Ooh, La, La Cake

For Eliza's party, I made a simple layered cake. It was pink, of course. Butterflies and a monogramed "E" helped to make it extra fancy.

 I also thought I would try making a few cake pops. My sisters have been raving about how good cake bites taste, and how pretty they turn out. If you are wondering what cake bites, or cake pops are, do a google search. They are everywhere! A cake pop is simply a cake bite on a sucker stick. I wish my sister, Allison, could have been here to whip up a few for the party. She would have done a much better job than I did. But it was fun to experiment anyway. I'll have to try them again, when I am not so rushed.

  

Making basic cake bites are pretty simple. Of course there are all kinds of gourmet, fancy recipes you can find on the internet, too. 

To make the basic version, 

*you simply bake a cake (from a box) just as  directed. 

*After it cools, destroy it! (break it up into small pieces) (this part is fun, the kids can help!)

* Then using your mixer, beat it into little crumbs. 

*When the cake has been reduced to rubble, mix in a can of ready made frosting. I used a whole can but I think a little less would have been better. 

*When it is all mixed up, put it in the freezer to chill for a bit. Then, roll into small balls and refreeze for at least 2 hours. 

*After the balls are frozen, dip into melted chocolate (the candy wafers made by Wilton) If you are making pops, insert the sticks before you dip.

*decorate as desired with chocolate or candies or whatever.

*put back in the refrigerator or freezer, until ready to serve.

A couple of tips:

*Birthday cake decorating tip: bake the cake the night before, then refrigerate, or better yet, freeze. It will be much easier to frost when it is cold.

*Cake Bite tip: mix a little oil in to the chocolate after it is melted to make a thinner, smother consistency.

In taste tests, thinner chocolate coated bites tasted better.

Ooh, La, La Flowers

No ooh, la, la party is complete without some decorations, especially flowers! To decorate for Eliza's party, I made flowers out of paper napkins. They are really simple to make and add a lot of color to the room. You probably made something similar, in elementary school, out of tissue paper. Making these again felt sort of nostalgic. There is a great tutorial, if you need a refresher on MADE. I also made ruffled streamers, which accent the flowers nicely, and add the statement "party!" to the room. Dana has a great tutorial on how to make these, too.

Ooh, La, La Guest Spa Robes

Last week was quite a week. The kids all started school. Eliza turned 6. And I spent 3 crazy days, throwing together a birthday party. Since Eliza wanted to have a Fancy Nancy Spa party, I thought it would be nice to have robes for all the girls to wear. I also thought they would make nice party favors. What was I thinking????!!!! I ended up making 6 spa robes, among other things. And was still sewing bias tape 1/2 an hour before the guests arrived! Talk about cutting it close! I finally finished them all, just in the knick of time.

As each guest arrived, they received a robe, a pair of flip flops, and a hair turban thing. 

The girls all looked soooo cute! It made all the work worth while.

I love the way they were "reading" their magazines while they relaxed!

Eliza's Sweet Vintage Style Robe

Tuesday was my little Eliza's 6th birthday. While the kids were all at school, I spent the day making her a new bathrobe for her birthday. Friday, I am throwing together a last minute birthday party with a few of her friends. It will be an Ooh, la, la, Beauty Birthday (aka: Fancy Nancy spa party). I wanted her to have a cute new robe to wear to her celebration. So I made this.

I made it out of two Simply Shabby Chic bath towels from Target. I LOVE the texture. It reminds me of a an old chenille bedspread. And of course, Liza loved the pink! I didn't have a pattern, so I kind of made it up as I went along. I wanted it to have a bit of a 1940's flair to it. So I made big lapels and gathered the back up, for a more stylized look. Now I need to go finish things for the rest of her party!

Shoelaces to Fit your Style

I don't know about your kids, but shoelaces are a big problem at my house. The problem is, that they either take them out to do various things, like tie each other up, or they somehow manage to fray the ends (maybe by chewing on them?), so they won't fit through the holes anymore. I once even received a note home from my son's teacher, that had his shoestrings attached with a stapler. It explained that he kept tying his shoes to his desk during class. The teacher got so fed up that he snipped the laces right off and send them home with the note!

Since my daughter had only one shoe lace for this pair of tennis shoes (typical). I made her a pair of fun polka dot ones. The coolest thing that I recently discovered, is called heat shrink tubing. To make these, I simply made some bias tape (actually it wasn't on the bias). Then stitched the the length of the laces on the open side. After that I slipped each end through the heat shrink tubing and heated it up with my embosser. What a quick fix to a shoe lace dilemma!

The Old Fisherman and His Wife

Today is my oldest daughter, McKenna's, 19th birthday. She has been in Germany since the beginning of July and I miss her so much. So I thought I'd write a quick post in her honor. Before she left, she sculpted these two cute dolls out of clay. I just love them! She is so talented. She uses nothing but polymer clay and a toothpick to sculpt the faces and hands. For the wife's hair, she had a hard time finding anything around the house to use. So she cut my 5 year olds hair, and used it! I love her creativity. The bodies are made from wire and wrapped in tin foil. The clothes she found in my old Barbie box from when I was a kid. She told me that they were an old fisherman and his wife. 

This post card, dated August 1911, exactly 100 years ago, makes me think of what this little old couple might have looked like so long ago.

Got Milk...caps?

Fresh milk, delivered daily to your door in a lovely glass bottle with a really cool top. From the 1880's to 1960's, this was how most families received their milk. After 1960 paper cartons became the norm for milk. While you can still get milk in glass bottles from a few dairies, they are few and far between. 

A couple of years ago, my husband started collecting these milk bottle tops for me. I love them.  I keep them in a big jar on my kitchen counter.  My kids and I, enjoy dumping them out and examining the uniqueness of each one. I hope you will enjoy looking at them too.