2 in 1 Fold Over Clutch

I've made myself a few purses.  You can check them out here and here.  Uncle Kevin and I were getting ready to go wine tasting with some friends and neither of them were right for wine tasting.  I love them both, but they were too big for what I wanted.

I had seen this pattern on Pinterest months ago and thought it would be perfect.

Last summer, I had bought some great mint and gray chevron fabric that I knew I wanted to turn into a purse, so I was all set to go.

I made the inside yellow for some contrast.  It has a pocket inside and a magnet to keep it closed.

It's the perfect size for a night out or when you don't need to lug around a lot of stuff. 

Emma's Third Birthday: Princess Party

Last week was my niece Emma's third birthday.  She wanted a princess party and that is what she got. I was super excited to help with the party.

I started by making her a princess birthday outfit.  I have seen many tutorials for this type of tutu and it was pretty easy to make.  I just had to cut and tie the tulle.  She absolutely loved it.

 I also did the baking.

I got to make another princess cake.  This time, I used a doll topper from Michael's rather than a real Barbie.  It wasn't as tall, but turned out nice.

Of course, I had to include some princess cookies.  The kids loved them.  They were right at their height.  I'd see them walk by the table and snag a cookie. 

I also made some cupcake push pops.  The crown toppers are Wilton that I got at JoAnn's. 

 

They wanted to have some activities to keep the girls busy.  I made some wand's out of foam that they could decorate along with some foam crowns they bought.

 They also had a dress up area where the girls could put on their own princess outfits and accessorize with some plastic jewelry. 

There was an easel with giant princess coloring pages.

The girls also had fun just running around in the backyard and playing with some bubbles.

All of the little princesses had a great time.

Football Cake: Super Bowl Party

 My husband is a huge 49ers fan and as soon as they made it to the super bowl he said he wanted to host a party.  I was all for it because I wanted to make a football cake. He told me that was all I was allowed to make and that he didn’t want me to go overboard.  Of course I couldn’t just do a cake.  I had to make some cute football cookies and try out my new push pop containers that I recently got from Pick Your Plum. 

I used my Pampered Chef Batter bowl for the cake.  It’s the same one that I used for the Barbie cake last summer.  Football cakes look a little weird.  People were joking that it looked like meatloaf.  I had fun making it and it tasted great.  I used the same chocolate cake recipe from Glorious Treats that I have used before.  I also made my own fondant.  It’s a marshmallow fondant with almond extract.  I think that it tastes way better than the store bought stuff, but I have to practice working with it a little more.

The push pops were a last minute addition.  I wanted to practice before I make some princess ones for my niece’s up coming birthday.  They were fun to make, but I should have had three layers of cake to fill it up a little more. 

Although the outcome of the game wasn’t what we had hoped, the party was fun and I got to do some baking and crafting.  

60th Birthday Cookies

Last weekend was my stepdad's 60th birthday.  He doesn't really like celebrating his birthday and doesn't like to get "stuff" as gifts.  My sister decided we needed to celebrate anyway.  She invited my mom and him over to watch football and have a little party. 

Sugar cookies are his favorite, so I made a batch as his gift.  I was just going to do simple round cookies, but then I remembered I had my letter cookie cutters and thought it would be cute to spell out Happy Birthday Gary.  It was the first time I used them and some of the letters were hard to get out of the cutters because they were so thin.

I saw a tutorial on using a stencil to decorate cookies at Sweetopia, so I decided to give it a try.  I went with a simple 60 and it was pretty easy.

My niece thought that he also needed a birthday shirt.  Of course I had to go along with her idea.  I made him a shirt with guitars (he plays the bass guitar)

I didn't think that he would wear it, but R told him he had to put it on so he did. 

He was very surprised and excited.  Happy 60th Gary!

Princess and the Popstar Outfit

My four year old niece LOVES the movie "Princess and the Popstar".  She has watched it more times than we can count and has the entire movie memorized.  Popstar, Kiera, is her favorite character.  While watching the movie, she loves to sing along to all of the songs.

She has a wonderful imagination and loves to play dress up.  She uses one of her ballerina outfits with a superhero cape around her waist as her "Kiera" outfit (the black hair is a wig.)

One day, she asked my sister if she could get a real Kiera outfit.  My sister did not like anything that she found online, so she came to me and asked if I could make something as her Christmas gift. Of course I had to make it. I couldn't disappoint her.

She sent me this picture as my inspiration.

I didn't have a pattern, but had some ideas that I thought would work.  I went to Joann's and got three different purple, sparkly fabrics and got to work.

It turned out just as I imagined and she loved it.  As soon as she opened it on Christmas morning she put it on and put on a show.

I used a couple of different tutorials to make the outfit.  For the skirt, I used the Simple Skirt from Made.  Mine has three layers.  The top two are the tulle and the bottom is a shiny purple fabric liner.  I skipped the waistband and attached the skirt to a tank top using this tutorial from A Small Snippet.

