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!

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.

That made me so happy to see people that are really into their cake. It really is fun to see the excitement and passion for cake alive and well.

Isn’t that just so cute? I love the monkey theme.  And THEY had the idea of the palm trees and monkeys hanging from them!

I thought her name and the little monkey faces turned out pretty cute too.

And I LOVED the palm trees! Aren’t they just so cool?

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.

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.

For those of you that watched the Segment and want to see more on the fairy garden cupcakes that I demonstrated, I will have a blog about it coming out hopefully tomorrow.

However, this cake delivery turned into a fun day out on the lake with some really great people. I really enjoyed getting to know such a great family. I just love what I do!

Here is a picture of the cake. I apologize for the picture quality. But a not-so-great picture is better than no picture at all, right?