Hello Again!

Well hello, there! I don't know if anyone is still hanging around, but I'm still crafting! Life has grabbed the reins and tried to run away from me, but the crafts remain the same. Crafting life with two small children (aged 3 and 5) is definitely more challenging, but I will not allow it to conquer me!

So thanks for hanging around, or thanks for joining in, but Welcome back!!

Just a quick preview of some of the projects to be looking for in the coming weeks!

6 point diamond sewalong challenge

Economy blocks and Spiderweb selvages

Still trying to finish hand-quilting my HS t-shirt quilt

Got into bullet journaling...and Pokemon Go...

 What are you working on these days?

A Pinterest Dinner

So, last night was supposed to be felt night. I had big plans for my felt food collection. I was going to add lots of pieces for upcoming birthdays. But I decided I wanted some recipes from Pinterest for dinner. I had left some chicken tenders in the fridge to thaw, so I needed a chicken inspiration. Off I went to look at my boards. I hit pay dirt. Chicken rolls with asparagus, southwestern stuffed sweet potatoes, and roasted garlic-Parmesan cauliflower. If any of that sounds like it would tempt you, please follow the links to the recipes. (The southwestern sweet potatoes come from one of my favorite recipe blogs, Pennies on a Platter.)

Unfortunately, the cauliflower was the easiest of all the recipes, in that it required no pre-cooking. I ended up spending a little over 2 hours in the kitchen working on dinner. Now, don't get me wrong, it was all delicious and worth it. But 2 hours for a regular dinner, for just me and the hubs? Bit ridiculous. Especially when I have school work that needs to be dealt with before I can move on the fun crafty part of the evening.

But here are the pics of my 2 hour dinner (not counting the time it took the sweet potatoes to cook in the oven!)

I used shredded pepper jack cheese in the chicken rolls, to give it a kick. Delicious!

Ran into some problems with this recipe, however. First, I cut into my sweet potatoes to discover they are white sweet potatoes. Which, as research turned up, are actually "real" sweet potatoes, they just have a milder flavor. Then, I went to get the black beans from the pantry...and there were no black beans. I always have black beans. They are a staple in my cooking. How in the world I ended up with no black beans is a mystery. So, my only options were to venture back out into the cold night to buy black beans, or improvise. Let me just be the one to tell you....black-eyed peas do NOT substitute well for black beans. To start with, they required way more salt than I would normally add, and they lack flavor (which is why most people cook black-eyed peas with a ham hock!)

Even if you are not a cauliflower lover, I suggest you try this! This bowl was heaping with roasted veggies, but by the time I actually finished cooking the meal, this is all that was left! They are THAT good. I could make and eat them everyday. And I just might.

So, after all that work, I never did get to work on the felt food. 

Cross-stitch Progress

The last time I posted about the Christmas cross-stitch piece, this is what she looked like. I said I was down to the last sixth of the main design, and I hoped to be either working on the backstitch or  even have it completed by the end of January. That was last year. Clearly, that plan fell through.

But with the new crafting schedule in place, this is where I am now. Now, don't be fooled. I didn't do all of this yesterday. I should have actually had more worked, but I was lazy, and didn't begin until almost 8pm. Some of that was done last January. Or sometime thereafter. I didn't work on it much after writing that post. I don't know what happened. Cross-stitch just takes so much effort to get out all the supplies, keep them organized, figure out where to go next in the pattern....and I have so many other projects that are much easier to pick-up and put back down at the end of the night. 

But that's no excuse. So I am determined to finish it. I just won't give myself a deadline. But I will say that every Monday (or whatever day I end up with, just in case I decide to rearrange my schedule) I will be working on this project until it is complete. 

Process/progress successfully updated. Yay!

Year of Crochet

On Friday, I posted my weekly schedule of crafts. I know it may seem like overkill to plan out when I'm going to work on projects, but I have so many ideas and projects that I want to get to. If I don't come up with a way to get to them in a way that allows me to complete them all (while not getting tired of working on the same project all the time), I will end 2013 with all these WIPs, plus more, I'm sure. 

If you paid attention, you noticed that there are two days listed for crochet. Three years ago, when I started this blog with the intent to clean out my craft closet, I decided I was going to finish the one crochet blanket I had in the boxes, and then donate the rest of my yarn and hooks to a close friend who crocheted. (I still haven't finished that blanket, btw). But things change. One of my friends is 21 weeks pregnant, and she has requested that her baby blanket not be a quilt. So I started a project for her...

