One whole hand!

On Sunday, Little Bear turned 5 years old! To celebrate, he wanted to have a Transformers Rescue Bots party. So I got to craftin'!

First on the list was a "Pin the Autobot Symbol on Boulder" game.

I used a projector to trace the image of Boulder the Rescue Bot and then painted him with acrylics. Then I printed and cut out Autobot symbols for the kids to stick on him (the goal was his chest).

I also put together some simple party favors, including bubble wands decorated with Rescue Bot stickers I made using Avery Shipping Label stickers. Since the wands were orange and green, I went with Blades and Boulder characters to match. I also purchased a .pdf of some Rescue Bot bookmarks from So Happy Shop on Etsy and printed them out on cardstock. I finished them with some homemade tassels using a tutorial, "How to Make Your Own Tassels," from Sew4Home.

There was also an array of treats, including a cake. Rather than a fancy Rescue Bot-themed design, I was surprised when Little Bear decided he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

I used Smittin Kitchen's "i want chocolate cake" cake. It turned out beautifully. This is the first time in recent memory that we actually finished off an entire cake! Sooooo good!

Bonus: I had a sous chef to help me with the baking!

Last, but definitely not least, Little Bear finally got his very own personalized name pillow.

Happy birthday, Little Bear! I love you!!!!

Woo-hoo, cake!

Yesterday, we had the family over for Big Bear's "official" birthday party. This year we let him chose what kind of party he wanted to have, and we were a little surprised that he decided he just wanted to invite his grandparents and his aunt and have an at-home gathering. His only hard and fast stipulation was that there had to be a birthday cake. And it had to be blue. And it had to have Toby the Tram Engine on it (who is one of Thomas the Tank Engine's friends).

On Friday afternoon, I baked the cake (a traditional white cake using a recipe from the cookbook, Baking Illustrated) and applied the white icing base. That evening, my husband and I got to work on the decorating. I mixed the icing colors, Keith drew Toby and piped him onto the top of the cake, and then I finished it off with some border work and lettering.

This was the inspiration picture (photo from here):

And this is the completed cake:

Keith did an amazing job! Big Bear was completely thrilled. And not only was Toby on top, but the inside was, as requested, blue:

It was quite pretty, really. I used food coloring paste ("sky blue") in the batter to get the color.

And then there was one last gift from Mama:

Ever since I made the name pillows a few weeks ago, Big Bear has been clamoring to get one of his own. In blue. How could I refuse? I smudged the name in the picture above so as to maintain Big Bear's secret identity, but I can tell you that the letters were all blue. And much to my joy, he LOVES it! Yay!

Big Bear turns 5!!!

How the time has flown! Oh, my gosh. On Wednesday, we celebrated Big Bear's fifth birthday. Since it was in the middle of the week, it was a pretty low-key celebration, involving just Mama, Papa, Big Bear and Little Bear, and some cupcakes.

As per his request, I made blueberry cupcakes. I found the recipe at Cate's World Kitchen. And they were good-- they definitely qualify as one of the most successful cupcakes I've ever made. Shape, texture, taste-- the whole package-- YUM! And the recipe yields 6 cupcakes, which was perfect.

And, most importantly, Big Bear loved them! (Especially the one with the big "5" in the center!)

Of course, there was some present-opening as well, including a new pair of Thomas the Tank pajamas, made by Mama.

They are from Kwik Sew 3604. Both the top and the bottom are a size XS. I took 2" off the length of the pants and they are a great fit, but I probably should have made a bigger top. It fits right now, but probably won't for much longer. The pants were super simple and easy to put together. The top wasn't too bad, though the collar illustrations were a little confusing and threw me off. It took doing it wrong once to know for sure how to do it the right way, and then I had to scrap my first attempt. But the second time was the charm.

Did you notice the hat? His new favorite show is "Phineas and Ferb" which features a character named Perry the Platypus. Perry wears a hat when he is in secret agent mode. Big Bear was very excited to receive a hat of his own for his birthday. And yes, he wore it to bed that night.

Happy birthday, Big Bear!!!

A little baking...

I recently joined Pinterest and have been finding all sorts of fabulous inspiration there, including tasty treats like this and this. (Pinterest is really a rather dangerous place... it just kind of sucks you in and suddenly, hours have gone by and you are wondering why it is 3 a.m. and you are not in bed. Or maybe that is just me.) Anyway, the call of sugar finally had to be answered so I went to work and made up a batch:


Lofthouse-style soft sugar cookies! Mmmm... I initially found the recipe at Authentic Suburban Gourmet. But that recipe was a little confusing for me (6 cups of flour, divided, but then no explanation about the division). So I found another one at The Novice Chef which has the same basic recipe, but offers more detailed instructions.

