The aliens are coming !

Today there was an article in the Herald about do-it-yourself-botox and how badly it had gone wrong for some people.

I mean what can you expect when you're injecting your lips with cooking oil?

Oh yeah.

Read the article, it's scary.

I, for one, can't begin to understand what goes through some women's minds.

There's this thing called 'training' that seems to be ignored. If you needed a mole removed, would you consider finding an online do-it-youself site ? Some people would argue it comes down to natural selection and then there's Forest Gump who would argue 'Stupid is as stupid does.'

Anyhou, the images that accompanied the article were frightening. They were lips belonging to an Australian woman who didn't want to be named, but wanted to alert other women to the dangers of online botox buying. So good on her for trying to prevent others from walking in her misguided footsteps.

I can't find the images online but, needless to say, her lips looked like rubber duckys. Take these lips.

Perform a rubber ducky enlargement......and you're beginning to get the picture.

Come to think of it, I would love to transport a fully-botoxed-facelifted-spray-tanned-semi-starved woman from 2011 and plonk them in a dinner party in 1915 and see what the reaction was.

Possibly that some had escaped from the circus.

Cookie Decorating Essentials . . . Works for Me Wednesday

Although I've blogged about all of these things separately, I've never put them all in one post. Duh.

So, thank you to those of you who have emailed to ask for a list of essentials for new cookie decorators.

Here it is, all in one place...click on the links for the original post and more info.

Just the Basics, Ma'am

{cookie decorating essentials}

1. disposable icing bags
{photo credit: amazon}


2. icing tips: #1 & #3 tips (2 each), #2 tips (3) 


3. couplers: 5


4. squeeze bottles: 8 ounce (3), 16 ounce (2)


5. toothpicks: lots!


6. twist ties
{photo credit: Layer Cake Shop} 


7. AmeriColor Gel/Paste food colorings: 
here are my favorites...and don't forget white!


8. meringue powder

That should be enough to get you started! Of course, once you start, you'll want MORE! ;) Don't say I didn't warn you.

Need recipes?  Here ya go:
My go-to sugar cookie for decorating
Royal icing...recipe and FAQs
{printable versions of both recipes}

Alright....who's making cookies this week?

Papertake Weekly - Bloom and Grow

Hi everyone and happy Tuesday! It's time for a new challenge from Papertake Weekly, and this week it's "bloom and grow".  So use flowers, flowery paper, anything that goes along with bloom and grow for your challenge entry. This week we're sponsored by The Ribbon Girl! They were so generous as to allow us to play with the adorable Molly Blooms images for our cards this week! Isn't she soooo adorable? I love her!!

I've got a zillion things going on at this moment, so this is going to be a really quick post. I apologize, but if you have any questions about the card, please do not hesitate to email me!

Please be sure and pop over to Papertake Weekly to see all the gorgeous creations by the design team! You will love all the eye candy they've produced!! And then we'd really love it if you'd grab your paper and glue and play along with us! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! Hugs!!

Fascinating People.

Just to temporarily suspend subjecting you to talking animal posts, I shall share a story from my recent trip to L.A.

It was an incredibly inspiring handful of days and I got to know some really interesting people.

From a writer from Ugly Betty, to an actor from the British soap Holby City, to a couple of Kiwis who have just made their first feature film (and if I could put ten dollars on anyone's career skyrocketing, it would be on those two) right through to Neil, a writer from Noo Yoirck who had his name embroidered on his sweatshirt and tucked his napkin into the top of his shirt while he ate his boiger (he really did talk like that) for lunch.

However the best line I heard was from Mark, the Australian writer. I met him on the last day and asked if he was staying at the hotel where most people were staying.

'Nah mate, I've been staying down the road at the Travel Lodge. But I've loved it. Last night I left here pretty late, went back to my hotel and popped into the bar. I ended up having a drink with a whole lot of midget wrestlers.'

Only in America. (I think).

Hey there, little lady(bug)!

