Archive for the ‘Stuff I Make’ Category

been working feverishly this week on some brand new pieces!

getting pretty excited about the amount of new jewelry ideas coming out of my head lately, and i wanted to share a quick sneak peek of the beautiful cameos i’ve been putting together the last few days. so addicted to these gorgeous things. get ready to see lots more of them in the shop soon!

we ran some errands today and picked up our life jackets so we can kayak this summer! i also bought a pair of jeans, that i can’t tell you how excited i am about (but that’s a post for another day). basically i’m excited that i found a pair that fit. jean shopping is probably my least favorite thing in the world to do, and i seem to always require new jeans…. UGH. anyway, i have jeans now! my first pair in over 6 months. YAY. (been wearing nothing but dresses and tights since Oct. 12, 2010. it started out as a challenge to see how long i could go without wearing jeans and then it turned into having to wear only dresses and tights because none of my jeans fit anymore. :’( but now we’re good. i got some new tops to go with my new jeans and i am one happy girl!)

so, it’s been a productive week so far, and i’m hoping that motivation continues through the weekend, since R and i don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow…the plan is to sit at home and make these delicious things again, and get stuff done! :D

what are your plans this weekend?

 

it’s R’s bday today, so i wanted to make him something super special to celebrate.

when i found a recipe for chocolate coconut ganache cupcakes this summer, i bookmarked it but didn’t really think i’d actually make them for a while (i hate coconut, but it’s probably R’s favorite thing in the world besides me ;D), but i knew if i didn’t save the recipe i’d be looking for it again later.

so with his BIG THREE-OH upon us, i decided that this was the perfect occasion to make said cupcakes.

…and they turned out AMAZING (according solely to R, who may be slightly biased. i really can’t tell you what they taste like, because i wouldn’t eat one if you paid me).

anyway, with this much fuss over them, i figured i’d share the recipe because they’re actually pretty easy to make. and they look incredibly fancy so they’re great to impress guests too. ;)

CHOCOLATE COCONUT GANACHE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

-chocolate fudge cake mix (yes, i used box cake mix cause i’m lazy)
-1 bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1 cup sweetened condensed milk
-2 cups shredded coconut
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat oven according to cake mix directions. Prepare cake mix per box instructions. Add half of the bag of mini chocolate chips (trust me, these are entirely necessary) to the cake mix, and stir to evenly distribute.

Spoon batter into lined cupcake pan, making the cups about 2/3 full each. Bake according to box.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare filling (you can’t tell from the photos, but the coconut is inside the cupcakes as well as on top!).

Filling Directions:

In medium bowl, mix coconut and powdered sugar. Warm the sweetened condensed milk slightly and pour over coconut/powdered sugar mixture.

After cupcakes are out of the oven, cut an X on the top of each one. Fill piping bag (or Ziploc bag with one of the bottom corners snipped off) with half of the filling mixture. Squirt filling into the X of each cupcake. Frost cupcakes with remaining half of the filling mixture. Prepare ganache.

Ganache Directions:

Using a double boiler, or a smaller pot nested in a larger one that’s full of boiling water like I used, heat heavy whipping cream and 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, stirring constantly until chips are melted and ganache is smooth. A wisk works best for this.

Dip the top of each cupcake into the ganache and set aside. Once each cupcake has been dipped once, go back and dip each one a second time. Next, get a spoon and scoop remaining ganache directly into your mouth. Try not to make yourself sick! ;D

Let ganache cool (or not if you’re impatient) and serve (probably on a plate, with a fork).

Makes 24 cupcakes.

adapted from this recipe.

if you try these, let me know how they turned out! i’d love to hear your results, i’m sure they will not disappoint! :D

 

just wanted to drop a quick line to those of you reading in a feed reader, because i designed a new WP theme to better match the rest of my sites. :D

so click on over and check it out!

(or if you’re lazy, here’s a screenshot:)

& also wanted to say sorry for the lack of posting lately. been working on some big things! wanna know what they are? click here to sign up for my newsletter and you’ll find out soon!

 

i just made this clutch/wristlet for a friend of my sister-in-law’s.

i’ve been meaning to put some things like this in my shop recently (notice  in the below photo, you can see i’ve already got the custom hang tags, ready to be sewn into bags as i make them. but i have about 200 of them and i’ve had them for over 3 months now…), but i don’t have a really great sewing space set up in my studio, so i’ve been having to just set it up when i need it and then put it away. i think if it was out the entire time, i would have more motivation to use it. i think it has to do with that ‘out of sight, out of mind’ saying…

but maybe i’m just making excuses… what do you think? should i keep making them? i quite like them, and the people who see them seem to LOVE them. actually this custom order is because she saw the one that my sister-in-law had, and the way my sister-in-law got hers was because she came over to our house one time and i had it in a pile because i wasn’t sure if i liked it enough to list it and she absolutely refused to leave without buying it from me (which i took as an extremely high compliment). so there you go. maybe i should just make more and list them and see what happens? i have enough fabric to make 250,000,000 of them (yes, million).

but i suppose it would be nice if i could sew a straight line. you can see on the top by the zipper that they are somewhat wonky-looking. i blame this on my sewing machine needing a tune-up. yeah. that’s it.

so maybe i’ll practice sewing a straight line before i even think about listing these. :S

anyway, hope you’re having a great friday!

i’ve been trying to find the best (healthy) blueberry muffin recipe. this one was ok (the photos make it look much more delicious than it actually was….). not that it was horrible, but they are definitely only good when they’re warm, so the next day for breakfast, even the microwave couldn’t fix it. :(

they had oat bran in them, which may be the reason they just weren’t sweet enough. i realize that if i’m looking for sweet, i should be more lenient on the healthy aspect, but i’ve heard of some recipes that call for applesauce or something like that to sweeten them up a bit and keep them moist (that was the other problem, WAY too dry). now i just need to find one that i like…

oh well. the search is on! anyone have a to-die-for (healthy or not!) blueberry muffin recipe they’d be willing to share? i’m open to anything. :)