the "green" quilt

AKA: "My Secret Project"  :-)

     When I learned that we had a grandchild on the way, I KNEW that I wanted to again start quilting, and that I WANTED to make a quilt for our grand baby. Originally in my mind, I was going to give it to them at the child's birth. But then..., and then..., and then my sewing machine died, and ... yeah. But hey, she did receive it at her first birthday - that's pretty good for a 'I really want to get around to it' project. o;-p

    While the fabric stores do carry an all inspiring, wondrous collection/variety of materials, I wanted to do it a different way (surprised? o;-p).  Lot's of quilts of old were made from materials from the scrap bag / the families out grown clothing. I wanted to do it more like that, but I did not have such a supply available. Then I got inspired with a sort of the same thing idea. Now a days, people donate their out grown or no longer wanted clothing to mission stores, right? Okay then!
     So over a year and a half ago, with Robin P. in tow, I headed out Plainfield to the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. I was on a mission to find materials that matched in colors and complimented each other in patterns to cut up and make quilt squares out of. We were ALL over those stores! Only the infant clothing sections remained unsearched, due to there not being enough material in that size clothing. We were over here, and then 'I think I saw something that might work with this over there', and then .... . We left the Salvation Army store with a couple of yet unmatched / yet I really liked pieces. When we got to the Goodwill store, we got permission to bring them in there to find matches for. Most we did. The rest eventually got re-donated.
     For the record, no, I did not yet know which pattern I was going to make. I had done some searching for baby quilts on line. And I had been nabbing up quilting books at mission stores and the used book store. No matter which I decided on, it would take material.
     Here are the clothing pieces the quilt squares were made from.

      This is a young teens striped shirt and a cotton skirt

      From which came this quilt square:

      These are an oxford styled shirt with cuffs and a sun dress

      From which came this quilt square :

      This is two men's shirts, one with cuffs.

      From which came this quilt square -

      [Yes, the white shirt on the bottom with the orange and yellow thread like dots was a man's dress shirt complete with cuffs. Of the men I showed it too, they all understood how it got donated ;-p ]

     This mens shirt and a women's blouce

      is what this quilt square came from

      This women's oxford and a pair of child sized pants

      is what this quilt square came from -

      This combination of a women's super soft Tshirt and sleep pants (which I was ever so tempted to just keep and wear o;-}) -

      is the combination that this quilt square came from

      This really cute and soft ladies nightie and a teen sized jumper -

      made up the combination for this quilt square

     But then I needed three more squares to equal ten total for one side of the front of the quilt. By mixing things around, I came up with these combinations:

      While I was able to come up with three more combinations after that, I wasn't able to come up with ten, so I just repeated the squares I had already come up with so that I had twenty squares total. :-}

      The backing for the quilt was going to be a nice soft cotton crib sized sheet which I had also picked up at the Salvation Army store. (A)
      When I had been gathering things together to donate to our youth groups mission trip garage sale, I had started to include the mattress pads off of the bunk beds which we no longer had. I checked them over, pretty sure they were still in almost new condition. They were. As I started folding them up an idea hit me, these would work wonderful as quilt fillers/liners! (B) It actually made the quilt feel more along the lines of a comforter than a quilt. Nice and warm! (Hey, that thing called winter will come around again!)
       I had my twenty squares, but they weren't quite big enough to fill the backing. Hummmm. Yes, I could just cut down the backing, but in a way I wanted the squares separated so they showed prettier. Hum mmm. I found a solid soft pink colored flat sheet in my linen closet from back when we had thought Jeannie might be moving in with us. It too had come from some mission store. I measured and cut that into strips to run both parallel and vertical between the squares.(C) Nice! Thanks Lord!
     
     This then is a picture of those three things. Unfortunately, the backing doesn't show that it's really little pinkish and white squares. Aw well ...

