Updates-April 2020

Some pictures of what's happening at our house these days.  The world can change quickly and it has... reminding me that we are never really in control.. I'm just grateful for another day on this earth with my beautiful family.

Lego Head Cupcakes

For this year's Blue and Gold for cub scouts our Cubmaster chose a Lego theme.  As soon as I heard, I immediately started searching for fun things to do for Lego themed parties. Hello Pinterest!  I get a little carried away and in my head I had the entire cultural hall decorated from top to bottom in multicolored Legos with photo props and games and...well, let's just say I had to scale it back quite a bit.  My assignment was 24 cupcakes and that was probably just about as much as I could handle in reality with 2 babies and 2 kids who I still needed to keep alive during all the preparations.  I ended up picking up some sprinkles,ordering some candy Lego blocks and purchasing some yellow fondant.  I loved the way they turned out.  I even had someone tell me that they 'LOVED' my frosting and they really didn't care for frosting usually, so that made me smile.  Although I had to fight off my kids from eating all the yellow Lego heads it was totally worth it. (even the 5 extra pounds I gained from, ahem, 'testing')

Zombie Cake Pops

 

My Dad's birthday was yesterday and we had a party to celebrate.  He LOVES zombies.  I wanted to make him something I thought he would like and Zombie Cake Pops were born.  I looked around to get some ideas, but there isn't a lot out there.  I was able to practice before making them for the actual party and it's a good thing I did.  I learned a few things:

 

1) To make cake more dense so they'll stay on the stick better, replace the water with milk and add one egg to your boxed cake mix.

 

2) If the chocolate is too thick you can add a little bit of vegetable oil to help with the consistency and it won't effect the end product.

 

3) I need a better black edible pen.

 

4) If traveling with cake pops make sure to keep them cold somehow.  They DO NOT travel well.  By the time I got to my dad's house (maybe 30 mins away) they had started to melt even with the AC going full blast.

 

  All in all a fun project.  I'm debating not using the metal pan next time and going back to using the Bakerella cake pop method where you roll the balls yourself.  The pan was wonderful and saved a lot of work, but without the frosting in the middle, they just don't taste as good.

 

 

P.S. I didn't know this, but yellow cake and red velvet cake from the box require very different times.  The yellow cake mix cooked for the suggested 23 minutes, but the red velvet cake only required about 14 minutes. Learned some lessons the hard way on this project.  

Mini Scrapbook

I love pinterst.  I do! I have found one flaw though.... I pin things I want to do and then sometimes, when I go back later to actually do them the link is bad.  This happened to me yesterday.  I pinned a tutorial on how to make a chipboard mini scrapbook about 3 weeks ago and when I actually had time to do it the link had gone bad.  So I searched and searched for a replacement tutorial on how to make a mini scrapbook album out of chipboard and just could not find the same thing.  I found others, but I wanted the album to have a specific look. I don't care for the spiral binding or the ring bindings.  Anyway, I ran across a tutorial, which I've already lost, on how to make a 6" x 6" mini scrapbook album.  It was so simple and fast!  I made 7 of them in about and hour and the only reason I stopped is because I ran out of supplies.  I have to say, they are SO easy to make!  I think EVERYONE I know will be getting one or two this year!  The best part is they cost me about 0.12 cents each!  I caught the paper 50% off at Hobby Lobby and had the ribbon and white card stock already on hand!  I think this is a record for the fastest and least expensive gift ever!

Sniff Sniff

My sewing maching is sick. It's at the doctors!  :((  What am I to do without it?

Quilt in the works

Among my stash of fabric, I felt a quilt calling to me wanting to be made.  Here it is...still working on it.  I followed a tutorial from 'Rea' called 'Crayon box quilt tutorial'.

Baby Shower Cake Pops

My sister's baby shower was this weekend and I was in charge of treats. I attempted to make cake pops.  They still need work, but they turned out much better than the first time.  I'm on lookout for a cake pop stand next.

Monster Pillow

Cute Monster Pillow I made last week.  I loved the free pattern from weallsew.com by Ashley Johnston.  I'm thinking of making this pillow for some other little boys in my life.  I thought to make it more interesting I might leave the mouth open a little and hide some goodies in there.  I'm always looking for gift ideas.

patterns for my stash

Okay, I know it's an addiction and I need help, but to be fair they were all on sale for super cheap.  I'm thinking I will make the hat for my little guy next.  I feel bad since I haven't sewn much for him.  Let's face it though, girls things are much cuter!!

Baby Pillow

I had fun making this pillow.  It's for my sister who is having a baby boy.  Baby shower is this weekend.  I wanted to make something fun and original for her to have in the nursery.  I think I might make one for my lil' baby too. I wanted to make one with a silhouette of a baby elephant, but couldn't find one I really liked so I went with the international sign for baby. Ba ha ha ha. I crack myself up!!!

Sprinkles

So...this is what happens when you try to make sugar cookies with a two year old and you turn your head for five seconds....

Here are some bibs I made for a friend.  The pattern is from Butterick 4533.  The bibs are really big!  Bigger than I thought they would be, but I'm starting to like the size.  Hopefully my friends baby won't be too small for them.

Magnets

In an effort to keep Ethan busy, we (My MIL helped a lot) went to the craft store and bought some little painted wood pieces then attached magnets to the back. It was easy and really fun. Ethan loves them and it also helps with vocabulary. I ask him where the 'red car' is or the 'tree' and he points to them. Keeping a toddler busy is a full-time job so I just thought I would share something fun and inexpensive that worked for me.

Crazy Ethan

Ethan likes to jump off the couch and try to catch balloons. Here is the best action shot we could get. Here he is in midair.

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?!?!?