A weekend of cupcakes, family, and packing.

Hello, my friends.

♥

When my alarm went off this morning I was right in the middle of a dream where I was preparing to deliver a Sunday sermon to a large church congregation. I had just minutes to prepare what I was going to say and could feel the panic rising in my body. "Gratitude!" I thought. "When in doubt, I'll speak of gratitude."

A great reminder for me on this Monday morning when my mind is full of all kinds of things - sorting out details of our upcoming move and dealing with some work issues that are super annoying right now but when kept in perspective, aren't that big of a deal in the big scheme of things. Still, I'd really rather not go to work today. ~sigh~

Anyway! This isn't supposed to be a post about my Monday morning disposition, it's about the awesome weekend that I'm grateful for. Let's shift gears, shall we?

After yoga class on Saturday morning, I came home and made the most delicious lemon cupcakes to take to a party at Doug's brother's house that afternoon. I wanted to try a new recipe so I went to my Pinterest cupcake board and homed in on this one. Wow - SO yummy!!!

The gathering with my in-laws on Saturday was a celebration of many things: a nephew returning home from a long stay in China, a niece moving away to California, a brother-in-law's retirement, and a new baby in the family...

We sisters-in-law passed this little peach around all night - SO much fun to have a new baby in the family and she is just the sweetest - never really fussed at all and went between smiling and snoozing the entire evening. Her big sister swam and played and ate cupcakes until the end of the evening. Here she is: "Grandma, you've been holding Ellie all night. I want you to hold me now." ♥

Saturday night's get together was so much fun. We stayed late talking and laughing and having just one more glass of wine...  Sunday morning was a slow start. ;o)

 

Then yesterday I started packing boxes for our upcoming house move. We get the keys for our new house on August 17th but aren't actually moving until mid-September. This gives me plenty of time to pack, and I'm taking advantage of these next several weeks to go through our belongings and purge a few things. Whiskers is happy and oblivious to his future - loves having random boxes to explore but is not a fan of change. He's the pet I'm most concerned about for our upcoming move.

I am so grateful for this home we've lived in for the past four years. My gosh, a lot has changed in that time! Today I will practice an attitude of gratitude, as suggested by my own Monday morning dream state. I'm setting my sights on tonight's session of mandala drawing with my friend B and my girl C. Time to hit the yoga mat and face the day...

 

Here's wishing each of you a week full of blessings,

and the ability to recognize those blessings with gratitude.

♥

This Weekend's Valentine Party

Good Monday morning, blog friends.

And Happy Valentine's week to you.

♥

Well, that might go down as the fastest weekend ever. It feels like I blinked and ~boom~ sweet memories. Ah...really sweet memories...

Carrie and I hosted our fifth annual Valentine party with our dear crafting friends. In the past, each guest brought their own craft project to work on, but we've discovered {as a group} that we love having a common craft to work on at our gatherings. We've created canvases and decorated boxes together, and this time we created Valentine banners/buntings/garlands.

 

Supplies were gathered and shared. We had such a fun time creating, chatting, snacking and just being together.

And of course, there were cupcakes...

Red velvet cupcakes by me, arrow cupcake toppers by Carrie. {She found the tutorial here.} ♥

Helium balloons weighted down with a heart shaped rock. :o) ♥

Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy.

Here's a look at my banner, and here's the part where I admit that I did not photograph anyone else's banner. How selfish of me. Ha! And shoot. I wish you could see what my creative friends made! It's always so fun to see how each of us takes the same general project and turns it in to our own unique creation. Next time...

We did our "I ♥ ____" exchange again this year. Each person brings five of one item they love and we exchange our favorites. So, everyone leaves with five different things that their friends love. I ♥ that Carrie always writes on the table cover what our favorites are. And I ♥ her cute handwriting. And I ♥ that she used a gold pen. And I totally ♥ her!

It's so fun that we have been hosting this Valentine party for five years now! We're already planning the next get together with our friends - maybe something for Easter if we're lucky. 

And with that I'm off to hit the yoga mat before I get ready for work. I have a busy week ahead, and I ♥ that I carry sweet weekend memories with me as I go.

Wishing each of you a week filled with wonderful things.

♥

Sunflower Cupcake Toppers

When my friend, Jenn, planned her canvas art party I offered to bring cupcakes. And since Jenn was hosting, I let her pick the flavor of the day. She chose vanilla and chocolate.

I knew I'd be working on a sunflower canvas that day, and since my own sunflowers are the main focus of my garden these days, I decided to make some quick sunflower cupcake toppers.

I used two punches to make the sunflowers. This flower punch is such a versatile punch! Layered and staggered with a large circle in the center, it makes the perfect sunflower. Punch the flower shape in red and use a smaller circle and it's a great poinsettia. I've also used this punch for other random flowers and you can see those by clicking here and here.

 

 

Yummy vanilla cake recipe can be found here.

 And my favorite chocolate buttercream frosting ever can be found here. (BTW, I increase the cocoa in the frosting recipe from 1/2 cup up to 3/4 cup.)

♥

Cupcakes for the Graduate

When I found out that our nephew Cris was going to walk in the ASU graduation ceremonies, I quickly volunteered to bake cupcakes for his celebration. And when his wife told me that his favorite candy was Reese's Peanut Butter cups I was on it!

Carrie had seen the idea for the chocolate graduation caps somewhere (Sorry...I don't know the original source because a Google search provides a plethora of options). I used a hot skillet to touch the peanut butter cups to just so there was a melted surface, then I stuck them to a chocolate square (I used Ghirardelli). Then I piped a line of yellow frosting for the tassel and topped each with a small M&M for the button. They were a big hit! The cupcakes were yummy too - I found this recipe for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting - perfect with those mortar board toppers.