That's all the peek you get for now. She's having a gender reveal party soon, so I'll know how to finish it off, and you'll get a finished picture after she gets it.

Then the unexpected happened. One of my aunts passed away last year. She loved to crochet (I still have the baby blanket she made for me when I was born. I'm saving it...) and she loved to shop on sale. She had boxes of yarn...boxes. Each box full of only one color. She used to make the blankets and store them, giving them away to other cancer patients she would meet. She also made wedding afghans (I have one of those too, it's beautiful), and baby blankets. But my cousins are not       crafty people, so they offered to have some of the "crafty" members of our family come down and select supplies they would take back. I ended up with several bags and boxes of yarn, but I didn't know what I was going to do with them for a few weeks. 

Turns out I had enough baby yarn to make several blankets. Plus, she had several blankets already finished, or near completion. So, what was I going to do with all this? I didn't feel right giving away blankets she had made to my own friends, and I also didn't feel right making blankets from her yarn to give to friends. After discussing it with the hubs, we came up with the perfect solution. I'm going to make up the blankets this year, and then donate them to a local women's shelter. Most of the women show up at those shelters with nothing but the clothes on their back and what they could toss into their purses. Many times they arrive with small children, and sometimes, they are pregnant. These women and children deserve a little something special and homemade. 

Then I realize that I could do that with even the regular yarn! Make up the blankets and give them to one of the local charities. So 2013 is the year of the skein. (teehee...it rhymes!) If I'm going to achieve this goal, I need at least 2 days a week to work on these blankets. And I also have that crafter's choice day, so sometimes that can give me 3 days of crochet. 

Piles of yarn. 

This was one of the completed blankets. All I needed to do was finish off and weave in the ends.

Two more completed blankets. I especially love the one on the left. Those little fuzzy tufts are just so cute!

This one was not quite complete, but I couldn't figure out all of the stitches without the pattern, so I found a fun border that seemed to match the rest of the blanket, and used that to complete it.

This was how I found this blanket. Thankfully, I was also able to find most of the yarn she used. I actually had to make one of the stars on the right. Betcha can't tell which one!

Here is the finished blanket. I was unable to find one of the yarns she used, and had to substitute with a near approximation. It doesn't quite match, but you have to look for it to find it. But I think it looks good anyway.

Schedules and Thundersnows

Here it is, two weeks later, and I must say, I'm doing pretty well. I'm not always walking to the store (who could when it was pouring down rain) but I have made it to the gym to make up some of those days. Subbing at the high school makes it very easy to achieve 5,000 steps before I even leave the building, and some days, half of my stairs as well. But even more importantly (at least for this blog;) is that I have been working on more projects each day, and making progress on each one

The current schedule is:

Sunday: crochet

Monday: cross-stitch

Tuesday: felt

Wednesday: quilting/sewing

Thursday: crochet

Friday: scrapbooking

Saturday: crafter's choice

Now, for this week, Monday and Wednesday fell through. But the rest of the week I have actually worked on each project and made progress. I have progress pics and updates, as well as new plans and ideas, but today I wanted to leave you with something else.

No matter where you live, snow is a beautiful thing. At least the first snow of the season. Then it gets old. But here in the southeast, we just received our first snow. It even made the national news last night. Some places got as much as 6 inches, but we only got about 3 (it's still enough to have cancelled school for the day! Southerners don't know how to drive in the snow.) Where we are, the bulk of the snow came down in the first hour and a half, but we saw snow for about 5 hours. Big, fat, wet snowflakes that covered everything. So I leave you with those pictures. Because it's beautiful, and today, it is melting. So I want it to last.

A No-Resolution New Year

This is the time of year everyone make grandiose resolutions that will somehow "change their lives." But by the end of January, most of those goals have long since been set by the wayside, and we're back to living exactly like we were at the end of the previous year. My own BIL is serious about his working out all year long, and he has the muscles to show for it, but he HATES January, because he says he can never find open machines due to all the "New Year's goals" to lose weight or be more active. He's a big fan of February, when all of them have returned to the couch and their potato chips. (Don't laugh! You know what I'm talking about. You've probably been one of the people keeping him from his workout. I know I sure have been guilty of the exact offense.)

 

So this year, I vowed not to make a resolution. Does that mean I don't want to change things in my life? Nope. OF course not. For one, I would like to be a more consistent blogger. I know I say it all the time, but the truth is, I like the release I feel when I've posted something about my crafts and how my life is going. It's cathartic. For another thing, I would love to lose weight (wouldn't we all?). I would love to keep my house cleaner. Eat healthier. Complete more crafts. Be more organized in general. The list could go on forever.

