Wedding Cakes

I'm recovering today from making 7 cakes! I made these cakes for Mike Mckinley. He got married yesterday out at his gardens. Sam has been friends with him and also has been working for him on and off for about 6 years as a groundskeeper. I hope to go out there this week and get some pictures of his property. It is absolutely gorgeous. It's like a little getaway right here in Eau Claire. My mom and I had fun finding some milk glass platters to display the cakes on. Sam and I went around the gardens and picked flowers and raspberries to put on the cakes. I had fun doing "country style" cakes. Most of the ones I have done have been very elegant, so it was fun to do a different style. I made choc. cake, white cake, and carrot cake. It was this very time last year, when my good friends Jess and Jeff got married. Happy 1st anniversary you two!

Artful blogging

I'm very excited about the artful blogging post here.
You see, I love looking at other peoples blogs. I would love to make friends in the blogging community, but I've been very shy. So I'd like to step out and say hello today. I'd like to meet other people who enjoy making art as much as I do. So please drop a comment and say hello I'd love to be your friend and read your blog, I always love new inspiration. There is so much buzz going on about this artful blogging magazine, seeing as I love anything by Somerset I know I will have to check it out!


I decided to share some art cards that I just made. I am doing Emily Falconbridge's art card challenge. You take a deck of cards and she gives you a journal prompt for each week. A very fun little way of making art! These cards are made with acrylic paint. They are dimensional. I mixed some textured paste with acrylic paint and used some new embossing plates I bought. It's so fun and quick to play on a deck of cards. You can see some of my others here.
Click to view larger image

I really want to share with you an amazing goodwill find today. A quilt top for $7. Crazy! Can you believe that someone didn't want this? I can't imagine all the work that went into this. So I am going to learn how to sew so I can finish making this into a quilt. I think it's actually pretty old. Does anyone know? I think I can figure it out based on the patterns. I'm thinking it's from flour sacks. I also have a few other things I'll need to post soon. I wish I could quit my job and spend more time blogging. I do have a wedding cake for this weekend. So I better get cracking!

Tag, I'm it

So Jess tagged me, so I'm to list 8 things about myself. Here goes:

1. I like to think that I'm a simple girl, that I don't really "need" too many things. But I have this thing for fancy kitchen stuff. I'm picky, I just won't settle for crappy stuff. On my wish list is a Le Creuset dutch oven- ooh I'd love a red one I think, or orange, or lime green- so many fun choices. I'm such a snob! I'd also love an All-Clad Copper Core 4-Qt. Sauteuse Pan. It would be perfect for deglazing and it cooks so evenly. It's made in America. And I love that it goes from stove top to oven. It's the only All Clad item I want.

2. My next big goal is to learn Spanish. I don't want to do it traditionally. Sam and I hope to live in Guatemala for about a month or two and have a tutor to teach us.

3. The one kitchen item I love is the microplane grater, what a great tool. It zests anything effortlessly.

4. One big risk I'd love to take, but am kinda afraid to is flip a house. I think it would be a lot of hard work, but fun to rip stuff out, make it pretty and sell it. It is such a risk, so many variables. Where to buy, how cheap of a house to buy, can you resell it, is the market good? Stuff I don't know about, but would like to learn. I think Sam and I would make a good team. He knows a lot about the construction stuff, I have the design eye. Maybe someday!

5. I'd love to make art with crazy abandon. It's the other goal/dream I'm working at. I'm trying to cut back on my hours at Target so I can start to pursue this a little more. I want to try to make and sell things on Etsy.

6. I love thrift shops. I especially love the ones that are in little odd towns. They seem to have the best stuff. You know, the dirty smelly ones that have weird stuff, but some gems also. Just this weekend I purchased a few items. You'll have to tell me what you think of them. I'll be posting pics soon

7. I would love to be a more organized person. I keep telling myself this, Sam keeps trying. I lost my cell phone for about 4 days, the sushi guy at Target had it and gave it back to me. His friend found it on the bench outside of Target and thought it was his, oy vey! I just thought I lost my wallet yesterday and was freaking out, only to discover after retracing my steps that it was in my purse all along, just in a different pocket (Sam found it) I lost our digital camera when we were looking at apartments in Eau Claire, must have fallen out of my lap. I don't know how many times I've lost my keys and have searched frantically as I'm trying to get out the door to work, I usually find them in pants pockets. I really would like one of those beeper things on them, kinda like a phone pager. Oh, we were in Sweden shopping one day, I was walking along the street and realized I didn't have my purse. We ran back, luckily an honest person found it in the changing room and turned it in to the cashier. So it's a weakness I need to work on.

