Tuesday, September 21, 2010

cupcakes divine

I am quite thrilled to FINALLY be able to let you in on the project I have been hinting at for the past couple of months. After much planning and preparation, I excitedly introduce you now to:

Here's the story in a nutshell:

I was talking this summer with a friend from my small group, Stephanie, about ways we could give more, especially to those around the world who live in desperate need. Steph just had her second baby and is a stay-at-home mom. I have a semi-flexible work schedule. We both love to bake.

Soooooo, we decided to attempt to capitalize on the cupcake craze and see if we could find some great recipes, sell some cupcakes and give 100% off the proceeds to orphans in Uganda.

Our goal is to raise $3,000. This money will sponsor ten orphans for a year through Amazima Ministries.

We have no idea if many orders will even come our way (although we have been very encouraged to have already filled four orders - one was for ONE HUNDRED cupcakes!), but we are officially getting the word out now and we'll see how it goes.

Please check out our web site for more info.

If you have any events coming up, or even if you just have a sweet tooth, we'd be so blessed to be able to provide cupcakes for you!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

catching up

Definitely a little behind in my blogging as of late. I'll now make a feeble attempt to reach back into my memory (this seems to get harder all the time) and catch you up on some highlights of the past month in the Smith household:

- Anyone remember doing Awana as a kid? Well, some lucky first graders (aka: Sparkies) at College Park have gotten Mr. Brian and Ms. Emily as their leaders this year. Most of the other leaders use their last names, going by such as Mr. Jones or Mrs. White. We simply aren't there yet. Does anyone else feel SO weird when kids call you by your last name? I don't know that I'll ever get used to it. We just completed our third night and slowly seem to be getting the hang of it. While 160 6-year olds in the same room is completely insane, it's also pretty hilarious. Lots of yelling, laughing, nosepicking and strange smells.


- I have logged nearly 20 dozen cupcakes out of my 30+ year old oven. Break it down, that's almost 240 (all frosted). Will provide more details on the reason behind this baking spree very soon. :)


- We've hosted two sets of overnight guests. One was a gal who works with my dad. She and her husband traveled all the way here from Wichita to pick up a puppy from Annabelle's breeder. So we got to hang out with them, and adorable little Toby, a few weekends ago. What a blast we had together! I forget how fun 8-week old puppies are.


- I completed three fairly large custom paper projects, all in the span of 10 days.
- 275 wedding invitations with 7 different layers and 2 rhinestones each.
- 160 wedding invitations with 4 layers each.
- 275 reception menus with 2 layers and 1 rhinestone each.

Each project was unrelated to the others, just happened to all be due at the same time!

I literally lived and breathed these pieces for a week straight! I averaged 3-4 hrs of sleep a night for more than a week until I shipped the last project out. I got so tired I was literally nauseous.

- Speaking of nauseous, we survived our first (and hopefully last) pregnancy scare with Annabelle.

From these two innocent creatures? Don't worry, she isn't. But she threw up for four straight mornings, and on the fourth, the unthinkable occurred to me. Could it be puppies? Frantic googling revealed that yes, mother dogs do in fact get morning sickness just like humans. After a trip to the vet, we were quite relieved to find it was just a bad case of reflux. Whew!

- I got a culinary torch! And I used it to make one of my new favorite recipes EVER, courtesy of the brilliant Smitten Kitchen. It's super easy. All you need is berries, Greek yogurt and brown sugar. If you don't have a torch, just stick it under the broiler. Hurry, before the last berries of the summer disappear!


- I completed these and several other baby knitting projects I have been working on for quite some time. If you've had a baby in the past 6 months and have not received a gift from me, please know that it should hopefully be arriving sometime soon!


Ok, that's all I can remember for now, and I'm sure that's all you want to read. This next month shouldn't be quite as crazy, so I will do my best to get back in the swing of posting!

Monday, September 13, 2010

alive

I don't think I've gone this long without a post since I started this blog more than two years ago!

This season of life has been particularly hectic and some things just had to be set aside for a while. The blog was one of them.

I will be returning soon with an attempt to update on the past month of our lives. Until then, rest assured that we are very much alive and well (just very busy)... :)