Howling at the Moon

This week we celebrated my daughter's Birthday for friends and family and she asked me explicitly to make a Coffee Cake for her party and of course I did.  I baked a vanilla cake and cut it in three layers. For the filling I mixed mascarpone and whipped cream in a 2:1 rate and added one table spoon espresso powder and two table spoons powder sugar. The filling was smeared between the layers of the cake, on top of it and on the sides.  I spread sprinkels on the side and embellished the top of the cake with chocolate balls and coffee beans, et voila!  Fortunately for my daughter, the cake was a great success. ~*~ My Plant Sack was featured by Embracing Grace ! Thank you very much, Stacey!

This week we had the first snow in The Netherlands. I go to work by bike and my ears almost froze off my head. Reason enough to crochet a hat. 

For years I'm making a Mochila Bag every now and then, but a while ago I saw a book about fair isle crochet . It's the same technique that I use for the bags, but there were lots of other very nice projects in the book that you can make with this stitch. The most beautiful thing in the book is a large blanket, but knowing that I don't have the patience to ever finish a large project like that, I don't even think about making a start with it. Instead I chose to make a sack for one of my new plants.   ~*~ My Pineapple Cupcakes were featured by Embracing Change and Creative Jewish Mom ! Thank you, Stacey and Sara! My Lama Lamp was also featured by Creative Jewish Mom! Thanks again, Sara!

This week I saw the cutest little lama, for sale together with a lighted cactus, and although I didn't know what to do with it, I bought it. Today I found some left over faux snow and shiny stars from Christmas and I came to the idea to make a little lamp with all stuff together. I bought a string of very small lights and took one of many empty vegetable jars that I keep in my closet, glued the battery holder to the inside of the lit of the jar and arranged the little lamps around it. The lama and cactus I glued to the bottom of the jar. The snow I sprinkled around it and to top it off I added the stars. Finished was my little lamp! ~*~ My other lama, Alicia Alpaca , was featured by Creative Jewish Mom , Oombawka Design and The Cottage Market this week! Thank you, Sara, Rhondda and Andrea!

My youngest had her birthday this week and as usual she had to treat her class mates, so on her request I made cupcakes with pineapples. Making cupcakes isn't something that I really like to do, mostly because the last couple of years I always had to make cupcakes for school, but as long as my daughters like it...

Next week my youngest daughter has her Birthday. She will be become nine years old and when I asked what she wants the most for her Birthday, she answered that she really wants to go to London for a couple of days, because she wants to see the Big Ben. Don't you love that?! I don't know how she got the idea, but I really like it. Making memories with the whole family is so much better than more and more and more stuff, just after Sinterklaas and Christmas. I don't even know what to give anymore.  So, London it will be. But because we will not be in London yet on the Birthday itself, I want to give her a little present. The animal she likes the most at the moment is an alpaca, so I made one for her from the book Animal Friends of Pica Pau from Yan Schenkel. I also bought her a couple of books about London, to get in the mood.

First things first: Happy New Year to you all! Let's hope it's a good one, without any fears. Don't get me wrong: I like Christmas, specially the days before Christmas, but every year I'm glad it's over and everything is going back to normal. After this weekend school starts again and then finally I can start to clean up the house and make some things for my daughter's birthday in two weeks. Invitations for instance.  For Christmas my daughter made a little candle in a jar at school. I so loved it, that I wanted to make one myself. With instructions from my daughter I bought fuse and pigment to color the wax. For my Birthday the same daugther had bought this skull glass and because I never drink from large glasses like this one, but still wanted to use it (of course, it was a present from my daughter!), I filled the glass with fuse and wax and made me a great candle! ~*~ This week the first Christmas Cake I made for the christmas brea