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Author Archives: Jennifer

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

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My friend Mona is a big Yelper (is that a word?). She enjoys trying out restaurants and writing reviews of them for Yelp. She has written so many reviews that she is a Yelp elitest and gets to go to special Yelp parties. Not that long ago, she posted this photo on Facebook from her review of Hannah, a neighborhood cafe in San Jose.

Mona's Cupcake at Hannah

I was very inspired by this photo and the idea of raspberry cheesecake cupcakes and came up with following recipe. Now, having never been to Hannah, let alone San Jose, I have no clue if they are anything like Hannah’s, but I think they turned out pretty good. I would like to tweak it a bit (see italics for what I would like to do differently). I would also like to try this again with blackberries. My photo clearly does not make the cupcakes look as delicious as the one Mona tried, but I found them delicious. James wasn’t the biggest fan, but I wasn’t surprised since he doesn’t like raspberries. My parents, who were visiting them, liked them.

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Source: me

Cheesecake Ingredients:

  • 1 pint raspberries, washed and spun dry (I think two pints would be better, but I only had one)
  • 3/4 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided (or 3/4 cup plus 2-1/2 tablespoons if using 2 pints of raspberries)
  • 18 vanilla wafers
  • 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur

Frosting Ingredients:

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons red food coloring, optional (I had planned to use, but forgot)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In small bowl, combine raspberries and 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar; set aside for 30 minutes. (If using 2 pints of raspberries, set aside the choicest 18 raspberries and combine remaining berries with 2-1/2 tablespoons with sugar.) Line muffin pans with paper liners. Place a vanilla wafer, flat side down, in each of the liners.

In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, lemon juice and raspberry liqueur until light and fluffy, approximately 15 minutes. Spoon majority of batter into lined muffin cups. Add 1-2 raspberries per muffin cup (2-3 if using 2 pints), using care to not add any of the excess liquid/syrup from the raspberry bowl. Cover with remaining batter, about 1 tablespoon per muffin cup. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until set. (I would suggest not putting both baking pans in the oven at the same time, especially if one pan is dark and one is light like mine.) Remove to wire racks to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Just prior to serving, whip frosting ingredients until stiff peaks form (I would like to try adding in the ~2 teaspoons of excess liquid/syrup from the raspberry bowl). Pipe onto cupcakes. (Top with reserved 18 choicest berries.)

Yield: 18 cupcakes

Imaginisce May Sketch Challenge

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For my mother and mother-in-law for Mother’s Day, I put together photo albums with pictures from the first 3.5 months of Jessica’s life. When I printed the photos at Costco, I also printed copies for me. Now it is easy to scrapbook Jessica as I can just go through the photos organized chronologically in the photo box and pick out some to scrapbook. This makes challenges easier to accomplish on time as I already have photos printed.

This layout uses Imaginisce’s May Sketch. I was especially inspired by design team members Melinda and Liz‘s takes on it. I found it somewhat challenging since I don’t have a lot of photos of Jessica that worked well square, so if you look closely,  my photos aren’t quite square. I used the super cute  Imaginisce Wild Things Collection and coordinating solid paper I picked up the scrapbooking convention I went to last September with Kristy. I thought the collection would be really good to scrapbook all the zoos I like to visit when we travel, but it also worked perfectly with the adorable little outfit our friend Robert sent to Jessica. I just added a touch of purple paper.

Imaginisce May Sketch

My Take on Imaginisce's May Sketch

I had a few extra pictures from that same day, so I made a second layout that coordinated with the first. This is where writing a blog comes in handy as my journaling came from this post about Jessica.

2nd Layout

Paper: Imaginisce Wild Things Collection; Paper Studio purple textured cardstock; Stampin’ Up Bashful blue (title, journaling, stamped elephants)
Stamps: Imaginisce Wild Things Elephant
Ink: Stampin’ Up Basic Brown (elephants); Dell (printed title, journaling)
Accessories: elephant brads
Tools: Xyron 5″ Creative Station; Nestabilites Standard Circles Large

Mother’s Day Weekend in Midland

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James took Friday off from work and we traveled to Midland to celebrate Mother’s Day with our Moms. Jessica did pretty well in the car. This is a beautiful time of year to drive to Midland. The wildflowers were gorgeous. The stretch between Llano and Brady was especially vibrant. There were red and yellow, orange and white, pink and purple wildflowers and even a few bluebonnets (usually this is too late for bluebonnets). Some fields were covered with only one type of wildflower, making one field look like it was dusted with snow there were so many white flowers. Other fields were covered with red and yellow wildflowers giving the impression they were on fire.

Friday night, James’ Mom hosted dinner at her house with my parents, James’ parents, James’ grandparents, James’ sister Tami and her boyfriend Randy and our nephew Dawson. It was a full household and I didn’t get any photos.

