A Giveaway!

Hi everybody!
Just a quick note to tell you that Damaris at Within the Corners of My Kitchen is hosting a giveaway that includes my cupcake toppers and some other great paper goods for your kitchen. I'm a little slow to let you know about this but just leave a comment on her site by Tuesday, Sept. 2. She gives away lots of great things so definitely check out her blog!
Thanks Damaris!

The Tree of Happiness

Bridal Shower Cupcakes, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Oh boy…

Catherine of She's Sew Slye has given me the Tree of Happiness Award.

I'm supposed to list 6 things that make me happy.

Just 6? Lots of things make me happy, especially kind people like Catherine. (By the way…thanks for the award).

Since it's hard to decide on just 6 things that make me happy I'm going to cheat a little.

My six things are very broad categories with some specific examples given of each.

1. My family (of course)
I love it when I have all three of my kids trapped in the car with me for about a 20 minute drive. (any longer and they'll be plugged into their iPods and off in their own little world) Conversation seems to flow easily and I learn all kinds of things.

2. All things warm and cozy
fuzzy slippers, a dog sleeping on my feet, a hand-knit scarf, chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven, a good cup of coffee or hot chocolate, a campfire and a toasted marshmallow, a comfy old sweatshirt, flannel sheets…

3. Early mornings
I get up at 5:00 am. I love the peace and solitude of that time of day. I love the excitement of a new day. I love feeling like I'm ahead of the game by beating everyone else out of bed. I love seeing the sunrise.

4. December
Yes, it's a crazy, busy month, but I love it! The decorating, the shopping, the baking, the crafting, the wrapping, the get-togethers, my birthday, my son's birthday, and especially Christmas day. Nobody messes with Christmas day.

5. Severe Weather
Okay… I don't wish for any injuries, property damage, or ruined plans. But I love the excitement of a good thunderstorm. I love watching the dark clouds roll in. I love flashes of lightening and loud cracks of thunder. I love it when the power goes off for a while and I love the feeling in the air outside when it's all over. I also love a good blizzard. There's nothing better than waking up to white-out conditions and knowing that no one will be going anywhere that day.

6. A great idea

I love it when I get an idea for something I absolutely must make immediately. Something so wonderful that it cannot wait! I love having that drive to create.

So that's what I love. Now I'd like to hear what these friends love: Merry Moon Designs, My Polka Dotted World, Blossom Hill, Within the Corners of My Kitchen and the newly discovered Vintage, Pretty and Shabby.

I also love orders and etsy! I had fun making those cupcakes in the picture for a bridal shower yesterday and I thought I'd show you this cookbook I just listed on etsy. It's so cute!

Faking It

Fake Cupcakes, originally uploaded by Flying Time Designs.

Cupcakes are cute. Cupcakes look adorable on vintage dishes and display pieces. Cupcakes lend a bit of color, sweetness and nostalgia to a room.

Cupcakes, are messy, mushy and perishable.

I wanted some fake cupcakes to display in my kitchen and to use as non-perishable samples of my work. So, after some research, trial and error this is what I've come up with.

See my directions here: how to fake cupcakes

or…

If you don't feel like making them yourself I'm going to sell them in my etsy store. (I'm still working on getting all the different varieties listed so please be patient with me.)

My favorite fake cupcake is the one with the vintage ballerina topper on it. I got it from The Plastic Hut along with some really cute vintage Halloween and Christmas toppers.

What I really want for that glass dome thing shown in the picture is one of these needle felted cupcakes from Merry Moon. (hint hint family…this would be a good birthday present)

As far as "real" cupcake business matters go…

The Kearney Area Artist Guild (organizers of Art in the Park) had their monthly meeting last week and I was told by a co-worker/member that my cookies and cupcakes were talked about quite a bit and that they were very impressed with them. PLUS… I have an order for some bridal shower cupcakes as a result of my booth at Art in the Park. : )

Have a great week!

NOTE: 8/17/08- I'm having trouble publishing the Fake Cupcake Directions. The text below the photos doesn't show up right (and it's just helvitica!). I'm working on it. For now… when I click on a photo it takes me to the slide show view and the text appears correctly there. Hope that works for you!

Summer Lovin', Chocolate Lovin'

9 days… that's it. That's all that is left of summer break. In just 9 days our school year starts. Some school-related practices have already begun. Once school starts it seems life is just one huge flurry of nonstop activity until Christmas.

I'm not ready to let go of the slower paced, long, warm and sunny days of summer. I'm setting aside my baking projects until the first crisp days of fall and finding some no-bake SUMMER treats in my vintage cookbooks.



This week I made Royal Hot Chocolate Sauce from Hershey's Index Recipe Book, copywright 1934. It was pretty good but I think I cooked it a little too long as it got pretty hard and chewy the minute I poured it over the icecream. Oh well… next time I'll try cooking it a little less than the recipe says. I bought fat free ice cream thinking it would taste okay with a little hot fudge sauce poured on top. It was gross. So the good news… I did not devour the Hot Fudge Sundae shown in the picture. With chewy fudge sauce and the crappy ice cream, it just wasn't worth the calories.

Any way here's the recipe in case you want to try it. What I sampled from the spoon tasted pretty good. I think if you're careful not to overcook, this is probably a very good chocolate sauce. I'm definitely going to try the recipe again. (if you click on the image, then click "all sizes" in flickr, you should get a version that is large enough to be read easily)

And now… the awards!!!

My friend Heather of Merry Moon Designs has given me the Brilliant Weblog Award and Michelle of Faerie Dust Dreams gave me some awards a couple of weeks ago.

I 'd like to thank Blogger for hosting my blog,
my family for putting up with all of my baking endeavors,
my parents for instilling in me a love of baking and
allowing me to play in the kitchen as a child,
our family friend, Ron, for being a great taste tester…

Thank you! I am honestly very, very flattered. I've agreed to pass these awards along to seven other blogs. Well, you know me. I analyze my decisions very thoroughly and I've thought long and hard about who should get these awards next. There are just so many deserving blogs but many have already recieved other awards so here are the blogs I chose:

Creative Chaos
Madame Muffin
Obsessed with Cupcakes
Kitschen Pink
& 3 others to be named soon

I also wanted to let you know about a new flickr group I've started called Kids in the Kitchen. This is a place to share photos of things your kids have helped make and ideas for "kid friendly" baking projects.
Keep cool, and enjoy the rest of your summer!