This is me, slacking again

Hello? Do I still have any readers left out there?

I suppose this is starting to be a theme here, but when you've been blogging for close to 10 years, you tend to get a little burned out by it every now and then.

Nothing much new to report. I'm still baking, still working, still stressed out (but not by baking - I love that!). I'm more or less in one piece (which, with my clumsiness, that's an impressive feat!).

Kiddos had fun on Halloween, we made it through Thanksgiving and enjoyed Christmas with our families.

I had an order for cupcakes for a baby shower and was asked if I could put a monogram of the baby's future initials on the cupcakes. I wracked my brain to figure out how I was going to do this, as I'm not real fond of fondant (i.e. - the Connor's wrestling ring birthday cake), so I decided to work with chocolate! I think they came out pretty fantastic. *pats her own back*

We drove down to Kraynak's and Daffin's mid-November. I've been to both several times but Dave had never been to either one. I think we'll be going back there again, as he enjoyed both very much. I picked up a couple Christmas ornaments at Kraynak's - both ornaments are very fitting for me!

The kids and I are currently enjoying Christmas break (and not really looking forward to returning to school/work on the 4th). We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family, and that included a surprise baby shower (including games and baby gifts) for my cousin and his fiance. They were very surprised!

That is just some of my side of the family - there are lots missing from the picture!

We spent Christmas morning here at the house and later on at Dave's parents' house for lunch/dinner.

That last picture is my niece with her "If You Give A Cat A Cupcake" cat (and book in Dave's mom's lap) that we got for her!

I think that's just about everything. I'll try to be a better blogger next year, but I make no promises!

slacking

I know, I know, I'm really overdue for a post. My bad!

I've been really busy with work, school (kids, not me), PTA, and 4-H. Oh, and cupcakes, of course!

I haven't even uploaded many photos to Flickr since my last post and that's pretty rare!

I have added a few new flavors to my cupcake menu including:

Apple Pie - an applesauce spice cake filled with apple pie filling topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar

and Chai Latte - chai tea cake with honey-cinnamon swiss meringue buttercream

...and these ones aren't new, but who can resist these itty bitty cupcakes?

I'll try to update more often, I promise!

a Rock Band night

Yes, it's a non-cupcake post!

I'm not sure who enjoys this game more, my kids or my husband (who really had an idiot moment the other night, but more on that in a minute). None of us can sing all that great, but darn it, we have fun!

Dave decided (without my ok - I was completely against this from the moment he brought it up) to get the Stage Kit that goes with Rock Band - the light show and fog machine. Well, the dork managed to fog up the whole downstairs AND set the smoke alarm off the other night. I laugh now, but at the time I wasn't too happy to not be able to see through my living room at all.

Here are a few pictures from last night when the kids were really getting into the game.

I'm pretty sure this was during "Don't Stop Believing".

Cupcakes and catch-up

Well, we're back to school and work now. So far so good on both fronts.

We really didn't do much this summer that wasn't around town, other than drive to the White Turkey (which was delicious, as always!).

We went downtown and watched the Frisbee dogs during Celebrate Erie and watched Abbey Road (which I think I enjoyed more than the kids did).

We caught the last buck night Seawolves game of the summer (well, a few innings anyway). The kids got free tickets we turned in earlier in the summer and I'm glad they were free because we ended up sitting next to a real jerk - who yelled at me for sitting in the seats that were on our tickets and then practically sat in my lap the whole time we were there. If he stayed there any longer I would have had to start fishing dollar bills out of my pockets, LOL!

Here are the PB&J cupcakes that I blogged about in my last post. These have quickly become a favorite to order!

...and here are the latest cupcakes I've done, for a picnic at my sister-in-law's house. Pink lemonade, s'mores and cinnamon toast mini's.

A non-update post

I don't really have much to blog about lately. I went a couple weeks without cupcakes to make but then got slammed with orders this past weekend (believe me, I am NOT complaining about that in the least!!). I was so busy Saturday (when they were all getting picked up - I saw 7 people leave my house with cupcakes then!) that I didn't even really have time to take pictures of the cupcakes, including a new one - Peanut Butter & Jelly cupcakes. I have another order for those this week, so I will be sure to get a picture of them then!

We found the puppy we want but just can't swing the money for her right now. I'm sure another one will come along when we can afford it. We'll just have to wait a bit, that's all.

School starts back up next Monday and I know the kids are excited because they're starting to get a little bored with being home.

I have passed out so many business cards in the past month that I've had them that I am going to have to order more already!

Other than that, there really hasn't been much going on here. Hopefully this week I'll have pictures to share!

Benefit

I haven't been posting much, but honestly, I haven't had much to post about lately, not even so many cupcakes to post.

I do want to take a minute to post this.

If anyone is interested, there is a benefit for one of Connor's school friends who was diagnosed with leukemia. I've attached the flier with the location/price details.

