Time flies!

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I want to get back to my poor neglected blog. Since winter is coming around soon, I think being inside more will eventually lead to more sewing/craft projects…we’ll see how it goes. Ethan has gotten so big this summer. I can’t believe the change just from April to now. He is a full blown toddler now and has lost most of his baby fat which makes me sad

First attempt at cake pops

So my Cuz's were over and we decided to take an attempt at cake pops with out all the required equipment. They don't look pretty, but they tasted pretty yummy. (sigh) Next time will be more about the look ;)

Things that are growing at our house...

gum paste/fondant bow

This is what I learned in my cake class last Saturday. How to make a gumpaste/fondant bow. It was a lot of fun. The only thing I wish is that we could have more time in class. The smushed bow is that one I made in class. It didn't have enough time to dry and it sunk. The one that looks like an actual bow is that one I made at home and it had plenty of time to dry. Yahoo! Can't wait for my next class this Saturday!

Hoot Hoot!

This was a crazy week. Saturday was the busiest day. We threw a combined birthday party for Mark and two other family members on Saturday. The day started out with my Dad coming over at 7:30am to make breakfast for Mark's birthday (and when I say 'dad' made breakfast, I mean 'Juliann' cooked, served and cleaned it all up :) It was yummy! Thanks Juliann, er, I mean Dad. Then I went to class to learn more about cakes. I loved it! Then the party was at 4pm, so as soon as I got home, I was cleaning up and started decorating the cake for the party. Lucky for me, I had made the cupcakes the night before so I had lots of time to have fun decorating the cake and practicing my butter cream skills. I love the colors. It was a party for three boys so I didn't want to do any girlie colors. I also made some home made gifts. The owl is one of them, and I forgot to take a picture of the chalkboard place mat I made (dang). Over all a very fun and crazy weekend.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Two things I love: creating things and saving money. So making my own homemade laundry soap was especially awesome. It took all of 15 minutes. This powdered laundry soap was so easy to make! It's too late to test it out tonight so I will have to wait until morning. I'm so excited, I don't know if I will be able to sleep ;). This recipe only calls for 1 TBS per load, so the batch I just made should last...hmmm....forever?!?!?

Sewing Room: after

Sewing Room: before

BEFORE:

Toddler Bib for Ethan

I thought Ethan had grown out of the 'bib' stage, but I was mistaken when he ruined one of his shirts and it didn't wash out. So I have been making him some toddler bibs. Here is one of them. When I first bought this pattern I was very confused by the instructions so it sat in my sewing room for a while. I had to read the instructions 4 or 5 times before I really understood what was going on. Ethan saw me taking pictures of his new bib and tried to help...

We've Adopted!

I have always wanted to adopt and now we have! We have adopted 6 new baby chicks! They are so stinkin’ cute! I wish they could stay little and cute forever (sigh). We bought 2 Bantam chicks, 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Araucanas. The Bantams look so awesome when they are all grown up. The Rhode Island Reds are great for laying eggs. They lay an egg a day I’m told. The Araucanas I bought because they lay the green and blue eggs. So we have ourselves a full house right now.

Ethan gets crazy with the orange marker

So I think Ethan was trying to imitate mom putting on her chap stick...he used an orange marker instead though. This kid is so stinkin' cute! I love how serious he is with is orange lips.

New pillow for Ethan

I am working on decorating E's room right now...I made this pillow to put on the rocking chair in his room.

butter cream roses

I am done with my cake class now and I am happy to say I have learned a lot. Here is a picture of the rose we learned to make. I have a lot of practicing to do. I think I am going to take a fondant cake class next. So excited!

John Doll: Attempt 1

So I ordered that doll pattern I mentioned in a recent post and here is the attempt number one of 'John Doll'. It's a very, very rough draft.
Ok, so things I learned.
1) the hands and feet are the hardest to sew
2) need to get some black thread to match the felt hair
3) need to stuff his body a bit better next time

Note to self: get embroidery thread to finish face or maybe get some fabric paint, hmmm..
Anyway, there it is.

Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes as a treat for the scouts we see every Friday. I hate to toot my horn, but I would say that my swirly technique is improving.

Canning

This October I got so excited about canning a huge 50 lb. pumpkin I bought. I love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and figured that if I could can this ginormous pumpkin it would save me money so I wouldn't have to buy the pumpkin puree from the store. Canning intimidates me so I thought it would be easier to freeze...it was a disaster. I spent hours canning/freezing the guts of the pumpkin. I was so happy, I had beautiful freezer jars of pumpkin all ready to go. Then I pulled one out to use with the cookie recipe and it bombed. I can't use any of them now because the pumpkin puree is too watery and the cookies don't hold their shape. I am so disappointed. I haven't been able to bring myself to throw away all that hard work so they sit in my freezer as decoration.

