Kim's Blog

Construction Site Cupcakes

2014-06-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

My friend Colleen threw a construction themed 2nd birthday party for her son. She made an amazing cake which you can see in this photo:

These are the cupcakes I made to compliment her cake:

BBQ Grill Cupcakes

2014-06-03T06:21:00.001-07:00

Our Lions club had a BBQ, and so I made these cupcakes!

For the grill grate, I piped Wilton dark chocolate candy melts. The hot dog and hamburger are fondant with black food coloring for the lines, and the kabob is cut up gummy bears on a toothpick! I think they turned out super cute!

Coppertone Clearly Sheer Buzz Campaign

2014-05-30T10:10:00.004-07:00

With summer coming, I was super excited to get a sunscreen buzz campaign! I got the campaign for COPPERTONE^® CLEARLYSheer^™ sunscreens!

I was really excited to get my buzz kit in the mail:

I have already tried the sunscreen and LOVE IT! I use the spray for my son, since he can't sit still long enough for me to put on lotion, and I love how it feels so light. I can easily use it on my face without my face feeling all oily.

"Vintage Elegance" Cupcakes

2014-05-23T13:26:00.001-07:00

A former coworker asked me if I would make cupcakes and a cake for her sisters bachelorette party. I was really excited about the vintage elegance theme!

I'm sorry to say that the cake turned out to be a disaster. I'm not quite sure what went wrong. It fell apart in the car when she was on her way to the party.

The saving grace was the fact that the cupcakes turned out so beautifully!

Burt's Bees Baby Bee House Party

2014-05-23T13:22:00.002-07:00

How lucky was I to get this house party? I was able to give samples to all my mommy friends!

Bottle and Bottega Owl Painting

2014-05-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

If you have never been to Bottle and Bottega - GO! It was SO MUCH FUN! I went with a group of fellow mommies. We had an amazing time!

Heart Wreath

2014-05-23T13:13:00.002-07:00

I made this for a coworker to cheer her up while her mother was sick. She had shown me a picture of a similar wreath in the past and said how much she liked it and how she wished she was crafty enough to make one. Note: she really likes birds!

Knitting

2014-05-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

My winter knitting projects included an infinity scarf for myself, a winter scarf for my son and a super cozy winter throw (three years in the making!).

Cinderella Cupcakes

2014-05-23T12:46:00.001-07:00

Made these for my niece's 3rd birthday. She had a princess party, obviously!

My little king had a great time at his cousin's party!

RIP Dominicks

2014-05-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite grocery stores, Dominick's, went out of business this winter. While I was super bummed, I was able to stock up on ALOT of 50% off merchandise. And - it was 50% off on top of the sale price and any coupons you had, so my husband and I both had a lot of fun shopping! I didn't keep all my receipts, but I think we calculated that we spent $600-$700, and had about 60% savings. Here are my scores:

These diapers came out to about 9 cents a diaper!
And I thought 18 cents on Amazon was good!

Gender Reveal Cupcakes

2014-05-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

I've made these before. One of my coworkers, Jenn, recently had her first child. The other one, Becca, is pregnant with her second! Since I have no photos of the insides, I will let you know that they are both boys!

For Jenn

For Becca

Christmas Cupcakes, Cookies and Presents!

2014-05-23T12:26:00.001-07:00

Christmas was awesome this year! Toddlers bring back the magic that is Christmas morning, so although this wasn't my son's first Christmas, it was definitely the first one where he (kinda) knew what was going on! I have a few Christmas items to blog about, so I'm going to combine them all into this one post.

Christmas Cupcakes
I made cupcakes for my office Christmas party. I thought I would try a new concept that I saw on Pinterest- making cupcake toppers with melted chocolate. I used the vanilla Wilton candy melts died the colors I needed.

Apricot Cookies
My Grandmother was "famous" for her apricot cookies. I never at them as a kid- but most of my family went crazy for them. For mom mom's gift, my sister had the idea to get her a platter from www.customsepia.com with my grandmothers handwritten recipe on it. To top it off, I decided to try to make the cookies as an added surprise. They turned out pretty great- but probably not as good as Grandma's!

Busy Board
So this one I didn't make, but my dad did as a gift for my son. A coworker told me about the concept of a busy board, and I thought it would be perfect for my busy toddler. Here is what my dad came up with. My son's favorite part is the whistle!

