Cupcakes and Crafts...

Happy Monday everyone! I'm praying for all the kiddos out there counting down the days until Christmas! :P


GREEK YOGURT CUPCAKES


As mentioned in my latest post, I made cupcakes! Now, I've never made cupcakes in my life. Weird, I know. But I haven't had ANY interest in the kitchen (unless it involves eating) ever before. But, I was watching the Seaworld Birthday Bash episode of Cupcake Wars and my creative juices got flowin'. So, my mom drove me to Kroger and we got:

• 1 box of 18.25oz Devils Food cake mix
• 1 cup (1 1/3 containers) of Greek vanilla yogurt
• Icing (big container!)

Once home, I:

• Added the whole box of cake with 1 cup of the Greek yogurt
• Then, mixed it all with 1 cup of water. 

I then scooped the cake mix into aluminum muffin holders and baked for 25 minutes at 350. (I did 12 at a time, but made 23 total..)

For the icing, I added about 3 drops of green and 2 drops of blue food coloring. Then scooped into a baggy, cut off a corner, and squeezed the icing on top of the fully-cooled cupcakes!

End result: 

Last night, I was tweeting about how I had made cupcakes. Well, a baker who appeared on Cupcake Wars of Food Network (@RedVelvetStef), asked me for a pic! Well, she wanted to feature cupcakes that people had made over the weekend when her episode of Cupcake Wars aired! So, here is the link where my cupcake is featured (unfortunately it's only an iPhone photo. :/) But still cute! 

http://www.redvelvetstefanie.com/category/blog/ 

P.S.- You can follow me at @CMcPhotography!

MINI-SCRAPBOOKS

Now, the other half of this blog post it titled Crafts, and here is why. I thought of a super fun craft idea to do with my kiddos I nanny! We've had so much fun this summer and so I thought it would be fun to make mini-scrapbooks with photos from our summer. So, I put together scrapbook kits for each of the kids to make their scrapbook..

Here is how to put together this easy and fun craft. 

1. Cut 2 pieces of card-stock in half, punch holes, and tie with string. 

2. Print pictures.

3. Pre-cut scrapbooking paper in different sizes, shapes, and colors. 

(sorry it's blurry. :/ )

4. Cut out individual stickers (this will prevent the use of TONS of stickers, costing you big bucks!)

5.  Add other fun craft items (here I added my favorites.. buttons and ribbon!) 

6. Add all the supplies together and you have a mini-scrapbooking kit! 

Note: Be sure to have scissors, double sided tape, and a chaperone! Have fun! :)

Fall 2010... (warning: transparent.)

It's interesting to me how portions of our lives get named different things based on events. For instance.. "the summer between 8th and 9th grade" or "Christmas Break." Well, the time that I'm about to be in is called "Fall 2010." I have not changed, or so I think, and nothing else substantial has changed in my life. Simply stated, I'm going to learn new things. Except, you see, "Fall 2010" is so much bigger than that. It marks so many things for me. Things that are going to be changing. Here is what will hopefully be changing for me..


1. I learn how to make friends, and I mean really make friends, not acquaintances. 


2. My photography "business" blossoms... God's will permitting. :)


3. I learn to appreciate MAKING food, not just eating it. (So far I've learned to make sausage and fresh green beans, apple tuna salad, and greek yogurt cupcakes.. post coming soon! :P)


4. I grow undeniably closer to my already good friend Jesus. 


5. That Chris and I experience a new level of appreciation for each other. 


So, bring it on "Fall 2010." With the help of aforementioned Jesus, :) I will not be anxious any longer. I'm jumping into this new season head first, with great expectations. 


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Phillipians 4:6-7


Here are a few things that have been going on in my week..


- I made myself a new craft station! It's in my guest bedroom, haha. I'm semi-modeling it after Angela Moore's. :) 

- Emily, my little sister and I, have been spending a lot of time together. She's hilarious!

- I am almost completely ready for this new semester of classes. School supplies- check. Tuition- check (thanks Daddy!...) New clothes- check (again.. thanks Daddy!) Books- check! 

- I got a wild hair and made cupcakes. Haha. I've never made cupcakes in my whole life! 

- Chris and I went to Schlitterbahn New Braunfels. It was packed but very fun!! 


- And random picture for the week!!:

Main Event...

On Sunday night, Chris, Jamie, Andrew and I went to Main Event. Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering, why is this such a big deal? Well, for two reasons really; One, I have NEVER been. I had not even stepped foot inside Main Event. So, it was exciting to go and see what its all about. And, two, they have the MOST FUN arcade game I have ever played. It's deal or no deal, but you play for tickets!! I would go back JUST to play that game again. I'm a game show junkie, and it was as close as I'll probably get to being on a game show! Ah, so much fun. I even won 100 tickets one time I played which would have been equivalent to 750,000 on the show. :) 

Seven on Sunday...

(Just realized it's now Monday. Dang.)

1. I sumhow mannajed too get uh um 100.25% inn my publick speeking class. :)

2. On Thursday, I saw The Other guys with my bestie Lindsey, and we stayed up until 4:45 in the morning talking! That is what happens when you realize that you won't be seeing that other person for a loonnggg time. She's leaving me for LaTourneau in a couple days. :(

3. Ramona and Beezus is such a cute movie.  

4. I made up the cutest rhyme for my sister's Class of 2015:

And created a binder cover for my sister and all her friends, including Bailey who is class of 2014 (We're the class of 2014, we'll be heard and we'll be seen. Please make room, we're coming through. To be the best class you ever knew. We know you're envious, the color green. Yep, class of 2014.)... 

