Mermaid Fairy Princess feasts on Scones

I made Scones. And a butterfly princess mermaid, but that later. I, a woman who cannot bake for anything made scones. As you can tell by my photos... I did scorch the tops just a teeny tiny bit when I broiled them for the sugar glaze part, but it was my VERY first time to use the broiler... .and I will be 28 in a week, so I can cope.



Really though, what I am saying is, if I can do it... then ANYONE can! It was fast, easy, sticky, gooey, and YUMMY! We are craving them. I used the Raspberry and Chocolate Chip recipe, but I used Blackberries instead of the raspberries (please use Blackberries!) Best decision I ever made. Besides getting baptized, and married and having kids and starting my jewelry biz, and my blog... Joy of Baking is practically the official king of scones in the world, imo.



Oh, I also am doing the lovely Gypsy Mermaid's Pink and Green Swap. I have decoupaged a lot before, but I don't have any fancy programs and don't know a THING about resizing photos so that they will match up. SOOO I did it in Microsoft PowerPoint (that computer lit class in college WAS good for something!)

I basically just got a blank page, and inserted pictures. I was able to resize the photos and layer them on top of each other so I knew that when I cut the wings and such out, it would be the same size as the girl and such. So, that is how I did it and how I will continue to do it until I find a better way.



How do you like my box with all of the goodies? I hope my swap partner likes it! When my 3 yr old saw it, he exclaimed, "A Mermaid!" "A Butterfly" "A Princess!" "A Mommy!" Yes, he is my little Superhero sweetie!

The adorable little girl is from Spark Your Imagination, the wings from Adaae on Deviant Art and the tail/tiara I used a stock photo of sequins fabric on sale. I made sure all of them are able to use of course! I literally spent HOURS looking for excellent images, here is what I found! On flickr, Finsbry has tons and tons of images of vintage books, epherma posters... Trials and Errors has tons of photos of the Depression, child labor, Ziegfeld follies (some nudes, BEWARE- put your safe settings on!)...



The Enchanted Lady has AMAZING paper doll templates (including wings and a mermaid tail, and lovely project ideas!) And Liana, of Liana's Paper Dolls, draws paper dolls and amazing outfits that you can use as well! These are perfect for beginner or experienced decoupagers/altered artist/crafty types. Have fun! And be sure to credit those images/get permission if you need to before using!

P.S... I am considering hosting a crafty swap now. Would anyone be interested? If so, what would you be interested in creating/receiving?

Egg Swap and Words to Live By

Today, everyone who participated in Viv's Out On A Whim Egg Hunt will be revealing both the eggs they made and received, so we can check out each other's blogs and "hunt" for those who made/received our eggs!

The yellow cuties shown above are the eggs I made (I added a small hint of glitter to the flower's centers after the photo).

Here are the eggs I received!



A lovely aqua blue painted egg with red polka dots, rick rack trim and a lace and rose top. So perfect and gorgeous! And a cutout blue egg with glass glitter and a lovely scene inside of a sweet little duck and the cutest yellow flower buds inside. Stop the world, I am in love with an egg. I know have the most beautiful shelf ever (complete with roses my husband picked from his mom's rose bush)! If you prefer simple and sweet, this is what my Spring mantle looked like BEFORE!



How did Viv know that I was redecorating for Spring and adding blues to my pink/green room (it's no secret I have been aching to change the color theme for a while)? (making a storebought slipcover work and pillow redo room makeover post coming soon... I can't wait!)



I also made some cute robin's egg necklaces in the shop, this has red accents, and the other has ivory accents. A couple more will be listed within the next couple of days. Perfect for Spring!


He Lives by Simon Dewey

Today and yesterday is The 179th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City. The conference will feature inspirational messages from members of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and general officers of the Church. You can watch or listen to the conference on the Internet. And next month, a dvd and magazine will be available of the conference as well. For information on worldwide broadcast times and options, see the broadcast schedule. Feel free to tune in!

I missed yesterday's conference due to a funeral for my wonderful sister in law's, sister. She was only 33 and died of cancer. It was a sad occasion, since she left 3 young children, but happy that she is no longer in pain and that she is reunited with friends and family. We Mormons belief that death is only another step in life, as we believe we can be sealed for time and all eternity as a family unit through Heavenly Father's plan of happiness.



I will probably post later about some of my favorite talk's from the conference. Even for those who don't believe in God or Jesus Christ or share our same beliefs, there is always an inspirational message that is uplifting. I especially love this one from last year, from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. You dont need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty His full talk, entitled Happiness, Your Heritage, can be read HERE. I love this one!

3 Years Ago, I had a Baby...

...and now he is this little man. He helped daddy mix the cake batter today, and sang the Bill Cosby, Himself song "Daddy is great, making me chocolate cake...!"



We did a Robot party. The robot I made with the colander hat was a hit, I think we will move it to Isaac's room for a while.



We then did the "robot" to Beastie Boys Intergalactic (chorus part), and paused the music and everyone had to freeze. We let the kids watch a you tube robot dancing video so they could pick up some moves and they started groovin. Then, our downstairs neighbors started banging on the ceiling. Now, come on, we weren't THAT loud?!?!



We moved on to something quieter, b/c we are good neighbors. I made a robot poster, and the kiddos played "pin the nose on the robot" it was a red "clown" nose, which is appropriate since my sis is a professional clown, Pookie the Clown.



The cake was fun, a robot, naturally. My cake skills seem to be diminishing, but that's okay by me. I did what I could with what I had. Wish I could apply those sentiments to other aspects of my life, (note to self, add to "to do list."





Caleb, the climber extraordinaire, got a huge chunk of cake (I think it was the robot's right arm) and devoured it. He wasn't feeling well, so he mostly sucked it to pacify him. He made little nursing coos and sighs with occasional giggles until that chocolate puppy was gone. Oh those blue eyes!! Notice the first, clean pic when Caleb snuck the cake, to the last pic, where the gooey, globbery mess won the battle.



The night ended with sticky slap hands, and bean bags. We (even the adults) partook of games of excellent beanbag tossing into various targets and sticky hand games with balloons, and seeing who could hit the other in the face first. It was quite hilarious and fun for all. ps, my sis, Bumblebee Baby made the robot bean bags, they are so soft and cute!



We had a good day. I was able to list tons of new jewelry in my shop, JeweledAmbrosia, (although the photos look yucky as I did a quick job on them this morning, so I will have to redo them) but at least the listings are up. I am excited to have my first Victorian inspired Steampunk necklace up!

I also attended an Etsy Fort Worth members meet up with my sis, BumblebeeBaby and mom, Pretty Nifty and exchanged thoughts on craft fairs and such. It was interesting and nice. We met at La Madelaine's and dined on their best ever tomato basil soup, perfect for the cool weather.

Those in attendance were: Tile Smile, Snuggle Junkie, The Paper Elephant, Flutter Bugg Creations, Blue Sky Sunburn and Good Scents.



Also, Funky Finds is hosting a spectacular Spring Fling Bazaar at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth Texas on Saturday, April 25 from 10 am - 6 pm. Funky Finds is a new little venue that has big dreams to support handmade artists, so check them out.



And one more thing... I found through Sea Dream Studio's blog (who made my JeweledAmbrosia shop banner) a cute blog called Gypsy Mermaid's blog which introduced me to the Easter Egg swap! And since I love swaps, but I don't do them very often, I signed up, so you should too! Details HERE on Viv's Whimsy.

Enjoy!