Cupcake Week!

Yay for cupcakes! The Martha Stewart Show is doing cupcake week this week. Today featured coconut cupcakes and new recipes will follow all week. Martha Stewart is also having a cutest cupcake contest as well. You can check out photos of all of the entries. Here are some of my favorites.

Sentimental Artwork

Alexa Lett couldn't bear to get rid of her daughter's favorite pieces of clothing from childhood so she cut little dresses out of the fabric and made a piece of art for her daughter's room. You may not be able to tell from the photo but there are also little notes written around the clothing with explanations of their significance. This is seriously sweet.

Favorite Blogs

There are of course about a million wonderful blogs out there and I am always discovering new ones which are crafty in nature and truly put this little blog to shame. My most recent new favorites include:

Homemade by Jill

I love that Jill had her own crafty party to make sock animals with her friends. Its nice to know I am not the only one who thinks sewing sock animals on a Saturday night sounds like a good time. I think she is fabulous and especially like the felt play food she made for her niece. The food comes complete with a little sewn grocery bag and storage tub for the ravioli. Just adorable. I absolutely love cloth food. I am also impressed with Jill's entertaining skills. Check out the amazing baby shower she threw with homemade goodies and decor.

Salt and Chocolate

First off, it is evident Mary Beth is an amazing mom. Second, I love her creations as well. I really like the little composition books she made with patterned paper and labels. I also love the super sweet pillow she made for son's first birthday, embroidered with his name and birthday. Her recipes also look amazing.

Ric Rac

Check out this adorable cowboy doll. Could he be any cuter? And Jodie's selvedge bags are so clever. You can follow her tutorials to make a little selvedge doll quilt, a handy fabric storage bucket, or other fun item.

Dinner is Served

This salad has become a weekly regular on our dinner menu. It is sooo good and the easiest one-dish meal to make. The recipe originally came from a Martha Stewart Everyday Foods Cookbook. Here is my own simplified version.






Ingredients
spinach
chicken
salt + pepper
fresh green beans
dried cranberries
sliced almonds

Directions
Grill chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper and chop up. Wash and cut up green beans. Boil beans until slightly softened. Spread spinach on plate; top one quarter with grilled chicken, one quarter with dried cranberries, one quarter with sliced almonds and one quarter with green beans. Drizzle with your favorite vinaigrette (I like Newman's Own Oil & Vinegar). Voila!

More Paper Toys

Jane and I have been printing all the fun paper playsets from Wondertime I mentioned below and I was reminded of another site where you can download free paper toys as well. The Toymaker has lots of free paper toys you can print and fold that have a whimsical theme. Some of my favorites include the old fashioned pinwheel, the airplane, the folding animals and the little paper toyshop which includes paper toys for the windows.

Printable Play Sets

Check out the Create & Play section at Wondertime and print their free paper play sets. Laminate them and your kids can play them again and again. Here are a few of my favorites. Have fun!











Cars and Trucks with Roadway
Kitty with Accessories
Picnic setting and food
Hula Girl with Beach Accessories
Sandwich and Fixin's

Finished Quilts (Not Mine)

I seem to have lost all motivation to finish up the quilt I was working on recently. You know how it is when you are really gung-ho and you start something then get really overwhelmed. I have that problem on occasion. Usually when it comes to cleaning/organizing my house. I try to do the whole thing at once. Anyway, my latest baby quilt is still a work in progress but I have found a couple of quilts from fellow bloggers lately that I am totally in love with. I did organize my fabric stash tonight in hopes that this might motivate me to get back to work on the quilt.



















1. The red pinwheel quilt from All Buttoned Up is just gorgeous. I want one. I love the colors. I love the vintage look.
2. The adorable block quilt with the from Two Straight Lines has the most clever little car stitched along the faux road. Where do these ideas come from?
3. The beautiful quilt from Glittergoods incorporates preschooler's drawings which were scanned and printed onto inkjet fabric). I just love the children's artwork. What a sweet idea.

Button Birthday Card

I finally had an excuse (a family birthday) to print the free button birthday card template from How About Orange that I've been wanting to make. I just printed the template onto card stock, cut it in half, folded it over and glued on an array of colorful button blooms. Painless. And oh so pretty.

Happy Easter

Just wanted to show off my Easter carrot cupcakes. I made these for our big family event. I love the pastel frosting and was really happy with the way the colors turned out.

Vintage Embroidery & Patterns

I love anything vintage. Especially children's items. Patternbee carries adorable and kitschy vintage embroidery patterns to use on dishtowels, quilts, clothing, you-name-it. The site also gives how-tos for transferring patterns and the basic stitches you can use to hand embroider. Super helpful. I don't actually embroider, but now I am motivated to learn. Best of all, there is a section with free embroidery patterns to print and directions for how to transfer the designs. There are even a couple free patterns for sewing projects like this little lambkin.

