a little more Christmas

I'm sorry for the lack of cupcakes, but no orders = no new pictures of them.

I do have one new cupcake picture to share! It's not edible though - but I love it!

Here are a few other photos from Christmas (the rest can be found on my Flickr page):

Here is my family looking at the digital picture frame that my parents got my grandparents. They had loaded it with tons of old pictures, which I thought was absolutely perfect.

My sister (and what I think was a wine bottle stopper):

My father looking at the shirt we got him that says (and he got a big kick out of this) "Grab your balls, lets go bowling!"

and my adorable niece:

I'm enjoying my time off from work, but I know by the end of this week I'll be a little bored and ready to go back to work, lol.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to wish my (few) readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I wish you all the best for the year to come and thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading what I write (I know it can be few and far between sometimes and not always of great substance).

I also have to show off the best. pajamas. EVER. that I got from my parents!

Now I'm off to make my homemade cinnamon rolls before everyone wakes up and my parents get here to watch the kids open presents!

Right now

me right now
Originally uploaded by purrfectly_kittenish

Following Eden's instructions, lol. (found HERE)

This is me, right now. I didn't feel like getting my camera things out, so I just used the webcam and grabbed a screen shot.

Yes, my hair IS getting quite long and I usually keep it pulled back because of work, so it doesn't always look like it's this long. I really don't know what to do with it anymore other than just pull it back in a ponytail. It's stick straight, won't hold a curl at all and is ridiculously thick. It's also been colored numerous times (but not in the last couple years, I've been trying to grow all the color out, so what you see is my natural color).

Just before I snagged this shot, Milo was sitting on the ottoman behind me. That's his usual spot when I'm the only one downstairs. He just wants to be comfy and part of the action!

I'm off to enjoy the start of my looooooong vacation!

hooray weekend!

I have two more days of work (Monday and Tuesday) and then I'm off until January 6th! Jealous? *LOL*

I got to see the Christmas cards that were made with the picture I posted in my last blog entry (the ones that I took for the teacher at school). They came out SO good - I was really pleased with them!

I'm going to be baking this weekend. Two cupcake orders (one for the white chocolate raspberry and one for the Orange Creamsicle ones), cake pops (cake on a stick, coated in chocolate - they're delish, or so I've been told), a chocolate cheesecake pie (in my family it's known as Midnight Madness) and a non-baking item - a gingersnap dip for Christmas eve and Christmas Day. I'll divide that dip into two dishes so I can take them to my parents' house and to Dave's parents' house too. Oh, and I'll be making peppermint bark for teachers' gifts. I'll be a busy little bee.

We braved the mall last night. I'm glad I don't have to go back there again, LOL. We stopped in at Steve & Barry's - they're pretty picked over but did find a t-shirt for my father and let the kids each pick out a shirt for themselves. I had to stop Mason from choosing the "Beavers like Wood" shirt, and ended up having to explain to him in the middle of the store why he wouldn't be able to wear that to school. When I told him what they meant by 'beaver' there (he wasn't satisfied with my "because I told you so" answer) his response was "ooooh. yeah. I don't want that." and put it back. He ended up with a shirt with a really bad hand of poker on it that says "I was losing money playing poker before it was cool." That one, I might be able to let him wear to school. The Connor got one that says "I'm in shape. Round is a shape."

I'll leave you today with a couple Christmas pictures.

Cupcakes, sheep and an update.

I know that my posts have been scarce lately and I apologize for that. Things have been a little crazy here. This will be a jam-packed post with lots of pictures, so just bear with me, lol.

We switched M's meds from a pill to a patch. He's on meds for the attention part of ADHD. We started those over the summer so his body could settle in before school started, but we started having issues with the pill (stomach trouble and he developed a couple ticks that we had to get rid of right away), so his doctor recommended a patch since M was having some issues with swallowing a pill too. So far, in the month he's been on the patch, he's doing beautifully. No ticks (knock on wood) have re-developed and his teacher has noticed a huge difference in his paying attention at school. Grades have improved as well which is also fantastic! He doesn't like me to take his picture, so I have to sneak one when I can, lol. This is him at Thanksgiving sneaking all of the berries out of a fruit salad. You can see C in the background (no new updates on him, he's still doing great).

