New Original Cupcake Paintings and One Talented Little Lady

I've been busy working on new cupcake paintings all week.  Checkout my Etsy Store.  I've decided to put all my cupcake paintings there and you'll no longer have to bid on them on Ebay. 

A week ago I got an email from a very lovely lady, Stephanie, who wrote me about her daughter, Lindsey.  She sent me photos of Lindsey's bedroom that is decorated with my cupcake prints.  Here is what she wrote about her daughter:

"My daughter, Lindsey, has been baking and decorating cakes since she was only 9 years old. She took her first cake decorating class from a lady in our church 4 years ago and loved it so much she began taking orders from friends and family. She's 13 now and still going strong. She just helped one of her old babysitters plan her wedding cake!"

 

What a cute talented young lady! Lindsey has plans to open her own bakery someday.

Her bakery themed bedroom is decorated with a great 50's diner set, cake picture, jars of sweets, etc.  I love her red and white theme.

I'm honored to have my cupcake prints in her room.

and another great creation by Lindsey...

How about leaving Lindsey a message of encouragement to follow her dreams in my commets.

Keep up the good work Lindsey!

Happy Birthday Eric!

This little guy stole my heart 26 years ago.   

Happy birthday Eric! We miss you so much and can't wait for you to get back home in July.

We are so proud of you and are amazed at the adventures you've

had in those 26 years. 

 

Hope you had a wonderful time on your birthday in Greece!

Check out Amber's Happy Birthday post to her brother.

Cupcake Recipe Collection

I finished three paintings from my recipe collection and listed these in my Etsy Store.  The two lower cupcakes are a couple that I had painted before, but as mentioned in my previous post, I need to re-paint all of my cupcake paintings that were photographed before I got my new camera.  In order to make larger prints they need to be shot with a higher definition camera.  The Mocha Cupcake painting is brand new.  All three have black and white checked ribbon wrapped around the edges. 

After painting these yummy  cupcakes I decided to "clean out the frig".   I don't mean that in a good way either.  I ate the leftover cheesecake, the leftover chicken enchilada casserole, drank the last Pepsi.....you get my drift.  This time of year I always want to lose a little weight so I can fit into my summer clothes and instead start eating like it's my last meal.  Here's a suggestion:  " If you are trying to lose a little weight before summer gets here, don't clean out the frig!" 

Any suggestions for losing a few pounds for a gal who sits around painting cupcakes all day?

New Larger Prints and More Cupcake Paintings

I don't know if anyone has noticed but in the right hand column of my blog I now have a link to Fine Art America where I can offer larger prints of my cupcakes.  They will be sold directly through them.  I got my first order yesterday and was told by the company that I have to re-photograph my paintings using a camera with at least 8 megapixels.  I got a new camera for Christmas and all my paintings since are photographed with this camera.  Needless to say, all my older paintings have been sold and I will now need to paint them again in order to take new pictures.  I just finished the one above, Cupcake Yum, and it's now available in my Etsy Store.  I have a few originals listed there for those of you who don't like bidding for something on eBay.  I'm going to be adding all the paintings that I have to do again to my Etsy store as I finish them.  So, if you missed out on one of these older cupcake paintings and would like one, keep watching here or in my etsy store for new listings. I won't be

re-painting my village scenes again because it's simply too much work.  But, any new ones that I paint will be listed in Fine Art America. 

My husband was amazed by the detail in the doors in Spain and the craftmanship of the hardware on them.  Below are a few and I'll share more later.

Stop by Ms. Bake It to enter a fabulous giveaway.

The winner gets to pick from several different styles of picnic baskets. 

Are you getting anxious for summer?  We've had quite a bit of rain lately and I haven't been able to get outside to work in the flower beds much.   I decided to whip up this painting to feed my need for sunshine and the delights of summer.  "Pink Lemonade Cupcakes" is up for auction on eBay.

Cute cupcakes for a fun summer party! Lemon cupcakes topped with pink lemonade frosting are decorated with striped straws and floral paper umbrellas. This turquoise cake plate with tiny pink jewels dangling from the edge is the perfect way to present these luscious lemon flavored treats. A black and white dotted grosgrain ribbon wraps around the edges of the canvas and is tied in a bow at the top.

On our fourth day in Spain we took a train trip to Sagovia.  This is the Roman Aqueduct of Segovia.  It was absolutely amazing.  You can get more information about this from my son's blog.  It runs for a few miles and is quite amazing.  After reading Eric's post you'll realize that he's much more informative.  There is no mortar holding these stones together.   

Below is a cathedral that we went through.....

closeup of the amazing detail...

and a section of the interior.  It was freezing inside. 

Doesn't this castle look like Disneyland?  It was absolutely enchanting....like something out of a fairytale. Oh, and look there's a handsome prince standing outside.

  I needed oxygen by the time I got to the top of that winding stone staircase and then I took a deep breath and saw this amazing view from the top of the castle!

Now here's an interesting tidbit.  If you have nasty frizzy curly hair like mine .... do not take your expensive Chi flat iron to another country and use a convertor or you will look like I did in the above picture with the hat for the rest of your entire trip.  I burnt my hair, it was literally smoking and ruined my flat iron.   When my husband bought my flat iron a few years back is was close to $200.  I was not looking forward to replacing it, but I checked on Amazon, ordered the same one for $82.58 (plus free shipping), and received it yesterday.  Now I can take off the hat.  I don't think it would have looked too good with capris!  I've added a link below for anyone interested.  It states right in the instruction book not to use with a convertor. 

Farouk CHI GF1538D Digital Microchip Turbo 1" Ceramic Hairstyling Iron with GFI Plug

I'm getting very, very sleepyOur new mattress set was delivered today and it's all I can do not to fall asleep while typing.  We've been sleeping on a very hard mattress for far too long and now I can hear my plump new bed calling my name.  Before I head off I just wanted to let you know that this cute little "Butter Pecan Cupcake" painting ends tomorrow night on eBay. 

The yummy taste of Butter Pecan Ice Cream is replicated in this cupcake topped with vanilla bean flavored Butter Cream frosting. Chopped pecans are sprinkled on top. A black and white harlequin ribbon is wrapped around the edges of the canvas and tied in a bow at the top.

Here are just a few more photos of our trip to Spain.  We visited the tiny village of Chinchon where we met the best salesman in the entire world. He was especially proud of the items that he sold which came from Chinchon such as olives, wine, etc.  He gave us samples before we made our purchase and then happily posed while Rick took his picture

And this lady was so proud of the pastries in her bakery that she told our son, Eric, that she wanted to show us her ovens.  We followed her out of the bakery and past a couple of doors down the alley we entered a room where her husband was busy taking pastries out of the oven.  We then followed her back to the bakery where we purchased our fresh, hot treats and sat outside to devour them. 

See that castle on the distant hill?  Well, really it's only the top half of a castle.  We walked from where I'm standing taking this picture to that castle and that's not even where we started from.  I had to throw away one pair of shoes when we returned home.  Thank goodness I bought a new pair of tennis shoes before we went to Spain. 

This is the plaza in Chinchon.  In the summer this area is closed off and used for bull fights. 

Finally we arrive at the castle.....

and here is the beautiful view beyond the castle.  I love all the olive groves around this village.  After all the noise of Madrid, Chinchon was amazing quiet and peaceful.  What a lovely place and such sweet people. 

Now I'm off to test out that new bed!