Vintage Storybook Canvases

I made these for Jess's shower back in June from a legitimately vintage storybook called "Little Miss Muppet and Other Nursery Rhymes" that I found at an antique store in Monterey on our anniversary trip. I loved how they turned out, and found it quite funny that I spent almost an hour on painting the peach colored one, and then in a rush I painted the rest in about 15 minutes or so, and I actually liked how those ones turned out better! It's weird how that worked out...

My goal was to make the background look shabby-chic and worn down, in order to imbue a more vintage look to them, and I did this by underpainting them with burnt sienna and then dry brushing them with a single color and with both white and buttermilk in varying degrees, while letting the background show through in certain places. I like the sea green one so much that I want to make something similar for my own house, though I'm stumped as to what. I just refinished them a few weeks ago, by applying several coats of Modge-Podge to them, and I love how they look now. I believe Jess was going to use them in her nursery since it fit her theme, which makes me feel majorly loved! After all, I love seeing my art in other people's homes!!! (Haha, no pressure, Jess, no pressure!)

Willow's Blue and White "Willow Ware" Henna Cake

This weekend I was truly blessed to be able to make the cake for my niece's 13th birthday party. My sister put together the most beautiful tea party for her, and invited all of her close friends and relatives as well as the women who had a big spiritual impact on her life. It was phenomenal and I had such a blast!

It was a tea party, and my sister gave me full reign over what to design the cake like. She told me however that Willow loved butterflies and flowers on cakes, and that I could do any color that was pastel or vintage, in order to fit in with all the tea sets. She also told me about Willow's "Willow Ware China" that she used to play with as a small girl. I imagine you've probably seen it before - it's quite striking and has traditional Asian designs made of royal blue on white porcelain. So I decided to try to incorporate everything she said, minus the pastel.

I have been dying to try white henna designs on a white cake, and so I decided that the sides of this one would be completely covered with free hand paisleys, butterflies and flowers, with dots of various sizes to fill up the spaces between. This ended up working beautifully, since I ended up having a four hour long battle with my fondant that just did not end pretty. It was my fault - I tried adding all the shortening at once instead of just as I needed it, and the result was a crumbly, cracking mess that had absolutely zero elasticity. I saved it by adding more melted marshmallows and powdered sugar, but it was still cracked all over and I had to roll it extra thick, which I really don't like to do. Lesson learned! But at least all the white designs covered up the cracks, so you really could not tell in the end.

As for the top, I wanted to paint on the legit "Willow Ware" design, so the design itself is not original. As a side note, I would not have done that if I had been making a cake for sale, because I strongly feel that it would have been a copyright violation, and I am so extremely against that, but since it was a gift for family, I knew it wouldn't matter in this case. The way I made it was by painting with food coloring watered down with water and then outlining it with buttercream. I am rather proud of how it turned out, since I was really worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off. And I think I found my signature stacking border - ripples of buttercream topped with edible pearls. I just love the impact that makes and the elegance it lends to the cake.

Well, my dear Willow, I love you so very, very much and it has been such a joy watching you grow into a beautiful young lady, both inside and out. I absolutely love spending time with you and think you are just the bees knees! Seriously though, I love you sweetie pie and I am so very proud of you! Happy birthday girlie!

Coral Colored Henna Cake

Here's my most recent cake I just finished this Saturday for a dear friend of mine, Joslyn. Her sweet little sister is getting married (which I must add is just crazy to me, because I remember when she was just a teeny little middle-schooler - where has all the time gone!?!), and so for her bridal shower I was asked to make this cake. They wanted a henna style cake with white and coral colors and this two-tiered design is what I came up with. The cake itself was made of lemon with lemon frosting on the bottom, and yellow cake with buttercream and strawberry filling on the top. I got the recipe for the strawberry filling from Wilton's website, and oh man, does it ever taste amazing! Super easy to make, too. We used the leftover filling as an ice-cream topping, and it tasted just like the stuff from Dairy Queen. Oh yum-yum! =D

Peach Colored Ruffle Cake & a Vintage Storybook Shower

Back in June, my friends Jaime, Angie and I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for a dear friend of ours, Jessica. I can't believe her little girl is already here! Little Winnie was born just this last week, on Wednesday in fact, and she is absolutely perfect! I seriously can't wait to meet her in person!

When I first found out what the theme of her nursery was going to be, I absolutely fell in love with it and just had to base the shower off of it. "Vintage storybook" is what she called it, and it was just such a sweet idea. I had sooo much help from my friends Jaime and Angie, from my own momma Cindi, and of course Jessica's momma Julie, who catered it with the most amazing food from Piazza Catering. My mother-in-law Karla and even my sister and my other mother-in-law Deolinda (or rather my sister's mother-in-law who I've kinda adopted as my own too) helped with the decorations as well. I seriously could not have done it without any of them! Thank you all so, sooo much!

