Babycakes.

One of my good friends from Sullivan Higdon & Sink is having a baby shower this weekend, and I wanted to make something fun and memorable to surprise the new mom.

T-shirt Cupcakes: one dozen, assorted t-shirts rolled up with diaper cloths and red sock "cherries" on top. All packaged neatly in a festive pastry box.

The mom-to-be, Sarah, is having a baby boy (and naming him Carter.) So, I cut some boyish & quirky designs out of fabric and iron-transferred them onto the shirts - a rocket ship, a banana-seat bike, a tie, a skull & crossbones, a robot, a word bubble screaming MOM!, the letter C, PLAY NICE, a peace symbol, a weiner dog, a lightening bolt, and an electric guitar.

The t-shirts are sized for 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months so Carter should be a well-dressed baby boy for the first year. (Not to mention, enough red socks for every day of the week!)

LOVE.

Happy Valentine's Day 2010.

This was the view outside my office on the WSU campus last Monday as the snow fell in Wichita. Robert Indiana's LOVE statue looked extra beautiful with 7 inches of fluffy white stuff decorating it's colorful curves.

Bridgette's 30th Birthday

A friend of mine was planning to celebrate her 30th birthday this weekend and asked if I'd be interested in baking a "simple" cake for the party. She mentioned that she liked white cake, maybe with silver or gold accents, but then replied "Oh, why don't you just surprise me?"

OK. I can do that.

Ten hours, eight boxes of cake mix, 9 1/2 pounds of buttercream icing, and 32 inches of cake later, I think she'll definitely be surprised. Silly, silly Bridgette.... don't you know by now that I never do anything simple?

The name BRIDGETTE is so beautiful. I just hope I was able to make a cake as stunning and sweet as the birthday girl. Happy 30th!

Snow Day

It started with a 5:45 am automated phone call Friday morning from Wichita Public Schools, letting us know that classes were cancelled due to the winter storm - six inches of snow and permission to stay home and play. Yahoo!

After scooping the driveway, Gus determined it was much too cold to be outside and spent the next 72 hours perfecting his Wii skills. But Bea was an absolute snow bunny. She made approximately 25 snow angels in the front yard, built a fort, went sledding in the front yard and ate 13 cubic feet of frozen flakes.

And after changing wet gloves, hats & boots for the last three days, I am snow-day'd out.

When does Spring arrive? Not soon enough.

Double-Iced Mocha Espresso Cookies.

My mom has this cookie recipe that I love called Coconut Islands. Although, she's never made them with coconut. Neither have I. We're just not big fans of it, I guess. It's got a hint of coffee flavor, and they're perfect, bite-sized bursts of chocolate.

Well, today I did a twist on her recipe and added a double-icing of espresso cream cheese frosting with a swirl of mocha.

OMT! (Oh my tastebuds!) These little devils are scrumptious. Hope the birthday girl I made them for agrees.

Here's the recipe, minus the coconut. (Maybe somebody out there could add in 1/3 cup of coconut and tell me how they turn out.)

DOUBLE-ICED MOCHA ESPRESSO COOKIES

Mix:

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sour cream

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soda

Melt together:

3 squares (6 tablespoons) baking chocolate

1/2 cup coffee

Add melted chocolate and coffee mixture to cookie dough mixture. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

ESPRESSO CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Mix:

1/4 cup butter

4 ounces cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

Dissolve:

1 tsp vanilla

instant espresso/coffee powder

Mix butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Dissolve espresso powder in the vanilla and add it to the frosting.

CHOCOLATE ICING

Heat:

3 tbls cocoa powder

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tbls butter

Stir in:

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix until smooth. Swirl on top of espresso cream cheese frosting.

Cinnamon-Rolls-On-A-Stick

Why is it, all food tastes better on a stick?

I attempted these little cuties last week and just love how they turned out. Used my new mini-cupcake pan to keep them all bite-sized and poked a stick in them after baking & icing.

Cinnamon Roll Lollipops. Yum.

Storage with a smile.

Fourteen years ago, Eric and I bought our house not knowing how little storage there really was or how many toys two children could possibly accumulate. Oh lordy, do we have toys!

So when I mentioned building some cabinets in our basement to contain all the Nerf guns, Transformers, Legos and Fisher Price toys, Eric replied with a giant "YAWN."

He hates building cabinets. Or something as boring as cabinets. Boxes with no personality, in his opinion. Where's the challenge?

