the start of summer

Well, it has been a little too long since I have updated my blog. So, here is a marathon run down of everything that I have done since Easter. Now that it is summer time, I am hoping to have not only more time to bake but to blog as well! May has been full of events/ Several weddings, showers and graduations. Above are some petit fors I made for my friend Karen's wedding shower. I was in her wedding two weeks ago, and it was so much fun to see her get married!

This brithday cake was for a suprise party for one of the sweet women who goes to church with me. She makes 80 look like the new 20.

Cookies for Natalie and Greg's couples shower. We went to thier wedding over memorial day weekend. They got married at the Hazelhurst House in McDonough, which was a beautiful venue for a beautiful wedding.

Smash cakes and birthday cake for a set of twins. The mother ordered a smash cake for thier party and thier photo shoot.

Cupcakes for a horse themed baby shower. (sorry the pic is sideways, i forgot to flip it beofre I uploaded it)

Cowboy cupcakes for my nephew William's end of the year party.

And last, flowers for Grace's graduation.

more birthdays and prom 2011

 Above is a smash cake I did for another Cindy Stansberry photo session (make sure you check her out on facebook and like her page!). The pics from the session turned out great!

 I did this cake for a combined 30th birthday/college reunion for an old friend who I went all the way from elementary to high school with. eek, i can't beleive we are all turning 30 :)

Friday night, we had prom at Grace Academy. It was a lot of hard work, but it was all worth it went I saw my students dressed up having a good time. About a week ago, I realized that prom was the night before I had to get up and take the math GACE. Needless to say, I had to leave early so I could get home and go to bed :( Above is a sample of the flowers I did, and when the photographer gets me the images I will post some more pics!

(not)Post #100!

 When I initially posted this entry, I really thought I had made it to 100 posts. Turns out, dashboard considers drafts in the total number of posts, so this was realy post # 92. stay tuned for my real post 100! Here are some pics of the last couple of projects.The two cakes with flowers were for a tasting that I did today. The whole family took part in the tasting, and I had a really great time getting to know them over cake this afternoon. I am looking forward to baking for them again in July.

 The chocolate cake above was for some friend's join 30th birthday party. This couple is expecting a baby in July, and they decided to use this cake to let their family know what to expect when the baby gets here. The soon to be grandmother ordered the cake, but she had no idea that they birthday couple had asked me to make the cake colored on the inside. I had a great time being in on their secret, and I had fun making the inside blue and the outside chocolate decorations!

Happy New Year!

 I hope everyone had a great new years! We had so much fun celebrating with some great friends. Everyone brought a dish to enjoy for dinner. I am lucky to know so many good chefs because dinner was beyond good.

 I got to use my wiggle woggle again. Shannon had these super cool candle holders that we filled with some small garland. They are from Crate and Barrel, and I think I might need to get my own.

 Here are the desserts I did. They were strawberry champagne parfaits with handmade chocolate garnishes.

Merry Christmas!!!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I am enjoying my first white Christmas, and it has been a great day to be with family and friends! We started out the day watching Christmas Vacation. Then, it was on to the church to help serve meals. I have helped coordinate the Christmas day dinner for the last 3 years, and this was the biggest year yet, we served over 1300 meals to residents of Griffin today. I am so thankful for all my wonderful volunteers! Above is a cake I made for a co-worker to take to a family party, it was red velvet with chocolate ganache filling, and I made my first icing poinsettias.

Above is my table set up from Christmas Eve. Both sides of our families came over for chili after the service . I recently inherited a wiggle woggle from Brian's side of the family. His great- aunt had this made back in the 60s, and along with the piece I have the magazine article that describes how to use it (which I thought was pretty cool). A wiggle woggle is two curved pieces of wood with holes for the candles. I decorated mine with greenery, hydrangeas, fuji mums, button mums, carnations, and roses. I can't wait to use it at other times of the year! I also used the table cloth and napkins that my great-grandmother made to go with her dining room set (which I also inherited).

Busy Busy week

Here are some pics from the week~

Yesterday, we not only got to celebrate at a great 30th birthday party, but I got the do the cake as well!

Football birthday cake for a friend from church's son. Little Damon celebrated his 10th yesterday, and he made my day when he called me and told me how much he liked his cake!

