An Award, 2 Tags, Swap Goodies, New Shoppe Items

Okay everyone, as promised this is a BIG one!! Now is your chance to stop and go get a cup of tea or a Diet Coke. It's gonna be awhile! I have so much to share! First off, the Bella Enchanted Easter Basket Swap. I'm a little late posting this so here goes:

My swap partner was Maria over at The Junk Drawer. She was such a wonderful partner! We have so many of the same interests in common. Would you just look at the fabulous basket of goodies that she sent me?

Lot's of yummy candy - there was also a delicious Russel Stover dark chocolate covered marshmallow egg but uh-oh, I ate it before I could snap a picture of it

Then, there were these deliciously colored vintage clothes pins wrapped in fabulous lace

these sweet Easter picks, crepe paper and tag



some lovely vintage wrapping paper, doilies and wall paper packs

would you check out this adorable duck applique??!!

oooohhhh and glitter....I'm in love!!

beautiful organza bags full of candy and pretty beads

lovely rose stems and millinery

vintage postcard images and vintage flashcards

paper packs

pretty speckled eggs and doilies and look at those adorable chickies!

WOW!!! Thank you Maria!!

Okay, now this is what I sent her except that I forgot to photograph everything before packing it into the basket

so...here is everything all packed up
What a fun swap!!

****

Alright, here is the next item on the bloggy post agenda...new pretties for my shoppe! I have been working and painting and sanding oh my...first up we have this adorable jewelry box! I painted it in my favorite shade of creamy white and then distressed it to give it a beautiful, timeworn French look

Look at those pretty French blue velvet lined drawers...ooohhhhh la la!!

Look at these fabulous salt and pepper shakers! I though the shape was so cute!! a little wicker wall pocket/shelf

sweet little doves that I painted

scrolly birdcage style candle holder

I'm going to get all of these items plus a few more I'm still working on, in the shoppe in the next day or two!

I took a little break from working and creating yesterday and went to the flea market! Even if I don't buy a thing, I thoroughly enjoy looking through all of the treasures that the flea market has to offer! Yesterday, I found so many beautiful things. I did purchase these buttons! I simply adore vintage buttons and I love to collect them and place them in pretty jars and bowls around the house. I love the way the sunlight catches the clear faceted ones!

Okay, now for my award - YEAH!!! Thanks again Rue! As promised earlier this morning, I must pass along this award to 10 other people

It's very difficult to have to choose only 10 because there are so many Excellent blogs that I visit every day but I must follow the rules so here goes:

I wish to pass this award to the following:

Heather at Pretty Petals Boutique

Kari & Kijsa at Ask Kari & Kijsa

Jen at Dust Bunny Hostage

Deena at Living My Fantasy Life

Cindy at My Romantic Home

Alexandra at Silver Bell Cottage

DebraK at The Bunnies Bungalow

Jennifer at Child of the King

Ginger at Enchanting Cottage

Jillian at Jillian's Pages

Thank you!

Now for the first tag from Rue. List 10 Weird or Random Facts or Habits about yourself. Then tag 5 others

1) I have this insane fear of talking to people on the phone - why you ask?? I haven't a clue - it's so weird!

2)When I fold the laundry, it must be warm right out of the dryer. If it's not, I'll run the dryer for another 10 minutes until it is - I guess it's the wrinkle factor. I hate folding clothes that are wrinkled!

3) There are 3 magazines that I love to buy off the shelf at the store. Romantic Homes, Romantic Country, and Country Living. It would be a lot cheaper to just get a subscription I know, but there's just something about seeing a brand new issue right there on the shelf just waiting for me. And...I never buy the front copy, it must be two or three back. I want a brand new, untouched copy - so weird, I know!!

