Mad Hatter Hat & a Shabby Tea Party

Hello friends~

Just a quick post today as it's still Memorial Day Weekend. Hubby and I had a nice week together and celebrated our 7 year anniversary a few days early since we can't be together on the actual day this year : ( We spent a couple of days at the Welk Resort in Cathedral City which is really close to where we live. It was nice and relaxing and of course my favorite part of being away from home is eating out! We ate breakfast at a place called Elmer's in Palm Springs ~ OMG! So good! They serve Dutch Babies there! My mom used to make them all the time years ago so it was fun to see them on the menu!
I have a few new pins to share with you too before I sign off. I was asked to recreate the Mad Hatter's Hat from Alice in Wonderland and this is what I came up with: (more pictures in my shop if you want to see)!

and also a cute little Shabby Tea Party ~ complete with a teeny tiny demitasse fork for the slice of tea cake! I love the tone of the aqua in these ones ~ it's very muted and soft.

Pinks & Needles On The Cover

Well this was a fun surprise to see! A couple of Pinks & Needles cupcake pins made it on the cover of Camille Roskelley's new pattern booklet! Thank you Camille for adding just the right amount of pincushion bling to your wonderful new creation! I am really looking forward to making this adorable sewing machine cover very soon and I might just have to re-create the beautiful pincushion that sports the mini cupcake pins too.

Happy sewing everyone!

P.S......the photos used in this post are the property of Camille~ she granted me my wish of re-posting them here on my blog : )

Jinny the Pomeranian - WIP

A friend of mine who lives in Australia misses her Pom Jinny so much she asked me to create a pin in her likeness : ) I messed around with the design for a couple of hours and almost scrapped it as it was a huge challenge for me ~ you see....... dog pins are not my forte! This was my last attempt and I'm glad I didn't toss it into the mess up pile. I still have a ways to go before it's complete......in the photo above she's unbaked and will need a few layers of paint to help bring out her real colors but I do think her fur turned out pretty good. All the different hairs you see are individual pieces of clay....I wish I would've counted how many little pieces I used ~ let's just say there's a lot! Here's the real Jinny! Look at her cute sideways tongue! Adorable : ) Of course the sideways tongue was a must for the pin design.

Easy Lemon Bundt Cake

Here's another super duper easy recipe for lemon bundt cake. I made up this recipe and have never had any complaints : )

For those who like to cheat a little when baking this is a great fast cake to make! This is what you'll need:

Hands On Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time 45 mins - 1 hr.
Servings 12-14

Description: The Bomb!

Ingredients for Cake:
1 package yellow Cake Mix (Duncan Hines is always my favorite)
1 (3 3/4 oz) package Jello-O Vanilla Pudding
4 eggs
1/2 c. cold water
1/2 c. canola oil or any other cooking oil
1/2 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice and the zest of all the lemons you use (usually about 2-3 lemons total)

Glaze:
1 stick of butter
1/4 c. water
1 c. sugar
1/4- 1/2 c fresh squeezed lemon juice (some people like very tart - some like less tart - it doesn't really matter in this recipe if you use less or more - it's totally up to you!

Preheat oven: 325 degrees
Grease a bundt pan with your favorite spray - I love Baker's Joy
Mix all cake ingredients together - if you don't want to bust out your Kitchen Aid mixer you can whisk by hand about 2 minutes - a good arm workout!

Pour batter into pan and pop in the hot oven.
Bake 45 mins. to 1 hr. depending on your oven. I find at 45 mins. my cake tester comes out perfect but since you are baking at a lower temperature yours could take a wee bit longer.

After your cake is done, cool on a wire rack in the pan for about an hour. Invert into a nice deep pie dish - hopefully you have a little space around the edge (not much but just a little).

