mmmm Cupcakes

Taylor and I made rainbow cupcakes today. Tedious? Yes. Messy? Yes?
Fun and worth the trouble? Oh, yes!
The cupcake recipe is here.
The frosting recipe is here.
Let's talk about the frosting, shall we? It is one of the best frostings I have ever had. ever. really. The recipe is weird, but the result tastes like what would happen if butter cream married whipped cream and made sweet, sweet love.

Coming Up for Air

Grad school is amazing!!! Time consuming - way more so than I had imagined- but amazing nevertheless. Spring break is next week, but I turned in my last pre-break assignment yesterday so I am taking a super self-indulgent day to celebrate. Maybe I'll take two. Maybe I'll go for a ride on my new Specialized Haul... I so love this bike!

Shabby Apple San Gabriel GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love this dress! I'm not usually the ruffle - y type, but I really like this!

Shabby Apple San Gabriel GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I have recently discovered Grosgrain.... and I am in total awe of her sewing abilities. She makes me want to learn to sew clothes, like really really sew clothes. You know what else it great? She often gives away her beautiful creations.... you should check her out!

Re-Post for the Holidays

I'm re-posting this from last year because, well, I've already used this trick this season and I think it bears repeating in case you missed it.

Since the holidays are approaching, I thought I'd share one of my favorite grift-wrapping tricks. I learned this when I worked retail... a real budget saver when you offer free gift wrap because you can use half as many boxes! I am much better at showing than explaining so you can find lots of pictures with instructions here. You'll see how I can turn one half of a shirt box (because I'm always losing or ruining half) into a usable gift box with a little bit of folding and a couple of snips. This is my first go at a sort of tutorial, so if the instructions aren't clear just let me know.

Go from this:

to this:

Tree Pickin'

One of my favorite family traditions is picking out a live Christmas tree. As a kid, some years we went to a local tree farm and other years we picked one from our own farm.

Since the latter isn't an option for us up here, we go to a great little tree farm in Goobertown, AR (Yep, that's really the town's name.) There's hot chocolate, lots of trees, and fresh roasted peanuts. And here is Taylor with our tree. She named it Mrs. Clause.

Sweet Dreams Butterfly

"Sweet Dreams Butterfly" has always been a part of our bedtime ritual.

I hope she'll cherish this pillow forever... I will.

The embroidery pattern is by Vol.25 stitched with variegated thread.