7 Layer Studio

Birthday Blast

My sweet boy is now 7 years old!

As you can see, he was pretty excited about that.

We had a rocket/airplane party, as you can also see.  Yes, those are permanent markers, which was a big mistake.  Actually, the big mistake was not covering my table first (sigh).

I bought these planes at the Dollar Tree store, and the kids LOVED them!  Hazel mostly loved to color hers....she doesn't believe in leaving anything white.

The boys had fun coloring, but they were mostly interested in testing out their plane's flying/crashing capabilities.

More crashing than flying, because we had to settle with turning our basement into an airfield (it was cold and rainy that day), but fortunately we had several extra planes and performed a lot of emergency wing replacements.  The planes kept the boys happily occupied for more than an hour = awesome.  It was a noisy, chaotic kind of awesome, but awesome nonetheless.

Here are some step-by-step pictures of the rocket cake:  I used unglazed cake donuts and stacked them one by one on top of a 2-layer round cake.  The sticks are Wilton wedding cake dowels, and they worked great to keep the donut tower stable.

Once the donuts were all stacked, I smeared  frosting all over the place.

This is where I SHOULD have used fondant, but I simply hadn't anticipated the difficulty of smoothing frosting on such a tall skinny cylinder, and I didn't have any fondant on hand.  The party was starting in 2 hours with my kids to pick up from school in 2 different places, and there was no time to run to the store.  So please forgive the bad frosting job - not exactly showpiece worthy, but the kids certainly didn't care.

Oh - the cone shape at the top was created by frosting a waffle cone.  With a LOT of frosting, since the diameter of the donuts was much greater than the cone.  Next time I'll use smaller donuts.

I used red Twizzler licorice ropes - the kind you peel apart - for the lines, and donut-shaped gumdrops and store-bought cookie frosting for the rest of the details (the gumdrops were heavy, so I poked a piece of toothpick into the backs of the gumdrops before inserting them into the sides of the cake).  The rocket fins were obviously graham crackers (score the crackers gently with a steak knife, then snap off the pieces), and that cookie frosting was obviously oozy and annoying.  :-)  Next time I'll make my own to pipe with.

Note that the rocket is sinking into the cake base...this is what happens when the cake base starts out frozen and then thaws, thus becoming squashed under the weight of all those cake donuts.  Oops.  Another unforseen booboo.  I should have put dowels or a wedding cake tier beneath the donut tower to hold it up.  Again, the kids didn't care so I didn't fret too much about it.

 

Speaking of rockets, I thought I'd share a cute little rocket-making activity I did for Hyrum's birthday 2 years ago.  You can read more about it HERE.

You could also do a similar thing with veggies and fruit instead of sugary things....

You could use a cucumber or banana for the main rocket body, and use your imagination to go from there...peeled and sliced apples or jicama for the fins, raisins, berries, and/or dried cranberries for the details.  I keep meaning to do some demos to photograph for the blog, but so far haven't had time.

So much to do, not enough hours in the day...but at least maybe this will get you started.  If you have a birthday boy with aeronautical aspirations, may he have as much of a blast as mine did!

 

 

Pinkety Pink Ruffle Rainbow Cake and a Tea Party Too

Guess who's turning 4?

I'll give you a hint:  She likes pink.

A lot.

Why, here she is now!  Showing the world how excited she is to add another finger to show how old she's going to be.

Four is such a great age for parties like this...when she walked into the dining room the morning after I pulled all this together, she SQUEALED with delight, jumped up and down like a kangaroo and clapped her hands as fast and furiously as she could manage.

 

And then she ran over and gave me a great big hug.  Now if all that isn't the best payback a mom could ever have for working hard on a child's party, I don't know what is.

We're still working on our naturally posed camera face, as you can see.

Here's a shot of the Ruffle Rainbow cake before candles and cutting.  Yes, that's a lot of frosting and a lot of work!  It took 3 batches of frosting and 2 batches of cake to make it, but I have to admit that it was very fun.  I got the idea for the cake from my friend Stacey's website, Perfectly Pink.  She has a picture of a similar cake that I just fell in love with, and I knew I HAD to try it for Hazel's birthday.

....yes, that's Hazel squishing her piece of cake all over the place.  She didn't like the frosting.  Not that I can blame her - I can't stand frosting (unless it's chocolate or cream cheese, and even then only in small amounts).

Some of the other girls were a little more happy to eat their slices.

The large tissue paper flower pompoms were made according to the instructions found here, but I came up with the cute little spiky pompoms in the egg cups myself.  I'll do a tutorial on them soon, they make the perfect plate centerpiece and would be great as a name card holder too.

These are the bigger ones I made from the Martha Stewart site.

Ahhh, that was a fun party.  Pretty exhausting, especially considering I pulled it together in a couple of days after looking at the calendar and realizing that I had to do it now or wait several weeks because of a bunch of scheduling conflicts, but fun.  And yes, I crashed after it was all done - there's nothing nicer than snuggling into the couch next to Hazel so she can watch a movie and I can catch up on lost sleep.  I love naps, don't you?  Especially when I'm the one taking it.

Now it's time to focus on Hyrums party...their birthdays are only a day apart so September is always crazy hectic....

I'm also getting ready to do a big post on all the Halloween quilts and pillows I've been working on, so check back in a bit for all that fun stuff as well! 

