Cake ball a trois

A friend of the family asked me to make cake balls for her daughters graduation open house this weekend, sweetening the offer with the promise of cash. Baking for money? Sign me up!

Dressed in my best Betty Crocker get-up, I've spent my afternoon baking cakes. My kitchen is hotter than a bad word and I'm quite tired of mooshing icing into cake crumbs. And sadly, I'm not even halfway done!

I'm making lemon cake balls which will be dipped in white chocolate, red velvet with cream cheese icing that will be dipped in chocolate, chocolate with cherry icing to be dipped in chocolate and also Oreo balls (dipped in white chocolate).

I've got balls that are rolled out,

balls that are still in the smooshed stage 

and balls that don't even know they're going to become balls!

Lord help me! I'm all caked out. This is requiring more energy than my sick-self has exerted all week long. 

PS I'm battling day 8 of summer illness =/ Thanks for all the kind words, it has started to fade off, but still frustratingly enough graced me with a throbbing head and swollen tonsils all day today. 

Ugh

Dear invisible friends,
Meet my new partner in crime-

We've been spending a lot of time together lately.

Lovey Dovey quilt

I just realized I never showed a finished picture of the Lovey Dovey quilt I mentioned back in February...

we had a bright (bright!) sunshiney day so I sweet-talked Chris into being my human quilt rack while I took some pictures!

Here's a sneak peak at another that I'm working on too...

Lil' Miss Sassy

Every baby needs a cute, cozy quilt! 

And if that baby is growin inside of a fellow coworker of mine then it only makes sense for me to make them one as a gift! If you're new(er) to my blog you may have missed out on the Lil Zoo Boo and the Cindy Loo Who quilt which have gone to live with their wee little owners this past year (and apparently they are being used quite a bit judging by the amount of pictures i've seen on Facebook with these lil blankies lurkin in the background!)

This week I finished up another one, for a little girl of one of my sales reps. She was actually due this past Sunday and thank goodness she hasn't gone into labor or anything yet so I had a chance to finish it up and get it to her before her lil miss makes her grand debut.

I'm calling this one the Lil' Miss Sassy quilt... those are some intense, bold colors for a baby quilt... and I LOVE it! If this baby girl is anything like her momma, she will be one sassy chick!

I apologize for the poor quality photos. These are actually before I even finished the quilt, taken on my iPhone.  I took good ones on my camera last night but they somehow disappeared (I'm quite sad because the quilt is with a fellow coworker to be given to the preggo tomorrow because I won't see her!)

PS Thanks all for your sweet, sweet words yesterday! I spent yesterday sewing and that always helps to clear my head and cheer me up!

Four words....

Waste. of. an. outfit.

(Will share more later, swamped at work right now!)

Double Duty Decor

Shortly after Olivia was born, my sis-in-love had mentioned getting letters to spell out her name to go over her crib. Of course, I took this as "Perfect opportunity to get crafty and surprise the new mama & papa with some decor for the little miss!"

So I took six 5"x5" canvases from JoAnn's and painted them each with a fun little pattern in colors that coordinated with her bedding. I let these little puppies dry, then took a dark brown/almost black paint (same color as the crib & other furniture in her room) and wrote her name on them, one letter per canvas.

Earlier this week they surprised me with this photo from Livy's 3month photo session. I guess my wall decor plays double duty as photo props!

Heaven is bringing its angel baby home

Today Heaven is taking an angel home. Sweet Amelia Grace's path is unfolding differently than we had all been hoping and praying, but she will be in a better place.

Amelia's family has been close with our family for as long as I can remember, her mom and my brother grew up together and Amelia's grandma and my mom were friends for even longer. Tori announced her pregnancy shortly after Brandin & Courtney announced there's, and the anticipation of a third generation of friends bustled.

Heart-breakingly, it was announced that Amelia had a heart defect and liquid on her lungs and probably wouldn't even make it full term. Amelia proved her doctors wrong and made her grand debut into this world January 13th and has been a fighter ever since.

Unfortunately, diagnosed at birth with Down Syndrome and a life-threatening heart defect, it has been no easy feat. Her short life has had it's fair share of high's and low's, and as we learned last night, God has different plans for her than we all had hoped. I ask that today you keep Amelia and her family in your thoughts, and pray that she has a painless return back up to Heaven where she may watch over all of us.

Sweet Amelia Grace, you have taught us more about miracles in your short time than we may have ever learned without you!

(A side note I wanted to mention that struck me as interesting - Amelia was born 1/13 at 2:22, my niece Olivia was born 2/22 at 1:13. I take this as a sign that this precious baby will forever be watching over my niece and keeping her in good hands!)

All around the world

If you ever visit my blog outside of GoogleReader, you've probably noticed those little icon's on the right side of my page that relate to sewing. See the one that says Fussy Cut Bee? Well, that little icon has been getting me all kinds of excited lately!

Let me give you the one paragraph explanation of a quilting bee. Basically, there are 12 people from all over the states (sometimes out of the country) and each person gets a month. When it's your month you send out fabric to the other 11 and they will sew you a block or two and send it back. Then you can sew them into a quilt, make pillows, do whatever you want with them. Comprende? 

 Well May is my month, so the end of April I sent out a little bit of these fabrics to the other 11 people. One package even went all the way to London. This quilt I had seen online was the inspiration (created by Alissa)

 And I'm starting to get blocks back in the mail. I am in LOVE with them, and can't wait until I get enough to put it all together! Here are a few that my lovely bee members have created for me

Aren't they gorgeous!? The first two were made by Jane over at Fancy Two she has two adorable little girls that keep her busy! The other four (I know, FOUR, wow! Thank you!!) were made by Lynette, you can visit her Etsy store here. Two very talented ladies! I will be sure to share once I get my blocks from all 11!

The modern quilting community is gaining quite a presence online... it's amazing how far quilting has come since the days of our grandma's and great grandma's! I urge those of you who aren't crafty to check it out next time you're in the market for a new blanket or baby gift, there's a lot of gorgeous handmade pieces all over Etsy!