I Spy With My Little Eye...

... some awesome projects!!

I know I don't host some fabulous link party or anything, but that doesn't mean I don't see all the amazing things everyone is doing out there.  That's right.... Landee is watching you.  But don't be creeped out or anything, k?  I mean well.

I thought that every once in a while I'd do a little feature post.  You may have seen these things, but if not I don't want that to be because of me!

First up, I came across this project for some fabulous stacked topiaries.  I LOVE topiaries so I wanted to see how she made them.  So cool with the use of real branches and moss!

Shelley from Crazy Wonderful has a great tutorial on how to make them too.  And then, my goodness... she MADE that sunburst mirror!  So yeah, this is a double feature.  It's allowed, I checked the Feature Rule Book.   It's my favorite sunburst mirror I have seen here on the blogs (and you know there have been TONS).  Big, chunky, interesting....I think my living room needs one ASAP.  Thanks for the tutorial Shelley!  You can consider yourself pinned.

Next, I have a small to moderate obsession with painted mason jars and glassware right now.  Have I made any?  Heavens no.  But I desperately want to.  I need to switch out my mantel for the duration of the summer and I have a hunch it will involve painted glassware.  Andrea of The Simple Craft Diaries has a wonderful tutorial on how to do it!  I have seen a few different methods but this seems really easy! I can't wait to give it a try.  I LOVE the colors she chose too.  So pretty!

Me + cheesecake=TLA.  I order it everywhere I go, ask anyone.  I would eat it in a house.  I would eat it with a mouse.  I would eat it here or there.  I would eat it anywhere.  So yeah, I was pretty excited when I came across these Oreo Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes from The Joyful Baker!  So cute and yummy.  And she says she even dolled them up more later with a little whip cream and a small piece of Oreo on top.  Delish!

My kids are in a bit of a Michael Jackson phase right now.  Jackson 5 stuff.  Thriller.  Any Weird Al Yankovich parody of an MJ song.  We've got it all and listen to it constantly.  So this fun lamp caught my eye, naturally.  Natalie from A Turtle's Life For Me  made it for her own little P.Y.T. (daughter) who apparently loves MJ too!  I, of course, love the lamp, but I especially love HOW she did it.  The possibilities with this technique are endless and she's right, nothing beats the look of acrylic paint on something like this.  Love it!

And finally, perfection in a mantel.  When my mantel grows up, it wants to be this mantel.  Tell me you don't look at that and just smile!  Alicia from La Famille created an honest-to-goodness work of art here. Love the buntings.  Love the colors.  Love the old door.  Love the painted letters (and the saying) on the wood.  Love the frames and the photos in them.  Love it all!

Thanks for letting me share some of the fun things I've seen around the world wide web.  Go check them out!  You all have my creative wheels turning now!

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

Of the five cupcakes consumed at the Cupcake Tasting, this was by far the saddest to eat due to its extreme prettiness!  I mean, I still ate it.  And with gusto.  But biting into something so adorable came with a little twinge of guilt.  Oh who am I kidding?...I had zero guilt.  It was delicious!  Printable recipe card at bottom.

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

3 c flour

1 T baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 c unsalted butter, room temp

2 c sugar

4 lg eggs

zest of two lemons

2 T lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325.  Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar at med high until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping sides as needed.  Beat in zest and vanilla.  Add flour in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk and lemon juice and beat until just combined.  Bake, rotating half way, about 25 minutes.  Cool completely in pan before removing.  Top with blackberry buttercream and garnish with a blackberry if desired.

Blackberry Buttercream

1 c unsalted butter, room temp

¼ c blackberry puree (about ½ whole berries?)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T lemon zest

pinch of salt

5-6 cups powdered sugar

Place blackberries in blender and blend until smooth.  Press through a fine strainer to remove seeds.  With a mixer, cream the butter on med speed until smooth.  Add blackberry puree, vanilla, lemon zest and salt.  Mix on med low until well combined.  Add powdered sugar gradually on low.  Beat for 3-5 minutes on med high until light and fluffy.

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Jam Hands

Mexican Hot Cocoa Cupcakes

Let's continue on with the cupcake recipes from the Cupcake Tasting, shall we?  Today I bring you the most interesting of cupcakes served that night.  Hidden Dulce de Leche?  Chile Kissed Cream?  Yes and yes.  This was such a fun one to try and people were DYING over it.  Lots of oohing and ahhing.  Printable recipe card at the end, as usual.