8. I have this thing about time. I don't really care 5-10 hey even 15 minutes give or take. If someone is that late or early, who cares. I do realize I live in a country where this doesn't quite fly. That is really one huge reason why living in another country is so appealing to me. Are we all really in such a hurry that 5 minutes makes a difference. I realize if you believe in this philosophy you have to be flexible and it can be a pain sometimes, but I think we as Americans need to chill a bit!

My First Etsy Purchase!

If you guys don't know about etsy, you need to check it out. I'm encouraging all my friends to buy gifts for people at etsy. It has a ton of handcrafted items and vintage finds. I love it! I think I'm going to use this cute vase to house some of my scrapbook embellishments. So now that I have an etsy account, I will have to get busy making things so I can be a seller. I bought this from The Peach. You should check out the other cute stuff they have!

This was my second purchase. I bought this for my friend Amy's birthday. You have to check out this ladies jewelry. I love it! Have a great day everyone!

Simple Living

I am so thankful that we live where we do. Sam and I share a tiny little apartment. I like it because it overlooks the river, has hardwood floors, a lot of kitchen cupboards, and a lot of character. It definitely is cozy a.k.a. small! So Sam and I over the past 11 months (yikes it's almost been a year!) have been constantly rearranging to figure out the best way for this little space to work out for us. We have come a long way. We started with an ugly green dirty carpet that covered these beautiful floors, we got rid of some of the furnishings that came with the place (gaudy "italian" gold wall art! scary paintings of children- oh how I wish we had pictures!) I had to gradually do it, because I felt guilty giving all the stuff back, after all, our landlord was giving us free furniture to use. I think we finally got it when we decided to keep the bed out of the bedroom! And just recently we decided we don't need the coffee table. It just looks so much more open without it. It folds up, so as much as we loved the oriental table, we just store it under the bed and can whip it out whenever we need it. So we packed up a lot of extra stuff that we just didn't need and I can breathe so much easier now. I love it! It's really hard to take pictures of such a tiny space, so you just may have to see it to believe it. So I'm sure now after we have just figured it out we will probably move! It may be just a slight one, to the place downstairs, or it could be a big one. If it's just to downstairs it would be cool because it's bigger and has tall ceilings, that will happen if the current renter moves as he plans on doing in the fall. I will miss some things, but I will not miss the wallpaper! I kinda enjoy the challenge of making the most of each space we occupy and trying to figure out how our stuff (or the stuff given to us) will work best in a space. But I am so ready to be in a place where I can paint the walls, have a garden in the back, sit on my own porch, and hopefully stare off into the distance at mountains. Someday. Someday. It's good to have hope! As Sam always says, ""You'll appreciate it more."

We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

God gives us such cool pictures in the Bible, and it is so easy to relate to. The hope that I have for a better job and owning a house is nothing compared to the hope of heaven. But it's so cool because God blesses us and we wait patiently and we receive things hoped for. It makes us happy. Heaven is going to be so much happier! I love it that with heaven all we have to do is believe, we don't have to work for it at all, the work is all totally done out of love. All we have to do is believe.

And then in Romans it goes on:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

I love that section. It's so comforting, we are so stupid and words fail us sometimes, but we don't need to worry because the Spirit is there. It's so cool. Read Romans, it's such a great section of the Bible. I was quoting Romans 8:23-27, and it just goes on and gets better and better.

Flowers Make Me Smile!

I love the Farmers Market. We live so close, yet this is the first time I've had the chance to go. I bought a big old bouquet for 2.50! I didn't love them all mixed together, and I didn't have a vase that large, so I decided to make a country/summer display. It makes me happy!

I love these! I feel like they make it look like a designer room! Pictures don't do them justice. What is it about flowers? They just make people feel better. Go buy yourself flowers today, or better yet, cut them from your garden, if you're lucky enough to have one.


Our apartment is clean! Really clean, dishes are done, I have clean sheets, and the laundry is all done. What more can a girl ask for? It feels so good. I am able to relax so much easier!

More Steals!

Bracelet: $1.00


Shirt: I bought one in knacki also $3.00 at JC Penney


Necklace: $1.00 I also got one in black


Bracelets: $1.00 each, noticing a trend? I got 10 for ten bucks at the hemp stand in the mall, I had to weed through a lot of cheesy sterling silver dolphins on a chain, but I found some cool stuff


Yes, don't worry, this is supposed to be a little cheesy, the Jeans I bought for $11 at JC Penney