February 2009 Archives
Yesterday, I went to the Deseret Industries (a thrift store here in Utah) as I do about twice a week. Someone had unloaded a bunch of Baby Gap clothes there and although most of them were too small for Lia, there were a few gems that I picked up. I got a brand new Baby Gap dress that will fit her for Easter next year and a pair of adorable pants for this spring that happen to match the applique shirt I'm working on right now. Also picked up another pair of pants (not Baby Gap) that were just so perfect I couldn't resist. Here's a picture of Lia in them:
Now can you see why I couldn't resist? They matched her Valentine's shirt perfectly! And the best part is that the whole outfit only cost 3 dollars (that includes the material for the appliques). So let's all give three cheers for the DI and cheap baby clothes! Hip Hip Hooray!
Now can you see why I couldn't resist? They matched her Valentine's shirt perfectly! And the best part is that the whole outfit only cost 3 dollars (that includes the material for the appliques). So let's all give three cheers for the DI and cheap baby clothes! Hip Hip Hooray!
James has been after me for a while to post the cakes that I have made for my kid's birthdays. I like being creative and making cakes that look really awesome. Some have been more awesome than others, but all have been a challenge. The kids get to choose their cake theme and I get to design and make the cake.
It all started with this one:
Anyone who knows Seth understands why I chose a lion for his first birthday cake. He still sleeps with his stuffed lion every night and poor Lion is looking quite sad now because he has been so well loved. My sister Amy and I created this cake out of a twelve inch round, some cupcakes, marshmallows, doughnuts, candy and rolled fondant.
An obsession with all things motorized inspired Seth's second birthday cake:
This was one of the cakes that didn't turn out quite as awesome as I envisioned it. I couldn't figure out how to make the landing gear, so I just left it off. Seth loved it however and that's all that really matters anyway isn't it? The cake was baked in a football shaped cake pan, the tail was an ice cream cone, the rotors were black licorice and the details were created with some rolled fondant.
Seth turned three six months after Jacob was born and I'm not sure how I found the time or energy for this next cake. I must have had someone watch the kids while I made it... This was my first attempt at sculpting cake and it was a little nerve wracking, but it turned out great!
This is Rolley from the Bob the Builder shows. My mom had gotten a great deal on all the party decorations and the Bob candle holder, I figured we needed a machine for Bob to ride on, just like he does in the show. I used store bought pound cake, rolled fondant, some doughnuts and a couple of Ding-Dongs. The road is also a Texas sheet cake, because I thought we wouldn't have enough cake for everyone to eat if I just served Rolley.
I let Seth choose the theme for Jacob's first birthday because, let's face it, a one year old doesn't really care much as long as they get to have cake all over their faces at the end of the day. Hence our pirate island cake:
Now this cake is probably not the most visually impressive cake and I couldn't find a cheap pirate boat that was small enough to sit in the "water" of the cake, but each child that came to the party got their own individual Pirate Island cake with a treasure buried inside (a quarter that I washed thoroughly).
The other awesome thing about these cakes was the sand. It was made from finely crushed vanilla sandwich cookies and it looked an felt just like real sand, but tasted a whole lot better!
Seth's fourth birthday was the year of the Thomas the Tank Engine cake! This is probably one of the coolest cakes I've made to date. I found this Thomas Cake Tutorial on the internet and it gave me all the inspiration and motivation I needed to tackle this project.
I can't believe how much older Seth looks now than he did then. It's only been a year and a half. Anyway, if you are interested in making this cake, just follow the link above for the tutorial and you too can make an awesome Thomas cake.
For Jacob's second birthday he asked for a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. This cake was fun to make, but there were so many different parts, it took a really long time!
The base of the cake is just a 9x13 sheet cake. All of the "clubhouse" pieces are made from shaped rice crispy treats which I then assembled and frosted. This was a very precarious cake. The black Mickey "head" piece keep trying to roll off and the ears kept drooping. A night in the fridge firmed things up a bit and it lasted long enough for Jakes to blow out the candles and for all of us to eat it.
