Paul Frank cupcakes for Beckett's 3rd birthday

Recently I was contacted by one of my former managers asking for cupcakes for her sons 3rd birthday. She sent me a picture of these pajamas and said that was the theme and colors for it.

photo courtesy of the Paul Frank Official Store

So I got started working on the fondant Julius heads. First time working with fondant. Not AS easy as I thought but wasn't bad! Fortunately I made these a few days beforehand.

So we decided on a red strawberry cupcake with blue tinted vanilla frosting.

They turned out very pretty!

Look how cute they turned out!!

mini cupcakes

 Here's Beckett at his party with his cupcake! Happy Birthday Beckett!!

Peanut Butter and Banana cupcakes

So as I have said before my new favorite flavor combination is bananas and peanut butter. I love a good grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. So why not make a cupcake?! And I received rave reviews on them!!

I had been saving my bananas till they were near black to bake with them!

This was my banana cupcake recipe. I only did 1/3 of them with chocolate chips in them. The others were just banana.

And my go-to peanut butter frosting. I had to double the recipe to have enough to frost 72 mini cupcakes.

Finished product: Banana with peanut butter frosting

Finished product: Banana chocolate chip cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

Not cupcake related but... my easy wall art!

So I am that type of person that gets bored easily. I think my dog has an attention span that's longer then mine. I paint my walls at least once every 2 years. And it costs me a lot of money to re-decorate my house that often! 

And don't come to my house to watch a movie in one sitting. It'll never happen. Though I do love the Green Mile which is a bit strange for a girl with the attention span of a goldfish.

This wall art is perfect for my type of personality.

 I have changed them out I don't know how many times and all you need is new fabric! I also have Christmas ones. With the cutest Christmas fabric. I am that Jewish girl that loves Christmas. Everything about it. The tacky lights. The music. The tree smell. Going to cut down our tree. Watching my dog open her presents. Everyone's in a cheery Christmas mood. Well maybe minus those that work in retail. And I think it's absolutely ridiculous that it's PC to say Happy Holidays. Even the Jews celebrate Christmas... with Chinese food and the movie theater!

Anyways... here's my ADD kicking in. Back to the matter at hand.

First you need to buy the frame pieces.

 

They are cheap and can be found in most craft stores. They will slide right in and you should fasten them together with a staple gun. I do love my staple gun.

Pick your fabric. This is the fun part. I love picking out fabric. It all started in my sorority days. We'd get new fabric to get new letters made. Anyways, this is what I picked out. I like mine to be totally different fabrics, just with matching color schemes.

Put your frame on the underside of your fabric and staple your fabric to the frame.

And voila... my easy fabric wall art!

Around the Clock Bridal Shower

I was the maid of honor in my best friends wedding last September. Jenny and I started out as sorority sisters. She then became my little sister. Then my roommate for 2 years. Sorority Recruitment advisors. Then my co-worker. We love to go on ghost hunting tours. We can read each others minds. It's scary sometimes. They are not always nice thoughts.
I took pictures of everything with every intent to blog about my planning of the bridal shower though I never actually did. An Around the Clock bridal shower focuses on every time of the day and guests bring gifts for that time of day that I gave them.

Starting with the invitations of course. I looked online and at plenty of local stores and could not find an invitation that I loved that was not $3 per invite so I made my own:

So here's the cupcake clock I made out of cardboard and wrapping paper to match the clock that's on the invite.
I made Bakerella's S'more or less cupcakes with a marshmallow frosting and a vanilla cupcake with Sprinkle's Strawberry frosting. Delicious! The numbers I did out of chocolate.
Hello completed dessert/drink bar! We made sweet tea (which I followed a recipe. Sad, I know.), lemonade and Pretty In Pink sangria(which I highly recommend).
These are cheesecake cupcake bites. Again, inspired by Bakerella.Make sure you have plenty of seating...
And just in case people didn't know who it was for...
Let's get the party started
Around the clock food table should include breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We had:
Breakfast pizza
Roast Beef roll-ups
Macaroni and Cheese
(and a fruit and veggie platter)
Then we played games...
The Candy Bar Matching game... one word. Hilarious!

Butterfingers = First Date Interactions
Hugs = Warm Embraces
Pay Day = Wedding Ring Purchase Date
5th Avenue = The Wedding Dress Shop
Twix = Bachelor Party Pranks
Mounds = Gifts
Hot Tamales = The Bride
Sweet Tarts = The Bride & Groom
Sugar Daddy = Father of the Bride
Runts = The Flower Girl & the Ringbearer
100 Grand = The Reception
Kisses = What Reception Guests Clink Glasses For
Skor = The Honeymoon Night
O'Henry = Bride's Honeymoon Cry
Baby Ruth = 9 Months After the Honeymoon
Zero = Post-Wedding Bank Accounts
Park Avenue = Couple's Dream Home Location
Rocky Road = The First Year

And we played gift bingo. While she opened her gifts...
I always get my soon-to-be married friends Lands' End tote bags with their married initials on them. I fill them with goodies too!

As a parting gifts, I decorated sugar cookies. I had a wedding cake, hearts and an engagement ring. Next time... I think I'll pay someone to do those for me. Holy crap. I should have thought that out before I started.

Hello to the blogging world

Well, let me first start by saying... I was not an English major. I was a psychology major. I am not the best writer. I love to write short sentences instead of combining them. I will mentally analyze you when I first meet you. And I'm normally dead on with my thought of you. But at least I won't write about it.

Second, let me show you what I'm working with:
This is my kitchen. The only counter space is the island. I have a half of an oven. No dishwasher. No disposal. And 1/4 of the cabinet space that a normal kitchen has. Notice my pantry? I still love to bake in my tiny kitchen!! Anyone have a smaller kitchen?!