Little Monster

It seems the "cake smash" or "smash cake", depending on your preference, has been a tried and true tradition in many homes for years. My Mom has a picture of my brother sitting on the kitchen table, elbow deep in a layer cake with baby blue frosting. His first birthday, and of course he was permitted to play in his cake. Doesn't it seem like that would be a confusing situation for a kid? On any other day of the year it is not acceptable for the baby to play in his food. As soon as he turns the big "1", all we want is to see the little guy covered in frosting and loving every minute of it! As crazy as that seems, the appeal is as strong as ever. 

The only difference seems to be the "fancy". 

Smash cakes are beautiful works of art! 

From pretty pink cupcakes to fun and colorful characters, the cakes steal the show! 

Today I bring you this sweet cake smashin' one year old! Bryce McDowell has hit his first milestone and we celebrated with a "Little Monster" themed session. The colors were so fun and the cake was just so creative...not to mention delish! If you'd like to have a fancy cake for of your own, contact the talented Kim's Kakes and Kandys. You can find her on Facebook. The adorable knit outfit was made by Kass McDowell at Crochetmomma2011. You can find her on Facebook as well. And she just happens to be Bryce's Aunt! Paper flowers and banner by Me!! 

Enjoy this happy boy and his cake!

Snow Globing

Who doesn't love a snow globe? They are so pretty...
even the really cheap drugstore variety with the plastic scenes inside appeal to me.

  And oh how lovely are the ones that contain porcelain figurines.
 So pretty!!

I've always wanted one with a nativity inside, but I have never seen that perfect one. I'm still looking.

Did you know you can make your own snow globe?
Well the idea was new to me, but this weekend, I tried it!

 Alex and I saw the idea on the internet...might have been Pinterest...but anyhow, we said, "Let's do it!"

Here's how it went:

First we gathered the items needed:
~small jars with lids, cleaned and dried.
~tiny miniature figures for the snow scene. We found ours at AC Moore and
I had a few little things in my Christmas decor.
~glitter
~ribbons or paint to decorate the jar lids
~Epoxy glue
~distilled water
~glycerin
 (found in the drugstore, facial care isle. You can thank me for that little bit of info...we wandered through the CVS like lost puppies looking for glycerin...what the heck is it anyhow? Apparently it soothes chapped and chaffed skin and lips. who knew.)

First choose your scene and arrange it on the lid of the jar you want to use.

Next glue the items to the inside of the jar lid. Here's where you can learn from my mistakes: Don't think you can epoxy anything to a plastic lid. For some reason this was a fail. It's a sad experience when you excitedly shake your snow globe and the tiny world inside bounces around like a small earthquake had just occurred.

I have no earthly idea why this happened...I might try and rough up the plastic with
sand paper and see if that helps.
I just don't know.
I'll get back to you.
I'm sure you will be on the edge of your seat waiting.

OK, so now fill the jar almost to the top, (allowing space for the objects to displace some of the water).
Next, add some glitter, and a few drops of glycerin...not too much. The directions we read said that might cause the glitter to stick to the bottom of the globe.
Tie a ribbon on the jar lid to hide the fact that it's actually a dill pickle jar lid :)
 If you plan to paint the jar lid, you will have to do that before you glue everything down.

Lastly, screw the lid to the jar, tighten, and turn it upside down.

Shake your globe whenever you need a little sparkle in your life!

That little angel is an old piece that was my Grandmom's. Love it.

And yes, that is a tiny Eldreth Pottery house. I have a lot of those so I thought, "Why not?"

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"