Archive for May 2010 | Monthly archive page
May 21
Just for Fun
It’s Friday, so I can do anything I want, right? Well, I am posting silly pictures of my boys because I can. I wanted them to take some photos the other day since they were all sort of matching and had their hair done. This is a rare occurance at my house and I wanted to take advantage of it. I tried to make it fun and they were not super cooperative, but I think these pictures are funny and I wanted to share them with you!
“Okay boys, just hold your duck up so I can take a picture of it. You don’t even have to look at me.” Check out their expressions!
Geez Jackson! What kind of parents do you have? Don’t they wash your hands? Yuck!
Now I told them, “Okay, okay! Just make silly faces!” Since they were not cooperating with me anyways.
The cross eyed photo of Skyler totally makes me laugh!!!!
Then I had Lincoln bring out Emerson. I love how the boys look at him with a sense of pride, contentment, and joy. They are so happy to be Emerson’s big brothers.
On a side note, did you check out their beautifully long, long eyelashes. Wouldn’t you kill for those?
Enjoy your Friday and take a minute to just be silly!!! I’ll let Jack show you how it’s done!
Thanks Jackson! You truly are my silly man!
So, many of you may not have an Etsy shop or other internet business, but everyone is influenced by product packaging.
If you are anything like me, you buy products based on the packaging. If I am trying to choose between two items, I always buy the one that has cuter, more stylish, colorful, unique packaging over the ordinary, same ‘ole, boring packaging. Price doesn’t override my decision either. It’s all about what looks aesthetically pleasing to my eye. So, if you are not like me you probably think I am a weirdo. Pretty packaging really makes my day!
Baker’s twine is all the rage right now, and I had to have some. I purchased this twine from Divine Twine in aqua and I LOVE it. I can’t wait to wrap it around all of my packages. Baker’s twine makes everything look a little prettier, right?
In an ideal world, I’d love to have my business cards die-cut. Basically, they would use a die and cut my business cards in the pretty shape of my logo. I’d also love to have them letter pressed too. I love the way letter press looks and feels. The texture is amazing. With that being said, both are really expensive. So, I opted for a more economical approach and had them press printed on my favorite pearl card stock. I think they look shimmery and beautiful and will do until I am RICH, baby RICH! Okay, at least rich enough to afford die-cut letterpressed business cards.
I’ve also noticed that paper bands are really popular. I first noticed them when I was helping my aunt Kelley design her wedding invitations. We didn’t end up using them for her invites, but I knew I had to incorporate them in my business somehow. I think they look really nice wrapped around a set of envelopes!
Custom return address labels are definitely one of my favorite things. I think for a couple of reasons. First, I love how quick and easy they are to use. You just crack the back, peal, and stick it to your envelope or package. Second, I love how they look. I think a label just adds a bit of color to any package and makes it less dull. Lastly, they are an inexpensive way to add a coordinating or personal touch to anything you mail or ship. You want to stand out in a crowd, right? I want people sifting through their mail to stop when they get to my package and open it. I don’t want to be discarded to the recycling pile. Would you stop and open it if you received this in the mail?
When I was working on my blog, I also designed a new logo. I wanted the colors to be both modern and timeless. I wanted my logo to be easily identifiable and to be easy on the eyes. I want it to scream style and whisper elegance. What does my logo say to you?
Thanks for listening. . .
P.S. Sorry my pictures aren’t as beautiful today. The lighting and the rain put a real damper on these! Forgive me!
Julie did an awesome job hosting Avery’s First Birthday Party. I always think birthdays are a bit sad. At least I am always sad when each of my babies has a birthday. They grow up too fast! I’ll wipe the tears from my eyes. . .sniffle, sniffle.
Okay, so back to Avery’s party. I know Julie is dying to see the photos. Sorry Julie. I’ll try to stay on task here! You know I get distracted easily!
Avery’s birthday party was anything but sad. If I had to sum it up in one word. I’d say, “PINK!” It was so pink and I loved it! With three boys I don’t get to experience a lot of “pink” moments. I try to soak them in when I can!
Julie did a wonderful job with every little detail. I think my favorite thing was the Sweet Dessert/Favor Bag table. What do you think?
There was also “real” food. Julie did a whole spread of yummy food. I also love the banner she made. So cute! Julie is a fabulous seamstress and we have an upcoming project we are working on. I bet you can’t wait to see what that is?
Like the ice bucket? I cut the vinyl for it and Julie did a nice job applying it. It looks great and was a wonderful touch! My cookies were the last items on the food table. There just wasn’t enough room on the Sweet Treats table for these cute cookies. I designed the cookies and the icing decals were courtesy of Hello Frosting. If you haven’t checked Erin’s site out, then you need to. Go check it out right now! Don’t worry I’ll wait. Go NOW! Sorry, I am really bossy. It’s an oldest child thing! Isn’t her site adorable? Can you think of an opportunity to use these edible icing decals? I know I have many more events in mind! You won’t be getting rid of me anytime soon Erin. I am addicted now! She must add something to the icing decals that makes them irresistible?
The party was super fun and there were a ton of cute kids who attended. The older kids didn’t really want to be photographed. The boys were too busy throwing balls at each other’s faces. Oh, boy!
However, the babies were in full force. Aren’t they cute?
They didn’t complain when I stuck a camera in their face. Not even a peep out of them. They just smiled and drooled! Oh, they were all so cute! Can you guess which adorable baby is mine?
Skyler was nice enough to take a break from playing “dodge ball” a.k.a. throwing balls at other kids, to pose for me. I love this photo.
