Psalm 118:24

"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Monday, January 30, 2012

Tinkerbell Party Favors: Part 2

 This is the almost finished Fairy Jar I was working on for my daughter's 4th birthday party.  She loves fairies, especially Tinkerbell.  In fact, there are many days where she spends her time 'flying' around the house and I have to help her attach her 'fairy wings' (that are invisible) so she can fly.  If you missed my first post with the instructions to make these fairy jars, click here.

I'll be honest, they didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped.  I had to do some quick rearranging because the jars turned out so cute, my hubby and I couldn't stand the thought of putting anything in them besides the lights!  Thankfully, I had purchased some sets of Tinkerbell favors that came with bags.  So, I just put all the favors candies into the Tinkerbell bags. 

*Note to self*  The favors jars would have been plenty to send home with the kids.   They absolutely loved them...even the boys!  They were a definite hit! 

I estimated that I made these favors for around $2.00 a piece, probably a little bit less.

 I ordered battery operated, color changing tea light candles from Amazon.  I got free shipping, and the price wasn't bad.  I probably could have gotten them at Walmart cheaper, but they wouldn't have changed color, and with 3 young kids, going anywhere with them has the potential to be a nightmare.


 Next, I bought a strip of pre-taped velcro at Walmart for next to nothing.  I cut it into small squares (I only needed to use about half the velcro) and stuck one square in the bottom of each jar.  My hand was too big to reach all the way down, so I used a pair of tongs to put them in place, and a wooden chopstick to push it down.  (Yay me for marrying a Korean man!)


 Then I put the sqares from the other side of the vecro onto the back of the candle.

 These are the candies and Tinkerbell things I bought to put inside the favor jars....which I ended up not putting in the favor jars.


All of the jars lighting up beautifully!

Close up of how pretty the jars turned out!

 At the last minute, I decided to put a Tinkerbell sticker on the front of each jar.  That way, there was no mistake that this was a Tinkerbell party and these were fairy jars.  It looks like the lights weren't very bright in this picture, but the lighting at the gym was really strange.  Hardly and of my pictures from there turned out -- it was very discouraging.  The jars lit up really well at home.

This pretty lady is my daughter!  She had a great time at her gymnastics party.

Tinkerbell and friends cupcakes


Close up of Tinkerbell cake

Tinkerbell cake



Overall, this was a really fun party to plan.  The favors were super fun to design and make.  And I absolutely love making my kids birthday cakes.  I really happy with how everything turned out :)  I hope you enjoyed the process as well!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Tinkerbell Birthday Party Favors: Part 1


This is the start of the Tinkerbell favor jars I was writing about earlier.  I came up with the idea with the help of a great friend of mine.  She started by reminding me that Captain Hook puts Tink in a jar in the movie.  I'll have to take her word for it, since it's been years since I've seen any Peter Pan movie.  But she suggested mason jars and I ran with it! 

I wasn't sure what size jar to get.  I ended up with a quart jar because I wanted to put stickers and Pixi Stix inside, and they need a little more vertical room.  I'm glad I did, because these favors are really shaping up nicely. 

Here are the supplies I used: Elmer's spray glue and glitter, and of course, my hot glue gun and Tinkerbell ribbon.

I tried using glitter spray first, but it was so runny that it all went right to the bottom of the jars.  What I ended up doing was mixing the glitter colors together in a plastic baggie.  Then I sprayed the inside of a jar with spray glue, shook about 3/4tsp of glitter mixture into the jar.  I quickly covered the jar and shook it to spread the glitter around.  Be careful of how much glitter you put in as it tends to stick more heavily in some places.  Also, I would suggest mixing up all the glitter you need at one time, or buy a multi-colored glitter.  If you keep mixing up more glitter, your jars won't all look the same.  I confess, I didn't want to waste glitter so I mixed up 2 different batches of glitter and can definitely see a difference.

Once I had them all sprayed and glittered, I put them in my kitchen window to dry.  Thank goodness it wasn't a frigid day!

My trusty hot glue gun and ribbon.



