Monkey Cupcakes

Yesterday I attended a baby shower for a little boy who should arrive any day. The theme was monkeys, so I thought I would attempt monkey cupcakes. (NOTE: This is the first time I had ever tried to make a character cupcake.)

Now I'm labeling this as crafty, but you must know there are much better instructions/pictures/videos to be found. If you stopped here and are too lazy to search further, you should still be able to fashion a monkey from a little cake. One more thing- this is a quickie tutorial, but it gets the point across.

Here goes.

Chocolate cake mix works well as a monkey color. Frost with chocolate, unless you are going for a rare albino monkey look, 

but that's just weird.

(Gee whiz, this picture sure looks creepy!) Mix a little chocolate frosting with a bunch of vanilla to get the oddly tinted light brown. Pipe on some hair, because it's cute, and three circles for eyes and the mouth. The next step is to smooth the light brown circles with your spatula, but I found out that I have  ZERO spatula smoothing skills. So I wet my finger with a drop of water and patted my circles down. They didn't look that great, but whatever! They still tasted good. Did I mention I had never done this before? 

Now you add eyes and ears. I used jumbo chocolate chips (upside down) for the eyes and Junior Mints for the ears. You may have to glue the ears with a little extra frosting. (Notice the surgery to the monkey's right ear?) Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I melted some of the eyes (aka chocolate chips) to pipe on the mouths.

Five hours and 53 cupcakes later I was done. I am forever impressed with the peeps on Cupcake Wars for churning out 1,000 cupcakes in 2 hours. INSANE! If you take a closer look at the pan on the back, right side, you will see some of the monkeys are deaf because I ran out of Junior Mints.  I'm sure it wouldn't take anyone else as long as it did me, but it was fun! You should try it.

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Wise Words From a Young Heart

 What is this feeling, this pain I hold inside?

 Is it fear? Is it something I once held dear?

 Talking to the man from Galilee.

 Let Him decide what’s best for me.

 Let all my sorrow, all my pain, never run again in my veins.

 Make the sting of anger leave my thought,

 Before any fights can be fought.

 Let the peace of life grace my heart,

 Before it gets torn apart.

That was beautifully written by my nephew Matthew who is a college freshman. I won't share the turbulence behind his words, for it is his own. What I will reveal is how his thoughts touched me.

The words seem beyond the years that formed them. Probably because they are. I'm sure they were whispered by the Holy Spirit to ease a troubled heart. They whispered to me too.

Let all my sorrow, all my pain, never run again in my veins. Why do I look back so often? My past failures do not define me. And WHY do I periodically allow jealousy to race perversely through me? I have not been handed opportunities as I have seen many 20-somethings given that will forever enhance their lives. The opportunities are usually undeserved, and they would have been with me as well had I been the young recipient. Jealousy is a brewing sewer. I am determined to get over it and move on when it demands an audience.

Let the peace of life grace my heart, before it gets torn apart. LORD, touch my heart so that I allow Your peace to fill my heart at all times. 

I am not writhing in sorrow and regret, but they do rear their ugly heads on occasion. My prayer is that I won't allow any footholds. 

Thank you Matthew for your wonderful words. Keep talking to the Man from Galilee. 

focused on Glory (through beauty)

I am such a girl. 


I love roses.


And not just the traditional looking roses. Although I must admit that my favorite is one of the "rosy" looking ones. It's an English rose, and I'm over the moon for it. It whispers its beauty in fat, heaping bundles. They make me think of charming, little cottages with decades of ivy on the exterior, and massive rose bushes engulfing the corners and windows.


God must have been smiling when He made roses for us. And I bet there weren't any thorns before we messed with His perfection in the original garden. I wonder if the addition of thorns made His heart ache. You know He had to DESPISE creating thorns... for so many reasons.


But we still got to keep the roses! What a precious God we have. Oh how He loves us. (That song is playing right now... such timing!)


Last week my mom had her 70th birthday, and Daddy gave her a bouquet of pink roses. They were glorious indeed. I know God smiles when we do, and I smiled at the beauty He had created.

Don't forget to stop by Jennifer's BLOG to see her foG 

post this week. 

Not So Much

A long time ago I wrote a list on Things I Like. This is not that list. I am feeling the need to vent about a few things for which I'm not so fond. Here goes.

• Bloody Noses. Par for the course in dry, winter air. (I keep forgetting to turn on the humidifier.)
• Rude People. Common courtesy... HA! This afternoon a woman and her teen-aged son rushed to block me from a register. I was going to let it go and got in line behind her when a man walked past me and took my place. AM I INVISIBLE?
• Underwear That Loses its Elasticity. Just keeping it real people. And to clarify, I'm talking about new-ish underwear that goes into the washer just fine, but it comes out looking like it phased with the Hulk.
• Acne. Really?! Will this ever go away?
• Short-circuited Turn Signals. My blinker only works when it feels like it, causing me to be the recipient of several honks and loud comments. Two mechanics have looked at the car, but neither could find the issue. One of them told me that he didn't know what was wrong, but he knew it wouldn't be cheap. JOY.
• Missing Friends. I miss having friends around. (sigh)
• Spiders. Enough said.
• Inconvenient Bathroom Trips. Why is it that I have no desire to use the restroom at home, but I must go to the restroom when I enter a store? Just let me step foot in a Hobby Lobby and I'm headed to the (always disgusting) restroom.