I had thrown around the idea of making a literal storybook cake for the shower, and was going to paint a picture on it with food coloring, but realized that this was WAY too ambitious considering everything else I needed to get done, so about a week before the shower I decided to change it up and make a ruffle cake instead. I felt that a stacked cake would be more elegant than a single layered cake would have been, and though I'd never made one like that before, I decided to try it out. I figured if it didn't work I could just do two cakes or something anyways. But for the most part it worked great, though there definitely was a good side to the cake! And I learned I really need to buy some supports if I'm going to be doing that again, just so it is a little stronger when it's moved and so the top layer doesn't crush the layer below it. It was quite yummy, though, and fit what I wanted perfectly, so I am really quite proud of how it turned out. Here's my peach colored vintage ruffle cake, made of devil's food and buttercream on the bottom and strawberry with strawberry and buttercream icings on top:

As for the rest of the shower, here are some of the other little details that we put together:

So Jaime came up with the idea of having bookmarks as our favors, which I loved because it was both practical and made perfect sense for our theme. And they turned out amazing! Jaime, you did such a great job on them! I really loved the fabric backing and am going to have to steal that idea for sure! We played a "Guess the Price" game which I found an idea for on Pinterest, though ours looked entirely different. We also made a bunch of toothpick "flags" using vintage storybook images and I borrowed as many authentic vintage items as I could, to complete the feel. Oh, and my personal favorite thing to make - the Vintage Storybook Lanterns! I found the idea on Pottery Barn Kids and just had to make them. And with my mom's circle cutter they were a cinch! I'm thinking of printing off a bunch of Seahawks logos and finding some blue and green gingham paper to make some for the boys room... I really wish I had gotten some pictures of the amazing garland Julie made with a string of lights and scraps of vintage fabrics. It was just beautiful! That is most definitely going on my to-do list for Christmas decorations, let me tell ya!

We had such a blast putting this shower together, and I have to be honest, I've really missed my late night crafting moments with Angie and Jaime! Congratulations again, miss Jessica, your little girl is beautiful! Well, I'm sure I've babbled on for far too long now, so I'll let you go. Have a blessed day!

Emma

Back in March, I got to do a session of this gorgeous little girl along with my sister-in-law Kimie, who was really the one in charge of the shoot. We've been playing around with the idea of going into business together, but I think I was really just there for emotional support for her more than anything else! =) Haha, anywho, this little doll's name is Emma, and she is one gorgeous little girl! If I ever do decide to brave getting pregnant again, and IF we actually had a girl the next time, I would most definitely dress her just like this. I love, love, LOVE all the ruffles!

I had such a fun time trying this out with Kimie, and got to see just how nice it is having someone to work with! No driving by yourself, no worrying that you didn't get any shots, and most of all, MUCH less stress and a lot more fun! The only hard parts were trying not to get in each others way and making sure that each of us got the shots we wanted. Oh, and trying not to compare yourself with one another. I'm so bad at that!

All in all, we both had a blast together and just absolutely loved taking Emma's pictures. We only wished we had more time with her - she's just so stinkin' cute! And I definitely look forward to working with Kimie again, that's for sure! After all, we've been joking about creating "The Adams Family Art Gallery" for years now, with Kimie's photography, Kelsey's paintings and ceramic wonders and my art as well. What do ya think? It's good to dream, right? Okay, well I've talked enough for one post, so I'll let you go, but after you're done here, why not hop on over to Kimie's new blog to see her take on Emma. Hope you enjoy! Oh, and of course... Happy First Birthday Miss Emma!!!

Oh Wow! God, You Amaze Me!!!

So about a week or so ago I lost my mouthguard (yes, I'm so hot I get to wear a mouthguard at night!). And by lost, I mean LOST! It was nowhere. We pulled out the dressers, checked up and downstairs, rummaged through the trash. Nada. I mean, I even checked my bible, as random as that is, just in case it got closed in it or something. But nope, no matter how hard we looked, it was nowhere to be found. So I made an appointment for last Friday to get another one made, because I just can't live without it (it keeps me from getting blinding migraines because I clench my teeth at night). Well, Friday morning came around and as my alarm went off, I turned to Tyler and asked him what I should do, because I just didn't have peace about going to the appointment without trying one last good look. After all, the silly thing cost $300 - yikes! We decided to reschedule and look some more, but after looking that day, we still couldn't find it. Then Saturday night rolls around, and after looking a bit more just to make myself feel better, I give up and pray out to God, "Please Lord, I don't care if it was me that lost it or if it was Levi who threw it away or hid it, but God, please just work a little miracle here and bring it back to me. I really don't want to buy a new one." And with that, I grabbed my bible as I slipped into bed. Upon grabbing it, I felt something funny underneath the cover, so I open it up, and lo and behold, there is my nightguard, just sitting in there, as if it were a little gift from God! I was floored! I mean, FLOORED! How cool is that?! This isn't the first time this has happened, after all. Remember back when we couldn't find Levi's medical card anywhere, and it fell out of my bible randomly the week I needed it? And remember the fact that I had already thoroughly checked my bible earlier in the week? God is so cool!!! Thank you Lord, for all the amazing little miracles that just make me love and trust you even more! I love the fact that You are a God who can move mountains and set the stars into motion, and yet You also love me so much that You do wonderful little things like this that just mean the world to me! You are such an Awesome God!!!

Meet My Nephew, Nolan

Oh man, this little guy sure is a cutie-pie! He actually reminds me a lot of my own little babies, aside from the fact that he got his daddy's nose... And maybe his chin too... Okay, so maybe he doesn't look as much like them as I thought, but I definitely see both his parents in him, that's for sure! He's so sweet and little, and it was a pleasure to get to meet and hold him! I sure wish they didn't live so far away, because it's going to be hard seeing him look so different every time. But I will treasure the times we do have with him, because he is, well, a treasure! I love you so much already, little Nolan! And congratulations Kelsey and Jeremy! You guys did an amazing job bringing this little man into the world and I know you will raise him to be a man after God's own heart! =)