Ever since I bought the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book; I've been dreaming of making these little ladybug cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, I decided to go with chocolate instead of vanilla, though, thinking it looked more like dirt.  Don't we all want our cupcakes to look like dirt? ;)

The recipe for the chocolate cupcakes (below) is so good...the cupcake are moist and light...perfect!


In Martha's book, the ladybugs are made from marzipan.  These I made from fondant that I had on hand.  And, I tried the Satin Ice fondant, although making it at home is easy, too.  The Satin Ice brand tastes great and smells like sugar heaven...it's nice to have on hand for fondant emergencies. ;) I found it at Sur La Table.  Either way you go, you'd use AmeriColor Super Red and Super Black food colorings to tint them.


One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
{adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes}

3/4 c. dutch-process cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
1 & 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 c. sugar
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. coarse salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. warm water
3/4 c. buttermilk
3 TBSP vegetable oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.

With the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix on low speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

The batter is very wet. Pour into a large glass measuring cup to easily pour into muffin cups.

Fill baking cups 2/3rd full of batter. Bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the tops bounce back when lightly pressed. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes, then invert and remove from pans.  Cool completely on the wire racks.

The frosting is swiss meringue buttercream, although you could use any frosting that holds its shape.  For a great post on SMBC (I hear that's what the cool kids call it), visit my friend Gail, over at One Tough Cookie.  Her recipe is delicious and she makes the process look so easy!

The buttercream was tinted green with AmeriColor Leaf and Forest Green food colorings and piped onto the cupcakes with a #233 Wilton tip.

*That grass frosting counts as a serving of "greens," right?*

Magnolia-licious Design Team Wedding March Hop!!

Welcome to our monthly blog hop for the Magnolia-licious Design Team, sponsored by the generous and fabulous Diana! If you've arrived here after visiting my talented DT sistah Patti Jo, then you're on the right track! If not, you might want to head back to the very beginning at the Magnolia-licious Highlites blog.  You don't want to miss any of the fabulous projects and there just might be some yummy candy along the way too! This month our theme is the Wedding March Hop!!  So the projects are all to be wedding themed and contain a gift or package created using the fabulous Scor Pal.  I really had a fun time making this one!   For my project, I made the "wine tote". I think I made the handle a little wide to be able to get a bottle of wine into it, so I think I would put a couple champagne flutes inside instead. Wouldn't that be a wonderful wedding or anniversary gift?  I think if I really wanted it to be for a bottle of wine, I would attach the handles with brads so it would swing down for clearance.

For the wine tote, I used Bazzill cardstock along with Best Creation DP.  I used the #1 Vintage Tag Doohickey Die,   but I wanted a shadow for it. So I just glued it onto some black cardstock and cut it out myself.  I also used #18 Rose Leaf,  the flourish die which I don't see in stock right now, and #411 Elegant Heart stamp (which I adore!!)  Unfortunately, this set didn't photograph very well.  I think it's actually much prettier in person.

For my card, I used #168 Loving Bridal Couple. Aren't they beautiful?! I used colors that I think would work for someone getting married for the second time, or even an anniversary (especially a silver anniversary). Along with the beautiful couple, I used #411 Elegant Heart Stamp again. Together Forever is a Verve stamp. The lace trim as well as the ros on the bag are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the black paper doily was cut using a Cheery Lynn Designs doily die. The bow (of course) was made using May Arts Silk Ribbon from Stamp and Create.

I colored the images using Copic markers (E50, 53 for her dress, and T series for his slacks) and then I cut them out and popped them up for dimension. They are put on a frame made using a Martha Stewart PATP set.

One of the fun things about a blog hop is blog candy! So if you would like to win a special packet of goodies from me, please be sure and leave a comment on this post before midnight Pacific Sunday night, May 23rd. One entry per person please. Next stop on the hop is my friend and fabulously talented Barb! Thanks so much for joining in our blog hop today and hope to see you back again soon! Hugs!

Oh, the anguish.

Because I am not very complicated and reasonably simple (did I just say the same thing twice?), I generally find not-very-funny-things quite hilarious. Like this dog.

I feel that dog's pain.

P.S You know how I said, a few posts ago, that I was going to stop posting ridiculous animals videos ?

I was lying.