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Yup. I'm getting old.... I love that I was able to spend my b-day in Cali with my favorite person ever. Dinner at PF Changs , a movie, cupcakes and a new blinged-out cell phone cover. What more could a girl ask for???

Babiekins Magazine!!

I am so honored to have my cupcakes published in the posh, trendy, 

Babiekins Magazine!

It's a stunning magazine for the trend-setting child.

The Print edition can be found at Barns & Noble or Target. The online edition can be found here.

Here are some beautiful shots from the magazine:

For these New Year's Eve themed cupcakes, I did a ruffle buttercream and added some glam with some gold Disco Dust (NOT luster dust) that I picked up at Orson Gygi's in Salt Lake City. The cupake tags (along with the rest of the fabulous party were styled by Loralee Lewis.

My baby is 2!!

I swore I would not be "one of those parents" that babied thier baby....Well. I've learned that you just can't help it. My sweet, sweet baby girl turned 2 on Saturday. She is so lovely and beautiful, and sweet and sassy and everything wonderful to me. Sometimes I can't even STAND how cute she is. I litteraly get choked up sometimes when I look at her. I can only imagine what she will grow up to be. I love, love, love her.



I just had to show a close up because I can't even STAND how cute those little teeth are?! Seriously...





A big "Thank You" to Namma for this super fun present. :) She's obsessed with these things!




Oh my goodness, those eyes!



She's obsessed with baby dolls right now. She got this one for her birthdayl She is the sweetest little Mamma you will ever meet. :)



 On her fun day, she had NO idea why everyone was making such a fuss over her. These crazy people in her family started singing every version of "Happy Birthday" imaginable all day long, handed her a bunch of balloons, shoved a bunch of toys in her face, sang more "Happy Birthday" songs, lit some cupcakes on fire and then forced her to eat them. I'm sure the whole thing was very bizzare to her but she loved it anyway. :)

Eating her birthday pancakes. :)

I just love this picture of her pretty little silouette lit up by the candles.

Blowing out the candles. Daddy had to help a little bit..

"Bite the cake!"

I loved her face when she opened this. She loved the creepy open and shut eyes. :)

One cake, Lots of different looks...

This little ruffled cake was something that I did, once again, for the talented Loralee Lewis. It was a dummy cake so she was able to use it for multiple different parties and photo shoots. Here are some photos to show you how the same look could be changed up in a lot of different, fun ways. 

Loralee designed this gorg cake topper for a beautiful garden fairy party that she threw. She also added moss and some beautiful butterlies.

She used the same cake in a "Two in Love" bridal shower Isn't the topper that she made just adorable?!

She also included it in this cake trio for her daughter's "Princess & the Frog" party. I love multiple cakes. ;)

This was my fav transformation. She spray-painted it gold!! You can also "spray paint" your edible cakes by using a luster dust and vodka mixture either in an airbrush or a olive oil sprayer. You can find an Olive oil sprayer in your local Kitchen supply store. Wilton also has some great edible spray paint color in thier cake section at your local craft store or even Walmart!

Happy transforming everyone. :)

Craft Room/Office Reveal!

I have to start off with a HUGE 'Thank You' to my amazing hubby who worked so hard and so fast on this room for me. His skills are endless as is his patience with me. :) If you know me, you know that I am the world's WORST decision maker! Picking that grey color in the Basement just about killed me!
If we go back in time, you will remember this pre-school area. It served it's purpose and was very fun while we had it but it was TIME for a change. The kids did not go down there much and when they did, they just pulled stuff out and made a mess instead of utilizing it how it was meant to be utilized. So...mommy took the room back and set aside a small, organized, area for the children in the basement area. (more pics to come of that.)  

 So we went from THIS:


And this...



And started to evolve into this...





BEGINNING VIGNETTE

And finally turned into THIS:

AFTER!

The most exciting news is that it even made it onto TV! Studio 5 showed it as one of the finalist in the "Amazing Spaces" Contest. I didn't realize that I was a finalist until my friend texted me to tell me that she saw it on the show.  It was a very fun surprise. :) For some reason, they did not put the segment up on their website so unfortunately, I can't link you to it. :( Can we PLEASE just talk about the apothecary cubbies?! My husband went above and beyond with these and they turned out really BEAUTIFUL. I want to marry them. :) They are backed with beadboard and embellished with metal label holders that I searched the world over for. I finally found SUPER inexpensive metal label holders at the wonderful Hobby Lobby for $2.99 for a pack of 6. Bring in a 40% off coupon and they end up only being $1.50!

After they were all up and installed, I had the BEST time filling them with beautiful, sentimental items as well as functional items. And can I just say "THANK HEAVEN" for mason jars?! I think there are a couple dozen in these cubbies. :)So this is my "Pride & Prejudice" Ribbon Rack.  I was searching for a storage solution to my ribbon issue and low & behold, while on a Jane Austen binge, I let out a squeal when the Bennett girls met Wickham and entered the ribbon shoppe. (Kiera Knightly version) I immediately geeked out and called my husband to inform him of his next project. :)...a replica of the ribbon rack from the movie!

The beautiful yellow frame with the painting of the girl inside of it was done by my mother when she was about 13 years old. My aunt brought it to a family reunion this past summer and I claimed it as my own.