Here is a mini van cake (well, I think it looks more like a VW bus than minivan, but i guess its all in the interpretation). Another friend of mine from church's son was celebrating his third birthday, and apparently the little guy loves mini vans. I am still pretty new to basic decorating, and trying out a 3d cake was totally new. But, the more i worked on this cake, the more it grew on me.

On Friday, I conducted my last meeting as president of the Utility Club. I didn't think that it would make me emotional, but I did tear up just a bit. I was really excited to pass the gavel on! It was a lovely meeting, and the club is lucky to be inviting 6 wonderful new women as active members. Below are the corsages I made for the new ladies.

Happy Graduation!

As some of you may know, I work at a small private school here in griffin called Grace Academy. As of yet, it is my favorite teaching job. I have small classes, and I work with great teachers and students (what more could you ask for, right?) Last night was graduation at first Methodist here in town. And below are some of the flowers I did for the celebration.

All of the girls carried in little arrangements. Above was the salutatorian's, I added some blue to it. Below, is an example of the rest of the girls.

Corsage for Ms. Terri.

And here is me with several of my seniors. Up until this year, I have always had the lower grades and not had much contact with the actual seniors that were graduating. So it was neat for me to get to know the actual graduates.

Wedding Part Two

Here are a few more pictures. Above, is another one of the table decorations.
Here is a birdcage that Mandie wanted to collect gift cards on the gift table. We jazzed it up with a silver runner, some boxwood, and callas.

Here is one of the rectangular tables at the reception.

Below are the pictures of the cake. It was chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. The bride loves birds, so she chose the topper based on that. I thought they were cute.

Both the Elizabeths had the vision for the greenery around the cake stand. I thought it turned out pretty cool! Below is where we hid the toss bouquet in the greenery arrangement around the cake.

Shackleford-Harwell Wedding.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am obsessed with weddings. I still read brides magazines (even though I am coming up on my 3rd wedding anniversary) and watch anything on television that relates to weddings. I also spend a fair amount of time talking about weddings with several of my friends (who are equally interested, or at the least they tolerate it!). Speaking of friends, this weekend would not have been possible without my two best Elizabeths. Crouch flew in from Tulsa, and Pool came down from Atlanta. They are both talented, as you will see from the photos below.


I have been working on this wedding since January, the tasting cakes I did for Mandie and Stephen were actually one of my first blog posts when I started this little project. Mandie was a delight to work with, and I was so happy to be able to help her and Stephen with their big day. Here are some examples of what we did. We used shades of green, white, purple, and silver to create the arrangements for their wedding.












Here is the guest book arrangement.

Altar arrangments at the church. Crouch did such a great job with these!

Groom's men boutineers- purple cala, rosemary and hypericum

Groom's boutineer (white calla) father of the bride boutineer (purple and white calla)

Brides Bouquet (white hydrangea, green hypericum, and chite cala) surrounded by the bride's maid bouquets (purple hydrangea).

Kissing balls for the flower girls and some of the corsages.

close up of the altar arrangement from above. I tried forever to get these pics lined up, but alas...





table centerpiece for the round tables @reception. Earlier, I said what a big help the Elizabeth's were, the reception centerpieces were no exception. Brian also pitched in BIG time. We also had help from one of the kids from the youth group. Alex was a big help as well!

Rectangular tables w/ centerpieces and runners.

This was the centerpiece for the bride and groom table.

Utility Club Past President's Tea

As some of you may know, I am the current Utility Club president. We are a local women's group that dates back to 1927. We do community service with several organizations around Griffin, donate money, give scholarships to local students, and publish a cook book The Stuffed Griffin. I have a been a member since I moved back to Griffin in 2005. Every other year, the current president hosts a tea for all the past presidents. The oldest past president had her 96th birthday on Saturday, so it was neat to get to celebrate that in addition to the past presidents. Mimi Johnson was kind enough to offer to host this even at her house. Here are some pictures

Here are the invitations. I made little tea envelopes for the invitation.


Here is the cake. It was chocolate with cream cheese icing. I tried a new brush technique to do the flowers.

Below are some of the flower arrangements I did for the tables. I picked up most of the flowers at Sam's club. It was a great weekend to buy pretty spring flowers because of mother's day.Thankfully, my roses were going crazy so I was able to use some of those as well.