Painting pebbles!
One of my favorite blogs out there is “Rang Decor“, a really inspirational blog for indian design. I came across this photo in a post on their site a while ago. The designs on these pebbles strongly resemble “kolam”, a south-indian art form of decorating your front porch with geometric patterns drawn in rice flour- something my mom and I did on special occasions, growing up. The rest of the article with its beautiful pictures can be seen on the Rang Decor site here.
New York, New York
Hi everyone….I know I’ve been slacking a bit on the posts, but I promise you, it’s all been for a good cause. The New York International Gift Fair is in town which showcases the best products out there. So I’ve been gearing up for that! I’m hoping to get back to my regular schedule in a week or two. And stay tuned for updates on our latest finds at the NYIGF. We’re just thrilled!
DIY Eco-friendly favors
Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Sorry for not posting a card tutorial today. I just didn’t feel that inspired! Still, hopefully I’ll post something by the end of the week.
I did however come across this really neat eco-friendly favor over at The Green Knot blog. So chic, yet so simple! I think I’ll try this the next time I have to get someone a gift. Enjoy!
Recipe: Cake Pops!
Have any of you tried the cake pops over at Starbucks? My son loves them and each time we walk past a starbucks, we need to get him one. Bad habit, I know, but sometimes it’s just easier to deal with than a tantrum. And they’re just so tiny! What harm could they really do, right ?
So when we were recently visiting Singapore, I had prepped my son that even though there will be a Starbucks on every corner, Singapore won’t have cake pops, so let’s not bother going even asking about them.
Well, I was SO wrong! Having just introduced cake pops in Singapore, there were mega cake pop campaigns, gigantic billboards everywhere for these cute little delights, thus fueling his cake pop eating habit.
Anyhow, just the other day, my baking goddess friend told me she was going to try to make them! So naturally, I decided to tag along and experiment with her. She used this recipe from Bakeralla as a guide for the cake pops.
I was really quite surprised that they’re easy to make. Nothing complicated. Just a few extra steps after baking a cake, and voila. Beautiful and delicious cake pops!
So here’s how we did it!
1 box cake mix (We used Barefoot Contessa’s Red Velvet Box Mix).
1 container Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup of Yellow candy melts
Lollipop sticks
Method:
1) Bake cake according to instructions. Allow to cool completely and then crumble.
2) Mix 1 container of the cream cheese frosting into the crumbled cake. Just add enough so you can form round cake balls that are bite-sized, approximately 1in in diameter, unless of course, you have a bigger mouth 
This is a great recipe to do with your kids! They love getting their hands dirty – you just have to make sure they can resist the temptation of licking their fingers!
(I know, they kinda look like meatballs! Well, it IS red velvet cake
3) Melt the candy melts in a microwave according to the instructions. Dip the tips of each lollipop stick into the candy melt and insert into the cake balls (approximately halfway). Arrange on a tray. Place the balls on a lined baking tray and freeze for about 10 minutes until firm.
4) Remove the cake ball lollipops from the freezer. Melt additional candy melts if necessary. If the candy melts get harder as you work through the process, reheat them in the microwave. Dip each cake ball into the melted candy melts, so they form an even coating on the cake balls. Repeat until all cake pops are coated. Bakerella suggests that you gently tap the excess candy melts off the cake balls as you rotate the sticks. This worked quite well.
5) Push each cake pop gently into some styrofoam, for drying. Bakerella suggests drawing smiley faces (SO CUTE!) onto each cake pop. We tried it using some food-grade inks from Michaels, but they didn’t work very well, so we gave up. Instead my friend made a cute flower arrangement using the cake pops and decorated the flower pots with some candy grass.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Dot Spot Stamps!
I just bought some really pretty “Dot Spot” clear stamps from Papertrey Ink. The set comes with about four medallion-type stamps of varying sizes, which I’ve used for this card. I created it for this virtual card class I’m taking. In addition to the Dot Spot stamp, I also used a “wood grain” clear stamp from Papertrey Ink for the background. I finished the card off with a simple “happy birthday” greeting from Modern Basics, also found at Papertrey Ink, and fastened a few eyelets for a bit of color splash!
I hope you like the card!
