Painting

In case you've been wondering where I've gone off too...I've been painting. Yes, painting. The kind of painting that's non-stop, shoulder aching, sweat dripping, all day painting. I'm using the fact that family is coming into town next weekend to help me stay motivated. I literally painted all last week! And for those of you who are questioning me- yes, we have a lot of white walls! Or...had. When we first moved into our place it was covered in primer. The entire place.... it's been a long process painting all these walls. I'm sure we could have hired someone to do it- but that's so easy. Where's the fun in that? I finally am finished with most of the painting so I can turn my focus to cleaning and crafting. Here's the before and after of my son's room. He was so excited - it was awesome to see his face light up when I told him it was time to paint his room :)

Before:

During:

With help:

After:

Bananas Fosters Cupcakes

Ever since I did these cupcakes for my hubby's birthday they've been very popular with customers. It's a banana cupcake base topped with a rum (yes rum)/brown sugar/butter glaze. And then they are topped with a double vanilla buttercream. They are delicious! 

 Anyway... I had an order due today and I thought I'd share a basic secret: It's all about the tools. You do need to have some skills, but in order to get beautiful cupcakes you also need the right tools. If you use canned frosting and are trying to make a cupcake look pretty by using a butter knife- that is hard! And if you can achieve beauty from canned frosting and a butter knife... then you have skills!! It really helps to have your frosting be the right consistancy. I make mine from scratch and I also pipe when it is at room temperature. If it's too cold it won't pipe properly. If you don't have a piping bag (you should get one if you bake frequently) you can use a ziplock bag. Fill the bag and cut off a little bit of the corner. But it is essential to purchase the proper piping tips. Feel free to e-mail me questions because I could go on forever :) Anyway- with proper tools your cupcakes can look identical to these.

Evicting old "tenants"

We have some big events coming up in my house and lots of family coming to visit. I'm guessing if this year is anything like the previous years I'm going to be one crazed mama come the 4th of July. So I'm preparing super early this year. Starting with taking a deep breath.... breathe in.... and out.. Last week I managed to kick out some "tenants" from my upstairs cabinets. They haven't paid rent or been seen in over 2 years. So they are gone. Which made room for....space. I managed to shift some of my other "tenants" around and now they are all nicely categorized and folded. It's such a wonderful feeling -  proper management - or what I like call organization. I refrained from taking pictures of the eviction process, it wasn't pretty. I had no idea how many past due "tenants" there were hiding in those cabinets. It's slightly embarrassing considering that I'm the property manager. I vow to never let that happen again! 

I Love too much!

I realized that this new posting series was becoming challenging for me to pick something to write about. I just have too many things and places and people, etc. that I love. Ultimately this posting series would have gone on forever. So it's now done. But before it's completely gone....I must say that I love my family more than anything in the world. They are the reason for everything I do. They are amazing and the best. I feel very lucky to have such a great family. I love my family

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I Love....

Where else can you buy amazing furniture and stock up on Lingonberry preserves?? I love walking through the showroom that has been perfectly laid out by professionals. It makes me think I need to buy everything in the room because if I just buy one piece it will never look that good in my house. But alas, I find a great piece, without feeling like I had to purchase the entire room. And the best part about IKEA is the price. Always affordable! Then as we're leaving the showroom they have the cafe... and it just happens to be super cheap too. To make it better, kids eat free at IKEA now through July 4th.

But one of my favorite things at IKEA is stocking up on all the yummy swedish food. My husband has Swedish in his family line and we try to honor some of the traditions and IKEA makes it soooo much easier for me. Now I'm off to go make some Lingonberry bread

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I Love....

Art...

  I'm an artist myself and love to surround myself with artwork. Recently my husband and I acquired a very unique piece. It's a collage of wine labels. The artist who does these pieces is a local artist named 

Jeff Adamoff.

 His pieces are displayed throughout the nearby cities. He also does collages for triathlon participants using color copies of their medals in the collages. Each pieces are truly unique. And I must say I love my 

wine label collage

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I Love....

Weekends...

Ahhh....time to kick up your heels... or better yet- take off your work heels and put on some dancing heels. It's a time for sleeping in and looooong mornings spent ignoring the sun and staying in pajamas. It's coffee with your sweetheart while not rushing. Leisurely scanning the paper. Time spent with family and friends. I love the weekends. Hope you have a great weekend... maybe even a weekend you love

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I Love....

Duke. My very own Marmaduke. He's big and cuddly and doesn't realize he weighs 150lbs. I love great danes, always have, probably always will. But Duke is very special to us. He loves to hang out with us. He's always trying to cuddle up next to us, which is kinda funny considering how big he is. 

 When it's story time for the kids, he'll creep into their room and lay by the door. Once the story is over he returns to his own bed.... which is actually a microsuede chaise lounge. The best part about Duke is his heart. He has a very big heart (literally). He's such a love. And like most sweethearts who wear their heart on their sleeve, he wears his on his chest. Isn't that cute?!

 He's definitely an important member of the family. And he's always aware of where the kids are. One night my daughter Taylor decided to get out of her bed and try to sneak downstairs. She made it half way down the stairs. Duke started whining and then he went half way up the stairs. I didn't know what his deal was so I ignored him. I know, it was a Lassie moment and I wasn't tuned in -- well, that's life for ya. He proceeded to curl up next to her and stayed there till I came and picked her up and tucked her back into bed. Just another reason he has an irreplaceable spot in my heart. 

And if you are wondering just how big he is, here he is in comparison to our 2 seater couch. 6-8 cups of food a day. And all heart....well, all heart unless you are a delivery boy. His number 1 job in his mind is to protect. But once he sniffs you thoroughly and decides that you are ok- then he won't leave you alone till you give him lots of pats and love.

I Love Duke 

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I Love....

...and I crave California Pizza Kitchen's "The Greek Pizza". This is my little slice of heaven. I get it with the vegetarian option- which means big slices of avocado on top instead of chicken. This pizza is almost like a  chop salad. First off, there's no melted cheese on this pizza. It's the original CPK crust with some greek sauce on it (yum). The a topping of chopped: tomato, cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives and some crumbled feta cheese. That is then sprinkled with a lemon vinaigrette. Oh my gosh heaven. I have severe cravings for this pizza! The flavors are so unique and fresh. I think I'm in love 

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I Love....

Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner. This stuff is amazing. It stays ALL day and ALL night and is still there when you wake up...and if your too tired to apply new makeup because you had a long night... it'll be there for you that day too. It literally stays till you remove it. I refer to it my "heavy duty" eye liner. It's gel based and will stay blendable for 60 sec. but after that it's going to stay, even through tears! You can line your inner lower eye lid and expect it to be there 10 hours later. Amazing.... how did I ever think my other makeup was good? Ahhh.... I'm in love

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New Post Series

Next week, I'll  be starting a new series of posts about "things I love". Some of these things are stuff I've recently stumbled on and can't live without. Some are just random. Some have been with me through the thick and thin. The point is you'll learn a little bit more about me. And who knows... maybe you'll discover something you love 

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Ladybugs Galore!

This past weekend I had 50 cupcakes due for a customer. The theme for her daughter's birthday was ladybugs. So I made some ladybugs out of fondant and placed them on top of the cupcakes. For those of you who are curious about the red fondant....I actually used pink fondant and airbrushed it with red food coloring. This cut down the time and effort involved in kneading fondant. And I think they turned out really cute. My customer was very happy with the cupcakes and I even got to see a picture of the birthday girl eating a cupcake :)