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Water Balloon Barrette Tutorial

Hey everyone! So I have a Klutz book on hair and bows from 1994 or something like that... It may be a little out of date but still totally fun! I've learned how to do all kinds of hairstyles from this book. Anyways they have a bow called the "Balloony Bow." Super cute! So I decided to make one using water balloons instead of regular sized balloons; it makes the bow not too big so you can use them for pigtails. :)

Materials:

1 Package water balloons (I got mine from the Dollar Store)

Two barrettes (also from the Dollar Store)

The first thing you're going to want to do is sort the balloons by color. Put them in the order you like. I did mine in the standard rainbow, but once it's all put together you can't exactly tell.

Next just tie the balloons around the barrette in a double knot. Make sure each consecutive balloon points the opposite direction to add some variety. Also, see the tiny hole on the ends of each barrette? I tied two balloons around each hole so the ends wouldn't be bare.

And that's it! Just keep tying the balloons until you've run out of room. You can fluff them up to make them go the exact directions you want. Have fun! And don't forget to give them to a super cute little girl to enjoy! 

Tie-Dying it Up

If one were to take a peek inside my closet at this very moment in time, they would find a wardrobe mainly consisting of home-made and store-bought tie dye shirts. It's kind of an addiction. I love tie dye! One of my favorite summer activities is to have a tie dye party with my friends. It's so much fun! So I had had a party last summer and those shirts have been worn to death. Needless to say I'm getting tired of them. But today I made some brand new ones! And a few onesies for my soon-to-be baby cousin, too. So cute!

So go out and get a tie-dye kit from JoAnn's (and make sure it has soda ash in it, it really brightens the colors) and get your tie dye on too!!

Birdie

I recently had the opportunity to go to The YMCA family camp with my boyfriend and his family. It was so much fun! And I think my favorite part was all of the crafts I got to do. I even learned how to solder! (I made a stained glass cross for my mom) I got to do leather work and make friendship bracelets, lanyards and all that good stuff. But my favorite was this cute little birdie guy. (And Kristi if you are reading this, put a bird on it, It's for you!) He was originally white, but I decided to paint him orange. My first design was the turquoise one that says Live. Laugh. Love. Not anything original, but cute still. Then I thought, he needs the other side decorated! So I came up with my little sunflower design. I added little swirls to fill it in a bit, too. So anyways, here is my little birdie, bright orange to liven up any little space he ends up in.

Sometimes it's just fun to get a little creative! So don't be afraid to tackle a project even if you're not sure where it's going to end up. I'm sure it'll be fun along the way!

Happy First Birthday!

It's always so exciting when your little one has their first birthday, and first taste of birthday cake! Smashing into that thing like nobody's business. I recently had the opportunity to make two first birthday cakes for friend's little ones. So cute!

The left is a giant cupcake and the right is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" themed. So cute!

Beach, Friends, Heart Shaped Rocks

Black Bean Soup

Hey everyone!

I've recently been making dinner for my family. I decided to try a black bean soup recipe I found online. It's vegan! It is sooooooooo good! My family was raving. We were putting it away to freeze, and my mom was like, "I'm full, but looking at it makes me want more!" Anyways, I found this on allrecipes.com, a great website to find all sorts of recipes!

Here it is, Vegan Black Bean Soup, and I made mine with corn muffins on the side, which the guys in the family especially loved. Also, we had fresh pineapple for dessert. Yum!

Prep time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients

·         1 tablespoon olive oil

·         1 large onion, chopped

·         1 stalk celery, chopped

·         2 carrots, chopped

·         4 cloves garlic, chopped

·         2 tablespoons chili powder

·         1 tablespoon ground cumin

·         1 pinch black pepper

·         4 cups vegetable broth

·         4 (15 ounce) cans black beans

·         1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

·         1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Directions

1.   Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes. Season with chili powder, cumin, and black pepper; cook for 1 minute. Stir in vegetable broth, 2 cans of beans, and corn. Bring to a boil.

2.   Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, process remaining 2 cans beans and tomatoes until smooth. Stir into boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

P90X

So I post a lot about baking, and not so much about making other things or just creating in general.
But, now I have a new exciting adventure to post about: creating a new, healthier me.

Yesterday I started P90X, a workout DVD system from "Beach Body."
They have 12 different workouts, and you follow a plan for 90 days including meals.

I'm really excited to be trying out this program. The workouts I have done so far have been fun, but really tough! I just finished the Plyometrics workout, which is jump training. I thought I was going to have a heart attack! Ok, not really, but it sure was a cardio workout. It's a lot of squats and jumping around, but sometimes I did the modified versions so I could catch my breath.

