A little bit of China

Life has gotten a bit crazy around my house this past week. My husband started a new job on Monday. He is now home every night. Talk about a big adjustment. For the past just about ten years he has been driving truck long distance, so he was usually only home every other weekend. The kids are really liking having him around more often, so am I. It's just going to take us a little bit to get used to the new routine. I have also applied for a preschool job for a couple mornings a week during the school year. I'm really hoping I get it.

Now on to what you probably came here to see...my new kits! :) Ever since I was little, pandas have been one of my favorite animals.When we went to the San Diego Zoo a few years ago, I was so thrilled to be able to see a live panda in person. I would love the opportunity to some day go to the panda research center in China to see even more of them. When I was working on my Zoo Crew kit I had thought about including the panda, but decided I wanted to do an entire kit around it instead, so that is how this kit came to be. I just love how these kits turned out.





If you buy both kits together in the bundle, you save about 30%. :)



Until next time happy scrapping! :)

A sneak peek!

I have 2 fun mini kits coming out this Friday. Here is a little sneak peek. :)

Come join me for a Speed Scrap!

I'm hosting my first speed scrap at ScrapMatters! Not only that but I even made the participation prize! Hope you can join me for a fun time. :)

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Wow the summer has sure gone by fast so far. My little sister has decided that she wants to do three different kinds of cupcakes for her wedding, a white, a chocolate and a fun flavor. For her fun flavor she is currently thinking Strawberry Lemonade, since it is a summer wedding and that's a summery flavor. So that means time for me to experiment.

I took two tries at making the Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes. I think it's going to take a few more tries before we get the perfect combination. The first one I made was a lemon cupcake with a little bit of strawberry filled with lemon curd and topped with strawberry buttercream. This one turned out very dense and quite lemony. The lemon was a bit too overpowering. So it was on to try number 2. lol.


(Strawberry lemonade cupcake Take 1 outside)


(Strawberry Lemonade cupcake take 1 inside)

Take 2 is much closer to the cupcake my little sister is wanting for her wedding. I made these and took them to our church's Vacation Bible School for treats for the teachers and they were a huge hit! :) I decided to practice my rose frosting on these, too. Learned a few tips on how to get them to look right from the beginning next time. ;) This time I started with a white cake base and added lemonade concentrate in place of the water along with the strawberry puree. The filling is a strawberry lemonade mousse and is topped again with a strawberry buttercream. The cake was very moist and light with a great crumb. The mousse was the perfect blend of strawberry and lemon. I think I'm going to try to tweak this recipe a little bit more to see if I can get a bit more strawberry flavor in the cake, then it will be just right. :) I also like the appearance of this second one much better than the first, too.


(outside of Strawberry Lemonade cupcake Take 2)


(Inside of Strawberry Lemonade cupcake Take 2)


Next up is a birthday cake for my grandfather's 75th birthday this weekend. :)