Next, I cut 8 inch strips of ribbon to be used as a handle for the jar.  To attach it, I wrapped the ribbon around the lid of the jar (without the seal) and hot glued it into place.  Don't pull it to tight when you glue the ribbon or it won't fit into the grooves of the lid when you screw it onto the jar.

Semi-finished favor jar from the front.



Top view


I'm so excited to finish these favors!  But I have to wait until the day of the party.  Stay tuned for Part 2 later and find out why and also see what the finished product looked like.  I can't wait to see how my daughter reacts to these favor jars!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Confession: I'm Angry and I Can't Forgive!

I'm struggling with anger and forgiveness today.  If you read my post from last week, you'll know that I've been praying to know and love God more.  (If you haven't read the post, click here to read it.  It explains the process I've been going through and how God has been speaking to my heart and in my life.)  Boy oh boy, has He been answering my prayer!  And not exactlt in the way I had hoped or imagined.

I'll be honest, when I prayed for more of Him, and his response was 'are you prepared?' I sort of laughed it off.  My soul was saying, 'Of course I'm prepared!  You're God...all you have to do is look at me and POOF, I'm changed!'  But even though God CAN work like that, He often doesn't.  It's a process.  And I feel like this situation is part of God's process to make he able to love Him more.  It's His way of refining me.  It's also His way of answering my prayers, because I've really been spending alot of time in the Word this week -- and as a result, I'm learning more about Him.  Funny how God works, isn't it?

I taught Children's church last week.  And wouldn't you know, the verses God kept bringing to my mind last night are the same verse I studied with my CC kids.  The unit we're studying is called I Wanna Be Just Like Jesus and this lesson was called Loving Others, and the verses we looked at were 1 John 4:7-12.  It says,

      7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12 NIV)

We talked about how easy it is to love people who are nice to us, but how hard it is to love those who are, at times, unlovable.  It's also hard to love someone when you have anger in your heart.  And yet, isn't that what we're supposed to do?  If I am earnestly praying for more of God, to know Him more, to be more like Him, then isn't this the kind of person I want to be?  What a lesson to learn the hard way!  This situation is a struggle. 

But wait!  There's hope!  I went to my Bible and started looking at verses about anger...or better, why we should be slow to anger.  Here is what I found that comforted me.
  1. "Whoever is patient has great understanding,
    but one who is quick-tempered displays folly." (Proverbs 14:29)
  2. "19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." (James 1:19-20)
These verses really spoke to my heart about my anger because the way I'm feeling right now, I would definitely say something that I would later regret.  And I don't want to be the kind of person who is quick-tempered and foolish, as described in Proberbs 14.  I also want to be slow to become angry because God wants me to be righteous.  Webster's defines righteous 'as acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin.'  God wants me to be free from sin in this situation.  I want to be free from sin in this situation.  To be more like God, I can't let my anger get the best of me. 

But of course, being angry wasn't the only thing God was convicting me of.  I was also reminded this morning that I need to forgive this person.  It's hard to love someone when you have unforgiveness in  your heart.  And it's really hard to forgive some who
  1. hasn't asked for forgiveness
  2. has hurt you or someone you care about.
A couple months ago my pastor preached a sermon that really resonated with me.  At that time I wasn't dealing with any kind of unforgiveness, and so I wasn't really sure why it stayed with me this long.  But this sermon really hit me hard.  I even made sure to stick my notes from the sermon in my kitchen cabinet so I could find the scripture references easily.  I now know why God hid this sermon in my heart, and my kitchen, the past couple months.  Here is what I learned from that sermon.

Forgiveness means to wipe away a debt.  It's receiving mercy when we deserve wrath and trusting God will give mercy or wrath to those who deserve it.  Forgiveness releases the need for revenge and stewing about a situation.  Forgiveness is what God generously offers to us.

