Rainbow Cake!

I have seen a variety of these rainbow-type cakes in magazines and on blogs.  Many times they are put into cute little mason jars for serving.  I decided to make my own verson for Bentley's birthday cake on his actual birthday. 

NEED:
3 boxes Funfetti cake mix & ingredients (eggs, water, oil)
Food coloring ~ red, blue, yellow, green
1-2 muffin tins and muffin papers
Vanilla frosting

Make one big batch of cake mix.  Using 6 other bowls, evenly split the cake mix into each of the 6 bowls.  Using your food coloring, make each bowl of cake mix a different color ~ red, orange (red & yellow), yellow, green, blue, purple (blue & red).  Make sure they are mixed well and then pour into your muffin pan to about 3/4 of the way full.  I found that with 3 boxes of cake mix this allowed me to make 6 cupcakes of each of the 6 colors. 

Bake according to package instructions.

  

The next step was to take each colored cupcake and mash them up in my trifle dish layer by layer to make a rainbow trifle...

Then smear that puppy with as much vanilla frosting as you can, and add some fun sprinkles.

VOILA!!

~E

Bumbo!

Gracie loves her little Bumbo seat!

  

  

~E

10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

Recently on my most FAV TV network, BRAVO, they ran a show called "10 Things That Make Me Happy" featuring one of my favorite Housewives ~ Kyle Richards, and the AMAZING AMAZING AMAZINGGGGG Jonathan Adler.  So I thought...what are my 10 favorite things...

IN RANDOM ORDER:
- The Internet!!! (The hubby HATES my computer!) Pinterest, Blogs, Facebook...
- BRAVO TV!! Pretty much every show they run is genious.  Real Housewives of ANYWHERE!!!!, Interior Therapy by Jeff Lewis, Flipping Out!!!!!, Bethenny Ever After, Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding...
- Maxi dresses!  Obsessed.  I live in them...
- Family photos!!  Old & new.  The hub makes fun of me for the amount of frames in my house...
- Interior design!!!!  Drool.  Contemporary-cottage/Modern-vintage...Eclectic.  Another excuse to use the internet all of the time...
- D.I.Y. projects!!  Crafts, painting furniture...
- My diamonds!!  I don't care if I sound like a snob either.  Get over it.  I love my rocks ~ my wedding rings, my earrings, my diamond/sapphire ring.  Mmmmm, sparkly...
- My family jewelry!!  My Papa's wedding ring, my Gram's necklaces.  What good are they sitting in a box somewhere...
- The beach!!  The Cape or Bora Bora, I don't care.  Or frankly, any body of water.  I'm a lake girl, too.  I grew up at Lake Quinsig almost every Sunday...
- Make up & fake lashes!!  I like doing my own make up but even better, having a pro do it for you...with a big set of falsies...dreamyyyyyy...

OK since I don't like to follow the rules let's add a couple more...

- Flowers!!!  In a garden or in my house.  LOVE LOVE.  And I LOVE doing my own arrangments.
- Animals!  Hurley is at the top of the list, of course.  But I don't discriminate.  Case in point... 

I hope it goes without saying that my TRUE favorite "things" are not actually "things" so they are not on this list ~ they are the people in my life...my hubby, my beautiful babes, and my weirdo pup.

~E

Happy Friday!

~E

Craft Time

I've been feeling very crafty lately.  A few mini projects...

1) Headbands for Gracie!

At AC Moore I purchased a single stem of blue/purple hydrangea, some assorted colored blue beads and blue swarovski crystals, thread, craft glue, matching colored felt, and 1/8" wide elastic cording.

I pulled 2 flower buds off the hydrangea and glued them together at an angle.  For the crystal center I used craft glue - which wasn't great and I have to look into a better kind - and teeny tweezers to place them.  For the beaded center, I used a needle and dark blue thread to sew them into the flower.  Measure the length of elastic you will need...Gracie is about 14 and 1/2 inches right now...and glue the open ends to the back of the flower, then cover with a small cut circle of felt that matches the color of your flower.

And here is my model!

2) I also whipped up a couple of onesies for my lil girl.

My model again...

3) Cute hand-stamped gift bags! 

Buy the brown paper (or white) gift bags and use letter/number stamps to decorate the outside of the bag.  I used blues on our friends' because blue was their wedding color.  These were small individual letter vintage stamps that I used but there are a variety of sizes/styles you can pick up at the craft stores.

  

Happy Crafting!

~E

Birthday Flowers

For Bentley's party I wanted to do white & red flowers but I could not find good red flowers anywhere!!!  Other than red roses, which are probably my least favorite flower.  I tried Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Kelly's Farm, Trader Joe's, a local town florist, and finally the new Price Chopper near us.  Nothing but red roses...so I stuck with all whites...here is what I was working with...

Here is what I whipped up using borrowed clear mason jars and vintage bottles...

And here's the table centerpiece...

Ultimately I was happy with the white flowers!

~E