I scoffed when I read, "Let cookies sit overnight before serving to allow the flavors to develop." I mean, really? But it is TRUE! They really were more tasty the following day. The recipe also makes a ton of cookies, so I went ahead and froze some (pre-frosting) to see how that would work. Verdict: success! I took them out, let them thaw, and then frosted them. And they were just as tasty.

And they really do taste as good as the ones at the grocery store. Maybe even better, because I know exactly what's in them. Yum!!

Angry Birds fierceness!

Last week wasn't a very productive blogging week for me. A long-time friend came cross-country to visit, so I spent my week focused on that. However, there was still some crafting fun!

Inspired both by Big Bear's passion for the video game Angry Birds, as well as the incredibly creative work of Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, I really wanted to make some Angry Bird cupcakes. Normally, I would never venture to try something as elaborate as this, but my visiting friend, Jarred, has mad cake decorating skillz. I knew we could do it!

So we baked some cupcakes (Yellow Spiced Cupcakes from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book... yummy!), bought some doughnut holes, and shopped for a variety of candy. Then we got to decorating.


Using Kristan's cupcakes as a starting point, we created our versions of the red birds, green piggies (known as "Penny Pigs" at my house), and yellow birds (known as "Nerb Gobs" at my house). The Nerb Gobs were definitely the most challenging as they are triangular-shaped. So instead of using a doughnut hole, we carved some extra cupcakes to size. It worked really well!

Behold the Angry Bird cupcake army!


And that's Jarred and I smiling in the background (I'll spare you our embarrassingly bad attempts at trying to look fierce like angry birds.)

The next morning, Big Bear enjoyed a Nerb Gob for breakfast.


He was definitely a happy customer!

Apricot adventure

Inspired by my friend Mikki, I decided to sign up for weekly organic produce delivery. Not only do I receive great produce at a really good price, but it is also a lot of fun because the bin includes items that I likely would never have picked up otherwise. So we're trying some new fruits and veggies-- which, in my mind, is definitely a good thing!

This week our bin included a pound of apricots. Apricots were new to me-- I don't recall ever having eaten one (other than in preserves form, which doesn't really count). So I had no clue what to do with them (other than make preserves, which just isn't my thing). But the magic of the internet came to my rescue. Searching in the Pioneer Woman's fabulous Tasty Kitchen, I found a recipe for Brandy Buttermilk Apricot Cherry Upside-Down Cake. Serendipity! I happened to have some cherries left from the previous week's bin. So my baking partner and I got to work.

A few tastes were had along the way.


Whoops! Mama forgot that the batter was a little boozy... but really, there was only a little bit left in that bowl and I did manage to snatch it away before he licked it completely clean. (Note to self: I really need to make that boy a new apron... the duckies are a little on the tight and short side now.)

The final product:


So pretty! And tasty too (especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side). It was a simple, quick recipe with great results. This was also the first time I baked with powdered buttermilk-- and it worked like a charm! The cake was moist and dense with great texture, and the fruit was sweet and juicy.

I can't wait to see what's in the bin next week!

St. Patrick's feasting

Ooof! This week has been rough for me. But I'm still here! Hopefully, I'll start feeling more myself again soon and build up some energy to take some more pictures so I can share some crafty goodness. In the meantime, I'll show you this:

Chocolate Guinness Cake!


And, YES, it tastes as good as it looks! I made this for our annual St. Patrick's feast we hosted this past Sunday. Super easy, super yummy. The recipe is from the domestic goddess, Nigella Lawson (though I actually used this one, because I'm lazy metrically challenged). The biggest hurdle in putting it together was in not drinking the rest of the Guinness. But I was a good girl, and didn't even take a taste.

I wish I had a picture of the rest of the feast (which included soda bread, corned beef, colcannon, pan-roasted carrots, festive green fruit salad, and roasted brussels sprouts and horseradish), but I got distracted and didn't manage to get one.

One thing I learned: corning an already corned beef = crazy, overpowering corned beef flavor. But at least it was edible (I was a little concerned we'd be ordering pizza). Next time though, I will definitely make the effort to find a plain brisket to start with (my regular grocery store doesn't carry beef brisket of the non-corned variety).

