My Creative Space....

Prior to Brian suggesting that we create a big crafting area for me I was a sort of crafting nomad. Moving about the house looking for a surface to sit and craft. What we ended up doing to eliminate a fine layer of glitter from covering our dining room, kitchen table, and the entire first floor of our house was create a (as my friend Steph called it) Crafting Command Center. Have a look...

Here is a view of the entire area. We took 3 6 foot tables and created a horseshoe shape. The office chair on wheels makes it easy to roll from one area to another. Everything I need is always an armlength away.


We created an area for the electronic items in our house, we have an Apple Time Capsule which is a cross between a 500 Gig hard drive and a wireless router it wirelessly backs up all of the computers in our house every hour, we have a color printer which I configured to print wirelessly with all of the computers in our house. I have a set of speakers that I can connect to my Macbook to listen to music while crafting or my iPhone, and a flat television and of course Barefoot Contessa is on...


Everywhere I go I must always have my Macbook Pro with me. I am always lugging it around in my backpack or in my arms at home. Here is were it has landed this time in my craft area.

Of course you will always find a dog tucked here or there napping, playing, or chewing something to bits! I gave them their own pillows and they love to nap under my table while I am down here. In the winter they keep my feet warm!


Of course I have my years worth of Martha Stewart Living magazines a few steps away in case I need a bit of inspiration. Most of these I acquired on Ebay.


This was my solution for storing my glitter. It was a Martha Stewart Everyday spice rack from K-Mart. I love the bottles of glitter and they are way to pretty to be tucked away in a drawer.


Tucked away in two three drawer tall plastic storage containers I have all of my supplies separated by use, this drawer is bindings and adhesives.


And this one is labels and stickers...


Martha always says do not cut on your nice mahogany table. I have my Martha Stewart Crafts self healing cutting mat which is so handy! Also separated in various vases and flower pots are my pens, paint brushes and scissors. I also have a few boxes of stamps and ink pads.


Here are some more cutting tools including various patterns of the Martha Stewart Crafts rotary cutting tool, screw punch, and paper punches. I also store my ribbon in a ribbon holder, MS of course, and my various wrapping papers, glassine rolls, and other tall papers in a French pail. Notice the picture of Charlie on the wall with a petunia behind his ear? haha!


And lastly I have two trash cans one for trash and another for recyclable material.


I love having this area of my own and the freedom that it gives me to be creative. It has truly become a place that I enjoy spending time and I have found that my creative productivity has gone up immensely! Now I have a creative place of my own that is covered in a light dusting of glitter!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. While on a phone call I noted that she said that she loved this painting Donna Dewberry did called Field of Poppies. I took my crack at it and I think that I did well, my mom said that she loved the painting and I am glad. Here are the pictures that I took of the step by step progress of the painting. It took me about a total of 40 minutes to do...



After finishing the painting I still had the creative bug so I decided to make my mother's birthday card. I also made one for my friend Diane. Of course it was a Martha Stewart idea, it was super easy all you need is a stencil, glue pen, and some glitter!


You gotta love that glitter!

Still Ugly....

So work on my costume is almost complete...
If you hadn't guest it by previous posts I am going to be Ugly Betty (LOVE THAT SHOW!!). I still have to fabritac the patches that I made on my homemade poncho but that will only take a minute.

I am so happy with how it came out have a look...
Here is Betty's poncho:


And here is mine...


I have also already posted this but here is the necklace that I made to replicate Betty's!

Making Whoopie....and Yes More Glitter....

We had movie night yesterday, so I decided to make the Halloween whoopie pies featured in the October issue of Everyday Food. They were easy to make and were so delicious! I had never made or tasted whoopie pies before and I must say that they are quite good! The outside of the pie is a sort of chocolate cake and the inside is a creamy filling..



