Savannah's Cupcake Crafts

Savannah's school does an economics fair every year as a fund raiser for the school. The fifth grade puts it on, making things they've come up with, as a business owner, and the rest of the school comes and shops. What an awesom idea, right? I was excited to have Savannah participate in this great learning experience. The goal, besides a revenue source for the school, was to have the kids learn what is involved with owning a business, working with money, and using marketing techniques. I gave Savannah the time to come up with her own thing, but, when I saw she was struggling to come up with a feasible business plan, I have to admit, I swung the vote towards my newest love: cupcakes. We decided together to make cupcake earrings, necklaces, and cupcake soaps.

Here is our materials list for the jewellery cupcakes: polymer clay in chocolate brown and light pink, micro beads, clear nail polish, fish hooks (jewellery section, not fish and tackle fish hooks!), i-rods (not sure what they're really called), and thin ribbon. Each student had to calculate what each item cost, and, taking out things we had on hand, like the ribbon, each cupcake only cost .25! We sold each pair of earrings for $2, necklaces for $1.50, and soap cupcakes for whatever anyone would pay for them!

Not perfect, but didn't they turn out cute??? We were really excited to see them all done. If you want step-by-step instructions, go here:

Necklace.

Making soap was so much fun! Did you know that when you melt soap it gets all stringy, like mozzarella cheese on a gooey pizza? Me neither! The bottom layer smelled just like chocolate, as it had cocoa and cinnamon in the recipe, but the top was just colored Dove soap, so that smell overpowered the more pleasant smell of chocolate. I wished we had scented them. So did everyone else around us at the fair...

Don't these look good enough to eat? To get the fluffy frosting look for the top, we beat the melted soap with a hand mixer, and then I piped it on with my cake decorater. Wild!

Ok, I should have gotten a picture of my best specimen. This one had a second layer of chocolate added when the first layer had already partially dried. Hence the double-decker look. But hard to imagine it's soap, isn't it?

I felt like uber-Mom, as nobody else had a tablecloth. But doesn't it just set the whole cupcake feel off? I was loving the cute fabric I found at Joanne's. Savannah even color-coded her polo that day to match! Didn't notice that til just now...

It's all about presentation, people! Ok, admittedly it worked for the jewellery. The soap wasn't as lucky. I told you I wished I had scented them. Dove has a very strong smell, which only seemed to intensify with the melting process. Live and learn, right?

We even named the 2 styles we made. That's right, we're all about the cuteness!

Savannah hard at work.

I'd like to say everything sold out, but only the jewellery did. A nice lady came and bought up everything she had, towards the end of the fair, to give to her neices. The soaps weren't as wildly popular. We are now the lucky owners of cupcake soap in our 72-hour kits! Every other refugee will be so jealous when we pull it out to use it...

Savannah learned that owning a small business is a lot of work, but hopefully, she'll remember it's fun too! (and make a lot of money and support her parents in their old age)

Family traditions

A tradition we started doing in Scott's family is our hayride and soup night. All his family gathers together to see the Christmas lights festival in town and then everybody comes to our house for soup and hot chocolate. Thanks to his younger brother, we all ride on the back of his trailer on hay bales, pulled by Grandpa, while we sing carols. This year we thumped our way through the park with a flat tire, but it didn't dampen our spirits. I wish I'd gotten pictures of everyone on the trailer, but once we're snuggled in together, there's no moving. I did, however, get photos of dinner afterward. I know, easy to tell where my priorities, are, isn't it?

Every family brings a crockpot of soup to share, and we provide bread, cookies, and hot chocolate. It's fun to see what soups show up. I always get a few new recipes every year. Sallie's harvest squash and sausage soup is one of my favorites!

This year I did a hot chocolate bar, with recipes and fixins for all sorts of variations. I've never tried egg nog in hot chocolate before, but it was yummy! But, really, when is egg nog not good?

To my knowledge, I don't think anyone was brave enough to try the Mexican hot chocolate with chili powder.

This has been a fun tradition, and one my kids look forward to. I love having family close by. What a blessing for our kids to grow up with their cousins and grandparents.

Kitchen band

We are so talented in our family: Keaton plays the spoon drum, and Waverly the saw and xylophone. They caused quite the cacophony.

Spirit of Christmas 09

Savannah's school puts on a Christmas concert, and includes the younger choirs as well. They sang Frosty the Snowman this year, with Frosty sounding suspiciously like Elvis, and other songs. I actually look forward to this concert, as there is so much talent at this school in the fine arts department.

Decorated for the holidays

In case it's escaped anyone's attention, I LOVE holidays. Halloween is my favorite, but for decorations, how do you beat the smell of a fresh pine tree and softly-glowing lights? You can't! I do love Christmas decorations. Here's our home outfitted for the season...

I finally smartened up and found a place for my Christmas village. I haven't seen it since Brighton was born, as it gets abused, poor things. But I had a bright idea to put it in what I call the "Black hole" (I know, creative, isn't it?), and it's just out of reach of 3 sets of little hands. Everything survived the season intact, and, in our house, that's certainly saying something!

