For those of you following both my blog and Vanessa's blog you already know she's pregnant. For those who don't, I'm going to be an aunt!!! We are all very excited! Since she hasn't shared any tummy shots of herself, I am going to do it.
Baby baby baby!!!
Since Vanessa won't have lots of time to be crafty once the baby comes, she's started making baby clothes now. As a Christmas vacation project, Vanessa bought a bunch of onesies for us to applique for the baby. They don't know the gender yet, but will find out in a couple of weeks when they return to Minnesota. So far I've made two:
my quintessential 'Meridith whale'
some brightly colored gender neutral mushrooms
Vanessa and I had lots of fun and it was a great way to use up leftover fabric scraps!
My parents got Eben and me a great four-man tent and portable gas grill for Christmas this year, which I'm sure I'll be sharing photos of come summer. Candy and Peter got me a gorgeous red Le Creuset pot that I am very eager to cook something delicious in, so I will be sharing that with you later as well. Vanessa knit me some fun mittens which will felt on the inside for added warmth as I wear them. Juan gave me the book 'Hello Cupcake', which I actually gave to both Genevieve and Vanessa, so there will be lots of cupcakes to go around. There's even talk of a cupcake-bake-off between Vanessa and me through our blogs where our readers can vote for their favorites (there's nothing like good ol' sibling rivalry!). I also got a pair of snowshoes from my parents just as the temperature rose and the snow melted. Eben received a pair from them as well as a congratulations for finishing (and passing) his thesis defense. So, again, I'm sure there will be some later posts about our snowshoeing adventures. Eben got me a really pretty stone necklace and a stone bowl to hold my jewelry in the bathroom when I'm showering. I have one, but it's much too small and tends to be overflowing, so the new one is perfect!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
I made the cupcakes with a mix, which felt like a failure, but once I was 3 hours into the decorating I was happy not to have stressed about the cake recipe. While they cooled, I carefully microwaved the Oreos so that I could separate the cookies from the cream. I had to do this for 24 regular sized Oreos and for 48 minis.
Next, I had to cut the plain cookie side in half for the minis and into thirds for the regular size. These I attached to the cooled, frosted, cupcakes as the owl ears. The cream sides of the cookies were added as eyes on both the regular size and mini cupcakes.
I then did the feather frosting on the ears and around the eyes on both sizes.
Here's some of the flock. The mommy owls have Junior Mint pupils while the minis have Reese's Pieces. They all have Runt's bananas for their beaks.
Check out all the mommies and babies! All those eye were a bit freaky!
A slightly blurry close up.
