Pump It Up Tea Party: Ruby's Fifth Birthday

I haven't done a lot of blogging lately, because I haven't done a lot of baking and sewing.  One of my last big projects was my niece Ruby's fifth birthday party.

She had been talking about wanting a tea party for months.  My sister and I went into planning mode and had a ton of great ideas.  Then Ruby went to a party at Pump It Up and started talking about having her next party there. Always thinking ahead:)

My sister then decided to partner up with another mom to do a joint birthday party.  It was one of Ruby's good friends from school, their birthday's are days apart, and most of the same kids would be invited to both.  The final decision was to do a Pump It Up tea party. 

For the party favors I made tutus for the girls and appliqued tie t-shirts for the boys.

Since I always make Ruby a birthday shirt, I made the birthday girls t-shirts with teacups on them (somehow I didn't get a picture of them).  I made a matching outfit for her American Girl Doll.

The party guests got their shirts and tutus after the jumping part of the party, but the birthday girls wanted to wear theirs the whole time.  Tutus didn't stop them from doing the climbing wall.

For dessert I made cupcakes with cookie toppers.  I like cookie toppers better than fondant because they taste a lot better.

My sister thought it would be cute to serve the girls theirs in tea cups.  We were going to buy some, when my mom reminded me I had a whole set from my dad in my garage.  I then used the matching plates to serve the rest of the cupcakes.

The girls loved them and wanted to keep their tea cups.  I guess I'll just have to have another tea party for Ruby so she can use them again.

Beach Bag

Last summer we had two beach trips planned.  I wanted a new beach bag to take with us.  I found a great tutorial at Elle Apparel.

It was an easy tutorial to follow.  I even copied her and got my fabric from Ikea.  It was my first time buying there, but it was cheap and perfect for this project.

It's a large bag which is great.  It holds everything that my husband and I need for a day at the beach.  I have even used it for road trips to keep computer, Ipad, magazines, etc. handy while in the car.

I made one little change to her tutorial.  She only had an outside pocket, but I added an inside pocket too.

The pocket is perfect for my phone, chap stick, keys, etc.  Having two pockets also means that I get a pocket and my husband gets his own.

I love this bag.  It has now made one trip to Mexico, two trips to Hawaii, and many trips to my mom's pool.  I see many more vacations in this bags future.

Safari Cookies

A friend of my sister's asked if I could bake for her son's birthday party.  It was a safari theme, so she wanted animal print cookies and fondant cupcake toppers.

I was very excited to make them because I don't get to bake for boys very often.  I had never done anything like these before, so I wasn't sure what to do.  I found a great tutorial for all three designs at Sweet Sugar Belle. 

I love how all three turned out.  I've seen a lot of different ways to use these three designs and can see more of these in my future.

I haven't done a lot with fondant in the past, but she wanted cupcake toppers so I figured I'd give it go.  I made my own marshmallow fondant because I think that it tastes so much better than the store bought stuff. 

They turned out nicely and looked cute on top of the cupcakes.

I hope the birthday boy liked them!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day: Shamrock Mini Cookies

My mom remembered that she had these mini cookie cutters.  When she showed them to me, I told her that I would store them for her and make sure they were put to use. 

When I saw the shamrock, I knew I had to make some St. Patrick's Day cookies.

Originally, I was going to make cupcakes and use these as cupcake toppers.  I came down with a cold this weekend and decided to stick with just the cookies. 

I used green royal icing and then sprinkled light and dark green sanding sugar on them.  It's a pretty easy way to decorate the cookies, but I love the way they look.

We had my family over for dinner.  My niece and step dad loved them.  I sent a few home with them and the plate was left with crumbs.

Happy Birthday You Say Tomato: Writing on Cookies

A friend of mine celebrated the one year anniversary of her at home cooking classes.  I wanted to do something special for her, so of course I made some cookies.

I took their logo and put it on the cookie.  I wanted to make sure that I got the font right, so I went to my friend Google and found a tutorial on how to trace images/letters on cookies.