 

What am I doing instead? Making a weekly promise to myself. This week, I have promised to:

            1) Cook every meal at home.

               2) Walk to the grocery store (half a mile from my house) each day to buy only     the ingredients for that meal.

3) Spend at least 45 minutes cleaning something in the house.

4) Then, and only then, may I sit on the couch to work on a craft project.

 

And so far, I've done it! Ok, I know it's only Monday, but I did it! I walked to the store, came back, put in a load of laundry, folded and put away a load, cleaned and refilled the cat box, swept out the "cat room", and now have dinner cooking in the oven. Which means I have today's success to look back on tomorrow, encouraging me to reproduce the same!

 

There are other things I am working on to make my life generally more organized, again following The Nest Effect in some of her ideas like I tried to do last year. I am adapting them to my own needs, and working on some schedules for myself. I think that these plans will keep me more on task, and off my butt more. I encourage you to try to set a smaller goal for yourself if you find that keeping the "New Year's Resolutions" is too hard, like I do. Set a goal that can easily be achieved, which will get you excited about reaching for a more difficult goal. Hopefully, we can find ourselves doing more than we ever thought possible by taking baby steps to reach our goals!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Lurkey wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving. He also wishes he wasn't a cupcake, since cupcakes also get eaten on Thanksgiving Day.

Since dinner for our family is at 5pm, that means I have all morning to sew!! 

Sneak Peek at the New Baby Quilt

There it is. How cute is that going to be?

 

If you've been playing around on Pinterest, you may have seen and idea of what this will be by the end of next week. If not, you will just have to wait. I'm planning on using Wednesday and Friday of next week to work on gifts. And boy, do I have gifts to work on.  We just found out last week that another close friend is pregnant. She's 12 weeks along, so I have some time to work, but not much. She has requested that her baby blanket be crocheted, so I have to get to gettin' on it if I want to finish it in time to give at her baby shower.

 

But I got all that fabric cut last night. I'm so proud of me.

Working Again

I have been cutting fabric for the last two nights. I am so excited. First off, I found another I-Spy swap. Since I started collecting I-spies int 2010 the only swaps I have participated in have been of the 4 inch variety like Obsessively Stitching hosts. She has everyone find quarter yards of 10 fabrics that they cut into 4 inch squares. It has been a while since she hosted one though, and I had been collecting every time I was at a fabric store. I had fat quarters all lined up and ready to go. When I searched for swaps on Google, all I could find were other, random sized swaps. I didn't have enough fabric to participate. And then one day, in my Google Reader, with angels singing acapella in the background, one of my regular bloggers was talking about the swap she had just joined on Hammer & Thread.  I literally did a happy dance on the couch while clicking through to all the correct links to comment and join the swap. (And yes, I am using the word "literally" correctly in this instance. I actually wiggled and danced on the couch.)

Now all the fabrics have been cut and I will be going to the post office either today or tomorrow!! Aren't these just the cutest prints?

I'm not sure which is my favorite. I love the ants and the ladybugs, but the monkeys on the far left are adorable, and the pink cats are just funny. I think the dinosaur skeletons are pretty unique, though. I can't wait to see what everyone else contributes, so I can add to my collection.

 

Tonight I will begin cutting more fabric for another baby blanket. A close friend is 7 months pregnant with her second, a boy. I am making a cuddle rag quilt for him. I'll post sneak peeks at the fabric next time.

Lazy Blogger Apologizes

So, it seems like it's been a while since I posted last. I knew it had, but I was a bit surprised to see it was over 6 months ago. To be honest, I haven't been very inspired lately, so the crafting has dropped off a little. I still have a pile of WIPs and to-dos, but I haven't done much. The most I've worked on was on Election Night, when I crocheted a baby blanket while watching the returns come in. I actually ran out of yarn for the blanket, so to the store I must go today to get more.

And since the blanket is a gift, I can't post pictures yet (not that the recipient would see it, she doesn't follow here, but it's the principle of the thing.). So in an effort to start up again, I found a book meme I will answer for you today.  If you  noticed in my sidebar, I have a Goodreads goal for the year. I am trying to read 80 books by December 31, and while I'm not exactly on target, I feel pretty good about reaching it. Last year, I read 66 total, so to have already read that many by the beginning of November makes me feel good, anyway. So here goes...

