I Can Bake My Cake And Eat It Too

I have always enjoyed making and decorating cakes. I was never really all that good at it. I would usually just bake the cake and slab some store bought icing out of a container on it. Was it edible? Yes. Did it look great? Not so much. 

So in April I signed up for a Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's and I am so glad that I did. I took a 4 week course and learned so much! I had never made my own icing before nor had I ever used a decorating bag and the tips to apply the icing. I learned how and now I am never going back! Seriously, why would I? 

My cakes looked like this before:

And now they are looking like this:

Still not the best looking cakes in the world, but definitely a vast improvement. Best of all I really enjoy doing it. 

If you love making cakes and think you have room for improvement I highly recommend taking these Wilton classes at Michael's. They are fairly inexpensive and well worth it!  

What I've Been Up To

It has been AGES since I have sat down and written one of these, well anything really. i went on a hiatus for a while. Stopped sewing. Stopped crafting. I just felt like there was never enough time for it. I felt like I was in over my head trying to keep up with everything. Blogging. Crafting. Sewing. Keeping the house clean. Spending time with the kids. Spending time with the hubby. It just felt like too much and I felt like I had to prioritize things better. So I did away with my crafting.
The hiatus didn't last long. I was soon back to crafting. I discovered my passion for it again. There is just something about working so hard on something and seeing that finished product! I just get this sense of pride and accomplishment. I LOVE it!!! There is nothing else quite like it.
Well, except when it comes to kids and family.
Nothing will ever trump family.

These 3 people are the world to me!

I have been crafting and sewing like crazy. And I've also been growing my business.  I actually have a few regular customers now.  GASP! Some days I cant believe it myself.  These wonderful ladies have been so good to me!  And I just LOVE being able to create something very special just for them. Its the best!
A wonderful friend taught me to make pillowcase dresses and I have been making them like crazy!  I think I have it down to a science now. :) I adore pillowcase dresses.  They are so easy and are versatile and simply ADORABLE!  They can be worn all year long!  They can be worn alone in the spring and summer and can be paired with leggings or tights and a long sleeve shirt in the colder months. And even better once she grows out of it,  it will still fit as a tunic with leggings or a shirt with pants or jeans! How could you not adore a pillowcase dress? Seriously!
Ive learned to make pants and do appliques on clothing. 
And hair bows!
And very recently I've had the immense pleasure of being able to make a dear friend crib bedding for her new son Smushy Face. This bedding was so fun to make and turned out WAAAAY better than I ever could have hoped for! I think it is probably hands down the most professional looking thing I have made thus far.  And I am insanely in love with it.  Seriously,  could this get any cuter?
This is just a few of the things I have been making. I hope to show you more soon!  Stay tuned.

New Beginnings

Hello blogging world. Again. It has been ages since I've posted on here and I feel extremely sad about that. I wish I could come up with some extremely well written viable excuse for it, but honestly there really isn't any. Life, I guess. Anyways, there is so much that I've done since I last wrote that I don't even know where to start!

I guess I'll start off by reintroducing myself! Haha! It really has been that long! I am happily married to my best friend. :) We have two beautiful children that mean the absolute world to us. 
                             
                              M - the sassy princess is 5.

                                C - our stubborn little dude is 3.

These two munchkins are my everything. In any given day they can frustrate me to the point of a mental break down and then completely melt my heart with their "I lub you mom" or their sweet hugs and kisses. There is nothing better than being a mom even through those nerve-wracking, I just want two seconds alone so I can break down and cry moments. I wouldn't even trade those moments for anything! I'm sure all of you moms out there would agree with me here. Right?!

My favorite people.

We desperately need updated family pictures! This is from Christmas 2011!!!! My hubby is horrible about getting pictures made. He despises it. 

Okay, so I want to share some of the projects I've completed since I was last on here. There are too many so I'll just share a few.

I've really gotten into painting stuff lately. Not really my forte' but hey what I have done has turned out great, I think. We had this toddler table and chair set that we bought at one of my favorite places ever, Ikea. We bought it way back when M was just one, I believe. I had been meaning to do something with it and pretty it up somehow, but like most projects I just never got around to it. Well, I finally did and I am so, so, so happy with the way it turned out!

Before:

Nothing spectacular, right? I was definitely not in love. My original plan was to paint the whole thing white  and just leave it at that because all of M's other furniture in her room was white at the time. Now that M has a more grown up room and everything has pretty much changed I decided to change my approach on the table as well.

After:

What do you think? Pretty awesome, huh?!

M is really into art and coloring & drawing right now.

So I added Chalkboard paint to the top and voila! an art table! It's not in the picture, but later on I added a roll of paper to the for crayon and marker drawing. 