Creative Play

I am totally in love with this little sewn "mail center" and matching mail bag that Jamie C. from Nothing Fancy whipped up for her girls. The little embroidered letters and stamps are so beautiful. A lot of love was obviously put into this little gift. The mailbox was purchased from the craft store for $3. I have been wanting to get a little mailbox set for Jane and found this cute wooden mailbox from Melissa & Doug; but I am considering sewing a little homemade kit for her instead. Oh, do I have the time? The energy? But it is so sweet!


I also found this really fun sewn playhouse awhile ago from One Crafty Mumma which I also love! She made the playhouse to fit her dining room table, complete with a sheer window to peek through and felt birds and flowers to add some character. This is another project I am adding to my list of "someday I will make".

Children's Clothing Patterns

I will admit that I have never actually followed a sewing pattern to create anything. I usually just stick to straight lines and make things up as I go with my trusty sewing machine. However, learning to follow a pattern is on my list of things to check off someday. Now that Disdressed has launched a new line of children's sewing patterns, I am feeling motivated to actually learn how to follow one. Oliver + S is the new line and features five patterns for children's outfits in sizes Birth-24 months and 2T-5T. Each pattern is sold for $15.95.

Girls Easter Tote

Betz White shows you how to make this adorable Easter tote out of an old wool sweater and other wool scraps. Isn't it perfect for spring? The materials are simple:

Wool Sweater, "felted" by washing in hot water
Felt scraps (either from felted wool sweaters or wool craft felt)
Assorted buttons
Sewing Machine (optional)
Craft Glue
Needle and thread

There is just enough time left to sew a tote before Easter Sunday.

Peanut Butter + Chocolate = Bliss

My two great loves in this life are peanut butter and chocolate. And when the two get together they are a match made in heaven. Cast Sugar, is my new favorite cooking blog which features a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls that are making me crazy! I have my eye on Dorie's Peanut Buttery Blondies as well. In fact, every recipe looks amazing and my mouth is totally watering. Now off to the kitchen!

Easter Egg Animals

I just love finding fun clip-art and printable crafts. I was looking around Martha Stewart for some sort of illustration to use to make Easter cupcake toppers and found these great printable animal parts to attach to Easter eggs. I love them. Enjoy.

Cupcake Toppers

It seems cupcake toppers are in these days. I used the template from Martha Stewart Kids downloadable lunch sticker sheet to create cupcake toppers to put in goodie bags to give the girls who attended the cake decorating class I taught last week. You can use any photo or clipart to make your own. These sticker sheets just happen to be the perfect size and I love their round shape. I printed two of each, cut them out and glued them back to back with a toothpick inside.

Kit Pistol

My sister and I went down to the Sweet Life boutique Saturday and waited in line to meet Project Runway's Kit. She was super nice and wonderfully sweet. She chatted with everyone, signed autographs and posed for photos. We asked her her take on the Project Runway Season finale and she said she really liked Rami. She was happy Christian won though as she thought he was very talented. Here are some photos of Kit's designs she had on display and her funky hooded tees she had for sale.

Cake Decorating Class

The cake decorating class went well last week. Playing with the frosting bags and practicing on cupcakes was a lot of fun and I was so impressed by the cupcakes the girls made. The lighting in the building was not the best so the photos look pretty horrible. You can see everyone hard at work. I am doing another class for a few more girls this week and will try to get some photos taken for a step-by-step tutorial.

Project Runway Finale

Here are my thoughts on the season finale of Project Runway: I LOVED the fashion show. Everyone's collections were amazing. I was particularly in love with Rami's collection. I actually liked his color choice even though the judges weren't particularly fond of it. I would love to own several of his dresses! I would have been satisfied had any of the finalists won but I am happy with the outcome. Christian (the winner) is definitely talented and was the obvious winner based on his work throughout the show.











My favorite pieces from Rami's collection. (I would actually wear these!)

Kit Pistol Brings her Fashions to Olympia on Saturday

Kit Pistol, one of my favorite contestants from this season of Project Runway, is coming to Olympia on Saturday! She is showing her designs and posing for photos at the downtown Olympia boutique, "Sweet Life," from 4-7pm this Saturday, March 8th. The boutique is located at 528 Capitol Way S. in Olympia. I love Kit! She was by far one of my favorite designers and favorite people on the show. She should have made it to the final three! Oh well, the article in the Olympian newspaper mentions that she is currently working on her first runway collection, so obviously she is having success. I'm so excited!

Kids Crafts: Clip Art & Templates

These are some of my favorite downloads from Martha Stewart Kids. The illustrations are great, the templates are fun and best of all, they are free to print!

1. Kids Birthday Party Planner. This fun birthday party planning sheet helps you and your kids plan out birthday festivities.
2. Magnetic Lunch Chart. Use this nifty lunch chart to plan out your kids lunchbox for the week.
3. Lunch Labels and Stickers. These are sooo darn cute. Print these lunch labels onto sticker sheets and dress up those boring brown lunch bags.
4. Cupcake Toppers. Cut out these cupcake toppers, attach to toothpicks and plop them into your frosted creations.
5. Notebook labels. Make your own book covers or use the booklate templates to inform others that "this book belongs to (insert your name here)."