1. Do you remember learning to read? How old were you? I do not remember learning to read. But reading has always been a part of my life. My mom tells stories of how during naptime as a toddler, I would keep jumping off her lap to grab more books to read instead of taking said nap. And there's another story from when I was about 5 where my mother fell asleep one Sunday afternoon, and when she woke up, she panicked because she didn't know where I was. She was terrified I had gone outside to play, and our driveway led to a busy street. But when she tore through the house, she found me in the corner of the living room with the bag of library books we had checked out the day before. I had read them all. I do remember our weekly trips to the library, but in m mind, I'm about 7.

2. What do you find most challenging to read? Non-fiction, especially war histories. I love history, and always have a list of books I want to read so I can learn more about particular eras, but so many of those books are dull and dry. I do enjoy biographies, though they can be just as dry.

3. What are your library habits? Right now, DH and I are going once a week. He loves to read as well, but the local library has a decent collection of video games he is working through. I have a paper list that I had created from my Goodreads shelf that is color-coded by what format I can get the book in. If a book is available as an audiobook or for my Kindle, then that's how I'll check it out. I have yet to purchase a book for the Kindle. They have all been library loans.

4. Have your library habits changed since you were younger? It would be more appropriate to say they have cycled. When I was a child, like previously explained, my mom and I would go to the library once a week,  on Saturday. That lasted until I was about 10-12. For a while, I checked books out at our church library, but once I was able to drive and had a job, I mostly purchased my books. We had a great used book store in my hometown, and that was my main source, although I did collect some series new from the store. It wasn't until I had graduated from college and moved to a new town that I rediscovered the library. I was poor. I had a part-time job, and no cable. The library in my new town had a massive collection of books on CD. I listened to books in the car, then brought them in to listen to while I cross-stitched. It's been that way for 8 years now, with a visit to the library at least once a month, although lately once a week.

5. How has blogging changed your reading life? Not at all. As you know by now, I am not the most dedicated of bloggers, so blogging doesn't affect my life much at all. 

6. What percentage of your books do you get from: New book stores, second hand book stores, the library, online exchange sites, online retailers, other? New book stores: 1%. Used book stores: 10%. Online retailers: 1%. Library: 88%. 

7. How often do you read a book and NOT review it? What are your reasons for not reviewing? (okay, this was borrowed from a guy who's entire blog is based on his reading, so I've adapted this question to fit my usage.)  When I first opened my Goodreads account, I occasionally  reviewed them. When I read the difference between my reviews and others, I began to feel like an idiot. So I stopped. But that's not the whole reason I don't review books anymore. With all the attention to protecting our online identities, I Googled myself one day. Since I have seriously curtailed what is visible on my Facebook page, the only thing that showed up in the results was my book reviews. And to be perfectly honest, I don't want potential employers seeing what I have read. They couldn't pull up my lists, but they could see my reviews. So I deleted all the reviews that were left, and that was the end of my reviewing. I give them star ratings, and that's all I need personally anyway.

8. What are your pet peeves about ways people abuse books? Dog-earing pages? Reading in the bath? Since I both dog-ear pages and read in the bath......My biggest pet peeve about books is the covers. When I shop in the used book stores, I always search for the book whose cover looks the best. I hate bent corners and broken spines. 

9. Do you ever read for pleasure at work? Yes. As a substitute, I usually read during planning period. And sometimes, the group of kids I have is good enough that while they are reading after finishing their work, I can pull my book out as well. Although that's not very often. 

10. When you give people books as gifts, how do you decide what to give them? I usually don't. What I will do is buy that person a gift card to purchase their own. My thought behind this is that I don't want someone buying me a book that I may not like. I'd rather have the gift card and choose for myself. 

11. Other book related thoughts or comments? I know I'm not the only one out there who feels this way, but when I collect a series of books, the cover art all needs to match, and they need to be a similar format (hardcover or paperback, e.g.). My husband both laughs at me for this and gets very frustrated when I want to purchase a book I already own in a different format so that the collection will be complete. Two examples: 1)When I started reading Twilight, I bought the book in paperback. But when I went to purchase the others, none were available in paperback yet, so New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and Bree Tanner are all hardcover. I want desperately to replace Twilight, but every time I try, I am laughed at.  2)I have collected all of the Sword of Truth series. This one bugs me on both levels. They changed the cover art halfway through the series, so now I have to make them match. But the biggest issue with the series is that the final book was published .25in narrower and .5in taller than the rest of the books. Since then, the publisher has not changed the size of any of the books, so the last book will always stand out from the rest. 

