Testing ...

Can I blog on the go?? ....Testing testing...
Oh.... boy....!

Technology is blowing my mind away today!!

(what can't this new phone do??????)

....I think honeypie will be more content with this new arrangement!

-- Post From My iPhone
^_^ birdycake on the go!

Mint-y Sunday

Our garden seems to be flourishing. This year we planted a whole variety of heirloom tomatoes, zuchinni, melon, peppers and herbs. The mint seems to have taken off like a rocket and this sunday finds us seeking recipes for anything "MINTY".

On our agenda this sunday? Tons of fresh iced mint tea...

as well as some late afternoon "mojitos"!

Gently bruise the leaves to get the flavors going

Steep about a handful of mint in a jug with of boiling hot water (about half way). Let it sit for about 15 minutes with a bit of agave syrup or honey (to taste) and then add ice to the top. Enjoy the jug out in the sun! I like a slice of lemon in too...

For the mojitos here is the true cuban recipe... (here) drank by Hemingway himself.

Delicious!

Tomorrow? fresh carrot mint salad, fresh strawberries with orange peel and mint, and maybe we will try a mint granita... and lets not forget mint jelly!

^_^

NO "COMPUTERING" allowed!!

You see this sign?

It has been posted by my work area...

it says according to my daughter... "NO COMPUTERING ALLOWED!"

The big crazy haired, wild eyed lady has been assigned the name of "mama" (is that an antenna on my head???) and the box object next to me is my laptop... the wicked little imp next to it is honeypie. She has officially learned how to spell N_O!

For some reason...we are missing arms. It must be so i do not partake in any google-ing or blogging or emailing of sorts...

OK...message heard loud and clear!

I am taking a little brake from "computering"... and posting a little less this summer so we can enjoy the lovely beach and outdoors freely.

A bit of a nature vacation.

In the mean time... keep art-sy...

and we will be drawing on the sand and coloring the wind.

Back soon.

~Birdycake

Special Agent OSO

Don't know how i feel about this show yet but seems that we have replaced poor Pooh bear with a new bear, Special agent OSO .

Special agent OSO is on the Disney channel and he helps children solve menial tasks like how to wrap a present, how to wash a plate, and brush your teeth. Seems a bit obvious to me but honeypie seems to enjoy it. The voice of the person who speaks the instructions is quite grading but what can we do.

Honeypie had an idea for a good way to recycle old (loved) stuffed toys.

-draw your favorite character on a piece of paper

-wrap the drawn paper around an old stuffed toy with TONS OF TAPE.

-TAdahhh. New toy.

Here is her version of Mr. OSO...

julie's and mikaia's birthday and more yummy cake!

A second birthday and a 40th, fairies and beach day ...

= lots of more cake !

These were fun to make.

Daddy's day

Have you been to the writer's almanac with Garrison Keillor in the net?  WOW.  Great site.  We LOOOVEEE  The prairie home companion with garrison Keillor too...  
lovely sunday mornings with NPR.  
Today's poem made us think of daddy.....
The sun grows in your smile by Linda Rodriguez
When you smile, the air grows warm and soft,
the earth is watered with gentle mists,
seeds sprout and spread leaves above the dark, damp soil,
earthworms pierce the crust and frolic across the surface
to the delight of fat, happily hunting robins,
lilies of the valley unfurl beside purple, grape-scented irises,
fat pink and maroon peonies, and gay California poppies,
damask roses hurl their rich fragrance to the wind,
the crazy-with-sheer-joy song of the Northern mockingbird
echoes above other chirps and sweet winged notes,
gardeners join the worms in the warm, rich dirt,
children gallop across yards and grab handfuls of dandelions
to present to mothers who will set them in glasses of water
in kitchen windows or on dining room tables, weeds
glorious after the dark of winter with the color of the sun
that grows and warms and heals in your smile. 

( from Hearts Migration. © Tia Chucha Press, 2009)

Daddy is the center of our world.

Strength, love, support... strong arms and hands to hold.

For daddy's day this year Honeypie made daddy a special t-shirt she decorated with fabric paints....just her and daddy holding hands. xo

Cake balls... huh?

yes...we ventured into cake ball land too...

Bakerella (who has a blog i love and am inspired by) has this recipe for her famous cake pops , which we decided to try today.

Sooooo decadent... we did not make it even half way into the process.

(we did not dip them in the melted chocolate and decorate them)...

mainly because they were so rich... i imagined going into sugar convulsions after popping a finished masterpiece in my mouth.

Maybe another day...

for now... here is as far as we got...and yes... we ate them!

Honeypie mixed in the fun!!

shaping the cake balls...

All in all... fun!

check out bakerella's site (here) for tons of inspiring cake ideas!

~birdycake

happy father's day

butterflies and cupcakes...

Here's a book we just bought!!!   

We LOOOOVEEE  all the ideas!

In anticipation of the butterflies that come into our butterfly bushes every june/july... 

here are some butterfly (viceroy or monarch? ... to be determined this year) , we baked some butterfly mini cupcakes using the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from the book.  

Delicious!

I must say the melted chocolate butterflies were more difficult than i expected.  Working with hot melted chocolate in ziplock bags (as they recommend)  made for hot hands and not a very steady stream of chocolate (thus look at how messy they are).  Also the butterflies are meant to be bigger, for bigger cupcakes.  To work in such a small scale and at that speed,  trying to make sure the chocolate does not harden was challenging.  Next time i will work big, buy more chocolate, and work one butterfly at a time ... not assembly line style, as i thought I could do!

So to re-cap...

Not meant for mini cupcakes

Use pastry bag with tips

Have a steady hand and use the template they provide!

They were fun to make though and  honeypie had fun swirling the chocolate on the wings.

Back to our butterfly bush...

It will soon be home to some  butterflies in this coming june/july .   We are eagerly awaiting since it fills up with tons and it is just beautiful!

We are  actually  confused as to what they might actually  be...  viceroy? monarch?  

This is a viceroy butterfly which looks alot like the monarch except it is smaller and has a black band across the center of the hind wing.

this is a monarch butterfly butterfly  

this is a  painted lady butterfly

We stumbled upon this book called "wings of flight"  illustrated by Bruce Hiscock and written by  Stephen r. Swinburne. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful and worth going to Bruce's website for some drawing ideas and just to hear him talk about his drawing/painting and love of nature, process.  It is a beautifully illustrated book full of great facts about monarch migrations. We also read another beautiful book about monarch migrations called "hurry and the monarch" by Antoine O. Flatharta.  It is the story of a texas tortoise named hurry as he watches the transformation of a monarch caterpillar to butterfly.  The monarch introduces hurry to life beyond his garden and in the process hurry learns all about her life and her migration.  Beautiful watercolor drawings. 

here are two more great books we love on butterflies ...

here's or adventures of when we hatched our own "painted ladies" butterflies.

caterpillars...

In their cocoons...

 Hatched!

Setting them free...  good luck!