day, my sparkly pretties. Some day you will be mine.

Have fun with your coupon!

Tiding myself over

I've officially decided to join Team Cricut. I should have my new little friend by the end of the month! Until then, I've been playing with some of the old craft stuff my HSN loving ex-boss gave me. I found this tool called a Coluzzle, it's like an X-acto knife except the blade pivots and is very tiny. It's used with a hard plastic stencil, so the blade just glides along the cuts.
I used it to make the circles on this quick card:

And here is the Coluzzle:


It's pretty cool I guess. Just not nearly as cool as a Cricut!

Mocha Cupcakes

To me, there's really no better pairing than coffee and chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter makes a close second, but chocolate and coffee is really where my heart is. A few weeks ago we had some leftover coffee after breakfast and I decided that a mocha cupcake would be the perfect use for it. Of course, I couldn't find a recipe that only wanted coffee, so I ended up going and buying instant coffee granules as well.
I found a recipe (and I can't remember where. Bad blogger! Bad! But I know it was not from any of the blogs I'm linked to because I would remember that.) and in the end, I didn't love it. It didn't give the vavavoom that I was looking for, and I think a store bought chocolate cake mix would have been better.

The frosting recipe was a keeper, though, and I'll happily share that. I decided to make these mini cupcakes since my mini cupcake pan hasn't seen any love since last Fall's pumpkin cupcakes, so I cut the recipe I found (from C&H sugar) in half, and then I altered it to make it more coffee flavored.

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. instant coffee granules
• 1.5 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/6 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 teas vanilla
• 4 tbsp. brewed coffee (room temp)

Mix together first 5 ingredients, then add the brewed coffee one tbsp at a time until you get the consistency you want. Made enough to frost 30 mini cupcakes (with some left over!)

Seasoned Breadsticks

Ugly little suckers, I know, but so tasty!

If you ever see the little round container of "bread dipping spices" that has four flavors in one container, or the Johnny's Garlic Spread, buy it right away. I have used them countless times in the kitchen since getting them both a few months ago. My pizzas, bread sticks and even my toast have never been more delicious. Alas, my bread dipping spices are getting low, and I can't find them in my area *sob!*

Anyways, I made these simple and super tasty bread sticks one night when I was having a horrible carb craving.
I used my favorite pizza dough recipes, but added in 1 tbs of bread dipping spices. Then I coated them with melted butter mixed with Johnny's Garlic Spread before baking them. I've always been a bread stick fiend and these just hit the spot!

25 before 25!

I got this idea from another blog who was baking 25 things while she was 25. Well, I still have 11 months to go before I'm 25, so I thought it would be neat to have 25 things to make before I'm 25. These have to be things I've never made before, so coming up with 25 was hard, so this list is a little random. Bear with me! This will get me and the hub to branch out and try things we haven't tried before, too!

1. Cheesecake-Done!
2. Cream Puffs
3. Cake with multiple tiers-Done!
4. Peanut Brittle
5. Soft Pretzels
6. Pierogis
7. Artichoke Dip
8. Buffalo Chicken Dip
9. Hummus
10. Blackberry Jam
11. Pickles
12. Quinoa
13. Mahi Mahi-done!
14. Pear tart
15. French Onion Soup
16. Mochi
17. Falafel
18. Polenta-done!
19. Italian Wedding Soup
20. Baked Potato Soup
21. Banana Cream Pie
22. Beer Braised Beef with Onions
23. Bronzed Sea Bass with Lemon Shallot Butter
24. Taffy
25. My own birthday cake

I've linked recipes to a few of these things, and I'll come back and link more as I find the recipes I want to try (if you have a suggestion please let me know!). I'll also attach my blog posts to this as I (hopefully!) cross things off my list.
Wish me luck ;)

Spinach Pie

Really, I think it's more of a Calzone, but this is something my Mom made as I was growing up and she called it Spinach Pie...so it shall be named!