Our problem with forgiveness is this: Because forgive means to wipe away a debt, we think that if we forgive, then that person just 'gets away with' whatever it is they have done.  But Romans 2:6-11 says,

"6 He will give to every man what he should get for the things he has done. 7 Those who keep on doing good and are looking for His greatness and honor will receive life that lasts forever. 8 Those who love only themselves and do not obey the truth, but do what is wrong, will be punished by God. His anger will be on them. 9 Every Jew and every person who is not a Jew who sins will suffer and have great sorrow. 10 But God will give His greatness and honor and peace to all those who obey the truth. Both Jews and those who are not Jews will receive this. 11 God does not show favor to one man more than to another." (NLT)

I like the New Life Translation of this verse.  I take away from this that God is just.  He doesn't show favorites.  We all will one day be held accountable for our life here on Earth.  When we forgive someone, we don't cancel out the justice of God, because His word clearly says that God 'will repay each person according to what they have done.'

However, I think this is a verse we need to be careful with.  If our hearts are not in the right place, it would be really easy to say, "sure, I'll forgive you.  God's gonna get you good for what you did!"  But is that true forgiveness, or is that spite and revenge talking?  I believe that is a vengeful attitude.  Especially in light of the rest of this passage.  If we keep reading, we see that verse 6 applies to everyone. Sin is sin and we will be held accountable for our actions as well.  Yet God -- this amazing, wonderful, merciful God -- still offers us grace, mercy and forgiveness when we don't deserve it (and we don't ever deserve it).  So if I want to truly live out the verses I pointed out earlier, 1 John 4:7-12, then I have an obligation to forgive, because to forgive means to show mercy and love.  So I don't have to worry about what happens after I forgive...I just need to do it.  Why?  Because God's got this under control! :)

I'm happy to report that God has helped me today.  I no longer have anger or unforgivness in my heart.  I'm truly saddened by this situation, and I know that I cannot allow things to go back the way they were.  But I can move on now.  God is truly merciful!  I pray that you experience his mercy, love and compassion today -- and everyday for the rest of your life!

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness
Lamentations 3:22-23


Christmas Wreath

I found the most amazing DIY Christmas wreaths for this past Christmas season.  I loved them so much, I made two for outside the house, one for inside the house, one for each of my sister's and my Mom.  They were super easy and looked great!  I got the idea from Pinterest, of course :)  To make this Christmas wreath you will need:
  • Wire Hanger
  • between 60-80 shatter proof Christmas balls (depending on how big you want your wreath to be.  I got my Christmas balls from Wal-Mart and opted for the shatter proof ones so they didn't break while in storage.
  • hot glue gun with glue sticks
  • pliers


You have two options for the glue gun:
  1. take off all the tops of the Christmas balls and hot glue them back on.
  2. hot glue the balls together as you string them on the hanger.
I opted to glue them together as I strung them. Either way, you need to glue the Christmas balls, otherwise they will keep popping off. And yes, I learned this the hard way ;)

I started by taking a plain wire hanger from my husband's closet.  (Finally, a use for all those wire hangers we get from the cleaners!)  I used a pair of pliers to untwist the hanger.  You might be able to do this without the pliers, but I have rheumatoid arthritis, so sometimes my fingers don't work very well and my hands aren't ever very strong.  Once it was intwisted, I straightened it out as be as I could.  I left the hooked end still curved so the christmas balls I used didn't fall off at I strung them on the hanger. 

Next, start stringing the Christmas balls onto the hanger.  If you let the hanger hang down as you do this they balls will fall into place.  Or, you can string a few at a time, then shake them down so they settle into place.  I used both methods throughout this process and each worked fine.  I did stop every few minutes to hot glue the Christmas balls together.  This way, I knew exactly where each ball would lay so I could continue choosing the ball colors. 



Here is the wreath about 1/3 of the way finished.  When I did this without glue the balls as I worked, they were constantly fall off and I would have to stop and put them back on.  So make sure you don't skip that step.

Once you've make your wreath the size you want it, bring the 2 ends of the hanger together until they meet.  This may cause the Christmas balls to protest a little bit (another good reason to buy shatter proof ones) but the ends will come together.  Use your pliers to twist the ends together tightly.  You will probably have to bend the wreath in places to make it a perfect circle.


