Football Sunday!!

Yes, it's Football Sunday for all of you football fans!! Although my STEELER'S lost this past Thursday night, I'm so excited to watch the games today! Of course, the Minnesota game is our top priority for the day!! (I have to be devoted to Brian's team!!)

We meet with a group of football buddies every Sunday and I provide the baked goodies! This morning I made homemade Cinnamon Rolls! Yummy ~ I used an Almond Extract in the glaze and it was TASTY!! I'll post pictures probably tomorrow so you all can see!!

Last night we went to some very good friends of ours for a "ThankMas" dinner. We had Turkey with all the fixings and boy was it goooood!!! After dinner, we did a little craft with the kiddo's ~ Gum Drop Christmas Trees. Here's a picture of the one I did:

Ha! I used hot glue, while the little ones used toothpicks! :) I had fun doing this and it reminded me of when I was younger and we used to do all sorts of crafty things during the Christmas Holidays!!

Hope everyone had an awesome Sunday!!!!

T - Minus 130

Hi Blogger World!! Please visit me at my new Blog Site!!!

http://shellilynn.wordpress.com


I love Saturdays!! Although come Holiday Time, it's a little lonely on my Saturdays! Brian has to work every Saturday usually starting the beginning of November right through the new year. Boo!! Beginning in January, I have three of the four Saturdays for the month booked with Wedding Cakes so I'm glad I'll have my helper available!! ha!

I have to say.... please bear with me and this new Blog. I'm trying to 'spruce' it up a bit and seem to be having problems with my Google Friends Connect Button. For some reason, my HTML code is not working, but fear not... I will figure it out!!! It'll make it a lot easier for those who have Blogger to follow me (which is the majority of the bloggers out there in the blogging world)!!

Today my agenda is to get some wedding related tasks out of the way!! I know I say that now, but I'm hoping that I get at least two things WR crossed off my list. We'll see though ~ it's such a gloomy, wet and rainy day here that I would much rather just curl up in bed and read a book!! However, with 130 days left until the big day, I'm thinking I should get my behind in gear!!! And soon!!

As pictured above... these are our Invites we're going to use for both AHR's (At Home Reception). Despite the fact that the California Reception is about 5 months out and the Minnesota Reception is 6 months out, (so we'll say 3 months and 4 months out due to RSVP dates) I still have to print approximately 100 - 125 sets for each reception...so that's a total of about 250 sets. 250 times 3 Boarding Passes per invites totals 750. 750 Boarding Passes to print, individually cut out and round the corners. 750 That is a huge amount!!! So, I suppose if I work on a few each week I'll be able to get them done and out at least two months prior to the event date so as to allow everyone to receive them and RSVP approximately 3 weeks ahead of time. I think 3 weeks prior to the event is a good RSVP date right?!?

Here's a list of Wedding Related items that I need to accomplish in the next week:

* Finalize Ceremony Wording
* Choose & Order Bridal party flowers (VERY IMPORTANT)
* Choose Ceremony Music
* Work on both California Reception Menu & Minnesota Reception Menu
* Get both Wedding & TTD Dress altered :)

Yes, that is just a smidgen of what I have to get done at some point this week. I can honestly say that I may very well get some of those things crossed off my list. I only have to bake two days this week so I'll be able to tackle some of my DIY projects I still have left as well. Here's a list of those:

* Cruise Cabin Door Hangers
* Welcome Letter / Brochure
* Tags for Welcome Bags
* Tags and/or Labels for Goodies/Snack bags

And I know for a fact that I have about 124 other things that I can add to that list!! Not wedding related, I HAVE TO get our Holiday Letter mailed out! :) Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute huh?!?!?

Well, hope you all have a WONDERFUL and safe Saturday!!! :)

Yummy Cupcakes & Awesome Christmas Gift

Have to share a picture of my Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes! They were so much fun to make!! I love Bailey's Irish Creme to begin with, so naturally I knew I'd enjoy them!!

These cupcakes are made from scratch and have Guiness Stout beer in them! The filling is a Chocolate Ganache that has a hint of Bailey's Irish Creme in it. Mmm... and finally, it's topped with an amazing Bailey's flavored Buttercream! It's amazingly good!!!