After making those I decided to make the glittered silhouettes that Martha made on Friday's Martha with Isaac Mizrahi. These were not hard to make at all but Nicole and I had glitter here, there, and everywhere when we were done. Seriously we looked like two ginormous disco balls. I do not have a xyron machine so we used spray adhesive to make our papers tacky to hold the glue. I did not spray enough glue on the first application so the glitter did not cover the background well, but the second application of spray glue worked like a charm.



I finally got around to putting the glass dome over the skull on our mantle. I think it makes it look finished...

Glitter Everywhere...

This year I decided not to decorate for Halloween like I usually do, Brian and I usually go all out and turn our house into a haunted scary place. We are hosting a movie night tomorrow so I just had to put out some decorations. Well one thing led to another and this is what I ended up with. I have more decorations to put out tomorrow.

Have a look....


These spider silhouettes are available at Michael's. Stricken with glitter fever, I had no choice but to glitter them. I tried to use the glitter glue and brush applicator but it was too time consuming and the moisture in the glue caused the spider to curl. Brian has previously suggested that I try spray adhesive so I did and my gosh it worked wonders! It went so quick and it was so easy. I am happy with the result...


I had to put out my two ravens that watch over the living room...


Here is our mantle, tomorrow I am going to put a glass dome over the skull...


Oh snap! I wasn't kidding when I said glitter everywhere...

Scarlet...

I normally do not post videos from Youtube, but I could not resist. This video of this girl singing is okay but you MUST fast foward to 2:30 seconds...

Getting Crafty.....

Since we had company coming over to look at/adopt Vinny I did not want our house to smell like we had 4 dogs so I put on a pot of water, vanilla and cinnamon. When Brian got home he said that it made him crave horchata which is a Mexican drink made of rice milk/water/cinnamon etc. It is really good my sister Marcie spits in the face of our Mexican heritage and hates it with a passion...

So when I got home today I made Brian a pitcher of it so it is cold and ready when he gets home from work. Here is the recipe.
Horchata
1 C. long grain rice, rinsed
2 quarts water
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
1 C. white sugar

In a large saucepan or pot combine rice and water, over medium-high heat bring to a boil. Let boil for about 5 minutes. Let cool and then strain through a fine sieve, reserving water. Combine water from rice with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. I rinsed the boiled rice off again with water and added that to the previous batch of rice water. Now this is optional but Brian has more than a sweet tooth, I would say he has a sweet head, so I added a bit more sugar and a touch about 1/2 C. of heavy cream.

You can serve this over ice or allow to cool and serve cold.

I love this stuff in Arizona (where I am from) you can buy BIG GULP/THIRST-BUSTERS OF THIS!


Anylatinodrink, I am secretary of the Mahoning Valley Pride Center and we are having our annual Halloween party. Last year for prizes we gave trophies to the top 3 costumes. This year being inspired by my new crafting area and some of the wonderful Martha Stewart Crafts I decided to make ribbons for the top 3 winners. They were a craft on Martha to make embellished gift bags. I just made them bigger and added some glitter and funky paper. Have a look....

Step one you have to cut and accordion fold the piece of paper that is going to be the medallion, after you have folded them you have to tape the two ends together using double-sided tape.


After you have taped the ends together, place the paper on a flat surface and push down in the middle, this with some coaxing will cause the paper to fan out into a medallion. Put some hot glue in the center and hold until it is dry enough to stay on its own.


I made a few medallions in different sizes and then glued them together.



After the glue has dried a bit I glued on the centers, which I printed with my computer, and then went over with a glue pen and then some glitter.


I cut another piece of paper and then used the deckled rotary cutter to give the edges a torn look. I folded that in half on a diagonal and then bird beak cut the tips.

A Fall Tale....

There was a dog who had no home, so off on a journey, he went all alone.


No one is quite sure of how long or how far, our story beings when he met a car.


His right leg was broken and he was left mauled, but onward to safety this strong puppy crawled.


A group of kind women took the dog in, to save this pup's life, work had to begin.


A wonderful doctor helped fix the dog up, so soon this scared dog could act like a pup!