Soooooo ...... I came back to him with an idea I'd seen a few years ago - storage cabinets made out of big alphabet letters. Admittedly, I almost have a fetish for alphabet letters. Maybe it was the inflatable alphabet people we had in Mrs. Selby's Kindergarten class, or maybe it's the designer in me, but there's just something about an enormous 'A' that gets my juices going.

Eric agreed to tackle my latest hair-brained idea. (And yes, I realize how spoiled I am that I've married a man who can not only BUILD whatever I dream up, but still love me after the sawdust settles.)

Our basement isn't big, but there was just enough room to spell out PLAY. And I was able to get almost all of Gus & Bea's toys tucked safely into their new home - everything except the Thomas the Tank Engine collection. That stuff almost needs it's own wing of the house.

I took a ton of photos during the build - it was just so fun to watch it come together. And once again, I'm in awe of Eric's patience, craftsmanship and best-dad-ever abilities.

Project Denneler: Ages 8 and under

So, what kinds of things do Gus and Bea work on while their parents are busy making cupcakes in the kitchen and rocketships in the backyard?

For Bea, it's perpetual potty training. Somedays I wonder if she's ever going to get the gist of this. As long as someone is constantly reminding her to "go," she goes. But leave the remembering up to her, and there's almost always an "uh-oh."

And for Gus, if he's not playing his NintendoDS, then he's probably challenging Eric to a game on the Wii, or vying for time on the computer. Hoping to get him away from all-things-electronic for a couple of hours a week, we did manage to sign him up for Taekwondo class this month. More on that later, I'm sure.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Braet. We "heart" you.

Today is Gus' 2nd-grade teacher's birthday. So we surprised her with cupcakes to share with the class.

Gus asked me if I made a cupcake for Frosty, the classroom dove. No. Sorry. I did not make a cupcake for Frosty. I guess I could have put some birdseed sprinkles on top of one, but I didn't. Maybe I'll remember to do that for Frosty's birthday. Do birds have birthdays?

What will Bea be?

We all wonder what our kids will grow up to be someday.

Will she be an artist? A cowgirl? A professional sand volleyball player?

I can only hope & dream that Bea will do something that makes her happy.

Is a snowman considered edible art?

It is if you ask Bea.

I swear, Gus and I would have been finished building our snowman 30 minutes earlier if she hadn't munched on him the whole time. "Nummy snowman, mommy. He's deelishush."

Never mind the leaves and grass that she probably swallowed in the process, our snowman did have some edible features - a carrot nose and some Russell Stover chocolates for the eyes. (You know, those nasty pink-marshmallow-centered ones that nobody likes.)

We've had just enough snow over our Christmas break to keep us entertained and not cabin-fevered.

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas.

Gus and Bea must have been extra good this year, because Santa brought them some very nice presents. Gus got the Wii he desperately wanted and Bea danced with delight when she opened up her box to find a pink unicorn with wings.

Nothing's more magical than Christmas time with kids.

Christmas Cookie Craziness

I love baking cookies. Don't get me wrong. But making 16-dozen, frosted and decorated sugar cookies last week for Christmas just about put me over the edge. (On top of all the other hub-bub that goes on the week before ol' Santa Claus comes to town!)

Why 16 dozen? Because I have a lot of nieces and nephews that LOVE Aunt Sandy's sugar cookies. And I would hate to disappoint.

When all was said & baked, I think I used: 8 cups of butter, 6 cups of sugar, 16 cups of flour and 6 bags of powdered sugar. Six bags! That's insane. But mighty tasty.

Pet Project

Sometimes, after I've worked on design projects all day at WSU, I come home and work on more design projects... just for fun. Oh, and a little profit too. (Backyard rocketships aren't cheap you know...)

In June, a friend-of-a-friend of mine at the Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital of Wichita contacted me to create a new brochure for them. Well, it was suppose to just be a brochure. But then it turned into a new logo. And then of course, that turned into designing some new business cards, letterhead and envelopes to go along with it. Which kinda snowballed itself into a few months of work for me. But it's work that I'm very proud of and happy to have been given the chance to create.

If you ever find yourself needing a vet in the middle of the night, on the weekend, or over a holiday, these are the people you call - Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital of Wichita. You can pick up their new brochure and handy-dandy refrigerator magnet (for quick reference) from your local vet clinic.

Gotta love Target.

I'm such sucker for all the cute product lines at Target. Which is why I couldn't resist these adorable melamine penguin plates. I got 10 of them back in November, to give to Bea's little buddies at daycare for Christmas. Attach a bag of Oreo cookies to each wing, and voilà - penguin present perfection on a plate.

Thanks Target, you rock! Can't wait to see what you have for Valentine's Day....