I Lurve Me Some Cuppycakes!

I've been on this huge cupcake kick lately! They are so easy to make and to make look impressive without much hard work. I cannot frost a cake to save my life but frosting a cupcake is uber easy! Either buy a large size frosting tip or just use a bag and snip the tip off (a large opening for cupcakes!) and swirl the frosting on. And remember- sprinkles hide a multitude of sins!!!


Orange Creamsicle Cupcake with Twisted Frostinng


Cupcake from THIS blog
and
frosting a combo of fluffy white frosting below and orange frosting from here
Tastes JUST like the ice cream you grew up with!!

Devils Food with Fluffy White Frosting
Cupcake and frosting from here.
I LOVE meringue frosting- it just tastes so yummy to me! And the recipe from the blog for this frosting is so easy... I think it is also called 7 minute frosting.



Pink Lemonade Cupcake
These are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE cupcakes!! They are tangy and sweet and taste like summer....and they are pink! It's hard to top pink!! I've probably made these 3 or 4 times, they also are super easy.

Cupcake from here and the frosting is a combo from that blog and from here.
I added to the frosting the pink lemonade AND lemon juice. I wanted it extra tangy.




And I am dying to make some cherry limeade cupcakes (aren't they pretty!!!)

WFMW: ideas from blogland....

I have a 3 shelve black bookcase in my livingroom/entry way from walmart. It keeps my bobbsey twin book collection, my wooden toy dog my dad made me, my christian books and my photoalbums. The top is about hip length and I did have a bunch of pictures of me and hubby from dating days and I was ready to change (forgot to take a before pic!).

I combined ideas from various blogs, mainly these ideas: a white mantle, black and white and another blog where she painted a dollar store bird black (or white) and made it look sooo neat! (but I forgot where I saw it!! poop!)

*

I used either acrylic antique white paint or black spray paint to cover everything. I had an ugly picture frame from someone had given us for our wedding and painted it- cut out a piece of scrapbook paper and spray painted our monogram on it.

A bird from dollar tree that I spray painted black and set on top of part of a cupcake holder!

A wooden WELCOME that I painted and drew black polka dots and swirls on (from dollar tree)

An old pesto jar that I painted the lid and covered in scrapbook paper and filled with shells.

A few pics of us at the beach when we were dating (backed in the same scrapbook paper as the monogram frame).

And the candle holder from the yard sale (see- doesn't it fit perfectly!!) and a plain white candle that I also wrapped in scrapbook paper!

I'm happy with it and when my husband walked in he actually said "I like that!" He never says anything unless pushed!! :)

And by using what was arounnd the house and buying the elphant at a yard sale, the welcome sign and bird at the dollar tree the whole project only cost 3 dollars!!! And that works for me!!

*click on the second pic to see a big pic!

Check out this awesome blog for more Works For Me Wednesday! http://www.wearethatfamily.com/

Dollar Store Decor- summertime!

In florida it is starting to get HOT! We don't really have much of a spring. I was ready to change my easter decorations for some summertime decorations! I had no idea what I was wanted to do for the table so I just went to the dollar tree to look for ideas and found these:





Everything was of course, a dollar. They had the glasses with lemons all over them, the yellow giant gerber daisy, the glass chunks and the fake lemons. All I did was cut two squares of muslin that I had left over from making a cotton slip and it was done and for only 5$!!!


The yard sale placemats work great! (the pic is dark- it was nighttime when I took these!)

Yard Sale-ing with my sis

After reading this blog: Balancing Beauty and Bedlam specifically this post and this post on building a wardrobe from thrift store shopping and yard sale shopping I decided that I needed to go yard sale-ing!!

The first time we went I found a bike (that hubby hasn't fixed yet!) and 4 christian romance books.... an okay haul... not what I was hoping for!!

Fast forward two weeks and check out what I found!

Bracelets to match my 'thrifty outfit'!! 50cents each!! (sorry for the bad pic!)

placemats!! 4 placemats with absolutly NO marks for 1$!! And they match my dollar store decor table centerpiece (post coming!)


A candle holder for 1$ (just the candle holder, not the candle!) PERFECT for the idea I have for my bookcase in the livingroom!

So excited about all these scores!! And looking forward to going again

For more frugal fasion finds check out this website: Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Sewing skirts!!

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book:

Sew far (sew far/So far.... get it?? *giggle, giggle, snort*!!) I have made 6 skirts from it!! I had basic sewing skills from when I was a teenager but that's all the skills you need in order to do this! It teaches how to draft a pattern from your size! and it's not hard (ie- you don't need to be a math major!) and it has cute unique ideas!

Here's two of my skirts that I have made so far:
Yes, only my bottom half as I had just gotten out of the shower and didn't do my hair or have makeup on!!



a brown skirt made from a sheet!! I found the shirt at a thrift store for 3 dollars!! This is my 3 dollar outfit! and today I found some brown and turquoise bracelts at a yard sale for 50 cents each!! (pics to come in another post!) A VERY thrifty outfit!!

The bracelets that fit perfectly!


And for more frugal fashion ideas check out Jen's blog Balancing Beauty and Bedlam