I don't eat too many sweets and/or cakes, but since my downfall is Bailey's Irish Creme, I HAD to taste test these personally. Let me tell you, these were to die for!! For a chocolate cake that is made from scracth, they were very moist on the inside!

Also, I participated in several ornament / gift exchanges this year.... the majority of them were with people whom I've never met in real life! I've "met" some amazing group of ladies from The Knot, who are getting married soon, or who have recently gotten married. In one of these groups, our exchange had to be something that was 'home made'. Nothing store bought and/or manufactured per say. We did our opening as a group this evening and look at what I got!!

Isn't it awesome?!?! I absolutely love it!!! I know I will definitely use it in the future ~ say maybe April or so! :)

For those of you who are interested in this as a gift at any point in time, here is the link to the Etsy Seller who sells these!!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilafrances

She does awesome stuff!!! Of course, she's not able to take any orders for Christmas as it's too close already!!! But hey, Valentines day is coming up!!!

Here's to hoping everyone had an amazing Friday!!!

Finally Friday!!!

Whew!!! Am I ever so glad that this week is over!!! Football season makes my weeks very long!! For most of you that know me, I am a TOTAL football fanatic!!! Yes, I am a DIE HARD Steeler fan!! And yes, they didn't make it to the play offs this year. Boo!! But I am faithful and will still root them on for the rest of the season!!

During Football Season, we spend the majority of our time at our local Cool Hand Lukes! There's a wonderful group of people that meet every.single. Sunday at 10 a.m.! We're also there on Mondays if there's a "good" game on, or if any of our teams are playing, and on Thursdays....well, we go to a different establishment for the Thursday night games! Who can beat $1.50 Margaritas???? So, needless to say, the past 14 weeks have been consumed with good 'ole Football! :)

Also, with Christmas right around the corner, it's been a little hectic as well. We've had a couple of birthdays thrown in the mix there as well, and Mr. Brian doesn't necessarily like going shopping unless he knows for sure what it is he needs. He's one of those who goes in, gets what he needs, and then is out of there. No browsing around, nothing. UNLESS we're at Target. We'll 'walk the perimeter' to check out what they got on clearance. And boy do we come out with some awesome bargains!!

For instance, last year, we found Cannon Printers that prints, scans, prints pictures from your memory card and doesn't even need to be hooked up to a computer whatsoever! They were originally $100 something and we got them for $24. We bought three of them! :) We also found Portable DVD players ~ 8 inch screens, for $30. I think we bought two of them. We figured we could use them as birthday gifts through out the year! OH.... we also bought over $300 worth of camping equipment for under $150, so that was a savings of just about 50%! We got two sleeping bags (the good ones), a camping stove, lanterns, and other 'necessities'. We didn't have the opportunity to go camping this year, but we will definitely make use of it this coming year for sure!!!

Wednesday evening we had few friends over for dinner. It was wonderful! I made Spinach Dip, Deviled Eggs, Stuffed Mushrooms; Brian BBQ Rib Eye Steaks and Potatos on the grill; and I put a Salmon Filet on the George Foreman Grill. Yummy!! For dessert we had Graham Cracker Cream Pie. Soooo delicious! :)

On the agenda for today is: Baking brownies & cookies, making more Tiger Butter, and making a wonderful dinner for two! :) Chicken Fried Steak and whatever I can come up with!!

Very Constructive Morning ~ and it's just about 9 a.m.

Today was a very productive morning! I actually switched my Cakes 4 Fun business website over to a WordPress Blog! I had been thinking of switching over awhile ago but didn't want to go through the hassle! Well, since it's soooo cold outside and I've been up since about 5:30 a.m., I decided to sit my little behind on the computer and go for it! :) So glad I did! I have linked my Cakes 4 Fun blog to this site, so just click on the link to the right of this blog and viola! You're there!

This evening we're having a couple of friends over for a Steak dinner. Actually, one of the guys (Randy) lost a football bet to me, so he has to cook me a Bone In Rib Eye Steak with all the fixings! We also invited another one of our friends, Phil, to join us! So, I'll be making stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs to go along with my dinner!!! Supposedly, Randy will be whipping up some rice and broccoli along with the Rib Eye, so I thought I'd at least do the appetizers! :)

I have a ton of friends and Brian's family that live in the Mid-West, and/or on the East Coast ~ I can't believe how horrible the weather is out there!! I suppose it's the norm for them, but sheesh.....just reading about all the updates on FaceBook, I'm sooo glad I'm in Sunny California!!! Here I am complaining about the 28 degree weather and they're just as bad if not worse and have to deal with the wind chill factor and the horrible winds!!! I hope everyone stays warm and safe!!! We don't have rain yet, but the forecast does call for it rolling in early tomorrow morning! Booo!!!