Another thing I learned: hosting a big ol' feast when 35 weeks pregnant is maybe not such a brilliant plan (and I've been suffering for it these last few days). But, it was still a lot of fun!

On cupcakes and pinwheels

On cupcakes:

Today is my birthday, so (with a little help from my boy) I made myself some cupcakes!!!


Yum!!! We used the Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from the Magnolia bakery. Overall, I was very happy with the resulting cupcake. It was maybe a little on the dry side, but I loved the dense texture and the sweetness level and the vanilla flavor (though we had a little vanilla incident in the making of these cupcakes... so I don't know exactly how much ended up in there-- but I know it was a at least a little over the top!). I even got a little fancy and whipped out the piping bags for some decorative frosting. So pretty!

On pinwheels:

How can I resist?


It just looks like way too much fun!

Holiday hiatus

Happy holidays!!! I hope y'all have had a wonderful holiday season so far. It is so hard to believe that it is nearly the new year. Crazy! It seems that I have taken another unplanned blog break. What with all of the holiday preparations, celebrations, and stress, posting here just fell completely by the wayside. Besides which, I really haven't been doing all that much crafting in the last couple of weeks. Certainly, not as much as I would have liked to do!

But I do have a couple of things to share...


I made another basket using the fabulous Pink Penguin fabric basket tutorial. I did a little bit of math and enlarged the basket to finish at about 7" x 5" and 4" high. Just a bit bigger so that I could fill it up with more goodies, including a little set of 8 coasters (pattern from the fabulous Joelle Hoverson book, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts).


I also included some homemade spiced biscotti, a mug, and lots of chocolate treats.

One of my son's toddler friends celebrated her third birthday a couple of weeks ago, and so I put together this little apron for her.

The pattern is "Abigail's Apron" by LadyBug Bay, Inc. (I can't find a link to it anywhere, but if you're interested, let me know, and I can give you the info on it.) It's a simple, quick pattern, and it's reversible! I used the super-sparkly dragonfly fabric on one side (because sparkles are very important to princess-obsessed toddlers). And then...


...a happy, starry purple on the other. I love how it came out, and foresee making more of these in my future.

I did shoot to finish a couple of quilts for Christmas gifts, but it just didn't happen. The "My Friend Maisy" quilt for my son will just have to wait until his birthday next month, I think (but no worries... there were so many other gifts for him this Christmas, that one less was no matter). The other quilt (for my father-in-law) is also a work-in-progress at this point. So he received an IOYAQ (I Owe You A Quilt) card (inspired by Leah Day). I used fabric scraps from the quilt and stitched them to the front of a blank card and wrote a little coupon-text inside. I wish I had taken a picture! Hopefully, I'll be able to fulfill my coupon obligation in the next month or two.

And, lastly, just a little bit of cookie decorating fun:

Apple spice cookie goodness

Just because they are so tasty...


Apple Spice Cookies (found via Amy a la Mode). Soooo good!

And, in case you want it (which you may, because it's really tasty on these cookies):

A Vanilla Drizzle

2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup 2% milk

Combine in a bowl and stir with whisk.

Grey and drizzly

The recent spate of wet, grey days has kind of taken it out of me a little. I'm starting to get back on track though. You know what helps?


Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies!

The only change I made was to use dried cranberries instead of raisins. And they are sooooo good!

St. Patrick's Day family feasting

I may not be Irish (well... maybe an 1/8th?), but I can definitely appreciate an opportunity for feasting when I see one! Last night my parents, my in-laws, and my husband's grandmothers all joined us for a Saint Patrick's Day dinner. It was a lot of fun!


The menu:
Corn and Wild Rice Cakes with Creme Fraiche and Smoked Salmon (Beach Plum Inn)
Mummy's Brown Soda Bread (Cooking Light)
Chopped Salad with Lemon and Dill (Ellie Krieger)
New England Boiled Dinner (Cooking Light)
Caramelized Onions and Apples (Mark Bittman)
Strawberry Shortcake Jelly Roll (Cooking Light)

And my dad brought a bottle of Chaucer's Cellars Honey Mead. Mmmm... very tasty with the strawberries!


If you look closely, you can see the boiled veggies piled in a green bowl. I painted that! I started the bowl back in January, and (finally) got back to the ceramics place last weekend and finished it. They had it fired and ready to go just in time for me to use for the dinner.


I'm really pleased with how it turned out. And it was perfect for a Saint Patrick's Day feast.

