I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. This coming Saturday will be my final testing day of the school year. I’ve been to about forty schools and tested over 1,000 kids over the past couple of months. Whose idea was that to send me to all of these schools? Oh, that was my brilliant plan. In addition, to the big Saturday testing events, this year I ventured out to the sites to work one-on-one with kids (self-inflicted craziness). I’m exhausted, yet invigorated. Being on school campuses, making connections with the kids is why I went into education.
The insane craziness is wrapping up, and life will soon go back to the level of craziness that I enjoy. I know, it’s taken me awhile to post these photos from my girlfriend, Tammy’s baby shower. Tammy is my friend that has a million or so friends on Facebook. She is fun and outgoing and a little bit wild. She is a great person, and I’m so happy for her that this new little one is coming into her life. I remembered reading about a “Born to be Wild” themed baby shower on Hostess With the Mostess and thought that was the perfect theme to celebrate her son’s arrival. (The picture on the right is of the two Tammy’s in our group of friends.)
Fifty of Tammy’s friends came over to my house for lunch. Thanks to my partner-in-crime, and best girlfriend, Jen, all went smoothly! Jen’s on the left serving lemonade & iced tea cocktails. She and I both are big fans of Happy Hour, any hour! The color scheme was turquoise, white, and black, with zebra prints mixed in. We had black, turquoise, and zebra printed balloons throughout, and I put together simple white floral arrangements with roses and daisies. Jen and I created an adorable “Born to be Wild” banner with her Cricut. I’m now pining for a Cricut. I love that little machine! After going through my pictures, I realized I never took one of the banner… so, so sad! You’ll just have to trust me, it was adorable and as soon as I get my Cricut, I’m going to be a banner queen.
Kristy, of Posh Pixels, is an amazing graphic designer. She’s been featured on Hostess With the Mostess, Amy Atlas’ blog, Living Locurto, and a bunch more of the best entertaining blogs out there. Check out her Etsy store and you’ll see what I mean! (Note: Etsy says her online store is closed for a short time, so make sure you check her website above if you click over to Etsy and it’s closed.) Kristy worked with me to customize the turquoise zebra and polka-dotted cupcake toppers. I love the personalization, “Tammy’s Shower”, “Due March 2011”, and “Oh Baby!”.
For dessert, I made chocolate cupcakes in zebra cupcake liners. I tinted the frosting with a little of Americolor’s, turquoise (didn’t want the frosting to come out too dark). I used Wilton’s 2D tip. I love the ruffle texture you can pipe with it.
I also made up a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries drizzled in dark chocolate. I usually buy Wilton’s candy melts from Michael’s. The white is not a true white, more of an off-white. I ordered Mercken’s Super White candy melts just to compare. They taste the same, so it’s really all about the color you’re going for. For a truly white color, opt for Mercken’s
The cookie favors turned out super cute. I have a polka-dot fetish and couldn’t resist mixing polka dots with the zebra design. Look, I even found coordinating ribbon at Michael’s. I love it when it when a theme comes together! Monogrammed cookies are one of my favorite designs. They add a personal touch for the ones you are celebrating. The J is for Jace, Tammy’s baby’s name. The J’s were made by melting black candy melts, and piping the J’s onto waxed paper, and sprinkling with black sanding sugar before the chocolate set.
Wishing you a wonderful week!
About a month ago, Sabrina emailed me asking if I could make 45 cookie favors for her sister’s baby shower. I thought her Alice in Wonderland theme was fabulous, and couldn’t wait to start on these. We came up with four different cookie designs that tied in with the story. The pocket watch was made using an ornament cookie cutter. I created templates out of card-stock to make the Mad Hatter’s hat and the Cheshire Cat.
Cutting out cookies from a template can be tricky. Maybe tricky isn’t the right word, but it is definitely more time-consuming. If you don’t want to invest in a particular cookie cutter, making your own template is a great alternative. The first step is to find an image from which to create your template. I started by googling “Cheshire Cat printable”. I then found the image I wanted to use here. The next step is to save the image and crop it in Photoshop. I just wanted the face, so I cropped out the rest of the image. Then, re-size it based on how big you want the cookie to be. Finally, cut out the image and trace it onto plain card-stock. Once your dough is rolled out, place the template on top and carefully cut around it. I’ve found that dipping a sharp knife into flour, throughout the process, helps make cleaner cuts. Once your cookies have cooled, take the knife and trim up any jagged edges.
These looked super cute all wrapped up with a yellow gingham ribbon. Sabrina put a cookie favor at each place setting before her guests arrived. She said everyone loved them and commented that they tasted great. To me, the taste is the most important thing. I don’t care how cute your cookie is, if it doesn’t taste good, there’s no point in me wasting the calories. Come on, it’s bathing suit season!
