archived: more cupcakes and a tea

i continue to slack in posting... its just been rough. i think it will just be this way from here until we move so i guess i'll get used to it?

since this weekend is about to start i thought i'd post my pictures from last weekend...

as i mentioned we had a big week last week so I made more cupcakes, these ones for burton's graduation (and i made extra toppings for the birthday extravaganza coming up this weekend!)

could these be ANY cuter?? remember... when you want to make a cute and DELICIOUS dessert visit bakerella

school colors...maroon and gold (the maroon didn't turn out perfect, but its the thought right?)

get excited!!....

I got a cupcake carrier!! It was up there with the slanket in terms of its necessity! I LOVE it my cupcakes made it all the way to portland in PERFECT condition. Now grant won't have to drive me to work when i make cupcakes...

OH... so the tea part of the title. while i worked on these cupcakes Kendra and I were in the middle of a tea party! We had been in discussions about having one for several weeks and we finally made it happen.



Kendra is amazing and much more worldly than me so she shows me SO many things that I end up loving. Among these is Jane Austen movies. We've gotten together three or four times to watch different versions of her stories and I just LOVE them! The best ones are from PBS...they have even made some new versions this year! If you like a good love story, period pieces, and/or happy endings...these are for you! I HEART THEM.

This weekend we watched this version of Pride and Predjudice (be warned...it is 6 hours long) and this version of Emma...my favorite that we've watched is either this Sense and Sensibility OR this Mansfield park. (PS... a facebook quiz told me I'm most like Fanny Price...makes me so happy cuz I LOVE HER!)

Anyway... that is the update for now. If you need more fabulous PBS stuff to watch... try this, or any of these, or this. =)

archived: martha's yarn cards

have i shared how much i LOVE getting martha's craft of the day emails? (almost) every time i immediately open google notebook (i'm telling you... this is EXACTLY why its soo handy) and clip the idea for later.

these yard cards have been something i've wanted to do and this week proved to be just the week to do it... we have 3 birthdays, 1 graduation, and mother's day! they are so easy and WAY too cute, don't ya think? i was lazy and didn't go to the store to get a fine tipped bottle of craft glue and used my old trusty rubber cement and it worked fine, but next time I think i'll get the small tipped bottle of glue... the cake card was hard without it!

i love them all, but these two were my favorites...

archived: cupcakes

a few weeks ago donna asked me to help her make some UO themed cupcakes for the annual library tea at the university.

she wanted to make the symbolic O that is the university's current trademark. i fretted for a while about how we could do that. and thanks to google reader and bakerella (p.s. she is AMAZING and i want to make everything she posts on her site... she makes it all seem SO easy!) we found the PERFECT technique a few days before we were set to meet.

donna also got some duck molds...aren't they awesome?

i made a few flowers and party hats for kendra's birthday (more on that later)....aren't they too cute?

archived: valentine's craftiness

i went into work early yesterday so i left early and was able to have a night full of crafts. time and motivation aren't usually on my side for things like this on weeknights, but it worked out. as you can see i made pink cupcakes with pink frosting and little pink hard candies on top AND little sewn heart cards. it was all very fun and i'm proud of my creations. i'll show you the process...

i mostly like this one cuz you can see my ring... oooo....ahhh! see the pink cake batter??

pretty, plump, pink...

obviously grant enjoyed...you may have to click on the picture to get the full effect

i found the idea for these cards on a blog (that i didn't bookmark so i can't direct you there). they were really easy, but so cute. you just cut the paper and then tack the hearts down with rubber cement. put a few stitches in the center with the sewing machine and voila...

i decided i worked hard so i should get a reward.. oh so good!

*** an aside... i just realized how everyone else but me was able to do things like center parts of their blog text or make it colored, bulleted, etc...wow apparently blooger is much more advanced than the 'edit html' tag leads one to believe. i will now be writing blogs under the 'compose' tab.***

archived: wedding cake round 2

Making this cake is a very long process involving baking, leveling, slicing, crumb coating, cooling, and decorative frosting. Sadly the only part that really matters and that I need to practice is the last part...the decorative frosting! Well I tried a new frosting recipe this time and it turned out MUCH better than last time in terms of taste and consistency. But I still have quite a bit of work to do on my frosting technique. The good thing is that all the little mistakes don't look as glaring once it is all done.

Here is the mess I made making frosting batch number 1 (I made 6 in all...oh yes that means this little cake has over 24 cups of powdered sugar just in the frosting!)



These are the four layers that make up the top layer of the cake just before I add the 'crumb coat'



Here are both layers with their crumb coats cooling in the fridge. The crumb coat is a kind of protective layer of icing that makes the decorative icing easier to apply.



After the crumb coats were cool I was able to apply the basketweave decorative frosting. Here is the final product... We decorated it with Christmas holly to get the effect of what it will look like with flowers on it.

(It looks better if you stand back so this picture gives you that prospective)



Here is a close up just so you can see that I am actually improving over my last attempt!

archived: wedding fabric

I found it!! I saw a fabric in a wedding magazine that I loved and was perfect to use as a 'theme' for our wedding MONTHS ago. I've been in search ever since...and a few weeks ago I actually found it! I was just searching endlessly online one night and I saw it... I couldnt believe it!! YAY!! Anyway... the next task was to find a way to get it...I called every fabric store in Eugene and one of them agreed to order it for me!

I'm soo excited...my mom bought me a whole bolt (18 yards) and I ordered it on Monday...it should be here in a few weeks. We will use it for things like table runners, the guys pocket hankies, ring pillow, to wrap bouquet handles, etc. Its just perfect...poppys are my FAVORITE flower and it has all three of my colors!! OH and...we want to have guests sign a quilt square instead of a guest book and then after the wedding I'll sew them all together to make a quilt...this and some solid fabric will make up the rest of the quilt!