my blog

ava's birthday.

Summer blogging always seems to get the best of me... maybe it's because I have to share the computer with 4 other people every day, or maybe it's because it's so hot I just don't want to spend all my extra time couped up inside typing away. But whatever the reason, I still need to maintain some sort of part of my online journal (ie. this blog) somewhat this summer.

So where to begin.

Ava had her 6th birthday party. It was all things Hannah Montana. I started off by taking little cupcakes for her kindergarten class (not homemade, I'm such a disapointment, I know) But I did hand cut all those silly little HM stickers and stuck them to toothpicks.

 

So for her family birthday party, we spent the afternoon swimming in the pool and just had a really low key party at home. Ava requested spaghetti for her birthday dinner. Then it was onto cake and presents.

 

We made Ava close her eyes, and I brought down the gift that I've been stashing at a friends house for months. It was from Grandma and Grandpa Coates. At first she had no idea what it was.

 

When she figured it out, she was right in there. Her other gifts sitting wrapped waiting to be opened were long forgotten.

 

 

 

We didn't figure we could top that gift, so we just let her rip into the ones from us.

A Hannah Montana purse. (she asked for a piggy bank, but I could not find one ANYWHERE... But that's okay, we can start a heathly purse obsession early.)

 

The Hannah Montana season 1 on DVD.

 

(are you sensing a theme here?) Well, we broke through the HM barrier and got her another outfit for her teeny puppini stuffy.

 

And the best gift of all... So me and Darren (really me...) debated what type of music system to get her. She loves listening to music and singing and dancing, and I wanted to get her a CD player. But then I thought I'll have to buy her CD's to go with it, and I can't always control every song she listens to.

So we came up with another solution.

 

An IPOD shuffle. (she had no idea what it was...hehe)

So I quickly popped and earphone into her ear (can you guess what Darren had loaded onto it prior to her party?) Yup, full of Hannah Montana music (aproved by Mom I might add)

 

She was thrilled! I don't think she took those ear phones out for 2 days straight. A perfect gift for her.

So her cake. I'm sure you're expecting a marvalous masterpiece from me, but once again-her birthday, her choice. Can you guess what she wanted...

 

Surprise, surprise. At least it was pretty cool you just pulled a cupcake from it. No plates or cutting, my kind of cake.

 

 

 

 

And my camera battery died right after taking this picture (was that lucky or what!) Anyways, slowly getting updated around here. Gotta go and put the kids to bed. Have a great night!

while on my various internet searches, I stumbled upon this hillariousness.

some people take laptop privacy too far...

canada day shirts.

Hopefully I'm not too late posting this... you still have one day left if you're looking for Canada Day t-shirt ideas.

So last year as you all know, I made these shirts for my kids. Well this year, I decided to do a little bit more a keepsake shirt.

So grab your supplies. (forgive my pictures, it was late at night, and I had kids running around my ankles and I was stressing about them working out okay)

 

White t-shirt, red paint, plate, piece of cardboard (or recyling in our case)

Put the cardboard between the two layers of shirt so that that paint won't bleed onto the back.

 

Pour red paint onto plate and coat child's hand in it.

 

(I used my finger to make sure paint was even on Ava's hand, and that she had gotten every place well coated)

Press painted hand firmly in the middle of white shirt.

 

And voila. (you can fill in any areas that got missed by using a small paintbrush)

 

The next step is the start filling in the sides. I just used a small brush and painted right onto the t-shirt.

 

And the other side...

 

And finished. Super easy hey. And they will make great keepsakes for their memory boxes.

 

Yes, I'm even making one for Grey... if I can get his chubby little fingers pried apart long enough to do a hand stamp. Wish me luck.

*Side note- I just used regular acrylic paint that you buy for everyday arts and crafts. The trick is, it will wash off clothes if you do it while the paint is still wet, using warm soapy water before it dries. If you leave it until it drys completely (overnight I would say) then it becomes permanent on fabric.

tootsies.

I guess toes aren't off limits when big sister has a black marker.

last minute father's day ideas.

Now, Darren has promised me that he won't go onto my blog until after tomorrow's festivities, so hopefully I'm safe posting this.

