year 4

happy 4 year blogiversary to me!

lol

golly whiz i have been slaaaaacking 

on the blog lately!

i just read last year's blogiversary post 

and LOL cuz i surely did not make 

much progress blog-wise.

gosh i even took more breaks from 

this blog than i ever expected.

and guess what?

even though it was hard at first, 

it's now soooo freeing!!!

i mean, i love love love to create but 

i was getting into a blog rut where i was 

 forcing myself to make something just for 

 the blog and thus it took away some 

of the joy out of it, not to mention 

time away from my family.

and that was the last reason i wanted to do 

a blog in the first place...i just wanted 
to get joy out of it and pass it on.

but blogging is actually serious business. 

it's serious crafting and serious creativity.

but seriously.

sometimes serious is not that fun 

when it is forced so i am no longer  

putting unneeded stress on myself to make 

2 posts a week like i did.

from now on, i am blogging whenever 

and whatever needs to be shared,

about ideas that i make come alive 

outta my silly strange head.

jeepers, 

i wonder where this blog will take me now?...

year 3-blogiversary & a new orleans trip

on march 22, 2012,

i decided to start a blog.

i never researched how to do it.

never knew what html was,

 let alone make a blog header, 

had no facebook, instagram, pinterest, 

google friend, twitter, stumble upon, 

you tube account, blah blah blah...

well you get the picture.

and 3 years later i am at my 3rd year blogiversary.

so it made me think of numbers.

and where i want to go with this blog.

i mean, sometimes my numbers are decent,

considering i hardly do any social media 

contribution aside from blogging itself.

and then dips waaaaay down as you can see 

from stats about a year ago today.

then for whatever reason, it goes up again, 

as these stats at the beginning of the year show below.

and the numbers go u-u-u-up and d-oooooo-wn...

u-u-u-up and d-oooooo-wn...

u-u-u-up and d-oooooo-wn...

oh what a roller coaster.

should i worry about all this?

what road do i wanna take for this upcoming year?

cuz this certain roller coaster will not 

make me a book author,

or a micheal's maker contributor,

or a you tube sensation.

lol

but what if i like this roller coaster?

it has no social media rules or mandatories.

and gives you a lot of free time instead.

hmmm....

this all makes me wanna go 

on a spring break vacation.

still i can't help but think,

 do i really need to contribute more 

to social media?

or can i just look at the million social media stuff 

everyone else puts out?

should i just visit sweet shops 

instead to spend my time?

uh oh. 

that may not be good for my hips and thighs.

maybe i'll just paint cool pics instead?

or go shopping?

see sights and go on museum tours?

i know one thing i will do,

is continue using color in my blogging life.

ahhh the possibilities are endless.

think i'll just eat a beignet and other yummy stuff

for now and think about this one.

at least that i can and will do.

so for my 4th,

here's to an exciting new blog year of 

who knows what!?!

candle cupcakes for my 2nd YEAR BLOGIVERSARY

time flies when you're having fun. 

boy ain't that the truth!

i mean, i've done so much stuff in terms of blogging and seriously have gained so much from it.

like meeting friends.

from all over.

sometimes never seeing their face or talking to them in person but feeling pretty cool about what we have together.

you know what i mean.

cuz it's YOU that makes my stress days unstressed.

it's YOU that makes me smile and laugh with your funny comments.

it's YOU that warms my heart with your sweetness. 

you know who i'm talking about whether it means coming here often or inviting me for a blog collaboration.  

awesome folks like Dona, J, Kim, Sue, Beth, Karyn, Brenda, Jill, Heather, Toni, Melinda, Krista, 

and many many countless others.

including the blogs that took me to over 400 features alone in the past 2 years... 

you guys give me the energy and drive to come up with 

out-of-the-box stuff that keeps people coming back.

you guys make me find out things about myself and what i can actually come up with that i never knew existed.

and to all of you who are new here and have found this crazy place recently i hope you keep coming back! thank you so much for visiting me when there are 99 million gazillion other blogs out there. i can't thank you enough!

lots of people ask me where the heck i get my ideas from and i tell them it's divine intervention. for me i find when you share with others then you get lots more in return. lots more in regards to lots more far fetched over the top ideas that you just gotta share.

so that's what my blog is about.

to make you happy.

