In the Nighttime Studio...

In the nighttime studio, ideas are percolating and my hands are becoming almost unrecognizable under layers of glue. So I thought I'd take a break to share just a few tiny peaks of a some NEW cake topper ideas in progress for Fall. I'm beyond excited about them and just had to share a few (goofy) nighttime studio photos of things "in the works"!

~xoxo~

Petals & Thread {Pressed Flower Collages}

Before Summer slips away, be sure to gather a few stems of pretty flowers (thin flowers work best) and press them between the pages of some heavy, old books. I gathered some earlier in the Summer...Forget-Me-Nots, Twinleaf, Pink Shinleaf, and more...and after a few weeks of pressing, they were ready for crafting.

To make an interesting collage, all you need then is a little bit of craft glue and some good cardstock paper and whatever other bits of crafty things you have on hand...such as rick rack or ribbon, rub-ons, pretty paper, and perhaps even thread to sew directly onto the cardstock the name of your flower specimen.

~xoxo~

PGA & Family Artwork

We went to the first round of PGA Championship Tournament yesterday. Cameras were not allowed. Nor cell phones. So since I didn't have any photos from the event to share, I thought these handmade birthday cards (that Hub received the night before at a little suprise party for him) were the next best thing. The cards we get from our little nieces and nephew are always the best. We have a bevy of budding artists in our family.

The rope in the cute card above really stands out to me as I at times felt very much like cattle yesterday. The whole course was covered in rope. And you had to stay on the right side of the rope. Sometimes it would be moved from one pole to another so you could walk through before it was closed up again. Sort of like cattle, no?
We were there for over 10 hours and walked about a million miles. (Okay, more like 10 million.) My legs felt like they were about to fall off. We walked a lot. Did I mention that we walked a lot? It felt good though. I felt strong. But near the end of it I kept wanting to "borrow" the big, fluffy-looking, gray mic pick-up thingy that the cameramen would walk around with and put it close to the golfers as they were about to hit. It looked like one big cozy pillow. I just wanted to sit on it for a little while. That's all. Oh, and it was really hot and sunny too.

There was also some security around. But I didn't see anyone get arrested or in trouble, as this card may suggest. It's quite a cheery birthday card, don't you think? ;)
(It might make more sense to note that my nephew has a slight affinity for cops and crime-fighting in general.)

And we saw Tiger...a lot. I heard him say "thank you" to the lady right next to me who wished him good luck as he walked by us, just 2 feet away.

Other things...we saw 2 guys get hit by golf balls, just after the fact really. One was a spectator. One a PGA worker. And we watched as Ian Poulter ran off the fairway in his crazy plaid pants, escaping the (cattle) rope to use the nearby biffy. So from then on I referred to him as "plaid porta potty pants Poulter." Fun to say, right?

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Hope you have a lovely weekend! I plan on "not walking" very much. How about you?

Tiny Feather

I found this tiny feather yesterday. Can you guess who it belongs to?
Here's a clue...spot the emerald green on the tip of the feather?

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It's a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird feather!

We have a hummingbird feeder hanging from a little post within a flower planter on our deck and I found it clinging on the base of the feeder. I'm pretty certain that if not for that particular placement of the feather, these feathers would be nearly impossible to find given their diminutive size.

The hummers have been insanely busy here in recent weeks and I'm always fascinated whenever I watch them. I never seem to lose the awe and wonder I feel when I see them...the males have such a brilliant ruby throat, that looks almost like an other-worldly color when the light catches it just so...the amazing way they can fly backwards...the speed of their wings when they flutter at the feeder which my eyes can only absorb as a blur. They've also been chasing each other like crazy too. Perhaps its a game. Or perhaps they're just trying to keep the feeder all to themselves. Very seldom will 2 hummers cooperate and sit at the feeder together, drinking the sweet sugar water peacefully.

It's fun to hold just a bit of their emerald green-ness in my hands...to view it up close. Just how tiny is it? It's just a little over a 1/4 of an inch. Here's a little perspective...

