My friend Dee’s birthday is next week.  We had lunch today at her house with the lovely puppies at our feet and I figured a little early celebration was in order.

I did clean up the gooey mess before giving them to her, but I do love how it looked here while they set.  These are dark chocolate cupcakes with seven minute frosting.  I’m thinking I need to make the dark chocolate cupcakes with a lemon yellow frosting for out little Superbowl get together in honor of the Steelers…

A few changes:I wanted to let you all know that today will be my last official posting of the Friday Favorites.  Life has been very busy for me these days and I tend to do all my blog reading in short windows of time, which means that I’m not always on top of the latest and greatest from my favorite reads to share with you all.  Rather than try to read through entries quickly just to have something on Fridays, I’d prefer to read and absorb what my favorite bloggers write about without worrying about posting my favorite weekly reads.  I have added a list of things that are “Stirring My Soul” to the sidebar.  This list will change every so often and include links to blogs, videos, articles, and more that are indeed stirring my soul.  Thanks to everyone who’s read and visited my Friday Favorites all this time.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I know I have much I’d like to accomplish, but I’m also looking forward to some time with friends and neighbors enjoying good food and hopefully good football.