Chocolate bats and ghosts

I made some cupcakes for the cake-walk at Cal J's school carnival this week. I used store bought cake mix, and store bought icing. Since I took the easy way out on the baking, I wanted to adorn my box-mix cupcakes with something cute and clever. Chocolate bats and ghosts!

Here's what I did.

I drew several bats on a piece of paper. My artistic skills are lacking, but they looked enough like bats that I went with it.

I just placed a sheet of wax paper over my stenciled bats, which was sitting on an inverted cookie sheet.

I melted chocolate and placed it in a plastic sandwich bag (which I cut a very small hole at the tip) and traced around the stencil. Then I filled in the whole bat with chocolate so the whole stencil was covered.

I placed in the fridge until they had firmed up and placed on my cupcake.

Done.

For the ghosts. I just free-handed a (sort of) apostrophe shape.

Then filled it in.

Added some arms...

..two eyes and a mouth, (using the chocolate from my aforementioned bats). Refrigerate, then decorate.

...and done again.

It's almost Halloween. Are you ready?

Fabric petal headband (for Halloween)

Halloween is two weeks away. Do you have your costume ready? I'm still debating what the girls are going to go as. Cal J wants to be iron man. Ugh. Instead of stressing out about what to make (and or buy), I made Ry-pie a Halloween headband.

I used a camera lens as my template for the circles that need to be cut out.

I cut out 12 circles total. 4 of the orange, and 8 of the polka-dot fabric.

Take 1 circle and fold in half.

Shape in half, so the corners meet. This will cause the curved edge of your circle to turn upwards a bit. It should resemble a petal shape.

Take a needle and thread and sew through the corners which are touching.

Follow the same steps for your next circle (alternating colors if you wish), and sew, so it's attached to the previous petal.

After your petals are done and attached, it will look something like this. I chose to layer the petals so they cascade down sort of haphazardly. You could easily sew the petals together in a round shape so they resemble a flower instead.

This is how it looked from the underside. After that, I just attached it to a felt piece and then glued it onto the headband. Clearly, this is not limited to Halloween, there are may different color combo's you'd be able work with.

So cute and festive.

If all else fails, she can just wear this for Halloween, right?

Apple Ring Pancakes

I recently saw a brilliant recipe for apple ring pancakes made by Carla Hall from Top Chef. This idea is simply genius - and simply simple too!

You can find her recipe here. I actually used one of Martha's basic pancake recipe's instead. Then I added a smidgen of cinnamon and nutmeg. You know what a smidgen is right?

Peel and slice your apples.

I love the star shape in the center of apples when you slice them.

I didn't have an apple corer, and I thought it would be cute to use a little heart shape cookie cutter to cut out the core. It didn't matter, you couldn't tell what shape it was after I dipped them in the batter. Anyways, just take your apple slice and dip them in your batter and cook them just like you would a regular pancake.

Top it all off with some delicious maple syrup, and breakfast is served.

So good. So clever. So easy.

Such a great use for using those fall apples you probably have sitting around.

That's it, enjoy your weekend!

a new blog post!?!?!

Wow! It's been way too long since I've shared anything with you all. To be honest, "crafting" just hasn't been in the cards for me these days. My brain is exploding with a million ideas, but it's in my mind where they sit. That is until I can figure out how to balance some things. :)

Little Shelby is doing great. She'll be 8 weeks on Friday! 8 weeks!?! Where has the time gone? In other why-I'm-not-crafting-much-these-days news. We're moving!!! Next month we'll be leaving New Mexico, the only state I've ever known, for an even bigger one. Montana! I'm getting really excited for the new experience, but nervous of the thought of being away from all our family and friends. I've been a teeny bit preoccupied with organizing/purging all of our crap for the move. Plus getting the house in tip-top shape for sale has been a bit time consuming. I have a few projects that are waiting to be posted. We'll see if I can actually get to them. haha.

Now that I feel (some-what) caught up with things. Here's a simple tutorial for a flower hair-accessory - made from one of Ry-pie's t-shirt's.

I have a weird obsession with crying baby photos. I think they're adorable! hehe

Start by cutting out several circles. I used 8 large circle and 6 small circles.

Stack 2 large circles and 2 small circles like shown.

Place your "stack" on top of 2 large circles like this.

Next, take a needle and thread - and sew through your "stack" making sure you sew through the two bottom circles as well. (Sew a few times through the center of your "stack" to secure).

Fold your just-sewn "stack" in half so it's in a half-moon shape.

Take your next "stack" and place in the center of the 2 main circles.

Sew this "stack" the same way you did the first one.

Fold into a half-moon shape and continue the same steps with your third and final "stack".

Boom! You're done.

Just slap onto a barrette and that's it.

Finish it up by placing it onto a headband like this. I made a single braid headband for Ry-pie's.

Those are tears of joy by the way. They must have really loved the hair-flair. Ha!

Even cute as a sleep accessory.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great day!

Oh baby!!

I had a baby. She was born over a week ago. I've had good intentions of posting some pictures of our new little bundle but I've been too consumed with getting settled in and loving on this new little one that I haven't had the chance. So without any further ado - may I introduce you to...

Shelby Blake

8/19/11

1:18pm

8 pounds 12.4 ounces 21" long

Brand new

1 week old

Cal J is such a great big brother, he's very protective of his new sister and calls her his "little meatloaf". Ry-pie has done great as well. She covers Shelby in an average of 40-50 kisses a day, and says over and over "baby 'Helby' lub me too". I love seeing the kids together and it feels so good seeing our family complete.

I love this picture that Josh took in the hospital. My heart oozes with love for this little girl. I can't believe she's here, and she's mine, and how much I love her.

Thanks for sharing this special news with me. I hope you all are feeling as great as I am! :)