I recently shot Christmas card pictures for a teacher (and a friend of mine for many many years) at the school I work at. Her girls are just adorable!

Cupcakes have been a little slow going as of late - and there is plenty of time to get an order in for Christmas if you still want to! Just ask, and I will get you a menu! I may even post the menu here in a separate post in the next couple days, I haven't decided yet. The last order I did had peanut butter cupcakes with milk chocolate buttercream frosting, cookies 'n' cream cupcakes and a special order of white chocolate raspberry cupcakes (those are special order because raspberries aren't in season now).

I've decided that I really need to stop acknowledging my husband when I hear "Hey hon! Bring your camera up here, you've got to see this!"

I think that's just about everything that I've not posted about lately (other than our car needing $300 more worth of work last week - UGH). I'll try to post more often. Right now I'm counting down to Christmas vacation, lol.

Erie blogger meet-up pictures

Just a few pictures from the December meet at Panera Bread (I am so glad the meets are on Tuesdays so I can get the chicken and wild rice soup when the meets are held there, LOL). I love having the evening out of the house, as much as I love my family, I cherish that couple hours!

... and really, it's just not a meetup unless Michael whips it out (it was out only briefly though)!

Turkey cupcake?

Hah! Made you look! This cupcake was a school project for the Connor. The instructions were to disguise your turkey so he doesn't end up as Thanksgiving dinner. Connor's idea was to make him into a cupcake. I guess this way the turkey could end up as dessert instead, lol. He even took the time to glue sprinkles on the "frosting"!

Also tonight, I made salted caramel cupcakes. Those will be a new addition to my menu, for sure! It's a brown sugar cupcake with a caramel Swiss meringue buttercream with a salted caramel drizzle.

Contest - one more day!

Please excuse the dust in here, I'm playing around with layouts.

Just a quick reminder that you have one more day to send in your entries in for my birthday cupcake give-a-way! You can find that entry HERE.

Contest and some news!

Don't forget to enter my birthday cupcake give-away! You can find that entry and details on how to enter HERE. You have until Sunday to enter!

Now on to my news.

I found out late last week that the photos I took over the summer of a Civil War re-enactment (for General Strong Vincent) are going to be displayed at the Gettysburg Tourist Center! I am over the moon about this! I won't get to see them displayed there as I'm all the way on the other side of the state from it, but I'm still very excited about it.

You can find those photos HERE.

Birthday contest!

I'm posting this now, but you have until Sunday (the 9th, my birthday!) to get your entries in.

Whoever sends in the best birthday wish/salute photo (as voted on by my kids, so keep it clean folks!) will win a dozen cupcakes of their choosing (from my menu). Other than keeping it clean, the only other rule is you must be local - Erie, PA - or be able to pick the cupcakes up when you're in town, for my Erie friends who are currently not in Erie but do come back to visit!

Have fun with this!

Good luck!

Halloween recap and Contest!

Friday night we met up with Dave's brother and his wife and their kids and we went Trick-or-Treating with them. I should have been home baking, but that's another story. The kids had a blast and made it more than a block this year, LOL.

The baby didn't walk with us, she stayed home with my sister-in-law and helped pass out candy, but she's too cute to leave out of this!

When we headed down our second street we ran across this giant spider, which I thought was pretty creative! It was still fairly light at this point.

Then we hit our third street, which is where I knew everyone because it was right around the corner from our old house (this is also where we usually get separated - Dave and the kids go on without me and pick me up on the way back because I'm too busy socializing, LOL). There is a house there that goes all out every year and I love it. The kids don't really care for it, but this was the first year that they all actually walked up the the porch instead of Kathy coming down to hand them candy. I was quite proud of my boys!

...and finally, a few individual shots of my boys - and the contest (if you've made it this far!)