                                        (A)            (B)               (C)
       It turned out that the mattress pad was much longer and yet narrower than the sheet for the backing. So I cut the extra length off, sewed the right amounts onto the side, and even had some leftover which I 'plan' on using in another idea I had. o;-p

     The finished quilt :-D  It qualifies as a "Green quilt" seeings how everything except the thread and yarn used on it are recycled materials. o:->  And it was my "secret project" seeings how very few people knew that I was really tackling it.
      I was totally thrilled with how my 'wild idea' actually turned into a beautiful thing!!! Here it is as a finished quilt.

       
       Seeings how I made the quilt for Analyse, I didn't think it would be right not to include some pictures of her with it  ;-)
       Sitting on it shortly after unwrapping it.

       A couple of days later we decided to see if we could get her to pose for a picture her parents could get printed off for all of the friends and relatives. When I came home I asked Brian how to use the rapid speed on the camera!!! Man does that child move fast!  But this picture shows you why I describe her as adorable!

       And this one is displays her in her Easter dress in front of the quilt. Man, I need one of her hugs again!!!!!

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Special Thanks!!! :
- To Byron, Cyndi and the Lord for our grand daughter :-)
- To Robin P. - for helping me shop for / select all of the clothing for the quilt squares material.  THANKS Robin! [Robin, I had every intention of visiting you at work and showing you the finished 'scheme'. But none of the guys were home the last couple of days before we left town to drive me out to you. And I have not yet been freed to drive ... I'm sorry!!!]
- To my neighbor/friend Amy M. - for the use of her clothes line and camera to take pictures of the clothing before I started cutting pieces out. And for later picking up the yarn and darning needles for me, so we could tie the quilt off. THANKS Amy!!!
- To Elizabeth B. - for technical support and encouragement. "Elizabeth, I've sewn before! I've quilted before! But would you please help my fuzzy brain remember how to find the bias in material. I can remember how to in material off of a bolt, but I'm cutting up already made clothing for this ... cutting cookies out of dough is ever so much easier! And if it doesn't come out right, you just re-roll it!!" And for getting the thread and template to use as a pattern piece for me. And for being so happy when I'd call in my progress reports. THANKS Elizabeth!!!
- To Brent - for watching the set up DVD with me and helping me figure out what I had missed in re-threading the machine. The first time I had got it perfect. But after re-threading the bobbin ... grumble .... fighting tears .... it turned out I had missed one little catch with the bobbin thread that is only the thickness of a thumbnail. Bother!!! Thanks also Brent for tieing the quilt off for me! (He even ended up using the pliers.) THANKS Brent!!!
- To Brent's girlfriend Kayla - for voluntarily taking out the long double seam when I had tried to machine quilt the layers together. All of those teeny little stitches ... my eyes were hurting so bad, and dizzy ... whew. THANKS Kayla!!!
- And to Brian - for granting me the desire of my heart and gifting me with such a wonderful new sewing machine!!! You are wonderful!!!

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I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:


~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "2nd Time Around Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Diane, at 'A Picture is Worth 1,000 words' (http://diane1876.blogspot.com/),
~ "Market Yourself Monday", are hosted by Sumo, at 'Sumo's Sweet Stuff' (http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/)

~ "Trash to Treasure Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Kimm, at 'Reinvented' (http://reinventedkb.blogspot.com).
~ "Make it from Scratch", are held at 'Make it from Scratch ... Where creativity and frugality intersect'. (http://makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com/)
~ "DIY Day('s) {Do it yourself day('s)}", are hosted by Kimba, at ASPTL (A Soft Place To Land) (http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/).
~ "Whatever Goes Wednesday('s), hosted by Michelle, at 'Someday Crafts'
(http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/)

