Cake Auction for the Scouts

Recently we had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for our boy scout troop.  It included a cake auction and the boys were asked to donate a cake they had made.  Some of the boys made desserts, but clearly some of the parents helped out as well.

 

 Pretty sure this guy's mom helped him out juuuuuust a little, the frosting job is pretty good for a 12-year-old.

 This is a cinnamon roll cake my oldest boy made.  He found it on Pinterest.  Here is the link to the original recipe. 



 

I decided to help my second-oldest boy out by making a back-up batch of cupcakes to donate.  My friend who was in charge told me themed items seemed to raise the most money last year, so I decided to try a variation on a fun idea I'd seen on YouTube.  I found red and white polka-dot cupcake liners, and baked dark chocolate cupcakes in them.


 

While they cooled, I covered a cut and taped cereal box in aluminum foil.  (Don't you love my beat-up table?  Someday I'm going to refinish it.)


 

Next, I used double-sided tape to wrap a red polka-dot grosgrain  ribbon around the box





Then I used my Mickey Mouse punch to punch Mickey heads out of black card stock.  I affixed those to the box using the double-sided tape.  (You can really see the glory of the table in this shot.) 


 


I frosted the cupcakes with a dark chocolate and pushed mini-Oreos in for the ears.  I used plenty of frosting, so I didn't need any toothpicks.  I left some of them like that, but I also sprinkled crushed Oreos on top as well.


 

The finished product. I'm pleased to say they raised $50 for the troop.  We had just enough left over for each family member to get one and they were a hit!

Disney Shirts

Ready for it?  I'm going to post pictures of our Disney shirts. To protect the identity of my kids, I had a little fun in Photoshop...

So how did we do them?  Easy peasy.
1) I downloaded a template of Mickey Mouse ears.
2) Next I traced that template on our shirts in pencil.

3) I sewed around the Mouse ears with dental floss.  I've read you should use waxed.  I used the teflon slippery kind.

4)  I pulled the dental floss tight to make a puckered "balloon".

Now this is where I diverged on the two techniques.  By the way, I skipped the soda ash step some tutorials recommend. 

Orange and black Halloween Mickey shirts. (concentric circle idea)
1) I put rubber bands around the puckered balloon to keep it separate.  I did mine right on the line of the floss--I've since read you should make sure it is below it to keep it pretty separate.  

2) Using the puckered balloon as the end, wrap rubber bands to section off the shirt..  By the end it should look something like a snake.

3) Use fabric dyes in any pattern you want until each section you want colored is colored.  For more coverage, make sure you get into the folds or grooves of the shirt.  If you want more white to show through, leave some space between dye areas.

4) Be careful not to let dyed sections touch each other--color will transfer.  My two "snakes" are a little too close.  Also, I got some color transfer when I had the shirts on the grocery store bags.  The ink from those rubbed off onto the orange sections. 

5) Wrap in plastic and let it sit for a day or so.  Sorry no picture of that, but what I did was use the plastic sheeting in the above picture.  I wrapped the first shirt, then added the second, and then the third keeping the clear plastic between each additional shirt.  I then wrapped the whole thing together and put it in a plastic bag for a couple of days.

6) Rinse your shirt until the water runs clear.

Blue and red (swirl shirts)
1) Lay your shirt flat with the Mickey poking up in the center. 

2) Take the Mickey and twist it clockwise gathering up the shirt as you go.

3) Once the shirt resembles something like a fat disk, carefully wrap rubber bands across it dividing the shirt like a pie.  Keep the Mickey head poking up.  

4)  Color the Mickey head with fabric dye--wrap with plastic wrap and secure with elastics.  Then use the fabric dyes in any order you want until on the pie until each section you want colored is colored. 

 5) For more coverage, make sure you get into the folds or grooves of the shirt.

6) Be careful not to let dyed sections touch each other--color will transfer.

7) Wrap in plastic and let it sit for a day or so.

Once the dyes have set for a day or two, unwrap each shirt and run under cold water until the water run-off is clear.  Dry the shirts and wash them again.