Now...onto the pillow and window bench seat cover... I got them along with the HAND-STITCHED camera pillow from the Jane Isa Etsy Shop but guess what... that's my sister, Heather! She is insanely talented. She stitched it all up and mailed me the most beautiful package. It was like Christmas! She's the BEST sister ever. :) Hop over to her shop and check out her sign language pillows. They are pretty much the raddest things ever.  After I received the window bench seat cover, I inserted the foam pad and made some black lace buttons to tuft it with. 
The black ribbon and bows that grace the lace balloon shade from Target was another stroke of genius from my sister, Heather. She helped me SO much through this whole process. In the two weeks that I had to get this finished, we must have logged hours on the phone. She encouraged me, inspired me and was just a constant supply of support.
"Where did you get that Chandi" you ask?? Oh, ya know...DI!...for $5.00! Yup. I pretty much love that place. :) The foot stool is another thrift store find with toole paper decoupaged on top.

Again...Jane Austen. I just love her. She provided a lot of inspiration for this room. Including the beautiful, stained elder wood that the desk and table were made out of. In the picture to the right, above my laptop, I simply placed a beautiful platter there and turned it into a magnet board. This magnet board is absolutely necessary. It holds my photo booth photos (I'm obsessed with photo booth photos) as well as a place to write myself reminders because I can't remember a dang thing anymore unless it's written right in front of my face.

The wooden "frame" that you see on the wall is actually a partition that I took out of the house that we recently flipped. I took out the ugly 70's glass and replaced it with some of the beautiful pictures that my other insanely talented sister took for us this past fall.
The frames that you see above the window hold some of my favorite quotes of all time. :)

This is Lizzy's craft corner. She loves all things artistic so it was only fitting that she had a space as well. My favorite thing in the world is to be sitting down at my desk while she is at hers and Alice is sitting on my window bench eating a snack or playing with her dolls. It's just heaven. :)

Everything in Lizzy's corner came out of her room that we are re-modeling soon. So it was all free! For her desk, I simply removed the mirrors in the vanity, painted the center with chalkboard paint and inserted cork board on the sides.

The top of this cabinet was actually just sitting on the side of the road with a lovely "Free" sign on it. I just about had a heart attack when I saw it. It was just what I had been searching for. We painted it white then Jake built the bottom shelves for it to sit on.

Found these bar stools at the DI for $10.00 each! What a steal! They were just perfect for the space.

I love to just sit down here and create. It's my favorite room in the house! Now to break it in with a huge craft night party... Wanna come?!





Ryan's Baptism, Photo Shoot & B-day.

This pic is just to lure you in. The rest of the photo shoot is at the bottom of the post. :)




The kids think its so funny to "Break out" of thier rooms on their birthdays.

Birthday pancakes. After we ate breakfast, we gave him his solar system light globe (he's really been into astronomy lately) then later that day, Daddy took him out shopping for a new DS game and a new x-box game. They went out to lunch then we all had pizza together for dinner, ate birthday cake and he spent the rest of the evening playing his new games. He was in Heaven that Mommy let him have so much video game time.

So here's the story of how Ryan's birthday cake came to be:  Ryan has been drawing a lot lately. Mainly these little aliens and Ninjas. One day, he drew this awesome little alien, cut it out and gave it to me as a gift. I thought it was so stinkin' cool that I asked him if he wanted me to make his birthday cake look just like it. He got really excited and thus his cake was born.  I didn't quite capture the "oval-ness" of the head that I would have liked to but it is what it is. :) 

"BITE THE CAKE!!"

RYAN'S BAPTISM:

What a special, special day.



With my Mom. So many wonderful people came. My mom, My brother, Scott and his awesome fam, My cousin, Zel and his lovely family, Our wonderful friends, Mark Brown & his fam. It made it such a special, special day. A special thanks to my niece and nephew, Tiani & Scotty for the beautiful, beautiful musical number and my mom for the special talk on the Holy Ghost.

Namma and Grandpa!! They came so far and went through so much to be here for Ryan's day. It was so fun to have them for the weekend and they helped make it so special! A special thanks for Namma for the lovely talk on baptism and thanks to Grandpa for performing the confirmation.

He was so excited for this day!

 

The "After Party"

We all headed over to the house for a special celebration after the baptism. You'll have to excuse the lack of good pics due to me rushing around.

Add caption

Meringues

"Chews the Right". {giggle}

Coconut cupcakes. {My personal fav} Another special thank you to my awesome sis, Heather for coming up with these cupcake pics for me since I didn't have my computer.

Suprisingly enough, the popcorn was the hit of the party and went SO fast.

White Chocolate dipped Oreos. I cut the fondant "Temples" out by hand using a template that I made.

Sorry this pic is so awful due to the backlighting. :(

A better view of the paper and tissue paper fans.

Playing with Namma's phone...and cars of course.

It didn't take too long for Ali to warm up to Grandpa. :)

RYAN'S PHOTOSHOOT:

AND she made me this BEAUTIFUL collage that I could display at his baptism.

So, so handsome. I can't even stand it!

So I realize that this picture is actually in the collage but I wanted you to see a close-up. The picture that he is holding is actually a picture of Jacob when he was on his LDA mission in Thailand.  I suprised Jake with this pic and he actually got a little choked up. :) So sweet.

Yup. That's my sweet, silly Ryan.