I didn't quite get all the baking I wanted to get done yesterday... okay... yes, I was a lazy bum and layed around the house snuggling and reading. Currently, I'm reading "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis. It's an awesome book and I'm learning SOOO many statistics and facts about the NFL and some of the great players/coaches!!! The book is about Michael Oher ~ who is currently playing with the Baltimore Ravens right now! Yes, the movie "The Blind Side" prompted me to read the book. The movie, however, is more geared on the live of Michael Oher whereas the book does focus on Michael, it also focuses on the NFL and it's history dating back to the early '60s. It's a very interesting read!!!

AND.... yesterday, I did manage to get all of the wedding related items that I started to sort out in the living room back into the den. I also straightened up the den so it didn't look so 'clustered' per say. So I was productive to some extent yesterday! :)

Anyway, I'm going to finish baking my Chocolate Chip Cookies and hopefully get to the Brownies for sure as well. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the goodies here a little later!!

~ Moving the Blog ~

I'm sorry to say that I'm going to be switching to WordPress for my Blog! :) Please follow along with me there!! :) You can suscribe to follow my blog once you log in!

I will be having a Photo of the Week, along with a Receipe of the Week there! I'm trying not to focus my blog on everything Wedding Related, but.....until April, May and June come and go, I will no doubt be blogging about Wedding Related issues!!!! :)

Hope to see you there!!!

http://shellilynn.wordpress.com

More Ornaments in the Mail!! Yipee!!!

Aren't these just soooo cute?!? I received these from a group of gals

on The Knot who are all getting married in April 2010.

They are the best group of young ladies ~ it really means so much to me that they

all thought highly of me to get these for me!!

Thanks guys!!!

I've also been pretty busy making Chocolate candies! I made White Chocolate Peanut Clusters, Milk Chocolate Peanut Clusters, Tiger Butter, and a variety of other baked goods!! Today I'm going to make Chocolate Chip Cookies and some Brownies!

Also, I've made some home made heating pads!! They're actually called "Rice Socks", however, I didn't use socks for mine. I actually make them from fabric!! I made several different ones yesterday ~ long ones you can drape around you neck or wrap around you knees; rectangular ones you can use for your back and/or stomach.

You pop these babies in the microwave oven for about 2 - 3 minutes and viola!!
They stay HOT for a long time!!! You can even add some Aromatherapy Oils in the rice before sewing it up and it smells wonderful!!!
I have been using one of these since Saturday night when a friend of mine let me use hers!! I remember when I was younger my mom made one using a tube sock! They've come a long way since then!!!

Well, I'm off to continue baking for the day!

Christmas Ornament

I'm participating in several Ornament Exchanges with gals I've met who are getting married either in April 2010, or who are having a Destination Wedding! I'm also participating in a gift exchange with a group of gals whom I met on-line in a "secret" forum. :) I received an ornament in the mail today, but don't know who it's from!!! I absolutely love it and if it's you that sent it to me, please let me know so I can thank you PERSONALLY! :)


I also received another ornament from an April 2010 bride to be and I love it too! I don't have a picture of it right now, but once I get it, I'll definitely post it here on this blog! :) It's an Angel and it says "Michele ~ a Knottie Angel" I love it!!!

The next three pictures of a little girl who celebrated her 2nd birthday this past weekend! I made her cake again this year ~ and I enjoy doing it!!! Her parents are great friends of Brian and I and we get together at least once a month at either our place or theirs. Elise is a very cute little girl!

Here she is blowing out her candles! Too Cute!!

In this photo, I was just trying to get her to smile at me so I can take one picture!!!!

This last photo, below, is sooo adorable!! I love this picture of her. Her face is soooo innocent looking as she is amazed by the candles!!

It was a pretty busy weekend and I'm glad it's over!! I now will be indulging in trying to get birthday presents/cards bought, along with Christmas gifts bought and sent off as well.

