Cupcakes – Thimbleanna

Twin 1 and Twin 2

50 Comments / August 11, 2011 August 11, 2011 / Cupcakes

A few months ago, my little friend at work announced that she is expecting twins in October. We’re all very excited for her and, of course, I spent lots of time dreaming of a fun baby shower with one of those beautiful dessert tables that you see all over the internet. I was smacked back into reality when I realized 1) my house would be torn up all summer, and 2) if you want work people to attend any sort of “shower” you need to plan it over a lunch hour.

Even though it would be a quick event (we decided to go to Pizza Hut so that guests could choose the salad/pizza buffet and we wouldn’t have to wait on orders for a group), I decided that we should be able to have a little fun with it. The internet came to my rescue when I saw several references that converted Dr. Suess’s Thing 1 and Thing 2 to Twin 1 and Twin 2. If you’ve been reading along here, you know how crazy I am about The Things. So, we started with an invitation.

Then, we moved on to cupcakes, made in the same style as the rehearsal dinner cupcakes. Twin 1 and Twin 2 cupcakes were definitely not my finest cupcake hour, but the ladies seemed ok with them.

Luckily, Pizza Hut let me decorate a little bit. I covered the tables with white plastic and “created” a table runner by folding my Twin 1 and Twin 2 fabric in on the sides. A few balloon centerpieces, a few sprinkles and the cupcakes and we had a simple, quick table.

There was an awkward moment when they asked me where I got the “twin” fabric. Ummm…I just had it? ‘Cause, you know, everyone has a bunch of Dr. Suess fabric just lying around, don’t they? I’m sure glad I didn’t have to show them my stash. It’s better if your non-quilting coworkers don’t know the depths of your illness.

Anyway, everything went well and we all had a good time. And when we returned to the office, we offered the real twins a cupcake. They had to share.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Weekend ChitChat

23 Comments / August 7, 2011 August 7, 2011 / Chat, Cupcakes

Did you all have a wonderful weekend? We got rain! Woohoo! It’s been so dry here — I finally mowed for the first time in 5 weeks. Fortunately the rain held off during the two hour drive to visit TheFirstChild. He bought some furniture when he was here for BigDaddy’s birthday and we delivered it yesterday — strapped to the top of the car.

Today, I decided to try a new cupcake recipe. When MyDadLovesMeBestSister called, I told her about the new recipe and she said something like “Why would you try a new recipe when you have that recipe that everyone loves?” I love the Magnolia Cupcake Recipe, but sometimes the cake part seems too dense and dry. I found this new recipe via Pinterest (it’s an addiction!) and it was billed as the perfect cupcake recipe.

It was pretty darn good, and I liked the texture, but it was lacking that rich perfect vanilla flavor in the Magnolia recipe. So, I think it’s back to the Magnolia recipe next time.

There was also a little internet surfing this weekend. I don’t know how it happened, but I stumbled upon this video:

Just another reason to make me really want an iPad. I’ve always loved children’s books and it’s amazing to me how they’re changing for new generations of children. I hope nothing will ever replace a child sitting on his parent’s lap while being read a story. But those animated, interactive illustrations. Wow! I think it’s pretty exciting!

While I was hopping around on the internet, I also read that William Joyce has a new series of books coming out, starting next month. The series is called the Guardians of Childhood. In an interview, William Joyce said “We have a mythology for superman and batman, but we don’t have a mythology for the guys we actually believed in.” In these new books, he’ll create a “mythology” for The Man in the Moon, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Mother Goose and Santa Claus. I love that he calls them “The Guardians of Childhood” — it does feel like they kept our childhood safe, doesn’t it?

I’m not really sure how I feel about someone else defining “my” childhood characters though. I’ve always thought that the beauty of these characters is that we all have our own visions for them, and based on what I’ve read about The Man in the Moon, “my” characters won’t really line up with the ones that William Joyce is creating. So, I might just be enjoying his beautiful illustrations.

Ok. Enough ChitChat for now. Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

A FUN Party

52 Comments / June 16, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Cupcakes, Family

The middle of the week is here already! I’ve been pretty lazy this week — just resting up after my niece’s big graduation party this past weekend. We had the best time and MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a wonderful party for the newly minted graduate.

The weeks around graduations here in the states are just crazy. Everyone has a party for their graduate and everyone party hops until they’ve turned into pumpkins. Having to squish your party in among all the rest is a challenge, so MyDadLovesMeBestSister decided to have a party that didn’t include lunch or dinner, but was right in the middle — Cupcakes, Coffee and Ice Cream. It was a BIG hit. Huge! Lots of my niece’s friends said it was their favorite party. What’s not to love?

MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a barista there to make all sorts of coffee drinks — hot and iced. My younger niece and her friend scooped ice cream for the guests to make their own sundaes. And then there were all those cuppiecakes. Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of the cupcake bar until there was a big dent in the pile, but you get the idea. (I used Martha Stewart’s little cupcake flags and SweetiePie did most of the cupcake frosting. Didn’t she do a great job?) I thought it was pretty funny that the pink ones weren’t as fast to go as the other colors. What’s wrong with pink???

Every detail of the party was stunning. Absolutely gorgeous! The flowers were breathtaking (check out those lime flowers — swoon!) In addition to the florist bouquets, there were a bunch of canning jar centerpieces that held gerbera daisies and paint brushes. My niece plans to study art in college — how cute is that? And in a fun twist of events, the colors my sister chose matched the quilt I’d made my niece. Look at all the pretty tablecloths she whipped up from quilter’s cottons.

Yum Yummy. I want to go back and see it all again. My sister sure knows how to throw a party!

Next Up — My BESTEST Auntie from Utah arrives tonight — I’m soooo excited!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Rain, Rain…

46 Comments / May 2, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Cupcakes, Sewing

Hello…did you all have a good weekend? Ours was rainy again, but very nice. It’s like a baby who has it’s days and nights mixed up. We’re in a weather cycle of beautiful, sunny weekdays and rainy weekends. But, that’s ok, April Showers bring May Flowers you know.

Anyway, we just hung around the house all weekend. On Thursday night, I made baseball cupcakes for MyDadLovesMeBestSister. It was her turn to make a treat for the boys on the baseball team. My nephew plays on the same high school baseball team that our boys played on. His teammates call him Little K (our last name), after TheFirstChild. That cracks me up, since he’s not a Little K — he’s a Little L!

On Saturday, just after a rainstorm, we noticed the kitties on high alert in front of one of the windows. We peeked out the window, and Look! It’s Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail.

We watched them for awhile, and then I moved to another window to take pictures, and noticed this:

Bat Rastards! Look what they’ve done to my hostas — there are hardly any leaves left. And see all those little leaves next to the hostas? Those are weeds. Why can’t the bunnies eat the weeds and help me with my weed control issues? So Rude.

I finished my backpack this weekend. My candy backpack is worn out and I’ve loved it so much, I had to make another one. Someone at work the other day looked at my candy backpack and asked, what could I possibly need to carry around, that I need to carry such a big backpack? I didn’t think he’d understand yoyo and sock knitting needs, so I just smiled at him and shrugged my shoulders.

This is my third black and white backpack (well, not for me — the other two were gifts) and the fabric is finally gone! ;-)

So, that was all the excitement for the weekend, but two other little things —

— I’ve been having a lot of trouble commenting on some blogspot blogs. It happens on blogs that ask what account to use for my comment. Blogger pops up a new window and makes me log in. It takes my login and makes me think the comment registered. It took me a few weeks (after checking on old posts) to realize that my comments were disappearing. It makes me sad to think of all my comments that were lost. So, if you’re a blogspot blog and I usually comment and suddenly I haven’t been, you now know why. I’m thinking I’m not the only one with these problems?

— My April 20% sale for Bolts o’ Bella is over, but since there was so much interest in the Bella swatch cards, I’ve decided for May to send a free swatch card ($19.00 value) to anyone who buys a bolt. It will be one swatch card per person, so please indicate in the comment box at checkout that you’d like the swatch card. They’re really cool — I promise you’ll love them!

XOXO,
Anna

Cupcakes in a Hurry

54 Comments / February 4, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Cupcakes

So. I was happily minding my own business, having a very boring week (wondering what I could possibly blog about, I might add), and when I got to work this morning, there was an e-mail announcing that we’re going to have a potluck lunch tomorrow in honor of the Colts playing in the superbowl on Sunday. (In case you don’t know, we do live in Indiana.) Apparently the stars were all aligned because I just saw this post last night. I really don’t care much about football, but cupcakes…cupcakes are another story! I’ll go for any excuse to make cupcakes!

So, at lunchtime, I grabbed the little Petunia I work with (she’s TheFirstChild’s age – eek!) and we ran over to the local cake decorating store. They had all the goodies we needed (they even had cool stuff for Saints fans), including this cool new stuff I’d never worked with called Disco Dust. I was just going to use sprinkles, but little Petunia thought this stuff was so cool and convinced me to try it.

Can you see the sparkles? Sometimes you can’t see it in pictures, but I managed to get a highlight or two. It’s like superfine edible glitter and it’s really fun to work with.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish making about 12 of those little Go Colts! flags. And then eat a cupcake of course. Never let a diet stand in the way of a cupcake!

Have a good weekend — and don’t forget to root for the Colts! ;-)
XOXO,
Anna