LydMc

I <3 Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day is the perfect time to celebrate with sweet, pink treats full of love and deliciousness. As it turns out, you can make just about anything heart-shaped, and muffins are no exception.  Instant yum While I originally just intended to make some of my favorite go to muffins as part of a low-key brunch, inspiration and timing got the better of me and made for a fun, new creation. Think outside the box... By following the "What if" recipe option listed on the back of the box, you can transform these already tasty muffins into allegedly "guilt free baked donuts." The only main difference in the process involved putting the batter into a plastic bag and piping it out onto a pan. The shape of my heart Since it was <3 day anyway, I decided to take it one step further and make Valentine's Day themed, heart-shaped donut muffins.  Circles, hearts and triforces, oh my! Along with the ...

Edible fiction One of the few things I enjoy more than baking is reading - especially a good, old-fashioned book. Fiction, nonfiction, tomes, novellas... stories of all kinds are welcome on my bookcases. So, when I found a baking pan in the shape of an open book, I simply could not resist.  Book armor (+42) My test run with the new pan began with an already hungry audience, so I decided to go the quick route of boxed cake mix. I also decided to sweeten the deal by making a few modifications.  Going bananas! Taking a simple yellow cake box mix, I followed all the directions as listed, but added to the concoction two ripe bananas and... Chocolate makes everything better. ...Chocolate chips! This way, instead of having a run of the mill boxed cake, you have a delicious semi-homemade banana chocolate chip cake. Yum!  This story isn't even half baked. After mixing everything thoroughly, I poured the batter into the book pan and set it to bake, a...

Handmade pajama pants are the coziest There's nothing quite like cozying up on the couch in a warm, comfy pair of pajama pants, and it's even more special when the pjs in question are personalized just for you! That's what I thought when I decided to make about a dozen pairs for my friends and family for Christmas.  Making so many pants from scratch may sound crazy, but p ajama pants are actually a fun, simple  sewing project that makes wonderful gifts, especially in the cold, winter season. To make the pants extra awesome, I made several sets with mix and match pockets representing special groups like my three college roomies. Each of the pairs of pants in the set wound up with one pocket of each of the other's fabrics. How cool is that? And so it begins! The first step in this project was finding a good pattern that included pockets and selecting fabric for each person. Since the roomies' favorite color is blue across the board, I decided to honor ...

Happy Thanksgiving! I've always had a soft spot in my heart (and stomach) for Thanksgiving.  Stuck in between two majorly merchandised holidays, Thanksgiving is often overlooked and has become something of an underdog in the holiday season.  Nonetheless, Thanksgiving is quite possibly my favorite holiday to celebrate.   For me, it has always meant good times with family, sharing delicious homemade creations and catching up while hanging out in the aftermath of football and food comas.  This year, my family had the opportunity to make our Thanksgiving something completely different, so we decided it was time to start some new traditions.  'Tis the season for baking What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than by giving thanks? And what says gratitude better than home-baked goodies? To celebrate Thanksgiving 2014, we decided to make plates of baked goods and deliver them to various servicemen and women who, by the nature of their job, hav...

Happy Halloween 2014! One of my favorite October pastimes  (besides busting out my coziest sweaters and fluffy socks)   is drawing fun costumes from the annual Halloween catalogs. Each year, I have friends pick out their favorite costumes and then I assign them to my crew of fictional characters.  The picture above is fresh off the sketchbook for Halloween 2014, and this year, the costumes were chosen by my brother, my mom, and my boyfriend (who was also kind enough to lend me some of his Prismacolor markers). Can you find the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 cameo...? Ghosts, pirates, and fairies of Halloweens past abound in my binders of old drawings, and I dug out some of the more entertaining pictures to share.  While most aren't quite as polished in the quality department, they do a great job of showing the progression of my art skills, and of costume catalogs.   Crazy as it may seem, this picture was from 10 YEARS AGO... Spooky! I had ...