Views from my Dreary Window

It looks like this outside today. We've had a week long warmish spell and much of the snow has melted leaving ugly snow behind. After the worst Valentine's Day ever, I am home today nursing a nasty cold/flu thing. I actually went to sleep last night at 10:00 and got up this morning at 10:30 and did not feel much better. My nose is so chapped it hurts just to breath in.

I was supposed to host dinner group last night but one of the participants caught wind that I was sick and convinced me to move it to her house (thank you Kathy). I have a tendency to over do it - I never cancel. It's against my religion. I did send the cheesecake I had made so the group would have dessert. I even dyed it pink in honor of Valentine's Day.

It looked like this. I planned on only the center decoration of hearts, piping the whipped cream on each individual slice as I served it, but since I had to send it out the door, I just piped the whole cheesecake. It looks a bit busy does it not? Oh well.

Susan stopped by last night with KFC for the kids since she somehow figured out that they were going to be scrounging for their own dinners - I have very observant (and thoughtful) friends.
The kids have watched movies all day long today including Madagascar 2, twice. Here's to feeling better by tomorrow. I'll stop whining now and just go to bed!

Taking on Fondant

I spent yesterday working on a cake order for a hockey rink. Since I could not figure out how to make a really smooth top for the cake, I decided to learn how to make and use fondant.

Fondant, if you buy it in a box at say, Michaels, takes like stale cardboard - or an armpit. So, I found a simple recipe on YouTube for making marshmallow fondant which tastes like - marshmallows.

I made a princess daisy lemon cake and a batch of tart lemon curd for the filling. On the edges of the cake I piped a rich butter cream (rich as in 4 sticks of butter and 6 egg yolks) and then filled it in with the lemon curd. After frosting the cake with the remaining butter cream, I put the cake outside to harden.


Then, I took the fondant I made the night before and rolled it out on a pile of powdered sugar. This part really was not that hard and using a fondant smoother I was able to get a pretty finish to the cake - but not a nice edge on the bottom.


So, I rolled a gazillion little balls of fondant to put around the bottom of the cake to make it prettier. Then I rolled out the blue and the red fondants. They were much tricker. I have never worked with fondant and have never taken any cake decorating classes. I usually like my cakes decorated with really good icing and maybe some fresh flowers or chocolate - or just lots of really good icing. Making lines would have been easier with a pizza cutter and the red fondant was freakishly sticky. I think for small decorations, it would have been easier to use the crappy boxed fondant. Lesson learned.


So, I made a HUGE mess - not only in my kitchen, but all over myself as well. However, it was really fun and challenging and the cake looked great when it was done.


Yes, there is only one net, their dog ate the other one. Such is life.

More Hearts

A few more Valentine crafts and treats for the kids classes. This one is really simple, just paint your kids hands and help them make a heart shape out of their fingers. I used craft paint and a foam brush. The bathroom sink was quite pink that day.


Calvin made Valentine pencils with a heart lollipop tapes to the top and a jaunty red ribbon bow. He wrote his name on every tag though some were more legible than others!


For Max, little bags full of kisses.


For Sophie, I picked up a set of coasters in the dollar bin at Michaels . I then printed the tags for the front which Sophie glued on. On the back of each Valentine we taped either a Valentine pencil for the boys or two bracelets for the girls (also from the dollar bin).


Calvin's class exchanged their Valentine's today and Calvin was very, very pleased with his bag full of treats. He and Natalie ate quite a few this afternoon while I was up to my eyeballs in fondant. More on that tomorrow.

It is only 8:15pm here and I am seriously contemplating going to bed. I feel like I have allergies right now. What could I possible be allergic to in the middle of February in the frozen North?

Card Class

Card Class is next week Wednesday and Thursday at 7pm here at my home. Classes are always free. The supplies this month are from Anchor Paper and I supply the stamps, ink and tools. We are making these three cards this month - we usually make 6 of each but you can choose to make more or less:

If you would like to come, just let me know and I will email the supply list to you (as soon as I finish typing it).

Random Catch Up

Max was VIP but it's not called VIP - I think it is PIC though I can't remember what that stands for. Pretty Important Creature? Priceless Incredible Cretin? Who knows, but Max was really excited about it. This is the cool poster he slaved over (looking a bit worse for wear from walking home with it in the rain). Max does not get enough attention and soaks it up hungrily when he does. He is a great kid.


Sophie spent yesterday working on her Valentine mailbox for school. She really pulled out the crazy creative juices on this one!


This is the state she left my table in when she was done. Yep, it took me 1/2 hour this morning to get all of the glue off. There were pink feathers somehow glued to the bottom of the table.


I spent hours this week organizing books in Sophie's room and this is a pile of duplicate beginning chapter books we found (one of the hazards of yard sales). I am going to list them on craigslist unless someone I know wants them. 13 books total for $6.00 - less than $.50 a book!

Hearty Crafts

Here's an easy and fun Valentine craft for you and your kiddos. All you need is glue, a bunch of hearts and a sheet of paper. The instructions: make an animal using only hearts (I used a couple of punches, a cuttlebug die and a sizzix die for the hearts). Warning: you will be finding tiny hearts all over your house for a week - they travel.

A Valentine Wish for You

I was thinking of you when I made these cards. Just pretend you actually got one in the mail.

Sophie Came Home From School

Sophie came home from school on Friday with a pile of snow balanced on her head. I do not know why.

My Brave, Yet Tired Knight

Valentine Crafts

My little wire tree needed more Valentine ornaments so I thought I'd make some last night.

My Little Valentine

Sophie wore her red Valentine dress from Grandma E. to school today with one of my scrabble tile pendants which she tried to sell to her teacher.


I love that I can braid her hair now.

New Venture for 2009

Edit: Thank you for the sales! I can make any of the sold items again, they just need 24 hours and a warm day (to prevent cracking) to dry.

I am slowly inching my way into crafty sales. After years of making fun crafty things, I've finally decided to try and sell some of them. I am in the process of opening a little shop with cards, clips and other trinkets, but in the meantime, I am going to list some items here to see if there is any interest in them.

These are scrabble tile and domino tile pendants. Each one comes on a 24" ball chain (which can be cut to a shorter length). The scrabble tile pendants are $6.00 each and the larger domino pendants are $8.00 each. Click on each image below for a closer look.


Valentine's Day domino tiles:


Easter scrabble tiles:


Fourth of July and patriotic pendants:

If you are interested in any of the pendants, please leave me a comment or call me (if you are local) and I will contact you, or a comment with an email address if you are not local. I can make more of any of the above designs and will add additional designs once the shop is up and running.

I will ship in the US - $2.00 for unlimited pendants.

Thank you for looking (does anyone read this blog?!) - I hope to have a shop up and running by next week. Wish me luck! By the way, what should I call my shop? Any clever ideas?