What's for dinner?

Tonight dinner was Smoky Slow Cooker Chili from this month's issue of Cooking Light. (Have I mentioned how much I love that magazine??? I cook from their recipes all the time.)


This recipe is not for anyone who wants instant gratification or simplicity. It was kind of involved... cooking the ground pork, cooking the pork shoulder, sauteing the onion and bell pepper, and then putting it all (along with the 10-12 other ingredients) into the slow cooker. And there it sat for more than 5 hours. But the end result? Serious comfort food that was very, very tasty! This is a good thing, since we'll likely be eating it all week! This recipe made a goodly amount.

To go with it, I made some cornbread from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. It is definitely a "northern-style" cornbread-- moist, fluffy, and kind of sweet. Usually, I'm not so much into sweet cornbread, but it worked well with the spiciness of the chili. Yum!

After dinner (and bedtime for the boy), I finally got my challenge quilt basted.


I decided on a flannel-backed satin for the backing. It's super soft but it's also super slippery. That (combined with the not-quite-flat top) is making me a little nervous, but I'm crossing my fingers that the quilting will go smoothly.

It's muffin time

Today was just one of those days. So I made some muffins-- Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins. And then I made some tea. Mmmm. The muffins are really moist, tasty (pumpkin = good), and not too sweet. A little baking can go a long way in helping to relieve a grumpy spirit.

The boy has been having some sleep issues lately. Last night he didn't go to sleep until after midnight. Then he woke up at 5. Ugh. Sufficit to say, I'm rather tired today (much more so than usual). Fortunately, the boy went right to sleep at bedtime tonight (for once!), and Keith put together dinner. This gave me some time to relax with a little bit of stitching on block 1 of the Autumn House BOM:


The house, chimneys, and roof were actually completed last night. Today I did the door and its little roof. As it is one of those days, I actually did the little roof twice. But the second time worked out alright. I took that as a sign that maybe sewing is not the best plan for this tired mama. The new plan: lay down, read a little, and fall asleep.

Dear Baby Jane: F-6 & A-8

Block number/name: F-6 “Deanie’s Daisies”

Date completed: December 9, 2008

Number of pieces: 34

Notes on block: I’m a little behind still. But I’m working on it. I’ve had a nasty cold the last few days, and have pretty much spent my evenings laying on the couch doing nothing. But I’m happy I’m finally feeling well enough to do a little stitching in the evening now. But I stayed up way too late in order to finish this block. I suffered for it the next day. I’m going to blame my funky appliqué melons on sickness. Really though, I probably ought to have tried the freezer paper on bottom method for this one. I guess I thought that they were so small, and I have so little experience with that method, that they would probably end up looking better if I did needleturn. What I found, however, is that it was difficult to accurately place the pieces, and so now I have a funky center. Live and learn.

Since from a galloping horse it would probably look alright, I’m keeping it. (Though I admit, I did re-do one of the melons. It was just bad.)

---

Block number/name: A-8 “Florence Nightengale”

Date completed: December 10, 2008

Number of pieces: 11

Notes on block: Easy peasy. And I didn’t stay up too late doing it. I was in bed by 11:30. Yay! Now if only my poor sick boy could manage to keep from rolling out of bed 3 times a night… I’m very tired today.

(Don't pay any attention to that funky one... it was the last of the dough, and I couldn't very well let such tastiness go to waste!)

Tonight is the preschool holiday party. I’m in charge of the cookie room, wherein hordes of preschoolers gather to decorate sugar cookies. So I’ve been baking. Rather, I should say that my husband has done much of the baking (as I didn’t want to disease the cookies while still recovering from my cold). Fortunately, I made the dough last week (pre-sickness), so he was able focus on rolling, cutting, and baking. I’m a little sad though, because I don’t think the boy will get to go since he’s still sick. But, being the cookie maven and all, at least I can decorate and bring a cookie home for him.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I know I'm a little late, but it's been pretty hectic around here.

We had a fabulous and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday at our house. There were 9 of us this year, which worked out really nicely because we could all fit at the same table. My parents, my brother, and some friends joined us. There was much food. The menu included:

Deep fried turkey
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Traditional bread stuffing
Smoky bacon and biscuit dressing
Honey roasted root vegetables
Green bean casserole
Baked cranberries with rum
Buttermilk biscuits
Deviled eggs
Bourbon pecan tart
Pumpkin pie
Lemon shortbread
Homemade whipped cream
Mmmm.... it seemed like the favorite this year was the bacon and biscuit stuffing. Truly decadent. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I was kind of distracted what with all the cooking and feasting.

