Fun & Funky Cake

My cousin's wife asked me to make a cake for her sister's birthday.  She sent me a photo of the cake they wanted it based on, and let me go at it.  I think it turned out just adorable!

Garden Baby Shower

Last weekend my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister.  She is having a boy, so I decided to use red and turquoise for the decorations. 

Everybody in blogland has such great ideas, and I grabbed a few ideas to use myself from a couple of different bloggers.

I started with the invitations.  My mom found the cute idea for these at The Pleated Poppy.



Next were these fun pinwheels from All the Small Things that I found via Little Miss Momma.  I love how they added a pop of color to the green background.



Also at Little Miss Momma, I saw that she had a large banner that matched our invitations perfectly, so I made one of those as well.



I made red velvet cupcakes with turquoise cream cheese frosting to display on my new cake stands.



My dad helped me hang lanterns from the trees.  It had been a while since I went tree climbing - both the trees and I had grown a bit.



I couldn't find a tablecloth that was the color of turquoise I wanted, so I bought a plain white one and painted on turquoise polka dots.  I used a red table runner that I already had.



The finishing touch was fresh red gerbera daisies placed in mismatched clear vases (from the thrift store of course) filled with turquoise water, and placed around the patio.




And don't forget the guest of honor!


A great big thank you to everyone that came!  We had a fabulous time, and Kait got many, many needed things for baby Tyce.

Cake Stands

I wanted some cake stands to use at the baby shower I am planning for my sister.  I looked all over the place and found a few, mostly ranging from $20-$25. Since I wanted 3, those were a bit out of my price range.  I looked online and found a few 3 piece sets in that same price range, but about half the reviews said that they arrived broken into a thousand little pieces and I didn't want to chance it. 

Pat took me to look around at Tai Pan for one, and they had a few that were still too expensive.  Then we had a brilliant idea.  We'd make our own!  We found some white platters for $4 each, and then found a few other white dishes of various sizes and shapes to make stands out of.


The total of everything cost just over $22.00.  Then we made a stop at Lowe's and spent an additional $5.00 on epoxy.  So for a total of about $27.00, I got my three cake stands.  I think they turned out great!

Three of My Favorite Things

Books, cats, and the color red... what's not to love?  I just discovered an awesome little used bookstore in Clearfield.  It's called:


The shop was very well organized, had lots of selection, and helpful employees.  I bought a few books while I was there, even though I never buy books!  The library just doesn't carry everything.  There are a lot of books I would like to own that they had.  I will have to dig through my bookshelf for books to turn in so it will be cheaper next time.

June Book List


Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris - 311 pages
Lover Mine by JR Ward - 512 pages
Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur - 395 pages
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin - 398 pages
Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews - 260 pages
Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey - 702 pages

TOTAL - 6 books - 2,578 pages