On the blue and red Mickey shirts, the stitched Mickey didn't show up well.  To rectify that I tried using bleach pen to trace the outline.  That didn't work too well, so I used a bleach with a toothpick and a q-tip to trace the out line and that worked much, much better.

Fall 2013 note:  I made the original shirts a couple of years ago and I had really large dye bottles which still had red, blue and black.  I thought I could just reuse them.  The blue came out fine, but the red turned pink after the final wash and the black is really more navy blue at this point.  I finally bought new red dye because the pink was unacceptable to me.  It worked out fine. 

Other tutorials with photos here and  for swirl pattern here.  Cutest video of both techniques here.

Surprise! We're going to Disney World.

You know those Disney advertisements where the parents surprise the kids that they are going on a trip? I confess, I choke up when I watch them.

I grew up being raised on Disney. We lived in California for a time as did my grandparents, so I can't even count the number of times I've been to Disneyland. My sisters and I would play the Disney princesses. (I was Snow White and the others were Cinderella and Aurora--yep dating myself a little here). I had an old 33 record that had all the songs from Cinderella. I had another 33 that told the story of Snow White in addition to the music.

In short we are/were Disneyphiles.

For many years I've heard great stories about parents surprising their children with a trip to Disney--then Disney began showing the linked ad from above. I wanted to do this for my kids.

Two problems--1) Disney can be really expensive--especially for a family of my size. 2) Those great videos and stories where they tell the kids they are leaving for the airport right now? Yeah, that doesn't work so well with kids on the Autism spectrum. My boys need sign posts and time to adjust to ideas.

So a compromise. I did a lot of research over several months and when I heard Disney had brought back the free dining plan again I jumped on it. I made all of our reservations and I was bursting with the secret.

As I said, my children need time to adjust to ideas. My husband and I talked about it and decided that we would tell the kids a couple of months before the actual vacation so they would also have a chance to earn and save money for souvenirs.

On my son's birthday I set things in motion by having a letter delivered to him by "owl" (or so the server at the pizza parlor said) which set all of the kids off on an adventure. When we got home from the pizza parlor, (and no, I didn't have them make a Mickey shaped pizza though I sort of wish I had), they had to go around the house collecting objects and filling tasks--most of them related to Disney or Harry Potter (my kids are HUGE fans). I even made wands out of chocolate dipped pretzel sticks (the long ones), but I was remiss in getting any pictures.

The end reward was supposed to be cookies--literally found in the cupboard under the stairs--though I had been making them in secret and the royal icing hadn't dried completely, so they ended up being found inside the second fridge. I found my inspiration here. She is much more talented than I am.

It was my first attempt at edible royal icing and I discovered three things. 1) It's probably better to start with smaller amounts of icing and make more rather than trying to find creative ways to use up white, black and red icing. 2) Getting the right consistency for both outlining and filling in is trickier than it looks on paper. 3) Gel food dyes--especially black--can leave a nasty stain on your tongue and teeth. Brush immediately after eating.

Below are some of our attempts of baking more cookies and using more icing.


We took our vacation this last fall (another reason I didn't post) and we had a great time. I had to skip a few rides given my current project (baby on board), but being pregnant made me change my focus-it was okay if we were slower paced and if we didn't get to the opening gates 1/2 hour before the parks opened. We enjoyed ourselves and each others company and it made the difference.

As a side note--I recommend families with ASD children look into disability passes for theme parks. Most parks have them, but I would not have known about them were it not for a good friend whose child is also autistic.

Disney Inspirations

Lizzie Anne Design's Meridith & Tricia's made a recent trip to Disneyland. Their trip inspired me to create some Disney themed ideas. I've posted just three of them here. First idea--The Winnie the Pooh theme song would be a perfect border or text block in a nursery. Second--Mickey Ears (Isabel) or Minnie fonts (Jackson) are fun ways to feature your child's name over their bed(s). Third idea--The Dream quote could go on a wall above a picture from a Disney park.

You could also customize a picture frame (on the glass or actual frame) or a mat board with a name or short phrase.

I've got a ton of Disney photos to go through, so check back in the future for my own completed project.

(See, inspiration really can come from anywhere!)