Chinese New Year

I have always loved Chinese New Year and working in Garden Grove as well as living right next to Little Saigon for a year really taught me how uniquely special and beautiful this holiday is! This year was extra special however because my Grandma's 84th Birthday fell on Chinese New Year plus she was born the year of the Dragon and this New Year is the year of the Dragon as well, one of the most sought after years to have a baby in! My Mother decided to throw her a family party with the theme being, of course, Chinese New Year. I was in charge of the dessert and decided to do a delicious lemon curd and cream cheese cake topped with homemade Chinese fortune cookies dipped in red melted chocolate. It turned out perfectly and to complement it I bought an assortment of Chinese cookies! I got the recipe for the fortune cookies from annies-eats.com and the cake was my own recipe with an addition of lemon curd I found at Trader Joes. Here are some festive photos....

Operation Shower

I had to share this dessert table I came across not only because it involves my most favorite theme, Zoo Animals, but also because it is for an absolutely amazing cause! Operation Shower, which can been found here, http://operationshower.org/, is a non-profit company that throws baby showers for military families. What can be more amazing then that? What a wonderful company with such an amazing cause! If you would like to help out, on their website there is a section where you can donate time, money or products to them. Here is the photographers' Facebook page where you can check out more pictures from the shower, http://www.facebook.com/jackieculmerphotography?sk=wall.

Gardening

Today I did a little bit of gardening in the backyard because I was getting tired of watching the weeds grow, plus this was the first weekend we finally had available in the past month to work on the house together! I went to Village Nurseries which I have fallen in love with because of all there amazing and beautiful selections of plants! I decided to get my favorite white and purple Ornamental Kale along with some Cape Rush which is a beautiful ornamental grass. I wanted to do something cute (and free) for the plant names and I have seen using wine corks (which we have a ton of) as table place names and decided to try and do that with plant names. It was super easy! I just found corks that have the least amount of writing on them and then I wrote with a black sharpie the name of the plant, unraveled a paper clip, stuck one end of the paper clip in it and tada, you have a plant stake! Free and easy, the way I like it! :)

12 Months of Giving....

With the beginning of a New Year comes the dreaded New Year's Resolution. I don't really dwell on what my resolution is going to be, of course it has always been to loose weight like the millions of other woman out there. However, this year I have decided that in 2012 I will make it a point to give back some way or some how at least once a month! Usually my year involves some sort of charity, whether it is adopting a family for Christmas, raising money for the American Cancer Society or participating in Relay for Life. This year I would like to set aside my time each month to focus on helping some sort of charity, family, business or person with a hands-on approach. I truly do feel that what you put out into the world you will get back 10x more. Therefore, in 2012 I am going to give give give and watch my life be blessed because of it!

Here is my list so far....

Donate 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love
Surfrider Beach Clean-Up
Habitat For Humanity (build)
Meals on Wheels-Salvation Army
Adopt-a-Family through Salvation Army

The Feast!

Well this past weekend the husband and I scrambled to clean up our new home so we could have people over to celebrate his 29th Birthday. I thought it was a great opportunity to use our Wine Party certificate we have had for almost a year along with having family over to see our new place. Our place is not close to being done and from what I have heard from others, it will always be a work in progress. But we have done the "major" redecorating like the flooring, whole new kitchen and paint. I think everyone was amazed with how much work we have done on our new home. Anyways I have found a new love called pinterest. I know most of you by now are on it or have at least heard of it. When I was invited to it, yes you have to be invited to it (so silly), I really didn't pay much attention to it. However I began using it because I was finding recipes online for this party and OMGooodness it is amazing! I was able to plan the entire menu for our party on it and when I was ready to create all the goodness I found I just printed all the recipes right from it! Now I might be on the track of becoming addicted to it. I really don't see anything wrong with becoming addicted to it because it encourages me to do a bunch of arts and crafts or baking on my own (I tend to just buy stuff I usually can make). I do have a huge crafty side of me but with work and the money I don't have it is hard to find the time to sit down and craft, however I have been making more of an effort to craft and pinterest has helped a lot! So I found 5 or 6 recipes (mainly from Annie's-eats) that I knew would be a big hit at the party and are also a few of the hubby's favorites! Here are some pictures of them from annies-eats.com...I wanted to take pictures of what I made but cooking/baking for 8 hours really tires a person out! :)

Turkey Cake Pops Without the Pop!

I had an order for 24 of "something Thanksgivingish" for a clients' work party so I decided to practice some pop making! I found these adorable Turkey Cake Pops at Bakerella and I knew I just had to make them for this order! I decided to trash the pop idea and just make the Turkey balls because 1.It was easier & 2. I had nothing to place the pops in for easy transportation. I also had to switch out some of the ingredients for the ones I made because I could not find the original ingredients in my area. They ended up turning out super cute and my client is very happy with them! I used vanilla cake with pumpkin pie spices to make it taste "Thanksgivingish", Almond Bark (for the coating), candy corn (for the feathers, both regular and caramel), sprinkles (for the eyes, nose & wattle), and almond M&M's (for the head). This was the first time I used Almond Bark for the coating and it works/tastes great and it is so much cheaper then the candy melts! After I was all finished I would have loved to make cupcakes and place each Turkey Ball on a cupcake but I didn't have enough time. Maybe next year! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Time Flies....

OMGoodness where has the time gone? It has almost been 2 months since I have posted on here! Well I do have an excuses and that is we FINALLY got the house we have been negotiating on for the last 9 months! Yay! We knew that there was A LOT of work that needed to go into the house once we got it so we have been using every waking moment on making our new house into a home. I mean it needed EVERYTHING, from new flooring to a new kitchen to new drywall! Therefore I have had really no time what-so-ever to do any fun baking or cooking! During the last two months I did put my toppers in a craft fair that is very popular in Orange County called Sugar Plum, and they did surprisingly well! I was able to sell around 50 bags (each bag had 12 toppers) along with getting my name out there so people can contact me about dessert tables or personalized toppers! So between the remodeling of the new house, working, crafting for Sugar Plum, volunteering for Sugar Plum and just everyday glitches (like me severely hurting my knee on a ladder accident) I really have had no time for anything else! However, we are at the home stretch for the BIG remodeling ventures, Sugar Plum is over (for now), and I am looking forward to hosting a birthday party for the husband along with baking/cooking items for the holidays so I will once again be able to blog all the yummyness that I create! I hope everyone is well and looking forward to holidays filled with family, friends and love!