There is so much to be thankful for this year. I try to count my blessings every day, but it really is just extra special to have a day to really focus on all of the wonderful things in my life. Between that, and the fun feasting that always is a part of the day in my family, Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday.

And I'm also very thankful for my friend, E, who brought a super special gift:


With tasty treats!

How cool is it to have crafty friends??? The basket is just perfect.

Star Quilt Along, Week 9

Here is my block for Week 9 of amandajean's Star Quilt Along:


Only 4 more stars to go! I kind of have a color-plan in my head, in hopes of making them all work. Now, if I can only remember it by the time the next block is posted...

Stitchery is on the slow side this week. I've been more focused on cooking. I've made some tasty stuff this week, including a bunch from Cooking Light:

• Peach Berry Upside Down Cake: I made this for my PEPS group; it was very pretty, but we were eating outside, and I think it wasn't at its tasty best heated up under the hot sun.
• Summer's Best Garden Salad: another one for the PEPS group; I loved all the various veggies and the light dressing. It was very refreshing and tasty.
• Chicken with Mushrooms in Garlic White Wine Sauce: quick and easy, and tasty; I used herbs d'Provence instead of tarragon.
• Strawberry Margarita Sorbet: mmmm... a delicious frozen treat; I love margaritas!
• Pork and Edamame Fried Rice: except I used chicken; it was very, very good and made excellent leftovers.

I also made a couple of recipes from The Petit Appetit Cookbook. It is focused on making food for babies and toddlers. I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes with carrots. My hope was that we could all eat together as a family and get the boy eating something new that is not related to the nugget family (as in chicken nuggets and fish sticks). Of course, papa was late getting home from work, and the boy refused to eat. So much for that plan! But, at least he ate some of the leftovers the next day, so hope is not lost.

Dear Baby Jane: I-8

Block number/name: I-8 “Pete’s Paintbox”

Date completed: June 1, 2008

Number of pieces: 25

Notes on block: Yay! Another one complete, another step closer to catching up with the Dear Baby Jane group. This one came together very nicely. I split my time between working on this and baking some chocolate chip cookies (I use Alton Brown’s super-tasty recipe, “The Chewy”). So when the block done I rewarded myself with some milk and a cookie. It was an excellent end to my evening.

Cinnamon goodness

Last week I hosted my PEPS group's weekly meet-up. Usually, when I host, I bake. This time was no exception. But the item was definitely exceptional: Cinnamon Chip Scones.

For years, my favorite baked treat at Starbucks was their cinnamon chip scone. I bought one nearly every day with my daily mocha (one of the dangers of working next door to a Starbucks). I have always wanted to try making my own cinnamon scones. I think I even tried once, but they just couldn't hold a candle to the "real" thing.

This last holiday season, I was at the store and saw some Hershey's Cinnamon Chips on sale in a baking display. I snatched them up in an impulse buy, not really sure what I would do with them. On a whim, I tried searching for a recipe. Google worked its magic and found a recipe that caught my attention. But the referenced page no longer existed. Thank goodness for the Google cache! The recipe came from a bed and breakfast in Arkansas, the 1884 Bridgeford House. I swear, if ever I visit Eureka Springs, Arkansas, I am sooo staying there! Why? Because I am crazy in love with these scones. Tender, sweet, full of cinnamon spice— and better than Starbucks.

Unfortunately, the recipe seems to be gone into the ether, not even available via Google cache anymore. So I can't link to it. I can only expound upon its goodness. Yum.

The funny thing about it is that I don't think any of my guests tried one. It worked out though, because if they had tried them, I would not have had the same amount of happy goodness later. More for me! Mmmm... Now I just need to find a store that sells the chips year-round so that I can make more.

Pumpkin pie all year long!

Yesterday, as I was making my menu/grocery list for the week, I was thumbing through one of my Cooking Light annual editions (2007 to be precise) looking for tasty stuff to make. And there it was, in January-February: the Pumpkin Pie Shake! We tried it tonight, and it was delicious. Of course, I cheated and used full-on tasty, fatty ice cream and heavy whipping cream (and I used rather more than 2 teaspoons), so it wasn't exactly "light"— but that really wasn't the point. It was dessert, in all of its fatty, calorie-laden glory. Sometimes, that's what you need.