May, 2008 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives May 2008

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Knitted cupcakes

Posted on May 6, 2008 10:21 pm by TheAngelForever

Oh wait, please pay no attention to the title of this blog post for today. My brain and life have just been inundated by all things cupcake! Thanks to so many test runs of giant cupcakes/birthday party preparations, reading (finally finished New Moon a while back), boys that will not nap/sleep, Twitter, and Mario Kart for the Wii – knitting had a back seat. I was still knitting a little here and there, but nothing like I had been doing.

JL asked me to make something for him. He wanted a back scrubber that he could really hold onto and use in the shower. He liked the DW cloth texture. I am quite addicted to making DW washcloths because it is mindless knitting (quite nice for late night Mommy brain drain sessions). It took me a little over a week to make with all of the other distractions going on. In the end this is what it looked like.

Yes, it looks like a giant scarf of a washcloth, but it should work perfectly. The cotton yarn does an amazing job holding onto water and soap and lathering up. Now for a close up

After finishing this I quickly whipped off a DW cloth for my little niece S who will be here this weekend to celebrate JSL’s first birthday. It has been so strange making cloths in girl colors. Yes, you read that right, I am now on the second one in yet another girl color scheme. I will post photos of them later after they have been given to S, I do not want to ruin the surprise for her Mommy and Daddy that read this (Hi I and M!).

Now I am off to check out where I have seen a pattern for a cupcake cloth. It is only fitting given my new role as cupcake queen.

Categories:
knitting me moments

Giant cupcake making – Take 2

Posted on May 5, 2008 11:16 pm by TheAngelForever

Saturday and Sunday it was time to bake and decorate the second test run of JSL’s first birthday cake. The first attempt can be seen here and viewed being eaten here. From the first baking we learned some valuable things. We knew that we had to put a lot less batter into the pan and bake it for less time.

Thanks to Google I was able to find a great hint. Someone mentioned baking it at 325 (not 350) for 65 minutes (we actually only kept it in 50 minutes). They also said to put 3 1/2 cups of batter into the bottom section and 3 cups into the top. Another pointer was to freeze the cake to make it easier to carve. While out and about we also decided to try something different for decorating. We found a new toy for me to use. Here it is:

Several of the photos of completed giant cupcakes had tops that had used a similar tool. We figured it was worth the small investment since it will be used again.

Given the resources I found we bought two marble cake mixes and whipped frosting and were ready to go. Things were a little more complicated with the marbling. We had to figure how much to leave out of each side to have the right amount left for the little cupcakes (we had a dozen of those this time). It took a bit more time, but we now believe it was worth it and will go quickly for JSL’s birthday. Here is the finished product after it was almost completely decorated Sunday night.

Giant Cupcake Take 2

We ran out of frosting with a bit left to go. Ooops! Thank goodness JL’s co-workers did not seem to care as they devoured the cake rather quickly.

The deal was to send the giant cupcake into work and keep the little ones home. Here are half of the ones we had for all of us to enjoy. They have my favorite frosting from childhood on them that was discontinued for a while. Thank goodness it is back!

Hopefully the cake baking Saturday will go as smoothly. We just need to finalize the topper for the cake that will go along with the giant star sprinkles that I bought especially for JSL’s 1st birthday cake. We think we want something from Sesame Street and have to figure a way to write his name on it. Plus the #1 candle needs to be on top.

Enjoy the sugary goodness of the photos, more will be coming Sunday after the party!

Categories:
birthday food glorious food fun photos yummy

CVS Deals- 4/30 & 5/1

Posted on May 3, 2008 5:36 pm by TheAngelForever

This month I had a really tough time finding most of the April deals at CVS. Pretty much every store I went to after April 2 was out of anything/everything really good. Do not get me wrong, I did really well with other items (especially the M&Ms), but it was frustrating at times. I can only imagine the poor people that work at CVS who had to listen to people all month long about things being out of stock.

Anyway Wednesday night we happened to be near a different CVS so I went in to see what they had. I have had luck at this one in the past. It was unreal – they had everything and tons of it (which when I went back today – was GONE). I was floored that they were overflowing with the 12 and 18 ounce Soft Soap Spa Radiant Body Wash. I quickly maxed out my limit on the 12 ounce and picked up two of the 18 ounce ones as well. They also had three of the rapid release pain relievers that fulfilled my limit. All of these items were FREE once I had my ECB print outs.

In addition to this, the CVS I was at had a great sale on Tide Free. All Tide was BOGO along with the All detergent that was in the ad this week. Although I did not get ECBs for these, I still did great with coupons and the BOGO. For all of the items below with a retail value of $64.89 I paid $2.78 out of pocket after coupons and ECBs. The best thing is I went in with $32 in ECBs and still have over $30!

CVS deals - Part 1 (4/30)

CVS deals - Part 2 (4/30)

The next day (5/1) I made a trip to a different CVS. When I went to check out I found out they were not having a sale on Tide. Strange how some do things so differently so close to each other. I was upset for my mother who was with me to see how the CVS thing is done. During that trip I also received the May montly flier and was able to get the Colgate 360 toothbrushes (free after ECBs) and one other item to try with NHL when brushing his teeth.

My mother had her own CVS card and I helped her with some coupons and was going to do her transaction. When her ECBs printed out I looked at it and saw MY NAME! Ugh, sure enough she had my small card. She has probably had it since I was in college. Problem was – we both were getting 2-3 of the Colgate 360 toothbrushes and could not do this on my one card. This threw me off my came and I had to think quickly. We filled out an application to get my mother her own CVS card and continued. I spent more out of pocket on my items because I was not able to use her ECBs that were mine . . . or maybe it was mine that were hers. You get the picture! My brain was mush at the end of that and I think the poor girl at the counter was too.

We shall see what next week brings.

Thanks to MoneySavingMom for her great scenarios and coupon alerts!

Categories:
deals photos shopping

Giant cupcake eating

Posted on May 2, 2008 12:07 pm by TheAngelForever

As a follow up to Giant Cupcake Making – Take 1, I thought it would be fitting to share the photos from our taste testing Wednesday night.

Thanks to where I placed the cake to store it over night it was a pain in the rear to cut, especially the first slice. Check out the mess that resulted in my fun.

Thank goodness most people could care less what their slice looks like. Once they see the pretty cake, it is usually all about the tasting. Well, here is a slice for you. . .

What did you think? Hmmm . . . we need to work on the virtual giant cupcake eating thing I guess!

Here is NHL’s reaction to the cupcake.

Must have more cake

Since everyone was having some of the giant cupcake we could not leave JSL out of it. He had some cake without frosting. He will get ALL of the sugary goodness for the first time at his party on Mother’s Day. Here was his reaction to the cake. . .

First taste of cake