Did I Say Once a Month

Okay, maybe I'll blog every other month. Seriously though, I don't have a whole lot to say.

I've been working on a few projects...

These are called Monkey Socks and I got the free pattern on Knitty. I've always wanted to make these, unfortunately they're a little big on me. I'm about 8 rows from finishing them at this point, obviously I haven't taken a new picture. 

Nick's parents came for a visit and brought us this awesome Royal Wedding commemorative mug. I can't tell you how excited I am about this mug, for realz. I really want to knit the royal wedding party, must get this book.

We had some good friends visit as well & while they were here, Nick celebrated his birthday. I made him a marble cake with chocolate frosting. We weren't sad when we had some left over.

I also made these for a party recently. The marshmallow filling was a little too soft. I think humidity might have a bit to do with that. I made some marshmallows a couple weeks ago and they just weren't right, it rained a lot that day too. Lesson learned.

And Miss Amelia has now passed her 6 month birthday. Time is just flying by!

That's what's new in my neck of the woods, how about you?

February Post

Maybe if I set myself a nice attainable goal I can achieve it? One post a month? Well, it's busy, busy, busy around here.

 Amelia is 4 months old now, wow! She's getting more and more fun every day, rolling over, laughing, playing with toys ~ good stuff. We have a very active social calendar, which really helps me get through the days. I'm meeting lots of mommies near me and that's been really great too.

We've finally started adding doors to the upper cabinets in the kitchen. They even have knobs now (I took this picture at Christmas time). Only 4 more to go and we can think about adding a pantry. Whoopee!!

I've baked a few things recently....the Star Wars cookies were yummy.

 

 

 

 I've finished one of my pre-baby sewing projects. She's probably just about ready to wear this little dress.

 

 

 

 I'm still buying bits of fabric here and there, I can't help myself. I don't know yet what these will become, but I think Amelia will have something to do with it.

 

 

 

 And of course, spending my days playing with this little peanut is what I do most of the time. Our pediatrician told us to start suicide-proofing the house today, yikes, I'm not ready for that!

I hope you're getting more done than I am.

Summer Treats

In an effort to not do another wip post, I thought I'd show you some food instead. I guess it's still something I made, but I was in the kitchen this time and it wasn't for the baby! haha

We finally got around to having a little backyard barbecue a few weeks ago. The weather was beautiful, plenty of people came and it was a wonderful day. I, of course, made way too much food and because of this spent most my time in the kitchen forming hamburger patties because I was behind schedule (sorry about that to those who were here).

I only have pictures of the treats to share with you, I hope you don't mind.

I dug into Martha's Cupcakes again and made the strawberry cupcakes. I went with regular buttercream instead of strawberry. Not being a strawberry fan (and probably the only one on earth), I felt the strawberry on strawberry would be too much! As usual, they didn't disappoint. Nick thinks these might be his second favorite cupcake ever (right behind Martha's maple cupcakes ~ yummmm).

 I also made a batch of marshmallows. It's just ridiculous how easy they are to make! I added a little English Toffee candy flavoring to them & it was just enough to give them some pizazz. These were a hit too, there were only 4 left at the end of the day. No one wants to be the person who takes the last one, right? Here's the recipe I used for the marshies. It's worth buying a candy thermometer if you only ever use it to make your own marshmallows. They'll shock & amaze your friends too.

That's all the food photos I can share, I didn't manage to take any other pictures that day (so typical). The macaroni salad from Cook's Country Magazine (my FAVORITE magazine ever!) was so good too...next time.

Here's my next cooking project:

 Did you know there was a whole book dedicated to Whoopie Pies? {drool}

Now that I've actually located a bag of graham flour, I'm going to attempt the graham cracker whoopie pies.

 Wouldn't it be fun, and a lot of work, to use your own marshmallows for these? Now that's domestic!

I won't be rushing into any baking right away, we've started phase 4 of the kitchen remodel. I want this done before the baby gets here or it'll never happen!

Actually, this should be complete by early next week. All we need now is the new pantry, some tile and a nice new floor. Movin' right along!

Oh, and I finished that little crocheted sweater. Told you I could crochet a sweater way quicker than I could knit one. :) hehe

Pretty good, eh? Only one crafty photo in the bunch! Hope you're having a nice summer too.

What's New, Cupcake?

Did I ever tell you about the book Hello, Cupcake? It's a really cool sort of cookbook with all kinds of great ideas for cupcakes that look like everything from dogs to TV dinners. I've never actually made anything from it, but I got the authors' second book anyway...

This one is really similar, just more great ideas. What's great about these books is that you use regular household tools and candy etc. to make everything. You don't need any special cake decorating tools.

 You know I'm a sucker for things that look like food. But these are cupcakes that look like a big sandwich!!

I think these would be great for a summer barbecue.

Yarn anyone? They didn't leave out the crafters. Pretty neat, huh?

 This weekend we had Trisha & her family over, so I decided to give What's New, Cupcake a try.

I started with a bunch of candy. I took some doing, but in the end I found everything I needed.

 **Note: Don't get distracted talking to your husband when you have taffy in the microwave, just sayin'. oops

  And here's the final product, I call them Ode to Panda Express. I think they turned out pretty good, don't you? haha

I look forward to trying out another idea from one of those books. These were really fun! (I think the broccoli was the best part!)

Sweet Things

Just wanted to share some baking projects from this past week. I like to use any holiday as an excuse to make cupcakes, St. Patrick's Day was no exception.

I started, actually ended, with some Thin Mints from the Girl Scouts.

Chocolate cupcakes and a little green frosting.

I frosted the first dozen the old-fashioned way, with a knife. It took too long and looked a little too "bake sale" for my taste.