Connor:

Mason:

Now, if you can tell me exactly who Mason is supposed to be, I will give you one dozen cupcakes of your choosing (I have a menu you can pick from). The only stipulation is that you must be local (Erie, PA). I'm looking for a specific name, not just a general idea here. Oh, and family, isn't eligible, LOL, because you already know the answer!

Good luck!!

Is it Friday yet?

I would really like this week to be over with.

Please?

It's been one "whoops" after another here since this past Friday afternoon (which I don't want to speak of) and then on Sunday when I got stuck in ditch at Wintergreen Gorge - thank you thank you thank you again Ron for helping me get unstuck.

Tonight I am baking some delicious pumpkin cupcakes for Dave to take to work with him tomorrow because it's a coworker's last day. I was getting ready to put the first pan in the oven ... had the oven door open and TRIPPED. The pan upended itself and landed unbaked cupcake-side down right on the hot oven door.

*grrrrrr*

I got the oven cleaned off and the first batch after that just finished baking without incident. *fingers crossed for the rest of them*

Two more days, I can survive them right?

Sign font fail!

We had spotted this driving home from Harborcreek the other day and had to do a double take. I was headed that same direction today and had to pull over and snap a picture of it - and I was laughing the entire time.

I never knew that the letter "T" had a loop at the top of it!

the start of fall baking

I got up this morning with the intention to bake something, so I went poking around the web for recipes. I landed on one of my favorite baking blogs and decided to make whoopie ... whoopie pies, that is! I followed the recipe I found on Howtoeatacupcake.net (that link should take you right to the post with the recipe in it) and came up with something that I will definitely make again!

The recipe makes quite a few, so if you want one, just let me know and you can come get one! I like to share, lol.

busy busy busy

Just a few things I baked this past week (finishing up today with a cupcake order):

Cookies 'n Cream cupcakes

Chocolate covered peanut butter cheesecake pops (I took 50 of these to work on Friday - I didn't bring any of them home - it's a good thing I left these three at home for us!)

Orange dreamsicle cupcakes (I didn't get a picture of the ones I sent to work with the husband on Friday - these are pictured the last time I made them)

and last, but certainly not least, Banana Split cupcakes (banana cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, chocolate drizzle, sprinkles and a cherry on top). These may possibly the cutest cupcakes I've made yet!

Even my dog can find love online

I was browsing my usual websites earlier and stepped away for a minute to refill my drink, and had left the site Cute Overload.com open. I walked back into my office and found the following:

Usually I find Mr. Milo asleep in the chair behind me all curled up being a furry little blanket thief, but this time I found him up on my desk chair, looking very intently at the screen and the cute little female JRT up on the web page. I don't have the heart to remind him that he's neutered, LOL.

All done (with wedding photos)

I finished 'em up tonight ... you can find the whole set HERE if you want to check them out. I'm not too keen on the outdoor ones (the light was WAY harsh 1pm light), but I'm happy with them overall.

Wedding pictures - Kenny and Michelle

Just a few shots from today - I'm absolutely exhausted since I've been on the go since 6am (it's almost 9pm now).





I have no idea why she was so shocked in this next one - it was just good timing on my part, lol.

donut muffins

Oh yes, you read that right. It's a muffin that's cake-y like a donut. The recipe says it yields 9 muffins, but I got 12 from my batter. I found the recipe here. I will definitely be saving this recipe.

I know it's been food overload in here lately, but I promise, this coming week will be very little if any food photos. There will be wedding photos posted next week from the wedding I'm shooting - I'm quite excited about it! The only thing I wish is that I had more than two lenses to use, but that time will come eventually.

We've been been sickies here this week. This is my second day off work this week with the kids staying home. I'm feeling a little better today myself, just really tired because I haven't been sleeping well at night. Hopefully I'll catch up on that sleep this weekend since we really have no plans.

cupcakes, part two

Orange dreamsicle mini's with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and spice cake mini's with maple butter cream.

I had an icing mishap with the spice cake. Whoops!