After making the dress, I then had to make the removable longer piece.  I cut two rectangles of the sequined and shiny fabric. I sewed them with the right sides together.  Then I turned it right side out and top stitched around the whole thing making sure to close the opening.  For the waistband, I followed the instructions from the Simple Skirt tutorial.  I attached some velcro to elastic and it was complete.

The Popstar is ready for her performance!

Treat of the Week

I did it! I accomplished my new year's resolution. I made a treat a week...that's 52 treats this year.  Actually, I think I made more, but some of them I didn't take pictures.

I had hoped that I would blog about each one, but sometimes it was hard to find the time to be on the computer when I spent so much time in the kitchen.

Here's my year of baking!

January

1. Oreo Stuffed Cookie

2. Inside Out Carrot Cupcakes

3. Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Roll

4. Peanut Brittle Bacon Cookie

5. Champagne Cupcake

February

6. Cookies 'n Creme Rice Krispie Treats

7. S'more Rice Krispie Treats

8. Sopapilla Cheesecake

9. Cupcakes

10. Individual Baked Oatmeal

March

11. Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

12. Better Than Crack Brownies

13. Gummy Bear Cake

14. Fluffernutter Blondies

April

15. Cake Batter Cookies

16. Easter Cookie Pops

17. Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cupcakes

18. Chocolate Chip Cookie Layered Brownie

May 

19. Baked S'more

20. S'more Cobbler

21. Strawberry Margarita Cupcake

22. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

June

23. Oreo Pops

24. Peppermint Patty Brownies

25. German Chocolate Brownies

26. Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

27. Peanut Butter Cup Baked S'more

July

28. Tagalong Cupcakes

29. Plum Crumb Bake

30. Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

31. Fourth of July Cake

32. Barbie Cake

August

33. Chocolate Chip Cookies

34. Peach Cheesecake

35. Mini-Cupcakes

36. Chocolate Pie

September

37. Pumpkin Spice Donut Hole Muffins

38. No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

39. Cheesecake Brownie Bites (not pictured)

October

40. Pumpkin Spice Cookies

41. Candy Corn Cupcakes

42. Pumpkin Cupcake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

43. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

November

44. Pecan Phyllo Tarts

45. Pumpkin Pie

46. Pumpkin Fudge

47. Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treat

48. Cinnamon Cheesecake with Pumpkin Pie Frosting

December

49. Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring

50. Christmas Cookies

51. Peppermint Oreo Rice Krispie Treats

52. Blonde Oreo Rice Krispie Treats

53. Fudge Mint Brownies (Not Pictured)

54. White Chocolate Topped Ginger Cookies (Not Pictured)
55. Peppermint Meringue Drops (Not Pictured)

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking and most of the time I enjoyed it.  My family and friends enjoyed eating all of the treats:) 

I'm going to keep trying new recipes, but probably not quite as many.

Parent Volunteer Gifts - Mini Cookie Jars

Every year I make something at the holidays to thank all of the parent volunteers that help in my classroom.  I've made fudge, banana bread and caramels over the last few years.  This year I decided to do something new.  I made mini sugar cookies and put them in canning jars.

I have a sugar cookie recipe that I found a few years when I was having my niece over for our first Auntie and Ruby cookie decorating day.  It is from Food Network. It uses granulated and powdered sugar, which I think makes them a little fluffier.  It also calls for orange zest, which adds a nice flavor to the cookie.

Sugar Cookies
From: Food Network 
 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar 

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

1/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

Directions:

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and both sugars in another medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add the egg yolks, vanilla and orange zest mixing until fully incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture, and continue beating until the dough comes together, stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. 
Divide dough in half, pat into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.  
Roll dough between lightly floured parchment, or waxed paper, until about 1/3-inch thick. Transfer sheets to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Cut into desired shape using a cookie cutter, place them on ungreased baking sheets, leaving about 1-inch between cookies. (Gather the dough scraps together, pat into a disk, chill and reroll.)
Refrigerate cookies while preheating the oven to 375 degrees F, for at least 30 minutes.
Bake the cookies, until the bottoms are golden, about 10 to 15 minutes depending on shape. Cool on sheets until firm enough to transfer to a rack to cool. Decorate as desired and serve, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.

 

I've tried a few different royal icing recipes, but I came across this one recently from  Sweet Sugarbelle and will probably stick with it.  

Royal Icing

From: Sweet Sugarbelle

  

Ingredients

• 4lbs {two bags} confectioner’s sugar
• 3/4 c. meringue powder
• 1 1/3-1 1/2 c. warm water
• 2-4 tbsp. oil-free extract or flavoring

Instructions

1. Add the dry ingredients first. Use your mixer’s whisk attachment to incorporate the sugar and meringue powder.
2. Add the extract to the water and slowly add it to the dry ingredients while mixing. At first the icing will be very liquid-like.
3. Continue to mix it at medium-high speed until it is fluffy and stiff peaks form, about 7-10 minutes. Mixing times are approximate, keep your eye it icing and stop mixing as soon as it becomes stiff.

 

I spent a Saturday night working on them, but I'm really happy with they way they turned out.  My husband thinks I'm crazy because I enjoy doing this, but now I'm looking for more excuses to make decorated cookies.