I am trying to bring in more tradition into our home, some from my childhood, some from Jack’s and some completely new. It is currently Advent season and although I still put my Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving, I wanted to bring something to represent this time too. I made this quick wreath with a four candle holder metal wreath from Hobby Lobby normally $4.99, but was on sale, and also got the three purple and one pink candle from there. I didn’t by another wreath and just used an old one I would put on the gate every year. The pinecones and red ornaments have seen better days and will be replaced next year, but for now, it worked perfectly. Since this is a new tradition for us I found some prayers on Pinterest and printed them out for Jack to read as he lit the candles.

​SO far we are enjoying this new tradition and can’t wait to add more.

​Andrew is a little over a year old now and has entered the phase of getting into everything. Not willing to give up our beautiful Christmas tree or not wanting to put a big baby gate in front of it we came up with our own plan to try first and you know what, it is working…well mostly.
 
We used some leftover plywood scraps and screwed two pieces together. This was only because we wanted more weight. We then glued hot glue to the bottom of the plywood to prevent scratching the floors and prevent the plywood from sliding. Next, we added some metal ribbon with holes in it, we used this to anchor down the plastic tree stand. The tree fit in as normal and even when I tried to pull the tree over, it wouldn’t budge.
 
When we decorated the tree we made sure to put all of our annual ornaments deep within the branches and secured the hook/ribbon by folding the metal branch around them. If the tree somehow ended up falling over this would hopefully prevent them from breaking. We also placed all of these glass ornaments way out of his reach. Closer on the bottom were the simple plastic ornaments. However, we have already had one casualty by him crusting it with his teeth. Thankfully it stayed in once piece, just caved in. Hopefully, this will continue to work for the Holiday season, but if not were ready with the baby gate!

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Update: We had a few more casualties of the plastic ornaments and other than that he is fascinated with the lights, we have had no problems! Overall a success!!

These amazing little cupcakes were packed with a lot of flavor! I made them for everyone at Andrew’s first birthday party.

​The cake flavor was spice (actually made from a box) were perfect with some homemade cream cheese pumpkin spice frosting. I used the same frosting on Andrew’s Pumpkin smash cake minus the pumpkin spice since I wasn’t sure if he would like it. I even had the cute pumpkin cupcake liners for years, just waiting for the perfect event!
 
They were so cute with the cake and everyone thought they were delicious too!

For months I’ve looked for the perfect pumpkin onesie for Andrew’s first birthday. I know I am picky and not normally cheap when it comes to the perfect outfit. I just couldn’t find one and could get it by the time I needed it.

​So I did what I also do, I make it. I pulled out one of his white onesie and my trust iron transfer paper and got to work. After searching online for a while I found a “one” that I liked and put it into a word document. I ended up printing it in three different sizes since I wasn’t sure what one would work best on the onesie. I also planned on using the other two for another project. Next, I cut out the image, cutting off as much of the blank area I could before ironing onto the onesie.

The onesie came out cuter than I hoped and was the perfect thing for him to wear as he dug into his smash cake!

It’s Halloween time! My favorite holiday and even more my favorite party we host! This will be our ninth annual Halloween party and Andrew’s first. For this year party theme, I stuck with the classic Halloween colors:  orange, black, purple and bright green. I found super cute plates at Hobby Lobby with all of these colors. They even had matching cupcake liners. 
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To go with these fun colors I went with French vanilla cupcakes that I divided into orange, purple and green. Then using a small disher layered the three colored batters before using a toothpick to create a swirl. ​​

To continue my Halloween decorating insanity, I decided to make some outdoor pillow covers for the patio set. Normally, I don’t decorate the patio unless we are going to be using it as we did on the Fourth of July and since at the Halloween party, we watch Halloween movies outside. To make the pillows I bought traditional Halloween color fabric: orange, black, bright green and purple in either duct or home décor fabric. I then decided on four simple Halloween themed cut-outs to make using the other colors. After I cut out the shape I used a double-sided iron-on paper and ironed them onto the pillow. I sewed each end of the pillow fold along with sewing each of the cut-out pieces, using the corresponding thread color of course. Once the shapes were sewed on all in place I turned the cover inside out and sewed the sides together creating the fold.

​I was really impressed with how great they turned out and how cute they look on the patio!

Since I wanted to decorate every room in our house for Halloween, I thought it would be fun to add garland to my shower curtain rings. I was able to find a cute ghost, bat, and Jack-o-lantern felt one for my bathroom mirror, but not one long enough for the shower curtain. I didn’t want a garland that was made out of the plastic stuff that comes off whenever you touch it either. I decided to make a simple fringe tassel one.

I used embroidery floss, eight of each color: black, orange, and white to match the garland on the mirror. I put two bundles of each floss together and folded it in half and tied one end together. Next, I cut any loops and trimmed any random long strands. Lastly, I tried each tassel to a black and white rope. It was so easy to make and cost under $10 and it looks so great on the shower curtain!