so i made something sweet for you on this very special day. 

and you can make them too, just by doing this:

i just used a yellow box mix.

then i tinted half of it pink.

then i made this frosting and,

a million pics are mandatory.

especially of sprinkle cupcakes.

because then you can make printables like this:

when you right click on it and save to your computer, you can print it out whatever size you want.

so back to more frosting.

i divided the rest and colored it 3 ways.

you can watch this awesome video to help you understand this method a little clearer.

ok so it's not the prettiest dollop in blogland but whatever.

i added too much confectioner's sugar but it's still fun right?

it doesn't become fun for me when the shape is stressed over to get it to look like a perfect dollop so we are just gonna go with this one.

cuz look:

and when you open the cupcake up, you get this:

ta da!

i guess it would look cooler with a perfect flame dollop but i ain't gonna stress about it.

that's one for each blog year.

yup i made these for you and also because today marks my 

2nd BLOGIVERSARY!!!!!!

YAHOOOOOO!!!

one part of me feels like i've been blogging for decades and another tells me reality when i see the number of FB likes is far below the number of many other blogs.

but no matter, i don't stress out about numbers.

i just wanna have fun and not spend hours on social media. 

cuz that takes away from my creative fun and mom /wife duties. and with the career i have, 

i need all the fun i can get!

so i keep making stuff, not ever realizing at the start that this was gonna end up being mostly a tutorial blog. but my parents were teachers and i guess that's the part of me that wants to teach and besides, it's a heckuva lot of fun.

so here's to more fun!

let's have a giveaway!!!

it's a SPRING FLING PARTY PACK!

and if that's not all, you get one more thing too!

WOOHOO! 

Enter below on the rafflecopter widget and hope for the best! 

the giveaway starts NOW and ends on the 31st. i'll announce the winner on April 1st-no foolin!

UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ENTERING!

WE HAVE A WINNER! 

CONGRATS TO YOU DONA!

:)

here's to lots & lots & lots more fun together :)

thank you from the BOTTOM of my HEART 

for being a part of hoopla palooza!

you make me pharrell happy 

:>D!!!

celebrating my 1st with candle cake pops in a cake stand

I MADE IT!

holy cow! 

i made a whole year!

what am i talking about?

well guys, today is my 
1st BLOGIVERSARY!

YIPPEE!!!

let's celebrate ok?

everybody sing!

happy blogiversary to hp!

happy blogiversary to hp!

happy blogiversary to hoopla palooza,

happy blogiversary to meeeeee!!!

man that sounds narcissistic to me! :>P

anyway,

what's a celebration without cake?

let's have some cake in the form of cake pops then, 
shall we?

and we'll add a candle to celebrate the first year.

what's that you just saw?

why it's a candle cake pop.

in a styrofoam cake cakepop stand!

aaaaand, it's reusable :) 

(uh the stand, not the cake pop)

you can give this to your special someone on any celebration and they'll love you forever. or you can make one or 2 or 3 of your own and stick your cake pops in it for an awesome party dessert decoration.

so c'mon, celebrate with me!

 let's do this.

make some cake pops.

here's a wonderful tute if you've never made them before.

i made some candle cake pops.

you can too, with these instructions:

use funfetti cake mix & vanilla frosting for your cakepops and shape them into raindrop looking thingies. poke some cookie sticks dipped in orange candy melt in each pop and refrigerate. (use cookie sticks cuz they are wider and sturdier than lollipop sticks) 

when the cake pops are set, dip them in orange candy melt, and while they are still wet, take melted yellow candy melts and use a small rubber spatula to make random streaks here and there to resemble flames.

now add Target's awesome big polka dotted easter straws thru the cookie stick leaving about an inch on the bottom of the stick exposed. you'll have to cut the straw in order not to cover the entire stick. it's very important to leave the cookie stick end alone as that is what you will be sticking in your cake (speaking of sticking, stick with me so this part makes more sense...)

in the end, you should get this:

candles are done!

put them aside in the fridge.

now it's time to make the cake.

get 2 styrofoam 1 x 3/16" by 5 x 7/8" circles at hobby lobby and glue them together. 

paint only the sides pink. or actually any color you want your cake to be. 