5. So, Chris and I decided not to go on our Waterfall Adventure; It is where we visit all the parks around Austin that have waterfalls in them and take pictures. Instead, we officially have tickets for Schlitterbahn New Braunfels! We're going to take a day trip to New Braunfels and stay all day chillin' and splashin'. :)

6. I learned, after 18 years of life, and 6+ years of being able to do my own hair, how to curl it!! FINALLY!

7. I went by the AT&T store on a whim today to see if my new phone had come in, and, well, it had been sitting in their store for 6 days now! They apparently had my email in their system wrong! Anyways, I got my new iPHONE 4!!! It's sleek, quick-functioning, and not cracked. :P

That's it for now, school starts in about one week. Yippee. Haha, not sure if I'm excited yet or not. I'll update on that later.. 

Seven on Sunday.. Except it's Tuesday...

I'm sitting in San Jac South and it's 9:06pm. Thursday is my last day of summer school. Of course, one week after that I'll be started the fall semester, but at least I will get one last week of real summer. I'm writing all of this, because I've realized something. I decided I would do "Seven on Saturday" which turned into "Seven on Sunday" which has now turned into "Seven on Sunday, on Tuesday!" I am supposed to be doing this so that I can blog consistently! But, along with realizing my slacking blog nature, I've realized that if I get my panties in a was about not blogging "on time" I'm going to get burnt out very quickly. So, that being said, I will still blog about my week in a "Seven on Sunday" style SOMETIMES, but my week will be blogged about nontheless, somehow.

1. Monday was the second official day of my Grandma JoAnne's visit to Houston.  So what did we do? We showed her EVERY part of Houston. She got a tour of downtown, the tunnels, Rice Village, the Med Center, my dad's work (including an introduction to EVERY one of his employees, our church, HBU, UHCL, and of course Clear Lake (the actual lake, haha).

2. Tuesday, I crafted with Jamie all morning. :) I was getting nervous about having to give a speech that day, so I decided to craft to get my nerves under control. It worked! And we created these adorable, functional picture or jewelry holders. <3

3. Wednesday, I was given the arduous task of driving my Grandma and her partner Chuck to Bush Airport. All I can say is I survived to tell about it today. :P

4. Thursday, I became an organ donor. I checked "yes" when renewing my license. Hopefully, someday I can save someone's life. That would be pretty neat. When telling my mom, I was like, "All I need is my soul! They can take the rest. :)"

5. Friday was spent half at Cheesecake Factory, YUM!!, and half in the car. On the way to Temple...

6. On Saturday, I FRISBEE GOLFED! and we celebrated my Grams and Grandaddy's 45th wedding anniversary. Holy Dang is all I gotta say. I mean, I hope to accomplish that one day, but it's a different story witnessing people succeed at a marriage for 45 years.

(photos courtesy of my dad :) )

7. Sunday, my mom, sister, and I shopped 'till we dropped. Literally. 5 hours spent at Premiere Outlet Mall on 290 = good night sleep.

I've also started my Project Life scrapbook. It's so fun and easy. :) I recommend it to all crafters, nostalgics, scrapbookers, photo-album-ers, well, anyone!

Seven on Sunday again...

It's been a BUSY week, but it has actually been hard to remember seven interesting things from this past week. Maybe it's because it seems like summer school is consuming my life!! On a more positive note, I got Project Life (Project 365) for my birthday and I'm going to scrapbook my 18th year! I'm going to try an incorporate some of the same pictures on here as I use in my scrapbook.. 


1. On Wednesday, Chris and I saw Inception. It is honestly one of the best movies I've seen EVER. Why? Because the director, producer, and actors, made something so abstract like dreams successfully and believably portrayed on the screen. AHmazing. 


2. Thursday was my 18th Birthday!!!! I went shopping with Chris, came home and my Momma got me flowers and cake, and then went to.. guess... summer school! Woo! Haha. All-in-all, it was a fabulously relaxing birthday. A nice entrance into "adulthood." :)

3. My new TV obsession is Big Brother. I hadn't seen a single episode until this season, but I'm hooked. It may be because it's like a car-wreck where you can't help but watch, or that nothing else good comes on TV during the summer. Nonetheless, go TEAM BRENCHEL! :P Haha!


4. On my birthday, I was also able to do some DIY crafting, which I'm finding I love more and more. I'm too non-habitual and busy to actually finish a scrapbook (Project Life is actually a photo album complete with pre-cut paper. :P), so fun little one-time projects are perfect for me. Anyways, I made a binder cover for the Fall semester and coordinating folders for all of my classes, as seen here:

5. On Friday, at lifegroups, Mike Ragland made me the BEST cake. Can you say chocolate with more chocolate covering in chocolate? YUM!

6. Yesterday, I remembered that I had bought glow-sticks for a buck at Michael's. Yep, glow-sticks are fun, anytime, anyplace. 

7. This evening, we went to celebrate my and my Grandma JoAnne's birthday at Ichibons! We are SO excited she is here and are having a blast so far with her and her partner Chuck. Here are some highlights from Ichibons!!