First Birthday Celebration!

Who doesn't love to celebrate birthdays? I LOVE them! My birthday is my favourite day of the year (well we'll see about this year, turning 30!) Anyways, a friend asked me to make something special for her daughter to wear for her first birthday and of course I said yes!
Her daughter loves Minnie Mouse so of course the outfit had to be Minnie Mouse themed!
First thing was to pick up some tulle at the fabric store. I had thought about buying the spools at Michaels but those were $10 each! And I spent less than $5 on the two different colours at the fabric store, great saving!

First, I laid the tulle on the table and cut it into strips (about 6 inches wide)

Afterwards, I cut the strips in half, they were about 17 inches.

All the strips are cut and ready to roll, it seemed like I had a ton so I used two each time I knotted them around the elastic. 

I put the elastic around a piece of cardboard to keep the tulle even. I made my way around tying on pieces until I reached the other side. 

I cut the pattern out on my cricut (my goodness I love the cricut craft room)! Then I ironed the freezer paper onto the onesie and painted! 

I hung the onesie to dry for 24 hours, it usually dries quickly but I really did not want to smudge anything.

The outfit is all finished and ready for her to wear on her first birthday! 

  

I also made her a smash cake for her to rip into as soon as the big day rolls around :)  

And check out this adorable card I whipped up to go with her present :) Aw she's going to love her birthday! 

Guess Who?

I've been dying to share how well this item turned out but I had to wait until Christmas, as it was a gift for my sister. Well she absolutely loved it. It definitely made everyone laugh!

DIY Guess Who game! I saw the idea on Pinterest and I had to try to make one! I headed to value village and found a used Guess Who game with all the inserts.

Once I found the game, I had to go hunting for pictures of everything I thought should be included in the game. I made a table on Microsoft Word with the exact size of the inserts for the game. I then cropped their heads out of the pictures and pasted them into the table. Print those out and cut!  

It was seriously that easy! It turned out awesome! Hilarious to play!  What a fabulous and meaningful gift idea! 

Christmas Goodie Boxes

I love the holidays! I love everything about them but I REALLY love the baking and goodies! Every year I make holiday goody boxes for my friends and family. It takes a lot of time but I love it and I know they all love eating it! 

I thought this would be the perfect place to put all the recipes and links in case they want to make them or you want to!

 Salted Caramel Chocolate Crunch

You seriously haven't lived until you've eaten this! This is the mix cooling on the table as I break pieces off and eat them before bagging it all up! OMG! 

I can't lie - I'm saving this jar in my cupboard for myself! :) 

Nuts & Bolts

I've never made bits and bites before but this recipe was SO easy! I love using the slow cooker and this saved heating up the oven for hours :) 

Chocolate Caramel and Pecan Turtles

I opted out of making the caramel myself because I don't have a candy thermometer and was scared I'd burn something so I bought a bottle of caramel in the ice cream section. It was good but didn't set up as well as I think the homemade caramel would. 

Peanut Butter Balls 

No link for this one as it's my grandmother's recipe. She had this green rectangular Tupperware container and when that was in the fridge you knew there were peanut butter balls in it! My favourite treat from their house at Christmas time. 

4 cups peanut butter

3 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup margarine, soft

1 egg

Mix all ingredients with a mixer until well blended. Rub extra icing sugar on hands (these get sticky!) and roll into balls. I put the balls in the freezer for an hour or two before melting the chocolate for dipping. With the peanut butter semi frozen, it helps them not fall apart when put in the melted chocolate. Melt one package of chocolate chips with a bit of parafin wax to dip the balls into. You can also choose to use candy melts and not add wax :) 

This is one batch of peanut butter balls - half the recipe if you don't need this much! 

Cookies and Cream Oreo Fudge

Egg Nog Fudge

*Sorry no pictures of these two - I got two excited and put them in the boxes before I took any pictures*

Craft Fair!

I went to my first real craft fair the other night - it was small and wasn't very busy but perfect for a first experience! Everyone seemed to love the onesies - many people commented as they walked by but it wasn't a very buying night!

I did a lot of research before heading to the craft fair - a lot of time spend on pinterest to see what I needed to prepare. I definitely did not realize how much work it would be to make a lot of stock ahead of time. Although I didn't sell a lot of product I now have a lot ready to go, to sell, for gifts or whatever else could pop up!

My advice to all of you - GET OUT AND BUY LOCAL! Support those crafters in your area :)

Here are a few products and my set up at the fair! 

Baby Presents!

A friend of ours had a baby the other day and I just had to make another baby pillow as a gift to go with everything else (gosh I love making and giving presents!) 

I have fallen in love with the Cricut Craft Room - I use to just use the cartridges right on my cricut and now I'm obsessed with the craft room! It's awesome and helped a lot when planning out the stencil for the pillow!

                                             

The recipients loved the pillow and put it in the nursery that same night! Then a few days later they had family photos taken and took one with the pillow - a fabulous keepsake with all her information from birth :) 

I also made a few onesies for her to wear :) 

Cake Smash

I've made a few cake smash cakes and they are so much fun! 

My niece turned one back in July and she was my first cake smash cake. 

Very simple vanilla cake with pink icing swirled around.

She loved it - it was everywhere and she went straight to the tub :) 

My boyfriend's nephew turned one yesterday and I got to make another smash cake!  

His dad is a huge Atlanta Falcons fan so that was the theme of the cake. I made the cake topper on a piece of cardboard so it could be taken off before he dug in. 

Simple piece of cardboard covered in tin foil and then I piped the Falcon's logo! 

Not too much colouring as he's never had cake before so he didn't need lots of dye. 

And he LOVED it! 

Golf Cake

I made one cake for the family to see and I became a hit! haha :) My boyfriend's cousin was having a birthday party for her fiance and asked if I could bring along the cake. The boys started the day off by going golfing so a golf cake was only fitting :)
I found out that he was not a huge fan of cake but enjoyed carrot cake so that's what I made. A 9x13in carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (yummm deliciousness) and believe me once it was made I licked the beaters :)
I died the icings green for the grass and a small bit of blue for some water on the course. I also made some sand traps with graham cracker crumbs. It turned out looking just like a golf course!

I rarely get to see the customer when they view the cake for the first time - so this part was fun! He was very happy and said it tasted delicious as well :)