I’m involved with a local Moms club and every year we do a children’s consignment sale to get rid of all our extra clothes and raise money for a local organization that benefits kids and families. This year I did some selling and some shopping and came across a great piece of furniture.

My son’s toy area in the basement was growing and stuff was being piled up all over the place. I had found some great shelf organizers for upwards of $70 at Target but didn’t want to fork over all the money for something like this:

Fortunately at the consignment sale, I found this beauty (already filled with my toys):

But, as you can see, it was missing a few buckets. Either one large one or 2 small ones. But I’m a dreamer and figured I could do something about it. So for $10, I brought this beauty home!

I took a piece of fabric that I previously used as a curtain in our egress window in the basement. It had a hem around the edges and I folded it in half. I then wrapped it around the top 2 bars and pinned the ends together, leaving a generous slack. And voila:

My son’s new toy organizer complete with book shelf! It fit almost all of his books perfectly! I was so excited!  It’s fun to be successful in random crafting!

I made this cake for a 40th birthday party for a friend. She had tried one of my practice cakes months ago and has been asking for it ever since. It’s a vanilla cake with tangerine marscapone mousse filling and buttercream icing. It is a delicious cake that tastes very fancy but is a fairly simple recipe. I’d be happy to share it if you email me.

I like the simplicity in the design. The white gum paste flowers (thanks Madalyn!) and the white icing keep the classy level high.

I added a tiny bit of food coloring into the piping bag that I wrote Happy Birthday with. I like just a hint of blue in the white icing. Apparently it was Courtney’s favorite birthday treat so I am happy to have had the honor of making it! Plus, I now have a new found love of gum paste!

Last weekend I had a dinner party to celebrate my husband’s 30th birthday. I wanted something fun and fallish to decorate the table and I had a vision of what I was looking for. One trip to my in-laws house and it was a reality!

I found a great piece of wood in the firewood pile that was flat on the bottom but had a nice curved bark-covered top. I brushed it off in the work sink with a heavy brush to get rid of most of the dirt and gunk. My mother-in-law sprayed it with some Clorox clean-up to make sure nothing was still living in it.

I hired my Father-in-law to drill holes in it. I measured my candles before I left home and they were about 7/8″ so he used that same size drill bit. We made sure they were deep enough and wide enough to fit a regular candle and then shook off the sawdust.

When I got home, I put in these great candles. I love that they look almost wood-like on their own. It was too drab as it was but with a little digging, I found these beads in my craft closet. They give it a nice touch for the fall season.

For Christmas I plan on laying some holly with red beads on the base. All in all, it’s a great centerpiece that literally cost me nothing!

Tracy’s Goddaughter just turned 7 and, although it is hard to believe how old she is getting, she did need a cake to help celebrate! She requested a simple cake with a big bow on it. One of my favorite things about baking is how the simplest things can really make a birthday girl (or boy) smile!

Kayla and her friends got to fight over who got to have the bow – which is all fondant – aka – not that tasty! But it’s her party…

Happy Birthday Kayla!