despeepable me

it's true - it's my new obsession. i've seen it probably 30 times since christmas, easily.

so there was no other 'scene' that was more fitting for my peeps diorama than

despeepable me

i chose a scene in the lab....gru has talked to the minions about their successful venture stealing the Times Square Jumbotron and the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower (both the Las Vegas versions) and is plotting his next big mission - to build a rocket and steal the moon.

margo, edith and agnes find their way to the lab (agnes complete with unicorn, prior to its disintegration)

the minions around the water cooler...and the minions that must secure agnes a new 'baboy'...the blue prints for the rocket...the tubes that minions travel by....the circular room that the rocket launches from...

i thoroughly enjoyed making this diorama.

i will do it again.

just for fun

it all started with jason sending me this link in an email:


a peeps diorama....of course. right up my alley.

the whole premise was very intriguing...create a scene (pop culture or whatnot) where the characters all had to be depicted with Peeps. Peeps have a long history with our family - while I know some will marvel at my creative use of them, others will strongly object to their waste, and for that, I apologize. but what better way to glorify the marshmallow?

if you read the fine print, we aren't eligible to win, but that wasn't going to stop me. i'm way past the deadline anyway.

while i constructed my diorama in my sleep, i mentioned it to a few people and posted a few comments on facebook...and the thing gained some momentum. there was no stopping it.

enter two snow days this week.

and peeps dioramas were born...all over our house.

let's start with molly's

not so much a diorama...but she is only four. it's titled "Easter Family"

and next, maya's...

titled "Family in Bedroom"

here we see her scene...

and the 'mom' laying in bed viewing the big screen TV (cleverly made of cardboard)

a swirl rug, and two peeps enjoying some good books (one is Harry Potter, the other is Kingdom Keepers). you'll also see a baby peep in a crib, with a babysitter nearby. don't miss the chandelier, also.

and then there's lilly's...

titled "Easter Peep House Party"

she decorated the back of her diorama


and here is her scene


notice the confetti in 'mid-fall' from the ceiling. drinks and a full candy dish on the table are sure to please all the peep party guests. and what could be more festive than balloons.

stay tuned for my creation.

flesh eating cupcakes

we have a tivo....however, we really don't use it to its full potential (for several reasons). one program, however, that we are religious about recording and watching is The Food Network Challenge - primarily cake competitions.

last week, being halloween, they had a Horror Cakes competition...and while this cake wasn't the winning one, it won over porter's heart.


the 'story' of the cake is that some possessed flour shows up at eddie's bake shop and the things that are baked with it have their way with eddie. look closely at those cupcakes...that's what porter wanted for his birthday treat at school.

so...being the supportive parents that we are...we decided to take the challenge.

and now starts our lesson on:

How to Make Flesh Eating Cupcakes

1. Bake cupcakes...preferably very whimsical...it makes them all that much more frightening when they become flesh eating. (porter chose strawberry and funfetti as his two flavors...)

(notice the burned oven mitt...that happened when i left jason in the kitchen earlier this week...)

2. Draw iris/pupil onto lemonhead candies to make the eyeballs (be sure to do this with edible markers!) We used red and green colored markers.


3. Pipe a black mouth.


4. Frost cupcakes in a whimsical ,fun way with whimsical, fun colors (after all, these were supposed to be friendly cupcakes...)

5. Add eyeballs, pushing them into the frosting to create somewhat menacing eyelids.


6. Pipe scary capable-of-tearing-the-flesh-from-your-bones teeth. Or something like that.

7. Add creepy red bags under their eyes...


8. Add blood to "King Cupcake" as we called it...that's the one we made for Porter (that is 'full sized').9. And you're done!


and here's an up-close look at Porter's King Cupcake.

I hope they're all he hoped them to be when he sees them tomorrow - when he turns the big SIX!

always together

this weekend marks the 65th wedding anniversary of my grandparents - SIXTY FIVE YEARS, people!

i remember their 50th anniversary party at their church in saginaw (the fall after i graduated from high school). then came the 55th, where the family surprised them with dinner at the ember's restaurant (now closed) in mt. pleasant (jason was with me for this one).

for their 60th, the family gathered again at a church camp for the weekend. everyone in the family was there for the whole weekend, and we didn't have to cook or clean, just bond. (i had two kids by then). we surprised the old folks with matching t-shirts with their 'slogan' on it, if you will - always together - for all of us.

well, here it is, another five years have passed, and we're getting together again at the church camp. a couple more kids have been born, a couple shirts have gone missing (after all, i've lived in three houses in that time!). so i was charged with the task of making sure everyone had a shirt for this year.

given that i needed 11, which is a large number, but not large enough for any production company to create one for me at a reasonable price, i made them myself.

i present to you, an 'original' from 2003:


and a 'cara original' from 2008:


how about THAT! 11 shirts packed and ready to distribute tomorrow...

look for a future blog post where i will share my tshirts secrets, and you can all start ordering your own custom shirts by cara ;)