(yellow for a lemon cake? brown for chocolate? white stucco to resemble white frosting? now that would be awesome!)

after the paint dries, find a cake stand to fit the cake.

also, grab some sprinkles.

now cut a piece of pink cardstock a little larger than the size of the styrofoam cake by tracing the cake on the cardstock and cutting around the shape (it doesn't have to be perfect). then glue it to the bottom of the cake.

when it dries, start hot gluing the sprinkles for the cake border.

when your border is done, cut another circle a little smaller than the top of your cake. i used a saucer that i found in my cupboard and traced it. i used the sprinkle paper i had in a cardstock pad i found at michael's. or use any cardstock of your choice from your local craft store.

once you have it cut, mark 8 equal triangle portions on the back of it and punch a hole in the middle of each triangle as shown below (i just eyeballed the middle). also punch a hole (i used this punch) in the center. i bent the paper in half slightly to get my measurements for the triangles-the paper is thick so there really weren't any crease folds to worry about showing.  when the holes are punched, carefully stick a cookie stick thru each hole to widen it. 

now glue it to the top of your cake. i used some magazines to hold it down while it dried.

once dried, take your cookie stick and punch thru the existing holes just deep enough to hold a cake pop, about 1 inch or so.

you can hardly see where the holes are! beauty!

now let's decorate the sides.

take more of your sprinkles and push it on the sides of the cake in any random order deep enough to stay. i didn't need any glue as the styrofoam held the sprinkles with no problem.

finally!

the cake's done! let's add the candles now :)

carefully push the candle cake pops down until it's flushed with the top of the cake. this is why you don't want to cover the end of the stick with the straw as i mentioned in the beginning. 

and lookie! the colors of the sprinkles match the polka dots on the straws :)

add more candles if you wish, 

as there are enough spots for 8.

i made a cake pop total of lucky 7 cuz i feel lucky to have this blog and YOU 

for coming along this wild crazy and fun ride with me!

when i first started blogging, i had absolutely no clue what blogging was going to do to me. i just knew i was making a lot of crazy things in the past and since reading all the awesomeness on the web i thought it'd be fun to share some of my creative craziness too. 

and for some odd reason, seems like the more i share and create, the more ideas flow in my head-it's like a crazy mental wonderful disease i have!

so what if i've lost sleep! so what if i am constantly in the craft stores? so what if my fridge is busting out the seams from all the sugar stuff i made.

ya only live once and i am making the best of what i have which is why i believe it's divine intervention that gives me all the ideas i share with you.

so hopefully in the coming years, i will keep adding candles to my blog cake. even if it means sticking them on the sides or on top of each other.

soooo, to top this ultra long post off, 

we need gifts for this celebration don'tcha think?

so i went shopping...

for YOU!

lookie what i got:

a cool cupcake book with wavy edges and yummo recipes!

and then i got another book.

another awesome book with a squishy cover and recipes that ya gotta try!

so what do ya do when you make the cupcakes with homemade marshmallows?

you use these: 

and what do ya do while you are getting frosting all over your face eating your cupcake with the homemade marshmallows?

 you use these:

and what do ya do when you had your share of cupcakes with homemade marshmallows and no more napkins to use? you give some away to your best buddy and pal!

and you wrap them up in these:

(yeah yeah, i know it's a valentine box but these tags and bags will work anyway.)

so now let's take a look at my shopping spree, shall we?

SURPRISE! 

you wanna win all this?

i want you to win too! but ya gotta enter!

the only mandatory thing i ask is for you to follow me somehow and if you already do, please be sure to tell me so you can have your entry in.

enter here and i'll announce the winner next friday right before easter and mail it out as soon as i get your address. this is open to all u.s. residents starting 

midnite 3/22/13 til midnite 3/27/13.

please enter so my very first giveaway won't look so lame :>P

WE HAVE A WINNER! 

I'LL ANNOUNCE IT ON FRIDAY'S POST 3/29/13!

that way i can go shopping again and give away more stuff in the near future :) 

whew! what a super duper loooong post!

 but you are all super duper and i cannot thank you enough for supporting me and my hoopla palooza!!!!

here's to many more years together.

oh and btw, 

i finally put my pic up so you can see the crazy behind the mad scientist costume. i wouldn't want you to think you were entering a contest run by a crazy person in a wild white wig. let alone get a package in the mail from some lunatic. what would people think?

XOXOXO