Cake decorating

I've made a lot of cakes before, but I recently tried something new--a wedding cake!
A couple in our church were married in February and they asked if I'd make their cake. I was excited that they asked me to do it! I love trying new decorating ideas! And looking at the picture she showed me, I didn't think it would be too difficult. How hard could it be to cover three cakes and then drape them with fondant?? HAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, I can laugh now...because that ended up being one of the hardest cakes I've ever made!
Because it was mostly for a display cake, two of the tiers were foam. So covering them and one real cake with the base layer of fondant was pretty easy. The hard part was draping more fondant around them. I make my own marshmallow fondant which is soft and easy to work with. But when I tried to roll out long narrow strips, they'd stretch and sag as soon as I picked them up and it wouldn't go on the cake. So I would take it off and re-roll it and try it again. Kyle came out to see if he could help and he gave some good suggestions for how I might be able do it. We finally got one to work and I ended up doing the other pieces the same way. But it still took several tries to get each of them on the right way.

This was the cake once I was finished with it. The flowers were put on at the reception site so this was all we got to see of it until after the wedding when we were sent pictures.


Here is a picture of the cake at the reception. I love the flowers she used--they definitely improved it!



Shortly after the wedding someone asked if I had been nervous about a big project like that... I guess maybe I SHOULD have been. I was working off a print out of a picture she liked and if it didn't work out they wouldn't have had a cake. :) Fortunately it turned out okay! What can I say?! I like a challenge! Which is a good thing because, in two weeks, I will be making another wedding cake! :)

Here are a few other cakes I've made....







I told Kyle I'd love to have a home bakery/decorating business some day. Who knows if it will ever happen, but it's a fun thought! :) When people ask me how I got started, I always tell them it was my Mom! She decorated cakes for years and always did a beautiful job! I'm so thankful she had the patience to teach me how to do it. Later on I took a few cake decorating classes, too. It's a great way to be creative and make others happy at the same time! :)
Thanks, Mom, for sharing your talent!!

New pants!

With Parker growing so much, we've gone through several sizes of clothes already. We have all kinds of shirts and onesies for him, but it's hard to find pants that fit. It seems the only kind that fit him well are the knit or fleece ones with an elastic waist. All other kinds I've tried on him are too big in the waist, or too long, etc. But I can't find the kind I like very often--they're usually sold as part of an outfit, which can be expensive and he wears different sizes in shirts than in pants. So I decided to try making him some!
I bought a cheap pattern, but when I got it home and cut it out, it wasn't what I wanted...it was two pieces instead of four and it would be way too baggy for his short little legs. So I put it away and went online instead, looking for something better. I found a tutorial here: http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-knee-pad-pants.html, from someone who made up her own pattern and they turned out super cute! I used her idea, and here's how I made them...

First I found a pair of Parker's pants that fit him the best (excuse the stains!).


Next I turned them inside out and folded them so they were flat and the back seams were showing.


After they were folded, I put them on a large sheet of paper and traced around them, leaving about 1/2" on all sides for a seam allowance. I left extra allowance at the top and bottom for the elastic and hem.


Once I cut traced the back, then I folded them the other way and traced around the front seams the same way. I cut out both pieces, then used them as patterns to cut the fabric--two fabric pieces from each pattern.


The last part was sewing them together! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the sewing process. But if anyone is reading this and is wanting to know how, you could watch the tutorial above. :) Although I wouldn't have thought to make a pair of pants by tracing around another pair, they did turn out pretty well! Here's the finished pair next to the brown ones I used as a pattern...


Since they turned out and fit him so well, I think I'm going to make a couple more pairs. The black fleece only cost around $3 and I still have some left over for another project and the pattern, of course, was free! So not bad for a pair of pants! Here's a picture of Parker wearing them...

The many faces of Parker

One of our favorite things about Parker is all the cute little faces he makes, especially when he's tired or just waking up. :) They come and go pretty quickly, but here are a few that we've managed to catch on camera...