I might have gone overboard on decorating Halloween this year. EVERY room in our house is decorated, even our patio! To be fair our annual Halloween party is mainly in the backyard and it makes sense it would be decorated there too. I love Halloween as most of you know and this is Andrew’s first Halloween which makes me even more excited this year. I tried to make sure nothing came off as scary, but fun and colorful. From homemade pillows. to cute Target and craft store finds, to all of the stuff I already had I went a little crazy. I could give Jack Skellington a run for his money. Check out the galleries to see all of the amazing decorations and for some future post on how I made specific items!

First up is our living room. Most of these decorations I have had for years and look forward to putting them out every year!

Most of the decorations were bought for only a dollar each. Can't be that deal!

Andrew's room might be my favorite. I love how the homemade pillows came out and look forward to reading him Halloween books while curled up under the blanket.

Our bedroom looks like it can be in fancy Halloween Hotel. I love the perfect Hocus Pocus themed pillows I found on Amazon and a discount store. The blanket was made from a Halloween tablecloth I bought at Home Goods and added a flannel backing to, its perfect for a little extra warmth as the nights are getting cooler. 

Our Office was kept simple with just a few decorations, just enough to make me want to go in there to work!

Even our bathrooms got a little decorations! I made the Halloween garland on the shower curtain to match the garland on the mirror I bought at craft store. The labels on soap and lotion bottles were Halloween beverage stickers I've had forever and fit perfectly on them!

The patio was kept simple with just a few homemade outdoor pillows I made! Just enough to get comfortable and read a good book in the fall weather!

This adorable cake took me right back to my childhood. I loved the My Little Pony’s growing up and it’s always fun to reminisce when working on a cake. I covered the cakeboard in green fondant, which is something I rarely do, but I wanted it to look like grass. The bottom tier was covered in baby pink fondant and I placed bushes in different colored greens along the bottom. I also placed white puffy clouds in fondant around the tier, making one big one in the center. I added the little girl's name in colorful fondant inside the large cloud.
 
The top tier was covered in sky blue fondant. I started with purple fondant and rolling it into a long rope before creating the bottom layer of the rainbow. I repeated with all of the colors of the rainbow, curling the ends off to the side. To finish the tier I added more tri-colored bushes, white puffy clouds, and little white stars.
 
The last touch was adding some keepsake My Little Pony toys on top. Seeing the little girls smile when she saw the cake just melted my heart!

In my standing tradition of fair cakes, I recreated a piece of art on a cake. This year’s masterpiece was inspired by one of Claude Monet’s water lily paintings. I had a fun time playing around with new techniques to decorate the cake, from hand painting to piping buttercream, even some fondant work. 

​Update:  I got first place!

I love to make aprons and I love wearing them. I probably have over 20 aprons I wear for every day, special occasions or the holidays. Since I’m always buying fabric to make more aprons means I have lots of fabric, so I recently decided to clean out some of the fabric bins I have and started sewing! I now have a bunch of aprons available for sale on my Etsy Shop! They are great quality and will last for years to come.

Go take a peek and see if there is one perfect for you or to give as a gift!

August has been a relaxing month for us. The weather is hot so we have been staying at home as much as we can. We have been enjoying our patio and our little pool. Andrew has had a lot of fun playing in his floaty swimming around. He actually kicks to swim around!

The days are starting to get shorter which means summer is coming to an end and school will be back in session before you know it. I hope everyone takes advantage of what summer days are left and spend them with family and friends; making memories that will last a lifetime. ​

Overall, it has been a fun summer, but I am looking forward to the fall, my favorite season!

This seemingly simple cake packs a huge punch in flavor! The cake was for my friend’s bachelorette party and I was excited to make the cake for it. Last month I made her bridal shower cake and next month I get to make her wedding cake!

I didn’t want to repeat flavors of her other cakes and ended up going with a French vanilla bean cake, cream cheese frosting and sliced fresh strawberries for the filing. The decoration was kept very simple with just frosting and some gold nonpareils and finished off with sparkly gold ribbon to match the other party decor. 

​Although the Fourth of July just passed, we planted a pumpkin patch today. My aunt started the seeds last month and they were ready to be transplanted into our raised flower bed.

The best part of planting the plants today was watching Andrew play in the garden. Hopefully, the soil is in the right condition since I’ve heard pumpkins are hard to grow!

​This is my first attempt at them so we shall see if we will be craving Jack-O-Lanterns out of our own pumpkins or not this fall.

​Is nothing more summery than strawberry shortcakes? How about a patriotic version for the Fourth of July!

​I baked a loaf of pound cake and sliced it into a thin slice, then using a medium-sized star cookie cutter, cut the slices into stars. I spooned on some diced strawberries and blueberries on top of a few pound cake stars.

Last I topped it off with some homemade whipped cream. Or on a hot day add some homemade vanilla ice cream to help cool you off!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Independence Day!

I am so excited about my new inspired Harry Potter Jewelry! I brought back the original Golden Snitch necklace and matching bracelets, but have added several other great items. There is an incredible charm bracelet that every Harry Potter fan will want to have. There is also a new Deathly Hollow collect. My personal favorite is the doe Patronus “Always” necklace, which is such a sweet gift to give someone you love. To view the complete collection visit my Etsy shop!