Little thinker Bell: 2011

Christmas Chocolate by Couture Chocolate

This book is full of modern chocolate recipes along with detailed explanations and great pictures. Whether you are a beginner or wanna start your bakery business, you can totally relate to the content.

Here are some of recipes I like to try. It's easy and perfect to bring to Christmas gathering this weekend.

More recipes....Almond Milk Ice Cream lollies for kids, Black Forest Milk Shakes just for the adults and Tiramisu for everyone.... visit Twist n Swirl for recipes.

Almond Ice Cream, Milkshake and Tiramisu.

Happy Holidays everyone !

{Christmas} goddie: Mini Wreath Cakes on a Stick

Bakerella, you have your match here :)

When I was in college my dad was gonna buy a mini donut machine for me to make some money during summer, but it never happened. About two month ago I saw Mini donut maker. I know someday I have to have it and the D day is probably tomorrow xixixxi (evil laugh).

While searching for donut Christmas decoration idea for kid, I found this ...

first came to my mind...it must be from Bakerella, I was wrong. Brilliant, genius, kudos to Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. I love your mini edible wreath girl. Check out her site to see step by step in making these wreaths. She explains it so well along with good looking pictures too. I am gonna make it for Christmas at church...I am sure everyone will like it. and I am definately have an excuse to but the mini donut maker. Yuhuuuu!!!

Btw, this is how the mini donut maker looks like and where to get it.

Smart Planet donut maker from Amazon

{Christmas} carols by the cakepop-er

Last Christmas, I made these cake pops ...

This year, I decided to make something simpler

Chocolate Chiffon cake drizzled with chocolate ganache

Lapis Surabaya (sponge cake) sprinkled with powder sugar

Maybe if I have time today, I make a simpler cake pops for your inspiration.

Burberry inspired {Mug Warmer} for Burberry lover

Burberry is one of my favorite brand. Too bad they don't make a mug cozy....but if they don't sell it, I will make it.

When I found this Burberry pattern ribbon I was excited. I know it will be an excellent addition to my mug warmer.

My mug looks stylish, doesn't it? Do you want one?

Cozy and stylish

You can get it from my Etsy store,c lick HERE.
Or, you can make it yourself. (This is my first written and shared pattern. I apologize for the amateur-ity)

Here is the Step by Step on How to make a Burberry Mug Cozy.
Cup size:
Diameter 3"
Height 4"

You'll need:
no 4 crochet hook
medium no 4 yarn
tapestry needle
Ribbon of your choice to make bow
Ribbon about 7 mm width
button about 1" diameter

Direction:
1. Make 46 chain and connect.

2. Do 1 single crochet on each stitch (46 single crochet)

3.Make 1 chain, 1 single crochet on stitch 1 and 2. Slip stich to stitch 3, then 2 chains. Do 1 double crochet on stitch 4 and 5 . 2 double crochet on stitch 6. Continue with 1 double crochet on each stitch until stitch 42. On chain 43 do 2 double crochet. 1 double crochet till stitch 46. (total of 48 stitches)

4-5. Do 2 chains, turn and continue the rest with 1 double crochet on each stitch. Now you are building the height. Repeat this step 1 more time. (Now you are back at 46 double crochet)

6. Do 2 chains, turn. On stitch 2 and 3, make 1 double crochet on each stitch. Then 1 chain, skip 1 stitch, 1 double crochet and so on. Until about the last 3 from the end, do 1 double crochet on each stitch. (You are making holes to weave your ribbon later)

7-8. Do 2 chains, turn and continue the rest with 1 double crochet on each stitch. Now you are building the height. Repeat this step 1 more time.

9. Chain 1, do single crochet all the way. At the end make about 25-30 chains (for the hook) and attach it back to the last single crochet you make. (46 single crochet)

10. Weave ribbon , sew or attach bow with glue gun. Sew on the button and you are done.

Good luck !

{Christmas}: Perfect DIY Christmas's gift

I know I know but I love it so much I have to blog it today.