 

 

 

Cake Week

I can hardly believe that Eliza is now 9 years old!  So of course we had to have a party with her friends, and then another party on her REAL birthday with our close family friends the Cochrans (since we live on the opposite side of the country as all of our extended family, our friends kindly step in as surrogates).  Eliza's Friend Party was very small because of the planned horseback riding activity at a local stable (which was sadly postponed due to a sudden, nasty thunderstorm right before we were supposed to head out) but the girls still had a great time.  And, in case you were wondering, that cake is supposed to be a horseshoe.  With a plastic horse that is, apparently, plodding through one heck of a muddy field.  :-)

Yes, Eliza is STILL madly in love with horses.  Hence the plastic horse on cake #2 (this time plodding through knee-high drifts of snow/whipped cream). That's one heavy plastic horse!

This cake was a chocolate chip mint version, with peppermint extract in the cake batter and the whipping cream, plus a nice layer of chocolate frosting in the middle and chocolate chips peppered within the cake layers.

 

 One of the Cochran boys had a birthday the very next day, so I took some of the cake that I had cut out of the giant circle baked for the horseshoe cake (Everybody confused now?  In other words, I cut the horseshoe shape out of a giant circle cake, so I had some leftovers) and made him his own little cakeroo.

He got a kick out of it, despite the fact that it only had 1 candle...I guess it does sorta look like something that someone would give their baby for a 1-year birthday.  Oops! 

Anyway, as if we hadn't already overdosed on chocolate cake, I made cupcakes for Eliza's class at school yesterday.  Chocolate, of course, per request.  I'm officially tired of making chocolate cake, yes, but it was worth it to see her face light up at school when I came with a whole tray of you-know-what.  And it didn't hurt my feelings at all when she reported at the end of the day that her friends declared my cupcakes to be the best they'd ever tasted.  I'm sure they say that all the time, but still, it made me feel good!

Okay, do you remember this one?  The carrot cake that I promised the recipe for and then kept forgetting to follow through?  Well, guess what - I'm finally going to sit down and write this all down for you!  It's very very yummy, I promise.  The recipe was originally from my mother-in-law, and I've tweaked it a little bit through the years.  Enjoy!

INCREDIBLE CARROT SPICE CAKE

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsps cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp EACH allspice, ground cloves, and ginger

MIX ABOVE DRY INGREDIENTS WELL: SET ASIDE.

3 eggs

3/4 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups sugar

2 tsps vanilla

MIX EGGS, OIL, BUTTERMILK, SUGAR, AND VANILLA WELL.  ADD TO DRY INGREDIENTS AND STIR A FEW STROKES.  DON'T OVERMIX!

1 cup crushed pineapple

2 cups grated carrots

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopped pecans (OPTIONAL) (I actually toast mine and sprinkle them on top rather than include them in the batter)

ADD THESE REMAINING INGREDIENTS, MIX JUST UNTIL INCORPORATED.  POUR INTO 9" X 13" PAN OR 2,  8" ROUNDS. 

TIP: For cake rounds, cut out parchment paper circles and put them in the bottom of pans which are greased with shortening.  DO NOT grease the sides of the pans, just the bottom.

BAKE AT 350* AND START TESTING AT 40 MINUTES. 

Baking time varies greatly with ovens and pan sizes.  Cake is done when center bounces back when lightly touched and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Don't overbake!  It will make the cake dry.

Cool cake in circle pans for 10 minutes, then carefully run a butter knife around edges and invert cake pan so that cake falls into the palm of your hand.  Carefully place cake, bottom side down, onto cooling rack to cool completely.  This prevents cake from possibly cracking/breaking if cooled upside down on its domed top.

TIP:  I always wrap my cake layers well with 2 layers of plastic wrap, then freeze them before icing them.  To frost the cake, I slice off the domed top of my bottom cake layer, invert onto plate and frost the bottom of the cake layer.  Then I stack the 2nd layer on, right side up, and frost sides first, then top.  With white frosting, I do a thin "crumb-catching" layer of icing first, then go back and lay it on thicker.

The frozen cake layers will help solidify the frosting and the cake will be perfectly fine at room temperature for several hours, even with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 block cream cheese, original kind (not low-fat)

1 cube butter, softened but not melted

1 lb powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter well, add powdered sugar gradually until stiff.  Add vanilla, beat for about 2 or 3 minutes.  If too stiff, add a little bit of milk; if too runny, add more powdered sugar.  Consistency should be fairly thick and should not droop significantly when pulled into a peak, otherwise it will ooze off the cake.

Okay, well, now I'm hungry, how about you?  Too bad there aren't any birthday cake leftovers...or strawberry shortcake biscuit leftovers that I made for dessert tonight (sigh)...  guess I better make another cake.  Or not.  My brain begs YES, my conscience cautions NO, your hips have had quite enough for one week, thank you very much.  Shucks.

Fuzzy Bunnies

 
There were little green bunnies leaping all over the place yesterday.

 
They were, of course, excited about it being Easter and all.

 

Can you tell?

No, I didn't make these darling little things.  They came from Pier1.  Aren't they adorable?

I love them so much I went back to the store this morning and bought the 4 that were still in stock, only this time they were half off.  Sweet.