Rag Dolls

I found this awesome doll pattern website a few months ago, but just today got up the nerve to buy a pattern to try out. My goal is to own all her patterns one day soon! But for now I just bought two of them…a bear and a boy doll so I can make one for EJ. I am so excited! I always buy patterns looking at them as prospects for gifts so I am looking forward to making a few and getting good at them to be able to give them away for upcoming birthdays. This pattern creator is amazing, she has quite a few of them! I posted the picture above (borrowed from bit of whimsy etsy site) because it reminds me of my niece and it’s a doll pattern she sales! Her website is: http://www.bitofwhimsydolls.com/
P.S. Be careful what you type into google as far as ‘rag dolls’ . There are some pretty scary dolls out there that might give you nightmares.

Blah Cake

This cake wasn’t meant to be impressive. On this cake I torte’d it. So I cut it in half, added a filling and then stacked it again, which you can’t see. That was the technique I used this time. Then I iced it the way my instructor taught us. It didn’t turn out like her though and I have a number of questions to ask her when I go to class this Thursday. Maybe it’s just practice or maybe I am missing a technique…not sure. Will find out this Thursday. This color icing (which doesn’t look as brilliant on camera as it does in real life) is called electric pink! Love it!

sick baby=no blog posts

EJ has been under the weather and I haven't had a chance to do much of anything...I did make another tooth pillow and today I plan on making a cake. Wanna hear the strangest dream ever? I lived in a house with my sisters and the back yard was just one huge aquarium. It had all kinds of fish and some sharks too. Well a killer whale they had back there started to attack the house and come after me. So crazy! It flooded our whole house and got pretty far out of the water to come after us then it kinda died from not being in water...wow, that's a strange dream! Anyway, stay tuned for some really awesome posts coming up.

Kitchen Towels

Here are some cute little towels I made for a friends Bday. So simple. I love making this project, they make a great gift!

Tooth Fairy Pillow

I made this awesome tooth pillow to hang on the door knob. It makes it easier for the tooth fairy to get to your lost teeth. Makes me wish I had some teeth to put in it....hmmm, maybe someone can donate some so I can make a couple extra bucks from the tooth fairy. P.S. Got the pattern and idea from mmmcrafts.com.

Radio Blue

This is my new icing color called ‘Radio Blue’. I love it! Still working on icing the cupcakes perfectly. I have watched a couple youtube videos and I think I am using the wrong tip. I am using a 1M tip, but I saw some great cupcakes being iced with a ‘loyal 17 tip’…I might have to try that tip out instead. These cupcakes will be for a friend whose birthday was a couple days ago and will be at my house tomorrow for dinner. I wanted to do something special. As soon as I give her the gift I made for her I will post some pictures of it.

Wilton Class: part one

I don’t have any pictures for this post. This week I was able to take a cake decorating class from JoAnn’s. It was awesome! I think I liked the instructor the best because she had all these great tips that weren’t in the lesson plan and I was loving every minute of it. The best part is that the supplies that I need for the class were all things that I really wanted to get anyway so I had an excuse to get them. I can’t wait until next class because we’ll get to actually put some of the things we learned into practice! Yay!

Must try Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I found this great Macaroni and Cheese recipe the other day and had the chance to try it out today. It turned out better than expected and I wanted to share it with you. It comes from a cookbook published in the sixties so it has a little bit of butter in it (ah hem, ok a lot of butter). The cookbook talks about being a housewife and cute things like that. Very vintage. Look at that cute little guy in the background enjoying it.
1 pkg. (8 oz.) elbow macaroni
2 cups medium white sauce
1.5-2 c. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
½ c. bread crumbs (left out)
2 tbs. melted butter
*Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook Macaroni as label directs. Layer macaroni , sauce and cheese alternately into greased 1 ½-quart casserole, ending with cheese. Toss bread crumbs with melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake 25-30mins or until sauce is bubbly and crumbs are browned. Makes 6 servings.

*Medium white sauce: (Béchamel)
-2 tbs. butter
-2 tbs. flour
¼ tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
1 c. milk
*melt butter in a saucepan; stir in flour. Cook slowly over low heat, stirring constantly, until roux bubbles and foams for about 3 minutes. It will be slightly golden but should not brown. Remove from heat. Add salt, pepper and milk. Stir rapidly with a wooden spoon or beat vigorously with a wire whisk. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly, until sauce bubbles. Cook one minute longer. Makes 2 cups.
Enjoy.

Noodles

Noodle messes are much more fun to make than they are to clean up! Happy first Monday of 2011!!