4) I used to work in the airline industry - I worked for TWA to be exact. I started when I was 19 and worked right up until I had our first baby! Now I am a stay at home mom and love it!! I did get to travel though all over the place! I used to fly all the way to San Antonio just to buy a brand of salsa that I loved and they only carried it there. My roommates used to come home from work and see grocery bags with the state of Texas printed on them and say "Oh my, she's been grocery shopping in Texas again"

5) I met the wonderful man that I am now married to in an airport! It was love at first sight and we've been together now for 12 years - married for 9 this month!

6) I cannot stand the taste of caffeine free soda

7) I am constantly re-arranging the furniture! We're talking every 3-4 months here. Hubby has threatened on more than one occasion to bolt it to the floor - hee hee!!

8) Along the same lines as the furniture, I have an issue with paint too! I have repainted our bedroom alone 5 times in the 9 years we have been in our house. I've loved every color though, my problem is just that I also love to change the color! I am in fact getting ready to do it again! Oh, and the master bath has seen a paintbrush and roller 5 times as well!

9) No matter what, whenever anyone leaves our house, we always stand on the front porch and wave until the car has driven out of sight. We always do this, no matter what.

10) I crave order and organization, however, I just can't seem to figure out how to be organized! You should see my craft room where it is so messy that I can never work in there, let alone find anything that I need! I bet I have 3 of everything. I'm always having to go out and buy what I need when I need it because, you guessed it, I can NEVER FIND IT IN MY CRAFT ROOM!!!

There's 10. I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about me! Normally, I would tag 5 others but I think that this time I will leave it open to anyone who would like to play along. If you're reading this and would like to participate, feel free to do so. Let me know though, if you do, so I can come over to your blog and read your list!!

Jillian, I am going to take this evening to think about 6 more things for your tag and I promise to post it tomorrow! Thank you for the tag!

Have a wonderful night everyone and if you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, I thank you for sticking with me!!

xo, Erin

Good Morning!!

Good Morning Everyone!!

I have lots to post today but alas, it's 5:40 in the morning and we have kids to get ready for school, I have grocery shopping to do, a field trip to help chaperone with my son's class - it's gearing up to be a pretty busy morning but when I return home this afternoon, I hope to sit down here at my computer and post away!!

One thing first though that cannot be delayed because I am so excited about it - I got an award!!! My very FIRST award, from Rue over at Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life!! Thank you, Rue! I'm doing a little happy dance, can you hear me singing with delight??

Thank you !!

I am to pass this award on to 10 others and I was tagged for a meme too so I will definitely do that when I return this afternoon! Everything will be included in a post this afternoon.

Oooohhh, and I have some new goodies for my shop that I will be adding, so stay tuned...I'll see you this afternoon!

Have a lovely morning!!

xo, Erin

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

I hope everyone had a beautiful Saturday. The weather here was gorgeous with bright sunny skies and temps in the 50's! Hubby and I got to enjoy a nice dinner out together. It's been soooo long since we've been able to do that.

Anyway, I have that frosting recipe that I promised earlier this morning. Rue, your comment cracked me up! I still giggle when I read it! So here it is:

1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but not melted

6-8 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy; about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled. Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

This recipe makes enough for one 2-layer cake or 2 dozen cupcakes.

I must give credit where credit is due...I got this recipe from Magnolia Bakery while doing a recipe search for Vanilla Buttercream Icing.

It's delicious!!!

Cupcake Decorating

Hello!

I had a lot of people email me and a few who left comments with some questions about how I did the cupcake decorating on this post here. Thank you so much for your interest and kind comments and emails!

So...I thought I'd do a post about how I did it. Most of the questions were about the colors used and which tips I used. I wanted pastel colors so I used gel food coloring that you can buy at the grocery store. I used Betty Crocker gel food colors and it comes in a box of 4 tubes. The colors included are red, yellow, blue and green. With this type of food coloring, you generally don't get the bright colors that are pictured on the box. They're usually always a softer version of the bright hues. The less you use, the softer, more pastel the shade is. This is exactly what I wanted so I just used a small squirt of the gel to achieve the desired pastel color. I used each color as it was in the tube. You could definitely experiment and mix colors if you wanted to.

