Teacher's Appreciation...Part II

Hit 'em where it hurts...the sweet tooth:















Daisy Cupcakes
















Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

Teacher's Appreciation...Part I

The upside to being on the yearbook committee is that you have access to all the headshots of the kids. I created this bouquet using the pictures of the kids I already had...

Each flower has two card stock daisies glued around a skewer that I painted green. The kids' faces are glued on one side and their names are glued to the other. Each leaf has a quote from the kids. All 23 students are represented, each one a flower. Then I pressed them into a styrofoam cone set inside a vase. A little wrapping paper and ribbon and we are done!

Knits I have loved and lost.

It's a good thing that I love a Quick Fire knitting project. Especially when my husband has a special knack for losing my hand knits. My poor little peanut had his previous neck-warmer lost at an aquarium (on Dad's watch!) and I couldn't find a decent hat for him that winter. So having fallen hard for Misti Alpaca Chunky yarns, I knit him up a zippy quick little hat and neck warmer set. He loves it and wore it through the coldest days of Connecticut winters.


















It's a basic hat pattern with a rib base. I added ear flaps from the hat pattern in Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.













And here is a sad procession of hand knits my man has lost...

This vertically striped scarf was made with Aurora. It was a fun technique to try and looked really sharp. Unfortunately, this scarf was last seen in the New York City Area in March of 2008.














This cashmere (3 skeins worth!) scarf was last seen in May of 2008.
















This matching neck warmer and mitten set was also knit in Aurora. The tiny mittens have been put away in the peanut's memory box. They have his initials embroidered on them. The neckwarmer was knit in a larger size as he was SUPPOSED to wear it for many more years to come. Unfortunately the neck warmer was last seen at the Maritime Aquarium in January of 2009.

Wabbits! Lots of wabbits!

Class mom is asked to send in baked goods for the Easter celebration for the first graders. There can only be one answer...

Wabbits, lots of 'em. With Tic Tac teef!














These bunny cupcakes are a composite of ideas I found on the web. The ears are marshmallows cut in half and dipped in colored sugar. The cheeks are mini marshmallows, eyes are blue dragees, jelly bean noses, and chocolate sprinkle whiskers. Because I am compulsive and need things to be matchy-matchy, the buttercream and the sugar for the ears were colored with the same shade of "rose petal" gel paste. You can easily dye sugar just by rubbing in a tiny drop of gel paste and rubbing it in. Your fingers will get stained.

Barbie-licious!

It never fails, someone in Suburbia is always in need of an emergency doll cake. It's always extra tricky when they "don't like the taste of fondant." I find working with buttercream details to be a bit of a high-wire act. Luckily, Barbie was very cooperative.

Other dolls from my past...

My niece's 4th Birthday Cinderella Cake:

Boo's 4th Birthday Princess Cake:

Hot Lunch Bracelet

I received a notice home from Boo's 1st grade teacher providing her lunch account number for the year. It stated:

"Even if your child will have a hot lunch only one time this year, he/she will need to know her lunch number.
Please help your child commit this number to memory."

Boo only has hot lunch on fridays, pizza day, to give both of us a break from the usual. I could picture my confused little girl hungry and crying on the lunch line. She gets nervous in those situations, so I came up with this bracelet to help her remember her number. She picked out the colors and we added a star charm so she would read it left to right since some of the numbers may be misread upside-down. It gives both of us piece of mind and Boo a bit of fancy jewelry on Fridays.

Sick Day Slippers

My little peanut is feeling sick and is home from preschool today. It's actually a little chilly here in CT this morning and so the peanut wants his flannel pj's and blankie. He has set himself up on the couch with his monster trucks to watch TV. He doesn't like to wear socks around the house but it's a little chilly to be going around barefoot so I knitted up a super-quick pair of slippers for him. It took less than an hour...

I used Tahki Baby that I had in my stash and followed Imagine's Zippy Little Slippers pattern, designed by Melissa Mall. It took less than an hour and he loves them. They are a little goofy because I followed the cables on the first foot and ignored them halfway through the second foot. I like them better without the cables. Luckily you can barely tell because it's a dark wool.

Today's Bento Box for Big Sister
is PBJ sandwiches with mandarin oranges,
carrots, and a brownie muffin treat:

I manage to keep the mandarin oranges from leaking by using Glad Press n' Seal on the section. The brownie muffin is made with lots of beet puree--it's surprisingly good! I followed the Beet Bundt Cake recipe from Allrecipes.com, as submitted by Vermadel Kirby. I made a total of 24 mini-muffins and 12 regular muffins with the batter. I also made the following substitutions: used half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour (instead of all white flour) to add whole grain, reduced the sugar to 1 cup, and added 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for a richer chocolate taste. Be careful not to overbake them and they will stay moist and rich like a brownie. The kids LOVE them. Even my husband loves them! I can't imagine any other possible way of getting my family to eat beets, proving once again that chocolate can just about fix anything.