Now I have a whole "litter" of them.  What's the term for a bunny family, anyway?  It's not a pack, herd, gaggle, or swarm, and I don't think it's a litter either.  Or is it?  Anybody know the answer to that burning question?

 
We had a lovely Easter dinner with friends yesterday.

 

I love an excuse to set the table all pretty.

I only had 3 of these gorgeous blue plates (snagged at a thrift store) so I mixed and matched all the plates on the table.

The other patterned dishware at the table (with the exception of my Japanese sheep plates - also snagged at a thrift store, but in Japan) is Villeroy & Bosch.  It's my wedding china, and I love it but don't use it enough because of the no dishwasher restrictions.  Time to start changing that, I think.  The using part, not the dishwasher part.

 
You'll recognize my blue eggs, of course.  I had to use my elevated cake plate for my carrot cake (shocking, isn't it, that I use a piece of dishware for its original intent?) so I changed the centerpiece around a bit.

 
Mmmmmmmm....if I do say so, that was a very. good. carrot cake.

 
It's adapted from a recipe my mother-in-law gave me a long time ago, and it is the most moist, tender, yummy carrot cake I have come across.  Probably because of the crushed pineapple, coconut, and buttermilk in the recipe in addition to the carrots.  Let me know if you'd like the recipe and I can post it for you.

 
I also made this yummy chevre cheese log with chopped chives, thyme, parsley, and toasted pecans....I thought it was wonderful, but the kids wouldn't touch it (surprise surprise). 

 
Here are my little munchkins, all dressed up.  Yes, you've seen those dresses before - Mommy didn't have a chance to make new Easter clothes this year.  I had been stalling, hoping my fabric would come in time to make their dresses from my fabric, but by the time I knew it wasn't coming for awhile, it was too late with all our other activities this past week.  It's okay - I love the dresses they have on.  And my little boy is all dressed up in a blazer!  Awww....that really tugs at my heartstrings.  Yes, Hazel's lips, teeth, and tongue are blue, compliments of the blue sucker she had in her mouth 2 seconds before this was taken.

 
Time for the Easter egg hunt!  That's Hazel's 7th outfit of the day, by the way.

 

I love this shot -my friend's boy was so excited about his eggs!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! 

'Twas the week before Easter

 
This is to prove that I am indeed capable of posting something other than spring flowers and remodelling jobs.

 
Does it matter if these eggs are 2 or 3 years old, and you've seen them in previous year's Easter posts?  Please say no.  At least the pics are new - I rephotographed them this week.  And not to worry - the eggs are hollow, all the insides are blown out.  No, I would not be saving hard boiled eggs, no matter how pretty they are.  I have vivid memories of the stench of rotten eggs from my childhood on the farm, when a hidden cache of abandoned eggs in the haystack gave me a memorable education in the effects of decomposition. 

 

Ooops.  There are those tulips again.  I said I was CAPABLE of not posting spring flowers....I didn't say I wasn't going to do it.

 

Just one more....

Actually I can't promise I won't post any more tulips this season.  My white and red ones just started blooming today.  So be forewarned. 

 
....and here's one of my darling Japanese plates.  You veterans of my blog have seen these many times, I know, but they're just...so...cute!  I can't help but post them again.

 
But back to those eggs.  You've seen these types of eggs before on Martha Stewart and many magazines, but have you seen ones with chevron stripe texture?  I wrapped the egg with a textured trouser sock before dying it, hence that very cool background.

 
Here's a different one, I think I wrapped a long blade of grass around the egg before wrapping it in the sock.

 

I haven't posted any cakes lately, so here's a pretty one, perfect for spring!  I made it for a friend's birthday, hence the candles.  Lemon cake with strawberries and whipped cream, mmmm....

 
Hazel was dying to eat some of it, but since I figured that my friend would probably not appreciate a big chunk dug out of her birthday cake, I made one for my family too.  My kids decorated it and put the candles on it by themselves, and we had an impromptu un-birthday party tonight.  They each got to blow out the candles (two times apiece) to ensure than plenty of melted wax got splattered all over the place, and then it was time to let them eat a bunch of sugar right before bedtime.  Gosh I love spring break.

 

...And here we have my ever-cheerful girls.  Hazel wore piggy tails for the first time (and kept them in all day, which is an amazing milestone!) and I wanted some documentation.

 
 Needless to say, Hazel didn't exactly feel like smiling for the camera.  And yes, she chooses her own outfits to wear.  A mere 10+ times a day.  Eliza never felt the need to empty out the entire contents of her closet daily while practicing getting dressed (and undressed....and dressed again) so this behavior is new to me.

Annoying, to say the least, but at least she lets me put her hair in piggy tails!  Eliza has an extremely tender head and won't let me brush her hair, let alone pull it back (hence the short haircut).  Hazel, my girly-girl, is coming to the realization that sometimes a girl's gotta go through a little pain for the sake of fashion.

 

But I guess that doesn't mean she's going to smile about it.

Sneak Peek

I spent this morning making a little quilt for Hazel's baby doll from various scraps I'd been hanging onto.  Because I can't bear to throw beautiful fabric away, no matter how small the piece.  And I now have a project to use them in!

Hazel doesn't read my blog so I think it's probably safe to post this the day before Christmas.  She had been using 2 thick red paper napkins to wrap her doll in, so I figured it's time for an upgrade.  I'm so glad I kept these tiny fabric remnants!

