Holiday Time: Cherpumple

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! The day of my sister and I kept it pretty quite...but the weekend before a dream of mine came true. I made a Cherpumple! Anyone who has known me for awhile has probably heard me talk about this monster cake. The idea is taken from the Turducken- the chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey. Except this is cakes and pies! I saw this YouTube video a couple of years ago and have been dreaming about it ever since.






My friend said we should make it for our Friendsgiving party we were going to and I jumped at the chance. It was not a perfect project but it was a lot of fun. The bottom layer is a pumpkin pie in a spice cake. The next layer is an apple pie in a yellow cake and the top layer is a cherry pie in a white cake. Working in a bakery I should have seen some of our problems coming a mile away...but we just didn't have time to really do it right!

 It was still too warm when we put it together to frost it. The layers were trying to slide all over and the pressure of the weight was making the top crack. I was FLIPPING OUT and we ended up plastic wrapping the heck out of the entire thing so we could get it to the party!

 Taking the wrap off. I made someone else deal with the cake so when it fell apart I could blame it on someone else! Kidding! But seriously....

After the first piece was cut a lava flow of frosting and pie came out with it! It was pretty funny. But everything tasted pretty good so we are going to call it a win! You live and learn.




Onward to Christmas!!! I am already listening to music (like right now) and watching movies : ) Just pulled out all of my Christmas stuff out of my closet and I have some craft projects started!!! 

Thrifting: Holiday Outfit Edition

Nothing seems to make my heart sing quite like sequins. I think that when I was in school and a die-hard tomboy the years of shunning all things 'girly' has now swung to the other end of the spectrum. Now I am the girl with sparkle everything, way too many dresses, and an obsession with pink. Hmm. Cycles I tell ya.


Combine thrift store finds AND sparkles and you have a most winning combination in my book!

The perfect Christmas green sequin shirt! All the stores are all a glitter this time of year for the holidays coming up and I love snagging a thrifty-vintage find. At $3 this top also be easy on my tight holiday budget! It came complete with shoulder pads but I took those out!

This lovely dress also had elbow pads. Not quite a sparkly beauty but the cute print and small details on this dress make it a great find in my book!

Both of these outfits look slightly frumpy on my tiny dress form. They look even better on someone with the curves to fill them out a bit ; )

Are you already planning holiday outfits?

Currently Obsessed With: Skyfall

So is anyone else as obsessed with Skyfall as I am? Well there must be because it is the #1 movie in the world...but I can't even express how much I loved this movie!

James Bond has always been a favorite and when Daniel Craig took over the iconic role I could not have been happier. By the way, how are his eyes so blue? I digress. Casino Royale was a fun movie that stepped up the James Bond game and got it away from some of the sillyness that it was becoming. I sort of feel like it was the 'Batman Begins' equivalent of the Bond franchise. Then came Quantum of Solace and I was again very excited...and then quickly dissapointed. It is just not that good of a movie. The nod to Goldfinger was excellent and a couple of M's quips were of course spot on but other than that the movie seemed to lack clear direction.

Now onto Skyfall. Firstly- the trailers were excellent. From the first teaser you wanted to see this film and you wanted it to be so good. The movie delivered! I will admit the first 20 minutes or so I was a little worried and then things took a turn. Javier Bardem makes one of the best villians in modern cinema. The clear 'bad guy wants revenge plot' was so much more refreshing than the mysterious world of secret society terrorists in the last two films. The background on Bond was great as well and the connections to the past movies was fun and tied the 50 year history of this brand together in a clever little package. It is so nice to see a well made action movie! There were scenes towards the end that were so beautifully shot  you forgot you were watching a 'Bond movie'.

Also I have to give a shout out to the new young 'Q'. Not many men could distract from the swoon-worthy-ness of Mr. Craig but Q, played by Ben Winshaw, managed to steal some of the attention that is usually heaped upon Bond (at least in my friend group!).

Something about the combination of accent+great hair+sweaters+nerd glasses really made this Q work for me! Nerds: you are having a moment of awesome right now!

I will try to catch Skyfall again while it is still in theaters. Until then I will just listen to Adele's Skyfall on repeat like I have been doing for the last week.

I am trying to think of some fun James Bond craft projects. Anyone have any ideas?

Baking season

Working at a bakery sometimes the LAST thing I want to do when I get home is bake, but I love it so I have been forcing myself to make stuff! A couple of weeks ago the Derby team got together for a potluck- and I brought the skate cake! I bought the pan at the local Hobby Lobby with a coupon. I really shouldn't collect this kind of bakeware because I don't have the room...but oh do I love it!

And cupcakes are always a favorite! I made these easy peasy egg cupcakes for my friend's birthday Brinner (breakfast for dinner).

These are so easy they are criminal! I loaded up a pastry bag with white frosting and put an irregular dollop on each mini cupcake. Then I separated out some plain yellow m&ms and made sure I put the 'm' side down. Ta da! These are nice because they don't have an obscene amount of frosting on them. Another cute idea is to use green m&ms for a green eggs and ham/ Dr. Seuss party.

Now it is all about the turkeys and fall leaves and getting ready for winter.

Is it over?!

Not only is October (and Halloween) over we already solidly in November! Where has the time gone? I am going to say that I have been having so much fun that the time has just flown by...Mostly true! I did get a few Halloween projects done this year, including two costumes.

One was for my sister. She wanted a pikachu costume. I forbade her from buying one!

We headed to the thrift store and found an adorable yellow dress. I made a tail and some stripes and a set of ears.

 For the ears I covered a headband and stuffed the ears with polyfil and some lightweight wire to give them a bit of bend.

The tail is a styrofoam base covered in fabric (all sewing- no glue!) The base of the tail is sewn to the dress and then a small loop of string was attached to the top of the tail and then looped onto the button at the top back of the dress to make the tail stand up.

The stripes are dark brown felt sewn to the dress. The upper stripe covered some of the zipper so it is only half sewn on and the other half I attached 3 velcro bits so you can still unzip the dress.

Some major blush on the cheeks and she was the cutest pokemon at the party. (Ok she was the ONLY pokemon at the party...but still!)


I also made a squirrel costume for my girl Squirrely Q. I had her buy a hoodie that she liked and I added ears and a tail. She loves it so much she still wears it around. I didn't get a picture of it but I also bought a small glitter acorn from the craft store and added a loop of fabric to it so she could wear it around her wrist or safety pin it to herself so she wouldn't lose it!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween and now onto the holiday season! WOOO HOOOO!