This year, Brian and I decided we would not buy for each other. With the wedding coming up this next year, we are going to concentrate on the kids and grandchildren instead of each other. I guess maybe we'll just concentrate on Stocking Stuffers for ourselves this year.

Hey.....good things come in small packages huh?!?

T-Minus 136

Polka dots & Stripes for a Birthday Girl turning 2 years old!!! I was so honored to make her first birthday cake last year that I had to make her cake again this year!!! It was made with Marshmallow Fondant...yummy! :)

This past week actually flew by! I haven't done much wedding related or anything else. Been doing a lot of baking though. I have another week of relatively keeping busy baking and/or making christmas candies, and also Christmas / Birthday shopping!

For the most part, wedding related tasks are coming to a bit of a halt until the Holidays are over... but me being me, I hope to squeeze something, anything, wedding related DIY projects in the mix!!!

Today marks 18 weeks.... 18 weeks until we're off on the Carnival Elation with close to 35 friends and family members! I am thoroughly excited and can not wait for it to come already!!! It seems like such a long time away, when in reality it's actually right around the corner!!! Can you believe that the wedding date is only 136 days away. Wow. I remember when it was in the late two hundreds.... and now it's in the early one hundreds..... almost to double digits. HOLY FREAKING OUT!!!!

I'm so very glad that one of my best friends who moved away to Arizona is going on the cruise! We became such close friends really quick, worked together at a Law Firm and also at a local Karaoke Bar! :) Had fun times together for years!!! We kinda went our separate ways several years ago, but then re-connected and have been keeping in touch over the last year or so! :) So very happy she'll be joining us on our cruise!!! Yipee!!!

Horray for the Mail Man!!

I love it when the mail man delivers great big huge packages!!! Actually I went to pick this particular one up. :) But look what I got!!!! My TTD Dress! I absolutely LOVE it!!! I am so excited! It is very similar to my dress I'm wearing for the wedding and it's georgeous!!!

And also, I ordered a lot of free stuff from Vista Print for my business: business cards, brochures, postcards, flyers, car magnet, etc. I also took advantage of the free shirts offer as well. This is what I got......... I got two of them...one for Brian and one for me! :)

I'm not sure what day of the cruise we'll be wearing these, but I like 'em!

Now, I believe I'm going to take advantage of their free offers even more and order shirts for the bridal party! The guys...and the girls... Well, we'll see about that actually. They only offer one freebie at a time so...

Since I haven't posted since Thanksgiving morning, I suppose I need to catch you all up on my Black Friday shopping experience!!

This was the first year I've ever shopped on Black Friday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be really!!! Since Brian had to be in at 3 a.m., I decided to tag along with him. I brought two books and thought I'd be able to read them while waiting for the doors to open. When we got there at about 2:45 a.m., there were maybe 25 people already there! The ones in the front of the line had a tent and looked like they had been camping out since the night before (and they had been!!!)

The two hours in line actually flew by~ chatting with the people in front of me made it so much more bearable than standing there by yourself.

As soon as the doors opened, it wasn't as much of a "mad dash" as I expected it would be. I headed straight back to Electronics to get my grubby little hands on the Tom Tom!

And I got one! Shoot, the regular price was $249 and they were only $97.

Heck yes, I wanted one! That was the only thing I really wanted. However, I shopped for about an hour or so. Along with the Tom Tom, I bought a Dirt Devil vaccuum cleaner, a 1.5 qt. Crock pot for $3, towels for $1.50 ~ I think I had like 12 bath sized towels, 4 hand towels and 2 wash cloths for a total of $27 ~ Not bad huh????

On Saturday, we drove to Stockton and met my Aunt & her boyfriend for dinner.

On our way home, we stopped at three different Targets looking for the $88 Nikon Camera for my Aunt! She was wanting it for a Christmas Gift so we went on the hunt. We finally found one at the Lodi store. They had 136 on hand!!! Ha! All those people who stood in line for the "door buster" of a deal would probably be mad if they knew that they had hundreds of them on hand!!!!

Ohhhh. I also bought my very own copy of Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred. Yep, I'm going to start shredding again! In fact, today is day one for me! I'm not letting up this time either!!

I am going to be faithful & diciplined in Shredding on a daily basis! I need to lose not just some lbs. here, but the pooch!!!

