{Busy Bee} Martha Stewart's Bewitching Treat Ideas

Martha Stewart never seems to let me down with all of her Halloween party and treat ideas, and this year is no exception. On her website you can find the most bewitching tricks and treats that will surely leave your friends and family feeling wicked and wanting more! I can't wait to try these recipes!

{Busy Bee} Proudly Introducing Ava Belen

Just days after my beautiful baby girl was born, my wonderful aunt and talented photographer, captured my daughter on film for her newborn photos. Let me just say that she did an incredible job and my baby girl, Ava, looks mesmerizing. Seeing these photographs simply make my heart smile.

Thank you so much, Auntie! These are just absolutely beautiful!

Photography by K.L. Images

{Busy Bee} April Fools' Day Desserts

April Fools' Day is a perfect day to whip out the baking supplies and fool your loved ones with silly treats dressed up to look like another kind of food...such as the icky vegetables that seem to revolt your kids! For inspiration, I have a few examples from some awesome bakers that I thought are perfect and just too cute!

 Bakerella's Hamburger Cupcakes

 

 Hello, Cupcake! Spaghetti and Corn Cupcakes...just too funny!

 The Sweet Adventure of Sugar Belle's Pizza Cookies...LOVE these!

Sweetapolita's Asparagus Cake...AMAZING!

Happy April Fools' Day!

{Busy Bee} Cookies That I Heart!

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday, mostly because it is filled with hearts, love, pink and red, and of course candy and treats! I love looking at all of the wonderful decorations and desserts made for this holiday and am constantly inspired.

This year I have come across a few "busy bees" who have created many heart shaped sugar cookies that have stolen my heart. If they don't inspire you to want to bake or create something this Valentine's Day, they will surely give you a sweet tooth!

 

 The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle, (probably who I would consider my ultimate "cookie crush") created these beautiful heart shaped cookies. The owl heart is so brilliant and beautiful, and the polka dot heart is so cute in its simplicity. I may have to try my hand at both of these....one day.

 

Bake at 350, cleverly made heart cookies with the names of iconic lovers as well as three-dimensional cookies! My favorite of her iconic lovers are of course Lucy and Ricky!

 

Glorious Treats, created colorful and fun heart cookies! I absolutely love how she cuts out the center of the heart. I also think her garland cookies are super cute, it really is difficult to tell which are the cookies and which is the garland!

 I only wish I had enough time to create all of these myself! I can't wait to get started on my Valentine's treats!

Happy Baking and Treat Making!

{Busy Bee} Hazel & Violet Ink

For several months now I have been brainstorming what I wanted to put above my console table in my kitchen and finally found the perfect artwork at an arts and craft fair in Gilbert!

Hazel & Violet is a small letterpress printing studio based in Phoenix, Arizona. They use vintage petterpesses on recycled and vintage papers and they make everything from invitations, cards, coasters to mini posters all while trying to operate environmentally responsibly. Everything they create is beautiful and it is really hard to choose a favorite, but I think ultimately my favorite is their fruit line!

Look how cute these cards are!

 

 I love these cards using a French dress form and French scissors!

Once everything is up and put together these prints will look so nice in my kitchen!

I definitely suggest checking Hazel & Violet's website or Etsy site!

{Busy Bee} Martha Stewart Halloween Ideas

Leave it to Ms. Martha Stewart and her team to come up with so many great ideas for Halloween! If you are looking for some last minute ideas for your Halloween party or to decorate for this weekend's festivities, look no further than Martha Stewart's website. There are tons of ideas, instructions, clip art, recipes...you name it and they probably have it. I have chosen only a handful of ideas to share with you, but it seems as though Martha's ideas are endless!

{Busy Bee} Halloween Goody Inspiration

Halloween is almost here and I am so very excited! I have always found this holiday to be so much fun ever since I was a little girl. It all started when I was young and my parents would turn our house into a great haunted house for kids and their parents to walk through before getting their candy. Ever since then this holiday has been a day to have a lot of fun with. Now with a child of my own I want to start Halloween traditions that we can enjoy together as a family. I probably will never be able to live up to the phenomenal haunted house my parents used to put on, but I think decorating cookies and cupcakes would be just as memorable. So to gather inspiration I looked online and found some amazing treats!

Country Living has some great ideas for simple yet elegant cupcakes and cakes.

The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle created these fantastic Leggy Witches this year. She even provides a tutorial! Can you believe she reused a onesie cookie cutter for these? Absolutely incredible!

Anj from Snowy Bliss created this jaw dropping cake decorated with an adorable spider on top. Even more, when you cut into this cake there are orange polka dots!

These super fun witch hat cupcakes were made by Loali on Cake Central. I love the bright neon colors of the cupcakes...so cheerful yet still Halloween!

Simple Jack O' Lantern cupcakes that kids would love to help make!

How creative is this Halloween Mummy Head Cake by Inspired by Michelle! This looks like so much fun to make! I can picture this on the center of a dessert table at a Halloween party....guests would just die!

Following the mummy theme...here are some mummy cupcakes created by King Arthur Flour. These look pretty easy to make and turn out adorably! Not to mention how fun it would be for the little ones to get one of these!

I am such a sucker for pumpkins and Jack O' Lanterns...they are so cute and represent the holiday so well! Not to mention even the youngest of children aren't scared of pumpkins. Here are some sweet faced pumpkins created by Rolling Pin Productions. I am so impressed with the shadowing technique of the actual pumpkin!

These Sugar Ghost Cupcakes featured on Taste of Home are sure to be a scream!

These Eyeball Cupcakes created by Cupcakes by Lynn are so different and so fun! Kids would love the eyeballs!

If you haven't ever checked out The Painted Cookie, you are in for a treat! This sugar artist and mother of two creates some spectacular works of art! I love the Grim Reaper and Halloween Cupcakes! She is also featured on Copper Gifts website...you must check out this site, I get so many of my cookie cutters here...they are awesome! 

Hope you have been inspired to create some spooktacular treats this Halloween!

{Busy Bee} Owl Cupcake Toppers by The Celebration Girl

Marcela from The Celebration Girl recently informed me that she used my owl design from my Owl Party Collection as inspiration for her fondant cupcake toppers. Well let me tell you I was thrilled and oh so flattered that Marcela thought my owl design was cute enough to replicate! As you can see from the image above, the result was adorable! Even more exciting is that she created a tutorial for her readers to learn how to create this owl as well as two other very cute owls. I encourage you to check out her blog, she is full of so many great party ideas!

Thank you, Marcela, for sharing your wonderful tutorial!

{Busy Bee} Mom's Killer Cakes and Cookies

I know I have mentioned Mom's Killer Cakes and Cookies before, but I have to mention "Mom" again because she continues to blow me away with her amazing cakepops! I love to frequently browse her Etsy shop to see what new creations she has come up with for her clients and let me say that "Mom" is so killer! The love and detail that she puts into her cakpops is almost unreal. I can't get over how accurate some of her characters are...look at her Olivia and The Cat in the Hat cake pops, they are STUNNING! To give you an idea of the incredible talent of "Mom", I have chosen a handful of her cakepops to feature. Do they amaze you as much as they amaze me?

  What is even more awesome, is that if "Mom" doesn't have what you are looking for in her Etsy shop, you can order a custom design to fit your party theme. I am so excited to see what she comes up with next!