painting and pumpkin.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and Thanksgiving! I can not believe it is time for a new week to get rolling. What is even harder to comprehend is that it is almost December. I have been so inspired by Sew, Mama Sew Handmade Holidays and November's issue of "Mollie Makes" I really wish I had more time to make more gifts. I vow to make as many more as I can squeeze in over the next few weeks. ;)

After visiting Melissa at tinyhappy and Lotta Jansdotter's blogs for so long, I have been inspired to try my hand at painting on ceramic coffee cups. I had painted them a while back but had not gotten around to baking them. While the oven was heated to help the hot roll dough rise, I  thought it would be a good time to bake them. I was hoping that after my trial run, I would add them as gift ideas for Christmas. I'm not quite sure I am enough satisfied with them to give away, but it is a lot of fun. I will try again. 

And the bars in the photo? They are pumpkin bars with maple cream cheese frosting. I made them for Mark's retirement open house. They are in Matheau's  top 5 favorite desserts (and pumpkin doesn't usually show up that high in his list of favorites). They are amazingly delicious and simple to make. Shared Sugar also has a new pumpkin cream cheese muffin recipe posted. I will not be waiting long to make that one. :)

details on the coffee cup.

paint: Pebeo Porcelaine 150 markers from Blick

cup: target