In some cases this is the absolute last bit of fabric from all the clothes and bags I have made with these colors.  How fitting that they are used together in a quilt for Hazel's baby doll, and how perfect that they are all PINK!  It just so happens that pink is Hazel's favorite color on earth.  You know those pink-packaged food items at the grocery store that are to raise awareness for breast cancer?  She tries to put them all in the cart.  Every single time.

Can't wait to see her expression when she opens up her present tomorrow!

ps The fabric for this quilt came from many of my favorite designers:  Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Michael Miller, Patty Young.  Most of you will recognize them, but just in case I thought I'd let you know!

Speaking of presents, here are some fully-lined drawstring bags filled with goodies for some of my nieces and nephews.  I thought I could crank them out, assembly line style, in an hour or two.  Well....it took a little (a lot) longer than that but at least they're merrily on their way now.  Sorry for the lousy photo - I was in a hurry to get them mailed off and just wanted to document their existence before boxing them up.

I also boxed up the new bag I made for my Mom, who hopefully is not reading this before her package arrives!  If the package didn't make it yet, Mom, oops!  Then this really is a sneak peek.  Hope you like it!

Fabric is from Joel Dewberry (floral) and Michael Miller (polka dots).

Okay, one last peek...I have a new project on the docket, one that is going to take at least a year to complete.  I've been taking lots of photos for it, but I can't post everything because it would spoil the fun.  Need another hint?  Welllllll, it starts with a "b" and ends with a "k".  There.  Not another word!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! 

Music to Cook By

 

I couldn't wait any longer - I had to put my Christmas playlist up!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have been while beginning the big cooking extravaganza, otherwise known as Thanksgiving.  Here we have an incredibly aromatic cranberry pear relish - it has filled the house with the most AMAZING scent of cinnamon, citrus, cloves, and - of course - cranberries.

 

Would you like the recipe?  It's one that I have come up with based on several different recipes I have found online.

CITRUS CRANBERRY PEAR RELISH

zest from 1 small lime (just the green part - not the white pith)

 2 1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 Tbls. lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick plus a generous dash of powder)

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp EACH nutmeg and allspice

4 cups cranberries

2 pears, chopped (I'd recommend chopping them a bit smaller than what you see here)

Rinse berries, set aside.  Combine all ingredients except berries and pears.  Cook in saucepan for 5 minutes at a gentle rolling boil, stirring frequently.  Add cranberries, simmer for 5 minutes.  Add pears and simmer gently for another 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how soft you like your pears.   Let cool at room temperature, store in fridge.  I like to warm mine up again for turkey dinner, it's SOOO good with turkey and stuffing!  Enjoy!

ps.  Thanks, everyone, for all your kind comments about my rock project, ornament tutorials, etc!  I'm really bad about writing back individually unless someone has a specific question (and even then I'm hit-or-miss...I'm embarrassingly scatter-brained with all the various projects and family things going on.  I need a secretary.) but please know that I really, truly, do love your comments.  One of these days I'm going to figure out the whole blog reader system so I can keep track of all your blogs.  Any suggestions on what you all use to make lists of blogs and when there's a new post?

The Stuff that Halloween is Made Of

 
EEEK!  I know, I know, me as a black-haired fashion witch is pretty scary.  Maybe because I didn't darken my eyebrows enough...

I made another one of my giant flower bows (see tutorial in my sidebar) as a headpiece...it's almost big enough to be a hat!

The necklace is one I made a year or two ago out of Femo clay.

Hazel loved this wig...she kept calling it my Pretty Hair.  We had a big Halloween party on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning the wig was draped over a chair.  When we were headed out the door for church, Hazel spotted the wig and said, "Mommy, why aren't you wearing your pretty hair?"

Because, my dear, it's not nice to scare people at church.

After church Hazel decided she wanted to give the wig a try.

Do you recognize the banana costume?  2 or 3 years ago Hyrum was convinced that he wanted to be a banana for Halloween.  I made him this costume, but I hadn't designed the inner, stuffed headpiece very well and it kept sliding off center.  Plus it was extremely top heavy on his tiny little 4 year-old frame.  At the last minute Hyrum refused to wear the banana and we hurredly dressed him as Bob the Builder instead.  The banana costume was relegated to storage....until now!

My friend's daughter was totally excited to be a banana this year, and her brother followed the fruit theme with the grape costume.  I took one of his baseball caps and made a grape leaf hat out of felt.  This isn't a great view of the hat, but you get the idea.  Aren't they just delicious?

 

Speaking of delicious, when I saw the idea for making gingerbread skeleton cookies floating around online (sorry, I don't remember who posted the original idea) I just had to make some of my own!

I found a FABULOUS gingerbread cookie recipe online at AllRecipes.com - it is the best gingerbread recipe I have ever tasted.  Soft and chewy with a slightly crisp exterior and a rich yet mild flavor.  It's called, appropriately, "Gingerbread Man Cookies" and it's submitted by McCormick (the spice company).  The only changes I made were to add twice as much cinnamon and nutmeg, plus I added about 1/4 tsp each allspice and cloves as well.  I also used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening instead of all butter to help the cookies maintain their softness more.  Be sure not to overbake and they'll be soft.  Oh - and roll out onto parchment paper dusted with powdered suger instead of flour to prevent them from getting tough from too much flour.  So yummy it's scary.