I start with my favorite Pizza dough recipe, but this time I add in 2tbs of Tuscan Original Bread Dipping spices. They make everything better.

Pizza dough
3 cups flour
2 and 1/4 teas. yeast (or one package)
2 tbs veggie oil
1 teas salt
1 teas sugar
1 cup warm water

After the dough rises I pile it high with fresh spinach, chunks of mozzarella (you want chunks, not shredded cheese. Trust me on this one.) sliced mushrooms, fresh garlic and a dash of salt. Then I pull one half of the pizza dough over the other half.
If it can fit, I think stuff even more spinach into the pocket that I've just created until it's packed full. Then I roll the edges over and cut a few slashes on top to let steam release.

This is one of the easiest, tastiest comfort foods for me, I love it so.

Birthday...cake!

I am so so very proud of this cake! It was my first time using fondant to cover cake and I had no idea what the heck to do with the corners (so I made a weird little fold) but I loved it so. And more importantly, my mom loved it.
And I took way too many photos of it, but that's okay because I want to remember my first attempt at fondant for ever and ever :)Also, I cut tons of fondant cutters, a cake decorating book, and a gift card that I used to get my own set of tips for my birthday...so I'm going to need to find more reasons to make cake! It's too much fun.

Good things are happening

in my kitchen right now! Tomorrow is my mama's birthday and I'm making her cake, lemon with homemade orange curd filling, buttercream frosting and fondant daisies. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see how it turns out!
This was my second time making a curd (although I made lemon curd last time) and I was pleased that it was SO much easier this time! I used this recipe from Marthastewart.com and I love it. Seriously, can Martha do anything wrong? (aside from the interrupting of guests on her show, that is). I just substituted oranges for the lemons in the recipe as I thought it would contrast better with the lemon cake.

And then, Monday is my birthday. Mid twenties now. I feel....old, even though I know in the grand scheme of things, I'm still really young. oh well.

I leave you with a picture of the last cake I made for my mom's birthday in 2008 (8-8-8), so I made it in the shape of an 8...but everyone wondered why I made my mom a boob cake. I have come so far!

Adventures in Fondant (pt.2)

These are fondant covered cupcakes I made awhile back. I'd posted a picture on my facebook page, so they never made it to my blog. Oops!




Not bad for my first time using fondant to cover something! I can't wait to try it on a cake next.

More baby hats!

I'm surrounded by babies and preggos right now, so I've been making a ton of baby hats. (this will be my last baby post for awhile though, even I'm getting sick of them!)
I love those baby hats that end in a long tail with a knot in the end, so I drafted a pattern (this means I drew a big triangle on paper), and made these two little cuties for my friend Becca. I'm really happy with how they turned out and I'll definitely be making more for the millions of babies that are coming in the next few months :)
Also, this is how I wrapped them:

sometimes wrapping the gift is just as fun as making it!

Happy 4th of July!

so this is the first holiday in a long time that I haven't baked anything themed for! It could be because it's 100 outside and the thought of turning on my oven makes me want to cry, or because I've got nowhere to go tonight. Somehow I picked up a stupid summer cold and can't go to a BBQ we were planning to go to because I don't want to get my itty bitty nephew sick.

So where ever you are, I hope YOU have a fabulous fourth with some fun themed goodies! As for me, I'm going to stay inside where it's 70 degrees and watch fashion videos on youtube :)

Simple earring holder

I made this cute little earring holder last night when I realized all
my dangly earrings were getting tangled in a drawer.
I took a framed picture, covered it in mesh tulle, hot gluing it
behind the frame. Then I glued a little ribbon on it and that's it!
The only downside is that the picture won't be easy change, but since
it only took a second to glue the tulle down I won't be too sad to
redo it. Also, I love this picture of dimples and I in San Francisco,
so I don't think I'll change it anytime soon. It adds a fun little bit
of personalization to my jewelry corner.