I Won!

I received a lovely package full of paper crafting goodies this week from a very sweet lady who writes a lovely blog. Give her blog a peek.

Cutest Thing Ever!!

Teacup pig!! Seriously I can't stand it these are the cutest things ever! If I had a thousand dollars to mindlessly blow you would for sure see my carrying one of these around in a purse. Love it!!!

Curry Chicken Salad

Yummy, yummy! This chicken salad is soooo good. I don't know if I am even a person who is generally fond of chicken salad, but this, this I love. I found the original idea via taste of home, but like I usually do I glanced at the recipe and then several days later just threw some stuff in a bowl to make it. This is silly easy and I'm going to make it again for Easter. It makes a lot of sandwiches and I had enough left for 3 days of lunches after we had it at the shower. I served it on little rolls but for myself I just ate it with some sea salt crackers. This keeps really well and I think it's better to make it the night before so the flavors meld. So here is my basic recipe for this, but like I said I didn't really measure and I don't think you have to, just eyeball it!

2 cans of chicken- make sure it says chicken breast

1 c. dried cranberries

1 granny smith apple chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

2 celery stalks finely chopped

1 c. chopped pecans

a few tablespoons of mayonnaise (just enough to coat everything and get it nicely combined, you don't want to drench it)

2 tsp curry powder or more to taste

mix it all up, refrigerate and serve on bread, rolls, lettuce leaves or whatever you like!

Owl Baby Shower

Hoot! Hoot! This weekend I hosted a baby shower in honor of my dear sister-in-law. The theme was owls with pink, green and brown since that is also the theme for the babies room. I also threw in some strawberries for good measure because really could it be cuter than owls AND strawberries! Finding pre-made owl decorations was pretty much out of the question so I had to get crafty and you know how I like to get crafty! Here are some of the items I made.

Strawberry Fabric Bunting

Owl Cupcakes and It's a Girl Cupcakes- Chocolate With Vanilla Buttercream

Owl Cupcake Stand Topper

Owl Stir Sticks

Fabric Table Runner and Flower Arrangements With Painted Owl Masks

Decorated gift bags

I also made a bunch of cute items for my present and some yummy food, but I'm going to split those up in a couple of other posts. If you would like to know about the table dressings, I made runners for the main dining table and buffet and then just used fabric scraps as the runners for the little table and food table. We also hung tissue paper puffs ala' Martha and some cute store bought owl items that I found at Wally World.

I Flippin' Love Spring!

Awesome yellow shades from Anthroplogie (note- these are too pricey for me! I also found this cute pair at Hot Topic, for just 10 bucks!)

I am unbelievably happy that spring is finally here. I hate winter with a passion. I know I must have SAD because I feel like crap all winter, uninspired and lazy. Then as soon as the temps reach 60 or so and I see a little sunshine, I feel awesome. I've been out busting my butt in the yard the last couple of days and rockin' out the sewing machine and pretty much bursting at the seams with energy (probably partially due to my new addiction to energy drinks). My mind is full of things I want to do and buy to freshen myself and home up for the warm weather. So I thought I would share some of the things that are inspiring me these days. Oh and since I always feel like blogs that do this are just filling up space when they don't have anything to write, I want you to know that I have been working like a crazy person and have a ton of new craftiness to share but it is for an event this weekend so I want it to be secret until then. Also I tried to only pick stuff I might actually be able to afford!

1. Navy stripe purse from Bayanhippo on Etsy. I love this!

2. Havainanas from Piperlime, I'm asking for a pair for Easter. I love me some flips!

3. Miss Kim Lilac, I mean how could I resist? I bought one last year and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for blooms this year.

4. Anything with Popsicles on it. I especially love this dress from Crazy8 and I think I may have convinced Sweets that wearing a dress isn't that bad.

5. Frozen Yogurt. Last year we discovered that our little ice cream joint carries frozen yogurt in about 30 different flavors. I can't wait to go.

6. Kids Shovel from Lowes- I think every kid needs a real steel shovel that they use to dig in the ground

7. Floral head scarf- I use to wear these all the time, and I'm really feeling it again this year. I don't know where this one came from but Target has some great scarves in their Liberty of London collection here.

8. Essie nail polish in Looking For Love.

Love Bug

kids
Originally uploaded by kimar9791

I have been trying to slow down and savor the little moments that are so easy to overlook. These days our schedule seems rushed and with two kids who both have strong independent personalities the moments of peace are limited. So when they have those cherished moments of playing peacefully together or sharing something, I want so badly to make it last. I like to watch quietly from a distance and maybe snap a photo or two and just let them be happy, together. This photo was from a few weekends ago when they stumbled across some ladybugs that had made their way into the playroom.

Cupcakes From Hell- Strawberry Chocolate

I love making cupcakes. Usually I find them to be much easier than a regular size cake to both make and decorate. This would be the exception. I made these chocolate strawberry cupcakes from cupcake bakeshop this past week. Let me first say that I highly recommend all of her recipes, they are delicious and she really tests them out. But she calls these cupcakes a simple recipe and folks they are anything but. The basic make up of these is a homemade chocolate cupcake stuffed with chocolate strawberry ganache, topped with more ganache and then some vanilla butter cream. Sound easy? Well I started at 8 in the morning and finished up 24 of these at 2 p.m. Her recipe makes only 8 so I did triple her recipe. I also had a hard time with getting the ganache to set up properly so I added a little more chocolate and for the inside filling I whipped it, which in case you didn't know is something you can do with ganache. It makes a consistency close to chocolate mousse. I took these to a little birthday gathering and they were all gone, I didn't even get one. So I can't personally vouch for these but everyone told me they were awesome and the cupcakes I've made in the past from this blog have always been great. I loved the look of these, very simple and clean. I think I'll be decorating more cupcakes this way come summer, I think raspberries or blackberries would look lovely also. So all in all if you have a day to dedicate to these go for it, they are sure to impress.

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.