Through Sweet Sugar Belle, I found this at SweetAmbs.  She said to use tracing paper and foodwriter markers.  I started to get a little frustrated because the ink didn't go through the tracing paper.  Then I decided to try tissue paper and voila...it worked! Sorry for the not great photos...it was dark when I was working on them:(

 

First, I traced the image using an edible ink marker.

                             

Then, placed it on the cookie and traced over it again.

The ink bled right through and left an image on the cookie.

I was able to pipe on the design, so I got it to look exactly how I wanted.

 

She was so surprised when I gave them to her.  I'm glad that I could give a special, one of a kind gift.  

Their cooking classes are really fun.  You can find out more information about the cooking classes at their website You Say Tomato.

Snowflake cookies

Most people are starting to think about spring.  We just had our "ski" week and I spent four days in Tahoe, so I'm still thinking about snow. 

Uncle Kevin left for Tahoe on Sunday, but I drove up on Wednesday with my sister.  I spent Sunday on the couch, catching up on The Bachelor and reading cookie blogs.  There are so many ideas and techniques that I want to try after all of my reading.

I decided to start with sanding sugar and made some snowflake cookies.

I don't have a snowflake cookie cutter, so I used a flower and piped on the snowflake.

They were pretty big and I wanted to make some smaller cookies too.  I saw these little round "snowballs" at Glorious Treats and thought they'd looked great with my snowflakes.

I was happy with how they turned out and I definitely see myself using sugar to decorate more often in the future.

2 in 1 Fold Over Clutch

I've made myself a few purses.  You can check them out here and here.  Uncle Kevin and I were getting ready to go wine tasting with some friends and neither of them were right for wine tasting.  I love them both, but they were too big for what I wanted.

I had seen this pattern on Pinterest months ago and thought it would be perfect.

Last summer, I had bought some great mint and gray chevron fabric that I knew I wanted to turn into a purse, so I was all set to go.

I made the inside yellow for some contrast.  It has a pocket inside and a magnet to keep it closed.

It's the perfect size for a night out or when you don't need to lug around a lot of stuff. 

Emma's Third Birthday: Princess Party

Last week was my niece Emma's third birthday.  She wanted a princess party and that is what she got. I was super excited to help with the party.

I started by making her a princess birthday outfit.  I have seen many tutorials for this type of tutu and it was pretty easy to make.  I just had to cut and tie the tulle.  She absolutely loved it.

 I also did the baking.

I got to make another princess cake.  This time, I used a doll topper from Michael's rather than a real Barbie.  It wasn't as tall, but turned out nice.

Of course, I had to include some princess cookies.  The kids loved them.  They were right at their height.  I'd see them walk by the table and snag a cookie. 

I also made some cupcake push pops.  The crown toppers are Wilton that I got at JoAnn's. 

 

They wanted to have some activities to keep the girls busy.  I made some wand's out of foam that they could decorate along with some foam crowns they bought.

 They also had a dress up area where the girls could put on their own princess outfits and accessorize with some plastic jewelry. 

There was an easel with giant princess coloring pages.

The girls also had fun just running around in the backyard and playing with some bubbles.

All of the little princesses had a great time.

Football Cake: Super Bowl Party

 My husband is a huge 49ers fan and as soon as they made it to the super bowl he said he wanted to host a party.  I was all for it because I wanted to make a football cake. He told me that was all I was allowed to make and that he didn’t want me to go overboard.  Of course I couldn’t just do a cake.  I had to make some cute football cookies and try out my new push pop containers that I recently got from Pick Your Plum. 

I used my Pampered Chef Batter bowl for the cake.  It’s the same one that I used for the Barbie cake last summer.  Football cakes look a little weird.  People were joking that it looked like meatloaf.  I had fun making it and it tasted great.  I used the same chocolate cake recipe from Glorious Treats that I have used before.  I also made my own fondant.  It’s a marshmallow fondant with almond extract.  I think that it tastes way better than the store bought stuff, but I have to practice working with it a little more.

The push pops were a last minute addition.  I wanted to practice before I make some princess ones for my niece’s up coming birthday.  They were fun to make, but I should have had three layers of cake to fill it up a little more. 

Although the outcome of the game wasn’t what we had hoped, the party was fun and I got to do some baking and crafting.