It is quite apparent this dog is too skinny, this dog with no name, we will call him Vinny.


We took Vinny home and gave him some love, he fit into our family, just like a nice glove.


We gave Vinny food, a soft place to sleep, and promised him a family who would take him to keep.


As Vinny got better and we told all of our friends, it is as he got better this tale comes to an end.


Full of kisses, with love in his heart, its time for this poor baby's real life to start.


So as this tale ends, I am happy to say, the puppy named Vinny found a forever home today!


The End

Busy Weekend...

Oh my....this weekend was a busy end to a busy week and to be honest I have a big project due on Wednesday that I have not even started. On Friday, a reporter from the Vindicator (our local paper) came out to do a story on Vinny. I was going to title this blog post Vinny's Big Day, but I suppose I will save that title for whenever we find him a forever home. I had to pleasure of meeting Charlene DePalma, one of the people responsible for Vinny's survival. We shared stories of our animals and then the photographer came to take pictures of Vinny. I was mortified when he asked us to get in the picture and I begged him to airbrush/photoshop a few chins out of the picture in post. I am quite happy with how the picture turned out, Vinny looks handsome and he has a look on his face that says, "take me home and love me."

































In celebration of National Coming Out day my amazing partner coordinated an entire week dedicated to our fight for equality. It was a very moving week that I felt so proud to take a part in. Although, I feel as though a I did not contribute too much, so I contributed in one of the best ways I know how, with food.

Yesterday we had a dance and I signed up for dip. I took Hummus, Pan-Fried Onion Dip and Chili Cheese Dip. I was too busy to remember to take any pictures all of the dip, but I did snap these pictures of the little labels that I constructed and of my tasty hummus.




To bring the week to an end we had a candlelight vigil to commemorate Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in a vicious hate crime 10 years ago. Every single part of the vigil was moving and touching. To this event I took two kinds of cupcakes and lots of them, close to 70 to be exact. Both cupcakes were a simple yellow cake and then 1/2 of them was topped with Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream and the other 1/2 of the cupcakes were topped with a Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream then a strawberry. They came out looking and tasting wonderful. I hope everyone else thought so too...

Vinny Update....

We took Vinny for his one week follow up appointment this evening and he was such a good boy. I think that he was a bit nervous but he did great. When we asked him if he wanted to go for a ride he got excited, you can see his tail wagging below...


Vinny looked a bit scared in the waiting room...

All of the strange noises sparked his curiosity....


I think that Vinny was in a bit more pain than usual today. He cried and whimpered a bit more than usual and he looked sad...


The vet said that Vinny is doing well. He gained almost a pound and looks way better than he did a week ago. The tile floors posed a balancing problem for a pup with only three working legs. While we were waiting Vinny's back leg kept on sliding out from underneath him, so I used my foot to provide some reinforcement.


It worked like a charm...


The vet had to remove some glue from Vinny's incision and then had to re-staple it. Vinny was more than happy to give a few "thank you" kisses in return.


Here is Vinny's x-ray, after looking at this picture I can only imagine how painful his leg must feel...


Here is his leg after the vet patched him up.


Vinny was not interested at all in looking at x-rays of his leg. I suppose he has dealt enough with it...


After seeing the picture of Vinny's broken leg I would say that he is such a strong dog. After everything that this dog has been through he is still full of love and kisses...

Cake in the Morning and Vinny the Pit

Our new foster pup Vinny is doing well today. This morning he greeted us with kisses and a wagging tail. He has really taken to our dogs, but he gets sad when he has to be in the kennel to rest. Have a look....


Our friend Noreen liked the Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream yellow cake that I made for the CSP on Friday that she had to have one for her Mom's birthday. She came by to pick it up this morning and I must say that I am quite happy with how pretty it came out.



Here is the strawberry cake that I made for a gentleman this weekend. I delivered it yesterday. I was so happy with how it came out!


And here is the cake all ready to be delivered with a signature blue Martha bow.

