Life is a Circus...

...and we're adding 2 more Acts

Former BYU co-worker and post college roommate Amanda and husband Jeff are having twins. Celsey and I made this circus cake for their gender reveal party. We are definitely still in the learning phase with this whole cakeing thing (like how in the world do you get the fondant to not tear?), but we are having a lot of fun figuring it out. This was the first time we delivered the cake straight to the party. We loved the reactions of everyone. Congrats Amanda and Jeff on 2 baby BOYS!

i thought i got my lens fixed on my phone yesterday, but apparently i am still taking crappy cell phone pics

and the winner is...

Contact me by Friday for your earth day prize and let's craft soon!

birthday party invitations

When super crafty co-worker Emily emailed me and asked if she could hire me to make her son's birthday party invitations, I got nervous. She is way more crafty than I am but just didn't have the time to pull something together. The party didn't really have a theme except it was a mixed gender party for a boy turning 11. Talk about scary... I got on pinterest and found some cute ideas. I mostly followed this tutorial from Capernaum Home.

get ready for lots of tracing and lots of cutting. a cricut would have been really helpful

after all the cutting, i did lots of writing with all the party details. 

glue with hot glue. i started with a glue stick, and it just wasn't sticky enough. i mostly use hot glue for everything.

i didn't take pictures the confetti i put inside with the pendants. this is a toilet paper roll wrapped in wrapping paper. this was the worst step of the whole thing.

i was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and emily and her son loved them...phew

Earth Day Giveaway

Happy Earth Day (it's still technically Earth Day on the west west coast right). In honor of Earth Day, I'm doing a giveaway. Remember these necklaces??? They are upcycled from a tie so it's perfect for Earth Day. If you win, you'll get an upcycled tie. So...

follow...comment (required)

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one additional entry if you do something green this week and tell us about it

You can have until Friday at midnight to join the giveaway.

Church Lesson Handout

Last week's lesson in Young Women was about self-reliance. We talked about James E Talmage's parable of the unwise bee. I got this author unknown quote and idea to use fortune cookies from sugardoodle. I bought the little bowls at Target and bee stickers at Hobby Lobby. I traced circles for what felt like forever and put it all together with a glue stick. It was a pretty simple craft project to go along with my lesson. If only I could figure out a simple way to get all the girls to actually show up for church.

"fortunate is the young woman who realizes self reliance has less to do with reliance on self and more to do with reliance on God"

Spring Wreaths

whenever i go to chelsea's house lately, the craft of choice seems to be a wreath. we've made
heart wreath for valentine's day
4th of july wreath
i made her a burlap wreath for christmas a couple years ago
we're starting to get a lot of the holidays/seasons covered
this time we wanted a spring wreath
i got on pinterest and started with this as our inspiration

Source: paulakathlyn.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

we went with spring colored yarn to start

we used a straw wreath (they're the cheapest) from michaels with a 50% off coupon

the yarn is also from michaels and was on sale

wrap the wreath in yarn. i started measuring to make the stripes but ended up kind of eye balling it. it's not perfect, but it worked out ok

i used the same technique as the heart wreath to make the white flowers. i bought 1/8 yd of white felt and used almost all of it, but now i can see my flowers are much closer together than the above wreath

chelsea did multi-colored flowers. she bought the sheets of felt for $0.33 cents each

she used this tutorial for the spiral flowers

i love that they are both so different but but both so cute

we spent around $6-8 per wreath. definitely better to make than buy.

gluten free lasagna

I've been loving spaghetti squash for a few years, but I only recently started using it as a substitute for pasta. I made a lasagnaesque meal with spaghetti squash instead of noodles. It was so good!

1 spaghetti squash cooked

shredded mozzarella or italian blend cheese

32 oz can spaghetti sauce (I used garlic and onion)

15 oz can diced tomatoes drained

cottage cheese 

ground turkey cooked with 1 small chopped onion

garlic salt

cover 9x13 pan with sauce

layer spaghetti squash, sauce, ground turkey, very thin layer of mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, tomatoes, sprinkle with garlic salt, more spaghetti, more sauce, a little more mozzarella cheese

cover with foil and bake 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes

In case you think I'm nutso and want the original recipe, here it is. Best part is no pre cooking the noodles.

8 ox box lasagna noodles

3-4 c shredded mozzarella cheese

3/4 c. parmesan cheese

32 oz 4 cheese spaghetti sauce

15 oz diced tomatoes drained

4 c cottage cheese

1 tsp garlic salt

1. combine parmesan and garlic salt in small bowl

2. cover 9x13 pan with sauce

3. layer noodles, sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, tomatoes, noodles

4. repeat 3x

5. put all cheese except mozzarella on last layer

6. cover with foil and bake 375 degrees for 1 hour

7. remove foil and cover with mozzarella cheese

8. cook 10 more min

Let me know if you try the lasagnaesque meal. I think you'll like it!

going clean

 a couple weeks ago carrie, celsey, and i did a crazy cleanse. my eating has kind of been all over the place lately, i was really excited to get a little control back. the best thing to come from the cleanse was a re commitment to clean eating. i am not a complete freak about it, but i try to be aware of what i'm putting in my body. when slow cooker blogger karen posted a link to homemade taco seasoning i had to try it. it was super easy and cheap to make. i plan to use it this weekend so we'll see how it tastes.

i bought the container at winco for $1.30
i also bought my spices in bulk at winco (definitely the cheapest way to go)

equal parts (i used 4 TBSP)
chili powder
ground cumin
garlic powder
onion powder
1/4-1/2 part crushed red pepper

now i know exactly what i am putting in my body when i use taco seasoning

Friendship Bracelet

My conference project was a friendship bracelet for Autism Awareness month. It's probably been 20 years since I've made one. It took a long time. I got on pinterest and searched friendship bracelets. I started out trying to make a chevron pattern, but it wasn't connecting together so I stopped. It was a fun little project even if I do feel like I'm 12 again.

a few more cake pics

is anyone sick of bear cake pictures? since chelsea actually took some real (not from a crappy cell phone) pictures, i figured i better post them.

the kids anxiously waiting

i'm still dying that this cake actually made the trip from slc to st george with only a few minor problems.

thanks to technology, my parents, jeff's parents, and ashley got to see the reveal too

it's a BOY! it takes a heckuvalot of food coloring to get the cake the perfect blue

 the happy family

 karlee was pretty excited to eat the cake

that's all the pictures/posts from this cake...i promise

details of the cake

Chelsea and Jeff are having baby #3. They already have a girl and a boy. She had to change doctors when their insurance changed so her ultrasound was delayed a few weeks. When she scheduled the ultrasound for the week before Easter, they decided to wait to find out the gender with a cake. Celsey and I have been having a lot of fun making gender reveal cakes, but this cake was definitely the most exciting cake so far. It was so much more exciting that no one knew when we cut the cake. I met them in St. George, and we did the cake with our grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. We had our parents, Ashley, and Jeff's parents on skype and facetime. Here's the video of the big reveal.

We're Beary Excited to Meet our Baby...

BOY!

I really hope I can convince someone else to wait until the cake to find out the gender. Next up, a twin reveal. Can't wait!

most exciting gender reveal

We're Beary Excited to Meet Our Baby...

We're BEARY excited

to meet our baby boy or girl

these pictures don't do this justice at all. so cute!

the latest gender reveal cake was this cute little bear. we did a practice on the right for a baby blessing. one of my college friends is pregnant with her first, and it was so much fun making this gender reveal for her. we're all BEARY excited to meet her baby BOY!

next up...gender reveal for chelsea and jeff. they had the ultrasound last week and are waiting until we cut the cake to find out the gender. i'm so excited to make this cake and for the mail to come so i know the gender.

days 26-31

march kind of flew by. i'm glad i've worn so many hair accessories. it reminded me of all the fun things i have.

Z on a bobby pin

 
houndstooth felt bow (with my houdstooth toms)

little black felt bow

this is my own hair as a braided headband, but by day 30 that counted as an accessory

purple felt bow

bracelet. this got the most compliments. thank you @hdofblog


now that march is over, i'm done with #monthofhairaccessoriesnew goal...#lightitupbluei'm wearing blue everyday this month in support of autism awareness month

tomorrow is WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY. everyone should wear blue!