Harry Potter Ring Bearer Book for Helen

 Helen had requested a special gift from me for her bridal shower gift.

She needed a ring bearer pillow. In lieu of a pillow, I put together a

ring bearer book instead since she is a language arts teacher.

"What's Helen's favorite book?" I asked her fiance.

I expected something along the lines of "Pride and Prejudice" or "Wuthering Heights". 

"Helen really likes the Harry Potter series," he answered.

Dammit.

"Okay, which book?" I asked, not that it would make a difference.

"Her favorite is the first one," he said.

Michael's had storage boxes in the shapes of books on sale.

I resized, printed and laminated the cover onto the box. Then made

a satin pillow for the ring inside to rest upon.

Out of all the things I made for Helen's wedding, this was the clearly the crowd favorite. 

 (Photographed by Albert Cheung Photography)

(Photographed by Albert Cheung Photography)

bird haus

I noticed birds scoping out the ledge of my window at work. Guess they were looking for some prime real estate to build a home. Thought I'd help them out by making them a house worthy of Robin Leach.

I'm told the size of the hole would determine what kind of bird would make a nest in it. I hope the opening isn't too small. Housing market is tough nowadays...

Calcium lollipop bouquet.

 [Calcium lollipop bouquet]  

I decided to make Valentines for some girlfriends this year. As a chick, it's important to make sure to take extra calcium. I found these yummy calcium lollipops at the Korean market:

  Here's how I made them:

Wrap the lollipops in tissue paper. I had bought cute twist tie bows in Korea a couple years ago. Was glad to finally have an excuse to use them!

 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Ginabread Cookies.

[Hello gentlemen!]

Ginabread! Er... gingerbread cookies! Icing is hard. Luckily I gots a steady hand. Martha Stewart has a good gingerbread cookie recipe. Here's a helpful tip: Make sure baking time correlates to the size of your cookies (big cookies = bake longer, small cookies = bake shorter).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

[Peanut butter cup cookies via Glorious Treats]

As part of a holiday cookie medley I've been trying to put together, I found this recipe for peanut butter cup cookies. I knew I'd be baking lots of cookies so I tried to find things that were fairly easy and fun to make. I used Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe. 

[Sorry OCD people!]