So, I switched to piping and then sacrificed 3 Thin Mint cookies to crumble on top. These cupcakes were a hit and the mint on top turned out to be just the right amount. Nick thought I'd actually flavored the frosting too!

That's not all the baking for this week. Yesterday was Nick's birthday!! We went to a party for our friends' daughter and 2 other adults. I was chosen to make the adult cake, so I went with this design since all 3 adults are British.

It was a little wonky, in my opinion, but very tasty. I made a marble cake with chocolate frosting in between layers & vanilla buttercream on the outside. Yummmm!

Next week might seem like a sweet letdown after that cake. Hmmm, maybe some lemon scones?

Absence

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I blogged, but I didn't know it was that long.

Things have slowed down a bit on Etsy lately so I've been extra busy trying to get things done around the house.

 We've got a full set of upper cabinets now. I have so much storage space in there, I can't even find enough things to put away. Wait till we move on to the next round!

Yesterday I finished making and hanging the living room curtains. They really finished off the room! I'll make some tie backs for them next. Too bad you can't tell how sunny it is today, it's always night time at my house. We hope to put a couple sky lights in there at some point.

I've been sticking with my new plan to only work on "work" during the day, so I've been doing lots of knitting in the evenings. 

 

I finished two socks, now I just need to make the partner for each one, hehe.

I really love these yarns, both from Lilou Colours.

Saturday I went to my first yarn show with Trisha and Lou. I got a great pattern for a sweater (my first attempt at a sweater) and this pretty bamboo yarn.

 

I'd like to make a baby hat with it. There's always someone around having a baby, right?

I've been baking a bit too...

I made some lemon cupcakes, just for fun...

 

and red velvet for Valentine's Day. Nick's office mates liked these. 

Thanks for stopping by to see me again, it's nice to be back.

Delicious Diversion

This week I finally got to make something that's been on my To Do List for a while, pumpkin whoopie pies with maple marshmallow filling. There are lots of recipes for these online, I used this one from Bon Appétit.

I believe the Whoopie Pie is traditionally chocolate, but I can't pass up a good pumpkin recipe. I have a weakness, okay? According to Wikipedia, Amish women baked whoopie pies for farmers' lunches & upon finding the sweet cakey goodness in their lunch the men would exclaim, "whoopie!". Makes perfect sense to me. These things are sinfully delicious, and equally fattening.

I suppose all the baking lately is due to the new oven calling my name from the kitchen. I think Nick's coworkers are complaining of weight gain at this point, but not in a bad way.

Just thought I'd share. Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Thankful

Today I'm thankful my new oven arrived in time for Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful that Julie sent me this book for my birthday so I could give my oven a test drive.

Naturally, I went with the Maple Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream.

The first thing I ever cooked in my oven!

I think Nick's coworkers were thankful he went to work yesterday.

Mmmmmm, cupcakes. So many things to be thankful for, have a safe and happy turkey day!

Pumpkin Spice for Halloween

 Ever since I took that cake decorating course this summer I've been thinking about making mummies for Halloween. I finally got my chance yesterday!

I started with this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Muffins from AllRecipes.com (I get a lot of recipes from that site!).

They baked up nicely.

Next I made the cinnamon cream cheese frosting and mixed up some colors.

(yes, my oven is that small)

The first step was the face. I didn't think my mummies would look as good if you saw a delicious pumpkin color under their bandages. I tried to make black, but it came out more like an army green.

Next I piped on the bandages.

This step took some time, but it was fun.

I made a spooky day-glo green color for the eyes.

Here are my finished mummies! The lighting in my kitchen is pretty bad, sorry. I think you get the idea anyway. Pretty cute little guys, no?

This morning Nick took the mummies to work. Bye bye yummy mummies!!

Are you making any special treats for Halloween?

Two Spoonfuls: Cake Decorating!

Welcome back! I realize I haven't been blogging much lately, and I apologize. I just don't think I've had much to say. I've been super busy trying to get the house in order, making things for my shops and taking a cake decorating class. I've always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes so I'm finally doing it. I've just finished the first course of the Wilton Method at my local JoAnn store. It was a nice, small group and the instructor is great.

So, as you may have guessed already, I'm going to talk about cake this week. I've had to make two cakes for this class and both times I used a cake mix. Yeah, I know, that's just the way it goes. With all the buttercream I've had to make lately, I really don't have time for a cake from scratch. This week I went with a yellow cake mix from Pillsbury. It is delicious, FYI (and only cost $1.25).

If you have a stand mixer, you know about the gunk that gets stuck at the bottom of the bowl. When my sister told me about the Beater Blade she got at Crate & Barrel, I had to get one for myself. I'm hooked! It works. Get one. NOW!!

See that? It scrapes the bowl and gets to the bottom. I love it. Thanks for the tip, Veronica.

I got some nice new cake pans at Williams Sonoma recently too. They work like a dream. I made two layers for my cake and trimmed the top with one of these. It's quite a handy little gadget. Did you know you're supposed to decorate the bottom of the cake? Makes sense, doesn't it?

For class, I had to arrive with a stack of different colored buttercream in several consistancies. I've gone through four pounds of powdered sugar in two weeks. yikes! Here's how my cake looked when I left the house. A little bland.

Here's how it looked when I got home. I had mixed up some aqua buttercream, but it was just too bold to go with the pale pink. I'm pretty happy with the look of my cake. I've now graduated Course One, on to Course Two!

The cake is yummy but I had to send most of it to work with Nick. We just can't be left alone with a whole cake or we'll eat it. haha Next week I start another course. I think it's all about making flowers with royal icing. I can't wait!

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I think Jenn's been baking too, let's see what she's got going.