Cupcakes, anyone?

These little guys are from a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to get them up here. I have almost perfected my "chemical icing": the kind that doesn't melt in water, tastes sugary and gets a crusty hard shell on the outside, usually found in grocery store bakery displays. I can't help it. I love it. I think I am addicted. I have ordered cakes for my own birthday that require extra icing, think dinosaur (all icing head and tail.) My family thinks I am nuts, my hubby think I have a sickness, but they love me anyway. This is my first batch (partially remembered recipe at the bottom). I didn't write it down and just kind of eyeballed everything, which is really bad for me, I can never make the same thing twice with a recipe, so what am I to do now?

Henry and Hunter helped decorate.

Henry very precisely put a heart on each top.

Hunter ate some and tried to cover it up with 'em.

Hmmm. Thanks to Geraldine and Katie at Auntie Ang's baby shower for sharing the concept of shortening in the icing mix. Didn't know you could do that, it has a big part of the "chemical" in "chemical icing". For this first batch I only had butter flavored Crisco, which was kind of funny tasting right after mixing. After a day, (yep, I saved it in a tub before we decorated, with two little ones who can bake all day?) it tasted pretty good. It seems to me when making icing,that the longer it sits, the more that the sugar particles melt away and taste like frosting instead of butter (or shortening) and sugar. Anyhoo, here is what I remember...

Chemical Icing #1
3/4 stick of butter flavored Crisco
1 # + confectioners sugar
6 tsp + vanilla
3 tbs + whole milk

Mix until blended, add any milk or vanilla as needed to get the right consistency. I used lots of vanilla to hide the butter flavor weirdness. I am working on improving this accuracy (or lack there of) but I also need to lose the poundage gained in "experimenting", sad, I know, but it has to be pretty bad for me not to eat it...
As in, "I used salt instead of sugar" bad, which has never happened, hence the problem...

Auntie A's Baby Shower

It was a crazy whirlwind of a weekend. I flew into Seattle Friday night, unpacked and sorted until 1230am (okay - Ms. A did steal me for a spa pedi treat - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU), packed up the suv, picked up the cupcakes with Grandma Bub, and we were off to Gramma Sue's.

Handmade garlands. Poms are cut muslin circles hot glued to large wood beads on linen twill tape. Banner is precut Martha Stewart Crafts note cards with light grey buttons and precut letters from Michaels.

Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie were fabulous! Gorgeous plated food. Super pretty.

Foods: fruit, veggies and cheese trays (thank you Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie). Homemade cinnamon rolls and Egg Casserole (yum, yum, yum Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie). I baked some sugar button cookies and most survived the plane trip (those that didn't, got eaten before 10 am, a girl gotta eat, right?)

Scalloped bowl from Marshalls (I luv Carson City, just can't find this stuff in Seattle) and scalloped enamel cake stand from Farmhouse Wares (see prev. post). Cute as a button made from old scrabble tiles and hot glue.

Mini cupcakes were from Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle. Yum! Vintage jars and vintage pressed glass cake stands. Lidded apothacary candy dishes are from Williams Sonoma. Wire pedestal from Sur La Table.

Everything looked better than I had hoped. I had just started taking pics right as guests arrived. Just in the nic of time. I should have taken more, but I am still learning photography.

Guess how many buttons is in that little jar in the middle. Not including the decorative one on the lid...guess...really...522. Go figure. Guests wrote their guesses on scalloped tags from Martha Stewart Crafts and plopped 'em in the mercury glass planter from Pottery Barn. Green pencils (see other post) were from Twig & Thistle and in votive holders from Martha Stewart's line at Macy's. Gorgeous vases for flowers are Waterford (borrowed from Grandma Bub). "ON DUTY/OFF DUTY" pillows were from Target with iron on transfers printed by me but inspired by Wry Baby, which I couldn't find at the time of the shower.

Few bunches of green and white flowers for ambiance (love flowers). Prizes for the shower games were packaged in square kraft paper boxes tied with muslin twill tape and a light grey button. Prizes were all around $5, 1. cupcake stand (as shown in prev. post), 2. galvanized plant stakes with marker, 3. set of 4 button magnets (2 large buttons, two frilly flower buttons), and 4. Starbucks GCard for $5 (always popular). Handmade felt booties (one shown) from Heather Bailey's blog. Tiered wire stand from Crate and Barrel. White vase from Martha Stewart at Macys. Cute as a button blanket found at Marshalls. Vintage reader cards found in Frenchie and Flea's store on Etsy.

Button coasters are from Parrot Designs (see prev. post)Homemade Blueberry and Peach Jam favors by Grandma Bub (resident jam maker and supplier of the B Family), I printed out labels on cardstock and cut with a circle cutter to screw in between the lids. Easy peazy.

Lovely Etsy

I was flitting around yesterday on Etsy, doesn't everyone? I am starting to think I should join EA (etsy anonymous), ha! I found this fablulous garland from Poppylarity's Shop. Gorgeous! I want one, so pretty! It is so unbelievably girly, perfect for valentine's day, mother's day, everyday in my office. Heck, I'd hang it over my closet door, in my kitchen...a little crazy but I must have this...someday. And also, since its made from vintage hankies...what a great use for something we love but end up saving in a dark box somewhere.
It comes in white (my fave, current obsession with the absence of color, above) or the florals (so pretty).

A few more goodies

For the grammies...mammas of the mama always get left out. They aren't allowed to really "throw" a shower, so they need some lovin' too! Not that everyone doesn't already know, but now they can wear their bragging rights.

So, those poor cheap tissue balls have gone to the wayside. Apparently, tissue paper from the dollar store is not as forgiving as the better quality, and can't make very large poms, because the size is more square than rectangular (which is needed for a good pom.) That's okay, I always have a back up plan. Martha - I have my coupon, will trade for poms. hee hee. I will make another strand of fabric poms, too.

Here are some cute tags for the table. I still have to print out the labels and iron them on to muslin before I attach them.

I finally finished the Bingo game! yay! It didn't take as long as I originally thought, I am such the procrastinator! I made a template in PowerPoint for the board, and instead of copying and pasting each one differently, I made the original with numbers 1-24. Then I copied that slide 20 times and changed a few numbers around. After all slides had different combos, I did "find and replace" for each number, which resulted in different combinations of the words. It was easier to check for doubles or if you forgot a number in each slide visually with actual numbers, just count 1-24 on each and boom, done.

For the pieces I used a Martha Stewart Crafts button embossing punch on green copy paper. You would be surprised how hard it was to find colored copy paper. I finally had to go to Walmart (bad girl) because all my craft shops didn't have plain, lightweight paper. Only cardstock and funky patterns. Ed laughed at me when I punched them out because I had to "remove the hanging chads" hee hee hee.

Almost there! Two weeks to go!

I have to get everything packed up and shipped on Monday. I still have little fabric bags to finish and a few surprises for Ms. Claire and Ms. August (the littlest of guests.)
I also have an incredible amount of tissue paper to fluff. I takes forever to fluff, do I ship prefluffed or ready-to-fluff...dilemma.

Here are some of the finished goodies and decor.