So, without further adieu, I will sign off for now!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today I am thankful for all of my family and friends ~ and even those who have touched my life in any way, shape or form. My life wouldn't be what it is today without any of you in my life! So, thank you! :)

On a Wedding related note ~ can I just say that I'm on a roll with this Michael's 40% off coupon!! I've purchased another two Apothecary Jars which brings my collection up to a total of 4. Yes, I am ahead of schedule, but I had the coupons, and how can you pass up 40% off of one jar?!?

Our local Michaels is out of the HUGE ginormous Apothecary jar that I am wanting (the one that ended up breaking ~ see prior post) so I think I'm going to check out another Michaels tomorrow on Black Friday! Maybe even later this evening since Michaels is open from 5 to 9 tonight AND I have a couple of special coupons I do believe. :)

After this Holiday weekend, I am determined to get more wedding related tasks done on a daily basis. It was crazy just with Thanksgiving thrown in there, and with Christmas and the New Year approaching, it's going to get even worse!! So...time to get serious and really get things done!!

In between my cake orders, coordinating of a couple of Spring/Summer weddings, not to mention our wedding and TWO AHR's, I have my plate full!!! But....I know that I can handle it all ~ no sweat. I'm not saying that I won't get stressed out at times however I know that I can do it!!!

Have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING everyone!!!

Dress Dilema Resolved!!!!

I FOUND THE DRESSES!!!!

I found the dress for the girls.

I found the dress for the girls in all the sizes that we need.

YAY.

It has been bothering me and bothering me and bothering me. I was so stressed out because everytime we found a dress we all liked, we couldn't get it in a certain size that we needed. So we choose another dress. Then that dress wasn't available in another size.... and so on, and so on. And now.....

FINALLY. I found one!!!!

S.C.O.R.E.

And, today I received a package from Katie (a former DW Bride). I purchased some Lily Bowls from her along with some Starfish. I received the Starfish. And none of them were broken! Whew! Mr. Fed Ex man should be bringing me a box full of Lily Bowls by Friday! :)

I also received a package from Natalie (another former DW Bride). I purchased some Sand Dollars, Starfish and 3 Pashmina's from her! :) Unfortunately 6 of the Sand Dollars arrived in pieces. :( But that is to be expected in shipping thru the Postal Service.

Mr. Mail man should be bringing me a Package with a Wedding Dress in it very soon too!!! :) I know....I know... I already have my dress.... but I bought another one from a former DW Bride also ~ new with tags on it still. One will be for the Ceremony, the other for my TTD session.

Simple as that!

All in all, today has been a very good day! :) I am a happy camper!

It's Monday! Weekend Recap & Photos!!

In 20 weeks, we'll be on our Cruise! Yipee! 20 freaking weeks. It's still unbelieveable. But, I'll get over it. Today I have a cake order (1/2 sheet ~ so it's huge) so I'll be working on that this morning. Meeting the client at Noon for pick up, then after that, I am going to take my broken Apothecary Jar back to Michaels!!!

Can you believe I did that?!? Well, it's not entirely my fault! They only wrapped the lid of the jar in paper before putting it in a bag. The entire jar itself was just placed in the plastic bag without any wrapping at all!!! And the wrapped lid was placed in the same bag too. Ugh...I didn't check it until this morning and I discovered it was broken. I know I must have done it, but still....if they would have wrapped the jar in paper, this probably wouldn't have happened!!! So, I'm going to go see if I can exchange it!!! :)

While I was at Michaels on Saturday, I also took advantage of their 40% off entire stock of candles coupon as well! I scored!!!

That was my Saturday! I spent some time shopping at Michaels!!! I spent the rest of the evening making 4 dozen cupcakes ~ two dozen for a client and two dozen for my football friends that get together on Sundays!!!

We always meet at 10 a.m. at a local restaurant/bar for Football Sunday!! And let me tell you, we make it a day! I walk in with my Starbucks Frappacinno and some baked goodies, while eveyone else orders Bloody Mary's or beer. Yuck. First of all, I HATE beer, and secondly, how can you freaking drink alcohol at 10 o'clock in the morning!!! Ewwwww.