That same year, my niece Amelia turned one. Jenni and I had a deal going where I make her kids birthday cakes and she takes pictures of my kids. I don't know how that is going to work out this year since they moved to Nebraska. Oh well, at least you got one cute cake out of me Jen!! Here is Amelia's monkey cake:
I used the super cute monkey picture that Jenni put on the birthday invitations for the design. I don't know where she got it, but kudos to whoever designed it. It's one of the cutest monkeys I've ever seen. And it looks great as a fondant covered cake too!
As a testament to how much Seth changed between his 4th and 5th birthdays I present his Optimus Prime cake.
My baby goes from liking the sweet, innocent Thomas the Tank Engine to liking the gun blasting, axe wielding Optimus Prime. This Optimus is from the Cartoon Network's, Transformers Animated series so it might not look like the Optimus you grew up with.
And finally, we have Jacob's third birthday cake. Also a testament to how much my boys have grown. Seth is in love with Batman and since Jacob loves whatever Seth loves, he asked for a Robin cake.
This is the Lego Robin from the Batman Lego video game. It's a sculpted cake covered in marshmallow fondant. If you want to see a really cute picture of Jakes dressed up in his Robin costume with the cake, go to our family website and check it out.
So those are my cakes so far. Seth says he wants a Lego Batman cake for his next birthday, we'll see if he changes his mind by then or not...
It all started with this one:
Anyone who knows Seth understands why I chose a lion for his first birthday cake. He still sleeps with his stuffed lion every night and poor Lion is looking quite sad now because he has been so well loved. My sister Amy and I created this cake out of a twelve inch round, some cupcakes, marshmallows, doughnuts, candy and rolled fondant.
An obsession with all things motorized inspired Seth's second birthday cake:
This was one of the cakes that didn't turn out quite as awesome as I envisioned it. I couldn't figure out how to make the landing gear, so I just left it off. Seth loved it however and that's all that really matters anyway isn't it? The cake was baked in a football shaped cake pan, the tail was an ice cream cone, the rotors were black licorice and the details were created with some rolled fondant.
Seth turned three six months after Jacob was born and I'm not sure how I found the time or energy for this next cake. I must have had someone watch the kids while I made it... This was my first attempt at sculpting cake and it was a little nerve wracking, but it turned out great!
This is Rolley from the Bob the Builder shows. My mom had gotten a great deal on all the party decorations and the Bob candle holder, I figured we needed a machine for Bob to ride on, just like he does in the show. I used store bought pound cake, rolled fondant, some doughnuts and a couple of Ding-Dongs. The road is also a Texas sheet cake, because I thought we wouldn't have enough cake for everyone to eat if I just served Rolley.
I let Seth choose the theme for Jacob's first birthday because, let's face it, a one year old doesn't really care much as long as they get to have cake all over their faces at the end of the day. Hence our pirate island cake:
Now this cake is probably not the most visually impressive cake and I couldn't find a cheap pirate boat that was small enough to sit in the "water" of the cake, but each child that came to the party got their own individual Pirate Island cake with a treasure buried inside (a quarter that I washed thoroughly).
The other awesome thing about these cakes was the sand. It was made from finely crushed vanilla sandwich cookies and it looked an felt just like real sand, but tasted a whole lot better!
Seth's fourth birthday was the year of the Thomas the Tank Engine cake! This is probably one of the coolest cakes I've made to date. I found this Thomas Cake Tutorial on the internet and it gave me all the inspiration and motivation I needed to tackle this project.
I can't believe how much older Seth looks now than he did then. It's only been a year and a half. Anyway, if you are interested in making this cake, just follow the link above for the tutorial and you too can make an awesome Thomas cake.
For Jacob's second birthday he asked for a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. This cake was fun to make, but there were so many different parts, it took a really long time!
The base of the cake is just a 9x13 sheet cake. All of the "clubhouse" pieces are made from shaped rice crispy treats which I then assembled and frosted. This was a very precarious cake. The black Mickey "head" piece keep trying to roll off and the ears kept drooping. A night in the fridge firmed things up a bit and it lasted long enough for Jakes to blow out the candles and for all of us to eat it.
