forever friday: wedding crafting update

So I realized I haven't posted about the wedding in a while- I promise I've been working on it, lots and lots!!! Today I was excited to order some (actually LOTS of) washi tape from happytape! They had the perfect 10 pack for our wedding colors: the sunny 10 pack! I also ordered a few other pairs to have some more yellow, since that's the main color of our wedding.

I'm excited and have many ideas up my sleeve for the tape. One idea that I found that I plan on using is this great luminary tutorial from BeSweetConfections blog.

welcome gnome baby finley

It's been a while since I've posted cookie picks, so here are some from a few weeks ago when our friends welcomed home their newest addition- their daughter Finley.

Our friends, Matt and Kristina, love the outdoors so I thought it would be great to make some woodland themed cookies. The original plan was to make more gnome cookies, but the plans changed and I like the mix I came up with instead.

I think this little owl guy is my favorite, as always I love owls!!! Their older daughter Haley, who just turned two, loved them as well- she too is an owl lover : ) She's such a cutie pie, when we went to visit she kept calling Finley "my baby sister Finley"- adorable!

Congratulations Peterson family- welcome gnome baby Finley!

welcome spring!

Spring is here- So is the Thompson family's adoption Spring Auction! There are over 100 items to choose from, all starting at 20% off or more.

100% of the proceeds go toward the Thompson's adoption fund giving hope to a child in need. The Thompsons have also decided to personally match 9% raised from the auction to donate to Japan relief efforts.

Please pray for the Thompson family as they begin their adoption journey and please help by spreading the word- Thank you!

Below are a few of my favorite items from the auction:

Goldie Clutch donated by Emersonmade

Ollie Twist Necklace donated by 31 bits

Grey Flower Brooch donated by Daises are Pretty

Check out these and all the amazing items for auction and bid on your favorites today- the auction ends Sunday 3/27!

give green give love

Happy St. Patrick's day! Although I didn't have any St. Patty's day fun to share with you all, I did manage to include some GREEN in today's post.

Perhaps some of you know, my sister Desiree and her husband Aaron are planning to adopt and are having an auction to raise funds for their adoption. So far over 85 items have been donated! The auction begins this Monday, March 21st. Mother's day is right around the corner- there are plenty of items to choose from!

Below are a few pictures of one of the items I donated that will be up for auction. It is an Olive Green diaper/messenger bag. The bag features one large zip pocket facing two medium pockets on the inside. The back of the bag has a large pocket, great for books or magazines. And the sides each have an elastic pocket to hold in baby or water bottles.

Giving a little of your Green means helping to give love and hope to a child in need. Please consider bidding on some of the items up for auction and spreading the word.

Visit Desiree's blog to get a sneak peek of some of the other amazing items up for auction. While there, please consider grabbing a button from her right sidebar to help spread the word- Thank you!

saturday sneak peak

Alright... I never got around to posting a sneak peak for my niece's "Look Whoooo's Two" birthday party yesterday : ( I was too busy finishing her cake and cookies for the party that's later today! So as promised, here are a few sneak peak pictures for her party:

25 today

Happy 25th Birthday to me! And Happy belated Birthday to my adorable niece Lydia who turned 2 on Tuesday. I'm super excited for her "Look Whooo's Two" owl themed birthday party this weekend. I've been working on putting together a dessert station for her party and will have a sneak peak tomorrow- so stay tuned!

.the.pink.cupcakes. by baby, picture this

bye, bye birdies

Last week I filled you in on my birdie bakery; however, at that point my birdies were without beaks, feet and eyes (poor little things). I'm happy to inform you that they each were given these necessities- hooray! Here are a few pictures of the finished cookies before they flew off with Maureen to her friend's baby shower.

bird, bird, bird... the bird's the word!

I have been so, so busy this week yesterday it felt fitting to have a busy bee as my wordless Wednesday find. Also sorry, but I couldn't help myself with my title today... you'll see why!

So what have I been up to you ask? I've been busy baking and decorating birds. After seeing my Super Bowl cookies a few weeks ago; Maureen, my internship supervisor, asked me to make cookie favors for a baby shower she was planning. Fast forward to this week and I'm baking 60 some cookies. Not to mention, our apartment has turned into a mini birdie bakery : )

I'm not quite finished with the birds yet but there will be 30 blue/teal ones and 30 orange ones. I chose this design off of the baby shower invite that Maureen gave me to work from. The invite can be seen in the second and third picture below. (Ignore the color splotches on the invite- I was just testing out the colors).