Mexican Hot Cocoa with Hidden Dulce De Leche and Chile Kissed Cream

¾ c sugar

¾ c brown sugar

2 eggs

½ c oil

½ c milk

½ tsp powder

1/8 tsp soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

½ c dutch cocoa

1 ¼ c flour

1 cup dulce de leche 

(I made mine by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours)

Combine sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil and milk.  Beat together until well combined.  Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla, stirring well until incorporated into the batter.  Slowly beat in the cocoa and flour just until mixed into the batter.  Bake 350 17-19 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then move to a rack to cool.  When cool, remove a bit of the middle of each cupcake.  Fill each cupcake with dulce de leche and top with Spicy Whipped Cream.  Sprinkle with chopped chocolate, and red chili flakes if desired.

Spicy Whipped Cream

1 ½ c heavy whipping cream

½ c brown sugar (very fresh and soft is best, to avoid sugar granules)

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp semi sweet chocolate chips, chopped

1 tsp red chili flakes

In a large bowl, beat the cream until soft peaks form.  Slowly add the brown sugar, mixing until the cream is thick enough to pipe on top of cupcakes.  Stir in the cayenne. 

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou

Resin Rings

I am contributing over at I Heart Nap Time today!

Pop on over to see how to make these fun rings!

A Summer Love Printable

Yup.  It's an exciting day!  It's the day I put something new in the ol' frame on the kitchen table.  I loved my patriotic printable, and really it could apply all year long, but I was itching to get something "summery" in there before summer gets away from me.  

So I made this:

Apparently it's a Swedish proverb.  You know.... because the swedes are famous for their proverbs and their summers, right?  ;)    I'm sure they are big on love though.    Side note: A while after taking the above photo I heard my 9 yo son say "Why did Mom stack lemons oddly by this picture?"  It's like he's never heard of staging before or something.

Below you will find a 5x7 and an 8x10.  Feel free to print and enjoy!

5x7

8x10

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou

Grapefruit & Buttermilk Cupcakes

And this, my friends, is where you realize that these are not cupcakes for the light-weight baker.  Me?  I feel proud if I successfully bake a batch of Funfetti cupcakes outta the box.  But these bad boys required two, count them, TWO recipe cards (available to print below).  Do you see the instructions for the candied grapefruit garnish alone?  Insane...BUT, that morsel was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten so... yeah.   Like I said, this one was a delightful surprise.  I dare say it was an experience.  And aren't they cute?  If you're looking to expand your baking skills and are wanting to impress a hard to impress crowd, these are just the thing!

As a reminder, these are from the Cupcake Tasting produced by my friend Ann.  This is the second recipe of five I will be posting.  See the first one (Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes) and download the recipe card  HERE!

Grapefruit & Buttermilk Cupcakes

1 ½ c flour

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 c sugar

4 T unsalted butter, room temp

1 lg egg, room temp

½ tsp vanilla

1 c buttermilk

Preheat to 350.  Whisk together the flour, powder, soda and salt.  In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter on med high until light and fluffy. 2-3 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, on low until just combined.  Bake 24-26 min.  Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.  When cool, remove a bit of the center of each cupcake for filling.  Fill each cupcake with grapefruit curd, using enough to completely fill and spread on top as well.  Frost with buttercream, top with grapefruit peel. 

Grapefruit Curd

6 T fresh grapefruit juice

½ c sugar

4 lg egg yolks

Pinch salt

4 T unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

2 tsp grapefruit zest

In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the grapefruit juice, sugar, egg yolks, and salt.  Cook the mixture over med high heat, whisking constantly and scraping the sides of the pan until the curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5-8 minutes.  Do not let the curd boil or it will turn lumpy.  Remove from heat, whisk in the butter one piece at a time until smooth.  Strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl.  Stir in the zest and cover with plastic wrap – directly on the surface of the curd.  Refrigerate until set at least 1 hour, up to three days.  Makes 1 cup.  (I had to make 2 batches to adequately fill one batch of cupcakes.)

