Cupcakes!

It was my aunt's birthday so I decided to make her some cupcakes. I am really not a baker so I was excited when I found THIS recipe on Pinterest that claimed to make a box cake mix taste like scratch. 

I had also seen THIS pin for edible glitter and wanted to try it out as an alternative to sprinkles. While I was at it, I found THIS pin for cream cheese frosting. 

Here is a picture of the three piles of "glitter" that were different shades of blue. It looked absolutely nothing like the picture in the pin...although I used sugar instead of salt considering I didn't want my cupcakes to taste gross! 

 Here are the cupcakes before frosting. They EXPLODED out of the muffin cups and I was really worried that they would crumble into a million pieces when I tried to pull them out, but they survived! Next time I should used THIS pin as a guideline for filling the tins.

The cupcakes were VERY light and airy...probably too light and airy for most people's liking. I personally prefer dense, moist cupcakes, and these were not. I don't think I'll be using this recipe again. Next time, I'll just stick to following the directions on the box. No need to pretend to be something it's not!

 The frosting was a bit of a disaster. I didn't pay attention to the fact that it was supposed to be a cinnamon roll frosting, which meant that it was a lot runnier than I was expecting. I didn't feel like frosting all the cupcakes with a knife because I am terrible at doing that, so I dumped all the frosting into a Ziploc bag, cut the corner off, and used it as an impromptu frosting bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I'm glad I did because it gave some visual interest to the otherwise boring white frosting.

 Finally, I sprinkled the "glitter" onto the cupcakes. While it definitely didn't shine like I was expecting it to based on the terribly misleading picture in the pin, it basically looked like the sugar crystal sprinkles that you can buy at the store.

 Here are the three different shades of blue:

 You can see that the darker the color, the more chunky the sugar got...

Here's the ombre effect of the three different shades all on one tray:

YUM!

Mario and Luigi! (and Princess Peach, too!)

One of my favorite little boys was celebrating his birthday, so I made him these:

 I couldn't find a good pattern on Pinterest, so I turned to Google. After much searching, I came upon THIS blog. She didn't have a pattern that I could print out, so I just did my best without one. I used polar fleece fabric because it holds it's own shape better than cotton. I think they turned out really well! The Princess Peach crown was a bonus since I was sure T's little sister would want to be part of all the Mario Bros. action too!

Organized Art Supplies

I love organization! It seems like such a silly thing to say, but being a teacher and an avid crafter, I have a LOT of supplies that can get out of hand quickly of they aren't well organized. Inspired by my favorite organization blog, I Heart Organizing,  I recently reorganized my desk and craft supplies, and I used black contact paper and my Cricut machine to create labels for each drawer. (I apologize for the terrible picture quality!)

It was pretty labor intensive to peel the back off of each individual letter and then line them up carefully on each drawer, but I'm very pleased with the result!

soup!

I absolutely LOVE soup! THIS Spring Minestrone soup was one of the best soups I've ever made. I've made it twice already and will definitely be making it again. The process is a bit more involved since I made the meatballs in a frying pan and then added them to the soup, but since they had the nice crisp outsides it really added to the flavor and texture of the soup.

 

 I like my soups REALLY thick - the chunkier the better - so I used larger pasta to thicken it up.

 This was also the first time I'd cooked with leeks and I was very pleased with the results. YUM in every bite!

 THIS tomato pasta soup recipe caught my eye because it minced all the vegetables. I had never done that before and wanted to see what kind of texture would result. The picture below was what I packed in my lunch, and it lost a lot of liquid in the fridge overnight, so it doesn't really look like soup at all.

I wasn't a huge fan of the texture resulting from mincing all the veggies, but I would try making this soup again with regular veggies instead.

I also made THIS mushroom barley soup but forgot to take a picture of it. It was fantastic! I would note, though, that the blog mentioned saltiness being a factor to watch out for and I would definitely point it out again. It was a bit salty for me, and I cut back from what the recipe called for originally.

I can't wait for fall to really kick in so that I can try many more soup recipes! 

Baby Gifts!

So many people have been having babies lately, which gives me the excuse to make cute baby gifts! I forgot to take pictures of the girl items I made, but I'll post the links anyway.

Baby Jack got some fancy duds inspired by THIS pin:

It was really easy to make and I think it turned out really well!

He also got a couple spit rags made with wash cloths to really clean up the messes. I hate the burp cloths that are so thin they soak through in one use. These last so much longer!

Also, I apparently forgot to take pictures of the baby aprons I made out of the same monkey and shark material...I'm terrible, I know. THIS pattern is AWESOME and makes the best baby bib/apron I have seen. It covers so much more area, preventing that many more accidents.

Sweet Norah received similar burp cloths and baby aprons in girly fabrics, and she also received pacifier clips, a "chair anywhere" for when she gets a bit older, and a door jammer. I don't have pictures of any of these, of course, because I wrapped them before I remembered that I hadn't photographed them! The link to the door jammer is to an etsy site so there isn't a tutorial. I just made it up based on the picture and used hair elastics for the stretchy part. 

Overall these baby gifts have been very well received and they were relatively simple to make. 

Spaghetti Squash Adventure

Pesto is one of my favorite italian creations. It can be so versatile but it is always delicious! When I came across a recipe called "Baked Pesto Chicken" on Pinterest I knew that I would be trying it soon, especially because it looked so simple!

It was quick, easy, and AMAZING. I made a lot so we had leftovers all week and I can't wait to make this again!

My sister and I gave up carbs for lent so I decided to make a spaghetti squash with this chicken instead of pasta. I had never made spaghetti squash before so I was a little unsure of what the results would be, but I followed the steps from another recipe I wanted to try later in the week. I have to admit that I was skeptical about the gourd actually resembling spaghetti at any point in it's life, but it was so easy and turned out great! I think I under-cooked it because it turned out to be a little crunchy, but it was delicious and so simple! All I did was add some shredded mozzarella and some salt, pepper, and garlic. Rave reviews followed. Pairing it with the Pesto Chicken made it even greater!

Later in the week we wanted to make something asian inspired, and I still had a recipe for Sesame Soy Spaghetti Squash printed out and waiting patiently on the fridge. I didn't have a spaghetti squash because I had used it all up a few days earlier, so we just borrowed the sauce part of the recipe and cooked some chicken in it. YUM. I will definitely make the recipe the original way in the future but it worked out great this way in our last minute meal!

wash your face with OIL?

I've stumbled across something very interesting that I can't help but want to learn more about. I've struggled with my skin for my entire life and have tried pretty much every type of cleanser, moisturizer, cream, lotion, wash, etc. I've paid a lot or a little and nothing seems to achieve the results I want.
So, when I was browsing through old posts on "One Good Thing By Jillee" (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs!) I discovered a post called "wash your face with oil...I dare you" and it intrigued me. I clicked through all the links that she provided to other resources and read those as well, and then I went to the store to buy my oils. I mean, if I've tried all the "normal" things and nothing has worked, why not try something that seems crazy with the hope of it becoming my solution?!

I decided to try castor oil and sunflower oil, and came away smelling like a fry pit at a greasy fast food chain. I couldn't stand smelling like that so I switched to castor oil and olive oil and i feel much better now that I don't smell like a french fry.
I haven't been consistent in trying this out but I like the process, so today begins my personal 14 day challenge. I want to give this a serious shot and see how it turns out, so look for an update in about two weeks!