Project 52 - June Update

For the full list, click HERE.

6. Get back to pre-baby body (or as close to it as possible). & 29. Get moving again. - I started a boot camp this month!  {However eating root beer floats aren't pretty much the opposite of what I should be doing!}

11. Purge our house of excess clutter. - Yup!  Started.

18. Continue learning guitar (or more like re-start). - Restarted, we'll see where it goes...
 
40. Add some decorations in the house (some of our house doesn’t feel finished to me). - Did a lot this month (why do I always wait until Trent's birthday?) but will post pictures when I finish - one more big project to go.
 
41. Spend lots of time with my new niece or nephew and take some of the burden away from my sister. - I felt like I wasn't doing much, but Patty said I was a big help, so I'm considering this one a success.  Or as much of a success as it can be when I still have my own toddler to care for!

46. Finish ordering professional pictures (maternity, newborn and Trent’s 1-year). - Finally! 

My one failure:
 48. Get a bounce house for Trent’s birthday. - There were only going to be 3 kids (not counting Blair) at the party so we decided it wasn't worth the $$. 

Pretty proud of this month!!

The One Where I Bore You With Cake Decorating Details

Back before I was a mom (although I was technically prego and didn't know it - ha), we went to our friends' (Ryan and Rhonda) daughter's (Macey) first birthday party.  Rhonda made Macey's cake, and it was SO good.  (The little present was Macey's smash cake.  Cute idea, right?)  A little part of me thought Rhonda was crazy to put the pressure on herself to make the cake herself.

Happy birthday, Macey!

But then I made a giant cupcake for Trent's first birthday.  And it felt special that I made it (easy and failproof as it was).  And I could understand why Rhonda made Macey's cake.  (And has continued to do so.)

When party planning began for Trent's party, and we knew we were doing a rockstar theme (homie loves himself the guitar), I started to wonder if maybe I could make his cake again.  Enter Wilton.  The apparent 'go to' for cake decorating.  I had never heard of them before.  Given my lack of cake decorating (ha) that's no surprise.

Whoa.  Inspiration!

I went to Michael's, Hobby Lobby and a local cake bake shop.  And I learned there are a jillion supplies you can buy.  And I wanted them all. {grin}

Fresh out of the oven.

I wasn't worried about baking the cake, but I was stressed about decorating.  I bought decorator icing, bags, special tips, food coloring, I was technically ready to go.  Then Dena suggested I not make the cake look exactly like a guitar (color-wise) but make it the colors of the invitation.  Genius.  BUT I had already mixed the brown icing for a trial run.  Enter sugar sprinkles.

The trial run

So obviously there were some issues with this cake. {grin}  Auntie K Dub and Uncle Sky came over to help.  And we learned that icing won't stick to the top of sugar (we were mainly using the sprinkles to decide if we liked the colors), but not only that, it is WAY hard to make those lines straight and not break.  Then another trip to Hobby Lobby yielded 'sugar sheets'.  Literally sheets of paper that are edible!  Genius!

The final product

Patty came over early before the party to help with the real cake, and we took everything we learned from the trial run and made a beautiful cake (if I do say so myself).  The bummer was that the red icing tasted wonky and Trent destroyed the blue part, so everyone got to eat wonky tasting cake.

BUT it was beautiful!  And a new obsession was born.  I plan to make birthday cakes for my babies for years to come!  And Rhonda and I are going to a decorator class in August.  Nerdy?  Check!  So excited?  Check, check!!