For those of you who don't know, Goodreads is an amazing website where you can track all of the books you have read, want to read, and are currently reading. You can read reviews from other readers, rate and review the books yourself, join reading groups, and find other books that match your tastes. You can find your friends from other social networking sites and see what they are reading. Plus, you can get emails each month with new books that match authors you have read, as well as match your reading preferences. I'm not being paid anything to say these things, I just love the site. 

A Pinterest.....??? Never Again

It has been such a busy last two months of school, and I have worked most of the available days each month, I have not been a creative crafty person at all. But I have spent loads of time on Pinterest, planning on what I would do once I had time to call my own again. (I did enjoy my year of substituting. The kids were great, and even though I worked mainly in 3 schools, those 3 schools kept me busy!)

But now school is out. Time is mine again. So it's time to play. So last night I decided to play. I found a cute pin on rag curls.

(I'm not sure how best to link with Pinterest involved. If you click on the link, it will take you to the original blog post, not to Pinterest. I welcome any suggestions on how to do this in the future, because I am sure I am going to post more on my pinned ideas.)

You see how soft and perfect her curls turned out? That is what I wanted. This is what I got.



The money you see in the mirror is from our Financial Peace University. It's fake, but it reminds us to always have an emergency fund.

Early morning, and my scarf stayed in place all night! I thought it would be odd sleeping in the scarf with the rags all wrapped around my head strangely, but it wasn't.

The tied rags. I thought I'd go for the lower curls, like she did in the picture.



Ummmm....why are my curls not pretty, loose and perfect spirally like hers were?! (BTW, this is not the first time I've tried rag curls. It is also not the first time I've gotten exactly this result with them either. But I thought she was on to something with her method!)  You can see it in my face, this is not what I was expecting.



 All the rags unrolled. From the piece that is not curled, you can see just how long my hair has gotten. It's almost to my natural waist. So the rags did make curls, just TIGHT ones. But this is still not as simple and pretty as hers were. And now what am I supposed to do with them?  Well, I can tell you this....the answer is NOT finger comb them.....

POOF!

So, I'm not sure what to call this. It's not really a Pinterest Fail, because I did get curls. Just not the curls I wanted. I think it's the start of a whole new category: Pinterest Never Again.

Which now that I write it makes it sound like I'm not going to play on Pinterest again, which is not the case, so maybe it's more a Pinterest Flop. Either way, rag curls and my hair are a no-no.

Once a Month Cooking, part 2

My mom came for a visit last week and we completed all the recipes that I hadn't previously, and added several more. Turns out we love having the lunch options. They defrost by the time it's lunchtime, and it allows my leftovers from dinner to stretch further. I don't know that its actually saving me any money, since we have to buy extra groceries to make the lunch options, but it's great.  So here's the picture of my freezer, nicely packed with lunch and dinner options. (The breakfast options are in the freezer door, so they are not visible in the picture.!)

There were more, but we have eaten three freezer bags worth of food in the last week, since I'm such a slacker when it comes to posting here.

Once a Month Cooking

This month I decided to try a new cooking strategy. Playing around on Pinterest, I have seen so many ideas for freezer cooking, and after following numerous links, I finally hit on the best website. Once a Month Cooking allows you to have one big cooking day, freeze everything, and then only have to do minimal cooking the rest of the month. I thought "This is fabulous!" and immediately called a friend and planned a joint cooking day.

Fabulous was not the word I needed. My friend and I make awesome cookies in a two day marathon, so I figured we would do even better cooking full meals. Somehow, we didn't accomplish our entire menu. We had a lot of fun making what we did but only finished about a third of the recipes. Admittedly, we enjoyed a tornado watch in the basement in the middle of cooking, but I think I overestimated what we would be able to accomplish.

Since Friday, I have slowly worked to finish the rest of my meals. I have washed two loads of dishes, and made a mess of my counters three times.  But I have all but three of my meals completed and frozen. Yay me! If I can remember to, I will take a picture of my full freezer to post here when the rest of the meals are frozen.

Cat on a Quilt

If you have cats, then you will understand today's post. We all know that kittens generally want to be right in the thick of whatever is going on, even going so far as to jump into our laps to see what it is we're working on that can be so much more important than petting them. My kitten is no different. If I'm crocheting, she is right beside me, batting at the yarn wrapped around my fingers and being hooked. If I'm cross-stitching, she is in my lap, watching the thread go in and out of the material. When the hubs and I want private times, she is.....well, you get the picture.

