Filed under: Uncategorized
I have a thing for cupcakes. I am not a big fan of eating large honkin’ pieces of cake, but smaller bite sized doses are perfect for me if I want to indulge and a cupcake is the way to go.
More than the cake part, I love the concept of a cupcake. I have yet to experiment with different cake recipes and such but am now trying out different decorating techniques.
Enter the book Hello, Cupcake! This book is fantastic. It has really creative ideas for cupcake decoration and the directions make it pretty easy to do with no special tools.
P had a guys night complete with some gaming so I decided to leave them with some cupcakes for a good night in.
Popcorn anyone?
I got a few popcorn containers from the dollar section at Target and made some mini cupcakes which I frosted white and placed some mini marshmallows on top and arranged in the popcorn container. Voila!
While he was doing his thing I went out to have dinner with my friend Tricia, her hubby Cesar and two cute little boys. As I was on a cupcake kick I decided to bring along some flowers.
These were supposed to be more like sunflowers, but I got the icing colors a little wrong.
These larger cupcakes have green icing, then an Oreo on top, then I piped the flower petals out of a combo of orange and yellow icing. The lady bugs are made of red M&Ms with black piping for detail.
Fun, and pretty easy to make and they look great. There are so many other awesome ideas in the book too and some recipes. I can’t wait to try more! Enjoy!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I bet you thought this was going to be a very different post huh! No that post will have a very different title, like “BOTH BARRELS”.
Anyway, I figured I’d show some of the rehab we’ve done on the house. LOTS of painting, replacing fixtures, new ceiling fans, new switches/outlets and covers. Replacing old brass/gold hardware with brushed nickel. LOVELY.
Here is what WAS the dining room, which is now the living room BEFORE:
Here is a snippet of it AFTER:
Master bedroom BEFORE:
And AFTER:
P also installed a KICK ASS ceiling fan in the bedroom:
And one in the kitchen:
And one in the living room:
And one in the spare bedroom:
We also repainted the kitchen and bathroom….need to get some better kitchen pics but here’s one of the bathroom…chocolate brown walls with white trim and satin nickel hardware:
We still need to do more decorating but for now, we are settling in and merging stuff quite nicely. Tonight I host my first “event” since I the whole turnover. I’m pretty excited about it.
More to come! I hope you all have a great weekend!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m still so busy. The reason though that I’m so busy is one of my “Things That Make Me Happy Friday”.
A bit move is occurring tomorrow….”P” is moving in! I can’t wait. He is absolutely awesome and makes me incredibly happy. It all feels VERY right.
So that’s my big one for this week.
Some other things that make me happy…
Have a great weekend everyone! Hopefully next week I’ll post some before/after home improvement pics!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hi everyone! I know it’s been a long while since I’ve posted but there’s been so much going on that I’ve barely even been knitting never mind blogging!
I have SO MUCH to say too, the good, the bad and the ugly…but let’s start off with something light and happy today.
It’s Friday, and for us a long weekend, so allow me to introduce “Things I Love Friday”.
1. Aquolina Pink Sugar. This smells like one of my favorite soaps from Sleepy Moon.
2. This risotto recipe minus the lemon and the arugula.
3. Coffee, specifically coffee poured into a sheep mug.
Coffee in Sheep Mugs
4. Dickinson’s Marion Blackberry Preserves. I first had this in Baker City, OR where the Marion berries are native and love it.
Dickinson's Marion Blackberry Preserves
5. Four kitties.
Four kitties at one window amidst moving boxes.
6. A fresh coat of paint.
New paint colors.
7. Last, but certainly not least, P and I.
Us.
I hope you all have a great weekend! More to come soon.
Last year was the year of weddings. I think I went to six or seven of them. And now, this is the year of babies.
So far, one friend has had her second baby in 2009 and I now have four other preggo friends.
This means baby knitting. I always like to pick a bit of something off the registries then knit some fun things too. Luckily I know the sexes of two out of the four so I can make some fun, gender specific items and for the others, that’s ok, I still have a plan.
But this seriously hinders my ability to post pictures of what I’m knitting on my blog. I hope you all understand. I am in a good baby knitting mode, crankin’ some cute stuff out and I”m early….the earliest is not due until late June, so I will be back to knitting I can post about soon.
I should be able to post some home improvement stuff soon…there is lots of painting to be done. Stay tuned!
Filed under: Cooking
Last night, I whipped up some Guinness Molasses Beer Bread. There was one last bottle of Guinness in the fridge, leftover from the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, the Roast Leg of Lamb recipe, St. Patrick’s Day drinking and the random Guinness fix now and again.
One 12oz bottle was perfect to use to make it so off I went. I learned of this recipe from one of my favorite blogs here.
She got it from Elise at Simply Recipes. Here is the link to the recipe and her post.
I also did not have self rising flour and just followed the instructions to substitute and it worked out great. Dredging the thing with butter at the end was lovely as well. Certainly not low cal, but lovely nonetheless.
A really quick, easy and satisfying recipe. Give it a try!
As P and I have been cooking so much, and so many indulgent recipes, I did a search to find some more low cal options.
I stumbled across a great blog with an excellent archive of recipes. Last night we tried the Spicy Pesto Chicken, and tonight will be Mahogany Chicken.
We added some baked sweet potatoes to last night’s dish for a side and tonight will be red wine risotto…our favorite.
I do apologize for the lack of pictures in the recent posts. I was either too busy or too lazy to take them. I will definitely have some for you all soon though.
Happy Cooking!
Filed under: house
Last week I attempted to close on my refinance for my house. This meant a lot of things to me, one of which being one step closer to feeling some independence in my situation.
The first day I went to close, the title company couldn’t get their paperwork together in time for my ex and myself to both be available to sign.
The second day, the paperwork had the wrong date on it, the original closing date. So that didn’t go through.
Today I closed again, but there are still unbelievably some paperwork issues so it’s not completely over, but I’m one step closer.
I’m thankful that my ex was very cooperative through this process. He even gave me a plant and wine to congratulate me. As I’m aware that he reads this blog on a regular basis, I’d just like to say thanks for your continued cooperation.
Filed under: Kitties
I love Fridays. LOVE weekends. So nice to relax and unwind. On that note, I will leave you with a kitty shot and best wishes for a great weekend. Catch ya next week!
Filed under: Cooking
P and I have been hanging out a bit and watching the Food Network. We happened to see an episode with a large competition and the first place winner was the Thai-Inspired Stuffed Chicken.
We decided that we should give it a try. The recipe is listed as easy and it really is, but what was a pain was gathering the ingredients. After a total of FIVE grocery store trips we finally got rolling and we even had to improvise as we weren’t able to find Thai Chilis or Thai Basil at all.
We went to Stop and Shop, Whole Foods, Shaws and an Asian Market. It was crazy…but worth it.
It was SO GOOD. I was too busy eating to take a picture so you’ll have to take my word for it. Give it a try!
Filed under: Spinning
February was also SPA month, the yearly trip out to Maine to shop and spin. It was pretty crowded in any areas where you could sit and spin with others, but we were able to find a corner to squeeze in and I had the chance to spin up this:
Over three hundred yards of loveliness, wool top from The Wool Peddler. Sea and Surf colorway. I think I’ll make a Baby Surprise Jacket with that.