While your cake is baking is a good time to cook up your glaze.
Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in the sugar AND then the water last (be careful it doesn't splatter on you. Pouring water into hot fat can hurt : ( Just go slow........Bring to a boil and keep it boiling for 5 minutes. It will be nice and bubbly. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and LET COOL for about 10-15 minutes. Then add your fresh lemon juice. Make sure to not add the lemon juice right after you take it off the stove because you'll burn off all the yummy lemon oil. I like to take my cake tester and poke a lot of holes into the bundt (go all the way to the bottom). The more holes the better! Baste your cake with the the lemon glaze. I like to pour a little pool into the center of the bundt and then keep basting all over the sides and top until it's absorbed. There have been many times when I baste over a couple of hours instead of all at once. That way the glaze has time to really soak in : )

This cake tastes delicious by itself or with fresh cut strawberries mixed with a little sugar : ) And of course fresh whipped cream is always wonderful too!

morning glory vine from my garden looks stunning against the yellow don't you think?


 

A Fun Fabric Technique

My friend Aimee over at littledeertracks has the coolest fabric technique! Check it out if you get a chance! I worked on this pincushion last night using her technique and I really like how it turned out : )

 These are the mountains and sky upside down ~ sorry...hard to get a good shot of this.

 Birds Eye view

Side View ~ note I haven't secured the pincushion in place yet so you can see my stitches around the edge.

 Custom Log Cabin pin topper for a bride to be. She'll be living with her new hubby in the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee!

I Want to Share This With You

I'm a big fan of the creepily cute and I love finding things and people on the web I could only make up in my imagination. I stumbled upon this fantastic artist mabgraves the other day and had to share with all of you. Entitled: Jude in the Octopus Garden                                                  

                                                            

And this too! Oh she's so precious and "special" don't you think? With her cute little third arm looking perfectly sweet and adorable!

Mab is a very gifted and talented artist ~ have a look at her website if you get a chance ~ I bet you will find something that speaks to you : ) Look at this slick vinyl sticker of a Masochistic Cupcake Mab designed too:

Have a nice evening everyone~

Gigi

Win This Cute Flag Bunting Over at....

                     Win this Pin Topper Set: 5 Flag Bunting ~ 1 Mini Mushroom ~ 2 Mini Blossoms

Little Miss Shabby has started her week long giveaway! Head on over every day this week (May 8th - 13th) and enter in to win lots of fun stuff! Today the Fat Quarter Shop sponsored some fabulous fabrics! You'll have to tune every day to see what's being given away next! All you need to do is comment over at Little Miss Shabby!

I'm pretty sure Friday will be the day you could win this cute flag bunting pin topper set (seen above)! But don't take my word for it...head on over every day! I know she'll be giving way super cute items from her favorite shops : )

Happy Mothers Day too to all the wonderful Moms who make our world a better place : ) You have the toughest job on the planet!

Mini Garden Party Bunting + GIVEAWAY Announcement

Well after yesterdays post I needed something cheery and fun to brighten my day! This little bunting was so fun to make! The little flags are made of polymer clay just like my regular pin toppers : ) I have been avoiding anything that has to do with cardboard boxes, packing paper and tape as I am dragging my feet on the "packing up the house process". I keep telling myself that I will have enough time to sculpt and pack it all up by the last week of May but I'm in denial. I really need to stop messing around with clay and get to work : (
Oh....there's one more exciting thing I wanted to share with you all. Little Miss Shabby is starting a week long GIVEAWAY on her blog Sunday May 8th - May 13th! I hope you'll all pop over there to say hi and see what she'll be giving away! I can tell you a little secret...I am one of the sponsors : )
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Hubby's flying home today ~ we get to hang out for a whole 3 days before he zips back up to the mountains!

KEEP YOUR CHILDREN SAFE! PLEASE READ THIS POST!

I debated on blogging about this but decided to share with all of you. This happened a couple of days ago. I'm going to copy and paste it here for you to read as I sent an email about it to a friend of mine. It's insane! Mind you I was shock when I was typing this so it may sound a bit long winded. But I was upset and my adrenaline was pumping.

