Summer of Cupcakes #6

Yesterday I decided I would make blackberry cupcakes, but when I got to the store they were out! So my backup plan was to make blueberry cupcakes. They turned out so good. I refrigerated these over night with blueberry preserve filling, fresh whipped cream topping, and garnished with sugared blueberries. I used jumbo dark purple cupcake liners...I love making jumbo size! I took a few to the ZTA luncheon today -- the last one of the summer. I will be taking the rest to family members... this recipe made 16 Jumbo size cupcakes so I have around 10 left to get rid of. I give these 5 stars because they were so moist and delicious without being too sweet. I think they could also be eaten for breakfast because they are light. Only 4 more left in the summer of cupcakes challenge!!! Next up: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes on Saturday!  

Summer of Cupcakes #5

Half way to the goal...and there are how many weeks left before the summer ends?!? I made Chocolate - Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Chocolate Cheesecake Icing filling and Chocolate Shavings on top. This was my first go at chocolate shavings so the beginning was a little rough until I got the hang of it. I would rank these with 5 stars...they were pretty fabulous. I did them in the jumbo size since I needed less than 15...12 for the event and 3 for home ;)

My chandelier cupcake holder made another grand appearance at the ZTA Alumnae Wine Tasting event last weekend. Next week I will be making Peach Cupcakes with Fresh Whipped Topping for a luncheon and Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes for my BFF's birthday dinner. That will be 7! I may have to do some "Zeta Turquoise Cupcakes" for recruitment weekend in two weeks if I have time between running around...Sorority Recruitment...It's one my favorite time of the year.

Party time:





http://whipperberry.com/2011/08/friday-flair-who-i-am-with-melissa-kellie-from-icing-designs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Whipperberry+%28WhipperBerry%29

Summer of Cupcakes #4

Today I am hosting the second "Zeta Crew" luncheon of the summer and I will be bringing these delicious cupcakes: Chocolate Peanut Butter with Chocolate Drizzle and a Reeses on top! I think these will go over well with the Zeta Lunch Crew Ladies. I did however cheat this time! I could not find a few of the ingredients to make the chocolate cake and the items were a bit on the expensive side...I need to go to a bakery shop and find these fine ingredients. So I made Dunkin Hines and it tastes amazing...love cake in the box. I have been trying to do everything homeade this summer but I couldn't this time. The icing is 100% homemade and Oh So Good!! The recipe was a lot! I packed on probably twice as much icing on each cupcake and still had leftovers...so I put it in a a Tupperware dish and will save it for dipping apple slices in later :) yum! Also...take notice in the quality of the picture because I got a new camera!! I'm so excited to be able to post quality pictures now! I needed a new camera before Baby #2 arrived so I am practicing with it on my cupcakes.

Cupcake #1 of the Summer

You know I thought making everything from scratch would take longer but it really doesn't and it does taste different...in a good way. I made a mistake by not buying the right flour but I went with what I had and they still turned out great...a little lighter than I am used to but still really good. My taste tester group said they were "really good" so if I actually used the right flour (smack on the head!) they could have been better than "really good" (the goal is: "Best I've Ever Had"). I made traditional birthday cupcakes with a butter cake and chocolate frosting. The recipe said it would make 24 but it only made 15! Which is fine with me since I only needed 10. Some of them were really big so I could have stretched it to 18, but not 24. Also, I love, love, love frosting and used almost all of it so I would definitely have to double the recipe for a bigger party. We had our luncheon at a mexican restaurant so I captured some tortilla chips in the background. Zeta Tau Alpha is all about pink ribbons for breast cancer, strawberries, and crowns ;)

ZTA Doggy Accessory Basket

This weekend is Zeta Day in Tuscaloosa and each chapter is in charge of bringing a basket to the silent auction to raise money for the ZTA Foundation. The theme is "Oh the Places ZTA will Take You". We wanted to do something different this year that we have not seen done before so we did a ZTA Basket filled with accessories for your dog! We used our sorority colors: turquoise and gray. I used vinyl to put all the writing and pictures on the tub, treat canister and food and water bowls. I embroidered "ZTA" on the body and hand towel. I sewed the waved turquoise trim onto the gray leash.

"Oh the Places ZTA will take You... and Your ZTA Puppy" Basket:

ZTA Food Bowl

ZTA Water Bowl

Turquoise Ribbon on Gray Leash

"ZTA" Embroidered Hand Towel

"ZTA" Embroidered Body Towel

Crown Treat Canister

Treats

Turquoise Puppy Toy

Turquoise Collar with CZ Diamonds

Zeta Tau Alpha Tub

Linked to these parties:

http://sassysites.blogspot.com/2011/03/lets-party-take-2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SassySites+%28Sassy+Sites%21%29

Rush Weekend DONE!