Hope you're having a swell week so far! :)

A Foggy Party & First-time Cupcake Maker

Phew! August has been a bit of a busy month for me already with even more to come. Saturday was the party for Hub (he'll soon be 30 too! ha!) and to celebrate 3 other birthdays and 2 anniversaries on his side of the family at our home. This required lots of preparation (cleaning, cooking/baking, gift-buying, etc...). Then, later this week we're heading to the Cities to see the PGA...my first golf tournament ever. After that it's Hub real birthday, our 7th wedding anniversary, and a much-anticipated final trip to the cabin to really wrap up the summer right. I can already tell that summer is winding down as the days seem to be getting shorter. I both long for the fall season and yet want to keep it at bay for as long as possible all at the same time...but I do relish living outside as much as possible since the winters are so long here. So back to the party...it's a little ironic, I guess, that for all the cupcake toppers I've been making as of late...I have never ever made cupcakes. Nor have I ever even made a cake from scratch. I've done a box mix or 2 and of course the 3-step (or 2-step if you're really lazy) angel food cake mixes, but never a real homemade cake. So I decided to attempt this for the party, 8 egg whites and all. I made the white cake recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. I love this cookbook and it would be the best gift for anyone really. We received it as a gift years ago (thanks D & A!) and have used it so much. It has everything about everything in there (food-related, I mean). The cake batter was heavenly and light and sweet-smelling. So pretty I had to snap a photo for you!

For the frosting I used Martha's (very Martha-ish) buttercream frosting recipe. I say "Martha-ish" because the instructions tell you to mix the butter and confectioner's sugar for 5 minutes after each 1/2 cup addition of sugar! I don't have a stand mixer so you can imagine how weary my wrist was after about 20 minutes or so...I cheated every so often on the entire 5 minute intervals...3 minutes or so was just dandy, I thought. (Perhaps these instructions are not unusual though?) But it was worth it as I did receive rave reviews about the fluffy frosting in particular.

I also wanted to find the numbers "3" and "0" (obviously for his age) in candles and the only ones I could find at party stores, Target, and grocery stores (perhaps I really have too much time on my hands!) were incredibly ugly, tacky ones...bright, obnoxious, plastic-y looking colors, dressed up in gold outlining, etc. I realized there is a real need (at least in these parts) for a hip, modern, cute party store. Where they don't sell the typical theme party junk and paper plates with age-related numbers on them that look as though they were designed in the 80's. There was also a lack of cute cupcake toppers. Hmm...
Just for fun, prior to party-time, I squeezed in a few moments to take a few shots of some of my toppers I have on hand...and a couple new ones that will soon be going into the shop. Anyway...so despite the foggy & dismal, yet totally typical, Duluth weather we had the entire day on Saturday, at least the cupcakes with buttercream frosting were a hit. :)
How was your weekend? P.S. Happy Anniversary wishes sister and brother-in-law! Wowee! 12 years? Really?

Rather than Wrap, Punch!

We're celebrating a smattering of late summer birthdays and anniversaries at our home next weekend. In lieu of wrapping paper, I thought I'd adorn some of the plain brown gift boxes with white cardstock objects made by using a few of my craft punches...a chain of itty bitty flowers, hearts in a scalloped ring, and the ubiquitous butterfly trailing across two sides of a box.
Although I do love wrapping paper, I must confess this is much easier!

Currants {pretty little jewels}

Just the other day, I discovered these pretty berries, currants, growing right next to my "garden in the woods", slightly overshadowed by the wild raspberry bushes. I was so happy to find these gems! Although there aren't too many and they are quite tart when eaten plain, I'm already dreaming of ways I'll use them, mostly by incorporating them simply for aesthetic reasons...just like jewels...to dress up fruit tartlets more artfully...or to dot some plain scones with bright red pops of prettiness.

Also, they reminded me of a favorite article about tarts in an old MS Living mag from July 2004. I loved all the photos in this feature and saved the magazine just for that reason. Below are a couple pages from it...spot the currants? Although I've always loved fruit tarts, especially those at Cafe Latte, and of course the tasty ones lining the windows of Paris patisseries...it was really this very article that inspired me to try making them for myself. I even bought the long, rectangular tart pan (shown in another photo) from Williams-Sonoma that year...just for my tart-making pleasure. And so obsessed I became that I even served tarts that August instead of cake at Hub's birthday party. So I think these currants are telling me perhaps it's time for another tart-making session.

P.S. Happy August! Can you believe that it's August already?