Yesterday we had a BLAST. It was great! It was Brian's weekend to work, so he joined us at 3:30. He had such a great day at work and had some good news, so he was in a celebratory mood. Needless to say, he had two Bloody Marys, and several beers and was feeling no pain by 6 or so. I think this was the second time that I have seen him soooooooo hilariously intoxicated! I was worried because we had two vehicles at the restaurant and against all of my protesting, he insisted on driving home. Luckily we only live about 3 minutes from the restaurant and we made it home safe and sound!!!

Here's a photo of the cake I did this morning. It's a half sheet French Vanilla with Fresh Strawberries and Buttercream Icing. Mmmmmmmmmm. Just plain and simple ~ no writing necessary. I like easy! :)

Arch Decorations

So... I found a display of a decorated Arch that I really liked. I had to take Brian back with me to the store just so I can take a picture of it.... As you can see from the photos, I have a really funny man in my life!

You can't really see too much detail of the way that the Arch is decorated, but I love it. I'm not going to use the Black and White Tulle of course ~ I'm going to use Caribbean Blue and Fushia. Very light though. Not too dark beacuse I think it'll be too bold. We shall see. AND, I don't want the Butterflies...or too much of the Sparkly look either.

Here are a couple more views that show a tad bit more of the detail.

I'm not too sure if I'm going to use the Caribbean Blue where the White is and accent it with the Fushia where the Black is or visa versa. I'm going to play around and see what looks good!

Today's Verse of the Day

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
— Romans 14:19 (NIV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...

"Make every effort!" That's quite a challenge. But notice where that exertion is to be focused: peace and mutual edification. Both sides of this exhortation are two way responsibilities. I must pursue and share peace if I am going to have it myself. I must edify, and be open to being edified, if mutual edification is going to happen. In other words, we live with other people in God's family. He wants us to be responsible for making relationships work in our spiritual family. He reminds us it will require strenuous effort. But, isn't that true in every family relationship? Love means sacrifice, effort, and concern for others. When we share our love willingly, however, we're much more likely to see it coming back to us!


My Prayer...

Dear Heavenly Father, forgive me for my impatience and selfishness. Defeat the bad attitude of competitiveness that I often display in arguments and disagreements with others in your family. Energize me by your Spirit to see areas where I can be a blessing and an encouragement to others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!!!!

Can you say busy, busy, busy?!? I have a new client (bride) who is getting married in July. July 3rd to be exact. I'm really super excited about this wedding of the "Woodsy / Outdoor" theme! There is so many directions this can go and I'm just so excited to be able to "play" around with ideas!!! July is right around the corner, so I have to get a move on with securing vendors!! Especially since this wedding is taking place during a Holiday ~ vendors tend to book quickly and/or charge more during any Holiday period!

The most exciting thing about this client is the fact that as of right now, I AM NOT DOING HER WEDDING CAKE!! Woot woot! Strickly Event Planning/Coordinating!! Yes! Way less stress for me!! I can concentrate on the party process with more enthusiasm!!! SCORE!! Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love doing cakes, but at some weddings, I like to just be able to be the coordinator and delegate, delegate, delegate!!! :)

As for my upcoming wedding, although I'm not "on track" as most timelines indicate, I am fairly comfortable that we'll get things in gear soon. I mention this quite often, and I know we have a ton of things to do, but I'll get them done slowly but surely!

This week marks our 21 weeks, as I mentioned in my previous post. Twenty freaking one. Wow, time has been flying by at a rather fast pace. I like to pretend that I'm all calm, cool and collected during this time, but honestly, I am totally freaking out! Seriously freaking out.

My mission of late is to find some type of power cord/strip that isn't too expensive to put in the Welcome Bags for our cruise guests. The cabins on board the ship doesn't have many accessible outlets, so for those who need to charge multiple items like cameras, laptops or even to use multiple things like a blow dryer and curling iron, etc. need to have outlets available. So.... I'm on the prowl for those.

Here's another issue that's been lurking in the back of my pretty little head........I have the itch to go dress hunting again. NOT THAT I DON'T LIKE MY DRESS, but I just want to see if maybe there's something else out there that I like. :) I know people advise against this, but I sooo want to go looking!!!

In the area of non wedding related items, I have another Cake order this weekend. It's a fairly simple order so I am not stressing out in the least!! I do have a birthday cake order for a little girl who is turning 2 years old in a couple of weeks ~ and here's a sketch of what her parents are envisioning....
It's going to have round balls of fondant in Pink, Brown, and Tan around the base of the both layers. Similar to the one pictured below.

