Puppy Love!

Zelda had so much fun last weekend with her new buddy - Shombay! They played and ran all over the backyard together and had such a good time. We've never seen her get along so well with another dog.  Check out these amazing photos by A+C Photography!

Favorite Craft Project

Just thought I would share my favorite craft project, especially since it's perfect for the holiday season.  Candles can make such a beautiful gift or it can add to your holiday decor.  Here is a link to a tutorial on how you can decorate your candles with stamps!

I find candles from Bed Bath and Beyond work great and the off white candles hides the tissue paper slightly better than the white candles.  Just add a matching ribbon and a matching card and you've got an amazing gift set.  Stampin' Up sets used below include Serene Snowflakes and Scenic Season.
 

Baking For Charity

I've been searching for how I can give back to the community by baking for a while, so I was ecstatic when I found the Eat My Blog annual bake sale - proceeds will go to the LA Regional Food Bank.  Here are the goodies we made!  I hope they sell well at tomorrow's bake sale.
What: Eat My Blog 4.0
When: December 10, 2011
Time: 10am - 4pm
Where:  Pita Jungle in Pasadena located at 43 E Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105

Royal Iced Sugar Cookies

You can find the recipe on Jenny Steffens Hobick's blog (fantastic ideas!!)
http://jennysteffens.blogspot.com/2010/12/recipes-christmas-cookies-christmas.html

For the royal icing I used this meringue powder based recipe
http://sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/





Cake Pops (minus the lollipop stick)

This recipe is from Bakerella's book.  These adorable boxes were made from Michael's white boxes (79 cents each) and wide ribbon taped with a Stampin' Up tag (of course)!  To purchase the stamp set used please visit my online Stampin' Up store - http://ckkwan.stampinup.net/ and search for Best of Everything.

Marshmallow Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Gum Paste Flowers

This is the best chocolate cupcake recipe I've found so far: http://bakebakebake.livejournal.com/2748606.html

And the frosting was from Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/313083/quick-chocolate-frosting

I added a few marshmallows to the recipe - I love how they melt when you put them in right after you pull them out of the oven.  So delicious and moist!!

Gum paste flowers were from Wilton's ready made stuff - worked great!

Happy baking everyone!

First Blog Posting

So I've always thought I should have a blog, but I've never really taken the time to figure out what exactly I would post on one.  Now's as good a time as any, and I need a place to put things I want to ramble about.  I hope you enjoy my blog -- it will be full of randomness and whatever I happen to come across and find interesting (I still haven't figured out what the focus will be but I'm sure it will change along the way).