helping friends -

     Last week Friday, Brian and I had aided some friends in doing the graduation open house for their daughter. Graduation open houses are such a wonderful celebration of achievement tradition! In order for a kid to have one, they had to earn a graduation certificate / diploma. For some kids, that's an achievement. But for others, it's an achievement which contained some type of struggling. Our friends daughter's schooling definitely contained it's challenges! But struggles and challenges have been a part of Ashlee's life from the get go!
     Ashlee's mom Amie had gone in for one of her pre-natal scheduled checkups only to lean that the reason she didn't have much appetite, and the reason behind her continually swelling ankles (and Amie is a very tall size 3 model) was because her blood pressure wasn't just rising, it was sky rocketing!!! Amie was diagnosed as having preclampsia (spelling?). Basically, she was 'allergic' to the pregnancy and the only way to solve the problem was to deliver the baby.
      In-fact, the situation was so grave that the Dr's office did not even want to wait the fifteen to twenty minutes it would take for somebody to come get Amie and take her to the hospital. One of the doctor's offices nurses drove her there herself.
      Ashlee entered this world at 1 lb 7 1/2 ounces, 13 weeks before her due date. For the first few days, the medical staff was not sure if either the mother or the child would make it. Oh the pleading prayers that went up on their behalf!!!! Oh the prayers of Thanksgiving when God granted the desires of our hearts and they both slowly pulled through! What a day of rejoicing it was when Amie got to bring her oh so precious then five pound baby home from the hospital three months later!!!
      And last Friday we were celebrating Ashlee having graduated high school - with honors!! :-D Way to go Ashlee!!!
      Instead of cooking a full pig in the roaster, they had gotten a bunch of pig butts. Technically, they are huge pork shoulder roasts. The name change has something to do with the Jews, and how it was okay to eat pork butts, cause after all, it's just a butt, but it wasn't okay to eat a shoulder roast .... My guys told me more details ... that's how much I'm currently recalling ...
     For those of you whom are local - we highly recommend renting equipment from 'Sun Rentals' on Fuller St.!! We had personally recently rented an auger from there (you'll be learning more about that soon). Our friends had rented the gas pig roaster from there. Over the years of working for caterers, Brian has done 'ump-teen dozen' (another of my dad's terms) pig roasts!!! He HIGHLY recommends and prefers the gas roasters over the charcoal ones!!!! LOTS easier to control the heat, thus the timing, etc.!! And far less likely to have 'flare ups' (too much of the fat dripping on one area of hot coals can create quite the roaring fire, and you can't just easily lift a pig up, like you can hamburgers!)
     A-n-y ways, they had picked the roaster up Friday morning and been told that the tanks contained enough gas for eight hours of roasting. When Brian went to check progress at two and a half hours, the tank was empty and the temp inside the roaster had been seriously dropping! YIKES!!!! The guys pulled the half full much smaller sized gas tank off of our friends gas grill, while Amie called the rental place. While she did have to repeat the telling of the situation to a manager, the company did not give her any grief over it. In-fact, quite the opposite. They apologized, verified that the address on the rental sheet was also the address of the site where the roaster was being used, and immediately sent a worker our way with a new tank! They also said that our friends were to get their own personal tank refilled at such and such a place and then bring the receipt into them and they would reimburse them for it! Now that folks is customer service! Now true, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. But it did/had. Accidents happen. Life happens. But the company took both responsibility and action!!! Woohoo!!!
     Originally the 'plan' had been for me to do up a lot of the other food. But then I was (am) still struggling with my vertigo. So Amie recruited others to do most of the food, and all I had to do was help cut up fruit and tray and bowl stuff that day. Once the celebration started, for awhile I helped keep the buffet filled. Once I started 'feeling it' I sat inside at the kitchen island eating and recouping. Amie came through giving some relatives a tour of their new home and after taking one look at me, informed me I needed to go lay down! I said I would be fine in a couple of minutes... Two minutes later she was back, linking her fingers through mine, and leading me up to a bedroom. As she was shutting the door behind herself she 'informed' me that I was to stay there and rest!!! Goodness.
     I did rest for quite a while, feeling ever so guilty that Brian was still out there working over that hot roaster. Due to the situation with the gas, the roasts hadn't been done on time. So the guys were carving off the done parts and then sticking the rest of the roasts back in to keep cooking.
     I re-entered the kitchen later at the same time Brian was entering through the garage. "What are you doing back up?!!!" I reassured him that I was doing better and started in on the dirty dishes. Once the party was over, I stayed at the sink/counter while others brought everything in to us. 'Team work' got all of it cleaned up nicely!!
     Ashlee will be starting towards her teachers certificate this fall. I warned her that I had started towards mine, but instead ended up getting first my 'MRS.' degree and then my 'MOM' degree. But hey, I did work as a teachers aid for three years in the pre-school that was part of the school our boys attended :-). And yes, I am still glad I got both of the degrees I did.
o;-p