That same year, my niece Amelia turned one. Jenni and I had a deal going where I make her kids birthday cakes and she takes pictures of my kids. I don't know how that is going to work out this year since they moved to Nebraska. Oh well, at least you got one cute cake out of me Jen!! Here is Amelia's monkey cake:
I used the super cute monkey picture that Jenni put on the birthday invitations for the design. I don't know where she got it, but kudos to whoever designed it. It's one of the cutest monkeys I've ever seen. And it looks great as a fondant covered cake too!
As a testament to how much Seth changed between his 4th and 5th birthdays I present his Optimus Prime cake.
My baby goes from liking the sweet, innocent Thomas the Tank Engine to liking the gun blasting, axe wielding Optimus Prime. This Optimus is from the Cartoon Network's, Transformers Animated series so it might not look like the Optimus you grew up with.
And finally, we have Jacob's third birthday cake. Also a testament to how much my boys have grown. Seth is in love with Batman and since Jacob loves whatever Seth loves, he asked for a Robin cake.
This is the Lego Robin from the Batman Lego video game. It's a sculpted cake covered in marshmallow fondant. If you want to see a really cute picture of Jakes dressed up in his Robin costume with the cake, go to our family website and check it out.
So those are my cakes so far. Seth says he wants a Lego Batman cake for his next birthday, we'll see if he changes his mind by then or not...
I finished this one tonight and it turned out so cute I had to share....
My new sewing machine rocks!! I've been bitten by the applique bug and I now have the means to create some really fun stuff. Here are two of my latest: One is a rocket ship that Jacob picked out himself. The other is a cute apple tree to go with some brown pants I bought for Lia. I think the wings on the rocket ship turned out a little too big, but it was too late to change them by the time I really noticed. Jacob doesn't mind though, he's worn the shirt two days in a row now.
As a side note... James says he's finally fixed the comments section of this page. So you should be able to create an account and leave comments now. Give it a try and if it still doesn't work we might just have to give up!
As a side note... James says he's finally fixed the comments section of this page. So you should be able to create an account and leave comments now. Give it a try and if it still doesn't work we might just have to give up!
I've been hankering for a new sewing machine that has a few more fancy stitches and the ability to adjust the speed of sewing. I started looking and found a machine I really liked at a nearby fabric store. The machine was quite a bit more money than I had wanted to spend, so after doing a lot of research and a lot of mind changing, I decided to go for it. I told James that he should go and buy it for me since I have a hard time plunking down a lot of money for anything, especially when it's just for me. On Tuesday afternoon James came in carrying a huge box. It wasn't the machine I had decided to buy and I sort of freaked out when I saw it. James calmed me down a little by telling me that this machine is the exact same as the machine I wanted, except that this one has an embroidery feature. So I am now the proud owner of an embroidery machine in addition to a really nice crafting machine. I'm still getting used to all the features of the machine, but so far it's been pretty nice.
This is my very first applique project from my new machine. It turned out pretty cute. I'm trying to decide if it needs the word "Love" embroidered on it. Lia will be wearing it this Sunday for Valentines Day.
This is my very first applique project from my new machine. It turned out pretty cute. I'm trying to decide if it needs the word "Love" embroidered on it. Lia will be wearing it this Sunday for Valentines Day.
This morning I woke up to the unpleasant sensation of having baby barf spewed in my face. Lia was a little fussy in the night so instead of rolling over and popping her binky in every 5 minutes, I picked her up and put her in bed with me. She immediately fell asleep in the crook of my arm. At about 7:45 I heard her spit up, or at least what I thought was spit up, so I lifted my arm up to see what the damage was. She then proceeded to full-on, projectile vomit right in my face. Well, that woke me right up!! I was spluttering from the barf and moving her away from my face when she barfed one more time all over the sheets of my bed. I have no idea what was up with her. It was a little scary because infants don't usually vomit for real like that. As soon as she had gotten everything out she slumped right over and fell asleep again. There was no crying, no fussing, nothing, she just threw up three times and then conked out. So there I was, covered in acidy smelling baby puke, wondering what in the world just happened, and Lia is sleeping peacefully on my pillow. Yes, I am a Mommy!
