the Carrie Closet.... enter my wild imagination.

I think it's safe to say that every girl (and many boys) in the world drooled a little bit when Big opened the doors to Carrie's gorgeous walk-in closet in the Sex and the City movie. I was one of those girls. I fell in love, and boy, did I fall hard.

the Carrie Closet

Ever since that breath-taking moment in that theatre (sigh), I've known my shoes feel under-valued and mistreated for not having lovely, well-lit racks to gently lay them to rest after a long night of dancing. My undies feel suffocated all crammed together in one tiny drawer. My dresses hang alone in the dark on cheap plastic hangers, never displayed spaciously to be browsed through and admired.

One day, I will own a grand, spacious home in which I will bask in my over-sized, ridiculously lavish and stunning walk-in (and run-in and skip-in and jump-in and lay-in and....) closet equipped with every detail any article of clothing or accessory could possibly want or need. Mark my words, this WILL be mine some day!

For now, let us explore the possibilities after which I may model my future palace-of-a-closet.

This has a respectable sized shoe-wall but it's not quite the lavishness I'm going for.....

This closet looks like it has plenty of walking space and areas for many different items but it still seems a little small....

Love the elegance of the black cabinetry, ottoman and chandelier and this has a lot of shoe-space (for my shoe-fetish) but it still seems to be lacking something.....

Those last few closets were all enjoyable but since I'll be rich and have a LOT of clothes and shoes and accessories to store, I'm looking for something a little bigger, a little bit more extravagant. These next three are more what I'm looking for, don't you think?

This is a great size with aisles that would make it seem like you're shopping but there doesn't seem to be a good dressing area or space for a lot of accessories

This closet is large, elegant and has a lot of different elements for all the items in a girl's wardrobe but it may not have enough shoe space....

A glorious shoe wall (with room for boots, of course) and I LOVE the glass-topped cabinet that you could put all your jewels in just like at the fancy jewelers! But, it's lacking a bit in elegance so I'd need to class it up a bit!

Perhaps a combination of the last three would be the perfect solution. The only thing to do now is shop more so I have enough shoes and clothes to fill my lovely closet!

Hey, a little imagination never hurt anyone... I can dream if I want to!

What are your dreams for your perfect home?

K

Alternatively, C is for Cookie

After making the Elmo Cupcakes (see here) for my niece's 2nd birthday, I came across these amazingly hilarious and awesome COOKIE MONSTER cupcakes!

 

I would LOVE to give these a try at some point too.... anyone have a cookie monster loving kid? If not I guess I'll just have to wait for the (distant) future when I have my own kids!

Grab a friend, hit up the cake decorating aisle and take on a cake or cupcake challenge for the next special birthday in your life: I dare you! 

K

E is for Elmo, C is for Cupcakes

My niece's 2nd birthday recently passed and for the occasion, her mother and I whipped up some cupcakes in the image of her (and many other children's) favorite cartoon character, Elmo. Everyone's favorite furry red monster (no, I'm not referring to you, Sarah) has been a focal point in childhood for many years and is unlikely to drop off the face of the planet anytime soon. So, I share my Elmo Cupcake making experience with you all in case you ever find yourselves hosting a toddler's Elmo themed party. (PS Now is as good a time as any to inform you that while typing this post I've also had a running stream of ..."this is the song, la la la la, Elmo's song"... going through my head... lovely.)

First off, we had to bake cupcakes. We made a basic white cake with no frills but I'm sure anything would work. The key here was to use red cupcake liners, as seen below.

Next up we gathered appropriate items to make Elmo's face and fur. We tested a few options for Elmo's signature mouth but found the best and easiest method was Oreo Cakesters. We cut each Cakester in half and then cut through the icing layer to separate each Cakester into 4 mouths... we kept the icing on to help the mouths stick to the cupcakes.

 The mouths went on the cupcakes first.

After the mouths were all on, we moved on to the fur. Elmo's characteristic red fur wasn't the easiest thing to achieve. We made a basic icing and used "Wilton 'No Taste' Red Food Coloring" (available in the cake decorating section at Michael's) which is a gel that is supposed to produce intense colors. Unfortunately, after using nearly a 1/2 tsp (much more than the drop we were told was needed) our icing turned out like this:

Now don't get me wrong, I love pink but pink Elmo was just not gonna cut it. It was red Elmo or bust. So, we ventured on an emergency Michael's run and got a whole new, larger container of the dye and proceeded to make red icing.... And when I say red, I mean red. Turns out the color intensifies with time and heat so as it warmed to room temperature it got vibrant!

We used a "Grass" icing tip and ziploc bags to make the fur... who needs fancy cake decorating gear.

Finally, it was time for eyes and nose. For noses we used orange JuJubes (yum.) and for eyes we used white chocolate melting wafers with dark chocolate "pupils" piped on.

After putting all the pieces together, our finished product looked like this. I'd say we did pretty well for our first ever cupcake decorating extravaganza! The kids, and especially Kyra, LOVED them so I think that's a success! What do you think?

Cupcake decorating didn't turn out to be as difficult as I'd expected so I think I'd definitely take on this endeavour again, maybe with different inspiration for round 2. Any suggestions?

Happy Cupcaking!

K