Barbie birthday cake

So for my daughter's birthday we did a "Princess and Pirate Picnic"

and who else to grace the party than Barbie herself.

When I finished the cake, I showed my daughter and she says "that's it? Just her dress?" Apparently she was expecting the Barbie mansion too.

Well, she had to be satisfied with just the dress, because that took quite a bit of work on it's own.

I watched the video HERE and it was helpful in the whole frosting process.

Supplies:

3 boxes of cake (yes 3 boxes)
At least 2 cans of frosting.
3 nine inch cake pans and one round pyrex dish

Cook all the cake, cool, and then frost. Easy peesy! Well, the video helps a little bit more than my explanation.

It was fun to make.

 

Tah Dah!! Bring on the little princess and pirates!

 

Fun Kids craft

I'm having mixed feelings about the summer ending. It's been a tough summer for a lot of reasons, but I tend to try to resist change. My oldest is going into kindergarten and I'm anxious how the transition will be. I'm sure it will be fine, but FULL day kindergarten is a big change for us. At the same time, not having three kids around all day will be kinda nice (esp. at the grocery store, etc)

Anyway, we did this fun craft on Elevator buttons and the kids loved it. They didn't even realize that they were actually learning while they were doing it too.

I got the idea from THIS blog:

They have always loved elevators and always argue about who gets to push the buttons. I thought it would be a fun thing to play where they EACH have their own elevator (hence: no fighting over the buttons). Plus - learning!

Different than the original, I had them write the numbers, cut out the circles, and glue it on by themselves. I knew my 5 year old would have no problem, but I wondered how my 3 year old would do, and he did great. I had to help him write the numbers, but he kept up and stayed focused on it the whole time. And it took a while. But it really works for lots of ages.

 

 

Final product: Glue on the numbers. Then go to any floor you want!

 

Apricot Curry Chicken

Don't you love when people start new blogs and then hardly write on them? Well hopefully I'll be a little more consistent.

I was itching to try something new tonight for dinner.

I had bought some apricots from Trader Joe's and they were way too ripe. We've usually had good success there with apricots, but this time around I knew no one would eat them. But I didn't want to waste them, so I looked for apricot chicken recipes.

I found this one for Apricot Curry Chicken and thought I would try it.

We aren't a curry family. I'm not a huge fan - and we can't handle really spicy. But it's good to try something new every once in a while.

But I didn't have several of the ingredients so here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
Some white wine
7 apricots, pitted and halved
1/4 cup white sugar
1 14 oz can light coconut milk
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp AI steak sauce (wished I wasn't out of Worcester)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp curry
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (more to taste)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (chopped)


Combine everything but the chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer about 10 min.

Stir the chopped chicken into the sauce and cook (another 10-15 min)

Served over brown rice with veggies.

There was something in it that I didn't like but I couldn't grasp what it was - the white wine? the A1? or the sugar? Honestly, I think it may have been the sugar, but I don't know. It would have helped if my apricots were a bit more tart to balance it out, but I didn't have that luxury.

Overall it was good. My husband and kids ate it, which was a plus.

 

We served it with sauteed zucchini and Fairy Tale eggplant (love that name). Any veggies would do (you can't see the zucchini because we ate it all).

Craft room

What is a better place to start my craft blog than displaying my craft room? I finished my craft room last year (and sadly have not put it to much crafty use). But I love how it turned out.

Here is where it all came from:
Headboard: freecycle
dresser and desk: next to a trash pile
Suitcase baskets (love these things): freecycle
Silk flowers and picture frames: on sale at AC Moore
Bedding: on sale at Linens and Things (before they went under) with a 20% off coupon.
Curtain hardware: leftover from the people we bought the house from (we had to cut and paint it to match of course)
Curtains: made myself. Caught a Joann's 50% off sale. Didn't have a pattern so it was an adventure. Didn't turn out perfect, but good enough. I like the finished product.
Art work: my first try using acrylics! I really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

Eventually, I will paint the pictures in the picture frames. But for now, they are fine as pictures.

 

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is one is constantly making exciting discoveries." AA Milne

 

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams

 

A new blog

So I wanted to have some showcase of my artwork/creative projects that my family and I could look at and at the same time be comfortable sharing without showcasing my entire life.

So - here ya go.... created by ME.

ps. I can't guarantee any step-by-step details of how I did each project... since if I get around to blogging it, that is enough work for me. (I do love how other people do that of course).