It's Been Busy!!

What I've been up to lately!



Dora & Diego Cookies off to VA.  Thanks Tamika!



"Chrissy" Cookies for Moodylicious Skincare's Wicked Chocolate Face Frosting. 
Off to CA for a slumber party.  Thanks Christine!



Surprise for Sally's Birthday!



Living Social logo cookies for my sales rep!  Thanks Monica!  I hope your other clients love them!

 

Princess Dresses in hot pink & lime green for the twins' Princess Tea Party birthday.
Thanks Linnea!





Custom Crispy Pops to match a fabric swatch! Thanks Laura!



Bring on the Boys!!!

Several birthday parties for little boys of late.  Here's what we've done!

Batman!!  Thanks Karyn.  I hope he loved them!

Grave Digger!  Thank you Brandy!  See you soon. 

Light Sabers for a Star Wars themed party!  Thanks Yolanda!

Media Mayhem & Royal Ridiculousness

Happy Sunday! 

I have two things I’d like to share today for my weekly bloggy blithering.

First….I have something I need to get off my chest, and could really use some advice.

Then…a {little bit} of shameless bragging!  That’s okay, right?  After all, I have to share my successes too!

So…advice.  Yes, I need help!  I have a hard time admitting that I need help, but here, I am just at a loss.  For all my fellow “mompreneurs” out there, how in the world are you keeping up with all the social media networking??

I am actively promoting myself and networking via:

1 – Facebook

2 – This blog

3 – Martha Stewarts Dreamers into Doers  

4 – The Children’s Party Network

5 – Twitter @tstCookies (but haven’t been on it in like 2 weeks!)

6 – I also am constantly visiting others’ pages on all of the above and   leaving comments, “liking” them, entering contests, etc….

I can easily spend my entire day on my laptop or iphone, and I still don’t feel like I am catching it all!  All this networking has been outstanding for The Sweetest Thing!  I have almost 600 fb fans {HOLY COW!} as of this writing, have met many fabulous women, and even discovered I can use cookies as currency! I have traded cookies for {cake pops} from Dreamin’ N Details Design, an amazing {custom picture frame} from Creative Flair Art, an adorable {hand knit hat} for my daughter from Buggies Beanies…and have more in the works!

So…the problem is this:

How do I feel like I can stay on top of all these different media outlets so as not to miss opportunities, yet still maintain a balance so that I have enough time in my kitchen and with my family?

               

PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU TO LEAVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS!

Now that I’ve said all that, it’s time for some bragging! (Do I seem modest here? I am, really!)

Huge thanks to Natalie of Southern Belle’s Charm for the referral on this job.  I was contacted by a woman to do custom cookies for a Sweet 16 party.  The party, styled by Natalie, sounds like it will be gorgeous!  Custom decorations and invitations in purple, silver, black and white….damask…rhinestones…chandeliers…so beautiful!  Anyway, the woman who called me asked if I can make a cookie to match the chandelier on the invite that Natalie designed, as well as some with the birthday girl’s monogram, E.  Of course, as usual, I said, “YES! Of course I can do that!” 

…Then I looked at the invite!

This is the chandelier and the E is a beautiful, looping font called precious.

 E

Well, of course, I had to do this, and I knew I could, I just wasn’t sure of the best technique to use yet.  For the E, I knew I had to do a pre-piped letter.  It was a challenge to keep the letter in one piece as I placed it on the cookie, but it worked!

The chandelier was more of a challenge yet!  First I tried piping in the black into the wet flood icing and manipulating it with a toothpick.  It just didn’t come out how I wanted it though.  Then I tried just using black gel icing color and hand painting the design.  Turns out, I am not that great of a painter! Lastly, I decided to try applying the black icing on top of the completely set white background.  I piped as much as I could, and used my {toothpick} to move the icing around to get the points and the extremely narrow curls the way I wanted them.  I am pretty pleased with the results and hope the birthday girl likes them too!

Oh, and since the invites have a damask print layer, I thought I’d try that as well. 

Here is the resulting set, and I sure hope Katie and Elana like them as much as I do!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

R A W R!!!!

