A sugary summer

Whoa there - I can't believe that we're already knee deep in summer here.  Not only am I way behind on my blogging, but I don't think I've even read another blog in the past month!  I can attribute that to a couple of things.... 1) My husband has taken over the computer with a new video game.  Ugh.  2) I'm still super addicted to Instagram (emmmylizzzy), and have been using that as my crafty socializing/networking outlet.  3) I guess I've just been busy actually doing and making- instead of reading/writing/editing/planning/browsing.  That's a good thing, right?

The kitchen has definitely been bustling because of graduation season.  Here are a couple of graduation cakes I've been making over the past few weeks....

Texture abounding in buttercream.

How many points are in 4 dozen cupcakes?

I had a cupcake order of 4 dozen cupcakes for a bridal shower this past weekend.

Red velvet and vanilla with swiss meringue buttercream.

It was actually a bridal tea party, so the flowers were modeled after some of the blooms on the teacups they were using.

The whole house smelled delicious!

It was pretty much torture for this baker who is trying to stick to her Weight Watcher's diet!

A quick switch of mediums

I'm changing gears this weekend from fabric to frosting.

I took a brief hiatus from making cakes towards the end of my pregnancy, but I'm starting back up with orders for two baby showers this weekend.

Three layers of vanilla cake with whipped cookies and cream filling and giant swiss meringue buttercream roses.

As a side note, Phoebe once told a friend of mine who was preparing her lunch that, "I only eat cake and cookies and candy and ice cream".  

It's hard not to in this house.

Project snippets, updates, and a giveaway!

**Giveaway is now closed!  Thanks for everyone who played along - winner will be announced once I get my act in gear and take some photos for my next blog post :)

Welcome Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway groupies - and of course my lovely friends and followers.  I'm finally getting over my never ending virus (knock on wood!), and I think my nesting is finally kicking back in - we're in the home stretch regarding all things Christmas and new baby.  Eeeks!

Here's what I've been up to.....

Making my favorite Christmas recipe to package up for gifts - Salted Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Bark.  You can find a link to the recipe from last year's post.

Remember this quilt top from waaaaaay back when?  Well I finally got it basted and ready for quilting.  I'm really hoping to get it done before new baby gets here because it will be great for the whole family to cuddle under since it's so ginormous.  Although I think my arm muscles keep chickening out at the thought of manuvering that monstrosity through my machine.

Here's the progress I've made on new baby's crocheted afghan.  Two more strips to go, weaving in some ends, and possibly a border if I have time.  I'm finding it funny how much the color scheme from this blanket and the above quilt match each other - especially since I started both projects about eight months apart!

I'm absolutely loving Dottie Angel's tutorial on joining the squares as you go - I think it looks amazing and it saves so much work in the end!

In shop news, I had great luck picking up some simply gorgeous vintage sheets this weekend.  They've been washed, ironed, and are already for sale in my Etsy shop!

I also found some simply stunning vintage baby quilts in pristine condition.  Each individual fabric is just more beautiful than the last.  I'm keeping this one for myself, but I've got one more in the shop that I'm forcing myself to part with.

And as if I don't have enough projects going on right now, I finally completed my Folksy Flannel collection thanks to Pink Castle Fabrics (who currently have bundles of the entire line in stock!) and have something fantastic in the works.  More on that later....

And because I couldn't resist, I also picked up these flannel prints from Anna Maria Horner's  Loulouthi line (from Pink Castle as well).  You know how luxurious her Folksy Flannels are?  Well, if it's possible, these are even softer and cozier! 

Okay, giveaway time!  This giveaway is sponsored by none other than Pink Castle Fabrics!  I'm super in love with the Ruby line by Moda and these Sundae Stripe prints are my favorite.

Just leave a comment telling me what you hope to get for Christmas this year, and you'll be in the running for a fat quarter from each of the colorways - six in total!  As for me, I'm hoping that this baby will arrive early, but I'm definitely not holding my breath :)  I guess I'd settle for a Liberty Mini Fabric Bundle - I've been pining after one of those for a long time!

Good luck everyone - the giveaway will stay open until Friday at 5pm EST and yes, I'm willing to ship internationally.  I'll be back in the next day or two with with a sneak peek of the new nursery!

Some other fall going-ons...

Other stuff that's been keeping us busy around here but isn't really worth an entire blog post....

A trip to the pumpkin patch

Followed by pumpkin carving (Phoebe requested that her pumpkin "have a happy face with oval eyes, a circle nose and a tiny mouth"

Making button magnets (we spent a good deal of time washing them first - kept her busy for a solid 20 minutes!)

Multiple trips to the apple orchard

Making baby shower cupcakes.  Designed to coordinate with the invitation.

3rd trimester already - eeeks!

Bite-size apple pies

Is anyone else's house overflowing with apples?  Well, this recipe won't get rid of a ton of them (I think I only used 4 apples for the entire batch of two dozen micro-pies), but it's certainly a cute and delicious fall treat!  Everything is more fun in miniature, right?

I started by rolling out some of my great-grandma's fantastic pie crust that had been chilling in the fridge (roll it out between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment - it keeps it from sticking and you don't have to add any excess flour).  Then I used a cookie cutter to cut out 3 inch circles of dough.

