A Very Buggy Birthday Party!!

Yesterday was my youngest granddaughter's second birthday. Her mom didn't have any preference as to her cake, so I decided to do the honey bee and ladybug cake which are featured in the Wilton Celebrate With Fondant book.

Sylvia was fascinated!!

These cakes were surprisingly simple to make. To get the round body shape, use the sports ball pan and the mini-sports ball pan for the heads. They are covered with fondant and all the spots, stripes, eyes, eye lashes, etc. are fondant.

To finish out the centerpiece, I purchased a piece of light green fabric to set the cake plates on, then shredded green tissue paper in our paper shredded for the 'grass' around the bugs.

I'll definitely be doing these cakes again!!

A Melancholy Evening At Home

Well, it's finally happened.

Reality has set in.

I can tell this empty nest is going to take some getting used to. So much for hoping to get past it without feeling any pain.

My in-laws left for California today, the last of our family who came out for our son Nathan's wedding, to leave. That was bad for my delicate mood. I've been on the verge of tears all evening.

I kept busy most of the evening framing a picture of one of the granddaughters - I found a really good deal on a custom frame at Michaels. But that's another post.

And Nathan even stopped by for a few minutes to visit, which helped, temporarily.

But then he started telling about what all he and Jen did today, getting ready to leave for Vanuatu. And how anxious he is to be gone. And how they hope to be gone by November. Not what I needed to hear!

Did I mention that I hate empty nests?

It's all part of the process of life, I know, but I really dislike this stage!

On a brighter note, we did find out today that we're going to be the grandparents of a grandSON come January!!!

Nate & Jen's Wedding

Here are a few pictures of my son's wedding. My niece, who flew in from California, was the photographer. The pictures are unedited, so she's probably going to clobber me when she finds out that I already posted them! Oh, well. Several of them are candid shots.

The bride before the ceremony. Her bouquet was white roses surrounded with yellow tulips:


My granddaughter, Nicole, was one of the flower girls:


My oldest granddaughter, Natalie, served as the minature bride:


My daughters, who served as bridesmaids, with the bride. Her colors were Tiffany blue and yellow:


My husband and I with our four children:


Our entire family, including grandchild #5! We find our next week if it's a boy or a girl!!


Nate & Jen:


Nate and I:


My four children acting normal:


Nate and his brother, who also served as one of his best men:


A Sonic commercial!


And a McDonald's commercial!


My three year old granddaughter, Nicole, being carried down the aisle by her daddy. She spent most of the ceremony on my lap:


Communion during the ceremony:


Signing the marriage license. My oldest son looks like he's losing it!


A bubbly departure!


You can see pictures of the cakes I made for the reception here.

Nate & Jen's Wedding

Here are some pictures of Nathan & Jennifer's wedding cakes.



Jennifer wanted her cake to resemble a stack of gifts. Here's a more close up view:



Nathan's groom's cake is a depiction of an island. The couple will be living on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, for two years after they raise their support. They hope to leave by October, or at the latest January 2010.



The bottom layer is the ocean and sky. The middle layer is the beach and the top layer is the island, complete with coconut trees and a grass hut. Hopefully, their living conditions won't be quite so rustic!

On the groom's cake, I used craft foam instead of fondant since I didn't know what kind of kitchen facilities I would be working in. Smart move!!

I used pre-made whipped frosting on both cakes. This was the first time I used it on such a large scale, and again, I used it because I didn't know what my working conditions would be. If I had it to do over again, I would probably use the traditional buttercream since I had some problems working with the pre-made frosting, mainly because I'm not accustomed to it.

But the bride and groom were happy, and that's what matters most to me.

Congratulations, Nathan & Jennifer!!

And Then There Were Two

We arrived back home this evening after a very busy wedding weekend. The wedding was beautiful and went of without a hitch. Well, my three year old granddaughter, Nicole, refused to walk down the isle in front of all those people, so I guess that was a bit of a hitch. But her daddy stepped in and carried her, so all was well.

And somewhere in all the traveling I lost my camera, so I don't have a single picture of the wedding to post. My niece was the photographer, so I'll get her to download some shots to my computer when I see her later this week.

The house seemed so quiet when we arrived home. And Nate's room already has that un-lived in (is that even a word?) feeling. How is that possible after only four days? I think it's all in my head.

But I won't have to deal with the empty nest thing for at least a few more days since my in-laws are here from California. And I'll be busy the next few days unpacking and putting away, so I can avoid it even longer. And then I'll have to catch up on work next week, so before I know it I'll be weeks into my empty nest and won't even realize it!!

Okay, I'm suffering from severe exhaustion, so I'm going to bed now.

Oh, by the way, I found my camera in the truck on the way home.

Oil Paintings

My son dabbles around with painting. He has since he was just a kid. I always tried to get him to take is seriously and take lessons or something, but he never did. Now he regrets it! Anyway, I wanted to post a couple of his pictures.

This one is kind of different. But I have to admit, it does look striking hanging in his room. He gets a lot of comments about it.



This is one he did for his older sister. She saw one like it and wanted him to do a similar one for her. He is actually still working on it. He's repainting the field of flowers - he said it looked like a field of blood!



He just completed this one. You might remember this. Well, his younger sister, who loves red, fell in love with the print on the napkin and asked if he could do her an oil painting like it. So he did this painting for her birthday.

I know my pictures don't do his paintings justice, and he would probably kill if he knew I had put inferior photographs of his work on my blog, but I wanted to show these to you. And there's just something about having a real oil painting hanging on your wall!

90th Birthday Party

This past weekend I made several cakes for a friend's 90th birthday party. The event was put on by her daughter, who is seventy. It was an all day event, an open house type setting, with people coming and going as they wanted.

Here is the main cake. It was basically for decoration - it wasn't touched.

I made six 1/2 sheet cakes that were divided by piece, each with a red rosebud. This is what was served to the guests. The cake flavors were white, chocolate and strawberry.

I wanted to post a couple pictures of the fruit table. It was beautiful!

An idea to stash away for future consideration.

Book Case Dressup

I bought this book case a few months back and put it in the guest bedroom, which has a green, pink and white color scheme. (I built the color scheme around a quilt top that my husband's grandmother put together years ago.)
But the bookcase was just so stark white. I thought about painting it, then discarded that idea. Then I got the idea to cover it with different patterns of scrapbook paper in keeping with the "patchwork quilt" theme.

So I bought a book of scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby that I thought went best with my colors. (And there's that door again! I really am going to do something with it soon.) I blued the paper to the sides of the shelf using Mod Podge. Here's a picture showing my progress.

After I covered both sides with the paper, I used pink & green rick-rack to cover the frame and front edges of the shelves. The bedskirt is green with a pink rick-rack type trim, so this kind of tied it all together. I just hot glued it on.

This was before I covered the shelf edges.

Had to take a break to feed a hungry toddler a snack. She really enjoyed her chocolate pudding!

Here are several pictures of the finished project.

This closeup of my rick-rack ends doesn't look that great. But they're not that noticeable unless you're about 6 inches away!

I love the way it turned out! I only had about $15 in the project, most of which was the cost of the book of scrapbook paper (half off at HL). And I didn't use near all of it, so I will have it on hand for future use.

I'm hoping to finish this room soon. I'll post pictures when I do.

Countdown To My Empty Nest

I thought I'd post a few of my son's engagement pictures. They were taken by my oldest daughter (the one with the three girls).



Their wedding is August 8th.


They are planning to go to Vanuatu within just a few months of getting married. They are Missionary Associates with the Assemblies of God World Missions. They are raising funds now and as soon as they meet their budget they will be leaving for two years. They will both be working in an adult literacy program as well as a Chrisitian school.

Did I mention that Vanuatu is on the other side of the world???

This one show her sapphire and diamond engagement ring. It's beautiful!

Nate isn't my youngest child - he's just the one who stayed around the longest.

I'm goign to miss him something terrible. He's been the only one at home for over three years now.

Don't they make a cute couple? And she fits into the family perfectly!

Zebra Cake

I made this cake for my granddaughter Emily's birthday party on Saturday. I used the whipped frosting from Sam's Club instead of making my own butter cream. Boy, did it ever speed up the project!!

Emily's party always lands at a busy time since we have our church camp the week of the fourth. Her party gets put off until Saturday after camp, so we're all dead tired, then we have to throw together a party and a cake. But all went well.

I think she like her cake, especially the hearts - she kept pulling them out and trying to eat them! They were the only non-edible thing on the cake besides the feather thingies.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your birthday party, Emily! I know the rest of us did!