A Big Bow Thrifted Cardigan {DIY}

Hello, 

I hope you had a wonderful week-end. My week-end was pretty hectic. We arrived from Florida Friday midnight and early Saturday afternoon we had a Bar-Mitzvah party. Oh boy, have you been in a Bar-Mitzvah party? The music was pounding so loud and playing non-stop for 4 hours. And Sunday morning at 10.00 am we left for another friend's little daughter's Birthday party. Let me tell you; I did not want to get up from bed to get ready to go to the party this morning.

~~~~~~

 

It was one of those beautiful soft breezy afternoon when I took a walk around our condo in Florida. I decided to wear this DIY big bow cardigan that I created not long a go but never get to wear it until that afternoon. 

There is a tree standing right in front of our porch and by the small lake that has purplish flowers. The ground under neath the tree blanket by these fallen flowers. I gathered a few flowers to create the letter 'E' {my initial} and 'a heart shape.' I was playing around try to capture  a few pretty shots with these flowers but the wind kept on blowing off the flower that it was hard to shoot a perfect letter 'E'. I tried to fix and put the flower back to it's position; I finally got these pictures.

Tutorial.

Take an old sweater. Cut a slit in along the shoulder down to the sleeve about 7". Fold over raw edge and sew in place. Sew a piece of ribbon about 15" long to one side of neckline and another ribbon to the other side of the neckline. Tie together! Just a tip; it would be prettier if you could find a sweater that has a wide neckline. Raglan sleeve would be perfect for this style.

~~~oo00oo~~~

Thank you for stopping by!

Lemon Drop Cake {Mother's Day}

Hello,

Today's post is honoring 'a mother' for Mother's Day. Here I created a fun cake from a fun daughter to a fun mother. 

The inspiration came one day when I baked the 'Cat's Tongues' cookies or in French 'Langues de Chat' from the Laduree recipe book my husband got me a while a go. As you can see the Cat's Tongue cookies decorated circular on the side of the cake.  Then Natasha from Say G'day Saturday invited me to join her Mother's Day group pin board at Pinterest. Then I thought to myself; gee.....Mother's Day is here already! One thing lead to another I got inspired to create a special cake for Mother's Day. 

I wish my mother is here with me. Unfortunately she is in Jakarta, Indonesia. I know she will be thrilled and happy to have this cake as I know she is one crafty lady herself. I thought a lot about her when creating this cake and it's mini banners. Perhaps one day I can show her these pictures. 

First my apology for I posted so many pictures because I can't help myself. As usual I took so many pictures simply because I am very passionate about styling and photograph pretty things.

Here they are!

Lately I am into embroidery. This pink heart created using French Knot stitch I learned from Youtube. I think it is adorable. I will make a post for this embroidery in the future. 

Do you see the word 'mother' on the mini banner topper?

Mini banner topper for a cake tutorial is here.

Although this cake is made out of a cake mix from a box; surprisingly this cake is  delicious. The secret is to pour the sugared lemon juice over the cake {recipe below}. And it's super easy to make too. 

::Recipes::

Lemon Drop Cake

~ 1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist lemon cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs are needed for this cake as mentioned on the box.

~ 1/3 cup powdered sugar

~ 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 or 2 lemon)

1. Heat oven to 350 deg. F. Grease bottoms and sides of pan with shortening or cooking spray

2. Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Pour into pan. Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes.

3. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice. Poke top of warm cake every 1/2 inch with fork. Drizzle and spread lemon mixture over top of cake. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled. Remove cakes from pan.

Low Fat Cream Cheese Lemon Frosting.

~ 1 cup low fat cream cheese

~ 1/2 stick butter at room temperature

~ 3 table spoons truvia sugar plus 4 tablespoon regular powder sugar.

~ 2 tsp lemon juice

Mix all using electric mixer.

Spread frosting on the cake.

~~~~oo00oo~~~~

Cat's Tongue Cookies

~ 9 tbsp butter

~ 1-1/3 cup icing sugar

~ 2 tsp vanilla extract

~ 2 egg whites

~ 1-1/4 cups cake flour

Equipment; Piping bag fitted with a 5 mm plain tip

1. Cut the butter into small pieces and put in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Using a wooden spoon, soften the butter until creamy. Remove from heat and whisk until homogenous. Add the following ingredients; confectioners' sugar, vanilla and the egg whites. Whisk together.

2. Sift the flour and add to the mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until homogenous.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 deg. F Transfer the batter to the piping bag fitted with a plain tip Pipe 2-1/3 inch long strips onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave space between each one, as they will spread during baking.

4. Place sheet in oven and bake for 14 minutes until golden brown. Allow the biscuits to cool to room temperature on the baking sheet before removing with a spatula. When they have cooled completely, store in an airtight container.

Variations;

You can dip the biscuits in dark, milk or white chocolate or colored white chocolate using food colouring and place on parchment paper to dry.

For recipe above; I am using white chocolate with red, blue and green food coloring.

~ A handful white baking chocolate chips (depends on the amount of cookies)

~ 1/2 tsp milk

~ food coloring of your choice

Melt over a steam water. Keep stirring until all chocolate has melted. Put a side and cool for 3 minutes then add food coloring of your choice. Immediately dip ends of each cookies and let it dry for about half an hour.