This past weekend was recruitment weekend so I was at the school from 2:00 PM Friday - 9:30 PM Sunday (sleeping and showering at home). This year I was more involved with the decorations and themes because I wanted "perfection" and "perfection" was how it looked...at least to me. I love decorating and throwing parties so it was fun to come up with ideas over the summer and then see your images come to life. It was a very successful weekend with a few kinks and a few outbursts....but all in all they made quota plus one!

Bailey spent the night off on Friday and I picked her up on Saturday night. She came with me on Sunday and we just walked around campus during the parties so we did not disturb them - it was fun to have her there. She calls it the "ZTA School". She is such a wonderful child - I am truly blessed. She even helped taking down decorations. We went to the bid party together and she just sat with the girls like she knew she belonged there - she loves the girls and said "bye Zeta" to them when we left for the night. Being an advisor takes up a lot of time as well as money but when you see how happy the girls are after a successful recruitment it makes it worth it :) Also knowing that you are helping to preserve your chapter that molded you into the person you are - you want that for other women, you want them to experience the sisterhood and joys that Zeta Tau Alpha brought you.

A few shout outs: Thanks to the fabulous ZTA T.L.C. "Shawna, Shayna, Miss TLC...whatever name I gave you over the weekend", GA Viv, Amanda, Karen, CJ, and Becca for helping to make this a successful recruitment and to the fabulous ladies of Theta Nu - especially Kayla.

It was truly fun to get to know all the girls a little better and now I believe I remember most of your names. Also to the women who brought me diet cokes and chocolate - you're my heroes!

ZTA 2010 National Convention

I am a Zeta Tau Alpha. I pledged back in 2003 and have been an active sister since I joined. Some people ask or wonder why I still do "that sorority thing" and it's hard to describe other than I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! Well last week was The ZTA National/International Convention was in New Orleans, LA. I had never been to NOLA and my 2 ZTA sisters (one of those being my Big Sister and Best Friend) that are also advisers wanted to go. I went to convention in 2006 and loved it so another opportunity to go was awesome, plus I needed a break from "mommy duty".

Most of our time was consumed with meetings, luncheons, and dinners in our very nice hotel downtown. It was so nice to get dressed up every day and wear fun outfits with two friends that I don't get to see much because of our schedules. I took 10 dresses (plus an entire large suitcase) as well as 11 pairs of shoes...and I wore all of them except for the athletic shoes...we ended up just walking the town for exercise in flip flops. There was 896 ZTA's in that hotel PLUS A fraternity was having their convention the exact time we were - what a coincidence! Oh if I was in college and care free I might have...oh well I don't know...maybe it's best to not think about it :) With roughly 1,800 greeks in one place those elevators were always packed - we had to go down 29 flights of stairs one time because we could never catch a ride.

View from our hotel room to New Orleans Riverfront area

Wednesday

ThursdayCrown Chapter Night for Collegians - I wear my crown anytime there is a reason - I spent way too much on that thing for my wedding...it has been very useful!

Ritual Time! We initiated Tanya Snider, Wife of the NFL Washington RedSkins' owner

Friday

Think Pink Badge Attire Day

Checking out the ZTA Exhibit - chain of chapters #182 Theta Nu link

On Friday night we were presented with the CROWN CHAPTER award for our Alumnae Chapter - this was the first time Montgomery had ever won it so it was a BIG deal seeing as how the new leaders took over 2 years ago and within those 2 years we have almost tripled in size and have done all sorts of new things to get us noticed. Then IO surprised us all with a mini-concert by DJ $krilla and the ZTA-Epsilon Chapter Sprite Step Off Winners! Both performances were awesome! And then we went out that night to celebrate on Bourbon Street (see my Disclaimer below about what I think about this city).

Night out on Bourbon Street

SaturdayMardi Gras Night

Sunday

So now I am back from convention and I'm still on my "Zeta High". It's kind of like when you come back from Christian camp and you are so on fire for God except this is with ZTA. Not to say I'm not on fire for God...because I am. I had such a great time with my two friends and would not change anything in the world for the opportunity to be with them at convention!

My Disclaimer:I have to say that New Orleans is disgusting and scary and I don't know why anyone would go there for a vacation. It smelled like throw up and urine everywhere we went... and if it smelled like it then you knew it was near by and I almost stepped it when we were out seeing the "beautiful city" - that is what the people from there call it! Beautiful! Maybe one or two things were nice but if you saw it somewhere else it would probably just blend in - the reason it was nice there is because everything else was so horrid and filthy.

This was the nicest place I could find - Jackson Square

Starting Cookie Decorating

I bought a book a few weeks ago on cookie decorating after I started following blogs about it. I love to see the different styles people come up with. Decorating a cookie is like making edible art work. I bought a few cookie cutters to start: round circle, bikini top and bottom (also could be used for lingerie showers), elephant (roll tide!), airplane (Blake's going away party), 5 point crown (ZTA), margarita glass, breast cancer ribbon, and the number '3' (Bailey's birthday-party favors).

