Glee Premier, Hoarding & the Unfamous Blanket

Hi All! 

Well, it's Glee season!! Woohooo! And for the season 2 premier, my friend Stacey had a few of of us over. And I literally mean a few, Glee fans in this small town seem to be few and  far between, there were four of us in total.

Stacey and her sister, Kelsey, made amazing thin crust pizza with all the trimmings, all fresh ingredients, including Camembert cheese and artichoke hearts, YUM!!

My other friend, Care, made strawberry Slurpee cupcakes with Nib straws, SO cute! 

So when I asked what I could contribute to our little gathering, she asked if I could bring a bottle of wine. Ummmm Yeah I can! So in true Glee fashion, I made a wine Slurpee.

One bottle of Rose', 1/2 bottle of sparkling wine, and about three or four cups of pomegranate juice. Pop that puppy in the freezer over night, stirring a couple of times the next day. 

When it was Glee time, I scooped a few spoonfuls into each glass and topped it with some sparkling pomegranate juice.

Glee napkins were a must as well as the famous 'hand carrying a threatening slurpee' shot.

Speaking of favorite TV shows of mine, there are some that I am too embarrassed to tell most anyone, but one that I'm not too ashamed to admit that I like, is Hoarders. 

Don't ask me what the fascination with it is, maybe its seeing someones house that's messier than mine.

Since I've started watching it though, I have these moments, when I'm sure I'm a hoarder. Mostly when I'm going through my daughters closets and sorting out clothes that they've out grown and searching through 6 gigantic Rubbermaid's for Venice's old clothes for some that might fit Giselle.  

I'm pretty sure that my hoarding all began when I started scrap booking. (I'm guessing that's when 90% of all hoarders started hoarding.)

I look in my basement craft room, PS worst place ever for a craft room, and I see all these little projects that never came to fruition. There are tons of them! Half done baby books, trip journals, homemade cards and the list goes on and on. 

I think my hoarding has gotten worse since I found this Handmade Home book. They talk about making projects from reclaimed or vintage fabric. Now I have a growing stack of old fabric that's on my dining room table (always a bad sign). I think the dining room is the first to go.

So friends, if you see me near a dollar store or Michael's or especially a Sally-Ann, please call A&E for me, I have a problem.

And now, the blanket that I've been talking about. I bought a wool blanket, seam cut the trim off and started sewing on felt flowers that I drew and cut out. I stitched on the flowers and sewed buttons in the center of the flowers. I'm in the process of stitching vines all over, connecting the flowers and leaves, but it's taking me forever! I'm more of a one sitting type crafter, so this is progress in my patience level.

After the stitching is all done, I have this super cute, stripey, fleece-backed, sweater material that will make the blanket cozy. Apparently wool isn't really that cozy, who knew?

And these pictures have nothing really to do with all the previous subjects, but they were just too darn cute to not post! 

Fall and Cupcakes

Yay! Fall is here! Well, maybe not officially, but it's here in my mind and in our house. Yesterday, Venice and I mad homemade Cranberry Cider and the house smelled AMAZING!

So I decided, with the first Friendship Factor, a women's coffee time (child care provided, WOOHOO!), starting up again on Wednesday at church,  some cider jars would be just the thing to show my appreciation for the committee of women that dedicate precious time to organizing and planning a years worth of Wednesdays.

Just some mini-mason jars from the local dollarstore, 1/3 filled with brown sugar, some cinnamon sticks and a cheesecloth pillow filled with spices. Add this to 6 cups of cranberry juice or apple juice, simmer & serve. Delish!

This morning, with Venice at school, and Giselle having an amazing nap, I decided to tackle the latest recipe from Sprinkle Bakes. Coffee Chocolate Cake with Espresso Swiss Buttercream and mini donuts (insert drool here).

These are the yet-to-be-sprinkled donuts, with a dark Callebeaut glaze. They're delectable by themselves, but they know they have a higher calling...to be cupcake toppers!

Here's the most luscious cake batter I've ever made. Truth be told I usually use the boxed kind (GASP) but there's a lack of time sometimes, forgive me. 

Now these puppies are something else. I'd tasted the batter by itself, and the donuts by themselves, and the frosting by itself, and they were all good. Nothing though, could have prepared me for what it would taste like all together! WOWZERS!!! There really isn't words to describe the flavor combination. You're just going to have to try them. Or come to Friendship Factor ;)

I also have to post that this book has been the reason I haven't returned phone calls, emails and texts. I have already watched the movie and know the plot and ending but I still can't put it down. Thank goodness for synchronized naps! As you can see I'm SO close to being finished (hold your horses mom, it's yours tomorrow), it's almost killing me to be doing this instead of finishing it!

Sorry!

I guess I should start with an apology for leaving so many days between posts. 

I'm Sorry.

And I would love to tell you that I've been suuuuper busy unpacking those suitcases (17 days...), but this is not the case.

My oldest daughter, Venice, just started pre-school this week. I took her to her class and found her hook, hung up her coat and lunch box. I turned around to give her a hug, only to discover her gone and playing. No looking back for that one! I'm happy she went off without making a scene and I deep down knew she'd do better than me, but it didn't stop a little lump in my throat from forming when I walked out. And if little Giselle could talk, she'd probably have asked me to stop squeezing her so hard.

I've also been busy making some decorations for this years annual Garden Party (GP2010). Which is going to be known as the Leaf Pile party if we don't find a date soon that works for us all!

So I made the standard tissue paper pom poms (not shown here), done in white and silver. As well, I just had to try the cupcake liner pom poms from How Does She. They are super cute and easy (minus the glue burns on my finger tips) and will look fabulous once I sparkle them up a bit. 

Also, the Eiffel Tower is still a work in progress, but I can't really claim this as on of my many excuses for not posting, as my husband has commandeered this project, something about my past spray paint projects and some issues with my aim?? I thought I was SO careful! You can see he's laid out landscaping fabric on the garage floor. If I had known we had that, we wouldn't be needing to repaint the floor. 

On the weekend we went to our friends' triplets first birthday party. It was a blast! Stacey (the mom) did such and amazing job! I don't know how she is able to do everything with the boys and throw a blog worthy party. She is an inspiration.

Wow!!

Hopefully now that we are in a sort of routine, I can get around to posting more random crafts and things. I'm planning on recycling an old wool blanket into a cute wool blanket for Venice, we'll see how that goes... I'm not an avid sewer, and all I know is that it requires some 'extra-wide, double fold bias tape???? The book might as well have said "华文细黑". 

Wish me luck.

  Also, I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments:) I love getting them!

I (HEART) SprinkleBakes

OK, this will not be a super long post, but I had to let out a squeal of happiness .

SQUEAL!

Heather, of SprinkleBakes.com, talked to me!

Well, she didn't actually talk to me for real, but she did answer my question that I posted on her blog about the most delectable looking Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies.
I used pumpkin puree, simply because I'm impulsive, I needed them now, AND lazy (a deadly combo), because I didn't want to go to the store, bake and mash sweet potatoes.

I know she's super busy, writing her first cook book, keeping up with a blog and inventing new art/desserts and I didn't really expect and answer right away. But, she answered my question 20 minutes after I posted it! 

I think this is as close as I'll get to a celebrity. Except maybe that time in Vegas when I saw Mario Batali...

(Ew).

Which is fine by me.

Thanks, dear Heather, of SprinkleBakes.