Life Lately

The last couple weeks have been a blur! We had family in visiting and the 4th to keep us busy but it was so nice to have that time with family and friends.  We took the long, scenic route home from Wyatt's parents' house one evening because the sky was gorgeous.  Nothing makes me feel at home like driving through country roads with corn fields and pretty summer skies.

I decided to drive down to Indianapolis to look for some things for a couple of rooms we are working at the house and had lunch with my sister on Sunday afternoon.  We ate in Broad Ripple and decided to get ice cream after...because ice cream!  We walked on the Monon Trail back towards where I was parked after ice cream and enjoyed seeing Public Greens' garden.

We went to a cookout with friends on the afternoon of the 4th and then went over to watch the fireworks in Wyatt's parents' neighborhood.  I still cannot get over how impressive the display is from just an individual.  I decided to take this red, white, and blue fruit salad and decorated sugar cookies!

I recently request my swab kit to become listed on the donor registry.  A touching story of a family member of someone I knew in college finally gave me the courage to go ahead and get on the registry.  I have thought about this for a decade and always battled with myself over it, and ultimately talked myself out of it each time.  I am proud to say that I got the kit and sent my swabs in last week!  It was super simple and only took a few minutes of my time.  Everything from DKMS comes clearly and easily labeled.  You match a couple of bar codes with the proper documents and then put it in the pre-addressed and paid envelop.  It's a simple as that!  If you are interested in registering or want more information, please go here.  In order to request your swab kit, you just have to answer a few questions.

Last Friday, Wyatt and I went to Bella Beige downtown to pick up some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I can't wait to share the finished piece(s) of furniture.  We knew for sure we wanted to do a dresser, but we are also thinking of painting the matching chest of drawers as well.  I am almost done with the dresser so we will evaluate its finished product.  I am working on creating a warm and inviting master bedroom with a lot of whites, beiges, and neutrals with a pop of color.  I definitely have a vision that I can't wait to see come to fruition!  I wore this fun outfit last weekend to dinner and an evening in with some friends.  Obviously when I saw the pineapple critter shorts at J Crew, I had to get them.

Decorated Sugar Cookies

I'm sharing my favorite sugar cookie and royal icing recipes today.  I first tried making decorated sugar cookies a few years ago and fell in love with the possibilities.  You can make the cutest cookies to go with any theme or occasion.  I haven't perfected the decorating techniques just yet but am always happy with the results.  I taught myself how to decorate by following blogs.  My favorite bloggers for recipes, tips, and tutorials are:

Sweet Sugarbelle
Bake at 350
Arty McGoo
Sweet Ambs

The sugar cookie recipe below comes from Sweet Sugarbelle and has been my go to for a while now and the royal icing recipe is from Bake at 350.  I just bought an IU cookie cutter on my latest trip back to Bloomington and can't wait to make some Hoosier themed cookies!

Basic Sugar Cookie

Ingredients

•  1 c. {two sticks} of REAL unsalted BUTTER, softened
•  1 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar
•  1 egg
•  2-3 tsp flavoring {pick what you like, I prefer almond}
•  2 1/2-2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
•  2 tsp. baking powder
•  1 tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring. I use emulsions, but extract also works well. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture. I can tell the dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle. When I touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to my fingers.
2. Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut and bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. This version makes 2-2 1/2 dozen, doubled, it makes 4-5 dozen.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

• 4 TBSP meringue powder
  scant 1/2 c. water
  1 lb. powdered sugar
  1/2 - 1 tsp light corn syrup 
  few drops clear extract (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.
2. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. (Do NOT skip the sifting!)
3. Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired.
4. Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.  (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.
5. Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

Happy baking!

Have a Merry Lilly Christmas!

As mentioned in my post from Tuesday, here are all the details of the dinner party I put together for my family in Folly Beach last week.  Originally, I had planned to cook for this party but became a little nervous about that idea since we were staying in a rental we weren't familiar with yet.  I was not sure what utensils, pots and pans, etc we would have when we got there.  So when my mother mentioned my sister had requested my parents bring some of my dad's chili, I jumped at the chance to use that for my dinner party.

I mentioned my color palette would be pink and green and I added gold to that to complete it.  One of my projects for this was transforming ordinary shells from the Dollar Tree into gold shells by using a gold leafing pen.  I used these shells to act as place cards as well by writing names on the inside of them.  I also made salt dough sand dollars and starfish and use the gold leafing to dress them up.  I managed to purchase most of the items that I had to buy for this in the bargain section of Michaels, the Dollar Tree, and on major sales at Hobby Lobby and Target.

I found a glass shell dish at Goodwill in the beginning stages of my planning and decided I need to get it.  I made some "sea glass" hard candy to put in the shell dish.  I also took along some of my Christmas sugar cookies.  I played up the pink and green theme in my sugar cookies this year and I love how they turned out (I even made some lime green alligator cookies but those didn't survive the 12 hours drive to Folly Beach).

I found glass pineapple Christmas ornaments at Target and decided I would get some to use as decoration and then gift to my parents and to my sister so we all have a pineapple ornament to remind us of our trips to Charleston/Folly Beach.  I had also completed another DYI for my mom and my sister.  I used the wrapping paper that Lilly Pulitzer brilliantly sent in the mail as part of an ad to refit some gift boxes that I had picked up from Target and switched out white ribbon for pink to gift their ornaments.  I also purchased a Lilly Santa Lion bow tie for Wyatt (to match my bow of course) and sat that out at his place setting.

