It's a Cake Fest

Following an extremely hectic week of baking and decorating cupcakes, Libby Lane Cakes held our first booth at The Festival of Trees at GSU, a good way to get our feet wet at a smaller venue. We were both running on fumes by Saturday morning but were troopers.

We want to start out slowly and keep everything manageable for now. I am still not 100% sure how I will be able to juggle all of this with working full-time and the two grad classes in January either. Never a dull moment that's for sure!

Last week, I literally walked through my front door every evening (except the one night I had to work late) and engaged in fest preparations, using every medium from sugar and the Kitchenaid to paintbrush and canvas.

My friend and first co-worker in my old office Marie is finishing up a business logo for us. Since we're just starting out at this and are having to rely on funds from our own limited pockets, I made the two signs for us to display so that we'd have some some signage at the table. I used a large piece of foamboard for the one that set outside our table and a smaller paint canvas for the one that set on our tabletop. I used paint, scraps of scrapbooking paper and a few little embellishments for the smaller one. For the larger one, I dug out the Mr. Sketch markers and found some cute cupcake stickers at the store. (Mr. Sketch is the best quality, longest-lasting markers for posters and other projects -- plus smell good so no marker stench headache.)

I also stole a cute idea from this blog: http://www.howdoesshe.com/cupcake-liner-pom-poms. I made this same cupcake pom pom using cupcake liners that have a cupcake pattern all over the sleeves.

And I totally forgot to take any good photos of our signage or of the table put together with my actual camera, and all I have to rely on are a few camera phone shots that are not the best quality.

This is our little table top sign.
It's dark, because it's a phone pic.

At the table -- again, a phone pic.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Owl Cupcakes

Snowflake Cupcakes

Football Cupcakes

When autumn comes, it doesn't ask.

To have such a sweet tooth and to love sharing the cake wealth, my "slices of life" posts are pretty lean in comparison. Life just gets so busy.

"When autumn comes, it doesn't ask. It just walks in where it left you last," as John Mayer sings. (I know a few eyes just rolled on that one.) And Fall more or less did just that in Georgia this past weekend. The brisk air rolled into town and has settled into the Boro for a bit. I actually wore a light sweater today and was not roasting by 12:00. It is quite welcome (by me) after the 100+ degree temps all summer long.

Every November I think: I don't want this year to be as hectic as the previous holiday, yet it always ends up being an overload of activity and overall rush-rush-rush. No doubt that this year will be the same, but at least it means I will get a few days off from work while seeing "old" friends and family. And I am looking forward to trying out a pretty awesome 3-D Santa cake pan that Elizabeth gave me.

There are some good things coming up on the cake horizon that I will hopefully be able to update on soon...still working on specifics and logistics.

And I couldn't not provide this update since Libby and I successfully completed our first wedding cake: a 3 layer poundcake with buttercream icing, dyed a serene ocean-y shade of periwinkle. White chocolate sand dollars and shells flanked the cake. Real shells my mom and I collected around Amelia Island, Florida this summer were set around the bottom of the cake. The cake was served at a beachside wedding on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, October 30, 2010.

Congratulations to John and Sarah Barber!

Is it Fall yet???

A nice, productive weekend at home in the 'Boro. . .

Saturday evening Jennifer called me to come hang for a while and eat fresh seafood; one of the perks of being so close to the Georgia coast. Her boyfriend Rob and a few of his friends had been out on the sea all day fishing. They brought back fresh fish and crabs that they cleaned and cooked. So we sat down to Jennifer's kitchen table right at midnight and chowed on some whiting, hushpuppies and crab legs. It was quite wonderful! I was thrilled she called me with the invite.

Earlier Saturday I finished a cake and made my first wreath. I have had the same over-the-door wreath hook hanging BARE on my front door since last Christmas when I took down the holiday one at the end of December. I often think I need something festive hanging there when the seasons change or new holidays approach...then I look at the price tags on store bought wreaths and catalogs and push that thought aside. I was feeling Fall-ish (even though the temperatures outside are mid 90s). I recommend looking online for "how-to" tips as a guide.

I was quite pleased with the final product. It's such an easy and inexpensive project that can yields a pricier look. You can spend as little or as much as you want. Hobby Lobby here had all of their floral supplies 50% off this past week. All in all I spent $14 on the entire project!

I bought a basic 16" grapevine wreath (retails for $4 but was $2 with the 1/2 off -- so cheap!). I also took the time to rummage their clearance corner in the floral section. Most of these were too summer-y for autumn decorating, but I did find 2 flowers that I liked: one a deep red and one a deep orange for $1.70. In the fall floral section I splurged on a large red flower that caught my eye (1/2 of $7), along with a cluster of autumn leaves and 2 sections of stems filled with bronze ball clusters.

I did not use a glue gun, instead some thin gold wire that I already had on hand. This way when I get tired of the look, I can easily clip the wire, remove the current foliage and start from scratch by recycling the wreath base. The stems of the foliage all tucked into the many grapevine wreath branches securely, so I used minimal wiring. I determined how I wanted to arrange the 3 flowers and worked the other accents around these. As a final touch, I picked up a bolt of zebra print ribbon with gold-fringed edging (also 50% off) and wrapped it around the wreath. Finally I made a bow to hang the wreath from the door hook.

I carried over the leftover ribbon to a white ceramic dessert stand that my cousin Wendy gave me for my birthday last year and weaved it around the rim to display some cookie sandwiches I had made with some icing left from the cake.