28

I celebrated my 28th birthday over the weekend.  Despite feeling unwell the couple of days leading up to my special day, I was in good health the day of and enjoyed a weekend being spoiled by friends and family, all of whom I love very dearly.

After beginning my birthday weekend with a yummy meal at a restaurant in Kalamazoo with my mother and father in law and husband on Thursday, followed by a lovely breakfast at a local vegetarian restaurant with good friend Cindy on my birthday morning, we hosted friends Heather, Anthony, Justin and Kristen at our house for appetizers and drinks before heading out to a delicious Italian dinner Friday night.  Heather made Tiramisu cupcakes and they were divine!

I was spoiled with all kinds of gifts... including a variety of cupcake-y things, a beautiful leather journal, and a gift certificate to my favorite local yoga studio.

Travis and I purchased a laptop this weekend - I will be writing my thesis this fall and was in desperate need of something portable on which to write and research.  My parents very generously purchased the software we needed for it and gifted me some money to purchase a laptop/work tote.  Franklin Covey here I come!

As a final surprise, my parents drove 2 1/2 hours from the other side of the state to take us out to breakfast on Sunday. I had no idea they were coming!  It was lovely to spend some time with them.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special!  I'm feeling good about 28 - this is going to be my year!

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm off spending the day with wonderful people having wonderful celebrations.  Catch you after the weekend, friends!

Anatomy of 150 Wedding Favors: Part 1

As I mentioned before, I'm working on 150 wedding favors for an August wedding.  Supplies came in yesterday from Stampin' Up! and Heather and I got started.  We knocked out all of the prep-work in one afternoon which was a great start!

150 circles of Very Vanilla cardstock stamped with sentiments and tiny blue hearts (wedding colors are sky blue, white and black)...

150 Scallop circles punched from Pacific Point cardstock... (LOVE this color!)

150 pieces of Very Vanilla ribbon cut...

150 pieces of Blueberry Crisp Designer Series Paper (can we say GORGEOUS?!) cut and folded...

Now we're ready to move on to scoring and hole-punching.  Stay tuned for "Anatomy of 150 Wedding Favors:  Part 2" coming soon!

Stamp Set Spotlight: Tropical Party

It's stamp set spotlight time again!  Each week I choose one Stampin' Up! stamp set, and show you a variety of cards made with it.  This week I'm spotlighting the "Tropical Party" stamp set from the Summer Mini Catalog.  I love this set because it's so inexpensive ($17.95 wood mount, $13.95 clear mount), has coordinating paper to use with it, and reminds me of a beach vacation someplace tropical.  Sure wish I was laying on a beach drinking something fruity right now!  You too?!

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Designer Series Paper:  Island Oasis

Ink:  Old Olive, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight

Adhesives:  Snail, Stampin' Dimensionals

Accessories:  Big Shot Machine and Top Note die

Cardstock:  Rose Red, Whisper White

Designer Series Paper:  Island Oasis

Ink:  Rose Red

Adhesives:  Snail

Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, 1 3/4 inch Circle Punch

 Cardstock:  Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Rose Red

Designer Series Paper:  Island Oasis

Ink:  Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red

Adhesives:  Snail, Stampin' Dimensionals

Accessories:  Old Olive 5/8inch Grosgrain Ribbon

The Tropical Party stamp set (and coordinating designer series paper) will retire at the end of this month along with the rest of the Summer Mini Catalog.  Head over to my Stampin' Up! website to purchase your set today before it's too late!

August Cupkins - Camping!

Wait - August already?!  Where does the time go?!

Cupkins is a monthly collaboration between a collaboration between Meg over at Mega•Crafty and I.  Each month I share a cupcake recipe and Meg shares a muffin recipe - with the same theme or ingredient.  This month our theme is "Camping"

Joanne's S'Mores Cupcakes and Meg's Trail Mix Muffins!

S'Mores Cupcakes

Ingredients:  1 box of chocolate cake mix, 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of butter, 3 eggs, mini marshmallows

Frosting:  1 stick of butter, 2oz semi sweet chocolate, 16oz powdered sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup of milk

Decoration:  Mini Hershey bars, mini marshmallows, graham crackers

How To:  Combine all of the cupcake ingredients in a mixer on low speed and mix until combined.  Line each cupcake wrapper with a small amount of batter, a layer of mini marshmallows, and more batter.  Don't fill more than about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely BEFORE taking out of the pan.  These aren't your average cupcakes - they are smooshy and gooey and melty - you may need a knife to help you get them out of the pan once cooled.

While cupcakes are cooling, combine cut-up butter and semisweet chocolate in a pan over low heat until smooth (stir constantly) - then add the cocoa powder.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the powdered sugar and milk alternately, beating with a mixer until fluffy.

Using a palette knife, frost cupcakes.  Again - doesn't need to be pretty - we're going for the messy "smooshed" s'more look here!

Garnish with graham cracker crumbles, a piece of chocolate, and some s'more (ha ha!) marshmallows.  Enjoy!  Have your napkins handy!

Now what are you waiting for?  Head over to Meg's place to check out her delicious muffins!