Mini Cupcake Trees - So cute!

Today was a long day. And I do mean that literally, because although in some people's minds, it is tomorrow, for me the day is not yet over. I have been cleaning. All. Day. Ughh... It's good though, my house looks amazing. I just hope we can keep it looking this good for the next couple weeks because next weekend I will not have time to clean and do all those lovely weekend things that mommies get to do.

I got up this morning and started on my bedroom. Then I moved to L & G's room. Then the hall. Then the living room. Then the play room... well, you get the picture. I systematically cleaned the entire upper floor of the house. I also did laundry and raked leaves (in the snow - I'm dedicated... not really, but I needed to finish it before the last pick-up, and since it's going to snow again tomorrow, I wanted them up before we get any surprise major dumpings of snow.) Came back in, made dinner for the family, cleaned the bathroom, did more laundry.

And then I get to my fun stuff. I had a great night. Yesterday I started making mini cupcakes for my MIL's Christmas party which is on Sunday. I wanted to show up with a little surprise for them, and this seemed the best way to go about it. So I made up the cupcakes, which since they're minis, cooked surprisingly fast. About 12 minutes or so, and they're perfect!

 Then I decided, well, they need some icing.... (just kidding, I did plan this out in advance, I didn't just go at it for fun!)

But that still wasn't enough and as cute as they were, I felt they needed some more Oomph (is that a word?) But that needed to wait until the first icing set, and besides, it was pretty late by the time I finished the first round of icing. So today, I got to play a little in the kitchen and here's where they start to look really cool. :) I found a standard buttercream icing recipe online, since my vanilla icing recipe just doesn't make enough and I didn't want my chocolate buttercream (although it is my absolute favourite ever - if you don't include my mom's coffee buttercream which I could eat straight out of the bowl until it was gone, regardless of the stomach pains I'd get later!) But I digress... I found the butter cream recipe, coloured it green and Voila!

Aren't these just the cutest things ever? I've gotta say, that whole practice makes perfect thing seems to totally work... who knew that when I was working at Michael's, deciding to peek my head in for the cake decorating classes now and again, I never really expected the information to sink in! And now, having to make at least 4 cakes a year, I have gotten remarkably good with icing!

Alas, there were four innocent little cupcakes left over without trees... (why I must ask are there always 4?... specifically, every time I bake, or do something, there's always 4 left that I just cannot finish because I run out of icing, sugar, etc.)

So I found some little sugar creations that a friend of mine sent from England, shaped like little wreaths and gingerbread men and stuck them on top... not nearly as impressive but still cute. :) I'm sure J, L & G will love them all the same. L was desperate to help me make them, but since she's had a fever for the last couple of days, unfortunately I was without my little helper. Soon enough, it will be Christmas cookie baking season, and I will definitely need her help with that! I still don't know how many I'm going to make this year - but if it's anything like prior years, well.. you'll see!

Wow, have I been slacking...

I know I keep saying this, but I seriously am going to be getting better at this one of these days. I promised to show a picture of Earth Dragon once it finished and I did finish it right before Halloween, but apparently got so busy with all the holidays coming up that my brain stopped working.

Seriously, I think it did. I have not stopped going and right now I even have a horrendous cold which refuses to leave me alone. It's been going strong for over a week now and I just can't shake it. Not to mention, I've discovered the fun that is Pinterest. Yay! A new way to find baking and stitching for me to do! *rolls eyes
LOL, I joke but not. I've done so much baking in the last two months that I've seriously considered stopping eating regular food to keep my waistline small. I can't help it, I love the baking almost as much as I love the eating of sweets. It's been bred into me, I can't help it!

I had so much fun this year decorating the house for Halloween that it was crazy! It does help that J is a sound and lighting technician and every year he brings home professional grade lighting to make our house look cool. And it's great how many things end up looking good when they're lit up well.


 This is my mantle, this year's addition to my collection of decorations. I even changed the family photos to make us look like vampires and zombies! I however wish I'd taken some indoor photos of my spider line - if you stick 300 spiders up to the wall, you really should keep photographic evidence of your hard work!

 This is our hanging skeleton. We set a strobe effect on him every year, and he keeps people from going to the wrong door (with the aid of our Keep Out! door) That one's actually kind of, a funny story, as when I was pregnant with L, I was home for my first day of maternity leave, supposed to be on bed rest. I had wandered through the house to get my music player, and looked outside to see a group of teenage boys walking by to go to the local fast food place. 30 seconds later, a huge bang shakes the house and I screamed, not knowing what happened. Turns out, the teenage boys had decided it would be great fun to kick our front door down (true story!) and when I screamed, it scared them off. I ran through the house to find what the bang was and I eventually went outside to find the door frame broken and the door with a footprint in the middle of it. I called 911 and the cops came out. They did find them, and had me identify the boys I'd seen. I was assured that they faced consequences when I called to enquire, but we had to replace our own door (figures!) and so I got a new front door thanks to that. We saved the old one, and now use it for Halloween décor!

 Here's our other new friend, I had some fun with this set-up. There's a small skeleton in the wheelbarrow, so the story is (although very morbid, really) that Daddy killed the baby and buried it in the wheelbarrow. When mommy found out, she killed him, and put both skeletons on display. He was supposed to have a beer and a baseball hat, but since it was raining, I forgot to add them on Halloween. :)


This is our little graveyard set up, I love it, interspersed with my herb garden.
I need to add some new gravestones one of these days.





Here's my owl - the first year I put him out, people actually thought he was real, and would duck when they walked by. This year, we added the moon light - I rather liked it!






And here's one of my appetisers I made for Halloween. We had some friends coming over to go out with the kids and I, so I wanted to make sure candy wasn't the only thing people had to eat. Although I'm not 100% fond of cheese balls, I actually really liked this one! It was like eating cheesy tacos. :)

L & G had a great time at least, and so did I, so it was definitely worth all the work to get there. But since this post has gotten pretty long, I'll come back tomorrow maybe to post my recent stitching successes. :)