Supposed to be a card

Co-worker Marsha asked me to make a going away card for other co-worker Angie. I wanted to say no. I really wanted to say no, but I couldn't/didn't. In true over the top fashion, it turned into more of a book. It's cute and simple.

beach cake

celsey's cousin, morgan, is going on a mission to perth, australia. she was asked to make a cake for his farewell . celsey came up with the design for this beach themed cake. 

we've only made a few cakes, but we learn as we go. we got together friday and baked the cakes, rolled out the fondant and cut the letters, made the rice krispy treat for the wave, and made the flowers. celsey used fondant on the ducky cake, but it was my first time with fondant and both of our first time with gum paste. she found a tutorial on youtube for the plumeria flowers. i was skeptical at first, but as soon as we painted them i wanted to die at how cute they were.

we spent the day saturday assembling it all. we decided we needed another bottom layer so we baked another cake. this thing was massive-6 cake mixes, 2 containers of frosting, 1 lb of fondant, a whole batch of rice krispy treats, some food coloring and paint, 2 mermaids, and the perfect surfer.

after cute*ing our heads off for 2 straight days, we couldn't have been happier with the way the cake turned out. we were literally dying at the cuteness.

thanks to celsey's brother brandon for helping us with the flowers and our structural engineer shawn for helping us figure out how to get the wave to work.

another gender reveal

same girl. 2 cakes. 2 themes.

cake #1 for her family...rub a dub dub is it a boy or girl in the tub?

it's a boy! it takes a heckuvalot of food coloring, but eventually the cake is the just right blue.

cake #2 for the youth at church. waddle it be???

husbands are handy to have around. shawn is our structural cake engineer. i think he secretly loves it.

sadly i was out of town the weekend of the gender reveal. i was only here for the baking part which started disastrous. the  pan is meant to cook the whole duck together, but it was such a mess. we decided to bake both halves separately. it worked so much better. we also used shortening and flour rather than cooking spray. it made all the difference. the cake came out perfectly. i was way sad to miss the decorating part of the cakes. both of them turned out so cute.

Sneak Peek

Here's a little teaser for the current cake in progress. Can't even wait to post the finished product tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm sure you're dying at the cuteness. I sure am.

toasted almonds

i toasted some almonds to go on top of the homemade almonds joys. they were so easy and delicious. i don't love nuts, but i try to eat a few to be healthy. i love them so much more toasted. who knew?

preheat oven to 350 degrees
spread almonds on baking sheet
bake for 10 minutes

Chicken Noodle

My friend Celsey made chicken noodle soup the other day, and it was so much better than any I've ever made. The secrets...boil the chicken and use the same water (after you get out the chicken film) for the broth and use homemade or store bought homemade noodles. I've always used egg noodles in the past, and they're just not very good.

cut up an onion

use one breast of chicken per person eating the soup

boil chicken and onion in water or chicken broth

remove icky chicken film but keep the water 

cube chicken

add celery, carrots, and potatoes (i forgot the potatoes this time)

crush 10-15 cubes of chicken bouillon

cook until vegetables are tender

add noodles

homemade almond joy

One of my girls in young women isn't eating candy for a year. She will eat other treats so I made homemade almond joy for my lesson on finding joy. I found this printable on sugardoodle and this recipe on pinterest. I had a hard time dipping them in chocolate so next time I'll probably drizzle the chocolate instead. Definitely not the easy way to do things, but we all know I don't know how to do things the easy way.

more felt bows

i will never be accused of doing things on a small scale...ever. the felt bows were so cute I HAD to make more. why make a few when i can make many? i swear everyone these days is having boy babies. someone better get having some girl babies pronto.

crochet boots

these darling little boots are to die for cute. ruby's grandma made these for her, and i nearly died at the cuteness. too bad my crochet skills are sub par. i really want to make these.

Felt Bows

Felt bows are all the rage these days. I've been dying to make some. We used this tutorial and used hot glue instead of sewing. They turned out so cute. I'll probably be sporting a few during this month of hair.

Skip Work and Craft

Friday was skip work and craft day. We had a pretty good turn out and made some great projects. Holly crocheted premie hats. Aly made baby Brown some burp clothes. Charity did some mending. Michelle and Kimber made earrings, and Kimber made a skirt and shirt. Brianna, Mikael and I made felt bows, and I made some buttons. I love skip work and craft day!

baker's twine

i'm loving the baker's twine that's basically everywhere these days. when i saw this tutorial for making your own i nearly died. with an extremely limited budget for young women at church, i decided to decorate with it. it was so much cheaper than anything else and turned out really cute.

supplies
thin yarn
cardboard (or a ruler)
masking tape
markers (i used sharpie)

1. cut cardboard into strips about 2 inches wide by about 12 inches long or use a ruler if you have one
2. cover with masking tape so the marker doesn't make a huge mess

3. wrap cardboard with yarn. you don't want the yarn to overlap. i wrapped it with a lot of space and scooted it down.

4. color lines all the way down. i used a straight edge to make straight lines. the tutorial suggests diagonal lines to look more authentic

5. unwrap and voila...baker's twine

superbowl treats

Brianna made this super cute rice krispy football for the superbowl today. How perfect is this pan? Love it!