4 cake mixes, 6 cans of frosting, 2 bags of colored chocolate, 5 days

My twins turned 10, so I made some cake balls for the first time to serve at their party.


For my friend, Annick's 40-something birthday luncheon I made up 4 dozen mini cupcakes.

For my friend, Katie's 17th birthday dinner I experimented with decorating and made her this little gem.

For my friend, Jenn's 19th birthday I tried a variation on a theme and made her this.

One day I want to take all the cake decorating courses from Michael's and learn how to really make cakes look pretty. I keep holding off though, because then I would want to eat cake everyday- ha ha!

Yo-yo's

I learned how to make yo-yo flowers, so I made up a little headband.


It was originally intended for my daughter, but her dress was too red. However, it matched my maroon sweater just fine =).

March Titles

Rhonda recommended to us "The Witness" for book club this month.


I'm choosing "The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making" for my personal selection.

Happy reading this month!

An Airplane and a Farm

I finished my virtual travel around the world blog today. Check it out (http://airplanefarm.blogspot.com/) and let me know what you think!

February Titles

I've already read The Hunger Games trilogy, but I'm excited that Mary recommended them for book club this month so I can read them again! We'll go as a group to see the movie too.


Romeo and Juliet is my personal title for the month. After I finish it, I'm spending an evening with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey watching the 1968 movie.

Be his Pin-up Girl

I'm a little embarrassed to post this, but it was such a success I decided to share.
This year for Christmas I gave my husband a pin-up calendar of me.
Not only does he love the calendar, he loved playing photographer while I played model.
I bought 12 pretty little nighties with a theme for each month:
January- New Year's with a bottle of sparkling cider
February- Valentine's with a heart-shaped box of chocolates
March- St. Patrick's with "Kiss Me I'm Irish" accessories
April- Eater with bunny ears
May- Anniversary with my bridal veil & flowers
June- Graduation with mortar board cap & glasses
July- Patriotic with American & Canadian flags
August- Birthday with a bunch of balloons
September- Back to school cheerleader with pom poms
October- Witch with a crystal ball
November- Fall leaves
December- Mrs. Santa Claus
My hubby will be the only one to see the real thing (besides the photo center employees who printed it, but it's not too risque that I won't show my face there again).
If you're looking for a special gift for your honey, you should be his pin-up girl!

What Big Eyes You Have!

This was the cake for my 5 year old's birthday, he loved it!


This was the inspiration with cake pop eyes.

I decided to use these oreo eyes instead.

Cute treats just taste better, ha ha!

January Titles

A new year and new titles to read, how exciting! I can't wait to open up "Daughters in My Kingdom, The History and Work of the Relief Society."


This semester at Institute we'll be studying "The Gospel and the Productive Life." We had our first luncheon and lesson today. Our temporal work improves our spiritual work and vice versa, they just go hand in hand.

"The Persion Pickle Club" was what Marsha recommended as our Book Club title for November. It was a cute little read that made me grateful for my "quilting" friends. And guess what? "I did it!"

"The Cricket on the Hearth" was our Book Club selection for December, which I recommended. I really enjoyed the little story of hearth and home and those we love, but I don't understand why it's considered a "Christmas" story, it takes place at "New Year's."

I read "Animal Farm" in high school and I'll be reading it again as Sheila recommended it for Book Club this month. I enjoyed it when I read it before, but I'm afraid it might just make me frustrated with our modern politics now.

I did not read "1984" in high school and since it's by the same author as "Animal Farm" I decided I will read this as my "extra" novel this month. I did read "Brave New World" before and enjoyed it, but see so much of it in today's society. People have their different types of "soma" that they take all the time. Again, I'm afraid this will make me frustrated with corrupt government.

I watched Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" on TV before he died. I really liked his message. I received this book from our Christmas book exchange and look forward to reading it.

As the mother of 4 boys and 1 girl, I would love to have another girl join our family. I ordered this book for Christmas, "Guarantee the Sex of your Baby" in the hopes that it would have all the little old-wives' tales in one spot for me to refer to as we try to conceive our next baby. Unfortunately, this is about designer babies and how to finance them to pre-select the exact embryo you want. As a pro-lifer I could not choose one of my little embryos over another and then just throw away the ones that didn't make the cut. I don't know exactly when life begins, but I do know when life ends and I could NEVER have any part in ending the potential life of my child. If we end up with another boy we will love him forever!

This was another Christmas gift and I just love it. I've been a fan of Bakerella's blog for years. So excited to finally make some "Cake Pops" for our next birthday bash.

Our children all got fun books for Christmas too. I just wanted to mention this one that our little Maple Sugar got, "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree- A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas." How appropriate for him.

I read "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" to my fourth graders and now we will read the whole "Fudge" series: "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great," "Superfudge," "Fudge-a-Mania," and "Double Fudge."

Last year I read "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" to my third graders for their book club. We'll read the rest of the "Ramona" series after we finish with "Fudge." The first is "Beezus and Ramona" followed by: "Ramona the Pest," "Ramona the Brave," "Ramona and her Father," "Ramona and her Mother," "Ramona Quimby, Age 8," "Ramona Forever," and "Ramona's World." The first book "Beezus and Ramona" is the same age as my mom and the last one "Ramon's World" is only three years younger than my daughter!

Witch Craftin'

I started out the year doing really well crafting something once a week. Then I got pregnant and majorly slacked off- ha ha! I finally finished this little Halloween decoration,


and decorated some Halloween sugar cookies. Wahoo!

More Titles

Goodnight Mister Tom was our title for book club this month and I absolutely loved it. It is terribly heartbreaking, but I was completely smitten with Mister Tom and Willie (seriously, so in love with both of them.) Don't forget your tissues when you read it, but it is so worth it!


I'm slowly working my way through the Wheel of Time series and have now begun book 7, A Crown of Swords.

Sharing Traditions

My sister-in-law's sweet mother made this Christmas album for Len & I for our 2nd Christmas (1998). I was big into scrapbooking then, and had visions of filling this book with pictures of our family through the years. Well that never happened, and I'm not so much into scrapbooking anymore. Back in 2002, I saw my friend's 24 Days of Christmas book and asked if I could copy it. It has become a yearly favorite since then.

So what's inside? Each day has a Christmas scripture, song, and story. I've also made a title page for each day that has a picture of our special Hallmark ornament representing that year. It's like our family has Family Home Evening every night from December 1st- 24th. And our children really do enjoy it as much as we do!

My mom is the Relief Society President in her ward, and asked if I could send her the book file so they can do it at Super Saturday. Unfortunately, when I re-typed the whole book in Taiwan I didn't save the file. Since I had to make a hard copy for her, I decided to make a cute book for her too! Now I need to make a book for my dad and all 11 of our siblings.

I wish I had a digital file to share with others, but if you live in my neighborhood stop by anytime and I'll lend you my new Master Set to copy. Warning: It's 150 pages of quality family bonding.

***2012 update:  My mom scanned her copy and shared the files with me, so if you'd like a copy leave me a message and I'll email it to you!

Favorite Summer Salad

You can actually eat this salad year-round, but it's so much better in the summer with ingredients fresh from the garden. Not my garden (which is non-existant), but a few of my friends were very generous with their bounteous harvest this year and we loved it!

Basic Greek Salad:
Diced Tomatoes
Diced Cucumbers
Sliced Olives
Feta Cheese
Greek Seasoning

I could eat this salad everyday and not feel guilty since I don't put any salad dressing on it- delish!