I really love buying a new tool from Michael’s. I come home excited to read all the directions (yeah, I’m a nerd.) Today, I bought some fondant sculpting tools. They are pretty awesome!

There are so many things I want to do with them! I can’t wait to make amazing cake and cupcake toppers! They would have come in real handy this week when I made this:

and this:

and these:

No worries. I have 20 more star wars toppers to make tonight! Hooray for fun toys!

If you read this blog often, you’ll remember that my last Topsy Turvy attempt was less than perfect. I was stressed about making another but really tried to focus on what went wrong and how to fix it. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with how well this second one went.

I was very pleased with how this cake turned out – as were the family and friends of my son’s buddy Jase, who turned 2 this past week. The layers are centered and the fondant beadwork looks heavenly! The toppers really brought the Sesame Street theme together but I like it even without!

I learned to make each layer to fit perfectly into the next by making it a little bigger and putting it together in steps instead of waiting until the end. The view from the top was really incredible:

Here is the happy family:

Happy Birthday, Jase!

I’ve never competed in a triathalon. For one, I’m not a great swimmer. Two, I like walking better than running these days. And three, my bike has a large child seat on the back. But after the past few days, I feel like I participated in a massive triathalon! And my training consisted of holding 2 beautiful newborn twin boys for hours on end… not so much exercise if you know what I mean.

Well, like any good athlete, at least I went with the hardest task first. The wedding cake:

As you can see, it was really 2 cakes. But you gotta do as the bride requests! She’s a great girl – a missionary in China – hence the Chinese themes. The chili peppers are a symbol of marriage in China so it was fitting to have them on and around the cakes.

This little bit of magic involved skewers and a lot of faith.

After a 10:00 delivery, I was home in time to work on the second cake of the day. A baby shower cake.

This cake is very similar to a cake on our website, coastalcakery.com, that we made for Ilka’s baby shower. In fact, the customer asked for it specifically but when making a duplicate cake, I like to try to make things even better than the last.

The puppies and booties were fun. I made the puppies much nicer and fuller than the last time:

And the booties – I learned a few new tricks along the way:

The customer loved the cake! I tried to match the bedding as best I could – not only the colors but the style of the rings and she was very impressed.

The final cake of the day is going to be picked up any minute now. I finished it late last night just to be sure and it looks great:

I found the idea on a friend’s facebook from her shower and loved the idea! I couldn’t wait to try it out someday. Liz gave me that opportunity!

The details took some concentrating but turned out nicely:

Whew! I need some refueling of food and sleep! But I won’t be eating any cake!

Today, my good friend Chandler is going to share her amazing earrings with you!

For my friend Vails’s wedding, I wanted to make something special and lasting for her as a gift. Since I love making earrings (Carrie can attest to how I love making them for people!), I decided to make earrings for all of the bridesmaids. I made eight pairs in all. Here they are:

Each pair has a pearl disc and blue gold stones. The stones are made by mixing glass with gold flecks and breaking them into pieces. They are close to the color of the bridesmaid’s dresses and are really fun to work with.

After finishing the last pair, I wrapped them up in cute boxes:

I can’t wait to see the bridesmaids wearing them tomorrow!

~Chandler

I haven’t posted in many weeks, and I am sad to say I don’t have any pictures of craftiness to put up! Matt and I left Atlanta at the end of June and took a round-a-bout way to return to Delaware. We visited family from Arkansas to Iowa to Illinois, and it was a nice chance to see the middle of the country. We went out to eat, canoed down the Middle Raccoon River, road a historic steam train, and held some sweet 2-week old, little nephews!

In Arkansas we stayed with my cousin Emily and her husband Doug, and Emily and I got to sneak over to a craft store for an afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Emily hand makes greeting cards, and gave me a sweet one (which is packed somewhere so I couldn’t take a photo) for my birthday. I mentioned to her the wonders of Etsy for buying and selling handmade items, and I realized a lot of people may not know about Etsy.com. I’ve been shopping for gifts on Etsy for a while now – its an amazing plethora of handmade items – like a candy store for craft lovers! Sections for supplies and vintage items are also fun to peruse and super addictive. I decided to get Emily a few things from Etsy as a thank you for having us stay with them for a few days. These treasures will go out in the mail to Emily this week.

Aren’t they the sweetest! I ordered the buttons and the stamp (Emily is a dog lover), and all of the other items were included in the package – how generous of Nut and Bee! Check out her shop on Etsy – just don’t blame me if you spend lots of time looking at the handmade goodness!