So I'm totally tripping out right now.....
I have to tell someone what happened this morning! Probably one of the most insane things to happen to me ever...
I'm sitting there at my computer blogging and something caught my eye outside through the window ~ I saw a huge Rottweiler (probably about 110 pounds) running down the middle of the street. We have a huge population of stray dogs in my town which sucks because the animal shelter here is horrible. They are being sued right now by an attorney for negligence, abuse, neglect, high rates of euthanization...the list goes on and on. Anyway, so far since I've lived here (8 months) I have rescued 4 dogs (2 of which I have now come to call my adopted jail birds as they get out about once a week) and returned them back to their owners - thank goodness. But today was different. I ran out to make sure this dog wouldn't get hit by a car..I'm the third house in from a very busy Blvd...So I'm about to go chase after the dog when all of a sudden I see a baby...that's right a BABY no more than 18 months with no shoes on, a dirty diaper and a little tank top on in the middle of the street (in the opposite direction of where the dog was headed) so I ran out there and started blurting out really bad Spanish as I could tell she probably was Hispanic as are most of the people in my neighborhood. Donde esta su casa? is all that came to mind (alas Spanish class was 25 years ago...) She just kinda looked at me and "gaa gaa goo goo-ed" at me. Oh boy...where is your mommy? No response. Meanwhile the dog is now getting very protective over the baby and didn't like that I was trying to scoop her off the street onto the sandy, dirty, full of stickers side of the road. He kept putting his mouth over my wrist and trying to tug my arm away. Scary. I like dogs and have never been scared of them but this one seemed like it was going to rip me a new one. Meanwhile there is no one in sight in either direction on my street - like maybe a worried parent or something??? WTH? Where did this little girl come from and why is no one looking for her? So I start walking with her asking everyone I see if this baby is there's? I think I asked 5 people and no one knew who she was. I made it all the way down my entire city block asking her at every house if her mommy was there etc...she kept wanting to zig zag across the street and I'm thinking each time it's because she's recognizes her house - no such luck. I had a car actual honk their frickin horn at me and yell something like get your kid out of the street! Are you serious right now was all I could think!!! I'm about ready to burst into tears when all of a sudden I see a cop on his radio start heading towards me. Oh thank God!! As he approached I said Oh I'm so happy you're here..thank you, thank you! He didn't say anything to me..he just scooped her up and started walking away. I was like Hello! YOU'RE WELCOME!! I didn't say that but I wanted to. I thought it was kind of rude he didn't say anything to me or acknowledge me? IS that weird to you? I am so blown away right now...people astound me....

I'm still shaken up and it's been a couple of hours since this all went down. I just keep thinking to myself that this poor little child must've been missing for some time since the cops were there when I got to the end of my block!!! Her little knees were all scratched from the dog jumping up on her and knocking her down.Her feet must be in pain too because of the rocks, glass, stickers etc.. I am thankful it was me who found her and not some creepy guy : (

Dude...what a day...
 

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Mermaid Candy Pin Toppers

 This is a very new direction for me as far as pin topper designs.  Usually I am dreaming up a fairytale mushroom design or a new cupcake piled with frosting. I think what turned the corner for me was last week when I debuted my vintage inspired buttons. Each one is made from polymer clay and some have different layers of paint that has been sanded in some parts to make them appear "patina"-ed. As I was painting these pretty gems and highlighting them I kept thinking of mermaids in the ocean swimming around an old vintage ship wreck finding treasure. Each pin is like a little piece of mermaid candy. I have 15 different styles available in the shop now : )

With all this talk of mermaids & treasure I had to set up a mini photo shoot entitled: Ship Wrecked

P.S. I know many of you are probably like me in that what you listen to during your creative time really reflects what you end up making. Here's a snippet of what I was listening to while creating Mermaid Candy:
A Christopher Mills animated short film set to "Collect Call", from the album FANTASIES by Metric. If you like paper dolls I'm sure you'll appreciate this short film : )

Mermaid Candy was featured on Paper Cake Finds Today! Check it out!