My alumnae chapter was having a bowl-a-thon to raise money for our foundation and philanthropy (Breast Cancer Awareness and Education) so I thought it would be a perfect time to try out my new book. The recipe is easy to work with and tastes great with the icing. The first day I did the large round cookies with pink sprinkles - these were called "Hot Pink Sparkling Bowling Balls". The next day I iced the breast cancer ribbons and they turned out really cute. I am going to submit them to the website I bought the cutter from - they said if they use your cookie then you get a free cutter which isn't much but it would be neat to have my cookie posted for ideas.

I enjoyed doing these over actually baking cakes because it is less stressful. These dry and can be packaged really cute where as a butter cream cake can fall apart on your way to the event. So I am going to start doing these for my friend's showers and personal events to start with and see how it goes.

Fabulous Weekend

From my last post I said I would redeem myself with pictures of hot pink cupcakes and my first decorated sugar cookies on sticks. Well I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes but they turned out really cute. On Thursday I finished a birthday cake, had my guitar lesson, and made cupcake icing. On Friday I baked the cookies. On Saturday I iced the cookies, baked the cupcakes, informal recruitment from 10AM -5 PM, and "Bal Masque" that night. On Sunday I iced the cupcakes and went to informal recruitment from 11:30AM -6:30 PM. It was a very busy weekend, but one that will be remembered. Some say I overdid it and had too much on my plate, but when you love what you are doing it doesn't seem like work at all. I wish I felt like this about everything and one day I hopefully will...in God's timing.

To all my ZTA sisters out there - Theta Nu brought it. I was so proud of them. At our school greek life isn't that big so turn outs for informal recruitment are very small. They invited back 9 and 6 came to bid night! I will let you do the math on where the other 3 went among 2 other sororities. I do love being an advisor even though it takes time away from my family; although, Miss Bailey did attend her first ZTA bid night and loved it!

"Bal Masque" was really fun. Blake wore a Tux and I wore a bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding back in October. The band was good, my feet were sore, and I sang to the top of my lungs to "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't Stop Believing".

Where to start?!?

Well the past month has been really busy at work and home so blogging took a backseat for over a month! First it started with recruitment weekend. I am the rush advisor for Zeta Tau Alpha - Theta Nu chapter so that kept me overly busy for an entire week. Then I planned and decorated a cake for my best friend's bridal shower three weeks ago. Two weeks ago we went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for 5 days. Last week: Blake left for the entire week to play war games in MS; I had a 3 Family Yard Sale and made some great CA$H with two friends; and Tuesday I had an Initials Inc. party(www.initials-inc.com/1521) - love their stuff. This past weekend I helped with my best friends bridal pictures, we went to a wedding on Saturday, and church on Sunday.

Bridal Shower Pictures (3 weeks ago)

Party Favor: Chocolate chip cookie with their initials on each one.

Blake and I in Punta Cana (2 weeks ago)

Zeta Day

Much of you know that I was in a sorority in college and I am now an advisor as well as the historian for the Montgomery Alumnae group...anyway, we have this regional conference day once a year for all the ZTA's in Alabama and Mississippi to get together for a fun day. This year was in Tuscaloosa. It also happened to be the worst weekend of weather for Alabama 70's on Thursday, Tornadoes on Friday and Saturday, and Snow on Sunday. Anyway the drive was tense but alas we made it. So me, Amanda, and Brittney were the alumnae from our Montgomery chapter that went - we all are advisers of our collegiate chapter as well, so we were there for two purposes. Scene: there are I guess 1,000 people with tables all over and like 4 tables in front reserved for alumnae. So here we are sitting at the front table at the end of the conference and they are handing out the BIG awards. The last award was being presented - both alumni chapters and collegiate could win this - so the odds are very slim in getting this.
Presenter: This is an alumni chapter that I have visited.
Me (in my head): Oh, well she has come to visit us.
Presenter: They have grown their chapter by 10% and more.
Me (in my head): Oh, well we have grown a lot this past year.
Presenter: This chapter has a website and they are the only ones in their region with one.
Me (out loud): OMG! I made a website!!! - Amanda and I look at each other like - NO it couldn't be!
Presenter: This chapter has made pamphlets to pass out
Me (out loud): MONICA MADE PAMPHLETS!!! - Amanda tells me to calm down
Presenter: The Montgomery Alumnae chapter!

I was so excited I had the shakes! It was like I was back in college and winning the award as a collegiate. We were so shocked and we all three went up and had our pictures taken and we got to take home this gigantic silver plate and certificate. It was just so funny to us because we never expected to win anything. Moments like that will stay with you forever.