Manic Monday

Well this is a late post... It's been a very busy day. I swear the weekends just aren't long enough. My weekend was pretty uneventful besides The Flaming Lips concert which I can't wait to post pictures of!! AMAZING SHOW!!! One of my friends described it best as a big kid's birthday party. Tons of confetti and balloons!!

This upcoming week is very busy for me. Lots of crafty things in the works. Today I started Elise Blaha's art journal class. I couldn't be more excited to get started on her projects. I came across her blog a few months ago and find myself a bit jealous every time she posts a new project she's completed.

Tonight I've kept myself busy putting some "goodbye" presents together for my friend, Juls, who is moving to Spain for 9ish months. I'm kind of on a time crunch to make sure I get it all done by Wednesday night for her "goodbye" dinner. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have at least one tutorial to share.

Like I said it's a busy week. I start my bowling league Thursday night... Goodbye the next 36 Thursdays. It's a very long season but it's definitely a good time. Friday will be spent on a coworkers boat for our "department outing." I'm hoping the weather stays cool for the weekend so Jeremy and I can put our bikes to use!

Hope to have something a little more interesting to post about tomorrow! 12 days until vacation... that's an idea for tomorrow!

Enjoy, Amanda

Cupcake Friday

Happy Friday to everyone!! Today is the last day for cupcakes!! I wanted to end the week with the cupcakes I made this past May for the "End of the School Year" party held for the Bigs and Littles that participated in the Big Brother/Big Sister Program. To go off on a tangent I have to say that if anyone is interested in doing volunteer work I have to highly recommend this program. Not only do the kids get so much out of it but so do the adults. There's nothing like seeing the smile on your Little's face when they see you each week!! I can't wait for this school years program to begin!!! But back to the cupcakes... all of the littles were in 4-5th grade so I thought it would only be appropriate to incorporate both Sponge Bob and the beach!! There's nothing better than a cupcake that has "sand," "the ocean," a beach umbrella, and Sponge Bob or Patrick on top of it. These were a huge hit!!

I hope everyone enjoyed cupcake week!! I'm off to start my weekend right by going to The Flaming Lips concert. I can only hope that I can end up with some pics like this...

Enjoy, Amanda

Cupcake Thursday

As you may or may not have noticed I was absent from the blogging world yesterday. I'm not going to lie I've had my nose buried in Twilight and New Moon. I was able to finish Twilight within two nights... I think it may take me until the weekend to finish New Moon. I'm honestly surprised how enjoyable I've found them!! Anyone else out there infatuated with this series as I am??

Anywho on to what I wanted to post about... A fellow blogger and friend of mine, Kati, passed along this recipe to me... She found it on A Good Appetite. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to try it out although it's on my "To Do List."

I don't know if anyone out there is like me but I love chocolate and I love bacon... Honestly, I've never thought to combine the two... but this recipe does!! After reading the ingredients and instructions I can't wait to bake these... Just click on the link to get the recipe!!

Dark Chocolate & Bacon Cupcakes

Has anyone had any cupcakes similar to these?? Or any other crazy concoctions??

Enjoy, Amanda

Cupcake Tuesday

I'm a bit sleepy today. I finally decided to jump on the Twilight bandwagon last night. Needless to say I stayed up way too late reading (and now I can't wait to get off work to continue reading... well take a nap then continue reading... I'm a total bookworm).

Yesterday evening we also had a visit from my mom and my niece. My niece is actually my inspiration for today's blog. I wanted to stay in the theme of cupcakes so I thought I'd share the cupcakes I made for her 5th birthday party. To preface she is a complete rock star!! I think the following picture demonstrates that pretty good.

Yes, she thinks she's playing Rock Band!! She was over visiting with Jeremy and I. I was making something on my sewing machine and begged me to make her a rock star dress. Yeah I know it looks like a sack but I had limited time and resources. All that matters is she LOVED it. The next day she wouldn't take it off and wanted to wear it to day care!! Of course she had to wear it last night while she was over; although, this time we had to make some modifications because she wanted to race Jeremy outside bc she said "he's the fastest person I know." She's too cute. Well we chopped it up to make it a knee length dress. And used the scraps as a headband. I promised I'd make her a new one for the next time she came over.

Anywho... for her 5th birthday this past June I offered to make cupcakes for her birthday party. We decided on ice cream cone cupcakes with BRIGHT PINK icing!! The picture isn't great (I used my phone to take it). These were so easy to make and all of the kids loved them, especially bc they have TONS of icing on them!!
Enjoy, Amanda

Mini Post- Giveaway

[Courtesy of Oops, I Craft My Pants]

I like to support my fellow bloggers and Oops, I Craft My Pants is having an awesome giveaway... Hurry it ends soon.