You'll know what i am talking about when you see the picture below. Yes, yes it's not red, white and green for Christmas. The color is suitable for Valentine's or Mother's day BUT the idea can be adopted for DIY Christmas present, right? Just change the color to match the Holiday ambient.

This DIY container is created by Today's Fabulous Find blog ...

Isn't it pretty? It's an oatmeal container

The flowers is made out of party streamer

You can also make the flowers using ribbon, see my favorite tutorial collections below.

Are you ready to make your own present now? I hope the idea and tutorial help you.

{Cultural} Food Art

Since I post about Japanese Bento earlier, I thought it's a good timing to introduce Indonesian Tumpeng, the upscale version of bento.

Tumpeng is originated from Indonesia. . The typical 'Tumpeng' has a cone shaped rice, surrounded by dishes, such as fried chickens, potato balls and scrambled eggs. Tumpeng is like a birthday cake in the western culture. It is served in any celebration, from a grand opening of a store, birthday, baby's birth or just appreciating of God's blessings.

See how others make their Tumpeng.

Barbie Tumpeng from Sweet Brownie Kitchen

Colorful Tumpeng from Yoshiko. She also makes amazing fondant cakes.

Mini tumpeng in a box. Source, click here.

After looking at these pictures, I am hungry now. Gotta go.

{Cultural} Bento Art

A friend of mine, Evelyn said that she is into cute bento lately and making it as side business for kids party. She was the inspiration behind my post today.

A little introduction about Bento. Bento is a home-packaged meal common in Japanese cuisine. Japanese are so creative when it comes to packaging. They serve food neatly and artistic-ly; sushi is one of the example.

My bento was my daughter's birthday. I saw similar design on newspaper and thought it was a good idea for my daughter 1st birthday party. We celebrated at the orphanage home and I thought they deserved a nice and cute meal.

Rice, eyes from raisins, eyebrows from dried pork meat, carrot nose, Japanese fishcake, fried chicken and 2 potato balls in a shape of chick.

Here are some pictures of Evelyn's bento creations. Thanks for your inspiration Ev.

Aren't these cute?

Angry bird cupcake? I mean cuprice? by mymealbox.com http://mymealbox.com/bento/angry-birds-bento

{Wedding}: What's HOT this FALL?

Some leaves have changed color last month, some started to turn yellow, orange, red and seldom brown, others have fallen. We associate fall wedding with those color palettes. Those are the friendliest color to work with, not only a little fresh flower defect can't be seen, but you can use a little for bigger impact. You can also slip in some artificial leaves here and there, no one would notice.

Photo collage from Martha Stewart. The bottom right is a picture of Mokara orchid boutonnieres for the guests.

Source: left and right from the Knot, middle from diy.wed-central.com

Those centerpieces are very easy to assemble and can be prepared ahead of time.

As far as placement cards, you can use baby pumpkins or even oranges to hold the card, OR traditional card with 'fall' design. My fave is the tree with fall color cards.

Source
left: http://lionscrestmanor.typepad.com/
The one on right is from my friend's wedding. The leaves are velt sticker. Simple enough to get people into fall state of mind.
bottom: Martha Stewart

I found one more picture that might be a great addition to the fall theme decor. You can hang flowers or even leaves on fish strings. Very in-expensive way for fall add-on.

{Thanksgiving}: Cakepops

Now you can make 12 of this cute turkey cakepops for Thanksgiving in less than 30 minutes ... How? scroll down

see my other Turkeys here

Say GOOD BYE to the conventional way of making cakepops.

and a warm WELCOME to Babycakes cakepop maker.

$ 25 from Amazon and free shipping too.

There are many other brands in the market but I personally like this one because it makes 12 instead of 6 cakepops at once. It only takes 4-6 minutes for 12 cakepops to make. Another 5 minutes or so for cooling down and another 5 minutes to decorate. Babycakes brand also make one for mini cupcakes, mini donuts, pie on stick etc. They are so cute and affordable, I am tempted to buy them all :)

By the way, Bed bath and Beyond sells this for for $ 16.99 or$ 15.99 I believed. I just checked their online store and they don't carry this anymore :( not sure just the online store or in store also.

