Lily Pad Paper's Wedding Pieces

For my beautiful friend, Laurie, I did a couple of paper products for her gorgeous wedding in November 2010. She had one of the most fabulous weddings at The (Fabulous) Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Not only was I honored to have a touch of Lily Pad Paper in her wedding, I was honored to be a part of her wedding as a bridesmaid. (And she was one of mine, same weekend, 9 years prior...)

Vintage Aprons

For Christmas last year, I gave my best friend's girls a baking-themed gift. My favorite part was these vintage-inspired aprons that I made with the help of my very talented mother-in-law. This time last year, I was very new to the craft of sewing. I am by no means a pro now, but I feel more comfortable doing it on my own. (Simple stuff.....)

Happy Halloween!

I have to say, Halloween is truly one of my favorite holidays. Partly, because of how creative you can get for it, and also because I am a HUGE fan of Fall!!! The lanterns are new this year, and are on my front porch. The totally awesome (made by me) and glittery wreath, is a craft carried over from last year. I couldn't find one I like in the stores, so I made one myself! I'll be doing the same, soon, with a Fall/Harvest one.....

Happy Fall, Y'all!!!

I had to make a baked good for a bake sale that my floor at Kennestone was doing to raise money for the Heart Walk. I chose a Pumpkin Cake. Coincidentally, I got this recipe from a cookbook that I bought from a fundraiser for last year's Heart Walk. Let me just say two things: SIMPLE AND DELICIOUS. I am a person that is obsessed with all things pumpkin, so when I was introduced to this recipe last year, I rose to the challenge. Here is my masterpiece (yes, I had to dress it up for a picture), topped with cream cheese icing. I sliced it up and bagged it for the sale. Sold out in no time. :)

Recipe, you ask??? Why, of course!!!

Pumpkin Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing

Cake:

3 cups sugar

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cooking oil

1 can pumpkin

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

6 eggs

2/3 cup water

1 cup chopped nuts, toasted

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

Stir together oil, sugar, water, eggs, and pumpkin. Add flour sifted with dry spices to first mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour in Bundt pan or two loaf pans.

Icing:

1/2 stick butter, unsalted

1 8-oz. cream cheese, softened

1 box confectioner's sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and cheese. Add sugar and mix until well blended. Add vanilla and stir well. Frost cake when cooled. Sprinkle top with toasted chopped nuts.

(The only thing I changed was instead of using cloves and nutmeg, I used 1 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice.)

A Morning of Shopping Fun

Okay, so I had to do this one solo (Stephanie had to pack....)

I had my own personal shopping morning to all of my favorite "crafty" spots. Michael's, Jo Ann's, and Hobby Lobby. I even made a quick stop in Cost Plus World Market and Target. Can't forget those!

I was in craft heaven! I only bought things related to Halloween. I am trying to increase my design and decorating for this holiday. I did a little bit last year and I am adding to it for this year. New ideas in mind.... And, I am so OCD that I will ONLY decorate for Halloween until November 1st. Then, I'll put away Halloween and bring out Fall/Harvest decor. (he he)

Stay tuned! Stephanie and I have a craft day set aside for all of our seasonal creations!

My First "Official" Wedding Design

I so graciously accepted the task of assisting in the help of designing a wedding by one of my very close friends from college, Laurie Burns. She has an adorable friend, Jen, who hired us on to design and co-coordinate her wedding back in April. Ceremony and reception were both held at Park Tavern, in Piedmont Park. What a gorgeous location!

Our duties for the wedding were to order and design all floral related decor, decorate the venue for both ceremony and reception, and assist with the rehearsal, ceremony, and reception. Not only were Laurie and I EXSTATIC about our jobs, but we had sooooo much fun as guests at the wedding as well. It was such a fun weekend in Midtown. We also got to spend another two nights in our beloved W Hotel. I love that place.

So, for our masterpieces. We had so much fun creating and designing together, and hope to create our own little business one day of event design.

*****

1) Our work space at Cut Flowers the day of the wedding. We worked hard, but had a blast.

We cut, we arranged, we tied, we designed. 7 hours of work paid off!

2) Guest book table in foyer.

3) Guest table seating assignments for reception.

Name cards (courtesy of Lily Pad Paper) placed in a tray of river rocks.

4) Aisle bouquets at the corner of each side.

5) Unity Candle table adorned with pink petals and green orchids.

6) Altar arrangements.

7) Flower Girl basket.

8) Table arrangements lined up on bar prior to ceremony.

9) Our table design for reception. Complete with lime green hydrangeas, pink tulips, green orchids, pink peonies, and fuschia satin ribbons. Lily Pad Paper was also honored to create the table numbers.

View of room before reception.

10) Bride's bouquet (green orchids) and Bridesmaids' bouquet (pink tulips).

11) Blythe and Laurie: two very happy event designers.

"Cheers!" to all of our hard work!

First Experiences With Decorative Cakes

I love to bake, but I am not very good at free-hand painting or drawing. Therefore, I think my cakes taste so much better than they look. I do, though, try to make my creativity flourish in the finish product, and most of the time I am not too displeased.

Here are a few I've recently made...

Drew McGinn's 5th Birthday

Landon Higgins's Baptism

Laurie White's Bridal Shower

Sara Simes's Baby Shower