Beverly's Stamping Beehive

Happy Easter! No, I'm kidding !  I'm just a teeny-weeny behind with my blogging, but I DID want to share this recipe I discovered this Easter: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes , fab-u-loso! Yum yum yum that's all I have to say. Now that I know the little secret for the recipe, I am going to try it with other flavours. Here is how I created these little gems....{scroll to bottom for recipe}....prep your cupcake tins. First, zest some lemons. Make your batter using a light coloured cake mix {yellow,white, etc.} and ADD the secret ingredient: reduced-fat SOUR CREAM  ! Yep- you read right (grin).  Believe it or not this recipe has been revised to a lightened version with 139 calories and 4 g fat per cupcake, out of a batch of 24.  Uh-huh...you can feel a little less quilty, lol.   Add your zest to the batter...divide into cupcake liners - pretty close to the top. I wasn't too sure about how high to pile the batter and I was using my first "foil-lined"...

Happy Easter! I'm happy today because its Easter {closer and closer to "patio" weather - yeah!} and another chance to relax with no cares or worries for the day, but a chance to bond with family and friends. We already had a nice surprise with friends bringing us a Easter basket of homemade cupcakes - how sweet of them!  Thanks to the Moores - Mom Mary, Emily, Bridget and Margaret!  The girls {the guys we barely see, lol} are terrif! But I didn't do too much this year for decorating but I DID manage a centerpiece! You can turn those CAKE STANDS into great centerpieces - and actually, the Moores gave me this cake stand many years ago for my b-day! Here is how I made it: I simply arrange some faux leaf brances entwined with straw grass around the plate. In the center I placed a small twig basket. Next I arranged my ceramic BUNNIES. I put a small can in the center of the twig basket [weighed down with marbles] and placed a small 4 inch doily on the top of the ...

I made a coffee bar!  It's not finished in the way I want - but its a start !  I'm actually very happy with it as I have used it twice since last night and it works pretty good. I need to go out to buy some new coffee mugs to help since the few nice ones I have are too few - or t hey are my 'summer' coffee mugs and are a little too bright for now. Yes, I have "summer" mugs, lol!  Well, you know how it is - any excuse to shop! But the whole reason I had to create a coffee bar is because of this baby - right here .... ...my brand spanking new KitchenAid MIXER!  Oh yeah! It is getting its initial run this morning - biscotti coming up!  I am very excited because biscotti I love, but my hands hate mixing the dough! So when this beauty was on sale last week-end for only $199 plus I qualified for free shipping AND they threw in the bowl shield free - I couldn't pass it up!  Besides it still qualified as my  " birthday week-end"  whoo-hoo to me! ...

Cards a la Carte is one of our special promotions with COUNTRY LIVING Magazine , and like last year features a set that you can use for entertaining.  This year's is very pretty stationary set - elegantly sweet! This exclusive kit ( item 119113 ) includes the following products: Dinner Party stamp set (set of 3) Ballet Blue Classic Stampin' Spot Preprinted stationery (24 sheets: 4 each of 6 designs) Here is the collection and a couple of projects that you can do with it. Project #1 is a Dinner Invitation Stamps Dinner Party stamp set* Paper Very Vanilla card stock Very Vanilla envelope* Ink Ballet Blue Stampin' Spot* Accessories Stampin' Dimensionals Instructions: 1 . Print "You're invited" on Very Vanilla card stock and adhere to strip of Very Vanilla card stock. Wrap strip around So Saffron printed card from Country Living Cards à la Carte. 2 . Stamp silverware image in Ballet Blue ink on Very Vanilla card stock. Cut out, ...