In addition to being the unofficial end to summer, Labor Day must also be the day by which retailers aim to have their Halloween merchandise out.  I noticed this weekend that most stores are ready for Halloween, which is still two months away! My sister just sent me a picture of these Halloween cupcake place-mats from Christmas Tree Shop.   Since you can’t buy directly from The Christmas Tree’s website if you are interested in these it looks like you will have to go shopping!

Here’s another clever Etsy goody for you cupcake obsessives out there!

The Arrested for Frostitution necklace for only $10.99. It’s hard to beat that!

The metal cupcake measures just under 1″ and hangs on a 27″ pink ballchain. The back has a smooth crome finish!

I’m blushing a little bit to bring you … the Cupcake Whore Tote.

It could be yours for only $49.

Gotta love Etsy.

Got a green thumb?  The summer might be winding down, but you can continue “gardening” with these creative treats. With ingredients like chewing gum, AirHeads, Jolly Ranchers, Starbursts, Tootsie Rolls, M&Ms, and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, these garden cupcakes are sure to be a treat.  One thing is for sure: they will not fail to impress.

The Children’s Place has a small back to school sale going on right now and they have some awesome cupcake products for kids!  I love the purple winking cupcake long sleeve T-shirt shown above that is only $7.00.  I also think the  “I Love You Almost As Much As Cupcakes” T-shirt that is $6.00 and the $4.99 cupcake candy T-shirt would be fun for little girls to wear when they go back to school.

And you can’t forget all the fun accessories like the cupcake earrings, shown below, or the cupcake charms and friendship necklaces.

I am so excited to introduce you to Sara Varon, the immensely creative, cupcake lovin’ author and illustrator of this new graphic novel, Bake Sale. Its intended audience is ages 8 and up, but Sara was sure to include some cupcake recipes for mom and dad.

The book was released on August 30th and is already making its mark with an evocative story about a cupcake who works in a bakery, while dreaming about traveling abroad to meet the pastry of his dreams, whom he saw in a cookbook, of course!

This is the perfect gift for the cupcake lover in your life! (And if you are shopping for a child, you might like to know that educators find graphic novels to be incredibly helpful to reluctant readers!)

Conchetta Washington is a 24-year-old street artist in San Francisco.  Her company is called Conchetts, and they offer custom hand-painted items, like t-shirts, mugs and TOMS shoes (see the beautiful cupcake designs below).  Conchetta describes her designs as “whimsical, full of bold colors, swarovski crystals, and my signature cupcakes”.  Be sure and also check out her Facebook and Twitter pages.  I love her choice of colors…definitely eye-catching!

I really love sending mail! And even though I have a large collection of stationary I always find new cards and postcards that I want to purchase.  I came across these Holly Webber postcards and am tempted to buy the cupcake ones.  The postcards are $2.50 each and there are four different cupcake designs, all perfect for birthdays or everyday use!