My staycation..

Been awhile..but figured I'd post something to show the blog is still alive? haha..been very busy with work lately so haven't had any energy to do anything else but laze around .. but this weekend was a good refreshing break from work and stress.  Got a whole new wardrobe! haha.. I haven't spent so much in one shopping trip... ever.  5 shirts, 3 pants, 1 dress.. all from Banana Republic.  Omg.. watching the salesperson ring up all the clothes.. seeing the prices going up on the screen..... O_O  I thought what was I thinking?? I should take out some stuff! but then I gave them the coupon and Ooo the steal! the steal!!! lol  ah it put a smile on my face.  haha.  I love a good buy.  Now to just find my boots at a good price.

Sigh, and now back to the fray. 

Cards and Trinkets

The past few birthdays, I decided I'd make my friends a birthday card. Lately, I just give a present, no card.. so guess this was a little personalization.  Although, I'm obviously not very good at it.. haha still, I think they're cute in their own way (in the way that kids make cards for their friends).  haha

Just used some card stock, cut out the size of the card I wanted.  To fold it, I used an exacto knife and just slightly cut across the fold line (don't cut through!) -- this allowed me to fold it without making creases/wrinkles.  There's tools like a bone folder.. but I don't have that. :P

Then the little keychain I made..  a little felt..bunny/cat? haha something.   That's the extent of my recent crafting! Not much, but hopefully the next thing will be a pillowcase. 

Missing Summer...



Lake Placid, NY.


One of those beautiful mornings on the lake with the mist rolling off the water.. how I wish I had a cottage or a boat..

fabric headband

I was looking online on how to make necklaces and came across one that had fabric flowers on them, so that went into a search of how to make fabric flowers.  I came across one set of instructions that used organza but.. that's pretty expensive here.  Especially if I just want to play around.. so I went to the dollar store to see what I could find.  Spools of ribbon! Dollarama is awesome! :)

So here's the flower I made with a bit of dollar ribbon..

So how to make?

You will need

• some sort of fabric, i found this 15' spool of ribbon that's probably polyester.. I'm not even sure.
• a candle
• scissors
• thread and needle
• 3 small beads (I used glass pearls from walmart on sale)

Instructions:

1. Cut out 5 to 6 flower shapes out of your ribbon.  I like to have 5 petals on each. You might want to make them different sizes too.

2. Take the petals you cut out and hold them over the flame (don't put them in the flame!) The heat of the fire will make the petals curl up.  Careful how long you put them over the flame though, they will curl fast and tight!

3. After you've curled all the edges, layer each flower on top of each other however you might like it to look.  Sew them together and add in your beads!

and you're done!  This is what I did with mine:

I messed up with the headband... so no tutorial for that. haha.  >_<

Mini Cupcake Adventures

I had to make about 72 mini cupcakes last Friday for a baby shower.. I decided on making two different types for variety sake, although I haven't really made mini cupcakes so I was trying recipes the weekends before.  Hence the banana one which as I said didn't turn out so well, and then I tried a chocolate mini cupcake recipe from Baking Bites which I found to be too dry for my likes.. SO for the final products I had to go with recipes I never tried... -_- can you foresee disaster?  

The two recipes I decide on are Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and Mini Lemon Cupcakes from lemoncupcakes.net. 

The chocolate cupcakes came out better than my first try, just moist enough!

 

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

 (modified to make mini cupcakes - Yields about 60)

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk (substitute described below)

3 tablespoons safflower oil or canola oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini cupcake tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
2. Divide batter evenly among cupcake cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 10-12 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely

Note:

• I didn't have any buttermilk so the substitute was:  1 teaspoon of white vinegar in a measuring cup and fill the remainder with milk up to 1 cup, then use whatever amount is required by the recipe so here I used 3/4 of this subsitute.
• I didn't have Safflower Oil so I subsituted it with Canola oil, works just as well.
• I also don't like my desserts so sweet so I put only 1 cup of sugar instead of 1.5 cups.. but then you might want to decrease the water a bit because I felt the cupcakes tasted a little bit watered down.. -_-

 

 












Ok, now the mini lemon cupcakes is where the disaster occurred. So I found this recipe: Mini Lemon Cupcakes but had I actually read through it carefully it might've turned out better.  The instructions on that recipe skipped a crucial step that I failed to notice, shamefully.  Read it? Notice it?  AT WHAT POINT DO YOU ADD THE EGGS IN??  hahahaha. Sigh.  I'm someone who likes to follow instructions to the key so when you don't add it in, I will follow.  When I made mine, it turned out like cookie dough. I had to add the eggs in the end to fix it and it still turned out ok but I'm sure it could be better!  SO I will fix the instructions below so you don't make the same mistake I did.

 

Mini Lemon Cupcakes

(Modified.  Yields about 60) 

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup softened butter

1 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

8 oz sour cream (substitute described below)

2 tsp shredded lemon peel

2 tsp lemon juice (optional) 

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Take 2 mini cupcake pans (I had only 1 pan and suffered for it) and line them with small muffin cups. Set them aside while you make the cupcake batter.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Take another bowl and mix your butter using electric mixer.  Add the sugar and continue mixing until the butter becomes fluffy. 
4. Beat in one egg at a time. Add the vanilla essence.
5. Continue mixing and add the sour cream. Continue mixing and then add the lemon peel. (if you want it more lemony add the lemon juice)
6. Add the flour mixture to the batter.  Mix until completely blended
7. Scoop about 1 tbsp of the batter into your waiting muffin cups and bake them in your preheated oven for 10 to 18 minutes depending how much batter you put in each cup.  Use a toothpick to check, poke a cupcake and if the toothpick comes out clean then they're ready!
8. Put on wire rack to cool completely
9. Decorate as desired!

Note:

• I substituted the sour cream with 1 cup yogurt mixed with 1 tsp baking soda. (if you do this, I would reduce the amount of baking soda you put in the recipe.  I found my cupcakes had a strong taste of baking soda. Ugh.)

Finally, the frosting! (from allrecipes.com)

Cream Cheese Frosting

(this made enough for about 80 - 90 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz), softened

1/4 cup of butter, softened

1 cup of confectioner's sugar (or icing sugar)

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

A fun day..

My dear friend invited me to watch a tennis match at the Rogers Cup and even though I don't know anything about Tennis.. it was evident just how strong a player Serena Williams is.  It was definitely an enjoyable experience! Love doing and seeing new things! I now have an even greater appreciation for the sport... though it did make me want to watch a badminton game live... Especially since the Badminton World Championships are going on right now in London.  Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng!! GO GO GO!!

the project that started it all....

So I thought I'd share the first craft project I did with my lovely friends. We decided on making softies or as I like to call them..stuffies.   Here's the tutorial we followed: New Green Mama: Hootie the Upcyled Owl Tutorial .  

And our proud results!

It was a lot of fun making it! So much fun.. that I decided to use what I learned from it and make a comfort toy for my sister who was just getting out of a surgery.   Rather than an owl though.. I wanted to make a kitty since we love our cat.   What I failed to learn from the owls was how to attach the tail.. It wasn't the cleanest job since I did it in a week, but it was still cute (even though my sister thought it was an owl).  Guess I didn't stray far enough from what I learned above. I'll have to try again and figure out how to properly attach the tail, then I can add a tutorial.