I know it’s been a while since I have posted a blog. That definitely does not mean that I haven’t been busy. In fact, the exact opposite is most likely my reason. So many things have been happening, that I am a little overwhelmed with where to begin. So, I’ll do my best to get you all up to speed withing the next little while in my few spare minutes.

For starters, the most fun news. I went to San Diego a few weeks ago for the ICES convention. It was a great experience. It was my first time attending as well as my first time instructing at an ICES convention. I look forward to many more years of ICES conventions. I also look forward to other trips to San Diego! It is so beautiful there. My family came along and we made a family vacation out of it. All of the things we did were so much fun. I missed some of the family fun because of the convention but I was having my own fun. So someday I want to go back and do all of the things with my family that I missed out on. I didn’t get a chance to take as many pictures as I would have liked. There was so much to take in. It’s a lesson learned for next time.

Anyhow, Hopefully I can get the things posted that I would like to, like my ICES class and how that went, how the classes I took at ICES went, some of the recent cakes that I have done, some personal news, and most importantly classes that I will be offering coming up SOON!

The August issue of Cake Central Magazine is here! I hope you all have a chance to see it. The cakes keep getting better and better. And they are adding a lot of content to the magazine as well. It’s a really good issue. I especially liked the article from Kaysie Lackey entitled, “Cake Decorator is not a dirty word”. A lot of decorators shy away from the title of cake decorator and choose the title cake artist or cake designer. While I’ve used these terms as well, I’m not afraid to call myself a cake decorator. It’s what I do and I love it!

Now for the real reason for mentioning the magazine. I have yet another cake featured in it. It’s in the Now and Then section on page 70. I really liked the way this one turned out. I hope you all get a chance to see it. I will be posting the picture in about a week if you don’t.

I know this isn’t cake related, but these fairy wings were so cute and easy to make that I had to share.

Here are the things that you will need to make your fairy wings:

2 metal hangers (I used white ones since they matched and didn't need extra things to hide the metal)

Wire cutters

Duct Tape

white or ivory nylons (preferably knee highs and without toe supports. I couldn't find any without.)

Spray paint-optional (I used a light green and pink)

Sparkle puff paint

Ribbon or elastic

Flowers, ribbon, or other embellishments

So here’s how I did it. Take 2 hangers and cut the rounded part off with the wire cutters.

Bend the hangers into the shape desired and tape them together using duct tape.

Cut the ends of the nylons away from the rest of the pair and stretch them around the wire. Be careful not to pull on the cut end of the nylons or you will create runs. Then twist the nylons around the center and tape it down.

Spray paint the wings. I used light green in the center of the wings and pink on the outside that blended into the green. Once that dries, decorate the wings with glittery puff paint.

Once everything is dry, bend the wings and then add ribbon or elastic to hold the wings on the ‘fairy’. I used ribbon because it was cute. It would be easier for the child to take them off and put them back on if they had elastic though. Then hot glue whatever embellishments you want to hide the duct tape. I used a few big flowers that I found at the dollar store.

There you have it! Cute fairy wings that will be loved and played with every day. At least they get played with every day at my house!

Now for a promise I hope I can keep. By next week I will have a video tutorial posted on the Fairy Garden Cupcakes. Simple but fun for little parties.

WARNING! This post is picture overkill. All of the pictures were just so cute that I couldn’t narrow it down any more than this.

My little girl just turned 5 and we just happened to be having a small family reunion that day. So my wonderful mom, and my awesome sisters (including sisters-in-law) helped me put together the cutest 5 year old birthday party I’ve ever seen. So, I thought I would share some of the cute things we did.

The theme for the party was FAIRIES! What’s more fun for little girls than putting on a cute pair of fairy wings, a flower headpiece and a fluffy pink tutu? I would have to say that about tops the charts on the list of all time favorite things for little girls. So, I did some research on how to make some homemade wings, and my seamstress of a sister (who makes amazing cloth diapers) made the tutus.

If you know my family, birthdays are not a big deal.  I honestly only remember getting about 3 birthday presents throughout my entire childhood. So the fairy world was quite the production for us. We had a fairy world set up in the backyard. A nice wooden arbor was the entrance and we had some stakes placed in a large circle which we connected with simple pink crape paper. Inside the circle was a fairy bower made out of pink tulle and a hula hoop suspended from a tree with a table and benches for the fairies to make their crafts and have a tea party. Then everything was adorned with pink Pink PINK . Flowers, butterflies, bows, anything pink and glittery was in this fairy world.

