Helloooo Nurse!

     So I didn't really go to see a nurse, or a doctor for that matter, but I have been feeling icky lately. Call in the vitamins and airborne! So far it's working, I haven't been out and out sick yet. This has, however, put a damper on my plans for the week.

     I'm behind on my sewing and baking. Not really a big deal since at the moment I'm working on projects for me. (YAY ME!) Although, to be honest, I'd have rather have had them done by now and have been working on items for a craft fair or to put up for the holidays. Oh well! (Speaking of which.. there are a few rolls of burlap that are just SCREAMING my name.)

I did finally get almost caught up! A new wallet, and business card holder, just in time!  This isn't the finished design for my card holders, at least not yet. I want to do some serious tweaking, but it's much better than the last go round!.  Progress is Progress! I also set up an etsy shop for those of you who aren't local! (Yeah, it only has the one listing for now, but once I finish tweaking the card wallet I'll have that on there as well as ruffly vintage-esque aprons, ornaments, purses and more! You can go ahead and request one and I can make a custom listing.. but the actual listings with pictures probably won't happen this month... Costumes and cakes galore! Yay!).  The link for that, since I forgot.. is www.etsy.com/shop/sscac.

So here's the pics!

 Hand sewing the tag! I think it looks much better than the other!

 The wallet!

 added a pen loop!

 and tried new tag placement!

 Super happy with how it turned out!

 The card wallet! 

 I can't get over how cute the new tag is :D

 The set!

And down below, the most exciting part of this week! My vistaprint order came in! Cards and stickers OH MY!  They are MUCH cuter in person, MUCH!

Busy Week!

     And I'm loving it! I have several projects that are works in progress right now and I'm waiting on some very special deliveries. The waiting is the worst part, but I'm super excited for what's coming!

     So far this week I've done alterations, made more wallets, and decorated a super cute petal princess cake. We've had dinner with friends, playtime, and this weekend is going to be packed as well!

     Chloe -loved- the wallet I made. So much that it is hers, if I take it she cries inconsolably until she has it returned. So.. I made a new one.. Similar enough that she's happy to have one like Mommy's, and different enough that I don't run out of the house with her build-a-bear card and none of my stuff...

Wallet #2- let's see who steals this one -.-

still SUPER roomy, just what I need. 

Some of the Exciting New Things! I will probably attach these differently in the future though. 

     I also did a super cute cake! It had an icing Tiara that I simply adore doring. They're so cute and the kids just LOVE to crunch into them!

Petal Princess

All in all it's been a very busy time for me and I totally expect it to keep going up from here! 

And because I can't end without a peek at the littles... 

Wallets and other fun things.

     I decided the other day that I wanted a new wallet, a larger wallet, one that would hold receipts, coupons, lists.. and whatever else I might decide to throw into it.  I looked around for one I liked and saw several.. then I had the thought.. "Hey! I can make this!" So I did!

     This began my 3 day journey into researching patterns and tutorials. Several trips to find fabric that might co-ordinate with the stash I had hiding in the garage. (Yes, I must hide my fabric or the mini crafters will start... crafting with it). Finally, pattern in hand, tutorials in view.. I decided to jump in. (I should mention that all of this has also been occuring while I am struggling to give up pop/soda .. that may or may not have made this more of a battle than it should have been).

The wallet came together easily enough. The card holders, they're not as spiffy as I had wished.. I am planning a new attack later.. I will get something I like and I will master it. MASTER IT!  But until then (and since I don't actually have any business cards yet) these will do.

Now I'm sure you're tired of my rambling so we'll get to the good parts, the pictures!

Starting off with some hand-sewing

Some mighty fine top-stitching

more embellishment

A break for the cool kids in shades

back to the grind, hating this at this point

Holy crap I did it!

Super Roomy! 

Since that worked out so well, decided to make card holders also!

Super cute together! Even if some of the stitches need cleaned up. 

Spidermaaan .. spider maaaan..

     Ok so I don't actually know the song, but I was blessed with the opportunity to make a BOY'S cake this weekend. Me, Excited? Yes! I do little girl cakes all the time but rarely if ever have the opportunity to do anything for a boy!

     I also got to try out my new toy! Yay toys! This isn't what I was talking about earlier.. those little gems will still be another two weeks out, but I finally got a working air compressor for my airbrush. I couldn't wait to try it out.

The blank canvas

Crossing our fingers... 