Parker's book

So I mentioned that I was making a quiet book for Parker, but it wasn't finished when I last posted. Here are some pictures of the finished product! Next time I will be leaving myself more time to make one. Two weeks, while also taking care of a baby, is not enough time to make a quiet book! :)
It was almost finished by last Friday, but I still had to put the eyelets in all the pages. There was no way I was going to have it finished by Saturday morning and I was really disappointed. I finally decided to just put it aside and enjoy our Christmas Eve together.
But, as it happens, I have the most wonderful husband in the world! He got up early Christmas morning and cut all the holes and put in all the eyelets! I had no idea he was working on it and it was almost finished when I walked in a little while later! He knew how much it meant to me to have it done and it totally made my day that he did all that for me! So, thanks to Kyle, Parker got his book for Christmas! The only part that's not completely done is the cover...I want to put Parker's name on the front, but I wanted letter patches and haven't been able to find any yet that I like.
Here are the pages...













And a recent picture of Parker! :)

Homemade gifts

Can you believe Christmas is only a little over a week away?! I usually try to do a lot of holiday baking to give to friends and neighbors, but it's not going to happen this year. I've got something better on my mind--Parker! We're not going overboard with him as far as toys and gifts, mainly because he's too little for most things and he won't remember it anyway. But it's still his first Christmas and I wanted to make him something special, so I'm making him a quiet book!

I've been looking for a pattern for one since August, hoping to get an earlier start, but turns out that patterns are hard to find! Fortunately, my Mom had a pattern for an old style of quiet book so she brought it when they came to visit. It was exactly the one I had been looking for and, to make it even better, Kyle had that same book made for him when he was a kid! So now Parker will have a similar one. For anyone not familiar with a quiet book, it's a large book made entirely of fabric and it has simple 'activities' on each page that a young child can do...matching colors and shapes to their corresponding spots on the page, learning to use a zipper, putting their hand into a mitten, etc. Lots of bright colors and shapes!

I don't have all the pages finished yet, so I'll post pics of it when it's done next week. I can't wait to finish it and give it to him--of course he'll be too small to use it for awhile, but that's okay! Maybe this year it's more for my enjoyment, that I'm able to make him something cool. :)

So those pictures are coming soon, but here is something else I made for him. It's a little crinkly toy! The outside is soft but it has a plastic layer inside that gives a wonderful crinkle sound when it's squeezed and bunched up! And some ribbon loops for his little fingers to grab.



And of course, another picture of Parker. As you can tell, he's very excited about Christmas! :)

A huge blessing in a small package

The past couple months have been busy, but incredibly fun! Now that Parker's here, we've heard all kinds of comments from people. Some have been positive, telling us how wonderful and rewarding parenthood can be. Then there are the negative ones, telling us about all the bad experiences that can and will happen. But there's one comment that always stands out.... we always think it's a little weird when someone tells us, "Don't worry, it will get better." I understand that not everyone enjoys babies as much as older children, who are more independent and can interact. But Parker has been such a blessing in the short time he's been here! When we first brought him home we could spend hours just sitting and looking at him, amazed and thankful that the Lord would create and give us this wonderful and perfect little person. :) Sure, we've also had a few frustrating times, but I wouldn't trade the past two months for anything! The Bible says children are a reward and a blessing from the Lord so we see it as a privilege to take care of Parker and we're loving every day we are able to spend with him. What an incredible opportunity it is to raise a child and be able to help shape his character and personality!
And we've had so much fun already! Actually, I've been a little surprised at how entertaining a newborn can be. Whether it's watching him go through countless facial expressions while he's stretching and waking up, or spewing milk clear across the crib, he keeps us constantly amused.
Okay, enough rambling for now...here are a few pictures of him!


Parker is 7 weeks old today and is growing like crazy! At our one month doctor appointment, he was almost 10 lbs so we're looking forward to seeing how big he'll be by his two month check-up in a couple weeks.


Parker has been smiling a lot the past couple weeks. Seeing a big smile from him totally brightens my day! :)


My parents came out a few weeks ago to meet Parker. And in typical grandparent fashion, they completely spoiled him!

He's here!!

Parker Elijah Asire is finally here!! A very prompt baby, he was born on his due date of October 10, 2010 at 6:44 a.m. He was 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 20.5 inches long.



Parker's just over a week old now and we've been loving every minute with him--even the sleepless ones at night! Just seeing his little face makes us smile. We could sit here all day and just stare at him. :)



People have told us that the first couple weeks are a blur. Looking back, we'll probably agree with this, but for right now we're simply trying to enjoy and take in everything about Parker. The first nine days have been great--better than we expected, actually! He's such a cutie!! We're so thankful he's finally here!