We still do a live tree. Haven't broken down and forked out the moolah for a fake one. I suppose if we wait too much longer, our kids won't let us. I've kind of gotten fond of the Charlie Brown trees. It's become a challenge to fill in and hide the bare spots. And every year it's different. The first year we moved in, we were so stoked for our super high ceilings, and bought the tallest that would still fit; it was like 18 feet tall. We've gotten shorter every year, as we've realized that the only way to decorate a tree that tall was to push it over to the juliet's balcony hanging off the catwalk, and lean out over the railing. That's a little scary. This year was plenty tall for me. (Notice the tree skirt? A gift 15 years ago from my very talented sister Moana. Thanks! I'm still loving it, Moana!)

Funny story about the stocking holders. Well, funny now, but Brighton pulled them all down while he was trying to hang from the garland on the mantel. If you know Brighton, this will not surprise you. 6 out of 8 broke. Keaton took care of the 7th while imitating Brighton a few days later. Miraculously, no one ended up with stitches in their heads from falling heavy iron stocking holders, even though all three were playing beneath them when they fell both times. There are blessings in paying your tithing! (as we are medically un-insured at the moment!)

Scott went to work to solve the Problem Of The Stocking Hangers, and came up with this below. Just a black board. The squares are different Christmas scrapbook papers he framed in with edging, and iron knobs in the middle. It's screwed into the wall at the back, so no more falling stocking holders.

Don't we look like a big family??? Since my mom was spending Christmas with us this year, I made her her own family stocking so it'd match the rest of ours.

I made hers, Keaton's and Waverly's this year. I was happy with how they turned out, and I drew the pattern myself, using inspiration from Pottery Barn + another site. Keaton's was my favorite as the Nutcracker Prince. Waverly's is the Sugarplum Fairy (I had to have them go together, as they are twins!), and my mom's of course, had to be a baking grandma. The flour sack on the floor says "Alberta's best flour" as that is her flour of choice.

My birthday present

Look at the gorgeous shelf Scott made me for my birthday present this year! He made this from a repurposed door he bought from a building store, plus he painted me some shelves for my family picture wall. Plus I got some bulky beaded watches that I have been wanting for forever!Thanks Honey for the great presents! Love you!

He was inspired by a photo of one he saw online for an outrageous amount, and made his own. I have been wanting something for this wall since we moved in, and I was so excited to finally have something here! I love it!

Can you see the empty frames on the right? They're some he painted for me. Poor little things are just waiting for our cute family pictures to hold. They're coming, little frames!

Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving dinner this year was at my mom's. It was fun to see my sister Julie and her family, and my brother Kevin and his wife Trish (who drove up from St. George with their 3 kids). I love family time! It's just never long enough...

My mom always sets a fancy table. We were in charge of place cards this year. Me and the girls made these Thanksgiving morning.

The twins had their dinner before everyone else. Most of it went on the floor. I guess they thought the meat was dry...

After dinner we have a tradition of doing crafts. It started when I was just a teenager, and we've continued it all these years. It's one of my favorite parts of the day! I usually bring stuff for the kids to make Christmas countdown calendars (a great use for all the Halloween candy!). I didn't get a picture of the calendars, but Brighton found the suckers and made good use of them. 3 at a time!

We've started taking turns with who's in charge of the crafts. This year was my sister, Julie. She outdid herself with 3 fun crafts. We made Joys for our tables...

and hanging signs (she has a vinyl cutting business)...

and tree blocks. The bling totally made them fabulous. Simple, but they looked so cute when I was done blinging them! These were vinyl too. Thanks Julie!

Tuckered out

I guess his busy day caught up with him finally.

Evening neckware

For some reason, this girl loves to put things around her neck. Usually it's necklaces or beads, sometimes it's the handles on a purse. Well, she is moving up in the world of fancy, creative neckware since she discovered my underwear drawer! She's going to hate this picture when she's older, but she does it so often I had to take one. I don't think the Queen of Sheba herself walked around with more pride, as does this little one when she's wearing my underthings. Don't everybody go out at once to purchase some...

Groovy baby!

Love the new dress from Children's Place outlet! I love big flower headbands, but she will NOT keep them on. Luckily she cooperated til I was done shootin.

We sure do love our Wavy! She is already a ham and says cheese whenever a camera comes out, no matter who it's shooting.

Cute twins

Just some cute pictures of the twins in their pre-Christmas outfits.

We enjoy these two so much, more than I ever thought possible. Twins come at a high price, but that's because they also come with more than double the blessings.

Keaton. I love when little boys are dressed like miniature men!

Waverly

And, of course, Brighton had to get in them, too!

This is the only time since she was an infant that Waverly has fallen asleep somewhere besides her crib. It amazes me how one can sleep through the racket the other makes when they are screaming.

Introducing Scottina!

Ok, Scott, don't be mad, but these photos were too funny not to share! Just a goofy moment one night while putting the girls to bed.

1st day of school, part 2

We are so proud of Irelynd! And sad, too, that we will be losing our little girl one year earlier than originally planned. Upon recommendation from her 1st grade teacher and the school principal, we graduated Irelynd up to second grade after 2 1/2 months of school. She was bored and hating school, which is not typical for her. We agonized over the decision, as she had already made friends in her class, and loved her teacher, but decided to give it a try. She resisted, but after the first day, we were both glad we made the decision we did. She loves school again and is finally challenged in the work. I just didn't expect to lose another daughter a whole year earlier than I thought I would to college.