We will be going for sure!!

Please pass this on to anyone who you think might be interested!

This past weekend...

I just realized within the last 10 days I have had about 400 cupcakes in my house.

400.

That just blows my mind.

I'm not complaining, I promise!!

I already showed you the 300 I did the weekend before last. I didn't take pictures of the ones I made for my parents this past weekend (they were the to-die-for peanut butter mini's with chocolate frosting) but I do have other ones to share, including a little cupcake experiment with turned out to be a love it or hate it recipe that I'll tweak the next time I make it.

First I will share with you the experimental cupcakes I did. French Toast and Bacon. Yes, bacon. They are paired with a Peaches and Cream cupcake for an unintentional breakfast - they kids told me the peach ones look like a "dippy egg".

Those were for Friday. Saturday morning I cranked out the ones for my parents and then started on my order for Sunday.

Sunday's order was for Malted Milk, Triple Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes. These are full size cupcakes which was a change for me since 9 times out of 10 I'm making mini ones.

Malted Milk cupcakes:

Triple Chocolate cupcakes:

Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes (these have a peanut butter surprise inside - I forgot to get a picture of that this time):

This morning, my new business cards arrived! This time I ordered them with all pictures of cupcakes I've done. Not that I don't love the last ones I ordered, I'll keep those around. I just forgot to put my email address on the last ones (I had been writing it on there when I handed them out). I was really excited about these!

I think that just about wraps everything up here that's happened lately!

This past week...

So, I've been busy, busy, busy!

I never finished the blog entry about the blackberry upside down cake. Here is the finished product (with homemade sweetened whipped cream - not that icky cool whip stuff!).

In the meantime, Dave had a week off of work (I love him dearly but I'm always glad to get back to my own routine!). We spent the week doing things around town. Movies, mini-golf, watching the horse races at the Downs.

This past weekend was a packed one for me. I spent it making 300 cupcakes for a friend's family reunion. I made Margarita, Red Velvet, Chocolate/Vanilla, Vanilla/Chocolate, Grasshopper, and Creamsicle mini cupcakes. I also hung around with them and took pictures while I was there so they wouldn't have to worry about who had a camera.

Until today, it had been 3 days since I last baked a cupcake. I think I was going through withdrawl, LOL!. I baked today for Dave's work birthday food day tomorrow. I had a couple new recipes to try out and got to test them out when the boys and I got our haircuts this afternoon. Both cupcakes were a bit hit!

The cupcake on the left is a Peaches and Cream cupcake - but both kids told me it looked like a "dippy egg". It's a vanilla peach cake with a vanilla cream cheese frosting and peach puree on top. The cupcake on the left is French Toast and Bacon. LOVE it. That whipped maple buttercream frosting is to die for. Seriously. I made an untentional breakfast, I guess, LOL!

I have new business cards on order from Moo.com again. I just love that site and the half sized cards are just too cute. This time, I got them all with cupcake photos that I have done.

I think that about wraps up this week! I'll post again sometime this weekend, I hope, because I have more cupcakes to make this weekend!

a hint of things to come

So, my husband says I'm about due for another post. Well, here it is! LOL

I'm working on a surprise for him this morning. As I type this, he's still asleep upstairs. There is a blackberry upside-down cake baking in the oven (see? more proof for those who follow me on Twitter that I don't just bake cupcakes). I have my fingers crossed that it comes out as planned!

This is as far as I got with pictures right now:

I'll get more pictures when it's out of the oven and flipped out of the pan!

Recipe can be found HERE.

A (mostly) non-cupcake post!

I've been enjoying my summer vacation very much (aside from our tub being clogged- yuck!).

I had some very dear friends in town for a visit. We hit the TREC, Sara's and drove around the Peninsula and took their little one to the beach for her very first time!

We've started our 4-H dog training classes for the summer and I caught a beautiful sunset the other night.

This past Sunday a close friend of my family got married! Congrats again Megan and Aaron. Thank you for letting me share in your special day. The week before the wedding, Megan contacted me about making some special gluten-free cupcakes for her 3-year old niece so that she could have cake at the reception. I was more than happy do that for them!

I think that about sums up my last few weeks! If you happen to be reading this today (Friday), please don't forget to check out my previous post and vote for Milo if you want to!

Milo

He's up for Bob FM's favorite pet!


IF you think he's the best in his bracket, please vote for him. Winner gets a year's supply of pet food from Dad's and $100 Giant Eagle gift card. He made it through the first round of voting and is up for the top 3 vote today - I believe the final vote is tomorrow, you can vote both days. He's in the second bracket at the following link.

http://www.947bobfm.com/jocks

Thank you - and feel free to pass this on if you think others may vote for him. I don't send out posts or blogs like this ever, but that gift card sure would come in handy if he wins!