Dinosaur Cookies!

T-Rex and Stegosaurus!



T-Rex & Stegosaurus...ready for the party!

YES, I know Stegosaurus is not a meat eater.  Being the herbivore that he is, the teeth would be flat for grinding leaves, not sharp for ripping meat, but....they were too cute, so I had to include the teeth! 

Happy Birthday Andrew! Thanks, Lisa.  Good Luck with your new business venture, SagePrints. 

"Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do!"

Camden is having his 3rd birthday party today.  His daddy is a police officer, so he wanted a police themed party.

"police" cookie favors

I love how these turned out!  Make me wanna go "WOOOO, WOOOOO, WOOOO, WOOOO!!"

Camden's badges!



These handcuffs don't hurt!

Happy Birthday Camden!  Thanks Carrie, it was nice meeting you. ...and thanks Angela, for the referral.  {LOVE referrals!}

The Day of Firsts!!

Monday, my daughter turned 1!  I know, right...how can the year go by that fast?!  She's practicing walking on her own, but so far can only do it holding onto something.  It's really cool watching her challenge herself though and she develops the balance to stand unassisted.

There she is, pushing herself - and dressed as a lion for Halloween!  Soooo cute!

So, we had a party for her birthday on Sunday, and I have been inspired by other bloggers and my tweeps to do a more interesting set up.  Our theme was pink...suggested by my new friend Cineca of Dreamin' N Details Design, we used all different shades of pink.  Oh...and EVERYTHING was pink!  She wore a pink outfit, complete with tutu! 


Look at that grin! Adorable!!!

The food was pink...though I didn't think to take pictures of the food.  We had PINK lemonade with frozen strawberries floating in it, served in a punch bowl for extra pizzaz! PINK watermelon, PINK cranberry sauce (homemade from my grandma's AMAZING recipe!!  I'll share that too), roasted RED skin potatoes (not pink, but darn close!) and chicken empanadas.  You're right, empanadas are not pink, but the dip that I made to serve along side them was!  Amazing dip by the way!  We love it at my house.  Oh...and I almost forgot.  My kids both LOVE yogurt and strawberries, so I layered them in a trifle bowl...looked like dessert, but healthy!  And...for the Pièce de résistance...the dessert table!!! 

Ok, so I didn't know that a "sweet table" was a thing until recently!  Having seen postings from other blogs and following party planners and other crafty people on twitter such as The Party Muse, Crafty Workin Mommy, Kara's Party Ideas, and lots of others!  I know my set up does not come anywhere near comparing to these fine ladies' work, but I was pretty tickled with myself!  Especially since I put it together using mostly found objects from around my house (an my mom's!), I thought it was a pretty great first attempt.

Another first for me was the cake.  I always make my kids' birthday cakes myself, and I think I do a decent job.  While I'm no "Ace of Cakes" I can do a decent job creating what I am going for.  Check out my son's volcano cake for his 5th birthday this summer!

Technically flawless??  NOT HARDLY!  But my 5 year old was pretty thrilled with it and so was I.  :)  But, after seeing tweets from @THEToughCookie about her cake that was to be featured on Martha, I had to check it out.  She decorates her cakes with cookies!!!  How cool is that?!?!?  So, I had to try it... again, hers are way better (check them out at One Tough Cookie's website) but I was pretty excited about this!

This is her little smash cake...

And this is the cake that was served to the guests!

And of course, we had PINK ice cream to serve with it! Peppermint and Cherry Chocolate Chip!  I know, at this point I think everyone thought I was crazy with the pink!

Tha party was a hit, and Emily LOVED her cake, well, at least the pink frosting on it! :)

Pikachu Party Favors

Happy Birthday Cole!  Thanks April, it was nice to see you again.

Scooby Dooby Doo, I See You!

These were custom made for a little Scooby lover's birthday.  Happy Birthday Clayton, and thanks for the referral Angela!

Happy Birthday Renee!!

These were ordered for a surprise 50th birthday party.  How lucky is this woman that her husband puts this much thought into planning her party?! 

I hope Renee loves these as much as I do! Thanks Rory!