Hippity Hoppity :)

Happy Easter, everyone!!

(Easter crafts!)

I've had a lovely weekend at home so far. Friday night was spent at Josh's with an awesome Easter dinner including these Czech pastries, which I can never remember the name of.

(Yum!)

On Saturday, we took an afternoon stroll with my mom to Patachou to get some delicious omelets for brunch! Yum!

Then, the crafting began. We made some cute bird's nest cupcakes and a basket full of colorful Easter eggs! 

Josh and I also watched a 2-hour documentary about Lady Gaga ("Oprah's Next Chapter"). We would do something like that. Ha. Even I'll admit it was a little too long. But I enjoyed it.

Then we settled down to a steak dinner and a few rounds of Tripoley with my parents :)

Today, I plan on eating a few more Reese's eggs, helping my mom cook dinner, hopefully visiting Josh's family for a little while, feasting on turkey and stuffing, and then heading back to IU :(

It's going to be a busy, busy week. I have a project due on Wednesday, a giant final presentation on Thursday, and, after that, a finite test. 

(Me. Clearly.)

Anyway, check out the posts I've linked and have a great Easter! :)

Recipe: Bird's Nest Cupcakes!

Bird's Nest Easter Cupcakes!!

Cute as can be! And pretty easy!

Okay, so this isn't really a recipe. It's more of a decorating technique. Because I just made one box of Funfetti cake mix into cupcakes, and decorated them using

• Chow mein noodles
• White frosting
• Yellow food coloring
• Whoppers mini eggs (Or any small, egg-shaped candy)

Here's how to do it -

1. Make your cupcakes using the instructions on the box, then let them cool.
2. In a bowl, mix white frosting with a few drops of yellow food dye. Keep stirring and adding more until you reach the desired color. I went with a bright gold, but a light yellow would be cute, too.
3. Frost your cupcakes.
4. Build a "nest" using chow mein noodles. Josh is actually way better at this than I am. It's harder than you'd think. Just try to pick out all the curvy ones and make them criss-cross each other. You can also break some in half and stick them in random blank areas. 
5. Put a few little eggs in the middle of the nest.
6. Tah-dah! You have these little cuties:

Enjoy, and happy Easter :)

Craft: Kool-Aid Easter Eggs!

Kool-Aid Easter Eggs!!

Look at those beauties :)

Okay, so all the instructions are right here: Click here!

But, basically, I just mixed different kinds of Kool-Aid together (with water) to get vibrant, pretty colors.

• The red ones are just plain cherry Kool-Aid.
• The pink ones are pink lemonade with some added cherry. (They're really more of a salmon color, but it was my favorite!)
• The orange ones are orange with some added cherry.
• Some of the yellow ones are lemonade mixed with orange, but they were pretty light. So most of the yellow ones are just yellow food coloring :)
• We couldn't find any green, blue, or purple Kool-Aid, so we just used vinegar and Paas tablets for those. 

Here's a picture of them before they were meticulously positioned in the basket:

Happy Easter! :)

Dream, Create, Love, Chalk!

The weather was really nice today, so I finally got a chance to chalk for a little while. I saw a photo on Pinterest a little while ago (This one!) that really inspired me, so I tried to semi-recreate it/put my own spin on it:

I often get asked what kind of chalk I use. This is my favorite kind:

It's very bright! And, though not as soft and malleable as the traditional pastel green/pink/blue/yellow kind that comes in a cheapo box, still easy to draw with. For thin black outlines and other small details, I use this stuff:

(Note: the black does take a while to wash off, and sometimes leaves permanent stains, so be wary if you like your driveways/sidewalks clean and pristine!)

For more of my chalk art, go to the Chalk Art page on the top bar :)

Not much else went on today. The most exciting thing about my life right now is the special menu in the cafeteria this week...(Alfredo pizza...mm...) Thrilling. I know.

I'm pretty excited to go home for Easter this weekend. I'm going to try dying my eggs with Kool-Aid this year. Apparently it works wonders? I'll letcha know. I'm not exactly an egg artist, but I do enjoy drawing my name on them with white crayon :)

(From Easter 2008)

I'd also like to make some adorable Easter cupcakes I saw on one of my fave websites Skinnytaste! Not that I'll need any more sweets after the Easter Bunny visits me. But I'm clearly not going to pass up an opportunity to improve on my cupcake-baking skills. If I attempt it I will be sure to post my results. Though I'm sure at this point my readership consists of just Josh and I. Heh :)

Anyway, have a nice Tuesday evening. Time for Jeopardy and Idol :)