Candy Corn Cupcakes for Halloween!!

So here it is...the long awaited Halloween goodies I promised you all. Candy corn cupcakes!!

Ingredients: 1 box white cake mix
1cp. sour cream
1/2 cp vegetable oil
3eggs
1tsp almond extract
1/2tsp each of yellow and orange food coloring
white frosting-homemade or store bought(I have a link for frosting recipes below)

Put everything except the food coloring and frosting in aa medium bowl and stir until combined.

Put 1/2 of the batter into another bowl. Mix yellow food color into one bowl and orange into the other bowl.

Put cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and fill 1/3 of each cup with yellow batter. Try to smooth out the top so the layers will be nice and even.

Put some of the orange batter on top of the yellow. These cupcakes rose nicely. I filled the cups about 2/3 of the way.

Bake them for about 20 minutes at 350F . A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean if you are not sure. Let them cool before attempting to frost.

I'm fussy about frosting so I mixed up a nice, light vanilla frosting but here's a link to several different frosting recipes you can try:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/p/my-ten-favorite-frostings.html
She has 10 delicious looking varieties there! YUMMO!

OMG! They are soooo Boo-tiful! I could even put a little candy corn on top for extra flair!

Hemming too long jeans for Rosie the Riveter costume

I decided to be Rosie the Riveter for the Halloween dance and found these awesome sailor cut jeans while thrifting but they were waaaaaay too long! Oh no! says I, what shall I do? Take the hem up, of course.

This is what they looked like when I was done with them. Ahhhh.. much better! No tripping on myself while dancing! um, well no tripping on my pants anyway..

It was so easy! I have to admit, I was nervous never having done this before and all. But really, all I did was fold the cuff up and pin it. Then sew just beneath the original hem stitches (about where the pin is in the pic).

All that's left is to fold the original hem back down over the part that I stitched and iron it! Easy right?

There's Rosie on the left- but you knew that ;)

All the costumes were pretty fantastic but the Queen of Hearts was by far my favorite!
Have a safe Halloween weekend and be watching for my next post (trust me, it will be delicious, wink, wink).

DIY T-Shirt Refashion

I started with a too big T-shirt that had a collar right up to my neck! Wait til you see what I did with it..

To start, take off the collar and cut the neckline in the shape you want (but about a half inch above where you want it to lay). Then, fold the fabric over 1/4 inch all around the neckline. Fold over again 1/4 inch and sew.

Gaston LeChat wants to help..
Be sure to do the same thing to the back side of the neckline that you did with the front. Fold over twice and sew. I just sewed the back straight across.

Next step is to take out the stitches in the sides all the way up to the sleeves. Turn the shirt inside out and restitch the sides so it fits you. I put the shirt on and pinned it where I wanted to sew.

I used the fabric that I cut out of the collar to make a ruffle. Ruffles are easy to make and dress everything up a little!
To make one, run a row of stitches through one long end of the fabric then hold one end of the thread and push the fabric down so it bunches up. Easy right?

 

After making the ruffle, I pinned it where I wanted it on the shirt and sewed it on.

And here it is! So pretty. I might even put some ruffles around the edges of the sleeves too..

Live for TV recording!!

 My favorite song is on their album Intergalactic Mustache Parade, which I have and LOVE!! They are also on Facebook and have a website. I tried to upload a video but it was taking too long. You can probably listen to them on their website, though. Be sure to show them some love!

I went to see the Po'Boys Brass Band play live one night and it turned out, I knew the band's manager! She invited me to join them for their live for TV recording at WXXI! I'm gonna be on TV!!! <squeal!>

These guys were awesome! 3 count 'em THREE trombones right up front!! Ok, so there are only two in the picture but there was another one on stage, you'll just have to take my word for it.. They played some fantastic funky blues music for us.

Here's TV studio. It was so fun watching the cameramen in action! The series airs in January.

Great Giveaway!!

Hey all,
Just wanted to let you all in on this fabulous giveaway! Enter to win $500 worth of stuff from Jennifer Rizzo's etsy collection! I love all of her beautiful items. She has vintage tea towels, pillows, crocheted warm woolies, serving trays and so much more! Here is the link :  http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/2011/10/welcome-to-vintage-tea-collection-and.html
Good luck!

Birthday bash weekend with Frank Lloyd Wright!

Mom and my brother had birthdays this weekend! Yay! I made cherry coke cupcakes and frosted them with  (made from scratch) whipped cream.

and ohhhh were they good..
After indulging a little, we headed out for birthday karaoke- the best kind of karaoke, of course!

Then, we went out to Buffalo, NY and toured two of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses. This one is the Martin house. Soorry no pics of the inside allowed :( It's ok though, the inside wasn't all that, if you ask me ;) It was actually very dark and enclosed feeling, I thought. Not a place I would like to live in but very cool looking from the outside!

FLW focused on the horizontal going so far as to carry it into the brick work. You can see here that the horizontal spaces between the bricks have a deeper indentation making those lines stand out. The vertical spaces between bricks are filled completely.

So while the building overall looks very squatty and close to the ground, it is actually a very tall two story house! NEAT!

I just love this with the overhanging plants. It looks like a cascading waterfall. Ahhhh.. There were also several examples of the FLW stained glass windows in the famous Tree of Life pattern that was created for this house.

This was the Martin family's summer home at Graycliff also designed by FLW.
Notice how you can get a glimpse of the view over the water through the house thanks to all those fabulous windows!

So pretty.. They are still restoring the inside- and believe me it needs a lot yet- but I'm sure this place will be stunning when finished!

Can't go to Buffalo without stopping at the original Anchor Bar, where the Buffalo wing was invented. These were by far the best wings I've EVER tasted. The spicy barbecue sauce was perfect!

Lemon Blueberry Bars!!

Summer weather is coming to a close here in NY but we had a glorious Indian Summer this week that made me want some blueberries.
So, in defiance of the coming cold, I made a special summery treat :) Take That!!

It was so yummy that I have to share it with all of you, of course.
My Lemon Blueberry Bars/ Snack cake
You will need:
1/2 cp butter (soft)
2tsp lemon extract
1 cp sugar + some extra to sprinkle on top
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
2cp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
2cp blueberries
1/2cp buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Cream butter, lemon extract, and sugar together in a large bowl.
Add egg and vanilla.
Whisk 1 & 3/4cp of flour with the baking powder and salt.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.
In another bowl, toss blueberries with remaining 1/4 cp flour and cinnamon.
Fold berries into batter.
Grease a baking pan(s)- I used an 8x8 square pan and a circular cake pan because that's what I had available and there was too much for just the one pan.
Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 35 min.
Check doneness with a toothpick or knife inserted in center. If it comes out clean, it's done!
Let cool 10 min before cutting.
They are so pretty!

Gone to the Sockhop!

Hey peeps! I went to a sockhop last weekend! The flower in my hair was handmade by yours truly- isn't it perfect?! I hope you love my pin-up style ;)

This was actually me at the end of the evening. As you can see, my curls wore off so I pinned them up so I could keep dancing in style! LOL.

They insisted that I do this...Coca Cola need a new model?

We danced my feet into oblivion from 7 to at least 2AM!! haha, my feet were beyond sore the next morning. People loved watching us swing dance, though, and I love to entertain!

 I even won a pair of movie passes for my look :) That was super exciting--I never win anything can no longer be in my phrase book!

We went to a bar afterward and kept dancing! Apparently, Swing/Lindy can be done to just about any kind of music including rap and disco!! Woot!

I even got to be a Beatle!! Can you tell me which one?

My date for the evening. He drove two hours just to take me dancing! What a guy!