After the kids played, we had lunch, and then sang Happy Bithday to little Miss Avery. Here she is eating her very own cake. Isn’t she adorable? Happy Birthday again precious girl! Thanks for letting me help with your birthday party!
Julie made personalized favor bags for each kid and let them pick their own favors out the jars when the party was over. I think that’s a great idea and I might have to borrow that idea for my next child’s birthday.
Each kid got to select one of the above items and put them in their bag. They all had a great time putting their cute little hands in the jars.
The Sweet Dessert table also had a beautiful cupcake tower on it. I just love how this looked! You know me, I love cupcakes! Julie also used the Olliegraphic that she had customized on the toppers too. Simply adorable!
Fabulous party Julie! Thanks for allowing me to help! What do you think? I’m already brainstorming ideas for Emerson’s first birthday! Stay tuned!
**WARNING WARNING**
This is going to be a LONG post!! I was going to do Avery’s party and the cookies I made all in one post, but I am going to break it down and do two separate posts! If you don’t feel like reading it all, just skim the photos and enjoy!
I had insisted to Julie, Avery’s Mom, that I must make cookies for her birthday party. I came across these beautiful cookies
on the TomKat blog and had to make my own. The cookies were done by Marian of Sweetopia. She is a totally talented cookie artist. Okay, so I don’t know what her real title is, but she makes, hands down some of the cutest cookies I have ever seen and I hate her for it!!! Just take a look around her site. Can you believe she makes all of these?
So, I wanted to take a stab at these. You know me! Whenever I see something I love, I need to try and make it myself! I did some research on buying my own printer and edible ink, but I don’t have anywhere to store it. I opted for the next best thing, I looked for someone on Etsy who was already selling edible icing decals. Guess who I found?
Hello Frosting! Isn’t that a cute name? People will totally be saying “hello” to you when they know you made these cookies! Erin McGinley is the owner, baker, photographer (and sometimes designer) behind these edible icing decals. I’ve designed some icing decals that Erin should have in her shop by the end of next week. Erin and I have become email buddies and are in cahoots to come up with more designs. Check out her shop and all of her adorable Edible Icing Decals. Don’t see a design that you like, just contact me and I will design one just for you! Thanks for all of your help Erin. I couldn’t have created these with out you!
I am not going to give you a step-by-step on how to do these, but I will direct you to all the tutorials I used. First you have to find a good sugar cookie recipe. I don’t know about you, but I hate making sugar cookies. It always seems like it’s a painful process. You have to make the dough. Wait for it to harden, roll it out, cookie cut it, bake it, and then you open your oven and you can’t even decipher which cookie is which. It’s just one big flattened blob.
Okay, so they usually still taste good and your kids don’t care. They’ll eat any cookies, even ones that have fallen on the ground. Am I right? Well, that’s not good enough for me. I have a type A personality! I want everything to be perfect. If it’s not perfect than I don’t want to do it or make it. Do you see any problems with this personality flaw trait?
I had found a cream cheese based sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape, but the taste was marginal. One day I was searching the internet for who knows what and I came across Glorious Treats flickr page. I did a little digging and discovered she had a blog too. I found an awesome sugar cookie recipe on her blog and it’s full of amazing tips! I had to share it with you!! She is also an amazing photographer too! This is a great recipe that yields beautiful results. The cookies hold their shape and they taste good too. Who would have thought just putting your cookies in the freezer for a few minutes would produce such perfect results? The perfectionist in me is very satisfied! That’s one of the great tips she gives you in her recipe!
I doubled the batch. It made 27 (3 1/4 inch rounds), 17 (2 3/4 inch squares), & 16 (1 3/4 inch squares). That is a total of 60 cookies if you are a bit slow on your math skills! Yikes. That’s a lot of cookies!
Don’t they look good? They kept their shape nicely too!
Next, you need to frost your cookies. I used this frosting recipe that I saw on The Pioneer Women website. I had requested that Lincoln use it on my birthday cupcakes a couple months ago. I know, I have the best husband ever. You don’t have to tell me. I’ll stop rubbing it in now! I thought this frosting would be good on cookies too.
I don’t know if I would use this recipe again on the cookies, but it sure is good on cupcakes!! I’m pretty sure I single handedly ate 15 cupcakes. Don’t judge me. They were so good. I know you, you would have done the same thing. Next time, I might just use a traditional butter cream frosting recipe.
I also wanted to have a finished boarder around the outer edge of the cookies. In order to do this, you need to use Royal Icing. If you are not familiar with Royal Icing. It’s a meringue powder based frosting that hardens when it dries. I, of course, used the one I found on Sweetopia. Thanks for all of your help Marian!
Can someone give me some pointers because I have no idea what I am doing? I did the best I could and experimented with several decorating tips. I need to work on this still. See there’s the perfectionist in me coming out again! I can’t even hide it! What do you think?
Julie had this Olliegraphic of Avery designed to match Avery’s party theme. Isn’t it cute? Julie used it throughout her party decor. I’ll post more on this tomorrow!
A ton of people at the party commented on the cookies everyone wanted to know how I made them. I’ve never seen so many people interested in cookies. Even the Dad’s at the party were curious! They were super easy to make and worth every complement. It’s as easy as baking cookies, frosting them, and applying your edible icing decal. Want to make it even easier? Buy pre-made sugar cookies from your local bakery or grocer, buy store bought frosting, frost and apply your edible icing decal. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!
I know this was a long post. Thanks for reading it, but I just had so much to share with you!!! Stay tuned for all the wonderful photos of Avery’s Birthday party! Sorry for stringing you along!