Inedible Cupcakes and Incredibly Edible Chocolates

Last night I went down to the South Loop to take a chocolate-making class at Canady Le Chocolatiere.

I had bought a Groupon to take this class sometime last fall with two friends.  One of them used it right away (and I haven't forgiven her for it) but my other friend, Sarah, kindly waited to use it with me.  I was glad to have her there because there was a lot of info to absorb and a second set of ears was quite helpful.  I never knew how serious chocolate making is, although it shouldn't have surprised me!
           But the class was a great success and I have a lovely box of filled chocolates made by myself and the other students to enjoy over the next few days, depending on how long I can make myself wait to open it.  If I show some real restraint I may even save it to share with a friend.

           I had planned to send some of those chocolates off to a few friends who have birthdays in the next week, but my selfishness has gotten the better of me, so instead I woke up this morning and made them some turtles out of the mixed nuts and old hershey bars.  Well, they look cute anyway :-)
           Tomorrow afternoon I am going to my first ever baby shower (for parents who are my own generation anyway).   My friends Brian and Anaïs, who got married last April (you may recall, I made them a quilt for their wedding) moved out to Las Vegas for work in the fall, so I haven't seen them since September.  I didn't even know Anaïs was pregnant when she left, so it will be very exciting to see her tomorrow.

          I am a very bad guest at weddings and showers because I don't like to buy things from the gift registry.  I would much rather make them something, which often turns out to be not as pretty as I had pictured in my mind.  This project was no different!  I made some "cupcakes" out of receiving blankets and onesies, inspired by this post I found online.  Not being a big coffee drinker, my coffee-maker is teeny tiny, so my coffee filters were not the full-sized ones I needed for this project, so I made do with some parchment paper and scallop-edged scissors.

           I found this sweet guy, Mumble Billie Bear, at Anthropologie last week.  I brought him home, put him on my dining table, and then he started helping me with my homework.  I thought for a while that maybe I shouldn't give him away.  He looked at me with his kind of sad eyes like he wasn't sure I should give him away either, but after we picked out a fitting ribbon to tie around his neck, he looks more excited for the party.  I think that Baby Girl Caccamo will love her new, very soft bear.  Hopefully I will get to visit him sometime.