Friday, July 30, 2010

Killing Time...

What to do with a couple of free hours while Caleb is at "summer camp" at a friend's pottery studio?  Oh, a little thrift shopping, an estate sale or two... And checking out a new frozen yogurt place.

It is called Happy Cup.  All natural, organic.  And self-serve.  For $.49 an ounce.  Not bad, right?


We sampled a couple of flavors (they had a ton).  The banana/peanut butter swirl was really good.  The chocolate was, in my mother's words, chocolate.  We both had ginger lemon creme and strawberry.



They also had a ton of toppings.  Of course the usual, chocolate chips, cookie dough, the most awesome looking fruit I have seen...















And then there was this stuff...


It is called mochi, Japanese rice-stuff.  The girl behind the counter said it was like a marshmallow, only (and I am quoting) "gooier".  I though it was more like the inside of a jelly bean... only gooier.  And it had no real flavor.  Which begs the question, why bother??

Anyways, I passed on mochi and went with fresh fruit.  It was so yummy!  I highly recommend it.

It looked alot better in person.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Watch This Space

I have had this idea floating around in my head for a little project.  Thanks to a great "estate" sale find last weekend, I am actually moving along with it.  With a little luck, I will have my very first tutorial in a few days.  Fingers crossed that I can find the last few things I need to make it happen.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Homemade. Peach. Ice Cream.

Any one of those three things are cause to smile.  Put them together, and you have one of the best things on Earth.  This is what I found out today.

I found this post a week or so ago and bookmarked it.  Then I went on the search for the perfect peaches.  Which, of course, called for a stop at the farmer's market at Whole Foods.  (Oh darn, the farmer's market... I did have to pay off Caleb with a stop at the park as well.  Let's just say that he is not a fan.)

Unfortunately, I didn't take picture of the peaches.  But trust me when I say that they were not the prettiest specimens of peachness you have ever seen.  Bruised and cut... they looked like they had gone a round or two with... I don't know, some boxer.  Anyways, they were pretty ugly.  But man, they smelled like heaven.  And they tasted even better than that.  Sinfully good!

Homemade ice cream is so good and, honestly, so very simple.  Fresh peaches, sugar, cream and milk.  That is it.  I truely don't even know why I bother getting ice cream from the store.  Okay, maybe is the fact that it takes a LONG time to make ice cream.  Just the churning can take more than 45 minutes.  Then a couple of hours more in the freezer.  It can be tourture when you are hit with a ice cream craving.  But it is oh-so worth the wait.

I'll be right back. I think I left the oven on...
yeah, that's it, the oven.

That is one awesome bowl of awesome right there. 

Saturday, July 24, 2010

A Good Day

Happy 5th Birthday (plus 2 weeks), baby boy!


I hope you never lose your awesome imagination...

Skeleton chalk drawing

And your fascination with the simplest things, like playing with your first real Lego set for 2 hours...

The best present ever!

You are one incredible kid!  I am the luckiest mom in the world.  I love you, kiddo! 

By the way, my cupcake toppers were a hit.  Besides some crazy wind, it was a pretty good party.  I am one happy mama, with one happy kid.

Ugly Cupcakes

I love to bake.  I don't do it nearly enough, though.  Usually only for birthdays and stuff.  I haven't had much luck with cakes, so I usually opt for cupcakes.  Not that I have alot of luck with them, either.  They always seem to come out looking like this:


I know, it has to do with putting too much batter in the pan, but I just can't seem to find the right amount.  Frustrating...

Anyways, since these particular cupcakes are for Caleb's birthday party, I figured I needed to make them look a little more... presentable, shall we say?  So I had to perform a little cosmetic surgery.


Delicious cosmetic surgery

Trimmed off all of the little overhangs.  All iced up, no one will ever know.

Unless they are like me and start with the icing.
 
No, they will never stand up next to the Cami Cakes cupcakes in a beauty contest.  But I think, considering what I started with, they look pretty darn good!


Oh yeah, I'd eat it.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Birthdays... (Part 2)

So, Caleb's birthday was a couple of weeks ago.  Since we spent the weekend of his birthday at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, we are having a party this weekend to celebrate.  Nothing big, just a few friends, pizza and cupcakes at a local park.  He is really looking forward to it.