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 oz egg whites

8 oz sugar

12 oz butter, very soft

Dash salt

1 tsp vanilla

Seeds from ½ vanilla bean

Cook the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler, using mixer bowl.  First, add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk to loosen them up.  Place over boiler.  Add sugar a little bit of a time.  Keep whisking to stay frothy.  Do not allow to get flat.  Cook until you can’t feel anymore sugar grains, about 3-4 minutes.  Place bowl in mixer with whisk attachment.  Whisk until the bowl is no longer warm.  Change to paddle attachment.  With mixer on med speed, add the butter one T at a time.  Listen for the slapping sound to know that it’s done.  At this time, add the vanilla and seeds.

Candied Grapefruit

1 Ruby grapefruit

3 c sugar

Cut the grapefruit into quarters and pull the flesh away from the pith and peel.  Reserve the flesh for another use.  Cut the peel with the pith attached in ½ inch wide strips.  Bring a saucepan three fourths full of water to a boil over high heat.  Add the grapefruit peel and boil for 4 minutes.  Drain the peel and rinse under cold water.  Repeat this step two or three times, using fresh water each time, to remove bitterness from the peel.  In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of sugar, 1 ½ c water and the peel.  Bring to a simmer over med-low heat and cook until the peel is soft and translucent, about 30 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let the peel cool to room temp in the syrup.  Using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer the peel to a wire rack, set over a rimmed baking sheet; discard the syrup.  Let the peel stand until it is no longer wet and feels only slightly tacky to the touch, about 2 hours.  Spread the remaining 1 c sugar in a shallow dish.  Toss the peel in the sugar until all the pieces are completely coated.  Transfer to a clean wire rack and let dry for 1 hour.  Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.  Makes about 24 pieces.

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

As promised, I give unto you the first recipe of the five glorious cupcakes tasted at the Cupcake Tasting produced by my friend Ann.  I went into this thinking it would be my favorite one.  And it was.  Although the Grapefruit & Buttermilk definitely gave it some intense competition and made me really take a look inward and evaluate myself.  I came out of this a better person, I think.

(Bonus!  There's a 4x6 recipe card below for you to print.  Just click to enlarge and then right click & save!)

Banana Cream Pie Cupcake

2 ½ c flour

1 T baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

½ c unsalted butter, room temp

1 c sugar

¾ c light brown sugar

2 lg eggs

1 tsp vanilla

4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 c plain yogurt

Crushed cinnamon graham crackers

Banana slices for garnish, or banana chips

Premake filling and frosting (see below).  They need at least 30 min in the fridge before they can be used.  Preheat oven to 375.  Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and set aside.  In mixer, cream butter with sugars until light.  Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.  Add flour mixture alternating with bananas and yogurt, mix on low until just moistened.  Batter may be lumpy.  Do not over mix.  Bake 20-25 min.  Cool 5 min in pan then remove to a rack.  When cool, remove a bit of the center of each cupcake for filling.  Fill with banana filling and top with Vanilla Frosting.  Garnish with crushed graham crackers, and bananas if desired.  Keep chilled.

Banana Filling

1 pkg instant banana pudding

2 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix banana pudding with milk and add vanilla.  Chill filling for at least 30 minutes before using.

Vanilla Frosting

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

8 oz extra creamy whipped topping (or real whipped cream)

¼ c powdered sugar

For frosting: mix vanilla pudding with milk and vanilla, fold in cream and powdered sugar until frosting is creamy.  Chill for at least 30 minutes to set.

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou

A Cupcake Tasting Event

 My friend Ann turned to me one day and said, "Haven't you ever wanted to make a bunch of cupcakes and then have a bunch of people over to eat them?"

"Um....no." I replied, "But I sure hope you have."

I am pleased to inform you that not only has she thought about doing that...she did it!  And it was was so much fun.  She asked me to help a little with the decorations and I was excited to lend a hand.  It was "A Cupcake Tasting" and this is how it worked.

First of all, we picked an evening and Ann sent out an easy evite a few weeks in advance.  This gave her an idea as to how many cupcakes she would need to make.   She then planned the flavors and got to baking!  She decided on five different flavors....some "safe" and some being a bit of stretch as far as cupcakes go (i.e. not your traditional chocolate and vanilla stuff).   Ann is a very accomplished baker and enjoys it so this was a great excuse to flex her baking muscles a bit.

I used my crepe paper rosette wreath from my daughter's birthday and made this little cupcake bunting (cut using my Silhouette SD) for some decor on the entry way table.  I cut a few different sized cupcakes on a few different pieces of paper and then pieced them together.  I then hot glued them onto a ribbon and Boom! instant bunting.