Which brings me to today's set of pictures.

"This is mine."

"This is mine."

"This is mine, too."

"Oh, I like the blue version, too! This is also mine."

She even has to test them out while I am sewing the bindings on. Every time. Do you know how hard it is to turn the quilt to access the unfinished sections of quilt edge without violating the Prime Directive of Fuzzy Law (which of course is --Do NOT, under any circumstances, move the fuzzy!)?

I will say, I have noticed that neither of my cats knead on the quilts. Which is good, 'cause I might have declawed them myself if they had started that abhorrent practice. They'll knead on the fluffier blankets, but not the quilts. Which leads me to the conclusion that kneading doesn't fluff up the surface they are about to lie down on, it helps squish everything down. Quilts are usually made with low-loft batting, so they need no squishing. They are perfect. Made just for cats. Didn't you know that?

Happy Valentine's Day (and a quilt, too)!

Yes, I know that it's actually the 15th and Valentine's Day was yesterday, but I awoke this am at 5:40 so I could make my hubby the biscuits and chocolate gravy I wanted to make him yesterday (alas, I was without enough Bisquick). The biscuits are done, the chocolate gravy has been thoroughly enjoyed, and he has left for work. So now, I am wide awake at least an hour before I normally would be. Unless substituting, of course.

Sitting and playing around on ye ole Facebook, I saw a post from my cousin about her new babies, and said to myself, "Self, you have not yet showed the completed I-spy quilts for the twins!" Well, I can remedy that!

Two matching quilts, side by side. 88 different I-spy fabrics in each quilt, for a grand total of 176 different I-spy squares! (I have become obsessed with I-spies. That's what happens when you start swapping!)

A little bit closer detail. I used the Disappearing Nine-Patch tutorial from Obsessively Stitching, but I'm sure there are others out there. Be forewarned. If you start following Care on Obsessively Stitching, you may become as obsessed with I-spies as she and some of her followers - like me!- have become!

Here you can see the quilting detail performed by my fabulous machine quilter Jean, as well as the AWESOME striped fabric I found to make the binding with. I loved both of my binding fabrics so much, I went ahead and bought a full yard of each to make binding out of, so we'll be seeing these bindings again soon!

You can't see the quilting detail very easily in the pictures I got of the blue and orange quilt, but it is a cute half moon and stars pattern.

The newly arrived twins live about 7 hours from me, so unfortunately there are no pictures of the twins enjoying the quilts yet. But rest assured, the babies are healthy and adorable!

Liz Cakes, Part Deux

I have had so much fun playing with cupcake design. When I fist began playing out of the Hello, Cupcake series I made them for family and friends, and occasionally for DH to take to work.  It wasn't long before his coworkers began asking if I could make cupcakes for them personally, or for a child's birthday. So I began experimenting. Here are some of my favorites.



Mickey's Clubhouse: I used jumbo cupcakes to make the base of the clubhouse and Toodles, and marshmallows to make the shoe.




A Scooby-Doo party: The Mystery Machine and Scooby-Doo.....




......and Velma, Fred, more Scooby, Shaggy and Daphne. The characters were made with chocolate melt wafers.




Optimus Prime: I borrowed the design basics from Robo-Cup (What's New, Cupcake) and found a first generation toy online that I sketched out. I used silver metallic sugars, chocolate covered mini doughnuts and mentos. The head was a vanilla wafer dipped in chocolate melt wafers, the face hand drawn very carefully.

I think Optimus is my #1 favorite.



Liz Cakes!

One of the neatest things about the new Blogger Dashboard is being able to easily see which pages people are viewing. It seems that people really enjoy the cute cupcake designs, and I realized I still have many cupcakes that I have not posted!  So here are just a few....



DH's birthday cupcakes, from What's New Cupcake




Fat Cats, from Hello Cupcake




Fake-out Backyard Grill, from What's New Cupcake

 I love making all these cupcakes. They can be pretty time consuing the first time or two that you play with the decorating ideas, but as you get the hang of it, things seems to get easier. Word of advice? Wear a large apron and keep a damp washcloth nearby for wiping your fingers off as you get icing and other yummy treats on them. I truly believe that the icing seeps into your bloodstream via your pores, so you'll get a big enough sugar rush without having to eat the cupcakes (unless, of course, you want to!!)

I can't wait to get my hands on the newest book, Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie, Oh My!  But to be honest, I've also been making some of my own designs. I'll post them tomorrow!