Now I've just got to add the eyes, beaks and feet. Then package them up for the shower this weekend!

I'll be sure to post some pictures later of the finished cookies. Until then, for a laugh be sure to check out this Family Guy clip- hilarious... now I have that song stuck in my head!

wordless wednesday- "busy bee" by lara lewis

happy president's day!

Happy president's day! To celebrate check out these cute shirts for little dudes! I think the George Washington one above is just adorable : ) Check out more president's day shirts and view a tutorial from Dana over at Made.




Also check out these 22 Ridiculous Things You Didn't Know About U.S. Presidents. There's some interesting facts... Like, did you know James A. Garfield was ambidextrous?

*In NO WAY is this post meant to be a political statement! President's day's purpose is not to honor any one particular President, but to honor the office of Presidency.

wordless wednesday- "you make me happy..." by ReStyle

happy valentine's day

.valentine's.cake.pops.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day is filled with lots of LOVE (and other sweetness)!!!

wordless wednesday- "the sweethearts" by janet hill

lets go packers!

Two more days until the SUPER BOWL!!! I've just finished up my game day cookies and I couldn't be more excited to share them with you : )

To decorate my Super Bowl cookies I used a combination of Wilton's FoodWriters and Royal Icing. I love the way the FoodWriters look on my NFL logo cookie. It was a lot easier to use the markers then having to make two more different colors of icing just to get the blue and the red.

To get the Lombardi trophy I made my own cookie templates here. I added luster dust following this tutorial from the University of Cookie.

This last one was a request from Seth- jokingly he said you should do one with Rodger's championship belt.... We are by no means WWF fans (not at all) but if you're a Packer fan you'll appreciate this one!

Lets go Packers- bring the Lombardi trophy home!!!

wordless wednesday- "february" by paule tb

new cookie "cutters" for the big game

Happy Super Bowl week! Seth and I haven't exactly decided what we'll be doing for the big game, but one thing I do know is I plan on making some cookies for it. Only thing is I don't exactly have a Lombardi Trophy shaped cookie cutter........ So what's a girl to do? Make my own template!



I semi-followed this tutorial from the University of Cookie. I won't actually be making the cookies until later this week, so we'll see how they actually turn out. I adapted the "cutters" from my sketch of super bowl cookie ideas below.

forever friday- wedding update: our engagement photos

Since I just recently (and finally) got back on the blog, I realized I never posted our engagement pictures.

Seth and I had our pictures taken on a beautiful October afternoon by our wonderful photographer Nicole Utecht- she is amazingly talented! We wern't sure what to expect at first but she was so sweet and made us feel really comfortable. We're so excited to have her as our wedding photographer as well!

The pictures turned out amazing- I just love all the different shots she captured! Below are a few of my favorite photos. Be sure to check out Nicole's photo blog to view more from the shoot.

We're not a bad looking couple... if I do say so myself : ) 219 Days to go!

wordless wednesday- bake at 350 "beer & hotdogs"

the other day my fiance came home to these:

After yesterday's Packer win I thought it would only be fitting to post something sports related today! GO PACKERS- Super Bowl 45!!!

So you may have noticed that many of my new Wordless Wednesday posts are dessert related... I've been obsessed with dessert/candy buffets lately. Mainly because Seth and I have decided instead of a traditional wedding cake to opt for a dessert buffet table. Of course it will be baseball themed, so we've been coming up with all sorts of treats that can fit in with our theme.

A few weeks ago I found this great petits four tutorial on an amazing sweets blog i am baker, by Amanda. For the petits fours Amanda uses oreo cakesters- how simple is that! As a surprise I decided to try them out and make some to surprise Seth when he got home from work. Instead of using royal icing for the toppers I used white chocolate that I colored with Wilton food coloring.

It's not the greatest picture... but I think they turned out great! Seth thought they were amazing and they were pretty yummy too. Thanks for the tutorial Amanda!

wordless wednesday- "baby owl" dessert station

noodlehead's gathered clutch

Ok, so a few weeks ago I said I was going to try out Noodlehead's gathered clutch tutorial- I did that day and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of my clutch! The zipper was a little intimidating to try at first... but I think it turned out great!

I've had this adorable fabric for a while now and have been waiting for the perfect project to use it on- I just love how it turned out, what do you think?