Cupcake Monday

[Beware this post includes a lot of pictures]

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I know mine went by way too fast!! Friday and Saturday were spent getting our part of the surprise party ready, which meant a lot of running around, crafting, and cupcake making. It was definitely all worth it in the end!! Mrs. Sue's surprise party turned out great!!

Since so much of my weekend was consumed by cupcake making I thought it'd be fun to have a week dedicated to cupcakes because really who doesn't love cupcakes?! I want to share some of the cupcakes I've made, some that others have made, and some I can't wait to make.

The cupcakes for this weekend took me on a roller coaster ride... yeah I said it cupcakes took me on a roller coaster ride. It all started Thursday when I decided to spend some of my down time at work making a cupcake stand out of an old box in the mail room. Mind you I did all of this at work so I was limited on the supplies I had available to me. But hey I like to think this proves I'm an "outside the box" kind of thinker.

[I hope to have a tutorial of how I created the cupcake stand sometime in the near future.]

Friday the ride continued... I had my friend, Juls, over to enjoy a bottle of wine and to keep me company while I baked the cupcakes. We had a good time catching up and laughing. She was telling me a story about last time she baked cupcakes for the 4th of Jul and forgot to add the eggs so of course at the end of the story she asks if I remembered to add the eggs. While still laughing at her horror cupcake story I told her of course I did. So I put that batch in the oven and continue to mix the batter for the next batch only to go to add the eggs and realize there were no eggs missing out of the carton!! I have learned my lesson that it's not a good idea to drink wine while trying to make cupcakes!! But we did get A LOT of laughs out of it!!

Saturday I had to run out to the store again so I could remake them this time making sure that I added the eggs. I spent the majority of the night... who am I kidding I spent the entire night decorating the cupcakes to match the wrapping paper I chose to cover the cupcake stand in... BRIGHT PINK & ORANGE. The cupcakes looked awesome by the time they were done being decorated.

I could barely wait to add the cupcake toppers I made!!



My alarm went off bright and early for me Sunday morning at 9am. Jeremy and I ended up only being 15 minutes behind schedule by the time we got on the road... for us that is NOT bad at all!! We had to make a pit stop at Wegmen's to pick up the food for the party which was about 20 minutes away... This is where things really went downhill for me.... ALL of the icing had melted on my 45+ cupcakes!!! You could barely make out a single 50!! I literally was almost in tears bc I had spent so much time on everything. I tried to salvage what was left by stacking the containers on my lap in front of the AC for the rest of the ride... NO LUCK!!!

I had to make do with what I had and just imagine what the finished product could have looked like!!

Notice how horrible the bottom tier is. This reminds me of something that would show up on Cake Wrecks. Hopefully it doesn't... although it'd probably give me a good laugh. I don't know if the horribly, re-iced cake on the top or the melted icing cupcakes on the bottom are worse?

Maybe you can get an idea of what they could have looked like by this... these were the least melted of the bunch.


In the end, I did get a lot of compliments on them even if I thought they weren't appealing. It's a lesson learned... don't drink while baking and don't transport cupcakes in 90+ degree weather!!

I can't wait to share more with you throughout the week... which I promise won't be disasters!!

Enjoy, Amanda

Not the normal Friday

Well, today started out pretty hectic. I had to follow Jeremy to the car dealership so he could get his car serviced. Too bad we went to the wrong dealership and then took forever finding the right dealership. But it's okay we got to get breakfast together and I decided to just work from home today.

I've been able to get a lot accomplished. I cleaned the entire apartment. Hopefully we can keep it that way all weekend. I was able to finish everything I needed to for work. I finished up my cupcake stand (pictures and maybe a tutorial to come). I found recipes for taco dip and cupcakes and decided how I want to decorate them. I still have a lot to do like help Jeremy make his mom's birthday present and actually make the cupcakes!

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Hopefully I'll have the time to go to a "bracelet making party" with my mom. I'm not sure what exactly it entails but it seems like something I'd be interested in going to. Then we have to make food and get everything together for Jeremy's mom's surprise party on Sunday. It's going to be a pretty busy weekend.

Oh!! I forgot to mention... My package for Jeremy was delivered today. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed he likes it. I told him when I ordered it that I got him something but it was a surprise. So of course he wanted to guess what it was. First guess was a book and I said no. Well it's technically a book... so that's why I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I highly recommend this journal to anyone who is lacking a little inspiration. I have a feeling I'll be helping Jeremy complete it! I ordered his off of amazon.com. The author, Keri Smith, will definitely help get your creative juices flowing!!