Eat Cake for Breakfast: Kate Spade Inspired Birthday Celebration

Yesterday, my family met in Indianapolis to celebrate my mom and my sister's birthdays which are coming up this week.  I decided that I would take over on the treat making so neither one of them would have to make something since we were celebrating both of their birthdays.  Needless to say, I spend my evenings last week coming up with decorations and goodies for a proper birthday celebrations.

You may have noticed in my last post, I had a Kate Spade inspiration board on Pinterest.  I put that to good use this weekend with this celebration for mom and Allison.

I decorated Allison's dining area to the nines in pink and gold and black and white.  I made a tassel garland, had gold glitter flags for the paper straws, and made two custom Kate Spade inspired prints with quotes from Kate Spade.  Allison had the perfect plates and napkins to go with all my stuff!

Allison requested I make her cactus shaped sugar cookies, so I also made her a cactus garland (and also a cactus cupcake that is hidden behind the ALLISON candles).  I found a ton of great things at Michael's including the hello darling gift bags, the pink jump clothes pin, and the black and white lanterns.  I had so much fun creating and crafting all this pretty decor.  It turned out so pretty.  I wish every day was a Kate Spade inspired party.

Ps.  How cute is that bulldog cookie jar I gave my sister?  I'm obsessed with the little guy.  Such a great Target find.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a busy time since I last posted the weekend before last.  Last time we talked, I shared the skirt that I had made from a tutorial online.  Most notably, I made a cookie order for a special book club meeting.  My hands were oh so sore after finishing those, but it was well worth it.  They turned out so pretty.

Having a holiday in the middle of the week, threw me off a bit.  I was busy the 4th of July crafting and thrifting.  In the morning, I made a patriotic hair bow to wear for the day.  I found some fabric on sale so the bow cost me less than $1 to make.  

After lunch, mom and I went to Traderbaker's Flea Market in town and I managed to snag me a milk glass cake stand and an oval chalkboard.  After making the neon gingham skirt the weekend before last, I was still in the sewing mood.  I was in JoAnn's with my mom and she told me about some seersucker she had seen.  I got enough of it to make another skirt.  So I spent the rest of my day off sewing another skirt.  I made some changes and I must say...I LOVE this skirt.  I love it so much that I already took it with me to Lafayette over the weekend and wore it out for drinks with some friends.  

Alligator Themed Baby Shower

On Sunday I hosted a baby shower for one of my best friends who happens to be due in less than a month now (November 9th to be exact).  It was my first time to host an event like this completely on my own.  I wanted to have a shower for our college friends.  Since we are all scattered out and are rarely in one place at the same time, I thought it would be nice to have an intimate shower with just us girls instead of the standard shower with family, friends, coworkers, etc.  I was tossing around theme ideas already, but when I found out the nursery theme I knew I had to use it for the shower too.

 I was able to use a color scheme that I already had in mind.  I designed the invitations and plenty of other printables in photoshop.   Since I have an affinity for milk glass, I decided to use some of my pieces as serving pieces on the food table.  My new cobalt blue glass cake plate ended up going perfectly with the color scheme.  My mom and I prepared a lunch for the shower (I couldn't have done it without the help of my amazing Momma).  I had chosen the menu of chicken salad sandwiches, greek salad, pasta salad, chips, cheese ball, sugar cookies (quite possibly my best yet!), Devil's Food cupcakes, white chocolate covered oreos and white chocolate bottle-shaped candy.  As decorations, I used a few of Devin's maternity pictures and some custom letter monogram graphics that I designed in Photoshop in white IKEA frames behind the food table.  I also made a diaper cake for the main table.  Of course, I had a million more decorating ideas but I was happy with what I ended up choosing.  I had each guest fill out a card with wishes for Baby Carter and we also played one game in which guests had to guess how big Momma-to-be's belly was by using crepe paper streamers.  Each guest also received scratch off cards to determine the winner of one of the prizes.

EDIT: My Etsy Shop is now open for business and it features items from this shower. Have a look around and check out adorable alligator themed baby shower items.
Until the next party,

Last week I added the Wilton 101 cookie cutter set to my baking supplies.  It gives me a little more variety...I think I'm set on the holiday shapes now (for a while at least).  Here is my third attempt with sugar cookies and royal icing.  I made two batches and each with a different recipe (both ones I had used previously).  I also made different icing recipes.  I found out that I do not care for the second recipe and will stick to the first one in the future.  Here are a couple pictures of some of the cookies that I finished this morning. 

Baking up a storm...Part 1

Over the last week and half I have been baking like crazy. My parents were away on a vacation and that left me with a lot of free time on my hands at night after work. I took on several projects, including my first attempts at sugar cookies and decorating with royal icing. I have recently become obsessed with two sugar cookies blogs, Sweet Sugar Belle and Bake at 350 . I had on my agenda a 4th of July cookout at my best friend's house and thought I'd try my hand at some patriotic cookies. I made two different batches and now I just want to keep practicing until I get the royal icing part down a little better. Here are some of the cookies from my first two attempts at sugar cookies.

Thanks to Callye at Sweet Sugar Belle for also posting a link to Arty McGoo. I fell in love with her sugar cookies and tried to mimic what she has done with some of hers because they are so pretty. Here are some attempts that don't even come close, but they are a start. ((Thanks Liz for letting me know what tip you use...I am definitely going to have to get one!))






I highly recommend the above mentioned blogs if you want to try decorating with royal icing!  Those ladies are unbelievably talented and have wonderful tutorials that teach you step by step how to do several things, from cookie and icing recipes to how to's and step-by-step to specific cookies.