  I also made kitty skeletons (don't judge me on anatomical accuracy, okay?) and various other Halloween-themed shapes.  Yes, I had entirely too much fun making these.

These are a definite repeat performance, despite the time (and hand cramps!) involved in making them and decorating with white icing.  P.S. I made a double batch of the recipe to produce as many cookies as you see here.

I finally got smart this year and asked other guests to bring some Halloween-themed goodies as well, and I'm so glad I did.  Keva brought these adorable spider cupcakes - aren't they cute? 

Another friend brought the RIP sandwiches, plus they brought mummy heads (BagelBites with olive bits for eyes and string cheese for the wraps) and breadstick bones, which I didn't get pictures of.  I made Blood Punch complete with gummy worms (1 can frozen lemonade concentrate,  2 cans water, 1 package cherry Koolaid, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 large bottle of chilled ginger ale, and lots of ice.  Plus the gummy worms, of course) which the kids got a big kick out of.

I hope you all had a booooootiful Halloween this year! 

 

Another Happily Ever After

Ah, the excitement of weddings!  Yesterday was my friend Carol's daughter's wedding, and I was in charge of the decorations and, at the last minute, the cake too. 

The bride and groom were going to buck tradition and not have one (they cost a fortune from a bakery, I have to admit) but a wedding cake is one tradition I can't bear to see die.  I told them that I'd make a smallish wedding cake so they could have the joy (and the pictures) of shoving cake into eachother's faces.

 
  

This is the end result = six cake layers (3 in each tier), lots of happy sunflowers, and plenty o' cake to go around.  I actually had Carol buy 3 simple sheet cakes decorated with white (and only white) icing from Costco as back up, which was a good thing because the "real cake" ran out quickly.

I really enjoy decorating cakes, but it turned out to be a bit stressful to deal with all the decorating and the cake and all the flowers in one day.  I had baked and frozen the cake layers a few days prior, fortunately.  Transforming the gym into a reception center took longer than anticipated (even with 3 hours the night previous), and then the flowers for the 15 centerpiece arrangements were giving me absolute fits (more on that later).  At the end of the day I had less than 2 hours to make 4 batches of icing, frost and pipe the cake, and make the floral arrangements for the cake.   And put it together on site and then photograph everything I could before the event started.  Yes, I was stressed.  Yes, my kitchen was completely trashed (think powdered sugar and icing everywhere, plus flower stems and leaf leftovers scattered all over the counters and floor).  No, I don't regret it - I'm happy they had their cake.

  
   

The bride and groom had the great idea of serving all sorts of very fun candy along with the cake, which was a huge hit with everyone.  I'm not an avid candy fan, but that candy was really yummy!  The kids, especially, loved it.

 
 

In fact, the candy was the absolute highlight of the evening for Hyrum and Hazel.  They would.  not.  stop.  eating.  that. candy.  It was cracking me up how excited Hyrum was about it - he was literally squealing (loudly) with delight about how spectacularly delicious it was over and over again.  As if he had never, ever, sampled candy before in his life.

Hazel, being the subtle and calculating person that she is, just quietly mosied over to the candy jars and helped herself pretty much nonstop the whole evening, all the while smugly satisfied that she was getting away with eating so much sugar and nobody was "catching" her.  Hazel has learned not to call attention to herself while doing things she thinks (or knows) she shouldn't be doing.

The men and boys in the wedding party were sporting sunny yellow ties, which looked great with all the decorations.  Here's one of the very nice young men taking a sampling of the goods.

Ah, there's nothing like gagging on an entire mouthful of sickeningly sweet wedding cake icing with a little bit of cake mixed in!  You were a good sport, Natalie! 

There are wedding receptions, and then there are cultural hall wedding receptions.  The latter is in a category all by itself.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Mormon cultural hall (AKA gym/stage/social gathering area) weddings, here's how it works:  the couple gets married in the temple with close family and friends in attendance and none of the commercial, expensive fanfare of a "traditional" wedding, then everyone comes from near and far to celebrate later on in the day or evening at the cultural hall in the local meetinghouse.  In this case, the bride has severe allergies and an outdoor reception in July was out of the question, as was an expensive reception hall (I'm blown away at how much those places charge, especially in this area). So the big challenge became how to turn a gym into an intimate and lovely reception hall, on a relatively small budget. 

You know those design shows on HGTV?  I would LOVE to see them do an episode on transforming a gym into a reception center.  They could only spend $500 and they would have to set everything up within 12 hours of reception time.  Oh - and no open flame allowed in the building, for risk-of-fire reasons.  Wouldn't that be an awesome show?  I think so.

Anyway, this is what I was able to come up with considering the above-mentioned parameters.  We borrowed fake trees from local friends, which were strung with lights and clustered around the room.  I had Carol buy the paper lanterns, and we used leftover fabric from the bridesmaids dresses that Carol made, tulle from Jessie's wedding a couple of months ago, plus the white fabric I still have from my niece's wedding last year, to hide/disguise the basketball hoops.