For the meals, I won't exactly be following the plan to a T, but I have incorporated some recipes from this plan and the "Insanity" plan. They both have basically high-protein diets.

I'm really excited about this! Let me know if any of you have been working on getting yourself in better shape. If you are, great! Let's do this journey together and keep each other motivated. :)

Have a great day!

~Jamie

Decorating Class

I drug my boyfriend into taking a cake decorating class with me ( the promo was buy 1, get 1 free) and it has been really fun! I'm taking the Wilton Decorating Basics at JoAnn's. It has cost me a lot more than I intended, because you have to make the cakes, cookies, and frosting every week, and I'm doing a double batch for the BF to use. Also, I find myself buying more products like a cake leveler, a turntable, etc, etc. I will definitely use these things in the future, but it's a lot to buy at once.

Overall it has been a lot of fun! I'm excited to see what we learn next and for the weeks to come. I'm excited to be able to incorporate these skills into my own decorating.

Homemade Marshmallow Fluff

How many of you thought that marshmallow fluff was made out of marshmallows like I did?
Well, much to my surprise, it's not! It's mostly corn syrup (that's good for you, right?) and powdered sugar.

Super easy to make, as long as you have an electric mixer. Or else your hand might fall off.

Here's the recipe (it's amazing what you can find on the internet!)

Ingredients:
1 and a half egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine egg whites, salt and corn syrup. Beat with wire whisk attachment on high speed for five minutes, or until the mixture has thickened and doubled. Make sure peaks form in it when you turn a utensil full of it upside down. Reduce speed to low, and add vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir them in until well blended. Store in fridge until ready to use, it will last for about 2 weeks.

And the best part is, now you can make Flutternutters! And if you don't have a fun time saying that, you're crazy ;)

I used mine instead of frosting atop these tiny vanilla cupcakes. Then I placed them to look like an American flag. 

Business

I never thought I'd have my own business, but I guess it just kind of happened! A couple of people from my church had asked me to make various cakes or cupcakes for them for upcoming events. I didn't really consider myself as having a service to offer, but then I started playing around with names for my "business." I came up with Jamie Cakes, because I just liked the way it sounds. So one night I was looking through my pictures of all of the cakes and cupcakes I had made, and I found this picture. I played around with it on Picmonkey, and I thought, 'Hey, this looks like a really cute business card!' Now I was curious. What would happen if I 'advertised' myself on facebook? I posted this picture on my Facebook, and within minutes I had someone asking me to make a cake for them.

So here I am, with a tiny business to do while I finish school. And maybe someday it will turn into something more. But if not, that's ok, because whatever I do with it I'll be having fun, doing what I love: baking!

Mother's Day/Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

I hope you all had a fantastic and wonderful mother's day. I will be continuing the celebration tonight with "Girl's Night In" with my mom. We'll be watching the original Footloose while snacking on popcorn and candy, and painting our toenails. Perfect!

My grandmother asked me to make some cupcakes for a little mother's day get-together at her church. I thought that lemon raspberry would be perfect for springtime and for a women's event. Also, that is one of my favorite flavor combinations ever.

I bought a standard Betty Crocker lemon cake mix and dressed it up with some freshly-squeezed lemon juice. I made the buttercream frosting from the Wilton website, except I made a few changes to make it more lemony. The result was phenomenal. I won't tell you my secret, so you'll just have to experiment for yourself. Tangy-sweet lemon icing that perfectly complimented the fresh raspberry atop the cupcake. I also filled the cupcakes with organic raspberry jam I had found at Food for Less. Mmmmm... it was delicious!

And you may notice the little label in the bottom corner, that's a logo for my new business! 

Mmm mmm good. :)

Chocolate-Fudge Soft Cookies

Hey all!

So tonight I was just itching to bake something. I got out my mom's "Most Loved Cookies" cookbook and flipped through it to see what I could make with what we have at the house. Oooh, there are some good recipes in this book! I decided to go with chocolate softies because I had all of the necessary ingredients, and you can never go wrong with chocolate, right?

Here's a link to the book on their website:
http://www.companyscoming.com/cookbooks/most-loved-recipe-collection/most-loved-cookies/8/MLCO/

They turned out really well: warm, gooey, soft, and the icing tastes like fudge! Mmmmm...

And once I took pictures of the cookies, I decided to have a little fun on picmonkey. A super-cool, easy to use picture editing website I learned about from Ruffled Sunshine.