I'm pretty excited because I did this little girls first birthday cake as well and it was a Castle Cake! :) So, it's a tradition that I do her birthday cakes from here on out!!! I'll even do her Quincenera Cake and her Wedding Cake too! :)

Little Mermaid!!

I spent my morning making a Little Mermaid themed cake! :) It was so much fun to make. Alot easier than I expected!! I find it so much easier to work with Whipped Topping rather than Buttercream in some instances. However, Whipped Topping makes things "fatter" or "fluffier" if you will. AND, Whipped Topping requires refrigeration!!! Ha!

In between baking and decorating, we actually bought our Wedding Arch yesterday. Utilizing a 50% off coupon from Michaels, we only paid $16 for it!! Yippee!! I went to a huge Floral / Wedding Supply place in Modesto on Friday and saw a decorated Arch they had displayed and I absolutely LOVE it. I am going to try and replicate it ~ using our colors ~ because it was so simple!! And, that is what we're looking for since we'll have to bring the Arch and it's decorations on board the cruise ship with us!!! I'll have to go back to that store and take a picture of it so I can post it here!!!

I also got the remaining 30 MIB's labeled; got the shredded paper in the mailing boxes, put them all together, and labeled the boxes!!! ALL DONE. All we need to do now is hand them out to all of our California guests. Woot woot!

As of today, we're 157 days out until the actual wedding day. Not many days left huh?!? Yikes. That means we have 21 weeks before we leave for the cruise. TWENTY ONE. That is not many weeks at all. Double Yikes!

This means I have to get my pretty little behind in gear. I am officially in the "freak out" stage of this entire process. **** I need a stiff drink ****

22 Wednesdays from today......

We will be on Catalina Island saying "I Do". Can you even believe that? 22? That's not very many Wednesdays. Wow... time is going to fly by from here on out!!


So, totally not wedding related ~ I have had this MASSIVE headache for the past week and a half. Seriously. I have it a while back and it lasted for approximately 3 weeks, and another occasion where it lasted over a month!!! Constantly, every single day, this headache has lingered on... sometimes really intense, other times mild but there. UGH.... why can't it just go away!!! I've tried several different over the counter meds, and none have worked.

Thanks to several other blogs of late that I've read, I've been inspired to "go green" and try and make my own laundry detergent. As well as diswashing detergent, all purpose kitchen cleaner, scouring powder/paste (like Comet) as well as floor cleaner and fabric softner!!! Woo Hoo! Not only will it save $$$$ but it's environmentally safe and eco friendly!! I'll keep you all posted on the results!

T-Minus 162

Although I haven't been doing much in the last week that's related to the big day coming up in 162 days, I have been pretty busy.

Today, I met with a prospective bride and her fiance. Their wedding is July 3rd ~ it's a local wedding and they're looking for more or less a Wedding Coordinator mostly for the Rehearsal Dinner and Day of Coordination. However, they'd like for me to essentially plan the event ~ she has a ton of ideas already and they have a lot of the vendors lined up (they have tons of connections) but there is still a lot of little detail that they want just taken care so they have less to worry about. I'm excited for them since I know the Groom to be. I'm looking forward to this wedding ~ it's going to be a really nice one!!

In the last two days, I've received two client's for cake orders as well. One is for this weekend ~ fairly easy cake ~ Little Mermaid / Ariel themed cake for a 4 year old's birthday. Then in 3 weeks, my favorite little girl is turning 2 years old and since I did her Princess Castle cake for her first birthday last year, I was asked to make her cake again this year! Here's a picture of her cake:



This year's theme is going to be Dora the Explorer. Hmmmm...so many ideas ~ I've done several Dora character cakes but I want this one to be different you know?!? I have a few weeks to come up with something.
Also, despite the fact that the Holidays are coming up rather quickly, this means that wedding season will be upon us just as quick! I'm hoping that I get at least one wedding a month (cake wise) and for the wedding season ~ January thru October ~ I'd like to do at least 5 weddings (planning wise). I have two on the books that I'm currently the Event Planner for so that means three more and I'll have reached my goal.

I do have 3 brides in which I am doing their "paper" stuff; i.e. Save the Dates, Invites, and/or Programs. So, that will be fun too.

