A Gift for My Brother

My brother is one cool cat.  He went to school for film editing and he has worked on some pretty cool projects since graduating - including music videos for Def Jam.

He is also in a band, Royal City Riot.  They are a Reggae band and my brother plays the organ a.k.a. keyboard.

I found this clapper keychain at Michaels on super sale and I had to buy it for him.  I finally got around to getting it ready to mail to him.  You like?

I cut the city scene from the Plantin cricut cartridge and his bands logo and glued them onto black cardstock.  I love how to logo kind of looks like a moon.

I dipped a pencil into white-out to write on the plastic.

I hope he likes it and doesn't think it is too cutesy.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

 

There is a law that you have to bake on snowy days, right, no?  They should pass one.

I've been wanting to try Red Velvet cupcakes for a while and today was the perfect day to make them.  I used the recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes {the link will take you to the recipe on her site} The whole time I was in the kitchen, I was singing Black Velvet to myself, expect I only know the chorus and I'm sure I have the words all wrong.

After mixing the sugar, oil and eggs, I added the red gel coloring - Yowza! that is bright.

They toned down quite a bit after baking.  They are more of a red/brown.

Add some cream cheese frosting and viola, scrum-diddly-umptious.

Here are a few of my attempts at artsy cupcake shots:

My Crafting Secret

Before I ever started working on all the crafts and projects that I have been sharing here, I started cross-stitching.  I got hooked in the summer of 2004 and wow, it has been almost 6 years!!  I always seem to get really into it for a while, then lose interest and it takes me a really long time to pick it back up again.  One example - I started working on a birth announcement for my aunt when she was pregnant with her first baby.  I took about a year long break and finished it in time to give it to her second baby.  

The project above was started last summer, it's probably been about 6 months since I've worked on it.  It's almost finished, I'm now working on the rest of the sky and then I have all the outlining to do.  I know that cross-stitching is something I'll always go in and out of wanting to do.  The stitching process can be very soothing and I love how the Aida fabric makes neat, perfect stitches so easy.  I'm very type A, so I love all the counting and how easy it is to make it perfect.

I don't know if this is something that interests you all; I don't think I've ever seen someone share a cross-stitch project before.  But please let me know if this interests you or not, and if it does I have lots of tips to share.

Sweatshirt Revamp

When I took my trip to Florida last month, I did not pack for the cold weather we ended up having.  I was quickly running out of warm tops so I picked up a couple of sweatshirts - one of which was a navy zip-up from Target.  It is very cozy and very warm - it is also very plain.  

I found some little Fleur de Lis iron on patches at Michaels and it has taken me til today, a whole month later to finally decorate my sweatshirt!!

I put a silver one on the hood and three more on the front pocket.  I was really hoping to find a very large design to put on the back, but I couldn't find something I liked.

In other news, the leak behind my fridge has been repaired, but the drip inside has come back.  I'm pretty sure it is about 20 years old {I can't believe 1990 was 20 years ago!!} and I think it just needs to be replaced - but as a renter it's not my call.  

The DC area is expecting 10-12 inches of snow tonight which means a snow day - third time in a week!