Are You Looking At Me?

This week Sweets celebrated her half birthday at school, something they do for kids who have birthdays over the summer so they don't feel left out. Of course this meant mommy needed to make something. Sweets had one request- Zhu Zhu Pets. I can't begin to tell you the trouble that these little robotic hamsters have brought into our lives. Endless hours of searching store shelves for the elusive little buggers, Daddy and Aunt Amy waiting in frigid temperatures outdoors for just one of them, trip after trip to toys stores looking for the new 'babies' and now cupcakes featuring their adorable little faces. Oh, and they can't be just one color, that would be ridiculous. They must represent the Zhu Zhu's accurately. So luckily I found this lovely ladies instructions on how to recreate Mr. Squiggles, Num Nums and the rest of the gang in cupcake form. I didn't do as many colors as she had represented since I was juggling this task in between trips to my moms to do laundry while we await the repair man who may never come. I did do pink, light grey, dark grey, tan and peachy yellow. Their noses are pink jelly beans and their eyes brown m&m's. I did half in white cake and half in chocolate, straight from the box. Sweets was in love, so much in love that she actually cried because she couldn't bear to have anyone actually eat her friends the Zhu Zhu's. She asked if we could keep one in a case forever. I love that kid.

Craft Show Goodness

Last Saturday Julee and I peddled our wares at a local craft show. I've really been working on revamping my booth appearance and trying to have a "brand" so to speak. Julee already has an adorable booth and really cute merchandise, and since we generally share a booth I wanted something that coordinated but still distinguished my store from hers. My "brand" design was created by Zigahelen on Etsy. I'm pretty happy with the way things looked and especially with my cork board necklace hanger. All I did for this was to buy a photo frame that already had cork in it, but you could easily add a piece of cork and then hot glued vintage buttons to thumbtacks, inserted in cork and easy-peasy necklace hangers! So let me know what you think about the new layout.

Valentines- A Week Late

Well I'm too proud of my Valentines Day goodies not to share. even if it is a week late! I made cupcakes for Sweets school party using this recipe from Martha and homemade butter cream frosting tinted pink. They just have conversation hearts for the toppers.

I also made red velvet cake balls using Bakerella's tutorial and placed them in these cute handmade origami boxes. These are super easy boxes to make, the only changes I did were to use a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper for the top and then cute another sheet down to 11x11 inches to use as the bottom. I only made about half of what I intended to do, but I was super happy with the way things turned out and the kids loved them.

Kim

Snow Day Cookies

We had snow, I mean a lot of snow. So the Sweets got not one, but two snow days this week. They had a blast, I'm still trying to recover, think play-dough in the carpet. Well on day two they decided at about 8 a.m. that they MUST have chocolate chip cookies. I said "maybe" thinking they would forget, but after being asked 200 times over the course of the day I gave in around 3 p.m. Luckily I had the ingredients and didn't have to go out in the muck. I did get a little creative when my brown sugar turned out to be a solid block, but they turned out really yummy. Here is the recipe for you to share with your loved ones on the next snow day or maybe Valentine's Day.

Chocolate Chip- Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. softened butter

1 c. white sugar

1/2 c. honey (dark)

1 egg

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

2 c. oats

1 bag chocolate chips

combine the butter, sugar and honey until blended. Add in the egg and vanilla, stir well. Mix in the flour, baking soda and oats, stir until combined. Add the chocolate chip and stir. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

On a ungreased cookie sheet place rounded tbs of dough 2 inches apart. Bake 9 minutes.

makes 3 dozen cookies.

Check Out My Treasury!!

Yes, after much stalking I finally got a treasury and I have filled it with some of my favorite items! I call it 'Canary Sunset' and it features all of the red and yellows I love from some great Etsy sellers. I tried to make sure I featured some new sellers that need a little love in with all of the others. So what are you waiting for check it out!

When Bug was born he came home to a beautiful nursery that my husband and I had spent many weekends remodeling. It was such a peaceful room all baby blue and pale yellow, I could sit in there for hours and rock with him. But then about two weeks after Bug came home we found our dream house and decided crazily to move. So we said goodbye to that peaceful room and moved to the new house. After all of the moving and having a new baby and 3 year old to boot, the last thing that was on my mind was decorating. So for the past two years the kids have lived in really boring, sickly beige rooms, with pretty much zero character.

It has bugged me endlessly but I just really haven't had the time for a big redo until now. So sweet little bug got the first redo. We painted the boring beige walls with a punch of green and mommy made new curtains, blankets, pillows and paintings. Throw in a new rug and shelving unit and you have a pretty cool big boy room. I once again love sitting in Bug's room, it feels so fresh. Now on to Sweets room!

By the way the fabrics used for Bug's room are Alexander Henry's Traffic Jam for the curtains, a Japanese Ed Emberley print for the pillows and you can't see them but some fleece car printed fabric for one blanket that is backed with orange flannel and a blue car print flannel from Joann's that is backed with orange flannel.

Featured

Hey everybody a necklace that I designed is featured on the Tamsy Trends blog this week along with some other great handmade stuff, so check it out please!!