"I hate people"

"I hate people", is what I told Brian today. With tears in my eyes I told him that I hate people. The reason that I was saying this was because of a puppy named Vinny.

Brian and I were asked to foster a dog who was basically hit by a car and left to die. We believe that he is a pit mix who is a little over a year old. Vinny had surgery yesterday to put a pin in his broken leg, he also has scrapes and bruises. If you look at Vinny you will see that his hurt goes beyond the visible abuse and neglect. Vinny is so thin that you can see his ribs and spine.

When Vinny was brought to us he looked scared. He stopped in his tracks and would not look at us, the woman at the vet's office suggested that we coax him over with some food. The food worked like a charm because he came over, ate the food off of the spoon and then off of our hands.

It is obvious that Vinny is a puppy, you can see that he wanted to act like a puppy because his tail would start to wag, but then some sadness and fear would take over and his tail went right between his legs, he was scared.

I would like to introduce you to our new foster pup Vinny.

Here is Vinny as they were bringing him out to us. The vet aid is coaxing him out with food which he loves, he is so skinny...


Here is Vinny in the car. He can not put too much weight on his back right leg because it is broken. He had to have surgery on his leg to have pins put in.


It was right after I took this picture that my eyes filled with tears and I told Brian, "I hate people." I just do not understand how anyone could do this to an animal. Vinny is still a baby and he was neglected so badly that he can barely walk, he can barely trust, and he is scared...


He was very calm in the car and I think it was mostly because he was scared. I kept on feeding him food to calm his nerves and gain his trust. I think he knew he could trust me because right after I took this picture he gave me a lick on the cheek...
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Vinny is on crate/bed rest for 6 weeks. When we got him into our house he looked scared but he is easily enticed with food. I would take a treat and walk confidently over to him but not too fast or not to slow his tail would wag a bit (that puppy instinct showing through) but then he would get scared, not make any eye contact and his tail would go between his legs. Although, once he saw I had a treat his fear went away...


Here is Vinny getting use to all of the new smells in our house (A.K.A. Charlie, Sofia, and Lucy)..


I have been thinking all day about my prior statement, "I hate people" and I don't think that I can say that anymore. The truth is that I hate people that can do this to an animal. I hate people who treat animals like objects and not like living animals with feelings. I always say that our dogs are so spoiled, they would die if we were ever mean to them or neglected them. I suppose I can not hate people, because without people Vinny would not have a second chance and without people Vinny probably would not be alive today.

I feel that it is up to Brian and I to show this puppy what a puppy's life is really like and treat him like he should have been treated all along. I feel that we need to show him that not everyone in this world is heartless and that there is a family out there who will want him. Our dogs have been very good with him so far and I think that they can make room in their pack for one more. Vinny obviously needs to gain some weight but that will be no problem, NO ONE COMES TO OUR HOUSE WITHOUT GAINING SOME WEIGHT. I will keep on posting updates on this little guy, we still need to find a forever family and maybe in a few weeks he will lose a lot of his fear and look just like our pups do in the pic below....



P.S,
These pictures illustrate how Brian and I feel that the life of a puppy should be...

Today's Cake....Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream

The other day I blogged about baking cakes. I baked them and froze them. Yesterday, I took one of the cakes out to defrost and made the Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream and O.....MYYYY.....NUTELLA........ this buttercream recipe is to die for! If you love Nutella this recipe is a must try. It was not too complicated and the result is well worth any effort put into making the frosting. I mean who needs cake?! Cut to me reinacting one of the first scenes in Death Becomes her when Goldie Hawn is eating frosting straight out of the can....

Just replace Goldie's face with mine and the 100s of cats with our three pups and that is exactly what I looked like with the leftovers of this frosting!










Anyfrosting, I finished the cake and was pretty pleased with how it came out. One thing I need to work on developing is the final product. I am never really happy with how my cakes come out when they are done. I mean I want them to be beautiful and I know that it will take practice. Don't get me wrong they taste amazing, but I know that I can make them look way better!