Challenging Custom Order

One of my coworkers' children requested a sock monkey after seeing one of my previous orders. He decided that a drawing would be the best way to show me exactly how he imagined his monkey would look. I have included the drawing and what I came up with based on that. I think I came pretty close. I just hope it meets his expectations. I hear a 10-year-old can be hard to please! ;)

Diary Entry in Pencil Drawing. Enjoy!

Click image to enlarge to view exquisite detail!

Devil Dog

Charlie Murphy loves to snuggle down in any time he wants to take a nap. This particular evening, he chose to wriggle into the flap on our pillow sham making himself a true wiener in a bun. These pics are courtesy of Jeff as he thought it was too cute!
Have a safe and happy 2010 everyone!

2009 The Year of the Monkey

Last year around this time, I was embarking on a journey to craft two sock monkeys for a coworker by request. Little did I know that one year later, I would have made 21 monkeys for various people at work. Here are some of the monkeys that have been adopted this year!

Frankenstein Cupcakes

I first saw the Frankenstein cupcake idea in a magazine, but couldn't find it when the time came. I ended up peeking at a few pic of similar ideas on Flickr and decided to just wing it as I have done ice cream cone cupcakes in the past.

Here's what you need:
Package of ice cream cones- Tip--buy more than you need because some will likely be damaged!
Box cake mix- I used an orange and fudge mix special for Halloween
Ingredients called for on box- Usually water, vegetable oil, and eggs
Container of chocolate icing
Full size peanut butter cups
Black decorator's icing- I used Wilton's black icing in a tube that the tip is "supposed" to fit on!
A mini muffin pan

Step 1: Place 6 (or 12 if you have a big mini muffin pan) cones into your pan. Fill with prepared cake mix to just above where the cone widens.
My box called for the oven to be at 350 degrees and I found through trial and error that 15 minutes seemed to be the perfect baking time for my cupcakes. Your time may vary a bit, but you can always check by poking with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done!

Step 2: Place peanut butter cup on top when the come out of the oven immediately. They will melt a bit to stick onto the cupcake top.

Step 3: Decorate! Put chocolate icing around edges of peanut butter cups (or any other color you like). Push 2 candy corn in for the neck plugs (I guess that's what they are!) Draw a face with your choice of icing. Black was quick and easy for my purposes. If you don't have tips and bags for decorating, you can put your icing in a sandwich bag and cut a small corner off with kitchen scissors.










A few tips I discovered along the way. Don't make the night before because my candy corn got sticky and started to melt and fall out due to the moisture in the cake mix. Also, the fine detail in the icing decoration started to run. I would bake the cupcakes and do the basic icing the day before and decorate only a few hours prior to your party so they are looking their scariest!

Jeff Carves a Pumpkin

Almost 3 weeks before Halloween this year, my husband says, "I know what I'm carving on my pumpkin." Now most years it's like pulling teeth to get him to agree to carve pumpkins with me. It is a Herculean task! He proudly flips his laptop around to show me a spiderman face carved into a pumpkin. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. I was just excited that he actually wanted to carve a pumpkin uncoerced! I wanted to try painting my pumpkin black to make it super creepy. I ended up carving a somewhat cute design, so I don't really know how creepy it turned out, but I was happy with the results. Here are our attempts at artful pumpkin carving for 2009.

A Game Day Birthday Celebration

Jeff's 31st birthday fell on a Tuesday this year. It's a little hard to party on a Tuesday, so I planned a game day party for the weekend after to watch the WVU football game. The inspiration all started from a cake pan in the shape of the flying WV. I was busy attempting to be a good hostess so they aren't too many photos, but I'll share a few that I managed to snap.

I know he liked it, but just like a kid, he can never give a serious smile just a funny face!

Kitty Litter Cake

This is a cake that I have made a few times now. It is met with laughter and resistance, but is truly delicious if you can get past its' looks. It is a great dessert for Halloween. This particular cake was made for an office party. No matter the occasion, it is sure to raise some eyebrows!


Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 box German chocolate cake mix*
• 1 box White cake mix*
• 2 large pkg vanilla instant pudding
  
• 1 large pkg vanilla sandwich cookies
• Green food coloring
• 12 small Tootsie Rolls
• 1 NEW Kitty litter pan
• 1 NEW Plastic kitty litter pan liner
• 1 NEW Pooper Scooper

*I prefer to use 2 butter or yellow cake mixes instead, but you may use whatever type of cake suits your taste.

Instructions

Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions (any size pans).

Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble.

Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix until completely colored.

When cakes are cooked to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining white cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. IMPORTANT: Mix in just enough of the pudding to moisten it. You don't want it too soggy. Combine gently.

Line a new, clean kitty litter box. Put the cake/pudding/cookie mixture into the litter box.

Put three unwrapped Tootsie Rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie Rolls; bury them in the mixture. Sprinkle the other half of cookie crumbs over the top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly on top of everything-- This is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty litter.

Heat three Tootsie Rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake; sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Spread remaining Tootsie Rolls over the top; take one and heat until pliable, hang it over the side of the kitty litter box, sprinkling it lightly with cookie crumbs. Place the box on a newspaper and sprinkle a few of the cookie crumbs around for a truly disgusting effect!

My first embroidery project

I recently finished my first embroidery project. The pattern was a Sublime Stitching pattern. It turned out really cute and was a lot of fun! I guess I can't really say that I'm new to embroidery, but it was my first time trying an iron-on pattern like this one. I can see that there will be many more projects like this one in my future. I've been spying on some really cute patterns on Etsy.

End of Summer Fun

Labor Day weekend was quite the whirlwind this year. It started off Saturday with a baby shower for my friend Stacy, then onto having a house full of guests that we carted off to our friends' house on the river for a cookout on Sunday, and ended on Labor Day with an early evening 30th birthday celebration for my friend Vicki. Talk about a fun-filled and exhausting weekend! Here are some highlights from the weekend.

Vic and Stacy...both mommies-to-be! Check out the finished farm animal cupcake display!

Connor enjoying the boat ride, a lot!

Teagan trying to keep warm with Jeff.

Vicki (aka. Vanna) displaying her gifts.

Mm..mm..mm..my Ramona! (The Early Years)

Ramona came to live with Jeff and myself way back in the day in July of 1999. She was seen jumping from the window of a car in the Wal*Mart parking lot where I worked as a courtesy desk girl. It was hot and many customers expressed concerned for her saftey on the 90 degree+ day out on the pavement. Someone had purchased her a bottle of water and put the cap down for her to drink a bit. She seemed tame enough, so I picked her up and brought her inside and put her behind the desk to call animal control.

Since it was Friday, no one at animal control was available. I decided to take her home just until her owner called to claim her. As sweet as she was, I was certain that someone would call distraught over the fact that they had lost her. The call never came. We drove to the shelter with her in our car, but I was already in love. Ramona was meant to be a part of our family.

Fondant Fun

I have never worked with fondant, but had always heard that it could be a bit tricky to work with. (I watch a lot of Ace of Cakes.) While I think this holds true for covering a cake and making it look nice and smooth, it's not true when it comes to making cute farm animals! My friend, Vicki, found a super cute blog called Blue Cupcake, that had a picture of an adorable farm animal cake/cupcake combo. We decided to try to recreate some of the farm animals for cupcakes for an upcoming baby shower we will be hosting. I had my doubts, but it was much easier than I had hoped. It was actually a lot of fun. Below are some close-ups of the sheep. I just love his curly wool! I don't think I could pick a favorite even if I had to. Stay tuned for pics of the shower in a few weeks!