The finished product!  I used around 65 Christmas balls to make this and it is a good size.  I estimate that I spent about $12 making this wreath.  And for something that can be used year after year, or given as a Christmas gift, I consider that money well spent!

Monday, January 23, 2012

DIY Table Centerpieces



It seems like I'm always looking for that perfect centerpiece for my dining table.  Do you know what I mean? It has to be seasonally neutral, able to be kept out for holidays....or does it? A friend of mine came across a DIY centerpiece on Pinterest, and I just took the basic idea and made it my own. The best part of all is that everything came from my local Dollar Tree!  What's even better is that you can change the decorations in the vase for every season or holiday.  I made mine in early December, so they are decorated for Christmas.
To start out, you'll need:
  • your hot glue gun

  • Glass vases -- I used a mix of tall, rounded top vases and smaller, straight vases for mine.

  • Glass Candle holders

First, take all stickers and price tags off glass vases and candle holders.  Next, using your hot glue gun, glue around the top edge of the candle holder.  Immediately put the glass vase on top. **You only get one chance at this.  Once you put it on, you're not going to be able to move it.**


Once you've glued all your 'vases' together it's time to decorate!  I used christmas balls from Dollar Tree and some red silk flowers I'd picked up there at the same time.  For the vases with the flowers, I used some water beads in the bottom to make it sparkle and pick up the light from the hanging light and windows.





I was very pleased with how these turned out!  I made 9 vases (3 full centerpieces) for $20 and ended up giving a set to my Mom and one of my sisters.  I took them to a ladies brunch that was held at my church a few days after I made them.  We had an ornament exchange and someone tried to take one of the vases home when her name was called, so I would call this DIY craft a success!


The last 2 pictures of the table my sister and I decorated with centerpieces I made.  Don't they look pretty?

Now that Christmas is over, it's time to change the decorations.  I'm thinking Valentine's Day!  Candy hearts and red flowers, anyone?  Let me know what you would use to to decorate them.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Foil-Pack Chicken and Broccoli Dinner

Talk about a one-pot meal!  I seriously only used one bowl to make this dinner.  Thank you once again Pinterest for the great idea!

Ingredients
1 package chicken flavor stuffing mix
1 1/4C water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
4C broccoli florets
1C shredded Cheddar cheese
4 slices bacon, crumbled
4T ranch dressing
heavy duty foil

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
  • Spray heavy duty foil with cooking spray. 
  • Combine stuffing and water, and mix  until all water is absorbed (the one bowl you'll use!) 
  • Spoon 1/4 of stuffing mixture on each piece of foil.
  • Put one chicken breast on top of stuffing mixture.
  • Top chicken with 1C of broccoli
  • Sprinkle with 1/4C cheese and crumbled bacon.
  • Drizzle with 1T ranch dressing.
  • Bring up sides of foil to seal, leaving some room for the heat circulation inside.
  • Place foil pouches on a cookie sheet.
  • Bake for 1 hour.
  • Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.
  • Open pouches carefully because they will be hot! 
My husband is Korean, so I served this with rice and it was delicious!  We all enjoyed it.  And you could make it lowfat by cutting each chicken breast in half.  Also, 2% cheese, turkey bacon and fat free ranch dressing.  Cut cooking time to 30-35 minutes.


I wish I had taken pictures of it after it was finished.  It looked so good!  But try it for youself and let me know what you think!  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Confessions: I Am....Glorious???

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?
These are the lyrics from a song that's been on my heart lately.  It's David Crowder Band's "Everything Glorious."  Go watch the video.  I mean it, go.  Now.

I feel like I have spent my whole life feeling self-conscious or not good enough.  It started in elementary school when I had a lisp and had to go to speech class.  Even to this day, I'm convinced I have a lisp, even though I never seem to hear it when I hear my voice on tape. 