Jessica Saturday Morning Before Lunch

For lunch on Saturday, we headed to Tampico with James’ family. Afterward, we visited back at James’ parent’s house.

Jessica and her Great-Pawpaw

Jessica with Daddy and Aunt Tami

Someone’s getting sleepy.

Jessica and her Great-Granny

Olivia and Tami

James’ Mom had gotten out some of Dawson’s toys from when he was a baby and Jessica had a grand time playing with them. She especially enjoyed this little musical piano.

Jessica Playing

Dawson enjoyed playing with Jessica.

Dawson Playing with Jessica

We went over to my Mom’s house for dinner Saturday night and she got to feed Jessica her dinner of butternut squash. Jessica is really starting to like butternut squash, of which I’m really thankful.

Jessica Enjoying her Butternut Squash

Before we left Sunday morning, Jessica got to play some more.

Jessica Playing

Jessica and her Grandpa

Jessica and her Nana

Grandpa, Jessica and Nana

We stopped in San Angelo to visit with James’ Uncle Chuck. We took Jessica to the Sante Fe East Park, which is across the Concho River from the Visitor’s Center. The park has a toddler section. She enjoyed swinging, going down the slide with her Daddy, and riding a little pony.

"Driving" with Daddy after Arriving at Uncle Chuck's

Jessica and her Daddy

Jessica Riding a Pony

Jessica with her Great-Uncle Chuck and Daddy

Sunday night after we had gotten back and Jessica had played, eaten dinner and had a bath, we took some more photos.

Jessica and Daddy

Jessica and Mommy on Mother's Day

Overall, it was a lovely weekend.

Mother’s Day Cards for my Mothers

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As soon as I saw this darling image by Sarah Jane at Sj’s Little Musings, I knew this was the image for the mother’s day card for my Mom. Obviously, I am well past the age of actually sitting in my mommy’s lap cuddling, but hopefully this card gives her warm fuzzy feelings inside. This card and the next are both 5.5-inch square easel cards. I really like how the style of the card allows for displaying the card.

Mother's Day Card for my Mom

Stamps: Sj’s Little Musings Cuddle with Mum; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Pattern Papers Bashful Blue
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue eyelets, Certainly Celery twill ribbon; Stickles Baby Blue (ends of ribbon); dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue (to ink sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up 1 3/8″ circle punch, scallop circle punch

You might recognize this next card as I posted it not that long ago without a sentiment for part of my design team call entry. At the time, I said I didn’t know what sentiment I wanted to use, but that was a little white lie. I had this card in mind for mother-in-law for mother’s day the entire time I was making the card.

Mother's Day Card for my Mother-in-law

Stamps: Prairie Fairy DT Fairy; Stampin’ Up All-Year Cheer II (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Tea Party
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Elegant Eggplant (sentiment)
Accessories: Stickles Frosted Lace, Lavender; purple glitter brads; white sparkly ribbon; silver heart brad
Tools: colored pencils, Stampin’ Up Blush Blossom marker

Mother’s Day Cards for my Sisters

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This year I decided that in addition to my mother and mother-in-law, I would make mother’s day cards for my sister and sisters-in-law.

This first card is for my sister whose favorite color is blue. Sarah is the mother of our two sweet little nephews Cameron and Trevor, so I figured she needed a girly girl card. I used Jen del Muro’s Sketch for You to Try and a sweet flower girl digi stamp I picked up for free by being a member of Karen’s Doodles group at Paper Craft Planet.

Mother's Day Card for Sarah

Stamps: Karen’s Doodles Flower Girl
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pacific Point, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Good Morning Sunshine
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Doodlebug sparkly blue brads; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Regal Rose (handwritten sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Marvy Uchida flower punch (used twice)

The second card is for my brother’s wife whose favorite color is green. Julia will be celebrating her first mother’s day (if you don’t count last year when she was pregnant) as the mother of our sweet little niece Aspen. I will be hand-delivering this one at our playdate today. This 5.5-inch square card uses my favorite Phindy image and thus meets the Phindy’s Place Friday Challenge #3. I picked up my two Phindy digi-stamps from being a member of Phindy’s Place group on Paper Craft Planet. I used The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #54 to put it all together. I really really like how it turned out.

Mother's Day Card for Julia

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Beary Beautiful; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White; Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Prints Certainly Celery, Pink Flamingo
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Paper Studio yellow paper flowers; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch

The third card is for my husband’s sister. Tami will be celebrating with our nine-year-old nephew Dawson. I don’t know what Tami’s favorite color is so hopefully she likes the pink and brown scheme I chose for the All That Scraps Challenge #27. It also meets the requirements of this week’s Our Creative Corner challenge to make a mother’s day card with no flowers and A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #102 to use a furry friend on your card.

Mother's Day Card for Tami

Stamps: House Mouse Love Bunny; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Loves Me
Ink: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon, Pretty in Pink 3/8″ taffeta ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch