A Very Merry Unbirthday to You!

Well, I guess you can't really call this an "Unbirthday," but it definitely wasn't a birthday party. Then again, it wasn't a baby shower either.

I have been wanting to make an "Ombre" cake since I first saw it on Pinterest!
So happy with the way it turned out!

You see, this is my sister's third child, but it's her first little girl. I guess you could call what we had a "Baby Sprinkle." These are all the rage now. Since Brooke had lots of little boy stuff but nothing for a little girl, we thought it would be fun to have a super girly tea party so we could "sprinkle" her with love and goodies for her newest addition!

These were so much fun to create! I am glad I had canvases on hand! :) 

I feel like our apartment just works really well for a "Mad Hatter" Tea Party. 

Mom, the flowers were PERFECT!
(and by the way, Evan does not want them to die! He keeps watering them!)

This type of party embodies everything I love about little girls. We had tea sets all around, pink and green decorations, flowers everywhere, tiny tea sandwiches, cupcakes and a VERY pink cake!

AND I GOT TO BUY GIRL CLOTHES!

Ok. Slight confession here: Evan bought the clothes. I was so busy the week leading up to the sprinkle that I didn't have time to go by and pick up what I wanted to get my new little niece, Lila Brynn. I didn't go before this week because I knew Carter's was about to start their massive baby sale! I just love that place. Anyway, the morning of the shower, as I was putting the finishing touches on the bar back, Evan went to Carter's. Alone. And he picked out the cutest darn things ever. We are so in trouble if we ever end up having girls. 

This is my favorite thing Evan picked up! 

Brooke's friends got her some of the cutest things too!! :)

Monograms are so cute!

Almost too cute to use!

Precious little dresses! Girls are so much fun!

Mom found the pink chenille horse at the Yellow Daisy Festival!
It was made from old bedspreads! How neat!

While he was running errands for me, I was cleaning, organizing and decorating. My absolute best friend in the world (and I'm not just saying that so she'll come over and clean again, but I also would never refuse her if she offered that!!), Genesis, came over a little early to help. My mom also showed up and brought all the yummy goodies she and my Aunt Holly had prepared. We had yummy fruit salad, pasta salad, cucumber sandwiches and the tastiest punch I've ever had! I could never have gotten everything done in time if it hadn't been for them!

I used the fabric for Lila Brynn's nursery as my inspiration for the invites!

Mom did SUCH a great job with these banners!
I am wondering if I can use them again...

Brooke LOVES pasta salad! Mom and Holly made the yummiest I've ever had!

Confession: I did not make these. Evan bought them.
Sometimes convenience trumps creativity! 

Genesis made the lemon squares and I made the cake (of course!) and we had such a lovely set-up. We were so happy to have all Brooke's close friends and the ladies of the family!

I didn't make these either. That goes out to Gen! 

Ashley, our cousin-in-law, had her very own Lyla just 3 weeks ago.
She looks pretty amazing already! Way to set the bar WAY too high, Ashley.
(note: I will NOT look this good that early...sorry, babe.)

My best friend, my awesome sister and probably the world's best Aunt!
I am so lucky to have such wonderful women in my life!

You've always got to have an "eating" shot. This is proof they enjoyed themselves!

As always, I couldn't have done all of this without you, Gen!

The beautiful guest of honor! You do NOT look 8 months along!!

I won't bore you with all of the nitty gritty details! If you want details, I'll give them to you! Thank you to everyone who helped and I loved celebrating this exciting new addition to our family! :) 

Again, I must say, I cannot believe you are 8 months along.
P.S. Mom and Holly made this awesome headpiece for Brooke to wear at the shower
and for Lila Brynn to wear when she plays dress up! Sweet!

Lila Brynn, we cannot wait to meet you! 

Celebrating Marriage!

While it's a little early to celebrate our marriage just yet (I mean, we haven't even been married for 6 months...), I was so excited when my boss asked me to help plan her in-laws' 40th wedding anniversary! 

It's so reassuring to see people who are still in love with each other after being married for so long! I can only hope that we will be just as happy in 39 years and 7.5 months! 

My boss and I scoured Pinterest for some amazing ideas and then put our own spin on things. I helped her create a wreath for their front door, a chalkboard sign and a fantastic cake. I won't go into much detail about the wreath and sign, but I'll explain the cake a bit more below. Enjoy these pictures in the meantime!

I have to say, I had SO much fun making this cake!

The boss didn't want anyone to bump into it, so she put it in the corner. 

It's not perfect, but I did it pretty quickly...on my lunch break. 

This actually turned out WAY cuter than I thought it would!

Ok, so this cake was a first for me. I had never worked with gumpaste before. It was SO much fun!!! I had such a ball! Oh, and the silly puppy did too. In fact, she decided to eat some of the leftovers...that was a fun digestive experience for her. 

I digress. I tinted the gumpaste, rolled it out, used a handy dandy cookie cutter and used these marvelous flower forming cups. 

You can find these at Michaels. They are super helpful!

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I didn't have quite enough of the cups, so we improvised...with wine glasses. Wish I had a picture of this, but I was too busy to remember to document the process.

The centers of the flowers were crystal beads we found at Michaels. I threaded wire through the holes and twisted until I had little sticks. Obviously, these weren't edible. No word on whether anyone tried them, though.

I alternated between pink and white layers, different sizes and let them "set up" a little differently for each layer. Once they were kinda set up, I assembled them and stuck my crystal/wire stem through them. I wanted them all to hang naturally, but I hadn't thought to purchase one of these: 

So I had to improvise. I twisted the head of a wire hanger (Mommy Dearest flashbacks, anyone?) and let them hang from the fireplace overnight. Clearly I closed the door to the bedroom so no curious kitties or precocious pups would try to taste them. 

As for the cake itself, I basically doctored up a vanilla cake mix by adding a box of vanilla instant pudding and changing the liquid measurements a tad. Don't remember exactly what I did though so will try to find that recipe later. Promise! Scout's Honor! (Haha...but I wasn't a scout so you can't hold me to it!)

As with all icing emergencies, I defer to the person I consider to be the baking guru...Whisk Kid. I followed her directions for Italian Meringue Buttercream. Almost perfectly. Except I'm not perfect and I'm very impatient and this lack of patience and perfection caused me to have to wait a while for things to look as good as hers. Don't be like me. Follow the directions. And don't use boxed egg whites. They just don't work as well. 

Oh, and I also decided to flavor my icing with a little Amaretto. Just to make it interesting. Icing it was a royal pain. I wanted to make it as smooth as possible, so I kept sticking it back in the freezer and then smoothing it out with a paper towel. I know this sounds silly, but it really helped a lot! 

Anywho...after everything was said and done and perfect enough, I stuck the flowers in and, well, you see the final result...and apparently it tasted pretty good too! Success!! 

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Jones'. And yes, that's actually their name, not some pseudonym!