from Brian -

copied and pasted here from Brian's Facebook page -

     "Live so the preacher won't have to tell lies at your funeral."

warm weather dessert # 4

     As I had mentioned in the other warm weather dessert postings, in warm weather we start wanting different kinds of desserts. Today, I am posting recipe # 4 in the series I had started. This series features a few desserts that we are not limited to making only in warm weather months, but that is when we usually enjoy them much more.

       Today's feature: warm weather dessert # 4:
       Graham Crackers With Icing

     Okay, so many of us think of this as a treat for kids. But I happen to know a full grown man, whom to this day still dubs this his all time favorite dessert! Seriously!! (For those of you who might know him, his name is John, and he is the son of a farm family that attended our church ...).
     The graham crackers and icing that I featured in the picture, were made by using leftover frosting's from our grand daughter's birthday cakes. And using leftover frosting's to make them is often the methodology people use. However, I have been know to make up frosting solely for the purpose of making graham crackers and frosting. o;-p There's just something about them ...

     While I have seen numerous postings about making your own graham crackers, I have always just bought them. However, if you would like trying your hand at making your own, I'd suggest you do a google search for "homemade graham crackers" and compare what you find, till you hit on one that strikes your fancy.

     The graham crackers with the chocolate frosting in the middle in the picture, were this recipe of chocolate frosting:
     Chocolate Butter(+)cream Frosting
         made up years ago by Cheryl B. (me)
     6 Tablespoons butter, room temp.
     3 Tablespoons cream cheese, room temp.
     (I will admit here that sometimes I cheat and add as much of the cream cheese as I do the butter .... I did for my grand daughter's birthday o;-) )
     3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
     2 2/3 cups Confectioner's sugar
     1/3 cup canned milk
     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

     With a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and cream cheese; add cocoa. Alternately add conf. sugar and milk. Beat, mixing well. Blend in vanilla. Mix again. Do a taste test and lick your fingers o;-p Ummmm ......

     The graham crackers with the pink frosting in the middle in the picture, were this recipe of Butter(+)cream frosting:
       Butter(+)cream Frosting
         made up years ago by Cheryl B. (me)
       6 Tablespoons butter, room temp.
       3 Tablespoons cream cheese, room temp.
       (I will admit here that sometimes I cheat and add as much of the cream cheese as I do the butter .... I did for my grand daughter's birthday o;-) )
       3 cups Confectioner's sugar
       1/3 cup canned milk
       1 teaspoon food coloring*
       1 teaspoon artificial flavoring* (or you can add vanilla extract)

     With a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Alternately add conf. sugar and milk. Beat, mixing well. Blend in food coloring and flavoring - or - vanilla. Mix again. Do a taste test and lick your fingers o;-p Ummmm ......

     * Instead of using food colorings and artificial flavorings, you can use real fruit, which will in turn color the frosting.
       - For pink colored frosting, use fresh strawberries. Finely cut up the strawberries and spread the pieces out on a folded paper towel. Let sit for about five minutes. Then using the tip of a knife or a toothpick**, flip the pieces of the strawberry into the frosting bowl.
      - For redder frosting, use the same method on fresh cherries.
      - For blue frosting, use blue berries.
      - For the 4th of July, make some up with red frosting, some with plain white frosting (don't add the vanilla!), and some with blue frosting. :-}
      - And the color options go on by the type of fruits you select ;-)