Oh,  yeah.. it works!

Chloe helping to clean the brush.

    

     Now I know you want to see the end results of all of this! So without further ado, SPIDERMAN and the GREEN GOBLIN.

 The top was left relatively plain so she could add toppers. 

a close up of Spidey

the green goblin (originally he was going to have pointy ears..)

     And that's been my week so far! I have more excitement coming up as I've been taking orders for Halloweeeen costumes, on top of figuring out mine, Eric's and the girls. You're going to looove it!

Advertising what?

     So, today since one of my friends shared VistaPrints back to school deal.. I decided, why not? Couldn't hurt, right? I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my spiffy new cards and stickers for my cake boxes.  I'll post pictures in a couple of weeks when they arrive.  This is probably all I will put into advertising because 1. not sure if it will honestly help or not and 2. it's a super small hobby business ... at least right now. But I love me some office supplies so I'm excited.  (It doesn't take much).  Speaking of which.. Staedtler pens... I am in love with you.

     I have another cake that I'm working on today, so there will be another post tomorrow showing you how cute it's going to be. I'm pretty excited for that as well since it's for a boy and with two girls I don't get a chance to do boy themes all that often.

     I've also joined a plethora of groups on facebook that are seriously helping me get organized/feed my addiction for office supplies, lol.  Menu planning, budgetting, planning... Seriously I could spend all day on there.. which would totally negate all the work I've been putting into time management. (Which has cut my cleaning routine down to under an hour a day for a nearly impeccably clean house!).    Once I have more time I'll upload some printables I've made for my cleaning schedules and budgetting. (For those of you interested you should visit A Bowl Full of Lemons the group links are there as well as a TON of household management tips!)

Since I can't end without some kind of picture... here's one of my recently revamped planners :D (The Planner for Sew sweet is missing from this picture, but it's quite lovely as well!)

The rest of my busy day..

     Well.. now that the cake has been picked up I feel safe in posting this! This cake was a LOT of work. Not only did I have to figure out how to make and sculpt the fondant couch.. but this was my first time laying normal fondant.   Ruffles I had done before, piecing it together I had done before... but completely covering? No.. not so much.

     It started out as a disaster.. I won't even mention how many times I had to roll it out the first time just to get it to the cake without tearing... but then I had to rip it up off the cake.. and re-lay it.

     Luckily I had planned ahead. Yup! I planned for failure and that made me a success! Ok so maybe not really, but having a whole other batch of fondant made up and ready to go kept my birthday from completely sucking.  (I also made a TON of buttercream.. so hey.. mr. cake that is due this coming weekend.. I'm ready for you! Yeah, you!)

     I also figured out that when making a cake this big, for the ease of everyone involved you should PROBABLY double your cake board (I didn't and this thing is crazy awkward to move). I also decided that it's too heavy for the normal cake boxes I normally send and so this puppy went in a box I had laying around from this or that amazon delivery.

     Start to finish, including baking time.. this cake probably took me at least 8 hours, but I'm fairly happy with how it turned out and I learned a LOT about working with fondant (Hey it's not just for modelling!)

I should probably show you what I'm talking about, so here it is! 

Those coffee cups.. those are painted... anything not fondant is piped on with buttercream.

That couch... this was the second attempt.. Zoey interrupted the first.

 The finished product! The top layer is lumpy but I'll take it!

Another view, this is probably the third most ambitious cake I've attacked. 

Happy Birthday..

     to me!

     Yup! That's right! I'm 30 for the second year in a row.. or 13 depending on what I feel like telling my daughter when she asks.  All in all it was a good.. and very busy day!  I had to finish a cake for pick up in the morning (I'll post pictures later as it is for a surprise party) but I still wanted to do one for me.

     Thanks to the influence of Pinterest I decided to go a little non-traditional with my cake... that and the fact that it's fall (even if it doesn't quite feel like it) led to me (and my daughter's) decision to do a spiced pumpkin cake! What fun!

     Not only is it delicious and bright and all harvesty.. (yes, it's a word, my word!) But there's a whole party going on inside. You see, me and my Chloe... we don't settle for mediocre, and with Zoey we simply won't settle for anything less than fantabulous... so what you get is... 

Complete and utter success. 

     It turned out so well in fact, (especially for a last minute decision) that I just had to use it for my new flyer.

      I can't wait to show you what else I've been up to!