I have babies!

Although it has been very cold here -where is Spring, anyways?- I have sprouts. I have been monitoring my cold frame, making sure I wasn't cooking anything in there. The baby sprouts don't seem to be in jeopardy of that considering the chill still in the air. This weekend is the Spring Garden Fair and McLendon's 85th Annual Anniversary Sale and Pancake Breakfast. It is very exciting even though my Farmer's Almanac tells me the 30th Poor Planting Day. Break Ground Or Cultivate. Well poop. I don't know that I have any ground-breaking or cultivating to do. Now what :) Anyhow- I would like to share one or two of my sprouts with you...

Cucumbers pushing their way through the soil

Healthy Tomato

Wee Baby Tomatoes

Carrots on their way up

Peas! 

Turnips and Radishes

MMMM Cupcakes....

French Vanilla Cupcake with Lavender Frosting Topped with White Chocolate Decor 

Triple Chocolate Cupcake with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Baked in the Center Frosted with Charity's Peanut Butter Buttercream

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Lavender Buttercream Topped with White Chocolate Decor

Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes covered in Lemon Buttercream  Folded with Fresh Strawberries Topped with True Lemon

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake with Mini Eggs baked in the Center Frosted with Champagne Buttercream Adorened with Mini Eggs

The boy turns 14

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting per resquest...

Kya and Strawberry

I made a critter for my little cousin Kya. Her name is Strawberry and she has magic powers. She helps little girls sleep when they can't or when they are feeling bad or when they are in pain.
Here is a picture of Kya...and she really is this pretty.

And this is Strawberry...

Her cute little tail

And this is Strawberry just before she was sent off in an envelope to Kya...

  

Happy Trails Strawberry....Heal that little girl..

Sticking to it....

I am still following my farmer's almanac for my gardening. This last weekend allowed me to get my seeds into the dirt (finally). Ok, maybe I am being dramatic but it's only because by this time last year I had starts already. If I have time and patience, everything will turn out better....right?

Dirt...check. Started fertilizer....check....Seeds....check. Starter plant boxes....check. I planted carrots (Heirloom Rainbow Mix), 5 different kinds of tomatoes, 2 different cucumbers, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, microgreens, peas, beans, strawberries, and I SHOULD have planted my peppers but I forgot :( Now I have to wait until my planting schedule says "It's a good day to plant peppers"...Patience.

So, I figured I would post a picture of "My Area of Operation" so you can see what I am working with :)

To the right is my raised garden beds. These will host carrots, lettuce, spinach, and peas...first. Once that crop starts coming up, I might add some radishes and turnips.  To the left is my flowers, which I planted on Sunday as well. They are an experiment. I am alittle worried they might seed up and spread to my veggie garden. If this happens, they might be sacrificed. We'll see. Also on the left is my super awesome cold-frame, currently hosting my tomato, cucumbers and pea starts.  All of the pots to the right, farther down the path are full of a variety of items, including lavender, onions, chives, and some potted bulb flowers. May are empty and awaiting some plant love.

Anyway, My area is small but it's all mine and it brings me peace in times of stress. Cheers!

Candy toppers...and bowling?

My Grandma Gracie has a yearly bowling tournament to raise money for Relay for Life. I love it! Unfortunately, this event happens the day after tax season so I am usually not feeling very perky. Last year, my man and I bought some raffle tickets to win some prizes which are donated by participants of the tournament. We misunderstood the ticket sales person... We THOUGHT she said tickets were 3 for $5... We gave her $50. She looked at us like we were crazy, then proceeded to count out tickets. She asked us after counting out tons of tickets if we were sure we wanted that many. I did some quick math and figured we would have about 30 tickets.

She said (in a patient tone) "No Dear, tickets are 5 for $1." Oh geez! We asked her to give us $30 back and ended up with 1/3 of the prizes for our $20 in tickets. At the end of the tournament, everyone was booing me everytime I walked up to collect yet another prize. When I left, someone had filled my purse with all their losing tickets. Sore losers! What is wrong with paying alittle extra money for the cause???

This year, I, too, am donating prizes to the raffle. Grandma asked me to make pink and purple cupcakes. Well, you know I love cupcakes, regardless of the poor timing... So I started to plan my cupcakes out (pictures to follow baking). Recently, I have decided that I want to start putting my own flair on top of the cupcakes I make. I have yet to take the fondant/gunpaste class at Dawn's Cake and Candy so I thought I would try my hand at molding. Here are some of my first works in molding that will be topping some of the cupcakes for Grandma's tournament...

Bye Ana! We will miss you!

It is tax season around these parts and my friend Ana was kind enough to step in when the tax season receptionist QUIT in early February. I guess everything happens for a reason because Ana was a God Send! She did tell us that she was applying at different places and that if she got a call back from one of these places, she would have to go. Alas! She got the phone call she wanted and put in her two weeks! At least that would only leave us with the last two weeks of tax season to worry about finding a replacement. On Ana's last day at work, I wanted to make her something special. Then it hit me...everyone likes carrot cake, right?

OK, ok...I was short on time so I used the boxed carrot cake from Betty Crocker BUT I shredded some organic carrots and a Fuji apple and added it to the batter. ALSO a nice little twist came when I replaced a quarter of the water in the recipe with REAL maple syrup! YUM... I also tried my hand at molding chocolate. I made these great little toppers for the cupcakes to see if I could add some flare. I think they turned out ok for my first try.

Carrot Apple Cupcakes infused with Maple and Topped with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. Who thinks of these things? Me! :)

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

Stella Bella Kitty is working her magic on the crazy red cake mixture. Although I think Red Velvet cake is visually stunning, the red goop gets everywhere. I am a messy cook so it probably effects me more than most :)

I think red velvet cakes are so pretty, even before they are frosted!

Stella Bella Kitty makes quick work out of the cream cheese that I forgot to take out of the fridge until the last minute. Room temperature, what?

These were made for my neighbor, Mike. There was no special reason, except they are his favorites! Happy Weekend Mikey!

Sexy and Seductive Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling accompanied by Chambord vanilla buttercream topped with a fresh sugared raspberry

Cupcakes should always look this sexy!

Creatures of Unknown Origin

Sunday, Sunday... Due to the timing of tax season, I haven't been able to get to my yard work as much as I would like. Yesterday was the first day I actually was able to get out and get to it. This year I decided that I would rely on the Farmer's Almanac Calendar. I figured they have been doing this a long time. They have to know what they are doing, right?

So yesterday on April 3rd, the calendar said that it was a poor planting day. *Sigh* I really wanted to plant my strawberries but I told myself to stick to the calendar. I cleaned up dog messes, mowed, weeded, weed-eated and did some general clean up. The calendar did say that it was a good ground breaking and cultivating day. This worked out well for me because I needed to decide where to put in my new flower bed.

I ended up on my hands and knees for hours, pulling weeds, plucking out rocks and being surprised at the amount of holes. Critter holes. Lots of them. Mice? Snakes? Moles? I really don't know what critters created those holes but nothing jumped out at me, so that's good. I am sure whatever made them is NOT happy with me. I don't mind. Hopefully they won't kill my flowers, which I don't get to plant until the 9th or 10th of this month.

Until then, April showers bring May flowers. Gardening season has begun!