** for additional uses for toothpicks, check out this posting.

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You might also enjoy these postings:

~ warm weather dessert # 1: NO BAKE CHEESECAKE

~ warm weather dessert # 2: (No Bake) Banana Split Dessert

~ warm weather dessert # 3: Rice Krispie Treats / "The Thick Soft Type"

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I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:
~ "Foodie Friday('s)", are hosted by "Gollum" (aka: Michael), at 'Designs by Gollum' (http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/)
~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "Market Yourself Monday", are hosted by Sumo, at 'Sumo's Sweet Stuff' (http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/)
~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace' (http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com).
~ "Tuesdays at the Table", are hosted by Cole, at 'All The Small Stuff' (http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/).
~ "Kitchen Tip Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Tammy, at 'Tammy's Recipes' (http://www.tammysrecipes.com/).
~ "Tasty Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Jennifer, at "Balancing Beauty and Bedlam" (http://www.beautyandbedlam.com/)

My Christmas Gift from My Husband :-}

     Okay, right off the bat, let's clear things up. Yes, I am doing a posting about what my husband gave me for Christmas last December. Yes, I fully realize that it is now mid June. No, I am not trying to rush 'the season'. Yes, I am aware that some stores start stocking their Christmas stuff in mid June. Wish they wouldn't!! To tell the whole truth, I actually helped pick my gift out and bring it home quite a bit before last Christmas ... So why am I just now telling all of you about it? 'Lucy' will 'splain o;-)
     But first, this message (;-p) chuckle, chuckle!!! First, I need to tell you what the gift is/was - which word is appropriate here? A new sewing machine!!:-D!!:-)!! "Yes Bob, behind door number one, is a Singer / Confidence model 7467 sewing machine! This fine machine features 70, yes 70, built-in stitches, 6 of which have direct stitch button selection. That means Bob, that for six of the stitches, all you have to do to change from your regular straight stitching to that style stitches, is push one of the six little buttons, which by the way Bob, the buttons display a sample of their style of stitching right on them, and the machine will automatically switch from the straight stitch to whichever style you selected. An added feature on this particular machine Bob, is that for the rest of the seventy available stitch styles, there is a built in, easily accessible guide which pulls out from underneath the front of this fine machine and shows you a sample of the style of stitching and it's coordinating code which you then enter into the machine via the handy little up and down buttons located on the front of the machine, right next to the digital stitch number display screen."
    "But Bob, that's not all! This fine sewing machine also features 2 stay bright LED lights, has a drop and sew bobbin system, an automatic needle threader, and 3 one-step buttonholes."
    "This fine machine is Cheryl's Bob, all because the price was right for what her husband had been saving towards." ;-p
     Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle!

    Yes, my husband had been saving towards it. For several years actually. But every time he thought he might actually be able to get one for me, life happened and there went that money. He explains his saving method as 'skimming off the top'. When he'd get his 'church checks' (from doing janitorial work for the church) he'd take some cash out before depositing the balance and slip it into his secret spot. The church has since switched to automatic deposits and he informed the responsible person that he would have to answer to me next Christmas, as to why he hadn't been able to 'skim' money and get me a gift. ;-p!
    I have had a couple of different used machines before. The last one had gotten to the point where sometimes it would stitch along just fine, and then for no apparent reason it would start majorly messing up along the back of the material. Tried cleaning it. Couldn't figure it out. So finally we took it in. The report came back that it had a cracked head. Yikes! And that due to the age of the machine, finding a new part was both challenging and expensive. Drats!
    When I told Elizabeth B. about it, she recommended that we get a second opinion at this other shop. Same verdict. But he said they wouldn't charge us for the 'check see' if we bought a new machine from them. Yeah right, I thought. But to be polite I let him start showing me some different machines. Oh my goodness do they have some 'fancy dancy' (as my dad would phrase it) machines now-a-days! Impressive! But so were their price tags. Yikes!
    Then my husband spoke up stating that he only had this much saved towards it. My eyes bugged!!! I started saying that I didn't really expect him to buy me a new machine .... and he told me to follow the nice man and pick out a machine in that price range. WOW!!