If you use recipes from this book, let me know how it turns out! I'd love to hear from you.

Happy cupcaking! (Or cookie-ing, in this case)

~Jamie

Homage to America and Baking

For my art appreciation class we had to create a piece of artwork that represents some part of us. So, I decided to make an homage to america and baking. I love to decorate cakes, so I made a 3D styrofoam cake and covered it with patriotic fabrics. I found some cute decorations and a hot glue gun and voila! Art project completed. I also figured that, come July, it could double as a centerpiece for the kitchen table. Because who wants to make something that will never be used for anything practical? Not me. So, here it is!

I guess it's not really what some would consider "art," it's more of a crafty thing. But if it gets me a passing grade, I'm ok with it. :)

"Oh yeah"

Chocolate cupcakes with homemade peanut butter frosting. Oh yeah.

I guess what I like so much about baking is that even though it can be time consuming and a lot of work, the minute someone else enjoys it and you see that moment of "ohhhh yeahhhh" on their face it's all worth it.

Especially when your three-year-old niece comes bopping in and goes "ooooohhh!" as soon as she sees them.

She was so cute with the little bit of frosting on her face, I just had to take a picture.

She looks so grown-up!

Anyways, if you want to know how I made this fabulous treat, I just bought a box of "Triple Chocolate Fudge" cake mix. My mom got me a tin filled with cupcake recipes and the frosting was from the "Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes" recipe. It is sooooo delicious!

Peanut Butter Frosting:

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup milk

Beat peanut butter and butter in a medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla, beat at low speed 1 minute or until crumbly. Slowly add milk, beating at low speed until creamy.

I just guesstimated on the vanilla and used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup Crisco to make it fluffier. I also added the sugar 1 cup at a time.

Enjoy and happy cupcaking!

XOXO ~Jamie

Easter Cuties

I love taking pictures, and finding cool (free) editing apps/programs to make fun effects with.


Have you heard of Picnik? Well, It's AMAZING. But on April 19th, it's going away! :( I think it's merging with Google+. 


Well, whatever. For now until they move it, I'm L-O-V-I-N-G using it. Here are some gorgeous babies I took some pics of on Easter, and used the "cross process" effect on. So adorable!!

Easter Bunny Madness

Hey all!
So I just recently got into sewing. A friend of mine taught me the basics and I picked it up pretty quickly, so I decided to make a cute little stuffed bunny for my 3-year-old cousin.


I got the pattern from The Mary Frances Project, titled Jack Rabbit Softie. I had looked online everywhere and this was by far the cutest bunny pattern ever!!


My cousin LOVES the color blue. She will not stop talking about it. So I scoured Joann's for the sweetest, simplest blue fabric I could find, and I fell in love with this oh-so-light blue floral fabric. And the best part: it was 50% off! Score. I matched a darker bluey-turquoise fabric and bought a little square of it to match. 


The pattern was simple and the directions easy to follow.

Here's how it turned out! 

Not bad for my first sewing project, huh?! I even embroidered his cute little nose and mouth.

Needless to say I was SO excited when I finished it. There were a couple of imperfections, but that just made it perfectly homemade.

Now I can't wait to give it to my cousin! I hope she loves it as much as I do. I also can't wait to see what name she gives it! I gave her a yellow teddy bear when she was first born and was someday named Yellow Bear. That bear has been stuck to her hip ever since.

So you may be thinking, where's the madness in this story? Well. here it comes. 

My boyfriend saw the bunny before we went out on a date Friday night and was like "Awwww it's so cute!"
(I even caught him cuddling with it for a few seconds while I went to retrieve my purse)
He has a super-cute 4-year-old cousin and he immediately gave me the puppy eyes, saying "She would love this!!"


So back to Joann's we went. I'm surprised the people at the cutting counter don't know our names by now.


His cousin is O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D with The Little Mermaid. So we found the cutest Ariel fabric EVER and bought the last of it. Her favorite color is yellow so we bought a yellow floral fabric that matched so perfectly I could die.


We went home and commenced the production of bunny #2. When I used a little swatch to test my machine, it was not right at all. I adjusted the tension and sampled it at ever level and it still was never right. Apparently, the fabric was too thin and needed a smaller needle. Joann's trip number 3. But everything was so pricey and my stepfather's words were reverberating in my head, "Go to Walmart." So off we went, again. 


Got the needle, came home, finished the project in one day and voila!!!
Cute bunny #2 complete! Yay!!