~~~oo00oo~~~

Good Luck Everyone and thank you for stopping by!

Linked to;

Savvy Southern Style

PJH Designs

How to Make Mini Banner Topper for a Cake {DIY}

Here is a mini banner topper tutorial I made for the Lemon Drop Cake {Mother's Day}

What you need

~Variations of fabrics

~ 2 bamboo skewers

~ Fabric glue Fabri-Tac

~ Scissor

~ Cord

~ Vintage lace and trimmings (I was going to use these but in the end I did not use it}

For the triangular pieces

1. Cut a diamond shape of variations of fabrics

2. Put glue all over on the bottom side of the piece diamond shape fabric. And place the cord in the middle. {Do it one by one; not two pieces at a time as shown on picture}

3. Fold the diamond shape fabric. Repeat with different pattern of fabric a cross the cord line to the end. The number of these pieces depends on how many letters {if you decide to use letters} or the size of the cake.

Hot to make the bow on the banner.

1. Cut 1/4" wide of 8' long fabric. 

2. Tie the cord to the bamboo skewer when finished created all of the triangular pieces.

3.Put glue on top of the tied knot and put the bow on both sides {you need to make 4 bows if you wish}

If you want to create lettering on the triangular pieces; you can stamp the letter or {like I did} I cut my own letter free hand and glue them on to the triangular pieces.
The complete look of this topper is here.

That's all there is to it!

Thank you for visiting!

Vintage Finds Tuesday

Hello,

I am back in Florida again. This is the last time we are here in Delray, Florida until end of the year when it gets cold again in New York. 

I am very sorry for I have not posted anything lately. The reason being was because I find it hard to focus when you are about and go on a travelling. Having two places has been fun for us but I also must think about stuff that I need to take with me back and forth. Especially stuff I need for my blog posts like props, etc. 

Anyway, I am super excited about what I am going to show you in the next day or two. This is a quick post about my vintage finds today. As usual; when I visit Delray I always go on a vintage shopping spree. They are super cheap here and I never get empty handed because I always find something interesting either for my own personal use or props for my blog posts. 

Here they are!

{i am experimenting with blog post picture lay out. here i put a quote about 'tea'. i thought it would be interesting to look at rather than just putting pictures of bunch of china alone.} 

I shot the flowers outside the entrance condo just now. And the rain just stopped when I stepped out side to take these pictures. You can still see the water droplets on the petals flowers.

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Linked to;
Savvy Southern Style

House Tour - A slice of our home {Living Room}

Hello,

My last post about home decor {house tour} was in our small condo in Florida. We are actually living in New York permanently. To be honest; I was a little hesitant in posting about our homes. I do not know why; since I love home decor very much. Perhaps I was not ready just yet. And now I am going to show you a small corners of our small living room condo in New York. 

This condo has been on the market for sale for more than 2 years now. Long story short we almost sold the house a year a go; but it did not go through.

I was under an emotional roller coaster ride for a little while because of that since I was so desperate wanted to move into a bigger home. I am dying to have a studio; a working space of my own. Right now our computer room/guest bedroom is also my working room. And now I am  accepting the fact that we will not be moving into our new home any time soon. So we are still living in the same house.

As you can see I love grouping small bottles with flowers as a center piece. These small tinted blue bottles was last seen {here}. From time to time I change the display on the tray just for fun. And the tray was made by hand by me and last seen {here}.

Well, those are small corners of our living room in New York. Next time I am going to reveal other corners and the kitchen. 

~~~oo00oo~~~

Have a wonderful week-end Everyone! And thank you so much for stopping by!

Linked to;
Savvy Southern Style

Happy, Peace & Love {MACARONS}

I am very sorry that I have these macarons up once more time. I think I am a little obsessed with these macarons - as you can see. 

This afternoon I went to Jo Ann Fabrics to get a few things for my craft. On the way home and as I was driving; the idea of putting three words {happy, peace and love} on the macarons came in to my mind suddenly. I hit the accelerator and rushed home. I am one of those people when want to do something exciting I just can't wait to execute it. Now the adrenaline rush is pumping and I must get those macarons out, set up the table, props and start shooting right away. 

I had different topic I wanted to post but I thought I would finish the macarons first. And I think this is the last post of the macarons to last for a long time. 

When arrived home; I immediately got in to action. Drew that letters, cut them, placed the brown paper on the table; got the macarons out. Placed the letters on each macarons and sifted confectioner sugar on the top of macarons. Remember the 'wax flower' I was talking about on my last post? {here and here} I placed and scattered them here and there, got my camera; 

voila......!

Here are the pictures!

I really love the circle patterns on the brown paper. 

When lifted up the macarons these are what's left and I love it. I think it creates a lovely shape and textures. The small pink  flowers and blue lettering  creates a whimsical feeling to the overall images. The blue lettering made out of a brochure that I grabbed from my husband's letters pile. I hope he won't be looking for it because it is now  shredded to pieces.

My apologize if I post the same subject three times in a row. I love macarons so much; baking them even makes me happier and when photographed them gave me such  joy and happiness just like a kid in a toy store.

Recipe; here and here.

~~~~oo00oo~~~~

Thank you so much for looking!

Linked to;

Savvy Southern Style