It's Party Time!!!!

I love, love, love, a party and if I could make a career out of it, I would! Here are some pictures of cakes and parties I've done for my friends and families in the past in no particular order.

This one was for the son of a friend of mine...he just turned 3

 

 

Ladybug cake from the front

Ladybug cake from the back

The birthday girl herself! 

The Penguin Cake

The Smash Cake

The Aftermath!!!!  Donna's 1st Birthday.

R2D2 with his gangsta lean.  This was my 1st time using fondant that I made from marshmallows. 

Delaney's 4th Birthday Cake...I made the dogs out of modeling chocolate...this was the second set.  Our 2 golden retrievers ate my first set.

Delaney's Wall-e cake

This was for my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower.  Kate was supposed to be running for the finish line and Jim was assembling the crib.  If you've ever seen him assemble anything from a box, you'll understand why it's a mess!  I made these cake toppers out of Polymer clay

This cake was for the 3 cousins whose birthdays all fall close together.  I made the two girls mermaids and Eddie was a rower for University of Wisconsin - Madison.  I used the modeling chocolate for all of these figures. 

Fall is officially here!!!!

Now that Autumn is officially upon us, my mind starts to think of cool, crisp weather, the smell of burning leaves, picking apples and of course, Halloween.  I love to make my daughters' costumes however this year, Delaney has her heart set upon being a Triceratops.  And while I am fairly creative, I do know my limitations and a Triceratops is most definitely out of my skill set!  I am still making Donna's though and hopefully she will be the cutest little owl in town.

I got my inspiration from this cute little number

And thought that I could combine it with the wings from this outfit.

 

I finished the main part the body today but I unfortunately ran out of brown felt so my work has ceased for the day and I will be off to JoAnn Fabrics tomorrow in search of more.  I'm also adding a tail and making a different headpiece for her.  I've been loving the look of the many handmade, patchwork-style stuffed toys I've been seeing on Etsy lately so that was what inspired the fabrics that I used to make the feathers.  I think that if I use a little fabric stiffener, I can curl the feathers up a little bit and give them a little more life.  Here's what I have so far...

 

Something's Missing!!!

I just finished making this cute little Tooth Fairy pillow yesterday morning and the timing couldn't have been more perfect!  Delaney came out of her room last night all excited and waiving her newly dislodged tooth in the air.  There's a small satin envelope stitched to the backside of the pillow for the late-night exchange with the Tooth Fairy to take place.  So we slipped her little tooth in there and sometime during the night, the Tooth Fairy came and left Delaney a $1 bill in the pouch.  After she woke up this morning, she found her $1 bill and immediately tried pulling out her other wriggly tooth so she could get another dollar to buy a dinosaur.  

A Little Something Steve Picked Up For The Girls....

Steve and I have been cruising craigslist for quite some time now for a playset for the girls.  In one of my late night internet surfing sessions,  (I've become a craigslist and Ebay junkie) I discovered that people are giving these things away for free as long as you remove them yourself.  They are posted quite frequently but are gone almost as quickly as they are put up.  We kept seeing them but by the time we called, they were already spoken for.  We finally lucked out though!  Thanks to Steve and Grandpa D we now have a kickin' place for the girls to play right in our own back yard! I would have loved something like this when I was a kid...I'm so excited for them to have something like this and I can't wait to make little curtains for the windows!  I can already see little battery operated twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling of the house and maybe a couple of bean bag chairs...Oh, the possibilities!!!!!

School Days Are Here....

 

We started the year off a special breakfast of Delaney's choosing so we had Belgian waffles with blueberry compote...Yum!!!!

Well summer is officially coming to a close and Delaney has started full-day Kindergarten. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed.  She's now in her second week of school and we all seem to be adjusting well. I have to admit though that I think it's been the roughest on me!  I am definitely not a morning person and getting up at 6:30 every morning has not been easy.  I am fortunate enough though to have a wonderful husband who wakes me up every morning with a smile and a hot cup of coffee!  Somehow waking up this way is less painful than waking to a beeping alarm.  I spend the next half hour sipping my coffee and finish the waking process (yes, it's a process for me).  Just before seven, I can hear the pitter patter of little feet followed immediately by Donna's joyous screeching at prospect of the new day before her.  Here's a couple pictures from Delaney's 1st day of school...

 

We Have Eggs!!!!!

Well I went out to the coop like I do every morning and look what I found!  Three little eggs!  They're small but for their first attempt, I think the girls did great!  And of course we just had to crack 'em open right away and eat them...They were delicious!  The second picture has a store bought white egg in there just for a size comparison.  As the girls start layting more, the eggs should start getting bigger.  It's silly, but I feel like a proud mama!

Garden Update!

The garden is really coming along!  Delaney loves to come out and water the plants for me everyday while Donna is napping.  One sprinkler can at a time, she happily goes back and forth from  the garden to hose to fill her can and back to the garden again to water each plant.  I think she'll really be disappointed when and if we install our drip irrigation system.  When she's done watering, she digs holes in the small, currently unused portion and makes "worm cakes" for the chickens to eat!  She's such a stitch!!!!

Sand, Sprinklers, & Watermelon...A Perfect Night

There wasn't much to say here...So I let the pictures speak for themselves!

I was looking for something really special for Delaney to give to her teachers and bus drivers this year.  They are a terrific group of women and take exceptional care of the kids.  I honestly can't say enough about Delaney's early education teacher.  She has grown so much and I believe she quite literally blossomed this year.  She is talking so much more and finally starting have conversations!  How do you put a price tag on that?...I know these women all get paid, but I also know they are sorely underpaid.  I wanted to give them something to really show how much we appreciate all that they have done for Delaney.  But like almost all young families out there, financial resources are tight and I couldn't afford to spend ton of money...So, this is what I came up with.  I went to my local farm stand and got 5 small New Guinea Impatient pots for $3.50 each. I then rummaged through my scrapbooking supplies and was able to dress them up with stuff I had laying around the house.  I made the baskets out of cardstock and secured the handle with little eyelets.  I used pinking shears for the note and bent some copper wire with needle nose pliers to make little photo holders to put into the plant.  Delaney and I then wrote a "Thank You" message  in sidewalk chalk on our driveway and snapped a picture to insert into one of the little photo holders.  The best part about all this is that I was able to give 5 people gifts for less than $20!  Mission Accomplished!

Delaney had her last day of school today and it was bittersweet. I can't help but look forward to the summer but in the back of my mind, I'm already dreading Fall. Summer is going to go by so fast and Delaney will be in full day kindergarten. I find myself already missing the casual half days of pre-school...of mornings filled with pancakes, french toast and lazy giggles while getting ready for school. While I realize it's not exactly higher education and my baby's not really leaving the nest, I still can't imagine a full day without her.

It's been a while...

Well, life here has been busy as usual! Between work, the kids, the house, etc...I haven't found a lot of time to update everything here. Lately Steve's been busy with building the chicken run and the new garden we are establishing right off the run and I've been taking care of all the planting. It is definitely the most ambitious garden we've ever attempted! We have a total of 27 tomato plants and I can't even tell you how many pepper plants...red, green, yellow, purple, big bombs, bananas, you name it, it's in there! We are also growing cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, sugar snap peas, strawberries, cantaloupe, brussel sprouts, zucchini, cucumbers, onions,carrots,ummm...basically, you name it...it's in there!