     Now, as to why I haven't told you about it before this. See, the thing is, part of the basement project included making a small area for me to 'craft' in. The project isn't that far yet. Which also means the dining room isn't emptied yet. Which also means .... so I hadn't actually opened the box yet. I had 'planned to' shortly after Christmas. But then there were the funerals, and the vertigo hit ... life!
    So even though all of that is not yet done, what made me go ahead and open the box and use my wonderful new sewing machine? You'll see the answer to that question in a posting this coming weekend ;-} o/~ "An-tic-i-pation ... I'm keeping you wait-ait-ait-ing .... "o/~ ;-p



[yes, I'm a bit fiesty this morning. Last night I went from just feeling dizzy to actually feeling like I'm spinning again. I started tackling something yesterday ... I am being 'fiesty/silly' in attempt to stay positive!]

WELCOME home!!! ;-)

    Brent had proceeded me through the back door last Wed. morning when we had arrived back from Byron and Cyndi's. A very sleepy eyed Boo had come to greet him. Man was he a sleepy eyed dog! And his tails usual THUMP THUMP THUMP against the fridge sounded muted! ;-p Then again, it was 2:30 a.m..
    He was watching Brent, waiting for Brent to get his shoes off and greet him. He sort of glanced once behind Brent and saw me waiting in the doorway, then turned right back to Brent. But then I saw his eyes snap fully open, a smile broke all over his face, his tail no longer sounded muted, and his head snapped back my direction. "Mommy" was home!!!!! 'Priceless!' !!!
    Thankfully the over sized cooler we had used for the weekend was still sitting in the kitchen. I stumbled over to it and after sitting started greeting Boo. He was comical! He could not seem to decide which he wanted more, mutual hugs and kisses, or me scratching his hind quarters. Goodness. I was already very done in from the road trip home, and now I had a dog whom kept spinning end to end in front of me. Yikes!!!!
    And yet his enthusiasm and love was so precious and yet comical .... silly dog ;-p
    By the time that Brent exited the bathroom and called Boo to head upstairs with him, I had a handful of Boo hair, and there was quite the scattered mess of it on the floor! Yup, he's still shedding. I scooped it all up, put it in the trash, used the bathroom myself and went up to a real bed and a glad to pull me close husband ;-). Nice!
    Since Rascal's passing, Boo has taken to joining me on my bed in the mornings. Sometimes he waits till Brent gets up, but often he does as soon as he hears Brian get up. Usually I feel him jump up on the bed, he comes and sniffs the heck out of my ear (dogs are so weird that way!!!), and then turns a couple of circles and lays down. The next morning I felt him jump up on the bed and sniff my ear, but this time he didn't just lay down. Instead he started tapping my shoulder. ;-p He needed some verbal greeting, hugs and kisses before he laid down and sighed ever so contentedly. I felt so-o loved!!!
     I have 'homes' in two different cities/states where I get the warmest welcomes :-} WONDERFUL!!!

CHOCOLATE B-day Cake :-)

    Aka: "Ummmmm this is G-O-O-D!!!" chocolate cake ;-)

    Byron thinks it's great that the exact same day his mom (me) asked if she could make the birthday cakes for his daughter's first birthday party, his wife asked him if he thought his mom would be willing to make the cake. We agree with him!  :-)
    "My" Kate agreed to take me out shopping to pick out 'girlie' cup cake liners. When we got to Michael's we learned that the reason they mainly only had empty cupcake papers displays, was because they were in the middle of inventory. Grumble. Was I up to trampling through another store? yes. But I wanted that store to be Value land! So we picked these out of what they did have available, figuring that while they weren't all 'girlie', they were definitely cute and partyish.

      (The small/'mini' ones had elephants on the bottom, my Brian collects elephants ...)
      What I hadn't figured in, was how the darkness of the chocolate cake inside them would pretty much cancel out what color and patterns they were.  :-(  Live and learn.