They seem to love it! 

To keep to the whole painting scheme I'm going to share this other project I completed. M recently upgraded from her toddler bed to a "big girl" (twin) bed.  

I was totally head over heels in love with this bedroom set, but definitely did not like the price tag that accompanied it:

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. We bought a basic white bed from Wal-mart.com for around $150. Not too bad. 

Before:

I took this and created this:

Not too shabby! I had a lot of fun painting this and putting it together for her. Her room is still a work in progress. I also painted the inside of the bookcase in the background. I'm hoping to one day have all her furniture coordinating! I still need to paint her dresser to match and maybe a few other things.

Leave me comments and let me know what you guys think. I would love to hear feedback!

Baby Chase's Crib Bedding...Finally!

And here they are! Pictures, as promised!

The comforter! I varied from the pattern and made it a duvet instead!

It took me longer than I thought to get them up. While putting it in the crib I realized I didn't attach ties to attach it to the bed! I had to come up with something. And this is what I decided to do:

The Perfect Crib Bedding

Baby Chase's crib bedding has been plaguing me for months on end now! I searched up and down for many months trying to find just the right thing for his room that was actually in my price range. Talk about impossible!

I wanted something kind of modern looking with blues and browns in it and I didn't want anything too kiddie looking either. Finding something pre-made that I loved for under $75 was nerve racking and pretty much impossible. After searching high and low and going insane many times over, I decided to make my own crib bedding!

And tada! I have a completed set of crib bedding. Granted Baby Chase is now 5 months old and he had to sleep in a bassinet in mommy and daddy's room until he was quite literally head to toe in the thing, and then had to use his older sister's old crib bedding for about 2 months, he now has his very own bedding to cuddle up with!

I am completely in love with this bedding! It is exactly what I had in mind for my little man. I can't wait to make more accessories to go with it and finally complete his room! This is the first project I've taken on of this magnitude and I have to say I completely out-did myself. I am extremely proud of this project and can't wait to show you some pictures. (Baby Chase is cuddled up in his bed sleeping soundly on it as we speak!) I promise I will have some pictures to show you next time! Until then...

Halloween: Just around the corner!

Halloween is coming and I've got some great ideas!

Sleepsack halloween costumes for your little one!!! Here are some I've come up with:

*Frog (I am making this one for Baby Chase...Madyson is going to be a princess...so Princess and the Frog. I thought it was a cute idea.)
*Pea Pod
*Ballerina
*Butterfly
*Ladybug
*Bumblebee

Those are just a few I came up with last night. Let me know if there's something you'd like to see!

P.S. I stumbled across this blog today: http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/10/cinderella-dress-halloween-costume.html. She has made the CUTEST costume ever. It looks amazing. Check it out.

My Very First Blog. EVER. Period.

So the title pretty much explains it all. This is my first blog. And honestly I'm a little nervous. This thing has been sitting her idle for a little over a week now all because I had no idea what to say, what I wanted my message to the world to be.

I guess I will start off telling a little bit about myself. I am Lisa, a 26 year old stay at home mom of two. This may be biased but I have the sweetest, most beautiful babies in the entire world!!! But what mom doesn't say that about their own children. Well in my case its true!

Madyson Jade is 2 (30 months to be exact) 



And Chase Alexander who is 5 months.

You will probably be seeing a lot of them as they will most likely be modeling the majority of my products!

Speaking of products, I just today opened my "online store" via Facebook. Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Woodstock-GA/Starfly-Designs/124636757585416?ref=ts. If you like what you see, please "like" my page and suggest me to all of your friends!

I have very few items up at the moment, but will be working double time to get more out. At the moment I am currently working on sleep sacks, baby slings, boppy covers, diaper bag changing pads and wipe holders, hair clips, etc. If there is something specific that you want or need, even if it isn't neccesarily baby related let me know and I can probably work something out for you.

And while you're on facebook stop and check out a few of my friends' pages:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Woodstock-GA/Dibble-Dabble-Designs/105830849473713

Dibble Dabble Designs makes the cutest Tutus EVER! If you have a little princess running around at home definitely check out her stuff!

Here's the ensemble Dibble Dabble made for my princess....

Andrea from Dibble Dabble crafted the gorgeous tutu, the magic wand, the hair bow, and even did the iron on on the shirt! Wings courtesy of the Dollar Tree! These tutus are top quality and are the cheapest I've seen around here!

Also, be sure to check out CandyMoon Designs at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/CandyMoonDesigns. They have the cutest stuff!

Now that it is nearly 2 am, I am signing off.

Til' next time....