See that funny change-of-plane up there above the giant yellow lantern?  Yup, It's a basketball hoop.  The cake table desperately needed a spotlight from above, shining straight down onto the cake, but the gym was fresh out of those.  I was determined not to use the harsh, ugly flourescent lighting that the gym does have plenty of, so I killed all the overhead flourescent lights and relied on the little white lights and a few floor lamps to do what they could.  Carol bought all the white table cloths (she has 5 daughters, so in the long run it makes better sense to do that) and she made all the turquoise table runners for all the tables.  It's so nice to have friends that can sew so I don't have to!  :-)

So what's up with the flowers, you ask?  Well, let's just say that the biggest wildcard in the events I've done have ALWAYS been the flowers.  I don't have a florist's license so I can't go down to the market and choose my own flowers - I have to order them and hold my breath that they'll be what I expect them to be.

Once again, despite arriving a few days before the wedding, the blossoms were so tightly budded that very few of them opened all the way by 6:00 pm.  The ones that were fully open were used in the bridal bouquets, so I got to work with the stubborn ones with stiff, droopy heads.  Having never worked with sunflowers before, I was surprised at how stiff, heavy, and crooked the flower heads were, and I had to work very, very hard to make the arrangements look decent because they were so heavy that they just flopped whichever way they darn well pleased.  My blood pressure was rising to dangerous levels at this point because I knew I still had an entire cake (and cake flowers!) to deal with and the clock was tick-tocking away.  My flower inventory was less than expected, so I had to keep going home to clip more filler from my azalea and daylily plants to fill in the gaps...it was CRAZY! 

Everyone assured me the flowers looked lovely, but I was definitely not happy with them at the time.  I can (sort-of) laugh about it now, but I still don't think I'll ever look at sunflowers the same way again...  they're evil.  :-)

 

Here's the happy-go-lucky couple sporting their bright and happy choice of foot apparel.  Their style, obviously, is not your typical traditional approach - which suits them just perfectly.  I tried to make the decorations go along with that... a little bit country, a little contemporary, and fun all the way around.

After walking around in heels all evening during the reception, I was very envious of their footwear.  Wanna trade?

At last, it was time to bid the wedded couple adieu with a shower of bubbles to send them on their way.

 
   
 
 
Congratulations, Natalie and Kenny!  Best wishes to you for a wonderful future together. 

The Great 8

It hardly seems like 8 years since Eliza has come into our lives, but there it is.  Yup, time's a' marching.  It's been so neat to see her talents unfold and develop this past couple of years.  She loves to read and draw, and she inherited her daddy's natural athletic abilities. 

Eliza wanted a pool party to celebrate, so I thought it only fitting to make her a pool cake.

Believe it or not, the hardest part of decorating this cake was getting the colored sprinkles to stick to the frosting in the appropriate places.  By the time I got to that part of it, the icing had already formed a bit of a "skin" and so they wouldn't stick.  I ended up having to use my fingertips and pick them up and press them into the icing a few at a time.  Crazy, I know.  By the time I was done with that part I only had 10 minutes to do the piping and everything else, so the top of the cake was a bit simpler than originally planned.  I made the diving board from a stick of gum (supported underneath with a toothpick) and the floaties were gummy lifesavers.  I was going to make lounge chairs from gum and candy to go beneath the umbrellas, but ran out of time (as it was, we were late and half our guests were waiting at the front gate of the pool!).  I used blue sparkle gel (available in a tube premade, just in time for 4th of July) for the water.  Fun, fun!

 
 
 
 We've been enjoying a nice visit with my mom this past little while.  As you can see, the kids love their grandma!

Hyrum is the proud owner of a large space where his two front teeth used to be, and he wanted me to show you all.  He has since lost yet another tooth on the bottom row, so he's even more gappy now.  Ah, the excitement of losing one's baby teeth and being the recipient of tooth fairy loot!  I remember it well.

 
 This has been an exciting time for Eliza.  In addition to her birthday, she was baptized, which is what these pictures were commemorating.

She was being a really good sport about all the pictures, until the end when she decided that enough was enough....

I don't have any smiley shots of Eliza and her daddy together.  I suppose I shouldn't post these because they'll probably embarrass her, but they're so stinkin' funny I couldn't resist.  I crack up every time I see them.  That's my girl!  If they disappear after a day or two, you'll know why. :-)

Okay, I've got to end this post with a happy shot.  Eliza and her Grandma have been having such a wonderful time together.  They've been enjoying some much-needed bonding time, which is great to watch.  Mom is so good with kids, and mine have been loving all the attention and fun things they've been able do with Grandma here at our house.  My kids are going to go into serious Grandma-withdrawal when her visit is at an end. 

 

Levitation

You knew I was crafty, but did you know I had magical powers?  No, this photo has not been photoshopped (I haven't learned that program yet).  My strawberry brownie parfait was just so divinely delicious that it began to float heavenward as I was taking pictures of it.  True story!

......Or the whiteness of the plate was so blindingly light that it essentially cancelled out the clear glass stemware of this dessert glass.  You decide.  Personally I like the levitation theory. 

In any case, it was a really, really delicious way to offset the effects of 92 degree weather.  Yup, summer's a'comin' in!  I made this from leftovers of last night's dessert, when we had some friends over for dinner.  Great company, great food (salmon with creamy lemon dill sauce on one half and apricot ginger sauce on the other half) and great fun.  Their kids are grown, and after our kids hammered them for 3 hours with noisy Wii Sports games and a lengthy roundabout of show-and-tell of all their latest artistic creations, I'm sure our friends were thinking to themselves how grateful they were to be returning to their quiet house!  They were really good sports about it, though - it was great to reconnect with them.   

