Appreciation through Crafts

The past two weeks have been very busy and fun on the crafting front. First I was asked to make gifts for the clerical staff appreciation day. It didn't come out the way I wanted to, but I learned a lot of lessons for next time (I just got asked to make versions of these for a girl's ballet recital to give to her friends).

SUGAR COOKIE FLOWER BOUQUETS

Then I had to make 60 cupcakes for our teacher appreciation day. I made a German chocolate cupcake with a light lemon buttercream (I personally didn't like the chocolate cupcake, but the lemon buttercream was yummy!), vanilla with vanilla buttercream for my less adventurous staff, and strawberry cheesecake cupcake with cream cheese frosting (Yum!).

(L-R) GERMAN CHOCOLATE, STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE, VANILLA

Then I got to make these special cupcake wrappers with stars and that said "Shine." I used the wrong kind of paper, but it still looked nicer than regular liners. I got a lot of really nice emails from teachers even though technically, I was just the baker and it was from the admin :)

NIFTY WRAPPERS

Of course, all this baking wasn't without some drama. I used royal icing to "glue" the lollipop sticks to the cookies and they didn't harden up like normal because of the humidity. Then there were damages in the transport. As for the cupcakes...I was up very late making these cupcakes and then in the morning as I was loading my car, one of my cupcake carriers upended onto my gravel driveway...frosting side down! :( I lost half a dozen cupcakes. Already late for school, I quickly grabbed all the fixings to make more frosting, salvaged the cupcakes I could (The ones who had only flown around the inside of the carrier - not off the ground, silly) and then dashed to school. At school I frantically make frosting in my office (very bizarre experience) and had them all ready for the admin to deliver classroom to classroom.

Finally for Mother's Day, someone paid me to make these little purses for her to give to the mothers in her life. It was a lot of fun decorating these! They open and I think she was planning on putting little goodies from Big Island Candies in them.

MOTHER'S DAY PURSES

MY FAVORITES OF THE PURSES