So, here’s how the party went. The Fairy Queen (my brother’s girlfriend) brought all of the girls to the entrance of the fairy world. They waited (somewhat) patiently to have their faces painted and have their fairy accessories put on.

Then the fun began. They all sat around the table inside the bower and made toadstools out of easter eggs and aluminum foil.

They really did turn out cute. Then they made little fairies out of clothespins, tulle ribbon and flowers.

After the crafts, they all went over to hear a fairy story told by the Queen Fairy. Then it was back to the bower which had been magically transformed into a tea party.

They decorated their own little fairy gardens on cupcakes which I had prepared. There were toadstools, stones, and flowers, with a sprinkling of fairy dust (sugar sprinkles).

Then they had flower shaped sandwiches and fairy wands (fruit kabobs) with a cup of nectar (pink lemonade). When they were finished they were sent on a fairy treasure hunt to find sparkly buttons and beads which were then made into bracelets.

My little girl was just giddy to have such a fun party and all of the girls had so many fun treasures to take home. I’ve never seen a cuter sight than 10 of my cute little nieces fluttering around in their fairy world. It was truly magical. Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for the festivities, and thanks to my sister-in-law Britta for the amazing pictures!

Oh I forgot the boxes! My mom and sisters covered shoe boxes for the girls to hold all of their fun new treasures.

Tomorrow I’ll have pictures and instructions on how I made these cute fairy wings.

I have had some internet issues this week. I apologize for not posting. So to make up for it, the next few posts are guaranteed to have pictures. I am really excited to be getting a new cell phone in a few weeks. It will have a much better camera than the one I have on my current phone. That way, when I don’t have time to pull out a nice camera or call my photographer, I can still get really good picture.

Another thing that I am excited for is my new camcorder. I am playing with it and I will be working at making a tutorial video. Don’t hold your breath though. Give me a few weeks to get everything figured out.

Ok, now for the pictures. These pictures are of some flowers that I am doing for a cake right now. The flowers are mostly white. There are roses, hydrangeas, peonies and hypernicum berries. I can’t wait to get them arranged and on the cake.

I’m pretty sure I made way too many. I have a habit of doing that. But it’s better to have too many than not enough right? Besides I love to make them.

I got a funny email yesterday from my good friend Paula Ames. She was my lead assistant on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off. I was sitting at the bank waiting for my turn and I decided to check my email on my phone. I started reading this email and I could hardly contain my giggles. It was quite entertaining. I thought my baker friends might get a kick out of it, so I thought I’d share. I don’t know the source, so if anyone out there knows, I would love to give credit to the creative mind who made me smile.

Hope you all have a good day!

I have had several requests from people that would like to learn a couple of techniques that they have seen on my cakes. I thought about posting some tutorials but then I thought I could one-up that. I am in the works of recording some videos that I’ll be posting on YouTube. It will be a few weeks before they will be ready to go, but I was so excited about the idea that I had to share. I have plans to share my quilting technique that was done on my Ultimate Cake Off cake for the first video. If you have any special requests, now is the time. Let me know what you would like to see, and it might be a future video.

So, my absence in blogging has been due to the weather. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. It has been so warm and sunny here, I just had to take advantage of it. We have been walking and riding bikes and sanding my kitchen cupboards. Yes, I am STILL working on it. It seems that whenever I go out to sand, the clouds rush in and we get a nice spring shower. I am determined to get them all finished this weekend though. That’s probably why Mother Nature decided to send the rain today and tomorrow.

This summer is already packed full with family, cakes, and classes. I hope to be able to fit in swimming, walks, bike riding and gardening with everything else that is going on. It’s all about balance.

It has been a week since I have blogged. I haven’t had much going on this week. I’m just working on paperwork and getting things organized for busy weeks ahead. Things are coming together really well for the gumpaste sugar class and I am in the process of working things out for the Fairy Cake class coming in August.

Aside from that, I have had a free week to work again on my kitchen remodel. Yes, I know it’s been weeks since I started. Cakes come up and things get put on hold. I’ll get this finished eventually. The weather is nice today, so I’ll be sanding more cupboards.

I had my photographer take pictures of the Star Trek cake that I did over the weekend. I know you’re all dying to see it, right? I’ll get them posted as soon as I can.

Today there are cake decorators all over the world that are baking away. Getting ready for the weekend events. There is no weekend for this profession. But I guess it makes up for the fact that we have the coolest jobs in the world. I love what I do. I hope all of you cake decorators out there are enjoying making your cakes. And I hope all of the cake clients out there appreciate the hard work that we do, and that your cake is tasty.

I love cake decorating!