A Very Sugary Cupcake...and Sweet Mother's Day Memories...

Good morning, dear friends!

Seems like I haven't posted forever--just a few days, though!  It's been busy here, but today is nice and quiet...{sigh....!}

I have a couple of things to share with you today...first off...I've been needing some birthday cards to have on hand, so I finally got one done yesterday:

I LOVE these colors together--one of my favorite combinations--just makes me really happy!  I used three of my favorite Pink Persimmon stamp set for this:  "Vintage Cupcake", "Vintage Greetings", and "Sweet Greetings"...each one is just delightful!

Lots of silver Stickles, lace and the perfect shade of vintage pink rick-rack trim were used...and some oh, so fabulous German clear glass glitter for the frosting!

Also added some Diamond Stickles on some random pink polkadots on the background paper--I just can't seem to stop with the sparkles!

I've also been working on things for Mother's Day...My Mom asked me last week if I would make something with my Grandmother's picture on it for her Mother's Day display in her "shrine", as we call it...the place in her entry that she always decorates so beautifully for each and every holiday.  Here's what I came up with:

This is LaPriel when she was just 17 years old, in 1929...my Dad's mother.  I love her.  She passed away when I was just 3 1/2 years old,  but I do remember her.  What I remember the most is that she absolutely loved me.  That warm, sweet thought is stuck in my memory, and I know it will never go away...

 I used yellow and turquoise for the card because they were her favorites...As I worked on this, my thoughts kept revolving around her.  I have a copy of her journal--the only one I know she had, and in it is found this lovely Mother's Day memory from 1946...

"Mother's Day--I woke up early this morning and went in the front room and there were four lovely potted plants on the mantle with notes on them to me from my boys...I squealed out loud and out came my precious boys grinning from ear to ear.  They said that wasn't all.  They asked me to go outside, and out there they had planted flowers all out in the front...they had signs on them.  One said, 'Dear Mother, I hope these will bloom.  But they never can bloom as blooming sweet and lovely as you.  Grant.'  Another, 'Merry Mother's Day, Mother Mine.'  Then another sign said, "I hope these will grow, but they never will grow as beautiful as you, Mother Dear.  Clayn.'  (my Dad!)  I cried--couldn't help it!  I wonder so often how I happened to be so lucky to have such love as I have....A lovely Mother's Day..."

Sometimes when I'm too busy, I think of another time in her journal when her boys really wanted her to go to town and see a movie with them, and she did, writing that she hoped they always would want her to go with them like that...precious moments that fly away too soon!  I'm so grateful for that wise lesson from my Grandmother...

Her daughter, my Aunt Diana said that she always said, "Remember to smile before you answer the phone...a happy voice on the phone means you've reached a happy home." More good advice! 

She told me that once a man had called their home once mistakenly, and that my Grandmother sounded so cheerful, he called back later, "just to hear a pleasant voice on the phone"!

I need to remember that more often!

I asked my Mom what typified her the most--how could I characterize her--in the small space of a card--in the best way?  So many thoughts came to her mind, and my Dad's...in the end, I found inspiration in these words...and I just feel that it's something she would say to me right now if she could...

...so those are my words to you, today, as well...Believe in Yourself...

...and have a most wonderful day!

You Take the Cupcake!

My daughter Annie's birthday party (a bit belated!) was on Friday night. She really wanted to decorate cupcakes with her friends, which they did--and they had a ball! My Mom had given me the gift of the beautiful silver cupcake rack, which we displayed them on, and they looked so beautiful, I had to take a few pictures:

Since I stayed up late with the girls (out of their way, of course!) I felt inspired to "cook up" a different kind of cupcake! I love the yummy vintageness of these Pink Persimmon stamps--they recently released a few with a cupcake-y theme, and they're just wonderful! Here's what I came up with:



The stamp sets I used are (all Pink Persimmon): Vintage Cupcake, Vintage Greetings, and Sweet Greetings. I used my new favorite Papertrey cardstock--white, Aqua Mist and Sweet Blush. Also used a cute polkadot print from Me & My Big Ideas, the Baby Girl stack. Used Brilliance Graphite Black and Rangers' Vintage Photo for my inks, and just embellised with lots of ribbon, pompom trim & rickrack. I glittered up the frosting and the cherry with Inkssentials' Glossy Accents and Dazzling Diamonds. Glittered-up the sides with my favorite silver glitter and a glue pen. I have some adorable glass bead flowers & leaves, which I used for decorating the cupcake, with a little crystal rhinestone in the center of the flower. That's about it! Kept me happy while staying up all night with some crazy girls!

Now to change the subject completely....!

My oldest daughter, Chelsea, is away at college right now--I miss her terribly! But, I know she's in a great place and very happy with her friends and working hard--so I wouldn't want it any other way. She looked at my blog the other day and commented that she felt like the missing child! Well, I couldn't let that happen, so here's a picture I took of Chelsea the last time I saw her before I left for home. You can see how happy she is with these other beautiful girls--a wonderful group--we're just missing one here, who I met later, but this is almost the entire group. My daughter is on the far right.


The other day, we decided to bake her favorite cookies for her & sent them off Tuesday morning. They arrived on Friday, and she called me to say how excited she was, etc. I hadn't been very good about sending her care packages last year, so I'm vowing to be better this year!

These cookies are just about our favorites ever, so I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you. It's supposed to be a variation of a Mrs. Fields' recipe, but who knows! I've changed it up a bit from the original recipe I received over 20 years ago, and here's how we make it:

1 lb. butter--NO margarine! And yes, one pound!!!
2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 cups flour
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 pkg. butterscotch chips
1 pkg. white chocolate chips
A few handfuls of oatmeal--just shake a bunch in!

My family isn't big on nuts, but they'd be wonderful, too.

Cream the butter and sugar. Then, just add the rest, flour last. I usually end up having to mix it up with my hands because there's so much flour. Make good-sized balls--can put more than a dozen on a cookie sheet because these really don't spread--they end up nice, fat balls of goodness!

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. I always go with 8 minutes, and they're absolutely perfect! They stay soft on the inside for as long as they last--which won't be long!

Here's a picture of them--we only had 4 left when I took this, but here they are:

I did a big variation once, and they were delicious! Had a bunch of bananas WAY past their prime, and was about to toss them, when this idea popped into my mind, so I gave it a go, and it was so worth it! Here's what I changed:

5 small very ripe bananas
only 1/2 lb. butter
lots of oatmeal
1 large pkg. vanilla pudding--I used the non-instant kind
I just added a big bag of chocolate chips to this one--

Enjoy!