Oh, the one wedding related thing that we accomplished last week is that we figured out the hotel situation with regard to the day before our cruise and the day we come back from our cruise! :) Yay!!! We will be driving down to San Diego late Saturday evening so we will be staying overnight Sunday and we will also be staying overnight Friday when we come back from the cruise. So excited!

Well, that's it for now ~ hope you all had a great Tuesday!

23 Wednesdays from today......

I will be on Catalina Island marrying my best friend. I am so excited and can't even begin to describe it. I wish I could say I am totally ready for this day to come, but in reality, I'm really not. I'm not prepared at all in the planning aspect. I'm not prepare at all in the mental aspect. I'm not prepared in the emotional aspect. I'm just not prepared period!

I've spent a couple of weekends over the last month with family who live about an hour and a half away, but we never seem to get together except when my Grandmother flies in from Hawaii once a year. How sad is that?!? These are my Aunts and my Uncles. My dad's sisters and brothers. Granted, when my parents divorced, I was very young. I didn't get to grow up with this side of the family, but nevertheless we've kept in touch throughout the years. Who would have thought that we'd all live this close together in CALIFORNIA of all places; after having grown apart and all going our seperate ways through the years. Kinda ironic.

I love having family this close. I'm going to make it a priority to see them more often. :)

Slowly but surely!!

With 169 days left before Catalina Island I took the time out to finish wrapping all of the Palm Fans. I ran out of the Pinkish ribbon so I made a mad dash to Michael's but low and behold they were all out. So I got the Blueish ribbon instead. I think they came out okay. I just have to figure out what I'm going to put on them now to finish them off. I thought of hot gluing a big Sea Shell on there but when I started to do it, it just didn't look right. I'll figure something out and then post another picture of it! :)

I'm also working on the "Gile Wedding Party" and "Gile Wedding Guest" cabin door hangers. I have the template all finished and I actually made a mock up one, but have to do a little tweaking on it still. Again, I'll post a picture of this when it's completed.

Although I'm not accomplishing all of my goals that I've set to have completed that's wedding related, I'm slowly but surely crossing them off of my list. Which is a good thing!!

Next on my list:

* Ceremony Music for Gina (flutist);
* Ceremony Wording;
* Menu for both California and Minnesota receptions;
* Who's who brochure for Welcome Bags;
* Welcome letter for Welcome Bags

23 Mondays from today.....

We will be on board the Carnival Elation for our wedding cruise!!!

I didn't do much wedding related activities this weekend. Boo!!! I had intentions of ording the Bridal Party bouquets, however we were absolutely busy with family get togethers instead. I'm hoping that I'll get to them today for sure!

I'm going to spend today cleaning up around here since we weren't hope virtually all weekend! I'm also going to be spending some time in the Kitchen making some Rice Crispie Treats for Brian. He's been hinting around the last couple of days that he would really like to have some. :)

I'm also going to try something different ~ I have a "Signature" cake that I do and the orignal name is called "Better than Sex", however for my business we call it "Better than Everything". (I just couldn't see putting the original name on my webiste at all!!) Anyway, I'm going to make these into cupcakes and see how they turn out. I have them offered on my Website, however I've only had orders for the cake itself and none for cupcakes. So, I'd figure I'd whip some up and see how they turn out. :)

I think maybe later today the only wedding related task I'll get to may be going through some of these boxes here in the den (which is now referred to as the wedding room) and see if I can't get these things a little more organized. Plus, I'm missing some Starfish Charms and can't seem to find them anywhere!! I hope by cleaning this area up a little I might get lucky!!! :)

So, right before I turn in for the night, I decided to dabble in a little DIYing. Something quick, fun and easy ~ so I took one of the palm fans and tried to see what it would look like with the ribbon wrapped around the handle. I personally like the way it turned out. I know some brides wrap the entire handle all the way to the where the handle meets the fan, but I think I'll either put a silk flower there or a bow of some sort; perhaps even hot glue a sea shell or starfish . I'm undecided at this time, but I'm sure whatever I decide, it'll look nice. I'm not even sure if we really need these palm fans for the ceremony, but I like the idea of having them available. I know our ceremony is at 11 a.m. and it'll be early Spring so it may be a little bit on the cool side ~ however..... I like them! :)