(Just a note, if you're looking for brighter, bolder colors for your icing, I have found the Wilton concentrated gels work well for that. You can find those at most craft stores in the cake decorating aisle and some Walmart stores carry them too in the craft section.)

Anyway, I have a really YUMMY vanilla buttercream frosting recipe that I use. Just stir in the food coloring and be sure to mix really well. You don't want any white streaks through your frosting. Okay, now for the fun part. As soon as I finished making the icing, I divided the plain white icing into four separate bowls and made up four different colors. Then, to decorate I just used plastic ziploc baggies for piping bags. They're much cheaper than cake decorating bags and you get the exact same results. Snip a tiny piece of the corner off of each bag with some scissors. Place your cake decorating tip inside the bag where you just cut the small opening. Now, you can fill your bag with the desired icing color and decorate to your hearts content! I used 3 Wilton tips - #12, #21 and #2. #12 is a wide circular opening, I used it for the smooth swirls. #21 is a star shaped point that I used for the more textured swirls and #2 is a tiny circular opening that I used for the polka dots. Everything that I used is pictured above for easy reference. I hope this helps and answers all of your questions! I was going to include the vanilla buttercream frosting recipe in this post too but I hear the baby waking so I will have to put it in another post. Hopefully I will get it posted today! Have a wonderful day and happy baking!!

xo, Erin

Baby Shoes

My baby has outgrown all of the super cute little baby shoes that you can buy in the stores. I have a pair of Carters baby slippers that are shaped like the most adorable little puppy dogs - complete with little fuzzy ears but as I went to put them on him today I was so sad to see that he has outgrown them! So, I decided to make my own!

I made two pairs - one is a soft blue chenille and the other is a sweet little baseball theme. I love them!! They were such fun to make I just know I'll be making many more!

I found a cute little pattern here. They are very quick and easy to make and she has a wonderful tutorial as well as a printable pattern! They are for size 6-9 months but you can do what I did and just cut them slightly larger if you need them bigger.

Have fun and enjoy!!

xo, Erin

Projects!!

I know, second post in one day, I can hardly believe it myself!! I was so excited though about checking off a few more projects on my list as I finished them and I wanted to share them with you!! First, remember those chairs I posted about back in January? To paint or not to paint? Well, I decided to go ahead and paint them and boy am I glad that I did!! I like them soooo much better now! For those of you who didn't see the before photos back in January, here they are.

I also finished up a button frame that I've been meaning to do for awhile now. It was fun and very easy!
Here's how I did it:

First, go to the dollar store and buy yourself a cheap $1 frame like the one above. Then, get out all of your buttons and sort through and set aside the ones you want to use. I used all white ones.

The next thing you want to do is give your frame a coat of spray paint. I used white to match my buttons but you can use whatever color you want to coordinate with your buttons. Then, get out your glue gun, let it heat up and start gluing on your buttons. I think the whole project only took about a half hour!

I then mounted the picture on a page from an old book.

Great fun and here is the finished project!

Last but not least, I have this altered book/scrapbook. I found a children's board book at the dollar store - you gotta love that dollar store! I made a template for the page (you only need one template because all of the pages are exactly the same) and then I cut out pretty scrapbook paper for each page of the book. I then placed pictures inside and embellished it. So cute!

Have fun creating!!

xo, Erin

Cupcakes!!

So, are you wanting a cupcake now?? I love cupcakes! I love to make cupcakes! It was one of the things I had been craving so I made a whole mess of em' for my Easter dessert buffet! Now you can get an image induced sugar high at 10:15 in the morning! Anyway, I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter. I know we did. We had a houseful - 20 total, I think, maybe a few more! We had a great time and ate lots of great food. The kiddies all had a fabulous Easter egg hunt in the backyard - the weather was perfect for it!

and now I'll leave you with some little papier mache bunnies I made a couple of years ago

Have a lovely day!!