Easter Table

For Tablescape Thursday and Pink Saturday, I wanted to post pictures of my Easter themed table. I love the colors. I wanted to add my Easter houses but I couldn't find them. I wonder if my husband took them to charity???? goodness, talk about panic attack.

I told my oldest son who's ten years old that we were going to celebrate Easter at a friends house. I thought he'd be delighted since the couple has a boy his age. But, to my surprise, he was not. He actually got a little upset and said he didn't want to go. He looked up at me and, with a little attitude, said "what? is he my niece? or is he my uncle? is that why we have to go there?" ......of course I couldn't hold back the laughter, I tried but his reaction was just too funny. I wonder if I was as confused as he when I was his age; cousin, niece, nephew, uncle..... I think in his mind they are all one and the same. But no worries, I did explain to him the relationship between nieces and uncles, that is after I got up off the floor from rolling with laughter. Don't worry, my son has a good sense of humor and thought it was funny that he made me laugh so hard.

Here are my pics:

                  click pictures to enlarge

 Dishes are Martha Stewart Garden colection, got them at Marshall's

 

This is the dinner plate:

By the way, today was my last class for Cake Decorating at Michael's (the arts and crafts store). I had so much fun in this class, and we had such a talented instructor.  I learned more than I thought I would and now I'm not so nervous to decorate cakes. I'm actually pretty good right now but I do need to practice. This was for course 1 for beginners, look what I made: Delicious!

But, actually first, I should show you how BAD I was at cake decorating, prior to taking this Wilton Class at Michael's.  CAUTION: UGLY PICTURE AHEAD:

I dare you to double click on it to enlarge it on your screen.  I'm telling you, Wilton saved me from being disowned by my family and friends!



Now for the big reveal, TADA:

Family Date Night "Sing It loud"

Today I'm joining Simply Modern Mom for Project 52 Date Nights.

Our family Date Night was Saturday. We had friends over who love to sing. I made up a game years ago I call "Sing it Loud". I printed words on 81/2" by 11" paper, in a very large font, and inserted them in plastic sheet protectors and then organized them in a binder, like this:

The words were things like: house, dog, a color, a month, a City, people...etc... Also names of artists like Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga, Madonna, etc... The first person to start singing a song with the word in it (or by the artist who's name comes up) gets a poker chip. For example, if the word is dog and someone starts singing "who let the dogs out..." they would get a chip. The person with the most chips wins. If your family speaks a second language, they can sing in that language too. This is a pretty hilarious, energetic, crazy game as everyone starts shouting out a song as soon as they see the word. You'll hear at least a dozen different songs all at once for each word. I have hundreds of words in a binder and I just flip the pages. Since my family and most of my friends are bilingual in Spanish, I also included some artists and words in Spanish, so you never know what's going to come up. This is my very thick and heavy binder with words on front and back, look how thick it is.

I love the songs; New York by Frank Sinatra and New York, New York by Grand Master Flash.
When this word comes out, I usually break out with one of those two songs . But I have to be quick in order to get a chip.

I guarantee you, there will be lots of laughs. Specially when people remember only the part of the song with the word in it and nothing else, they try to convince you that they know the song. You have to have a couple of judges because it can get competitive with people claiming to have been the first to sing. Be careful of cheaters who make up songs just to get a chip, trust me, it happens. The best thing about this game that I made up is that everyone can play. It does not matter what age. Even the shyest of people will burst out with a song.
I'll look for the PDF file to my words and post it here, but I'll have to find it first, that way you won't have to go through the trouble of typing and thinking of words. Here is a picture of some friends singing Karaoke, which is what usually happens after we play "Sing it Loud" for a while.




Check out other creative Family Date Nights at:

Pink Cupcakes

For this Saturday, I decided to post my Easy Cup Cake Design.........so easy, you can do it with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your back......well, sort of, kind of, but not really.

Imagine showing up to your next scrapbook party or girl's night out with these beauties.......

