I baked a cake!

Saw this cake from Gooseberry Patch on FB and thought it looked wonderful!  Taking it to school today to share.  I'll let you know how it turned out and will hopefully remember to take pictures!

Mandarin Orange Cake

Wedding Shower Banner

Decided to try out a new cartridge on my Cricut this week (Tie the Knot) and this is what I came up with for the up-coming shower.  Picture quality isn't the best and I didn't take pictures as I went along, but you get the idea.  Still think it needs a little something, but I'm not quite sure what.   I LOVE,  LOVE, LOVE the two little layered birds at the ends.  Thanks for looking!

Basil Mayo

Punky Poo (youngest daughter) and I went out to lunch last week at Great Harvest Bread Co. here in town.  They make the BEST sandwiches.  I always get basil mayonnaise on mine so I thought I'd Google a recipe for it and here's one I found that sounds good and easy!

Basil Mayonnaise

Mexican Grilled Corn

Mayonnaise on corn-on-the-cob???  What a GREAT idea!  And a little spritz of lime sounds heavenly!

Just saw this recipe from MS and, since I'm a BIG fan of COTC, I'm gonna have to try it.  I think it sounds wonderful!  Since I don't have a grill any longer I'll probably just boil my corn the old fashion way, but that's okay, too.

Mexican Grilled Corn

Wedding Shower Pomander

I saw this neat pomander (http://www.oncewed.com/7591/diy-wedding/flowers/diy-wedding-pomander/ )and since I'm having a shower for my daughter's upcoming wedding I thought I would give it a try.  I made mine a little smaller than they did but the basic idea is pretty much the same.  I didn't use two flowers on each pin but I think it turned out fine.

First, I used the same scrapbooking paper I did for the bird's wings on her shower invitations.  I cut the 12x12 paper into 1 1/4" strips and got 9 - 10 strips per sheet.

Then, I used my five petal flower punch from EK Success to punch out 10 - 11 flowers per strip.

Then, I used the rounded end of a pen and the squishy thing on my computer to curve the flowers up a bit.  I have seen this done with a different tool that has a ball on the end but I can't think of what it's called right now.  What you do is take the pen and place it in the center of the flower then pushing down and rolling it in a small circle on the pad.  I think you could use pretty much anything that was squishy and gave way.  It causes the edges to push up and become 3 dimensional.

I was able to get about 100 flowers from a single sheet of paper which was enough for one ball with a few left over.

Then, I used 1/4" ribbon to wrap a styrofoam ball.  Each ball took a complete spool of ribbon that had 10 yards on it.  I got mine from Wal-mart for 99cents a piece.  I used stick pins to hold the top and bottom of the ribbon down.

Then I put the flowers on, randomly, with a pin in each one.

And....voila!  You're done!  So far I've made 5 and still have one more to do.  My daughter liked them so much after she saw the first one she asked me to make 6 of them.  She's planning to have them hanging on the rows of chairs down the center isle during her ceremony.  :o)

All in all, I think each ball cost about $5.  Not too bad!

Inexpensively Done Bridal Shower Invites

My youngest daughter is getting married in October.  Her Matron of Honor and I are giving the shower.  These are the invites I put together this weekend.

I was able to pick up these Laura Ashley blank cards from Michael's for a dollar per package.

I punched out some birds from brown textured cardstock and their wings from a patterned paper that has her colors in it (brown and green).  The punch is from Stampin' Up.  I glued a bird in each corner on the front of the card.

I printed the information onto some light green vellum with a brown ink, punched slots at the top, and tied some brown ribbon to hold it in place.  For about $7 I think they turned out pretty cute.

My first post!!!

Good Sunday morning!  I've been reading others blogs for quite awhile and thought I'd join in on the fun.  I may not be posting as often as some, but I'm looking forward to this new adventure in my life.  Hang with me as I explore, create, cook, and live my life!