My boy is a bit unusual.  He is not really interested in current trends.  Which is awesome!  Except when it comes to planning birthday parties.  Last year, he wanted Batman, which turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find.  It was apparently the summer of Spiderman.  So, I couldn't find any paper plates or anything with Batman, but I was able to get a Batman cake from Publix (which I apparently neglected to take a picture of).  And an awesome Batman giftbag...
Almost as big as he is, haha...

This year we had a different challenge.  You see, Caleb loves, LOVES puppies.  Ask him what he loves, and he will say "Puppies!  Oh, and my mom."  Yeah, he loves puppies.  So, when it came time to pick a theme, he asked for puppies.  Sounds easy enough, right?  I mean, kids love puppies.  Puppies are timeless.  Just head to the grocery store and pick out a puppy cake.  Yeah, not so much.  There were Blue's Clues cakes and Littlest Pet Shop cakes, but that's not what we were looking for.  No problem, there must be puppy cupcake toppers somewhere?  Nope, nada.  Well, there were those strange looking picks and candles, but I didn't like them enough to spend the money on them.  So what is a somewhat creative mom to do?

Yep, I headed out to my favorite stores, Joann and Hobby Lobby.  I perused the scrapbooking sections for hours (at least that is what it felt like to Caleb) looking for the perfect puppy paraphanalia.  Stickers, stamps, punches and paper.  I have no interest in scrapbooking, but I love all of the crap involved in it.  *Sigh*

Oh, yeah, so... armed with my trusty coupons, I bought everything I needed...

Well, almost everything.  Had to head back for more cardstock. 

Fast-forward a few hours of punching, gluing and stamping, and I turned out a couple dozen custom made cupcake toppers.
Ta-dah!

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  Especailly considering they came completely from my head.  The blue and green ones are for the kids, the brown ones are for the adults.

Oh, that little guy?  That's Mack.

Cutie, huh?

Mack is part of a set of vintage salt-and-pepper shakers.  The other one is just as cute.  My grandmother worked for Mack Trucks, so she had all kinds of bulldogs around the house.  Caleb was fascinated by these shakers as a baby.  I like to think my grandmother is pleased.

Back to the party plans, luckily we were able to find puppy party supplies pretty easily.  Online.  Thank God for the internet. 

So, this weekend should be fun.  It is our first party with friends rather than just family.  I kept it simple, low stress.  Hopefully.  I'll let you know how it goes.

For now, I'll leave you with this...
Don't you just love that face?

Birthdays... (Part 1)

Today (well, yesterday now) is mine.  How old?  Thirty-heywhatsthatoverthere?  Nothing, sorry.  What was I saying?

Oh yes, today yesterday marked my (I'll admit it) 33rd year.  Marked rather quietly, at that.  Not that I mind.  I have not been much for birthdays since my 21st (my purse was stolen from my car, grrr).  It isn't so much that I mind getting older.  I do think, as a parent, my son's birthdays are so much more important.  He has changed so much from one birthday to the next, and that is something to celebrate.

So, my day was a simple one.  We had a playdate in the morning...

Look at the handsome boy.

Lunch at our regular Wednesday place...


The highlight of the day was stopping off at Cami Cakes for a cupcake.

Just look at all that cupcake yummy-ness...

Like a cream cheese ocean...

mmmm, cupcakes....

They even came in a cute pink box...

Ta-dah!

My mother joined me in my little celebration (hence the 2 cakes...)

I had the Sweet-Potato with cinnamon cream cheese icing. So good!


My mom had the Carrot with cream cheese icing.  Almost as good as her home-made carrot cake.


As simple as it was, it was enough to make this one pass out in the middle of watching Blue's Clues.

Sleep tight, little man.

So, that was my 33rd birthday.  Well, that and about a dozen "Happy Birthday" messages on Facebook (I love my Facebook friends... they never forget).   Nothing exciting, but for me, it was the perfect birthday.  Here's to many more!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Blog: Take 4.. (or is it 5?)

I've decided to try my hand, once again, on maintaining a blog. I think this is my 4th or 5th attempt, but here's hoping this time is the charm.

I really have no idea what I want this blog to be about... family? crafting? So, I expect it will be a mix. Just a glimpse into a moment of my life at a time.

Happy blogging!