{The City on MTV}: DIY Flower Power Headband

Knit headband with crochet flower

Love at the first sight... first time I saw this cute knit flower headband was worn by Whitney Port. This one is a little snug on the head and will surely keep my ears warm while adding fashion to my hair this winter.

I made this for the newborn, circumference 13"

If you are crafty, you can make it yourself. I am no expert of knitting but I can show you how to crochet it. After watching several tutorials and style of crochet headbands, I like the following tutorials the most.

To make the headband, follow the step to make the brown rim on this Cupcake Hat tutorial.

The flower is pretty easy to make. I chose this tutorial because it shows you how to alternate color on each flower layer in case you desire to do so.

Here is another style of flower that looks like rose and SUPER easy to make. If you are a beginner, you might want to start with this one.

Happy crochet-ing

{Birthday}: Princess Birthday Cake

Last month, my sister and I made a birthday cake for our niece, Giselle. Originally, her theme was Rapunzel but she changed her mind when she saw a Romantic Castle Cake in Youtube. I was mis-informed and still thinking that her theme was still Rapunzel at the day we were making the cake. Luckily her theme color was pink and purple so I can still use the inspirations I found online.

I tried to track the source of this picture but I couldn't. I know she also sells the print-able on etsy.

I think this is from ucreateparties.com

another un-noted source

I really loved the tulle tent but we couldn't use it for outdoor, and I was glad we didn't use it due to wind.

Anyway, my sister in law bought a Romantic Cake Set from Wilton. I thought we were gonna spend couple hours to assemble the cake. Oh boy I was wrong. I ended up using my power drill, glue gun etc.

We made the cake a bit festive...

I also made the banner using Autocad : Princess Giselle 5th Birthday.

just the banner sample I made

the lanterns for decoration add-ons

To see details on the making of this cake, go to my Twist n Swirl blog.

{New}: PARTY in a box

After doing so many small and big parties, we decided to launch our new service: PARTY hire for children.
Yes, it is for children :) at least for now.

PARTY hire is like a package you'll get in the mail with party supplies and direction on how to put them together. It is designed carefully for requested theme with budget-wise in mind. For details, click on PARTY in a box tab.

If your party is withing metro Atlanta vicinity, you can hire our team at your party too.
We also have photographers at affordable rate.

Pimp what you already have: painted chandelier

The gold chandelier in the dining room has been bugging me for awhile now, and I found out my sis in law hated it too. Too bad I don't have the picture of it. I thought the black chandelier would fit the house better. After spending short time searching the web, I knew I wouldn't buy a new chandelier which cost from $ 100 up. My only choice was painting the chandelier. So I headed to Home Depot and bought myself a bronze primer and Rust-oleum bronze oil finish spray paints. They cost me about $ 12.

Yes, you need to get the primer. It makes your painting job easier. you can use a black primer if you will. The final color is black with dots of bronze. I love it.
step 1: clean the chandelier
step 2: coat with primer first, let dry
step 3: spray with the final color and let dry

To make it more fancy, I wanna to dress it up with bobeches. What is bobeche? it's a saucer used to catch candle wax. I need 9 pieces of which it's almost $ 8 each. I can't spend $72 period.

acrylic dangle bobeche

Instead of bobeches, I used the left over acrylic crystal strings from the wedding. The chandelier you see in the picture is not complete yet. I still need to re-arrange the strings, but you get the idea.

The whole process from putting the chandelier down, clean, paint, dry and re-assemble took me less than 8 hours. Quick, EASY and inexpensive.

{Let's show our support}: Be PINK, Think PINK, real men wear PINK too :}

Absolutely outstanding blog you must check out. You can download free printable set for every occasion of the year. This month to honor the Breast Cancer Awareness, here are some of the beautiful printable you can do yourself for your breast cancer fund raising or just to give support to those men and women who are fighting cancer as we speak.

for free download, click HERE

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