As summer unwinds...

It's time to enjoy some mint chocolate chip ice cream as summer rapidly unwinds. For a little while, it seemed like everything I made revolved around an ice cream theme. I will not be making enormous amounts of ice cream during the fall and winter months because it is sometimes considered "out of season". For me, ice cream is never out of season!


This is a homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream prep board. So instead of this ice cream being made in a factory, it's just being made from scratch at home. I guess it's an original idea for a prep board!


Note the little puddles of melted ice cream splattered across the board. Normally, I would do anything to avoid such a slurpy mess, but in this case I intentionally created the mess! Everything is handmade as usual.


Although this is an extremely basic prep board, it is a fun, cheerful little piece fit for anyone!

A closer look. Note the two full, hardened ice cream scoops.

Bowl of the ice cream ingredients fully mixed.

Crispy Cones

I very much prefer making my ice cream cones in bulk. Once I really get into it, it can be hard to stop me... that is until my fingers start feeling numb from creating that rigid texture that ice cream has. It is, as usual, a long and tedious process to make this particular little miniature.

Another ice cream surprise is in the making, but there are no photos of it yet! I still have to get around to baking it and adding final touches.

Making the cones.

Ahhh-- the finished product!! The ice cream cones displayed above were converted into dangly earrings. Mmm! Vanilla bean ice cream, rich chocolate syrup, and rainbow colored sprinkles-- all served in one crispy, crunchy cone!

Hershey Chocolate Cake

Recently my mom gave me Hershey's 100th Anniversary recipe book to look at. The cover of the book pictured a delicious chocolate cake with cream and raspberries on top! I instantly knew I wanted to imitate it in miniature, so I finally did! Here is the real cake (all rights reserved to Hershey):

... and here is the miniaturized version; please click for full view:

I sculpted cake after cake, but I finally broke the monotony and made some other odds and ends. Making mini cakes can be extremely fun, but just as hard!

A family of turkeys has been visiting us for the past three mornings very faithfully. Along with two adult turkeys (presumably the parents) were five precious little baby turkeys! They almost look like ducks. Today they visited us twice. They are attracted by the seeds that drop from our two backyard bird feeders. While they ate, I was able to take pictures of them.

Above: Eating the leftover sunflower seeds on the ground.

Above: Wandering away through the garden.