Lil Fish and Our Family layouts

A couple ladies couldn’t make it to our last club meeting and received the layout kits.  Here are photos of the finished spreads which you can copy or be creative and do your own thing.  Enjoy!  : )

Hawaiian volcano island cake

Has it really been this long since I updated??  Well, there’s nothing like a relaxing two week Hawaiian vacation to get the creative juices flowing again.  We hit the ground running with two of my daughters’ birthday parties the week we returned.  Savannah wanted a Hawaiian pool party and this is her cake.

We forewent the dry ice eruption because the vendor closed Fri. evening and her party was Sunday night.  Oh, well.  We still had a sparkler in the shape of a 6 and 6 candles to blow out.

The island is two round cakes carved to hug the volcano, and the volcano is two chocolate chip bundt cakes, carved again to taper at the top.  The lava is actually orange and red vanilla pudding and the accessories are Play Mobil toys.  It’s not cheating!  It’s creative.  : )  Luckily they went through the dishwasher just fine.

And here’s the birthday girl with a fresh orchid lei she made on the cruise.  Happy 6th birthday, Savannah Banana!

To a “POP”ular “TEA”cher!

 

     Yeah, I know it’s corny, but it’s Teacher Appreciation Week!  As a teacher without a current classroom, I feel it my personal responsibility to do a little sumpthin’ for my kids’ teachers.  So I churned out a couple of these…

     The photography is not great on this one, but it’s basically a paper flower garden based on my friend Michelle Auten’s AWESOME project, and this week’s challenge over at Mojo Monday (see below).

 

     Sometimes you just have to play up the “cheese” factor to make gifts fun.  The background behind the title is a bag of microwave popcorn for the “POP”ular, and two of the flowers are actually hot tea packets for “TEA”cher.  Now I’m thinking that was a lot of work for someone who might possibly hate tea (or popcorn.  But who hates popcorn??)  The paper packet I used is Boomdiada from CTMH.

 

     Some close ups.  Enjoy!  : )

Spring Nest Easter Treats

 

     Every year I google Easter treats and say I’m going to do something different.  But, man!  I just can’t get over the cuteness of little chow mein nests!  AND it gives me an excuse to buy multiple bags of the crunchy awesomeness under the guise of “one bag might not be enough.”

 

 

     So here is this year’s treat from Sherri Haab (recipe is hers, picture is mine).  I have to warn you, it’s not for the weak.  You WILL get messy!  Trying to mold these little suckers is like trying to get gum off the bottom of your shoe.  The marshmallow turns into stringy cob webs that will have you screaming, “Why didn’t this happen to the chick on the internet??”  Have no fear, though.  The cob webs settle into shiny little perfect nests that any Hershey’s chocolate egg/bird would want to take up residence in.

 

RECIPE:

1/4 c. margarine

4 1/2 c. mini marshmallows

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 c. chow mein noodles

Chocolate eggs, peeps or M&Ms  (If using peeps, I would let them cool completely before adding the birds)

 

In a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan, melt the butter and marshmallows over medium heat until smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and peanut butter.  Stir in noodles.  Mold into little nests and top with eggs.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Enjoy!  : )

Jungle Cats

     I get asked to do a lot of cats at parties, so it’s a good thing I have a coupla kids to practice on.  Lazy afternoons are perfect for entertaining my kids with my brush, and on this particular day, we were on our way to see "Rio.”  I guess I should have done birds or parrots or something, but there’s a jungle in Brazil, right?  Not many tigers in the Brazilian jungle, but I doubt my kids would care.  And being that it’s a movie about Carnivale…it could have been worse.  (We’re no strangers to sequins and boas.)


    
     Anything other than princess crowns and butterflies earns Savannah’s “serious” face.  You should have seen her as a jedi.

    

     And Madeline didn’t care what kind of cat she was as long as she was a baby cat.  This is as kitten-ish as it gets.  At least she’s off her baby-wookie kick.  That’s the last book about Star Wars I bring home.  And no Madeline, wookies would not let you pet their soft fur.  : )

Easter Peeps craft

    I’m getting pumped about our egg hunt tomorrow!  It was originally scheduled for Friday, but we’re supposed to have crappy weather.   Moving it up one day sliced our guest list in half; maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.  I just know that the kids that do come are going to get a loooot of prizes.

     I’ve seen this peep craft in a couple places now, but I like to give credit where I saw it first- in this case Woman’s Day magazine.  It’s SO easy to make, especially if you keep an unGodly amount of Easter grass on hand “just in case.”  The eggs are dollar store variety and I’m LOVIN’ the fact that Michael’s carries tulle on a roll.  My porch looks like it barfed up a ballerina right now.

Wheeee!  Egg hunt!!
: )

Rainbow Cake FAIL

I guess I really should start a new blog label just for all my epic failures, or should I say “learning experiences?”  Nah, this one just straight up sucked.  But did I eat it anyway?  Obviously, at least a little.



I actually think it’s quite aesthetic- pretty in a hippie Grateful Dead sort of way.  The problem I think was all in the recipe.  I’m going to spare my source because she probably did a much better job at it.  When I read that it was a Weight Watchers kind of recipe, I should have run.  Anything low-fat or sugar-free is borderline Satanic as far as I’m concerned, and if you’re going to have CAKE!…c’mon.  Just go full throttle.

Basically the recipe for the cake part is 2 white cake mixes and 2 cans of Diet Sprite.  That’s it.  No eggs, no oil, nothing else except cake and Sprite.  That was my first clue that “results could vary.”  Sure enough, I had to double the recommended bake time because the outside was crispy and the inside soupy.

If there is a next time, I’ll just do the traditional white cake recipe (although doubling it WAS a good idea) and go through the steps, which are as follows:


 
Divide each cake mix batter into three separate bowls and add food coloring gel (the liquid stuff isn’t recommended).  Then spoon into cake pans like so…



Bake according to the box directions and frost!  The frosting was a small box of sugar-free, fat-free vanilla pudding and a container of sugar-free Cool-whip combined (actually not that bad).

Story behind the cake:  Lexi wanted a rainbow-themed party for her 8th birthday.  I decided it would be a good idea to practice that cake I’ve seen all over blogosphere.  She took one bite, and said, “Mom, I think I want a pirate princess party.”  I don’t blame you, kid.  Which means it’s time to break into the fondant scene, oh yeah!