Don't these look like the cutest pink and black cupcakes ever??? even my husband admired them for a bit!!! A while back I brought home a button down striped shirt one day for him but he wouldn't wear it because one of the stripes looked pink! OMG, hunny, really. The shirt looked so good on him but, the man would not wear it.


By the way, if you want to join a scrapbook group or a crafty group or whatever suits your fancy, check out this web site http://www.meetup.com/ , just don't ask me how many groups I belong to 'couse I don't want my hubby to freak out if he reads this post.....trust me, my "mommy time" is fully booked ladies.



Back to the cupcakes, the cupcake on the left on the picture above turned out a little crooked, but that's because I used the new Reynolds foil baking cups. You don't need a cupcake baking dish when you use the Reynold's foil cups but you have to make sure there is enough room between the foil cups on your baking sheet, otherwise, they will squeeze each other and look like that.



To make the cute desing on the cupcake, first you frost your cupcake using any frosting you have. Next, you draw lines with a decorating gel with a thin tip going accross. You can use as many lines as you'd like, the more lines you use, the more intricate your design will be.

Then, you take a clean toothpick and drag the tip going from top to bottom in a straight line.
Do this a few times on your cupcake wiping your toothpick clean each time on a wet cloth.



You can also make different colored stripes, it'd be so cute for Easter!!!!

Once you run the tip of your toothpick down, it will look like this:

Next, take the toothpick and drag the opposite way, from bottom to top, in between the lines you just created. Use the tip of the toothpick and remember to wipe it clean each time.

Your cupcake will look like this, super cute:

I'm linking to:

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Glass Decoupage

Join in on the fun at Beverly's Pink Saturday. I decided to show off a decoupaged glass plate. This is where I would serve cookies or cupcakes. Check out the tutorial below, very easy.

First you need your supplies: a clear glass plate or bowl, some tissue paper, a craft blade and, most importantly, one of my favorite products, Mod Podge!!!! it's not secret, I love that stuff. I'm using the Matte finish.

Cover the back of the dish in Mod Podge but don't let it dry.  Remember, you are covering the back of the dish with the tissue, placing the tissue front side down.  This will allow the right side of the tissue to show through the front of the plate. 

You can place your dish on top of something so that it is easier to work with. I used a can with a kitchen cloth so that my plate will not move around or get scratched.

Gently pour some Mod Podge on top of your tissue paper and smear all over with your fingers. You need to be gently as you don't want to tear the tissue paper. In case you do tear, just cut out another piece and glue it on top with the Mod Podge. Smear out all the air bubbles. If you have a stubborn bubble, you can easity pop it with a needle and then smoth the tissue out.

You will have wrinkles but it's okay, it adds character so don't freak out. Let your work dry for about an hour and then come back and carefully tear out the extra tissue. Use a craft knife with or without a handle. If you notice that it needs more glue around the edges, go ahead and apply and smooth out and let dry.

It's that easy! and you have a finished beautiful plate. It's not machine washable but the Mod Podge is also a sealer so you can hand wash it.  Mod Podge is non toxic but it is water based so when washing your plate, don't submerge in water, simply rinse and dry immediately.

My Messy Craft Room

Today I wanted to share my messy craft room with you. No, I'm not ashamed because I have a goal. My goal is to clean that room by this coming weekend! Things got a "little" out of control this past weekend when my mind was bursting with ideas. In fact I can point them out on the picture: the oatmeal box, yes I have a project that will involve that ugly thing, you'll see it soon and when you do, you won't judge me then, ha! the religious stickers, project! the scraps of paper on top of the white box, project! the four canvas frames, project, the red and black book on the left, project!project!project! You got it. Hey, it just occured to me, we can actually play where's Waldo with this picture.

The ironic thing about this is that I have actually been crafting with all that mess for two days now. But, that shouldn't surprise you because I can craft through anything.......9.0 earthquake, no problem, house on fire, no problem, just had oral surgery? no problem! Anyway, I'm sure the after pictures will be more pleasant to look at. I will post those...........soon.