So how about you? What do you dislike? Here is your chance to get it out. 

70 NEVER Looked SO Good

My adorable, little mama is 70 years old today, and I cannot wrap my head around that fact. She acts much younger than what you would think of someone her age. And talk about cute! Ladies everywhere are going to want to know her secret, because 70 NEVER looked SO good.

Seriously! There is NO way she looks her age. 

(Forgive the unclear photo, it was a rush job as I dragged her to the sidewalk as we were getting ready to go out this afternoon.)

This is the birthday apple pie she made herself! I was going to bake something for her, but she was SO excited to combine her recipe with one from her Mitford cookbook. It was a MONSTER of a pie! That is a deep, 11.5" skillet.

focused on Glory (in others)

There is a lady living at the retirement community where my daddy works that I had to meet. She and Daddy have a sweet relationship that has extended to include my mother, and now me.

Mrs. S. loves to read, and she began sharing some of her books with Daddy. At first she loaned her books to him, but she eventually began giving them "for keeps." I'm not sure if she asked or if Daddy mentioned that Mama liked one of the books, but that began another chapter in the story. Soon Mrs. S. began sending books home to Mama. The two ladies began a friendship without having met.

A few weeks ago Mom went to the company Christmas party with Daddy. Daddy just loves to show off his trophy wife. At 12 years his junior, she keep him young. Each year she attends the party, and each year Daddy is engulfed in compliments about his cute wife. This year was the first time Mama met Mrs. S. and they loved each other immediately. A few days later, Mrs. S. ordered a book just for Mommy. She learned that Mommy liked the Mitford series by Jan Karon, and Mrs. S sent the Mitford Cookbook to her. What a thoughtful gift! Mama has already tried two of the recipes.

I was so intrigued by this lady who had been so precious to my parents. I told Mama that I would like to go visit and meet her. Mrs. S. told us that she rarely gets visitors, as her family lives out of state. She was sad to see them go after Christmas and would love to have company. Mrs. S. has great difficulty and pain when walking and doesn't leave her apartment much. Thankfully, everything she needs is provided on the generous retirement campus.

It was SUCH FUN to meet this dear lady. She shared stories from her life and showed us pictures that were of importance. When she was young she fulfilled her dream of learning to fly, and she has crossed the US three times by train. Doesn't that sound marvelous! We hated to say goodbye, and we promised to continue the visits. 

Here is the shot taken as we said our goodbyes. Aren't they adorable!

Don't forget to see how Jef is focused on Glory HERE.

Not focused on Me

I've known all along that I wanted to have an foG post like this, but I'm still not sure if I can pull it off. This could very easily sound like it is focused on my glory, but I promise that isn't the intent. If anything, I hope to reinforce my gratitude to God for making me who I am. CBell is a friend of mine, and she has the BEST quote. "It's good to be me." I agree with her. She is the most amazing CBell evah!

And you know what? I like being me.


My life isn't perfect, and neither am I. (I can almost hear the "Amens!") Like everyone else, I KNOW I get on people's nerves, am sometimes rude and unsatisfied, and not always a great example to follow. But God's grace covers, and I am redeemed. Psalm 51: 1& 2

I love that God chose me to be me. I'm happy that He chose each of us specifically. One time I was standing in the kitchen with my dear friend Tina Jo and her husband. Ron is a forensic accountant. The job title alone makes my eyes cross! I remember turning to Ron and saying, "I'm SO glad God makes people like you. You make the world work." Ron smiled and answered, "Yes, but you decorate it." He told me that "people like me" make the world easier to live in. I loved that!


Am I the most creative person on the planet? Certainly not. Am I the most original. Of course not. But I do enjoy some of the silly things that pop into my head, and I recognize Who enables me to have those ideas. And being PERFECTLY honest, I love when people enjoy something I've created.


With that in mind, I want to show you a couple of pictures from the Christmas decorations I put together. My crafty ideas aren't going to win any prizes, but they sure were fun to implement.

This is one of the Christmas cone trees I made. It is sitting on the top of my grandmother's antique secretary. 

 What can you do with a little round Coca-Cola bottle? Cover it in glitter to make a sparkly ornament.

God is the giver of all things. Be pleased with who you are, and please Him with what He has given you.

And a little p.s.

As I was finishing this post, I turned and saw this image. I had left my camera like this, so I grabbed my Olympus P&S. Does anything describe this project any better?

Be sure to check out Jennifer's post HERE later today. Jef had a rough go last week, but she will be back this week.