Yum!

The Hubster loves it when I make these! The cookies are from a mix (I know, I know) but the frosting is Buttercream that I made. My next move is to try out various flavors of Buttercream. Lemon, anyone?

Lily Kate's First Birthday

I recently made cupcakes for the daughter of a good friend of mine. Miss Lily Kate is now 1 year old and the party was fairy tale themed. I had so much creating soft colored, girlie cupcakes for such a fabulous little girl!

A close up of the mini cupcakes for the little mouths at the party.

All the cupakes lined up and ready for transport!

Regular sized cupcakes for the adults

Minis

I Want This!

My Facebook friend, Lori, has a "Things I Want Tuesday" weekly blog post on her blog.

In the spirit of that.....I WANT THIS!!!! :)

It's so shiny!

Pink Ladies

The daughter of a good friend of mine is having her 1 year birthday party next weekend and I'm making these cupcakes for her as a gift from the Allens. This was the "dress rehearsal". I think they turned out pretty great! I love love love the minis but for the larger cupcakes, I'm going to go with a yellow or red daisy flower (Good idea, Beth!). The pink on pink got totally lost.

How'd I do?

Vanilla cake cupcakes with buttercream frosting and fondant daisy flowers.

A mini pink lady with her daisy flower and edible glitter.

Learning to Flood Royal Icing

Royal icing is very easy to make (Meringue Powder, Confectioner's Sugar, and Water) and is very adaptable...if it's too thick, add more water. If it gets too thin, add more Confectioner's Sugar! Last night I watched a Youtube video on how to "Flood" Royal Icing and gave it a whirl! I went to the store to buy sugar cookie dough, which was funny because the store was JAMMED with shoppers stocking up for the oncoming snow and there I was with two measly tubes of cookie dough!

Anywho, here's the result! I found that I love working with Buttercream and cupcakes so much more but it was so much fun to experiment!

Happy New Year!

"By training my body, I gracefully relieve stress" - YBB

I haven't made New Year's resolutions since I was a little girl. I really boycotted them in college (That's the time of your life when you loudly boycott things, right?) because I thought I was just setting myself up to fail and I felt like a failure in many aspects of my life already (Drama Queen). This year seemed different, though. I think because I have so many good things and opportunities coming into my life suddenly I feel like I don't want to let them pass me by.

I want to be proactive.

One of my resolutions is my body.

I know, I know, we women always have "to lose weight" as one of our resolutions.

But I'm thinking of it from a different point of view. A cyclical view.

My and my husband's daily life is all about problem solving - big and small. Our days are usually filled with...well, let's just say "shooting the wolf closest to the door". Obviously this sucks. It seems that we try to put positivity and love out into the world and get smacked with more questions and negativity. After years of trying, we've come to the conclusion that we can't change people (duh, I know).

We can't change (for the most part) what's outside of the walls of our home.

What we can change is what we neglect. What we feel we don't have time for...Ourselves.

We both so crave "me" time and whenever we get it, we just flop down onto the couch/bed/floor/chair and sit and stare and...........think.

We think about all the things and people that wear us down and there starts the downward spiral into a poopy mood.

The solution?

Filling ourselves up to fullness!

It's been right there all along and we preach it to everyone ("you've got to watch out for #1", "take a moment", "breathe", "be in an attitude of gratitude", etc.) but we don't do it

(for the most part) ourselves.

What sets me right is working out, crafting, photography, and baking. Now, I HATE to find the time and get ready to work out and the money it takes to craft & bake. Being a work-from-home mom is murder on the time and/or energy it takes to do simple things.

But I am FINISHED with telling myself that.

The more I tell myself there is no time or money, no time or money is what I will get! This year, I'm turning inward. I'm going to do the things that make me happy. So is Matt. Some of these things we will do together, like Yoga and having "bake nights". But mostly, we will HELP each other find the time to do the things that make us so happy. If we fill ourselves up to fullness, we overflow onto others. If others want to repel that happiness and love, then we are okay. We are still full. This is what we've always known. This is key. THIS is what we don't do. THIS is why we are empty at the end of the day. Tired and frazzled.

THIS is what my blog is going to evolve into....Things that make me happy.

Things that inspire me.

So, happy 2010 everyone! Let's make it a great one!

This is my new camera! :)

Lover Dover

I found I'm really good at sewing! I love colors and patterns.

These little guys never let me down. :)

This is one of my favorite workouts!

She's a Beauty!

As some of you know, I just purchased my new camera! Ah, my sweet Canon Rebel xsi, how I've waited and waited for you...and you are so worth the wait!

Griffin can't run and hide from me now!

Not with the shutter speed on this baby! :)

Here are a few photos I've taken so far. I'm not going to hide how amateur they are.

I'm just learning!