I then had Ann email me a description of each cupcake flavor and created this menu board using Photoshop and then had it printed at Costco.

It was an easy way for people to see what each cupcake entailed (are you drooling reading those descriptions??).

I also made these cupcake toppers to go in a few of the cupcakes so everyone knew which flavors were which.  

Ann had it set up beautifully on cake stands of all kinds.

 As the event got underway, everyone was to take one of each....

...and as they ate them, they were to fill out a little questionnaire on each flavor.

 This was for important research, you guys!

Here are some close-ups of the different flavors:

And guess what?  I'll be posting the recipes for these all this week!!  

It was a fabulous event and I was so glad all I had to do was a little paper-crafting and photoshopping to help make it happen!  It was DELICIOUS and so fun to sit around with friends and discuss each flavor as we filled out our questionnaires.  

So tell me, have you ever wanted to make a bunch of cupcakes and have a bunch of people over to eat them?   If so, do it!  What better excuse to bake to your heart's content than a cupcake tasting!

Recipes for these delightful morsels to come!

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou

Summer Activity Idea: Cousin Carnival!

I was on vacation this past week.  

Did any of you even notice?  It's like there are thousands of other crafty blogs out there or something!  Oh well, at least our house plants missed us.  They were in somewhat dire straits when we got back.  Oops... I probably should have done some preventative maintenance there.  

Anyway, we headed out to Utah for a little Cousin Reunion (for the kids) before my SIL and her family moved to Arkansas!  The kids had a blast together as we explored Salt Lake and had some good bonding time.  

I wanted to share with you one of the fun things we did to entertain the kids for one of the afternoons.  This can be done quite easily with things you have around the house but can be embellished as much as you want!  And, of course, the kids loved it.   It was a COUSIN CARNIVAL!

Decorations were party bunting (found at local party store) and balloons!  Shelly also made signs labeling all the booths by applying vinyl to poster board.  Prizes were inexpensive things from the dollar store/party store and candy.

Every kid got a bag to hold their various carnival goodies.  Attached were their tickets (it "cost" two tickets per booth) and inside was a water bottle with their name on it (vinyl) and their reunion t-shirt (made by printing on iron-on paper and ironing it on--easy!).  

Here are the kids running up the hill to where we had set up the carnival booths.  They had their bags in hand and were rearing to go, lemme tell you.

Here's a quick run-down of the booths we did.

Balloon Darts

Made by putting the tied end of an inflated balloon through peg board and taping it on the back to keep it in place.  The kids then threw darts in an attempt to pop two balloons to get their prize.

Ring Toss

The kids needed to ring a wide-mouth mason jar lid ring over a bottle of soda to claim the prize here.  They then got to drink their soda they won later with dinner.

Bean Bag Ladder Toss

Label each rung of a step ladder with points and let the kids try to get as many points as possible by throwing bean bags between the rungs.  Easiest set up ever and the kids loved it!

Water Balloon Bobbing

Fill up a kiddie pool and some water balloons and let the kids go for it.  This is not as easy as it looks but lots of fun!  It was nice to have a water event for the kids to cool down in too.

Photo Booth

We gathered up some props and let the kids put on whatever they wanted and took their pictures.  It was hilarious to see what they came up with and each kid was totally different!

Ball Throw

By taping a floatie to a garbage can we instantly created a carnival booth (it's amazing what you can come up with by raiding the garage)!  Stand back and see how many balls you can get through that little hole.  

We also had a "Carnival Walk" (not pictured) which ran like a cake walk only you won a prize if you landed on the right spot rather than a cake.  Other ideas we have done in the past are a small craft area (foam visors, popsicle stick picture frames, etc) and a cupcake decorating table.  We also had a slip-n-slide going for an added "funtivity."

The final event was our Carnival Dinner.  We put out some carnival-y food (corn dogs, french fries, watermelon, chips, etc) and sat down and ate together out on the back porch.

It was such a great day and the kids absolutely loved it!  This is now something they look forward to every summer.  Memories were made, relationships grew stronger and fun was had by all.

The best part is that it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to make it!  If you have a group of bored kids hanging around your house this summer, throw together a little carnival!  We are thinking that next year we may even put some of the older cousins in charge of a booth or two.  They were really wanting to help this year, so why not, right? 

Hope you are having a wonderful summer too!

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Sister's Stuff, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou