My daughter is into Frozen (like every other young girl alive I suppose) and for her birthday last year, we threw a Frozen-themed party that was over the top...the best part, though, had to be the cake.
So, when a friend called my partner-in-crime, Debbie, and said they needed a Frozen themed birthday cake, her first thought was the Elsa Cake at May's party...it was so fun to make, and such a wonderful family that wanted one, how could I say no?
So here she is...Elsa, in cake form:
The cake is constructed of an Elsa doll (a "Sparkle Elsa" barbie-sized doll to be exact) which I chose because her dress top is molded on - no need to worry about constructing one out of fondant, which a) prevents the hassle of trying to sculpt such an intricate bodice, b) eliminates the need to figure out an edible way to make it truly sparkle, and c) prevents putting dyed fondant on the doll, which could in turn dye the doll. No one wants a blue-toned Elsa to play with after the party!
The skirt is all cake - baked in a Pampered Chef batter bowl (for a long, long time). The doll's legs are wrapped in plastic wrap and she goes in the cake, then smaller pieces of cake and icing are sculpted to make her skirt shape perfect. After all that, she's covered very carefully with fondant and a belt is put on to hide the edges. Best part about this doll is her sparkly cape that finishes it up just right. To go along with this arrangement, 36 cupcakes were made in three different buttercream icing colors with royal icing snowflakes added on top (made by the ever patient Debbie!)
I think I want to try other princesses too, while Elsa's dress is quite simple, imagine how intricate some of the other princesses could get...might have to play with some of my daughter's dolls and stuff them in a cake!
I'm not sure why my dear friend Debbie was nervous about the latest cake project she took on - someone wanted sunshine and rainbows...in cake form. Anyone who knows me and Debbie knows that when it comes to sunshine and rainbows, she's much better outfitted for the job...i'm more like gray clouds and snowflakes. :)
She knew she wanted the rainbow inside the cupcake, so with the help of a little gizmo from Wilton that sits in your cupcake liner and allows you to pour a different color batter into the center of the cupcake, she was able to make different colored centers for a rainbow surprise with the first bite. For the top of the cupcake, white buttercream was piped on in a high-top swirl, looking much like a cloud, where fondant suns would sit.
All we had to do was make the fondant suns! So after surveying the cutters on hand and finding one small flower cutter and a circle, we were able to put these little puppies together!
So the end product when everything was put together? Fondant suns sitting atop a fluffy white cloud hiding a rainbow inside the cupcake!
Aren't they darling? Two things we learned during this confectionary adventure - fondant that appears rock hard and destined for the trash can just needs some TLC - massage some Crisco into it and it's nearly as good as new; and the little gizmo from Wilton that allows you to make two-tone cupcakes serves you best when you're making consistently colored two-tone cupcakes. Otherwise, everything needs washed in between, and the waste of batter will leave you short of what you're expecting from the cake mix.
I wonder why no one ever asks for gray clouds and snow cupcakes? ;)
I'm lucky enough to have a spare room in the house that is dedicated to being our craft room. Daddy has his brewery downstairs and Maylen and I have the room right off the back deck complete with its own door in case we ever want to dream really big and host crafting classes there someday. It's an addition to the house and it's a little chilly in there, but it's nice to have and we have a ton of fun in there together.
Lately, I've been working on organizing the craft room to make it more friend-friendly so we can invite others over for play dates (where the mommies get to play too!) and our most recent project is hanging storage over the windows. The room has windows on all four sides of it - three large ones and one small one next to the doors (one leading outside, one leading into the kitchen.) As such, it's hard to put any kind of tall storage along any way because I don't want to block the windows - the views are amazing out all three of the large ones and they let in so much light. We found a storage shelf at Dollar General for $15 that will hold three fabric cubes and a light bulb went off...I could easily hang these above the windows to add storage in a completely unused space!
I bought one and put it together but realized that only one side of the shelves is finished with the veneer, so I broke out the Mod-Podge and went to work with some 12x12 sheets of paper. Here's the finished product, all put together...
And here it is on the wall above the window:
It just so happens that two of them will fit perfectly, and Daddy's to do list tonight only includes hanging the second shelf above the window. Much to my disappointment, the fabric cubes that they sell don't fit in the shelf sideways, but I had three other cubes from somewhere else that fit perfectly, and of course the shoe boxes will fit well also. I plan on keeping the seasonal goodies and things I don't need all the time up there since I will need to climb the stepladder to get to them! My next project for the windows is making Roman Shades...stay tuned for that one!
Here is how I covered the shelves:
I covered the first shelf after it was built and the second one before I built it - needless to say it's much easier to do it before you build...I used Satin Mod-Podge which mimics the finish of the shelf rather well.
Measure your shelf and cut your decorative paper to size. The shelves I used were 10 and 9/16" square but yours may be different.
Spread a thin layer of the Mod-Podge on the underside of the shelf about two inches wide. I did this to start the process of laying down the paper because the glue soaks into the particle board quickly and dries rather quickly as well.
Position your paper and rub it down onto the shelf making sure that the front portion lines up against the finished edge of the shelf.
Pull the paper back slightly and put another thin layer of Mod-Podge on the shelf and press down. Repeat this until you've adhered the entire sheet of paper.
Using a brayer or your hand, smooth down the entire sheet of paper.
Let the entire thing dry before putting on the top coat of Mod-Podge. This part is VERY important to prevent wrinkles.
When I put the paper on the shelf, I did get wrinkles and air bubbles, but by letting it dry completely before putting the top coat on, the wrinkles went away. I'm not sure why, but I think the porousness of the shelf helped to pull it all taut once the Mod-Podge dried. The top coat may again make a few wrinkles pop up, but generally, they all go down and the paper lays flat once it's all dry.
To hang it, my husband used L-brackets underneath the shelf and above it. If you don't mind seeing brackets, Lowes has a ton of them that are decorative and meant to be seen. Or, you can use it standing up as well!
I asked Maylen a couple weeks ago who her Valentine was going to be, and she said with a devilish twinkle in her eye, "the baddddest boy in the class."
I hate it when the future flashes in front of me like that...
Well, while I attempted to talk her out of liking the bad boys and settling more for the quiet kid who can't quite dance and answers all the math questions right, I did manage to get out of her what she'd like to give her classmates for Valentine's Day. Gummies!
This is what we came up with - I found just enough paper with some fruits on it to cut out enough hearts, and then she picked out the colors for the boys and the girls and we made little cards with a bag of gummies stuck inside. An easy project requiring only the cricut (doodletype cartridge), my cutter, and my scoring board. I printed the "You're Berry Sweet" sentiment on cardstock using a simple text box set up in Word. She helped me stick it all together. I'm only holding the gummies in with a strip of adhesive on both sides. Easy to disassemble and eat at the class party.
Last night, she told me she doesn't have a boyfriend and she doesn't want one either. Now if she'll just keep that attitude till she's about thirty we'll be good... :)
I don't think I've made a card in over a year. Maybe more like two years. Getting into the craft room just isn't something I have a lot of chances to do...I always feel like there's something else I should be doing...dishes, laundry, giving a three year old a bath...but now that she's a little older and can draw on her own in the corner while I craft or just hang out with Daddy in the living room and actually stay focused on a movie or TV show, I should really put myself in the craft room more often.
I needed a birthday card a couple weeks ago for a teenage boy, so it had to be something simple, no frills, no sparkle. I reached for one of my most reliable "manly" stamping sets - Plane & Simple from Stampin' Up! Here's what I came up with :
I used Stampin' Up papers Chocolate Chip (the base), Soft Suede (middle layer), and Crumb Cake for the top layer. I stamped the plane and the sentiment in Soft Suede ink on Very Vanilla paper then cut them out. The border on the right side is another stamp in the set, also stamped in Soft Suede. I used dimensional adhesive dots to stick the plane on the card, and used a thick brown thread to attach the "banner" with the wording on it.
The card came out much like the name of the set: "Plane" and simple. The birthday boy (young man?) liked it, so I guess I succeeded on this one! It felt good to snip out that little plane and put it all together, even if it was without a lot of glitz and bling added to it. Just to note, I put a piece of Very Vanilla paper on the inside to write on and stamped the corner with another stamp in the set just to tie it all together.
I have a list of cards I need - most of them for women - so I fully intend to break out the sparkles for my next project. I also have some "contracted" work that I'm not at liberty to speak of publicly yet, but let's just say it will be good to get back in that chilly little craft room and get to work!
Maylen, 2weeks old and yesterday- same towel...much bigger girl!
Well, it's been another year since I've posted. Motherhood is tough, time-demanding, awesome.
Miss May has now blossomed into a three year old blur of noise and blonde curls. Brilliant. Inquisitive. Sassy. All the things that a three year old girl probably should be. Most importantly, she's "Mommy's best friend," until Mommy says no, at which point she's quick to point out that she is NOT my best friend anymore!
Three weeks ago, I had knee surgery - I wanted to journal my healing process because I just felt like something big was going to happen in my way of thinking. I am halfway through my time off work for this to heal and I was right. I'm humbled by a number of things. First and foremost, I'm humbled by how helpless I had to become in order for this to heal. I'm not good at letting others do the work for me - I knew this was going to be hard but I had myself convinced that I would have the surgery and be back on my feet after a few days rest and everything would be fine. That is not how this went.
My husband turned into Super-Dad. He kept every Daddy duty he had and took on every Mommy duty too. Nana and Pop-Pop's house became a luxury resort hotel for Maylen the first four days of my recovery. I couldn't have done it without them. While my husband still forges onward as my hero, I am thankfully able to do a lot more around the house - able to feel useful again...I'm thankful for that.
I did journal throughout the recovery so far, but wasn't able to post them due to Blogger technical difficulties -- that being said, I apologize for the lengthy catch-up post!
1/13/2014 A temporary inconvenience for a permanent improvement.
I have survived by first four days of post-op recovery after my open synovectomy to remove a bone tumor caused by PVNS in my right knee. The first night was the worst with post-anesthesia nausea...the words of wisdom from my Dad when he called between my bouts of dry-heaving were that it's "a temporary inconvenience for a permanent solution." I suddenly felt like I had no place to complain even once about any of the recovery process. Dad survived open heart surgery that required them to go back in multiple times to stop bleeding, having arteries cleared in his neck and legs, a cardiac ablation, a pacemaker...he survived one month in the hospital when we weren't sure what the next day was going to bring...he saw them all as temporary inconveniences for permanent solutions that would give him more time with his family, with his grandchildren and great grandchildren, with the people he loves.
This is nothing. This is a cut open knee. I could've slipped on the ice and did this myself if I hit the ground just right. And while I still appreciate the length of the road ahead, I'm also going to try my hardest not to complain. This is a temporary inconvenience that might give me stronger knees to run with my daughter across the yard, to get down on the floor to build puzzles and let her do my hair, to shop longer with the women in the family, to stand longer while making Christmas Cookies, to complain less about the pain I feel each day. While it's becoming very apparent this will not be as easy as I thought, it's also not going to be nearly as hard as it could be.
1/16/2014 Obstacles for Improvement
One week into my recovery, I'm thoroughly humbled. I've always been one to get sick or injured, suck it up for a few days and then be fine. This is definitely not like that. The incision is healing nicely. Still sore and bothersome, but healing - no infection, no bleeding, and this point all the steri-strips have fallen off. My knee is bruised and so is my shin - Lord only knows how brutal the surgery part actually was and I'm fine with not really knowing. I can't bend my knee very far and I'm still hobbling to walk...the good part of that is I'm pretty sure I could a walk-on role as a zombie in the Walking Dead without even trying...
Over this past week, I've had to stop many times to rethink my logistics. It's no longer easy to do the basics: get out of a chair, walk across a room, navigate stairs, sit down on the toilet, get in the shower...it all requires a pause to think about how this is going to get done in the least painful way and the way that will not add to the injury. What I've realized through doing this physical is that it's something that maybe we should all do in other ways too - mentally, emotionally, and even vocally. Just take that few seconds to ask yourself how you can do this in order to produce the best outcome. The check your words before you say them, check you thoughts before you let them betray you, check your emotions to make sure they're the most appropriate and the least likely to add injury where it doesn't necessarily need to be.
I saw a Facebook status this week that said "Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition." Every physical obstacle I'm coming across probably works in some way to improve my knee - the different navigations I've had to use are cumbersome and may take a little longer, but it also allows for my knee to continue to heal without much setback. Those few extra seconds makea difference to my recovery. I wonder what a few extra seconds could add to other areas of our lives?
1/22/2014 Beautiful Words.
I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Bowen today who confirmed what we initially thought: a benign condition known as PVNS is what caused this issue with my knee.
Benign.
Praise the Lord. One of the most beautiful words in the English language. Benign.
1/24/2014 51 Degrees
I have started physical therapy, which basically consisted of the initial measurement of things - I can bend my knee about 51 degrees, but all the other joints around it seem to be working alright. My muscles are mushy from non-use, the swelling has yet to go down around my knee and the incision has yet to fully heal at the bottom end where it pulls each time I bend my knee. The road I was so sure would be a short trip is going to be a longer journey with a lot of hard work, dedication.
I'm reminded of another meme I came across somewhere: "We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
After doing my "homework" and realizing this is going to kick my butt a little, I'm even more determined to beat this thing and get back to health...the road stretches out in the distance, but it's shorter than it was two weeks ago.
1/29/2014 Brave
I'm bending my knee at 90 degrees. After only five days of PT and my "homework," I'm at a right angle. I'm walking more than hobbling (there goes my dream job on the cast of Walking Dead) and today in therapy, I rode a stationery bike. Honestly, when the therapist suggested it I thought she was nuts - surely I can't be ready to swing this knee full circle...she said go as far as you can one way, then back it up and go as far as you can the other way. Ten minutes. Go.
First three minutes I went as far as I could one way, then back the other way. The scar tissue pulled with a sharp jab but I pushed past it, stretching a bit more each time. I thought it was rather like getting a tattoo in a strange kind of way - the pain was almost the same type of feeling. One one particular pull back, I told myself just do it. Just once. Go all the way around. So, I did it. Swung around once, twice, three times - I was doing it. Really, really doing it.
Reverse - cycle it through the other way. Determined, I stared down at my purple chucks and swung in the opposite direction - once, twice, three times. No reason to stop now except that the pain was edging up a bit more around that scar tissue at the end of the incision. Maybe I should just go back to the other way I was doing it.
Then it happened - Brave by Sara Bereilles came on the radio. This was the song the staff at Geisinger danced to for the Pink Glove Dance to celebrate cancer survivorship. This song has become one of my personal favorites, especially since Maylen calls it "Mommy's song" and loves to listen to it on repeat for at least five or six replays. All of a sudden, I thought to myself - what am I saying? Go back to the way you were doing it? There's no going back. The road moves forward. And this? This is a knee. If I was thinking about going backwards I had to squint to see a bit further into the past than a minute ago - I carried a cancerous cyst alongside a child - a child who was born healthy in spite of it, a child that my body nurtured, created...and then that cyst was removed and the cancer with it and since then it hasn't returned and that child still grows, still amazes me. Quit looking that way...cuz we're not going backwards. This is just a knee. Yet again, I was reminded - this is nothing.
I wanna see you be brave.
Six minutes, full circle on the bike. The timer went off and my heart poured open with a feeling of pride and perseverance I haven't felt in a long time.
Well, it's 2013. I haven't posted on this blog for a year and a half. That little girl in the pink bug has skyrocketed into a beautiful curly haired 2 year old and it happened so fast it feels like just yesterday I was blogging about her first teeth - and now she's got (as of last week) a whole mouth full of them. There are no more bottles, no more binks, no more bugs in the middle of the living room. Instead, there are sippee cups, the occasional "get that out of your mouth!" exclamations, and an entire half of the living room covered with dolls, play kitchen stuff, coloring books, little people toys, books and everything imaginable with Elmo on it. Since my last entry we've moved to a bigger house (out of basic necessity - it's amazing how much room a child takes up in a house being she's the smallest person in it) and I've gone back to work full time. She's started daycare, and can count to twelve already, and knows all her colors and maybe, just maybe, knows how to read "Ho Ho Ho." Christmas was amazing - she didn't like Santa after meeting him, but she really liked him after she saw all those toys under the tree. It will be fun to see what next year brings when she sees Mr. C. in person again...
Through it all, though, I"m still in amazement at how much I love this little girl and how much life has changed since she came around. There are no more lazy days, no more spontaneous moments. Moms are a skilled population - we can carry more at once, do more at once, sleep less than the average person and still function, and somehow become domestic goddesses, doctors, psychologists, teachers, chefs, artists, and chauffeurs all rolled into one person. That being said, keeping up with anything is nearly ten times harder now than it was before I was a mom, and that's what inspired me to pick up the laptop and go back to the blog...I meant to use this to save my sanity and I didn't stick with it - my sanity has suffered. I'm learning as I go, and feel the need to share the wealth of the lessons I'm picking up along the way...
Maylen is at Nana's tonight - it's bitter cold here in PA, and since Tuesdays and Thursdays are Nana's days to watch her, she decided a sleepover was best so Maylen can just stay warm and snuggly in bed in the morning instead of being dragged out in the cold. Good idea for two reasons - first, Nana's reason is a really good one, and second - Mama needs some sleep!
