Birdie's Big-Girl shoes by Sujean Rim

A wonderful new book has been written by a great long time friend of mine, Sujean Rim! 

Its called "Birdie's Big-Girl Shoes".  

Super cute and all about little girls who love dressing up like their mamas.   

The illustrations are beautiful (and I'm not just saying that because she is my friend!!)  

and the ending is just perfect (thought i wont tell you it ... it's a surprise and you have to buy the book to find out what it is!!) 

psssst...you can buy it here from amazon (here)

^-^

Here is a cake I made for her first reading based on her illustrations from her book.

and cupcakes too! 

Loving Shoes shoes shoes!!!

Here is her website to see some of her beautiful illustrations!!  (here)

She's also a brand new mama and hopes to embark in the blog-osphere soon!

Can't wait for her to do so!!!

Daily dose of happy

A crappy day ...
So I'm posting some daily happy ...
Just my own reminder...



Great mail day!!! :)




Comfort of reading...



And reading...




And reading...




Plotting new projects...




Good tea...





With honey!...





Mulling over my collection of Martha Stewart magazines... Mmmmmmm




Re-organizing the craziness of my baking cabinet ( one of many...)




A new purchase... (always good!!) ;)





Honeypie's sweet art...





And looking at those 2 peas in a pod heading off to homedepot mayhem makin'

(love you!!!)




Simple daily joys...
Erases the cooties today brought...

What's your daily happy?

^_^

Oh... Almost forgot...








*o*

Ponyo cookies

We do not get tired of ponyo activities!!!! :)

Last week we made ponyo cookies and collages !
For the cookie we used a great sugar cookie recipe.
(one from the Martha Stewart "cookie" book, for using with cookie cutters.)
The recipe has a little less butter so that the cookies hold their sculpted shape while in the oven.
We dyed the cookie dough using Wilton color food gels.









Ponyo colors!
Beige for head and circle on her belly. Red for her body and orange for her head.





Here honeypie and her cousins mold fishy form ponyo












We baked them for 15 minutes at 350*





A little brown on the edges...
We forgot to put the timer... :(













And some ponyo collages...
























We LOVE ponyo!!!!!
^_^

Good bye old friend...

Somewhere in the life of a single child comes the age old question of " I want a sister ..." , maybe it's not really a question but more of a statement... One that might place the parents in an uncomfortable or maybe unexpected situation... And I bet... most might respond as we have done...
"would you like a pet?" ... Mama says
"Yes!!" ...says honeypie .
" A big dog, a golden retriever... German sheperd like bolt... he must be white... I want 2... And a cat! a cutie one with kittens ... one kitten and one cat...
No fish ... You can't hug a fish...maybe a hamster ...I'd name it peanut oh mama...!!!!!!!!!!!
Mama... A puppy... I want a puppy!!! "... rambles honeypie.

It is important to know what to do ...
I meditated in the easiest way out... I mean pet.
The voice of a friend of mine echoed in my mind...something very wise...
"There is no easy pet".
And you are right. There isn't .
I began to fear the puppyhood phase... The chewing of shoes ... The piddle. In my mind i began to want to built my list of rules... What I could and could not handle.
Hmmmm , "what about a bunny?"...says I .
Sounds easy... Sounds small... And cute.
"yey!!!" ... Says my honeypie.

In comes "marshmellow".




Who gave us the best 5 weeks of all...



We played with her often...
But hated the time she had to spend inside that cage or in her room alone...

Rabbits nibble EVERYTHING! ( so roaming free we could not do in the house).




Loving



I wish I could have been stronger to handle my thoughts... My feelings...
I wish I could have been ok with that little being in that cage .
Wish I felt good enough with the time we spent with her outside her cage, with the lack of grass, the lack of another playmate bunny...
Wish I had not kept looking at that little being caged up and felt so sad.

Freedom ... Free .... I thought

It's ok...
It's ok...
It's a good memory
even if it was
a fleeting touch of time
A moment of lovely
And all the love we had for her and
the arms we wrapped around her is enough For now...
And the missing will, eventually, fade into the kindness of memory.

(We returned her to the breeder, who happily took her back. Though I am sad I could not handle that responsability... I am glad I understood what I felt for that little being in that cage...
And honeypie agreed and understood too...
The bigness of it all for her 5 years of age).
So strong.

St Patrick's day cupcakes

This St paddy's day we decided to make rainbow cupcakes!
Using a batter recipe for vanilla yellow cake , we dyed various portions of the batter in different bowls and Poured the batter into a cupcake pan by layering the colores with a spoon.

















Mmmmm, taste the rainbow!!





Here are some with a buttercream top and just green batter...


















And then we decided to make meringue cupcake toppers...

Here's the meringue batter dyed green.
The art of the meringue is simple ...
You need :
2 egg whites
1/2 cup of sugar
And a pinch of cream of tartar
*food coloring (optional)
Beat all the ingredients in your mixer for about 10 minutes or till the eggwhites are very fluffy or in firm peaks and you are ready for piping on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.









Honeypie having a little creative meringue moment...
Cats and swirls...





Bake the meringues at 175* for 2 hours





So Cute and delicious!!!

^_^