Mocha Cupcakes with Recipe

Mocha Cupcakes

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 ¾ c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 1/3 strong fresh-brewed coffee, cooled
½ c. shortening (I use butter-flavored Crisco)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 squares (3 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add coffee, shortening, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed till combined. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and melted chocolate; beat 2 minutes more.

Pour ¼ c. batter into cupcake papers or greased and floured cupcake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool for 10 minutes.

Fill pastry bag or large Ziploc bag with buttercream icing. If using Ziploc, snip ¼” off one bottom corner. Swirl icing onto cupcakes. Light dust cocoa over tops with sifter or salt shaker.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Classic Buttercream (My Secret Recipe :D)

½ c. butter-flavored Crisco (Seriously. Do not substitute.)
½ c. butter, room temp (Again, no substitutes - not margarine)
1 tsp vanilla (clear if you want white icing)
3 c. sifted powdered sugar
about a Tbsp of milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp towel in fridge when not in use. Can be stored for 2 weeks in airtight container. Rewhip before using.

3 Ring Journal Kits at Etsy For Mission Trip Fundraising!

Let me introduce you to my children, Cameron and Kaitlin. Cameron will be 13 in September and Kaitlin will be 17 in November.

These last two summers Kaitlin has gone with her aunt and uncle on mission trips. Last year’s trip was to Denver where they worked in a soup kitchen, helped build houses, and spent time with patients in a brain trauma center. This year, the group went to Galveston and helped rebuild houses after last year’s hurricane. Cameron has been slightly envious both years but has been too young to go with these particular groups.

Now, our local church is taking a group of junior high and high school kids to Houston to also help rebuild some of the demolition left behind. Both kids would very much like to go.

We have put together some 3 ring journal kits to help raise part of the cost for the trip. ALL profits from these sales go to the kids for their trip. These are very much like the supplies I used for my 3 ring journals.

You will receive two 7 Gypsies chipboard covers, fifteen heavy card pages, fifteen pages from old and new papers, three 2” binder rings (so you can add lots more of your own pages!), a Sakura Gelly Roll pen, and two collage sheets from my personal collection of photos. They will arrive with a neat little bow and blank tag so that you can also give them as a gift. Or I would be happy to sign the tag for you and send it to your recipient as well.

We only have a dozen available. When they’re gone, they’re gone. For realsies. And here they are at Etsy. Thanks for looking!

Currently...

currently...

thanking God my children are home safe from camp & mission trips

wondering why a library would carry the first two books of a trilogy and not the third

hoping the Amazon seller ships quickly

wishing there were more hours in the day, more days in the week

working on charms for Amber Dawn’s Think Pink swap

loving how my clay cane slices look just like candy

enjoying bowl after bowl of dark red ripe cherries

liking new purple nail polish on my toes (?!?)

reading a brand new stack of books

looking forward to Ken being off work next week

This post inspired by Michelle at Michelle my Belle.

What To Do With Family Photos and Leftover Cardboard

One day I was goofing around and I used the corrugated cardboard inserts from something or other and built a house. Then I covered it with old dictionary pages.

At this point I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. Then I remembered my mother-in-law was going in for knee surgery and I needed a "get well" present. She loves family photos although she never does anything with them. So I decided to make something 3-dimensional for her to display. Since she has 3 sons it works out perfectly. Each son and his wife gets a side of the house while the parents are on the front of the house. The two couples who have children get the sides of the houses with roof slopes so that the grandchildren's pictures can go on the roof.

the front of the house
H is for Horton

the parents

Landon and Jill, the babies of the family

Mike and Jeanne-Mari with their daughter Melissa

Ken and me with our kids, Kaitlin and Cameron

the bottom of the house
The entire family has ridden several organized bike rides together. Cycling is a big deal to us.

The Bella Sinclair Award

From Ces and Her Dishes:

"I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honor the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best. That I named it after Bella Sinclair is because she epitomizes all of these things. She is an inspiration to many of us."

Read more here.

I was extremely honored to be presented with this award by Marie of Art From My Heart and given the great responsibility to pass it on to artists who I believe share these qualities.

1. Amber Dawn
2. Michelle Allen
3. Cynjon Noah
4. Enchy Moore
5. Gerri Newfry
6. Jacqueline Myers-Cho
7. Jen Osborn
8. Kelly Snelling
9. Sara Hopp
10. Lynn Fisher

Artful Blogging Magazine Review

Artful Blogging. Isn’t that something we all aspire to? Or at least to making our little corner of the web a better place? And wouldn’t it be nice if it were easier to find those other bloggers with that same aesthetic? Somerset Studios has done just that with the publication of their quarterly magazine Artful Blogging. In it they strive to bring us those precious little corners of the web that are just that bit better, that bit more inspiring.

Artful Blogging began in the spring of 2008, and a year later, they still have plenty of creative blogs to discover and explore. I recently went through both the Spring and Summer 2009 issues and picked a few favorites to share.

Gillian Hamilton of New South Wales, Australia has a yummy blog featuring journal pages and jewelry. Her photographs of her work are excellent which always makes a big difference.