That's who I am;
  • I'm the girl with the lisp.
  • I'm the girl who was called "Ms. Dull" in 3rd grade because I wasn't part of the popular girls.
  • I'm the nerd because I played the trombone in high school.
  • I'm the girl who isn't smart because I have trouble with math.
  • I'm the girl with the knobby knees who always hated wearing shorts.
  • I'm the girl boys didn't want to date.
  • I'm the girl who feels like she can't do anything right, yet spends all of her time trying to please other people.
  • I'm the girl.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.  I struggle with my self-esteem.  But I had a 'God Moment' tonight.  What's a 'God Moment?'  Well for me, it's when I'm struggling with something and maybe God puts a song in my head or sends a friend my way.  Or I'm praying and I hear that small voice that isn't mine whispering the words I need to hear.  Maybe not the words I want to hear, but the words I NEED to hear.  Tonight was the night when I heard God's gentle whisper.

I'm reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan for my lifegroup.  I was reading the first chapter tonight and was struck by the awesome power of God.  I mean, think about it; God created the Heavens and the Earth.  And he created the stars and the solar system; he created the plants and animals.  God created the oceans and the bugs and the materials we use everyday!  And that same God who created the entire universe loves ME.  He loves me!  In light of everything He is and everything He's done, I am nothing.  But still he loves me.  And if you need further proof of this, God sent his only son, his perfect son, to be mocked, beaten, bruised, crucified for our sins.  That is love.  That is....Unfathomable. Indescribable. Incredible. Unbelievable. Amazing. 

Think about Colossians 1:16.  "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him."

If I believe that the Bible is 100% true, which I do, (see 2 Timothy 3:16) then that means that everything God created, including me, was made by and for Him.  At first I focused on the part that said 'by him' which brought to mind the song from the beginning of this post -- Everything Glorious.  I'm not glorious by the world's standards.  I'm not beautiful; I'm not famous; I'm not rich.  I'm not perfect.  But God made me just the way I am for a reason, lisp (or no lisp) and all.  And that is beautiful.  So while I might still choose different legs if I had the choice or to have been popular in high school, God doesn't make mistakes and I can take comfort in that.  I may make mistakes all on my own, but that's my own fault.  I can be confident in being a creation of God.

Then I looked at that verse from the perspective of being made 'for him.'  Wow!  I'm doing a lousy job if I was made for him.  Colossians 3:17 says 'And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.'  I can't honestly say that everything I do brings God glory.  I was terribly convicted by the thought that I should love God enough, just for who He is and what He's done, to want to do a better job at living my life in a way that glorifies His name.  So I started to pray.  And I don't know what I expected....a flash of light; a tap on the shoulder from the King of Kings; a heavenly choir, perhaps?  But I prayed and I was bold and told God exactly what I wanted Him to give me.  I said, "God, make me fall in love with you.  Give me a love for you that is unmatched by anything else.  You're going to have to change me to do it."  I love God.  I do.  I just want to love him more.  And that was my prayer.  And I sat there....and nothing happened.  No lightning bolts, no instantaneous change, to supernatural shoulder tap from God...and I started to chuckle a little bit and tell God that I didn't really expect that kind of stuff to happen...and then I heard it. "Are you prepared?"  God was asking me if I was prepared for my prayer to be answered!  Am I prepared to be changed so I can love God more?  Change is always scary.  And I don't like change.  Not one little bit.  But this time, I think it's going to work out just fine. 

Friday, January 20, 2012

Dinosaur Birthday Cake

I guess I got into the habit of making my kid's birthday cakes a few years ago.  I wanted to see if I could do it, and if so, what I could come up with.  Let me tell you how much fun it is!  They get so excited when I finally call them out to look at their cake.  It's something I really enjoy!  Last year, when it came time to talk about birthdays, my son already knew what he wanted -- DINOSAURS!  My first thought???  "Oh my goodness, how in the world am I going to make a dinosaur cake?"  So of course, my first response is to head straight to GOOGLE. 

*Just a sidenote here but, how in the world did we live without the Internet and search engines?  It's like life without cell phones or GPS -- do you remember like before them?  It's sad to say, but I wouldn't dare go someplace I'd never been before without my GPS, but I can remember 9 years ago driving to visit my then-fiance, now-husband's parents...WITHOUT A GPS!  I had my trusty atlas, as well as a list of towns to look for, and I was fine.  Oh well, times change.

