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Friday, February 17, 2012

DIY Candy Buffets




















Do it yourself candy/dessert buffets sound like a lot of fun to make for a party at home. I really enjoy looking at the one's Amy Atlas creates. This a great video from Yumsugar on how to make your own Candy Buffet at home. I've been wanting to do this for awhile but I need to find an occasion for it it.




Thursday, February 16, 2012

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Today I baked a dozen Red Velvet Cupcakes (I have made around 13 dozen in the past week, it is after all Valentine's week) and a pineapple upside down cake. I love old fashion desserts. My mother has a boxed set of cookbooks that were hers growing up. They're filled with recipes from country fairs, home economics teachers and military wives. I love leafing through the book labeled "Desserts" and reading about the desserts from 40 years ago. I love the simplicity of the flavors and instructions.

Here's a video for Pineapple Upside Down Cake by Elephantine. The recipe is by Martha Stewart, it's similar to the one from my mom's cookbook.




 
pineapple upside-down cake from rachelchew on Vimeo.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Things I Need To Remember



Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

LOVE





























Source Pinterest

I love this day. A Happy Valentine's Day to All. May you feel and spread LOVE. 
I visited a flower  shop early this morning to deliver some cupcakes and it was such a happy place, awashed in flowers of many different colors and kinds. All these different bouquets were lined up and labeled waiting to be delivered to people. Have a lovely day! 

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Dinner Rules

As I get older I begin to appreciate more the ritual of eating a meal as a family and talking about our day. I now understand more, how doing so creates memories and bonds the family together. This is probably why these signs mean more to me now than they would have say, four years ago.

Source: etsy.com via Caddy on Pinterest



The above image is property of Brooke Reynolds of Inchmark for Dinner a Love Story (what a beautiful name for a blog). See more of Brooke's great Rules of Dinner signs here.


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Cookies and Corsets

Today my sister and I made Valentine's themed sugar cookies. We used red royal icing, black current jam and Nuttella for filling and design. But I don't have any pictures, yet. I used an old plastic Wilton cutter that's similar to the one on the left and these mini Wilton cookie cutters that are useful for making  simple cut out designs in the larger heart cookies and for making small cookies from left over dough.

                


Also today I exercised using some of Casey's videos. I love them! They're killer but she's so bubbly and positive. She seems to know the exact moment I'm about to give up on the exercise and throws in a bit of encouragement. I did this video below and those hip twists were KILLER! Check out Casey's site for lots of great resources on fitness and eating healthy and sensibly. I know I just posted about sugar cookies and now I'm talking fitness. But I want to have my cake and eat it too!




The printable Casey made.






Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Cake Banner DIY

Yesterday, I baked a birthday cake for a little girl who turns 1 year old today! It was a Red Velvet cake with Vanilla cream cheese frosting and it was accompanied by one dozen red velvet cupcakes.


I also designed a simple little cake banner.


I took two barbecue sticks and wrapped a thin strand of baby pink ribbon around them. I used non-toxic, child friendly glue to attach the ribbons and made sure to leave space at the bottom for the sticks to be inserted into the cake. 
I glued the excess ribbon to the tops of the sticks for streamers. 
I designed a simple banner on MS Word (I need to teach myself how to use Illustrator) to compliment the candle I picked out. 

I printed the banners on bond paper and stuck them to board paper to so they wouldn't be flimsy and tear easily. 
Note: On hindsight I should have printed it directly on colored board paper to save on paper, ink and glue.  
I cut out the banners and attached them to the sticks with clear tape, which blended in very well. Another idea I had was to attach the banners using matching decorative stickers but I didn't have any. Washi tape is another idea.

If I do this project again I'd like to print out the design twice and stick the second set to the back of the banner instead of having just blank paper, tape and exposed sticks.

I'd also like to try making cake banners like these below.































Source of My love cake banner: 100layercake.com via Tricia @ SweeterThanSweets on Pinterest
Source of Greyeson is one banner: nestfully.com via Tricia @ SweeterThanSweets on Pinterest
Photo of my cupcakes by Carla

Monday, February 6, 2012

Pinterest




I've joined Pinterest and am really enjoying having a place to gather all the images I find online in one quick reference stop. Nicole of A Little Sussy attended Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann's talk at Alt Summit (wish I could have been there) and shared some of his inspirational points.

My favorites from Nicole's list include:


+Discovering things about the world helps you discover things about who you are.

+I want to be known for the things that I make not for the things that I say. 

+If you don't bet on yourself, no one else will. 

Read the rest over at her blog.

If you'd like you can also view my Pinterest boards.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Marni Home for H&M

Sofia Coppola directed a video for Marni for H and M. Set in Morocco






Director of Photography: Harris Savides
Stylists: Lucinda Chambers and Michelle Rafferty
Models/actors: Imogen Poots and Sam Hayes. Antonine Peduzzi, Nicolas Peduzzi, Annabelle Dexter Jones, Charlie Klarsfeld, Liu Wen, Jonatan Frenck and Langley Fox
Featured song: Avalon by Bryan Ferry.


Saturday, February 4, 2012

Never Regret Staying Home With A Good Book: Sunday's At Tiffany's


I read a James Patterson book for the first time last year while I was in Italy. Rosie and I were in the small resort town of Masalubrense on the southern coast. Our hotel was a simple family run place. Our room had nice white walls that caught the light and a balcony that overlooked a citrus orchard. But we happened to be there during Halloween and All Saints day, a holiday in Italy. The town was quiet and closed up. After walking around in the early evening past closed up shops and running into very few people, we retreated back to the hotel lobby where there was wifi and took turns using Rosie's ipad. 

While it was Rosie's turn I wandered over to bookshelf next to the front desk filled with random books in different languages (possibly left behind by previous vacationers?). I picked up Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and began to read. I was a bit put off by some of the sentence construction and character development but the chapters kept ending with cliff hangers and I kept reading. There wasn't much else do and over all it was an easy and entertaining read, no deep thinking required, perfect for holiday reading. I finished the book within the two nights we were there. 

Sunday's at Tiffany's, is the second Patterson book I've read. It's written together with Gabrielle Charbonnet and is another easy and light book. I started reading it after seeing the latter half of the adapted Lifetime movie.

It centers around a lonely young girl, 8 year old Jane Margaux who lives with her successful broadway producer mother, who has little time for her. Jane's one friend is a sweet, funny well-mannered man named Michael, but he's imaginary. On Jane's ninth birthday Michael explains to her that he must leave as all imaginary friends do. Fast forward 23 years later and Jane has written a smash hit play about a lonely little girl and her imaginary friend. She's dating a gorgeous actor and is in the middle of turning her play into a movie when she runs into Michael, who's still as kind, charming and funny as ever. But not even Michael can understand why they've been reunited.

Sunday's At Tiffany's is a light, easy read, perfect for a weekend of lounging at home. 

The movie stars Alyssa Milano.






Book cover source

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