Dina Wakley from Arizona is primarily a scrapbooker and art journaler. I had her pages in the magazine bookmarked without looking at the name and when I went back to write this post I noticed it was the same person whose online journaling classes I was drooling over just last week. She has a grunginess to her pages that is just so appealing.

Irene Tan is a scrapbooker from Malaysia. Her work is just so full of depth. I would love to hold it and explore it and I still don’t think I would be able to “get” everything about it. You really must check out the Nature mini album pictured.

Penny Elizabeth Neil lives in Greensborough, Victoria, Australia. I relate to her because of her love of collecting and her ability to find the beauty in vintage things others might throw away. She makes beautiful jewelry from many of these found items.

Texan Debra Cooper is an artist whose blog I have followed for a long time so I was excited to see her blog included. Not only are her journal pages full of color but she seems to live her life with intention. The intention to fill it with not only color but also joy, creativity, and inspiration. Her recent photographs from both Mexico and Portland make me want to pack an art bag and run away for the weekend.

Finally, this article would not be complete if I didn't mention Aimee Dolich. I first saw Aimee's art in the Facebook group Journal Pages (insert shameless plug) that we run together. I am so incredibly jealous of her lettering! Aimee is also one of those people who goes out and grabs life by the reins instead of letting it be something that happens *to* her. I don't know how she manages all the things she does with two little girls.

Artful Blogging is one of Stampington’s $15 magazines. Is it worth it? Simply put, yes. It isn’t just a directory. It’s filled with wonderful photos and stories, also. Each one has a little bit of info about blogging in the back. And it will save you many hours surfing, sifting the wheat from the chaff. Just tell yourself it’s softcover book. It works for me.

Marks Paper Company giveaway on Craft Critique

Art work by Taylor Usry

Marks Paper Company has gorgeous papers. Why have I never heard of them before?! We're reviewing them over at Craft Critique. Come check it out and sign up to win some. I'll only make share a little bit of your prize package as a finder's fee. ;)

Interweave Announces Annual Hurt Book Sale 2009

I found about a dozen books I *had* to have. Several of them were ones that were already in my Amazon wishlist, and I have to tell you that I checked every price against the one at Amazon. It was either less or within pennies of the used Marketplace price. And you save on shipping buying them all from one place.



For Immediate Release

Interweave Announces Hurt Book and Overstock Sale

Summer savings starts July 7, 2009; Shop online for 50–75 percent off your favorite craft books

Loveland, Colo., July 7, 2009: Interweave announced today its annual, highly anticipated hurt book and overstock sale, beginning today at http://www.hurtbooksale.com

More than 180 craft books will be deeply discounted and sold online only on a first-come basis until supplies last. This is a great time to pick up bargains on both hardbound and softbound books about quilting, beading, jewelry making, knitting, crocheting, felting, spinning, weaving, needlework, sewing, mixed- media and other popular crafts.

Hurt books are still in good condition but imperfect in quality and have minor dings such as a scratch on the cover or a bent page. New this year to the sale will be a search engine for sorting books by title or subject and a pull-down tab for sorting by lowest price items and the newest releases.

Hurt and overstock books can be combined with normal products at check-out. All hurt book sales are final and books are nonrefundable. This sale is for online customers only and no phone orders will be accepted.

Book Giveaway Winners!

That's right, I said winners, as in two. The first name chosen was my sister's which, while totally fair, seemed a little biased. I already have a package ready to go out to her with a book in it. :) So I went ahead and had the boy draw another name. And that name is

Melanie of ScrapMel's Ramblings! yay! Email me your address and I'll get Complete Embellishing in the mail to you.

Thanks for reading all week!

Complete Embellishing Book Review

Tight budget? Bored with your current wardrobe and home accessories? Just want to stand out from the mall crowd? Creative Embellishing by Kayte Terry was written just for you. It contains “easy techniques and over 25 great projects.” The adorable headband on the cover is what really caught my eye what with headbands being all the rage now. It has a very Anthropologie feel to me.


The book starts with tools and techniques and a comprehensive section on sewing basics. This includes a variety of things such as hand-sewing, machine sewing, making pockets, patchwork, embroidery, crochet, felting, fabric printing, and basic appliqué. There are also simple directions for using beads, buttons, and sequins.


The rest of the book is divided into Garments, Accessories, and Home Furnishings. Each project is rated by its difficulty – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. There is a complete material list for each one that includes metric as well as standard measurements. The instructions are detailed enough that even the advanced projects are easy to understand and follow.


This book really embraces the DIY culture that is so popular at the moment. Most of the garments and accessories have a romantic feel to them while the 5 or so home furnishings are more modern. There’s a youthful vibe to the book as a whole. If you’re looking for that little bit extra that makes you unique, look no further. Complete Embellishing can help.


To wrap up book week this is the book I'll be giving away. I'll be taking all the comments on the book review posts from this past week (including this one) at 8 pm central time this evening and drawing one name. That person will receive Complete Embellishing compliments of Anova Books.

Update: The book giveaway is now ended. I will post the winner first thing in the morning! Thanks, everyone, for playing!