But I digress....so I googled dinosaur cakes and came up with this site.  It is great!  I just followed the simple video directions and made an awesome cake for my son's birthday party!  He was thrilled and the guested were super impressed :) 

This first group of pictures are the cake I made for him to take to pre-k as his birthday snack.

 I thought the little dinosaurs were a nice touch!  I used green easter grass that I had gotten on clearance at Walmart a few weeks before.  I just spread a thin layer of icing on the cutting board (again, I only use this cutting board for my cakes), then pressed the grass down lightly with my hands.  A little bit of icing on the bottoms of the dinosaurs made them stay nicely..plus made them easy to clean off so the kids in his class could take home a nice little treat!

This is the cake I made for the big day!  The birthday party!  The kids all loved it, as you can tell from the picture below.

Here's my son blowing out his birthday candle.  I still can't believe he's going to be 6 soon!  You can see that the cake isn't super huge, so I made cupcakes, iced them to look like grass and put a rubber dinosaur on top.


I like to think that I'm saving money when I make the cakes for their parties, so I'll keep making them until they don't want me to anymore....and even then, I'll probably still make them!

Pinterest

Pinterest Logo

Can I tell you how in love I am with Pinterest?  In case you don't know what Pinterest is, I'll explain.  According to their website, 'Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.  Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.'  Basically, people find neat ideas or themes or pictures on the internet, then 'pin' them (post them) onto their Pinterest page that is organized into boards (categories).  You get to create your own categories and it's such a great place to keep all your ideas organized!  There have been so many times in the past that I've found an idea on the web, then closed out the page, never to find it (or remember it) again.  Well not anymore!  If I find a site I love, or an awesome idea, I can just 'pin' it a board on Pinterest.  People who follow me can see my boards and what I've pinned.  And I can see the pins of the people I follow!  So I'm constantly getting great new inspirations!  I can't wait until I can start planning for valentines day, because I found a really awesome Valentine craft for my kids to take to school. 

I love Pinterest and have found so many great things like crafts, DIY home improvement, recipes and even party ideas!  I even had my husband looking at it last night!  And while he appreciates the crafty things I work on, he isn't what I'd call crafty -- he's supportive :)  Granted we were looking at Star Wars and Legos party ideas, but hey, at least we were talking and spending time together, right?  And as a wife whose husband works long hours, and the mother of 3 young kids, sometimes you have to take what you can get!

**You do need an invite to join Pinterest, but if you go to their main page you can request an invite.  It only took a few days for me to get my invite! 

I'll be posting some of the neat Pinterest projects I've done in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!  I'm a little obsessed!  Let me know what your favorite Pinterest project is!  I'd love to hear about it!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Tinkerbell Birthday Cake

Keep watching for pictures of my daughter's Tinkerbell birthday favors, but I wanted to share the idea I had for her cake!  This one is the sample cake I made, then sent it to school with her for her birthday treat!  It turned out really cute!

I used to order all my cakes from Walmart or one of our local grocery stores.  They all do an excellent job, but one year, I think it was for my son's 4th birthday, I wanted to try to make his cake myself.  It was so much fun, and turned out so great!  (I'll do a post on it soon.) I was hooked and haven't bought a birthday cake since!

First, I made a chocolate bundt cake.  You can make any flavor you like, we just happen to be a chocolate family -- well, except for my husband, but he was outnumbered.  Once it was cool enough, I turned it out of the pan to cool completely.
While it was cooling, I wrapped my extra large cutting board (I only use it for cakes) in some leftover Tinkerbell wrapping paper.  It made a really neat background for the cake once it was finished!  After the cake was cool, I put it on a piece of wax paper on top the wrapping paper covered cutting board.  Then i made my green icing. You can always make your own and save some money, but I lead a Bible study on Monday nights, and of course, this was Monday night, so I just used 2 large containers of Duncan Hines Fluffy White Whipped Icing. I did have some leftover that my husband gladly ate so it didn't go to waste :) I made my icing pretty green so it would match my Tinkerbell doll I was using for the center.
The Tinkerbell doll in the center gave me some problmes.  First, I wrapped her lower body in plastic wrap to try to preserve her for future use or play :)  Hey, reduce, reuse, recycle, right?  But her legs didn't come off and they kept tilting the cake!  So finally, I cut a slice out of the cake for her legs to fit in between.  Then I sliced a small amont off the bottom of that sice and put it back on top of her legs!  Voila!  Add some extra icing on that spot and you couldn't even tell it'd been cut!

