June has been a very busy month for me and baby shower cakes! The baby blue and lime green seems to be very popular too. The top layer of the cake was my delicious marble cake and the bottom was a yummy red velvet cake. The alligator and whale design came directly off of her shower invitations. To get the shape perfect I found the same design online and printed it out to the size I needed. I then then traced the fondant and cut the shape out with a X-Acto knife. This cake came out cuter than I could have ever expected!

Yesterday I posted a baby shower cake I did, today I'm posting a picture of 204 cupcakes that I just finished and boxed up. They were for Anna's baby shower this afternoon. I baked all afternoon after finishing Liz's baby shower cake. This morning I got up really early to frost and sprinkle ALL of them so they would be ready by 8 am. I don't mind waking up early to work on decorating, the house is always quiet besides some movie I've seen a hundred times on in the background. Jack is still sound asleep and I'm allowed to just get in the zone, sip my coffee and decorate. Now that the cupcakes have been picked up I think it's time to put another movie on, cuddle on the couch with Duffey and relax. I hope everyone has a blessed and relax Sunday!

I feel that I am not a professional cake decorator by any means, but I do consider it a serious enough hobby that I got my Cottage Food Permit. My cake requests can keep me busy and is becoming quite the creative outlet. Liz had asked me to make her daughter's baptism cake last September and she loved it so much that she asked if I could make her baby shower cake for her too. I have made several different baby shower cakes before, but this one was a lot of fun to make and came out so cute!

I am a thrift store addict when it comes to costumes. I love going into one in search for the perfect thing that I can turn into an amazing costume. Amber's, Jack's, my mom's, and many other's costumes were great thrift store finds. My dress came from a clearance sale at JC Penny's way before I started the thrift store searches. I knew when I say it, it would be perfect for the look that I was going for, but it just needed a little sparkle! Some of the dresses already had a great 20's look to them so all I needed to do was fit them. A few others needed a little something something to make them really pop. For Amber's costume I added black fringe to the top and the bottom and added a satin ribbon around her waist. Jack's suit as a great find at a thrift store in Phoenix when I was there for a work conference and had time to kill in the evening, it fit great once I took it in a little on the sides. A lot of the accessories I was able to find on eBay like the hats, spenders, and ties. Party City also had some great hats and long strands of pearls. The headpieces I made were really easy, look for instructions on my earlier post. I used a lot of websites as a reference for the costumes, here are a few of my favorite links:  A lot of the girls used theses links to get hair and make up ideas. Since it was my birthday I had my friend do my hair and make up, it came out so perfect for the theme. I was really happy with how much everyone got into the spirit of the party and got all glammed up! Even Duffey had a little extra bling that night.

Music makes a party and you can't have a Roaring 20's party without some fun 20's music. One of my friends is really into music and thankfully she had a huge list of 20's music from soundtracks and other resources. All I had to do was by the Gatsby Party Mix on itunes which had 50 songs for only $10! That's a deal! I created the playlist and just let it repeat all night long. Here is a list of some of the artist an albums that we had:

The Great Gatsby Soundtrack
Midnight in Paris Soundtrack
Josephine Baker
Helen Kane
Edith Piaf
Annette Hanshaw
Ben Selvin
Duke Ellington
Jack Hylton
The Rhythic Eight
Paul Whiteman's Orchestra
The Great 1920s & Gatsby Swing 20's Classics

 Get your flap on!

I have to admit we had quit a spread of some amazing hor d'oeuvres. From meatballs to bacon wrapped mushrooms, to chocolate dipped strawberries to mocha cake pops! We had wonderful raspberry tea and strawberry lemonade. huge variety of wonderful wines and a Whiskey Bar!

I wanted to give you a few of my favorite quick recipes.

Tasty Meatballs
Frozen Meatballs of your choice, at least 1lb
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce of your choice, I use Kraft Original BBQ
1/2 can of Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Warm the frozen meatballs in a pan with a little water to keep them from burning for about 5 minutes. Add BBQ sauce and 1/2 of the can of jellied cranberry sauce. Cook until the sauce thickens and meatballs are fully cooked, about 10 minutes. 

Bacon Wrapped Mushrooms
Pack of Bacon
Medium sized mushrooms, about 30 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the bacon in half to shorter pieces. Wrap each mushroom with a piece of bacon, if needed use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until crispy.  

Cheesy Balsamic Bread
Sliced Baguette
Mozzarella cheese
Balsamic Vinegar
Veggies if desired 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all the slices of the baguette on a cookie sheet and bake for 3 minutes. Remove and sprinkle the balsamic vinger on each of the slices. Next add a slice of mozzarella cheese onto each of the slices of baguette. Add sliced vegetables if desired, I like to use mushroom, tomatoes, and cilantro. Bake for another 5 minutes.

 Wow! What a birthday party! It was so worth all of the prep work. We had so much fun and it was such a HUGE turn out! I can't believe how many people dressed up too! Today I am in a party coma so I really don't want to do that much so over the next few days I will have additional post to go a little more into detail about the party. Thank you everyone that attended and helped make my birthday so special.  For now here is few of my favorite photos that Amber took and edited.

Just kidding. I don't actually think 30 is that old and I didn't mind turning 30. Unlike Amber who was dreading turning 30 back in March, but ended up having a blast at her orange themed birthday bash. If you know me, you know that I love parties and I love costumes even more. I thought a perfect way to honor turning 30 was to have a HUGE 1920's themed birthday party. I have been planning it for months and this week has been crazy since the party is this Saturday! There is still so much to do, but for now I leave you with this sneak peak at some of the items I made for it.






















Menu & Table Materials:
Small Art Deco inspired frames 2in x 2in, I found these in the $2 bin at Michaels
Guest Check Font, downloaded free at www.azfonts.net
Paper

Mini Whiskey Favors:
30 10ml bottles with corks, found on eBay
Labels, I used Avery 5160 and cut in half
Font of your choice, I used Playbill I found in Word

Feather Headband:
1/4 yard of trim that matched Amber's costume
4 inches of Elastic
Needle & Thread
Felt
Black Feathers
Button
Hair Clip
Hot Glue Gun

I hand sewed the elastic to the trim after I sized it. I glue the feathers on the felt in the shape that I wanted. Once cooled I glue the button to the point where the feathers came together. I then glued the hair clip to the back of the felt which allowed Amber to put the Feather Clip where she wanted on the Headband.


Happy Birthday to me!!! I can't wait for Saturday!