I nestled the dough into mini muffin tins and let the edges naturally crimp as they settled into place.

Then I mixed up my apple filling.  Like I said, it only took about 4 apples (I used golden delicious, picked from Wasem's Fruit Farm last week) mixed with some flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to fill all of the tiny pies.  Sorry I can't provide exact amounts - I always eyeball measurements when I bake - contrary to what people say about baking being an exact science.  But then again, I rock as a baker, but completely suck at cooking.  Go figure.

Fill your crusts with the apple filling, erring on the side of overflowing since the apples will cook down a bit.

Then I made my crumb topping.  Once again, no measurements, but I promise that if you combine some butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats (not the quick cooking kind), you'll end up with something delicious.  

Sprinkle the topping evenly over your pies.

Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes, or until they are bubbling and the crust and topping looks nice and brown.  Prepare for squeals of excitement when you bring them to your next party.  Or just eat them all before 24 hours is up.  That's what happened in this family :)

Because one wedding cake just wasn't enough

Heck, four cakes weren't enough!  I have a tendency to go overboard on my projects, and my sister's wedding was not the place where I was going to hold back.

Four cakes, 150 mini cupcakes, french macarons, cake pops, sugar cookies, and lollipops.

I definitely learned a lot during the process - like that cake pops do not like to be frozen.  They taste delicious frozen, but they're not so happy when they come back up to room temp.  I made three different types of cake pops (that I got to make twice due to my freezing experiment); dark chocolate covered strawberry cake, chocolate cookie dough truffle, and pumpkin pie pops covered in white chocolate.

The front cake is a triple lemon blueberry cake and is my current favorite cake recipe.  I've got another post on that coming up later this week.

This one was a snickerdoodle cake with cinnamon buttercream.  The flower is made out of gumpaste.

The stand on the left holds coconut cupcakes, while the right is filled with carrot cupcakes covered in cream cheese icing.

Chocolate peanut butter cup cake.  Three layers of chocolate cake with peanut butter cup chunks, filled with two layers of chocolate buttercream and a layer of peanut butter filling.

We did have one casualty to the dessert table.  The large, three tiered blue floral cake (dark chocolate with nutella mousse) didn't quite make it in one piece.  It was an incredibly hot day, and after a long car ride, and having to sit in a car for an hour before we could get into the venue, we opened up the trunk upon arrival and found that the fondant had cracked and split and the bottom tier had slid apart.  Ohhhh, it was a sad moment.  But by that time, it was pretty much "on with the show" mode and we put it on the table anyways, and it was delicious nonetheless.

I just love making lollipops - they're usually an unexpected throwback that everyone loves - especially the kids (I know my daughter had about three of them).  I made four different types - peppermint, peach, lemonade, and blueberry/cherry.

So it's definitely true that making french macarons requires a a bit of skill.  It took me 5 failed batches just to get these, which are far from perfect.  But while they weren't perfect in form, they definitely tasted good.  The green ones were filled with a mint ganache and the pink were filled with a mixture of blueberry jam and buttercream.

And here I am - glad that I can finally kick back and enjoy the party!  And the great part is that all that was left at the end of the night was that smooshed bottom tier of nutella cake.  I call that a success!

Wedding Prep and a Giveaway

First of all welcome to all the new readers who are visiting from Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day!  Be sure to visit their blog for lots more giveaways and to discover some fun new blogs to follow.

So lately I have been in crafting overdrive since my sister's wedding is seriously just right around the corner (less than two weeks - eek!).  I'm making lots of the decorations, and am putting together an eight and a half foot dessert table - not to mention making all of the desserts for said table.   Yes, I am the queen of taking on too much.  Anyway, here are some sneak peeks of what I've been working on.

Pom pom garlands

More free hanging pom poms

These little guys were made out of burlap and coffee filters....

....and are waiting to be strung together for another garland.  Seriously, if this wedding had a theme, it would be garlands - I'm crazy addicted.  Just check out my Pinterest boards.  All garlands.

Lollipops - in four different colors and flavors.  These are peach.

Gumpaste petals for one of the cakes.  Yes, one of the cakes - there will be four.

Of course I volunteered to make the favors as well.

Phoebe is the flower girl, so I made her this giant corsage out of eyelet trim.  Sorry for the disheveled, scraped knees, naked baby model - it got into the 80s today, and she pretty much lived in the kiddie pool/water table/sprinkler.  I have a feeling that she's going to look like this the rest of the summer.

Except for when she's wearing her flower girl dress - which is waiting to be cut out and sewn as soon as I'm done writing this post.

So.... that's what I've been up to lately, now onto the giveaway!

In keeping with last giveaway day, I scrounged up more Heather Ross scraps - they don't seem to end!  Most of them are from her most sought after first line, and to give you some perspective, I think all of those squares along the right side are 5".

And I'm throwing in a fat quarter of some Flea Market Fancy for good measure.

I'll keep it easy for you - just one comment per entry (don't you hate when they force you to follow for a vote?!  It drives me crazy.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love for you to follow - but I'll let you decide that on your own terms :)

So just say hello, tell me what you're up to, or give me some advice for writing my maid of honor speech.  Or if you write my speech for me, I might just call the giveaway over and let you win.

*Comments have been closed!  I'll be back soon to announce the winner*