I wish I would have smoothed the cake out a little better, but it was getting late and my icing wasn't as stiff as I'd have liked.  Making my own would have been much better!  But anyway, once I put the icing on the cake, I filled in the center of the cake where Tinkerbell sat.  Next I added the Pixie Hollow Fairy set I bought at Walmart, my home away from home.  But it still didn't look quite right...I knew something was missing so I went for my silk flowers.  Add a couple daisies (or some yellow flower) and you're set!


My daughter loved this cake!  My nieces loved this cake!  My daughter's class and teacher loved this cake!  Overall, it was a big hit! I going to do this cake again for her party this weekend, although I bought some new flowers that are also pink.  I think it'll be beautiful!

Good Night!




Christmas, Birthday parties and stomach flu, OH MY!

OH BOY!  Welcome to my first blog post!  I'm starting the blog so that I can keep a record of the crafts and birthday party ideas I've come up with over the years.  It's been a crazy few weeks at our house, so I figured this was the best time to start something new.  lol. 

Christmas is always a great time of year for me.  It's such an amazing time of year!  Celebrating the birth of my Savior really gives me a chance to reflect on everything He's done for me throughout the year.  Sometimes I just get so caught up in life and being busy with my three kids that I don't always fully appreciate God's blessing in my life.  But they are there.  God has blessed me in abundance.  I've got an amazing husband, who despite his demanding career as a family physician, manages to help me around the house and with the kids more than most.  He is also on the worship team at church, as well as an elder there, and he co-leads our lifegroup.  He's busy!  But he's my best friend, my partner, the person I can always talk to, the love of my life.  I don't know what I'd ever do without him.  God's also blessed me with 3 beautiful children -- Evan (5), Allyson (4) and Alexa (9 months).  They are my world!  You'll be hearing alot about them!  I also have an amazing family, including my in-laws, and great friends.  My life is far from perfect; I am far from perfect.  But I am God's creation.  The Bible says I was made in His image and that God has a plan for my life.  He is continually molding me into the woman He wants me to be.  I'm not perfect, but though God's grace, I am forgiven.  But I guess this is my first 'confession.'  I don't spend anywhere near enough time thanking God for the way He's working in my life.  So Christmas is a great time for that, and my goal for this year, is to be more thankful!

My Ally just turned 4 this week.  Every year her birthday sneaks up on me!  It's only 3 weeks after Christmas and I always end up planning it at the last minute because I cannot think about anything in the new year until the old year has gone.  Who has time for party planning while you're trying to get ready for Christmas? 

However, Ally's birthday was fast on its way, and in true 4-year old girl fashion, she wanted a princess party.  But she had a princess party last year, so I managed to convince her (and if you knew my daughter, you'd know what a feat the was!) that she wanted a Tinkerbell party!  Once she was onboard, I got started looking at favors.  I always say that I'm going to make it easy on myself and buy the bags filled with the stuff to make 8 favor bags....and I said that again this time!  But then I found myself on Pinterest (my current favorite website of choice, besides facebook of course) looking at the neat Tinkerbell stuff.  I found an awesome party favor (not Tinkerbell related at all) and with the help of my great friend, Sabrina, I found a way to turn it into a Tinkerbell party favor!  Tune in after a couple days and I'll post pics of the whole process!

In the meantime, the stomach flu has shown up in our house.  My 9 month old Alexa started with it Monday night.  None of the rest of us has gotten it, thank goodness, but I've been sticking pretty close to home this week so she can rest as much as possible.  That means late night Wal-Mart trips for birthday supplies, and it's been pretty cold this week!

Stay tuned!  I'll soon be posting projects I've completed, as well as projects I'm working on.