I snagged another book off of Amazon but I'll keep you in suspense until next week to hear about that one!

Everyone have a fun weekend!! Can't wait to share the details of mine!!

Enjoy, Amanda

As I mentioned yesterday I want to pick one day of the week and dedicate it to food. I decide Thursday's will be that day.There are a few recipes that I'd really like to share but I'm going to start with my favorite: Shrimp Scampi. Jeremy and I made this Tuesday night and had a lot of good laughs in the process. He's a big fan of garlic... but really who eats whole cloves by themselves?? Personally, I like my garlic cooked.

This has got to be one of the easiest dishes to cook. I found this particular recipe on foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb linguini
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 shallots, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• pinch of red pepper flakes, optional
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (plus the remainder of the bottle to drink with dinner!!)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

Directions:

For the pasta, follow the directions on the box.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt two tablespoons butter in 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) until the shallots are translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes.


Season the shrimp with salt and pepper; add them to the pan and cook until they have turned pink, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pan; set aside and keep warm.

Add wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons oil. when the butter has melted, return the shrimp to the pan along with the parsley and cooked pasta. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over a bit more olive oil and serve immediately.


Makes: 4ish Servings

And because pasta isn't complete without bread. I bought a loaf of french bread and paired it with an Italian seasoning grinder, garlic rock salt, and EVOO.

If you decide to try it let me know how it turns out or have a recipe of your own to share I'd love to try and make it!!

Enjoy, Amanda

I feel accomplished

I was so excited yesterday to come home and find that my boyfriend, Jeremy, had our rocking chairs in place with the new cushions on them. I must say I LOVE them. The stain is the perfect color to match the orange fabric. They're an awesome addition to our "porch." Originally the chairs looked like this...

The first thing I did to start the transformation was run to my mom's and borrow her hand held sander. Having the hand held made the job of sanding the chair down so much easier. The picture about is the chair after it had been sanded (I forgot to take a true before). I didn't spend too much time on the sanding. Then Jeremy and I went to the store to find some stain and fabric.

The staining part was the hardest step of this project. I recommend doing the bottom/underside first that way the drips are minimal (at least in my opinion). Definitely take your time during this part it is very hard to get rid of drip stains.

Next I did the cushion covers. I typically work with a pattern/ template/ tutorial but I was on a time crunch so I said screw it and just went with it. It turned out to be a lot easier than I had expected. I laid out my fabric and traced the cushion onto it. I decided I wanted to be able to remove the cover so I can wash it. So the best way I can think to explain it is I constructed the cover similar to a pillow sham.

...Press fast forward and we have a finished product...

I can't wait to sit outside and enjoy that last few weeks of summer with a good book in our new rockers.


I'm working on a few more projects that I can't wait to finish and share. I'd like to pick one day of the week and dedicate to recipes and cooking... I just need to decide what day that should be!

I hope everyone is enjoying their "hump day." The work week is halfway over!! Come on WEEKEND!! Speaking of weekend, we'll be celebrating Jeremy's mom's birthday with a surprise party. I'm planning on making cupcakes, taco dip, and buffalo chicken dip. I can't wait to share pictures and recipes.

Enjoy, Amanda

A new beginning...or well a first try.

Welcome! This is my first post and my first blog...

I'll start by introducing myself. I'm Amanda and I love doing anything crafty.I'm twenty three and have a typical "grown up" job. I like to think I have a good head on my shoulders and that I surround myself with a great group of people (both family and friends). I don't consider myself a good writer but I think I have good ideas that others may enjoy. You'll probably notice that I'm a fan of ... and !!. I'm sure as my posts continue you'll learn more about my interests, style, and personality!

As for this blog I'm hoping this can be a place for me to share what I love doing and for others to share with me. I wanted to have a more concrete idea on how I was going to structure this blog but I decided to just go with it until it becomes somethingI had pictured. Oh and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the technical side of this so if anyone has any tips please don't hesitate to share.

I might as well jump right in and show you what I've been working on recently:

I dragged my mom yardsaling with me two weeks ago and snagged some pretty good deals. It was definately worth waking up earlier than usual.

This was a steal at $2. I haven't decided what I'm going to do to transform it. Any ideas? (Oh, and the little guy's name is Remy. )

Sorry the picture is a little smooshed. Again, $2. This is an after photo. My boyfriend and I decided this should be an almond color and not green so spraypaint it is. Now we just need to find a home for it. I'll update you when we find one!

And the find I'm most happy about...



Two of these wooden rocking chairs for $8!

I've already started and well finished re-doing these chairs. I'll save the after photos for tomorrow.

I hope you've enjoyed my first entry and will come back to read more!!!

Enjoy, Amanda