Graduation/Fire Marshall Cake

2014-05-23T06:51:00.002-07:00

Ok, so I haven't blogged in almost a year. Life with a toddler is so busy! Now I have a whole list of blogs to post and I plan to get most of them done today! So here we go- post number one!

A good friend of ours recently graduated with his masters degree and got a new job (fire Marshall!) Here is the cake I made for his graduation party.

Little Monsters Baby Shower

2013-08-08T10:57:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I know it's been awhile, but between taking care of my baby, going to Germany and London and planning for various events I've been SO busy.

Last weekend was my sister-in-laws baby shower. I was in charge of the Invitations and cake. For the nursery, she chose a monster theme, and I decided to follow suit with the shower.

Invitation

Cake

Diaper Cake Gift

This weekend we are going to my Aunts house for a "family reunion" type of get together. I'm making Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes. Stay tuned!

Keurig House Party

2013-05-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

My most recent House Party was for the Keurig Vue 500. I have had a Keurig in the past, and after it broke down multiple times, I had given up on the brand. However, since this one was free, and is a little different from the older Keurigs, I was excited to try it out!

In my party pack, I got tons of cool stuff! Aside from the actual brewer, I got 6 packs of K-cups (including coffee, iced coffee, latte's and tea), mugs, cups, napkins, cookies and coupons!

In addition, anyone that purchases a machine using our coupon code gets us $25 towards more K-cups! Hopefully a few of the people we gave the coupon to use it and we get some money, we are almost out of K-cups!

We were having a party that night to celebrate my birthday, the birthdays of two of our good friends and also the house party! We went for dinner and then back to my house for after dinner coffee drinks! It was fantastic.

BzzAgent Pure Madness Chocolate and Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips

2013-04-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

First, I must say I LOVE BzzAgent. I got two new campaigns!

Pure Madness Chocolate

First, I got the Pure Madness Chocolate Campaign. Pure Madness Chocolate is a curated collection of truffles, bars, sipping chocolate, toffee and seasonal bark. Inspired by a fanatical devotion to the seductive confection, the makers of Pure Madness import raw chocolate from Belgium and add an alchemy of flavors – both classic and bold – and finish with techniques that leave their luxury cocoa wares nothing short of luscious.

I got to try the 9 pack of truffles, and a chocolate bar!

Green Giant™ Veggie Snack Chips
I also got to try Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips, available in two delicious varieties.

Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddar are crispy tortilla chips made with real vegetables like carrot, broccoli, and tomato, plus 17g of whole grain.

Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt are made with real sweet potatoes and 14g of whole grain, with 40% less fat than regular potato chips.

Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

2013-04-10T12:22:00.001-07:00

For my husbands 30th birthday, I wanted to cook him a dinner that he would really enjoy. He really likes chicken pot pie, so I looked up how to make one. It looked really complicated! Then I found this recipe for chicken pot pie cupcakes. These reminded me of my very successful meatloaf cupcakes, so I decided to give them a try.

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked chicken breasts diced (I poached mine)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup frozen mixed veggies
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon of dried italian seasonings
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 (10 oz) cans Pillsbury Grands Junior biscuits

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400.
In a large bowl, combine the cooked chicken, cream of chicken soup, frozen veggies, cheese, herbs and spices.
Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin and place the Pillsbury biscuits into each cup, pressing into the bottom and up the sides.
Evenly spoon the pot pie mixture into each biscuit cup. Slide into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Check at the 12 minute mark.
Let rest for about 3 minutes and dig in!

These were seriously SO good. I was planning to eat two (to save points for dessert) but ended up eating 5!

My husband also really loves baked apple type desserts, so I decided to try these apple maple turnovers. I thought they were pretty good, and I hope he did too! It was my first time using puff pastry- and I can't wait to try more things with it.

DIY Headbands!

2013-03-29T08:54:00.001-07:00

The suburban crafters are at it again. This month our project was DIY headbands. I won't tell you how I made them, because their are some great tutorials here:

Nautical Knot

Lace

DIY Name Hanger (for the new bride...)

2013-03-29T08:50:00.002-07:00

I have always seen clothing hangers on Etsy that would make the perfect gift for a bride. They are customized with the future name of the bride such as "Mrs. Smith" and would make for some gorgeous photos with a wedding dress hanging off of them.

