And the Award Goes To...

Forgive the blurred aspects.
Trying to respect anonymity if I can! 

Finally I get to post the pics of Gen's FABULOUS baby shower invites! As you can see, it's a Hollywood themed baby shower. A little unconventional, you say? I say, pshaw! Genesis loves Hollywood and celebrities and I must admit, I join her in this love! ANYWAY...Here's what I did:

Supplies!!!

• Textured Cardstock in White and Red (I recommend getting thicker stuff...I didn't do this as I was in a time-crunch and I was pretty bummed it didn't work the way I wanted it to)
• Red Envelopes
• Paper Cutter
• Scissors
• Laser Printer
• Glue Stick
• Photo Corners in Gold
• Crazy Mad Photoshop skills
• Oh yeah, a fat, happy cat!

Mercedes LOVES bags...

 Ok, design your piece. Go on Photoshop and set up the paper size as A2 Folded. (I'll add the dimensions tomorrow. I'm a little jet-lagged from my cross-country trip this weekend! Yeah, met the boy's mom...so awesome! But that's another story entirely!) I downloaded some free photoshop brushes (also will add the proper credits for those tomorrow as I enjoy giving credit where credit is due) of film strips to use as the background. I also downloaded the official Oscar statue (not sure if this is legal though, but they have it up there for anyone to download...) and tweaked it a tad to make the tickets and the front. The background of the ticket includes a bunch of words about Genesis and her hubby and Hollywood all wrapped up into one. When deciding on text, make sure you include:

• Honoree's name
• Date, Time and Address of the shower
• Names of all those hosting
• Where the parents-to-be are registered
• A way for guests to RSVP (and possibly a date by which they should do so)
• Any special instructions for attire, gifts or directions

And printers...

Now print, my dears! Print away!

Cut out the "tickets" and use a hole puncher on either side to create that "ticket" look. Then glue onto red background and attach adhesive photo corners to use as a frame for the inside of the card.

Front of Card Detail

Inside and Front

 Now insert into envelopes, address and send...oh don't forget stamps!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Ok, last cake pop/ball post for a while, I promise. But how could I resist making these for the awesome superbowl party hosted by my dear friends, Ben and Phyllis?! Y'all should definitely try to make these yummy Oreo truffle footballs! SO delicious! so cute!

Bakerella inspired me once again!
Visit Bakerella.com

Now, I have to admit that it took me quite a while to get the dipping process down with these little guys. But other than that, they were so fun!

The main ingredients!
How can you go wrong with Oreos
and cream cheese?!

 So, let's talk ingredients:

• Oreo Cookies (don't get double stuft ones though)
• Cream Cheese 8oz
• Chocolate candy coating
• White Icing (we'll talk about this later)

Bakerella said for us to crush up the oreos, filling and all, and put them in a big bowl with the softened cream cheese. She suggested using a food processor. I don't have one of those, but the boyfriend had a magic bullet. man this thing is awesome! Anyway, I crushed up the oreos, filling and all and did what Bakerella said. It was already delicious!

Cream Cheese and Oreo crumbles all mixed up

Then I molded them into balls and stuck them in the freezer. Unfortunately, I left them in there too long and they were kinda frozen.

Time to shape them! I struggled with this one because I am a bit of a perfectionist and it was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Overall, I think they turned out ok, though! 

Pre-coated footballs! 

Melting the candy coating was pretty easy, but figuring out how to properly dip them was not. I tried just holding them by the points but that ended disasterously for me, the footballs and my poor boyfriend. Sorry for yelling. And for being a bitch. Oops. 

Eventually, I figured out that using a fork was the best solution because it allowed the excess to drip off quite nicely. I only discovered this about halfway through the lot of them and ergo, only half of them were up to my standards. But oh well...can't be perfect all the time. I guess. 

This is what they looked like after
all the dipping. :) 

Now we come to the part that made me so freaking mad that I cannot even explain! Apparently I used the wrong kind of icing because these little stupid lines did not stay on very well and they were a big old pain to put on there in the first place. Anyway, I don't know what kind of icing I need to use but I'm assuming it's going to be royal icing or something like that that is a little more liquid and would dry a little harder. I drew my crappy lines on my footballs, cursed a little, and hurried on my way to my good friends' house where these were a pretty big hit, I believe! 