So do you want the salmon recipes?

I can give you the dill one off the top of my head, although I never measure so I hope the proportions are reasonably accurate.   It's really easy.  Put a few dallops of real mayonnaise in a bowl (about 1/4 cup) and mix with about a tablespoon of lemon juice (or more, depending on your taste).  Add desired amount of freshly ground salt and pepper and a bit of garlic salt (a dash of each) .  Stir it all up and spread it on the top side of your salmon which has been put in a tin foil "tray" (a double-thickness of foil with the edges folded over a few times and brought up about 1/2 inch on all sides so the juices don't run out).  Sprinkle with a generous helping of fresh dill, chopped into 1/2 inch sections and grill on med high (preheat the grill) until opaque (depending on thickness of salmon, 9 to 14 minutes).   I let my fish get to room temp with the sauce resting on it before grilling, which I think helped keep it so moist and tender...plus the fact that I had the two "Grill Guys" handle the grilling process.  Nice job, guys - it was cooked to perfection.

Oh dear, Hazel's pulling me away from the computer - the other recipe will have to wait.  Until later, then - now go eat some strawberries and ice cream! 
 
 

SPLAT

Once upon a time there was a raspberry almond fudge birthday cake.  I made it for my friend's birthday yesterday, and my kids helped me deliver it to her door.  I had put it in a plastic cake carrier, the kind with a circle base and a big lid that snapped down over the top, so the cake doesn't get mussed up with plastic wrap.  Well, my dear son was so excited to show the cake to my friend that, at her doorstep, he unclipped one side of the cake carrier (which I had told him not to do 3 times in the past 10 seconds) while I was holding on to nothing but the handle of the lid, and guess what?

Instant Upside-Down Cake!  It flopped down right on her doorstep with a big SPLAT! and at that moment gravity was SOOO not my friend!  I was in shock, Hyrum was in tears, and my friend was (fortunately) laughing.  She scooped up the part that wasn't squished into her threshold and plopped it back onto the plate, and eventually I was able to chuckle about it too.  Well, if nothing else, it makes for a great story and great memories! 

ps. those tall skinny things on top of the cake are (were) fancy candles.  Eliza thought you might need an explanation about that.

Actually this whole week has been a doosy.  Pretty much everything imaginable has happenend to prevent us from finishing our little powder room in a straightforward manner.  I'll save the details for when I post the before-and-after pics (hmmm...how many months have I been talking about those?) but just to give you an idea, on Monday I spent about 7 hours going back and forth to HD and Lowes because of unlivable flaws in their products or errors of measuring on our part.  And this is after having to rip out and replace the subfloor, redo plumbing, lay down new tile, replace/paint floor and door trim, replace/repair/paint sheetrock, move electric hookups for lights, and move water supply lines for the sink.  ANYWAY, it's the Project That Never Ends in our house right now!  I'll keep you posted.

On a happier note, here are my crazy monkeys wearing their sweet sock monkey skirts!  I actually made these forever ago, but it occurred to me that I didn't have any documentation of their coordinating monkeyness, so I decided to fix that. 

Pink and brown is such a fun color combo, eh?  Especially with polka dots.  Everything is better with polka dots!

Wooeee!  Look at that hair!  Eliza's rockin' out. 

So has everybody heard about SCENTSY?  It's a company that sells wickless scented candles, which are placed in ceramic containers (this one plugs in the wall, but they have bigger ones that rest on horizontal surfaces) and the lovely aroma is released from the heat of a light bulb.  No risk of fire from open flame, and the wax doesn't get hot enough to burn anyone who might accidently touch it. 

My cousin Michelle is a Scentsy rep (they market their products like Pampered Chef) and she is hosting a giveaway at her site in conjunction with the party I'm hosting here at my house. 

Oooh, sorry, that's a really blurry picture...I copied this from a photo she sent me, not sure why it's so blurry but if you click HERE you can go and see the real thing.  Michelle is giving away this warmer and a brick of scented wax and you can enter to win it!  Just go to her site and send her an email with your name and whatever little comment you'd like and she'll enter your name in the drawing.  My SIL sent me one and I bought a plug-in version, and they're great.  No open flame, no candle soot, and wonderful scents to choose from.

I'm finally taking down my Christmas decorations (sniff).  I kept hoping that the elves would take care of things and box everything back up for me, but they haven't showed up yet.  Hopefully in the next few days I'll have some fun Valentine-y things up for you to see!  Have a great day!
  

Psst....Wanna trade some cookies?

I hosted a cookie exchange for the ladies from church at my house tonight.  It was so much fun!

These are pics of the Snowball cookies (AKA Russion Teacakes, or Mexican Wedding Cakes, or whatever other name you might have for them.  I call them Yummy.  My hips call them Growth Hormone) I made for the event.  I put finely chopped pecans in half the batch, and

a scant 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract in the other half, with candy cane dust on top.

Mr. Snowman did a good job of holding that plate up.

Here's the table before the fun began, with lots of empty plates waiting to be laden with goodies.  We all had a great time sampling the treats, then everyone took some paper plates and loaded up!  I had plastic wrap, cellophane, ribbons, and gift tags ready for all the ladies to package their cookies up before they left so they could deliver the goods to friends and neighbors.  It was a super fun way to get a great variety of Christmas cookies with very little effort!  I highly recommend it.

