A day with our neighbours!

Neighbour. Noun.
Someone who lives near another.
A person or thing that is near another.


Smurf. Noun.
A fictional character; a blue pixie with white stocking cap, from the media franchise,
The Smurfs.

Coming up soon is a national day called 'Neighbour Day'. The official day for this is March 31st (which also happens to be Easter Sunday)... Because our family is a touch too busy with various Easter commitments (as most other people would be) we bumped it forward a week, and organised a street BBQ that we had over the weekend just passed.

With many people bringing foods, salads, drinks, and things to BBQ, I was convinced that there would still be room for some cupcakes!

But what kind of cupcakes?

A good friend of mine recently showed me Smurf cupcakes from Pinterest. They looked super cute, fairly straight forward, and I really wanted to try and make them! ... So in my head, because I knew the BBQ was only a couple of days away, I worked out a reason for how these Smurf cupcakes related to; and why I should make them for Neighbour Day! :)

The Smurfs live in a village, with each Smurf having his own

mushroom shaped house - which look the same from the outside,

but once inside the houses, you notice the Smurfs' different personalities.

So really, when you think about it, they kinda do relate anyway (apart from the obvious blue, pixie, white stocking hat, and magical parts) - we all live near each other, in house shaped houses, with different personalities, in a 'village' type of suburb! Totally makes sense, right?

One thing that the Pinterest site didn't have on it, was step-by-step instructions on how to make these! (though, I guess they did look fairly simple)... But still, I thought I would include what I did anyway.

I used buttercream icing for it all (except the eyes, which I used white & chocolate fudge frosting for), but I do think I read in one of the Pinterest sites that the Smurf's hat was made out of marshmallow frosting... Well, I may have enough time on my hands to make dozens of cupcakes at a moment's notice - but to make super-dooper tricky icing as well? Not this time!

As you can see... My 'Smurf' cupcakes turned out more like squished hermit crabs or something - but you get the idea of what to do and how to do it, I hope? I didn't have the original photo near me when I was icing them (an obvious mistake now that I compare the photos of mine to the photo of the original for this post), which meant the eyes were in the wrong place as well! I'd put them on each side of the nose, instead of on top... Oh well!

I couldn't help but laugh at the majority of these cupcakes (I obviously used the best ONE for the step-by-step photos... Whether it was because of a) the fudge frosting making the eyes gooey, and/or b) having the frosting in the wrong place; all of the eyes looked so droopy! The cupcakes then became  my retarded little squished hermit crab cupcakes, but I loved them because they made me laugh :)

Relating to these 'Smurf' cupcakes that didn't turn out the way they were supposed to look, I was reminded of this article I had recently read about Pinterest.

I am happy that I gave it a go! I love being creative, and my neighbours (perhaps being nice rather than honest) were impressed with them nevertheless.

It's all experience, though, and with each cupcake made (either successful or not), improves skills and ignites creativity. God has given us all different skills and talents - whether it's baking, or poetry, or art - we are all talented and creative differently!

Even the Smurfs are all different (and creative in their own way)!

Cook Smurf is the cook of the village. He always wears his white toque and apron. He bakes delicious cakes and biscuits and knows dozens of recipes by heart.

Some days Poet Smurf walks around for days, smurfing the perfect rhyme. You'll never see him without a quill and a parchment, and most of his poems are about nature.

Painter Smurf is the Picase of the bunch. He often wears a red jacket with a black tie. Painter likes to make experimental paintings that no Smurf can understand. He likes to paint colourful sunsets, and of course his favourite model- Smurfette.

Harmony Smurf loves to play any instrument he can find, even when broken notes come out of them. Harmony is a terrible musician that the Smurfs run away from every time he picks up a musical instrument*.

*Points for giving it a go, though! Anyone else reminded of the saying: "Practice makes Perfect"? ;)

Okay, enough Smurfing around...

Time to get creative and give new things a go.

... Even if they don't turn out quite right!