The picture didn't really reflect how cute they were, but
they weren't perfect either. What mattered was what was
on the inside though. And that was delicious!

On an additional note, Evan debuted his new beer yesterday! He brewed a batch (or whatever you call it) for my friend, Ben, a few weeks ago. The boys both showed excellent patience and waited until Superbowl Sunday to try it for the first time! It, too, was a big hit! It was great! I think he said it was a Belgian Whit, but I'm not really sure. I know it had corriander, orange peels and half barley and half wheat. Now, don't ask me what any of that means, but I know I liked the way it tasted! And I'm fairly sure that Evan and Ben both really enjoyed the beer. And the Crown Royal. And the Captain Morgan. And the Jaager...and maybe the Tylenol this morning? :) Haha...

Happy Superbowl Sunday (and Hangover Monday for some of you!) 

How you like them apples?

Ah, cake pops. My new obsession. Not going to go into a whole lot of detail since I've already given a good run-down of how to make these.

"I take em to my teacher, Shew?"
(my name changes between Shew,
MaShewwy, ShaSho or Shewwy.
Pretty cute, in my opinion!)

Nanner mom and dad have to go to nanner baby's preschool open house and all the parents have been asked to bring a few tasty treats. Ever the non-conformists, we all came to the conclusion that cake pops would be the perfect antidote to the typical bake sale goodies. Our next dilemma? Figuring out what shape to make them in. Nanner boy (10 years old but with the soul of a 30 year old and Julia Childs' cooking skills. Love this kid) and I flipped through the awesome book (visit Bakerella.com and get inspired) and discussed the pros and cons of each one. I thought the puppies would be good. Nanner mom wanted something to do with the school. After a good 30 minute ride home from school, we finally decided on the apples. An apple for the teacher I suppose.

All in all, it was pretty fun. We went with funfetti cake and vanilla frosting. Again, I made them too big, but they worked. We also used red candy coating and stuck 1/3 of a pretzel stick into the top. After they dried a bit, I used a toothpick dipped in the candy coating to attach these absolutely adorable sprinkles that look like eyeballs. So cute! Then I used my egg yolk edible paint to make eyelashes and smiles. They ended up super cute if I do say so myself.

Pre-smiles. Kinda creepy.
Nanner baby said, "MaShewwy...dey're wooking at me wif
deir eyes." translations: "Ma Shelly...they're looking at me
with their eyes." 

Smiley Apples on a stick.
These aren't good for you though.

"I can have one now, ShaSho? Fanks"

They were a hit with the Nanners. Let's hope they're the hit of the open house. Is it sad that I like to out-do people I've never even met? Whatever. Everyone gets competetive sometimes. My competitiveness tastes good though! haha!

May I have the envelope please?

Exciting stuff!! The invitations for Gen's baby shower came in! They'll be going out Monday morning which means...

I only have to wait a couple more days before I post the invitation details up here! I'm so excited that I almost can't stand it! Until then...I'll leave you with a shoddily shot representation of what the envelopes look like. Sorry the picture isn't so clear. My phone is taking lower and lower quality pictures every day. Sigh. What's a girl to do?

Guess I'll just have to put my big girl panties on and deal with it! :) haha. More to come soon!

I have a sweet tooth...

So I know I said I would be gone for a while, but I just can't help myself! I missed you guys! :) AND I got a new book! Now, books are my number one passion. I'll read just about anything (currently reading "The Hangman's Daughter" on my kindle...highly recommended!) and I never get rid of my books. I have amassed quite a large library of random reads (note: I'm looking for a library system for my books...if you know of something, pass it my way).

My number two passion would have to be sweets. Both of my grandmothers had a penchant for the refined sugar goodies and I guess it's genetic. If I could, I would live off of sweets and macaroni and cheese. And stinky cheese itself, but that's passion number 3 or 4...but I digress.

The other day, I was surfing around my favorite website (modcloth.com) and found something that combined my two favorite things: Cake Pops the book by Bakerella. I. Am. In. LOVE.