A friend of mine is getting married next weekend, and I really wanted to purchase one of these hangers for her bachelorette party. After looking at the price of them (you already know how cheap I am), I decided that I could easily make this myself!

Here are the supplies I used:

A nice wooden hanger stolen from my husbands side of the closet. (I'm sure he loves that one of his work shirts is now on a "crappy" white plastic hanger!)
Pretty ribbon, which I already had from wrapping Christmas Presents. (I suggest a neutral such as the white and brown I used, or ribbon using the brides wedding colors.)
Craft wire. (I had some leftover from a previous Pinterst project which I got in the floral section at Michaels, but I also found this example on Amazon.)
Screw driver and screws
Glue

I sculpted the wire into the new last name of the bride. This took some trial and error, but I finally got it to look how I wanted. Remember to keep measuring the name so that it fits between the arms of the hanger. Then, I took a screwdriver and used the screws to make small holes on the inside arms of the hanger. I put a dab of glue inside the holes, and then inserted the ends of the wire into the holes. Finally, make a nice bow and secure around the top of the hanger with some glue! Done!

BzzAgent Playtex Secrets Bra

2013-03-29T08:35:00.003-07:00

Once again BzzAgent delivered. This time I got a Bra! I know- a free bra in the mail- it's awesome! The Bzz campaign I was selected for was the Playtex Be Uniquely You campaign for their new Playtex Secrets Bra.

I got the bra in nude so I could wear it under any item of clothing without it showing through. The fit is fantastic. The bra is available at Kohls.

Month 2 (2013) Gyros

2013-03-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

For February, Greg wanted to make Gyros! I know, I know, I have been to Greece and I didn't try them there, instead I tried this frozen box from Dominicks. Oh well, I was pregnant and not feeling 100% when I was in Greece and wasn't in the mood to try new things!

These actually tasted really good. We had them three times in a row since their were so many left overs, and I really really enjoyed them. I would totally eat Gyros again!

BzzAgent Neutrogena Cosmetics

2013-03-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks once again to BzzAgent for introducing me to some very cool products!

Neutrogena^® is known for making radiant skin a reality with their skin care products, so we should have known they’d do the same with their makeup. Forget diamonds — Neutrogena^® Cosmetics are the only best friend a girl needs, enhancing your natural beauty while helping to improve your skin’s healthy look.

In this Bzz kit- I received:
Neutrogena^® MoistureSmooth Color Sticks for sheer, shiny color that conditions lips
Neutrogena^® Healthy Lengths Mascara for 100% longer looking lashes
Neutrogena^® Crease Proof Eye Shadows for 12-hour wear that instantly revives and brightens eyes

I have used all of these products, and I really enjoy them all. If it was up to me, I would use a different shade of lipstick, the sweet watermelon I received is a little bit light pink for my taste. The two eyeshadow shades I received I LOVED!

I would recommend these products and will continue to use them.

BzzAgent Schick Hydro

2013-02-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

I received another product for free from BzzAgent! Ok, so I already used this Schick Hydro Silk razor before I was sent it, but it's my favorite razor so I'm happy to Bzz about it! This razor keeps you silky smooth with a great gentle shave-I really do love it. Check out BzzAgent and sign up to receive some of your own Bzz campains and try free stuff!

Month 1 (2013) Pulled Pork

2013-01-14T16:50:00.001-08:00

In te beginning of 2011, I made a new year's resolution to try a new food each month. Since then, I have become much less of a picky eater, however there are still many new foods I need to try. And, although I promised to try new foods in 2012 according to my blog post last year, I ended up getting pregnant in early 2012 and decided not to do it. If you have ever been pregnant, you know that you don't want someone else picking what you eat!

So, now I am ready to try it again!

For month one, my husband chose pulled pork. I don't really like BBQ sauce, so I was worried about that, but my mom said she had a crock pot recipe that didn't taste too much like BBQ. We made some minor adjustments (smaller roast and added garlic) but here it is:

So I tried one sandwich, and I actually kinda liked it. Then, I had another one the next day and a half of one the day after (we had a lot of leftovers!)

I would eat this again every once in awhile!

BzzAgent Draftmark Tap System

2013-01-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

This was the coolest BzzAgent campaign I have received so far. I got an entire Keg system!

I purchased the Michelob AmberBock for my keg system an it tasted just like it would out of the tap at a restaurant.