     Besides making them for Analyse's first birthday party, I had also said I would make some of the 'mini' sized ones for a couple different graduation open houses. I figure that while I'm baking, I might as well keep multiplying the recipe and keep going. So I baked up and frosted LOTS of the 'minis'

    and LOTS of the regular sized

     see, there is a difference in the two sizes

 

    and then made white butter-cream frosting and added polka dots to ALL of them (actually, all except the four dozen 'mins' headed to the graduation open houses. Those I just sprinkled with yellow sugar).

     then added food coloring and strawberry flavoring to the white frosting and added pink flowers to ALL of them ....

   
    Wa-La, all done -

     Or so I thought. I put the birthday girl's cake in the fridge to set up. After all, we would be traveling many miles with it. Twenty minutes later I opened the fridge to fix myself a glass of Pepsi, only to find that the package of ham slices had fallen over onto the cake and split it!!! Grumble, grumble, fight tears .... there was no fixing it. Sigh. Bake another one. But instead of making more white frosting, I went with this design instead.

    About the train on top, Grandpa Brian also loves trains. And Analyse likes to watch the trains that pass behind the houses across the street, and grandma had this candle holder stashed away in a drawer which Kate found when I asked her to get a candle out for me ;-) "I love it when a plan comes together!" ;-p

      Nestle Chocolate Layer Cake
        from Nestle's Toll House Heritage Cookbook
      1 1/2 cups sugar
      1/2 cup butter, softened
      1 teaspoon vanilla extract
      2 envelopes (2 oz.) Nestle Coco-bake
         (yellow box in your baking aisle by chunked chocolate)
      2 eggs
      2 1/4 cups flour
      1 1/2 teasp. baking soda
      1 teaspoon salt
      1 1/2 cups ice water

     In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract (I use a wooden spoon); beat until creamy. Blend in Nestle Coco-bake and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in flour, soda and salt alternately with ice water. Pour into two greased and floured 8 or 9 inch cake pans. (I have found that lining the bottoms of the sprayed pans with a cut to size piece of parchment paper works wondrously!!!)
    (this recipe can also be made into one 9 x 13 pan).
    Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 min. (test with toothpick)
    Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely on wire racks. Frost.

    Chocolate Butter(+)cream Frosting
        made up years ago by Cheryl B. (me)
    6 Tablespoons butter, room temp.
    3 Tablespoons cream cheese, room temp.
        (I will admit here that sometimes I cheat and add as much of the cream cheese as I do the butter .... I did for my grand daughter's birthday o;-) )
    3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
    2 2/3 cups Confectioner's sugar
    1/3 cup canned milk
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

     With a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and cream cheese; add cocoa. Alternately add conf. sugar and milk. Beat, mixing well. Blend in vanilla. Mix again. Do a taste test and lick your fingers o;-p  Ummmm ......

    Analyse being fed a 'mini' (bake them for 15 minutes) -

 

           (look at those eyes, she was so-o-o ready for a nap!)

    I just love how Benson captured 3 year old Benjamin's thrilledness over his mini cupcake :-)   (Benjamin is the son of one of their friends)

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P.S.'s :
- a big THANK-YOU to Kate - she had not only taken me shopping, but she also came over on Memorial Day and helped me bake everything up. All of that twisting and turning getting things in and out of the oven ... she did it for me :-D Thanks Kate!!!

- just in case it will help you too - Four (4) timesing (x's) the recipe equals (=) one hundred (100) regular sized cupcakes.

- we did six times the recipe and got a combined mini and regular sized cupcake total of one hundred and eighty eight (188) PLUS the two nine inch cake layers.


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I 'plan' on linking this particular posting to:

~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace' (http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com).
~ "Tuesdays at the Table", are hosted by Cole, at 'All The Small Stuff' (http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/).
~ "Kitchen Tip Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Tammy, at 'Tammy's Recipes' (http://www.tammysrecipes.com/).