I also made red velvet cupcakes and created some toppers with ASU logos printed on cardstock, punched and attached to toothpicks. Note the gold star sprinkles - love! The "CONGRATULATIONS CRIS" banner was cut with my Cricut, and the fringe banner was made from a plastic tablecloth using this tutorial.

Oh man, creating this post has me wishing we had just one cupcake left over...

As guests were leaving the party that night I had some cupcake boxes on hand for take-away's. I loved being able to do that!

It was so much fun to make cupcakes for a family function that included my side of the family. Doug's family lives locally so my baking stints are usually for my in-laws. I loved being able to make these chocolate cupcakes for my nephew, Cris. And the red velvets for my niece, Savannah. And Carrie, of course.

 

Who does the baking in your family?

♥

Would You Be Mine, Could You Be Mine...

A story about a cake plate.

♥

 

I was so fortunate to have spent the last five days of my mom's life with her. It was such a rough time - so emotional and somewhat frightening - but I know that my presence, as well as that of my siblings and our children, was a comfort to her.

 

In hindsight, I realize that asking for an old plastic cake plate and cover was a bit ridiculous at the time. In fact, there are a few things about those days that seem very surreal to me now. I had seen the cake plate and cover on top of a stack of things in the garage before Mom's passing, and I asked my step-dad if I could have it someday.

On the day of my mom's funeral services, we all met at her house to be able to travel to the chapel together. As we left, my step-dad said, "Here, Deb, take this..." and handed the cake plate and cover to me.

I remember the numbness I felt at that time, how I reached for the cake plate in disbelief, wishing with all my might that my mom was still there which would have meant that the cake plate wasn't up for grabs.

A few days later when we were back in Arizona and attempting to resume life as it was before, I looked at the cake plate with different eyes. I couldn't remember having ever seen my mom use that cake plate, and in my clearer state of mind I realized that it most likely had not belonged to my mother. In fact, as I pondered it I wondered if someone from their church had possibly gifted them with a cake but not intended to leave the cake plate behind for good.

And now, I have a cake plate and cover that quite possibly should not be mine. I'm hoping that someone will ask my step-dad for it, and I would gladly send it back to its rightful owner.

In the meantime, while I continue to borrow it, it was a sweet little holder for these cupcakes.

♥

PS: Does this cake plate and cover belong to you?

Thanks for letting me borrow it...

now I'll gladly give it back!

The Next Best Thing to Being an Aunt

...being a great-aunt.

♥

Last year at this time, two of our nieces became mommies for the first time. This whole past year I have referred to their babies as "our niece's son/daughter" but that changed for me this past weekend.

As I made cupcakes for K & JJ's first birthday celebration, I was struck by how much I love these little kids, and I finally allowed myself to embrace the fact that I am their great-aunt.

And it was so much fun to celebrate their first birthday this past weekend.

These little sweeties have made family life a lot sweeter this past year.

Happy first birthday, K and JJ!

Your {great-} aunt Deb loves you very much.

♥ ♥

Hello, Cupcake

♥ 

The first two years Carrie and I hosted our Valentine party, I made red velvet cupcakes. This year I wanted something a little different, and since one of our friends is expecting a baby girl next month, I decided we needed PINK.

I did some internet surfing and read several recipes for pink lemonade cupcakes. I put them all together and came up with my own concoction. They were seriously yummy, if I do say so myself!

This was the first time I'd ever used food coloring in cake batter, and it was really fun to create these pink colored cupcakes! Doug didn't seem to mind the pink, and he was happy when he came home on Saturday night {party winding down...} to see that there were a few cupcakes left. 

♥

I'm going to include the recipe if you'd like to give them a try,

and I'm also documenting it here so I'll remember how I made them.

These will definitely be made again at my house!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

3/4 c. water

3/4 c. frozen (thawed) pink lemonade concentrate

1 egg, + 2 egg whites

2 t. lemon zest

1/3 c. vegetable oil

red/pink food coloring

Prepare ingredients following directions on cake mix box.

Bake cupcakes 15-20 minutes in 350° oven.

Frost with best buttercream frosting ever {recipe found here}.

Enjoy!

♥

Cupcakes and Politics

♥

This morning in America {and in our home}, folks are divided into two groups:

really happy, or really...well...not happy.

I've never been so glad to see a Presidential election behind us

{wait...I take that back...the past few haven't been much fun either...}

and I'm hoping beyond hope that everyone can just settle down now

and well...just let it be. {Can you tell I'm treading lightly?}

Not every decision is as easy as choosing which cupcake to have...

{Come to think of it, that wasn't so easy either...}

 

And after all is said and done, no matter which cupcake {or President}

you choose, this planet is still a pretty amazing place to be.

♥

PS: For the record, I did not make these cupcakes, but I would love to be this good at frosting some!

Cupcakes with Witch Appeal

Good day, friends!

♥

I was so happy when my SIL suggested a family dinner last weekend. I needed a dose of hugs from Doug's family {plus there's babies over there!}.

I had made some witch hat cupcake toppers several weeks ago, and this little outing was the perfect excuse to bust out some cupcakes to take along. I used a devil's food cake mix, and this canned frosting that you add a flavor packet to ~ I used orange cream. It was pretty good stuff.

Here's a simple little tutorial for those who would like to know...

From left to right in the photo above:  I used punches to make two circles, one small and one a little larger. The small circle is the base of the hat, and I used a paper piercer to poke a hole in the base for the toothpick to go into later on. The larger circle gets cut in half - one half gets rolled around and I used a glue dot to adhere the little cone shape. I traced around the cone onto the small circle/base, used that as a guide for squeezing my glitter glue, then squished the cone into the ring of glitter glue. Technical, eh?

If the broom fits...

♥