Finally a Princess...

She's been waiting, and waiting, and waiting....

She's been so excited that she would go into her room and take her clothes off. Then she would come out to the living room in her panties and I would ask, "Where are your clothes?!"

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"Annie Kimmie nake it! Pwincess dwess!"

Aunti Kimmie did make the princess dress and Gracie finally got to wear it Saturday.

She was so cute the photographer couldn't keep her camera off her!

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Arielle looked beautiful in her princess dress too. And Josh looked very handsome in his vest. Jessica of course hid from the camera at all costs so I don't have a picture of her to post but she was very pretty too. (And a great help to me with that cake!)

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The wedding was Saturday, it is now Tuesday and every morning Grace gets up and puts her dress back on! As I type, she's laying behind me on my bed, a poofy pile of pink princess!

Here are my lovely children...

I love this one...

It's only cake...

I've been planning and working on this wedding cake for a couple of months and this past week I was pretty much immersed in it. I'd be working on some aspect of it, start thinking ahead to what I still needed to do yet and quickly get overwhelmed. I finally told Jon, "When I start to freak out over this cake would you please remind me that it is only a cake?"

That's how I made it through.

It's only cake...

Friday night was the rehearsal for Saturday's wedding. By the time we got home and into bed it was around midnight but I already had the cakes all frosted, decorated and waiting in the refrigerator to be loaded up and assembled.

Saturday morning we were up at 6 AM getting ready, loading the car and driving off to North Bend. When we got there I found out that the pearls the bride had wanted on her cake had all been used up on the flower arrangements. I also discovered that apparently nobody had ordered flowers for the cake!

It's only cake...

Soooooo, I had to fake it! I was worried and nervous about it but I figured if I didn't do it the cake would look a bit naked and the bride wouldn't have what she'd envisioned. So fake it I did!

After it was all done I kept going over and looking at it because I couldn't believe I'd made it! lol

I can't tell you how much I prayed about this thing. It may seem silly because it was only a cake but it was important to the bride and groom and it was important to me that it be as pretty as I could make it. I was reminded through this whole experience that the Lord is into the details of my life; and my cake. I seriously prayed over every detail of this thing; from the scroll work, to the taste, to the flowers that I didn't know how to do.

And He answered.

The bride told me it was perfect; exactly what she'd envisioned.

There is no better compliment than that. :)

In the grand scheme of things it really was only cake but I asked the Lord to help me anyway and He did. Nothing is too silly or small for Him to care about. How comforting that I can ask Him to partner with me on something like that and know He will. Whatever He asks me to put my hand to I can be reassured that He will come along side me and give me what I need to accomplish it well.

Drumroll please...

Practice cake...

This one is a practice cake so I could try out the scroll work on the side...

Another Cake...

Friday night Jon and I went and listened to a friend from church as he played an outdoor venue in Marysville with his brother. The guy can sing! He's not too shabby on the guitar either! Then his daughter got up and sang a couple of songs with him and Wow! She can really sing too! Makes me sound like a gerbil in a blender by comparison! :P

I have another friend who can paint these beautiful pictures that make you want to live in the canvas. My mom can quilt like you wouldn't believe and my husband does amazing things with wood. They are all very artistic with what they do.

It may not seem like an artistic talent but baking is what I love to do and I love to decorate cake even more. I love the entire process; from mixing up the ingredients to frosting and decorating to watching someone I love take a bite and roll their eyes in ecstasy at how it tastes. Every opportunity to bring a cake, I do. Not because I want to show off (I'm not good enough for that! ) but because I want to decorate as much as possible and not gain 500 pounds!

With that in mind here is the Hawaiian shirt cake I made for my friends Chris and Cora. (Chris was ordained and Hawaiian shirts are kind of the unofficial uniform of Calvary Chapel pastors so I thought it would be fun to make him one). I also did cupcakes with the Calvary dove on them. I had a lot of fun making all of these so thanks Chris and Cora for letting me. :)

And the cupcakes...

Arielle's Birthday Cake...

Well, Arielle is 11 now! Now we've got a teen and a tween!

I was telling Jon that it's a good thing I have some time to practice before she gets married because the birthday cake she planned was so elaborate I'm a little frightened about what her wedding cake might be!

She wanted three tiers (the original would have fed 150 people so we scaled that down a bit!) She wanted it to be vanilla butter cake with pink basket weave on each tier and rope trim around the edges. For the filling she wanted torted layers with vanilla moistening syrup, buttercream and sliced strawberries for the top and bottom filling layer. For the middle filling layer it was more buttercream (thin layers) and vanilla meringue disks! (Can this girl plan a cake or what!?)

When I put it together it got a little wonky because the meringue and berries weren't uniform in size and thickness so my basketweave was a little off too. I made up some Royal Icing drop flowers and buttercream roses and glued them on to try to make it look better. I wasn't thrilled with the final product but she sure was! That's all that matters I guess.

And Gracie loved it!! When I opened the fridge to show her she covered her mouth with her hands and gasped, "Oh Mommy!" Did I mention it was pink? lol

Here it is (and no matter what it looked like it tasted pretty dang good!)

Happy Independance Day!!!