When I was walking around taking photos of my friends, most of them protested and made me promise not to tag them on Facebook...but they didn't say anything about my blog!  (insert evil laugh here)  We made these three line up because the colors of their sweaters were just too perfectly Christmasy to not document.  I suppose I'd better not post any more photos, because I didn't get anybody else's parental consent forms signed and dated.  (wink)  You can thank me later, dear friends.
 
 

Pumpkin Cream Puffs....Perfect Party Pleaser

 
Interestingly enough, I had never made cream puffs before today.  I LOVE cream puffs, but I was always intimidated by how much time I imagined they would take, and I thought they would be hard to make (they're not).  I wanted to bring something pumpkin-ish to the ladies' evening devotional I talked about in the previous post, but it needed to be finger food and I wanted to try something new. 

Enter pumpkin cream puffs, center stage!  I found the recipe here, on AllRecipes.com, and I was not disappointed.  They were, if I do say so, quite delicious!  If a person doesn't like pumpkin flavor, then I'm sure it would disappoint, but for most of the rest of us, what a treat!  I followed the puff recipe pretty faithfully, except I made sure I used salted butter and added a hefty pinch of salt (I don't like bland puffs).  2 hints about the puffs: make little balls of dough (I used a small Pampered Chef cookie dough baller thingy...can't think of the correct title for that gadget) if you're aiming for smallish bite-sized puffs.   They really expand in size, as you can see by the regular sized muffin cups these puffs are resting in.  Also, be sure to bake them long enough.  They looked done at 13 minutes, but they weren't truly done until 20 - 22 minutes.  It's critical to bake them a long time so that the insides aren't mushy and the outer crust remains a delightfully crisp counterpoint to the filling (I learned from experience on that...I underbaked the first pan of puffs).  The outer crust should be quite crusty dry and sound very hollow when tapped.

The filling recipe had been critiqued by other people as needing twice the powdered sugar than the recipe called for, so I doubled the powdered sugar and didn't put quite as much pumpkin pack in as called for.  I didn't want the pumpkin flavor to be overwhelming.  And, true to what a few people said, I had plenty of leftover filling...which I'll probably use on pancakes in the morning - yum!  It took quite a bit of time to make so many of these critters (I doubled the recipe) but it was well worth it...although I can't say I'm in a hurry to make so many of these at once again! 

Oh - one more thing - instead of cutting them open as the recipe suggested, I just poked a little hole in each one and piped the filling in, then dusted with sifted powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

Feasting On Bones, Spiders, and Worms...Oh, My!

 
We had an invasion of spiders in our house yesterday.  They crawled all over the goodies I made for a little party I hosted for some friends and their kids.

At first I was grossed out, but then I thought they might taste pretty yummy (nice texture with those hairy legs, and hey - we could all use more protein, right?) with the chocolate "blood" cake (raspberry jam was used on top of the white icing in between the layers, and they were encouraged to ooze off the edges of the cake) .  I also let the spiders stay because they help to hide the boo-boo's I made on the chocolate web...I used chocolate icing that I microwaved for a bit, but it got too hot and oozy so I couldn't control it very well.  Hence the oozy web.

We dined on grubby worms (hotdogs sliced lengthwise and boiled) with blood sauce,

 
crunched on salty bones (breadstick dough-in-a-can brushed with olive oil, then sprinkled with garlic salt, Italian herbs, and parmesan cheese),

and devoured headstones.  These three things were repeats fromlast year's big bash, and I think I got the ideas for them from Family Fun magazine, but I'm not sure.  My memory is not always the most reliable thing in the world. 

We quenched our thirst with Blood Punch (a very spunky and tasty concoction of frozen lemonade concentrate, cherry Koolaid - with 1/2 cup sugar - and Ginger Ale.  Floating eyeballs and gummy worms optional, but that's what made the kids so excited about the stuff - they all wanted a gummy worm, but since they all sink to the bottom it became a fishing venture at the punch bowl.  In case you want to try the punch yourself, here's the exact recipe:  1 can lemonade, 2 cans water, 1 pkg cherry koolaid, 1/2 c sugar, 3/4 of a 2-liter bottle of Ginger Ale, and lots of ice.  It's really tasty!!

I have a fancy punchbowl, but it didn't really fit the theme so I used an inverted cake plate lid on top of a glass bowl filled with treats and spiders (don't ask me how they got into that candy - they were everywhere, I'm tellin' ya)

I made white chocolate spiderwebs just like the article in this October's Country Living magazine explains how to do, but then I started making other things with the white chocolate because I got bored with making spiderwebs.

Eeek!  There's a spider crawling toward me!

 

Boo!  There's one on you too!

The crazy black cat was enjoying his perch atop a candlestick.  It was a great place to keep away from the spiders, because the sides of the pillar were too slick for the spiders to crawl up.  Hence the grin.

Here are the kids on a gummy worm fishing expedition.

I hope you have a great Halloween weekend!  Now I need to go finish the kids' costumes and gear up for party #2 (this time for the neighborhood kids) in a couple of days!  I know, I'm crazy. 

This afternoon we'll carve our pumpkins, the kids are really looking forward to that.  We'll see if Eliza and Hyrum are brave enough to touch the slimy insides of the pumpkins this year...it's such a tactile delight.