An Apple a Day!

When I think of apples I associate them with fall and . . . teachers! So when I was in need of a clever gift idea for my kids to give their teachers at the end of the year, I knew this was it!! This past Christmas I got a super cute calendar done by the people that do the "Hello Cupcake" books. And I knew there was an apple cupcake in there somewhere. =) Unfortunately, the calendar doesn't give exact instructions on how to prepare the cupcakes, just a labeled picture of the cupcake. For the most part, the pic was sufficient.

I opted to use spice cake and a cream cheese butterecream. Seemed the most appropriate. =) The top of the apple is actually half of a mini donut cut horizontially. This was where I wish the picture had given me a bit more information. My first attempt looked ridiculous because I didn't realize you needed to cut the donut. I chose to use plain donuts so that it didn't distract or clash with the flavor of the cupcake itself. The stem, as well as the seeds, are pieces of tootsie rolls. And the leaves I made with fondant. The ones in the calendar were made with a fruit roll-up but I happened to have a small amount of green fondant leftover from a previous cake.

These cupcakes were overall, very easy to make. The ones with the little bites obviously took a little more time but they wern't difficult. And most importantly, the teachers thought they were great!

Cuddle Time!

My brother recently had his first baby. What better to give to them as a gift, than blanket? So first things first . . . pick out a pattern. This was actually fairly time consuming. I didn't have anything in mind and this was my first blanket so I didn't want anything too tricky. But as soon as I saw a picture of this pattern I knew it was the one. Next step, the yarn. I would have thought this was going to be a much easier task. We knew the baby was a boy so obviously a shade of blue would be necessary, but what shade? And what colors should I put with it? I easily spent an hour in the yarn isle staring at and debating all the possible color combinations. I had no idea what the crib bedding or the room decor looked like so I didn't even have that as a potential help. I finally settled on my choices though and headed home to get started. I debated weather to follow the pattern exactly (SHOCKER!) In the end I decided to change the thickness of the stripes a bit (BIGGER SHOCKER!) I also chose to add a trim to the edges.
Now is probably a good time to say, I had NO IDEA that this project would take me as long as it did! As of now, i'm officially out of the blanket/afghan business. I'm just too impatient. Who knew. =) Hats. Hats are good. They take me one MAYBE two days depending on the pattern and my gumption. This blanket however, took me the length of a trimester! (approx. 92 hours of crochet time) UGH! I thought I would never finish! I even had a couple people tell me I wasn't going to make it in time for the birth . . . well HA! Just to prove them wrong I crocheted like a crazy person those last couple weeks. I thought my fingers were gonna fall off! (Lucky for me that nephew of mine showed up only ONE day early.) =)
Needless to say, the blanket made it on time . . . barely . . . and even though it haunted and hurt me for months I was very happy with the finished product. =) And I don't regret for one minute the blood, sweat and tears that I put into it. I live 500+ miles away from my newest family member, so I hope it serves as a reminder for years to come how much his Aunt Brandi loves him. =)

Much thanks to Greetingarts blog for a wonderful pattern! Here is the link to the original pattern I used for this afghan.

http://greetingarts.typepad.com/greetingarts/2010/05/neopolitan-ripple.html