I am a baker, not a decorator

Kim has a linky set up for cakes and cupcakes… Oh MAN is my sweet tooth killing me right now… Looking at all of her yum-o pictures REALLY makes me want to bake. Alas, I have dance class to shuffle the kids to this evening. I thought about baking I’ve done…

  

I think it’s pretty evident that I am a baker… NOT a decorator… I can’t pipe frosting to save my life. Maybe it’s lack of practice, or too much caffeine… I just can’t get the hang of it. That’s why I try to find other ways to decorate cupcakes and cakes… The truffle filled seashell chocolates are STILL my favorite stroke of genius.

Kim is having a giveaway tomorrow… Friday, Sept. 24th. It’s for this sweet baby… The Martha Stewart Cricut for Cake…

Now, I’ll be honest… Kim’s got like 5 million followers so I’m not gonna cross my fingers about winning this one, so I’ll probably never have one. But don’t you know I could make a gorgeous cake using this thing!!!! It would really make decorating so much fun. I can just see free standing swirls on top of butter cream frosting… Endless possibility.

Sweet 6 – Wordless Wednesday

Dear Santa…

The other day I was hanging with the family in the pool and the girls wanted to talk about Disney. Yes, we are indeed THAT family. The family who’s 9 year old is about to take her 11th trip to the World. Trust me. My kids could plan your entire trip, guide you around the entire Disney World property without a map, and tell you all of the best sit down restaurants and which has a good lobster bisque. Really. We are a little bit psycho about planning our trips… down to the very last minute detail. Planning is half the fun when it comes to Disney.  We even plan to have “unplanned time”… seriously. I’m not very anal about many things, but a trip to Disney World just puts me in a tizzy.

As the girls started talking about what we were going to do and where we were going to stay, the BIG question came up…

How on Earth is Santa going to visit us at Disney World?  

Let me preface this by saying that I generally tell my kids the truth. When my oldest was 5 and asked what a period was, I told her.  I usually answer the questions. I do not give them more information than they need. I give them enough information to satisfy their curiosity and then move on… I just don’t believe in lying to them…  Except when it comes to the magic of being a child.

Mommy?

Yes, Jillian.

Is Santa real?

Do you get real gifts?

Yeah.

Well then, what do you think?

I think you and daddy are Santa.

Shows what you know, kid. Daddy’s cheap. He wouldn’t buy you extra presents just to pretend to be Santa.

Oh.

Yeah.

Well, then how’s Santa going to know which hotel room is ours?

Abby – Duh. He’s MA-GIC…

Ooohhh.  Yeah… MA-GIC… Well, I still think he needs a sign or sumthin…just to be sure he finds us…

Abby – and maybe some extra special Disney cookies… like chocolate dipped rice crispie Mickey heads.

We can get a Santa Stop Here sign and put it outside of our door. I’m sure that will work.

And then he can leave us lots of gifts! …

You know what’s really cool to do? Ask Santa to surprise you. If you don’t ask for anything and just tell him to surprise you, you’ll usually get something totally awesome… *cough*likeafriggintriptoDisneyWorld*cough*

Abby & Jillian – AWESOME!!!!

I said I didn’t lie… on important things… but I will work them for as long as I possibly can.

So who has some suggestions for small packable and easily concealed awesome Christmas presents for a 6 year old? 9 is getting a Kindle…

 

Flower hair pin tutorial

It’s nearly time for college football to begin. Around here it’s all SEC all the time. Unless it’s Sunday, then it’s all about the Saints. Our fall schedules revolve around football games. This year that is especially true because this is the first year we are taking the girls into Death Valley. When they were little we brought them to tailgate, but never into the actual stadium. I’m pretty sure they are going to be BLOWN AWAY. 

The girls wanted some hair pins to wear with their “gear” for the football games. You aren’t a true fan unless you are spackled in Purple and Gold from head to toe. For the girls, we picked flowers.

Cheap. $3.50 for the whole bundle cheap. It had the necessary colors, so I grabbed them up.

 

Pop the flowers off of the plastic stem bundle and pull the backing and front fuzzy buttons off. I used 6 flowers to make 2 pins, so I sorted the petal layers by size.

Re-layer your petals with the largest diameter on the bottom. Using a needle and thread, stitch the flower layers back together. I topped my petals with a football shank style button.

After the button has been sewn onto the layers, continue to stitch  back through the layers coming out the back side of the petals. Stitch several passes through the bent end of the hair pins.

I squeezed a bit of glue to the back thread and under the football button to ensure it says flat.

Easy peasy. And cute too, No?

  

I couldn’t be left out, so using the same technique, I made two styles of yo-yos out of gold tulle, layered them together, sewed a bobby pin to the back and added some bling.

This is so darn easy, there’s no reason to not be properly styled for football games… or the playground… or the mall… or the… well, you get it. 

 

For the 3rd week in a row I’m linking up to Kim’s Get Your Craft On. This is some kind of record, I’m sure. :-)