Anyways, if you're looking for a couple of last minute father's day ideas, here's what I'm doing.

So I took the kids Father's Day shopping, and they picked a few gifts (that were amazing sales, thank goodness) So after wrapping them, instead of using the standard ribbon and bow treatment we took a tie and wrapped it around his gifts instead.

 

 

So if you bought Dad a tie this year, bust it out of it's gift wrap or bag, and do something fun with it. I got a great deal on Darren's tie... Value Village (second hand store in Canada) for $3. It was brand new, tags still on it. Gotta love a deal.

The other special thing we're doing, (I don't have any pictures yet, but you'll see tomorrow) is making a banner. Like this picture but made with paper ties.

We'll hang it around our dining room window to celebrate the special guy in our life. So what last minute ideas do you have for the Dad/husband in your life?

final answers.

Is anyone getting sick of this yet?  I promise today will be only fun answers. Nothing boring okay. And even more exciting, you get to see my kitchen all done. (kinda)

Q. Is your own kitchen the same colour? (meaning pink like my kids kitchen)

A. Now I know you were asking this to be cheeky (I can say that cause she's my Aunt and she lives in England... not close enough to come beat me up) :D

Anyways, great question, cause that leads into the final pictures of our kitchen reno!!

Yippee!!

Okay, so a brief reminder of what it looked like to start with, when we bought the house. (their stuff, not ours)

 

We moved around some cabinets. And painted the uppers. (additional pics)

 

Then the window went in. And some new countertops. (additional pics)

 

Alright, are you ready? Now when I say finished, what I really mean is 95% done. We just have a little bit of paint touch ups to do around the window, and I want to get some glass canisters to hold my flour and sugar, and of course fill it with all my pretty things. (art work etc.) But you get the idea.

  

 

 

I still plan on putting my cookie sheets here eventually.

 

Like my new Utensil holder I bought myself for my birthday. :D

 

And of course a before and after to see just how different (and better) it looks now.

So I guess the answer to your question would be no, my kitchen is not pink, it's blue. (smiles)

Q. Any plans for Canada shirts? Any good ideas for me.?

A. Oh my goodness. I didn't realize how close July 1st is already!! WOW! Okay, so the answer would be no, I don't have any great ideas... yet.

Here's what I made last year.

 

We still have the this one... so probably one of my girls will wear it again.

 

Or, maybe I will make everyone in the family matching t-shirts. How fun/awesome would that be!! Do you think Darren would go for it?

On a more serious note, I really should start thinking about this now, so I'm not up sewing them at 2:00 in the morning on June 30th. Thanks for the reminder!

Q. Where did you learn your decorating skills....Is it a natural born talent or did you take classes?

A. All natural baby, just like the blog pictures of myself.

(and we all know how true that is...)

I would like to think I get my talent for decorating from my mom. Who has great style, and sometimes (when we lived in Alberta) let me steal things from her house to decorate mine. The hardest part for me is that I have all these ideas swirling around in my head, but I never have enough money to do them all, or they just don't translate the same in real life.

If I could have any kind of house, I would like to live in a Pottery Barn Catalog. It's just the right mix of modern/eclectic charm that I love.

 

answers part deux.

Q. What about photography? Have you had your own business before in this area?

A. Yes, I did do photography when I lived in Alberta. I started out by taking a photography course at SAIT. It was a beginners class, and I think only 2 people in the class had a digital camera. (so old school huh.) I wasn't one of the two.

Anyways, as our final project we had to do a series of photos based on a theme. My friend was pregnant at the time, so I asked her if she would be my model. She agreed, and the rest is history.

So after her, I started taking pictures for my friends, just for fun. And then their friends wanted pictures done, so I did those too. Mostly I just wanted to practice. I only charged $25 back in the day ($5 was the cost of the disk to be printed at Superstore, and $20 was my profit) Usually editing of the pictures alone would take me 3-4 hours, so it wasn't worth it financially, but definitely worth the experience.

When I moved out here to Ontario, I had a bit of interest in doing photos, but not a ton. Usually the people that ask me to take pictures are my friends, and I like to do that for them for free. Or I will auction off a free photoshoot for Church functions and fund raisers. My skills have gotten a bit rusty over these last couple of years, but I would be willing to do photography on the side, if I had my own in-home studio.

Wanna see some of my earlier photos?

I thought so.

These were some of my final project pictures from my photography class. They were taken with a film camera and then scanned into my computer, so the quality is horrible, but you get the idea.

 

 

  

I know, I know. Beautiful hey.

These are my absolute most recent pictures. Taken today of the kids enjoying Slurpee's.

 

 

Q. AND.....what did you take in college? Or university? Or whatever. I just NEED to know if you were naturally born with your talents....or if you gained them from a course from somewhere.

A. Well, I sorta already answered this one... the only course I have ever taken was my 8 week photography class. I never went to College or University. This is going to sound really, really stupid, but seriously, I get most of my learning/education from the Internet and TV.

My cooking/baking skills have probably improved by 50%, just watching the Food Network. There are so many step by step cooking blogs (ie. Pioneer Woman) that have taught me useful information as well. And the best learning tool of all... trying. There is nothing I won't try. Seriously. And if I can't get it right, I try again and again until I can do it. (for example, these flooded sugar cookies took me a couple of batches and a lot of patience to keep doing it until I felt it was good enough to satisfy my OCD... LOL)  

Also, if it's something you are interested in, then it's easy to pay attention, and to want to learn. And as you all know, I've got my hand in many different pots. I love too many things, and have WAY to many hobbies. It seems like I add new things to try to my list every day.

How about an example shall we.

One day, I logged online, started reading though my blog roll, and I found a tutorial to make these adorable felt bracelet's. I immediately grabbed my tub of felting supplies (from my felt food days) and sat down at the sewing machine and made Ava a bracelet. (She picked the colors, and jazzy stuff herself)

 

 

It was so fun. So easy. Cost me nothing. (cause I already owned it all) And I learned how to make my own jewelry. And the best part is that I don't have any student loans (or a big fancy degree for that matter) and I still learned something new.

I ♥ the internet.

Tomorrow I will answer the rest of your questions, plus have a big post about my all grown up 3 month old baby. It will proably include pictures like this...

 

Proving that you are never too young to be sporting a popped collar.

answers.

You have no idea how excited I was to read your questions. And I've decided that answering them is going to be fun! So before I procrastinate any longer, I'm going to answer a few of them today.

Q. Have you ever used Fondant before? Do you have any tricks?

A. My mom for whatever reason started making wedding cakes when I was a teenager. So yes, I unfortunately have experience with fondant. Helping her make it. Helping her roll it out. Helping her put it on cakes. Helping her smooth it out. etc. etc. (Okay, she did most of the work, but as a snotty nosed teenager, it felt like I was doing ALL the work, jeesh)

Anyways, I didn't pay much attention, but once I started getting into cupcake decorating I really wished I'd learned more from her. But then I found an awesome, awesome fondant recipe that was so easy to make and tastes super yummy too! (My mom's fondant recipe is the real deal with all those fancy ingredients like glycerin and gelatin translation= way complex)

Remember this cupcake? Well, it's toppings are made out of fondant.

 

And here's the recipe.

 

Of course you just add food coloring to make the color you want. I recommend the gel colors because you get a richer, deeper color palette.

As for tips and tricks, I'm not really a pro on using this, but I will say that I find it easier to work with if it's slightly chilled.

If you find it getting sticky, you can dust your countertop and rolling pin with icing sugar or corn starch.

It will keep in the fridge for weeks, but will dry up if exposed to air for too long.

If you're covering a cake in fondant, I would suggest doing a crumb coat with a buttercream frosting, or using a jam or brushing with a sticky syrup first, before you lay your fondant on top. (to prevent it from sliding or pulling away from the cake)

The one thing I remember from my mom making cakes is to move fast. Once the fondant is on top of the cake, smooth away any wrinkles with your palms or a fondant tool.

Also, you don't want to keep the cake in a too cool of place like the fridge, because the fondant will start to sweat and get really sticky once it starts warming up. The garage floor or cellar will work to store the cake.

Don't make it too far in advance, because the fondant will start to dry and crack. Not pretty.

Phew. I think that's all the fondant tricks I know. If all else fails watch Ace of Cakes re-runs and watch how the pros do it. ☺

Q. Have you ever thought of catering before? Or have you already been there and done that?

A. Actually, catering has never crossed my mind once. Weird. Believe it or not, I get really bad anxiety when we have dinner guests over. Sometimes it gets so bad that I make myself sick thinking about whether or not dinner will taste okay. Then I start eating my own dinner and I'm imagining the whole time that it's too salty, or too bland. I end up apologizing lots. I'm sure that sounds super weird, but I would feel so horrible if my dinner guests had to eat some disgusting meal and pretend to like it.

With that being said, it has gotten a lot better in the last couple of years. We had the missionary's over for dinner at least once a week, and gradually my fears subsided. Gross meals wouldn't keep people from taking seconds or thirds. And I always get rave compliments when I cook for others. Even cooler, is that people from Church call me all the time to make stuff. They ask for my recipes and tips, which makes me feel giddy.

Catering, no. But cooking for free and entertaining all the time. Sign me up!

Q. HOW do you stay so slim and gorgeous when you serve cupcakes every few days??!

A. bwahhhhh!!!!! bwahhhhh!!!! Oh, sorry this one had me laughing so hard. Okay, so you want to know the truth? The real truth?

Promise you'll still love me in the end...

Alright, so I'm pretty okay at photoshop, and gasp... (here it comes) sometimes I will alter my pictures to look a little slimmer than I am in real life. A double chin today, gone tomorrow.

Now with that being said, I should put some life lesson here saying, I am the way I am. My children and husband love me no matter what, and what type of skewed image am I creating to lie to my blogger friends.

Well I say, pfffft. Have you seen my sisters? They are skinny and they eat tons of chocolate.

Okay, this is big for me. I will show you side by side an altered photo. I was pregnant, so you can't really expect me to be skinny right??

 

 

And of course black and white pictures make all the difference.

Now, before you go thinking, well maybe she weighs 400 pounds and we just don't know it. I never alter so that it's not believable. Just a little bit here and there, to make me keep getting out of bed on a morning. (wink)

I'll keep answering questions soon. (what fun this is) But Grey is crying, so I best be going.

Ta for now!

baby cooper.

Remember when I took some pictures of my friends baby, Cooper? Well he's a whole month old now, and I got to take his newborn portraits too!  To add to my fun, I decided that for their baby shower gift, I would use the pictures I took to make a slide show, instead of buying them the standard blanket or sleeper. Unfortunately there was a death in their family, and they left this week for England to attend the funeral. So I decided to give them their present early, so they could share with their family while away.

The song is by Ben Folds Five- The Luckiest.

(unfortunately, the quality isn't the greatest... grrr. I hate the conversion to internet sometimes)

questions.

So from time to time,

occasionally,

rarely,

okay, one time somebody out there in blogger land asked me a question (about 4 months ago). And I'm a horrible person, because I didn't answer them. Not because I don't want to, but because sometimes I forget, or I don't read the comments soon enough, or I just plain miss the question being asked all together.

I felt really bad about the whole thing, and to make it up to you (if you still read... wahhh) I've dedicated a whole post about my pink kitchen and your question.

Hopefully this will help any of you mama's out there looking for a knock-off Pottery Barn pink kitchen.

Anyways, so the kitchen.

 

 

The question was: Where did you get your kids pink kitchen?

Well, Santa brought Lily this kitchen 2 years ago, but I know that I've seen them at Costco. Actually, I heard someone say that they usually stock them up right at Christmas time, and it's a repeat item. But start looking around September/October time, cause Costco tends to stock their Christmas items early. ☺

(Brand name Kid Kraft Pink Retro Kitchen)

So, with that being said, here's the great news...have you ever wanted to know something about me? Like how many cupcake books I own, or how much time I spend doing my hair? Or maybe how many crafts I do in a day?

Or maybe you want to know why I'm so fabulous? Or how I find so many hours in a day to be so perfect all the time?

These are important questions people, and I'm prepared to answer them for you.

Of course it would be slightly embarrassing if nobody asked me anything. Then I might just want to die a lonely horrible death, and that can't be good now can it.

I'll leave you with those thoughts, and have a great night!

(pretty please, love me enough to ask me a question...)