Cake Pops by Bakerella
Find it at Modcloth.com (or in your local bookstore)

Bakerella is fantastic and extremely talented. She has perfected the art of Cake Pops. What are cake pops, you ask? THEY ARE HEAVEN...on a stick. I'm going to give you just a little how-to, but only to entice you to purchase this book. Bakerella's directions are much better than mine.

So...here we go. Ingredients:

• Cake mix and subsequent ingredients OR an already made 9 x 13 sheet cake.
• One tub of frosting
• lollipop sticks
• Candy Coating (I used Kroger brand and it is DAMN good)
• Shortening 
• Egg Yolks
• Food Coloring
• Mini Marshmallows
• Wax paper

Start off by washing those hands. You'll be using them quite a lot today. Also, I suggest making this a 2 day project. Make the cake and let it cool. I'll let y'all figure it out on your own. You can read. 

Once the cake is cooled COMPLETELY, you can begin to crumble it into a large bowl. This takes a while. Set aside enough time to do it right. It needs to be crumbled very thoroughly. Here comes the healthy part. Add 3/4 of the tub of icing to your cake crumbles. Mix well. You want the icing to disappear into the cake. It will look like cookie dough. (but it's baked so sample without fear...not that fear has ever stopped me. It's a wonder I have never gotten salmonella.)

Mix it up!

I was going to start making the cake balls, but I had a boyfriend who was being a little needy ;) so I put the mixture in the fridge for a little while. This let it firm up a bit and made it a little easier to roll! 

Roll them and place them on a baking sheet covered with wax paper. I made mine about twice as big as they should have been, but I'm not sure if I would have been able to decorate them if they'd been smaller. Am going to try again soon and will let you know how it works out.

Now I put them in the fridge overnight. This whole process took a while and the mix got a little gooey so overnight was the only option. If you're doing this in the middle of the day, you can put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes and you should be fine.

Next you're going to shape them. I only bought one kind of candy coating so I had to get a little creative with the shapes. I didn't want to do ghosts and I had already planned on making the cute popcorn buckets. So I decided to go with some hearts I found in the book and also decided to make my own shape. With a hint of irony, I decided to make some in the shape of white shiny teeth. :) They turned out to be my favorite.

Anyway, shape them! Then stick them back in the freezer for a few minutes. While they're in there, melt the candy coating according to the directions. I chose to use the microwave. Here's where the shortening comes in handy. If the coating is too thick, you're going to need to thin it out and the shortening does just that. I should have done this. I think mine was too thick and it made everything more difficult. 

So, dip the lollipop stick in the candy coating and stick it in the dough and set it back on the baking sheet for a little while. You're going to need to put it back in the freezer for a few more. Now you should take the mini marshmallows and use a knife to make lines that make them look like little pieces of popcorn.

Teeth, Hearts and Rectangles...OH MY

Now you're going to dip them into the candy coating! Shake off the excess and stick it in some sort of holder. I poked holes in an old box and set them in there. Most places suggest a styrafoam block. That would have been nice, but I forgot to pick that up. You have to make what you have work, right?

I almost forgot, when you dip the rectangles, you're going to add some "popcorn" made out of marshmallows. You need to do this before the candy coating sets up completely. 

Now, Bakerella suggests using edible markers to decorate the pops. but those didn't work so well for me, so I googled "edible paint" and came up with a very simple recipe. You take an egg yolk and add a TON of food coloring to it. Mix it up and take a tiny paint brush and paint on whatever you'd like. I let the nanner baby paint one. Could have been a disaster, but it turned out pretty cute.

After they dry completely, you're ready to serve them. Here are my finished projects (not as perfect as Bakerella's but I'm pretty proud of my first attempt!):

And here are the nanners enjoying the yummy cake pops:

Nanner boy said I should have added
brown spots to the teeth to make them
look like they had cavities. He's funny.

Yeah. I gave him another one.
He's too cute. 

Now, I know some of you will notice the absence of a small, furry cutie. I try to keep her away from food. This time, however, she was preoccupied with a plastic bag.