29 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, birthday, cake decorating, family, food
She turned 10 and had fun putting the royal icing fantasy flowers on her little cake at her party.
She even broke some petals from the flowers and used them so creatively. I love her style!
15 Wednesday Oct 2014
Tags
All Sparkled Up, baking, dessert, dessert table, food, party, Rosanna, tablescape, tea time
The timing was right… It was Rosanna’s 8th Annual Tablescape Contest, my daughter-in-law’s birthday, and I was finally healed enough to tackle an ambitious baking event. What better way to celebrate all three than with a Dessert Tea!
Dessert Tea table setting
Here is the table before I started adding all the desserts. I made the tablecloth from an old bedspread with fringed edge. (You can see scraps from that old tattered bedspread in the photos of Tea by the Sea. Crafters don’t waste any scrap. Ha!)
I adore Rosanna’s style and was hoping to enter her 2013 tablescape contest last summer. But we didn’t get the remodel done in time and I wasn’t very mobile back then. The china cabinet was emptied so we could move it around and all the china was stacked on two tables in the living room. That’s when I got the idea for a blue and white and yellow theme for a table.
This year, I thought about the Dessert Table theme for weeks. Each time I got an idea, I added it to my notes.
Four elegant mugs on a dessert pedestal hold the floral centerpiece.
After I decided on the serving dishes, I wrote a list of tasks, desserts and a tentative baking schedule.
There were two main focal points for the table, Rosanna’s elegant Luxe Moderne mugs for the centerpiece, and her La Mode fashion plates.
I used four of Rosanna’s mugs on a vintage dessert pedestal to make the centerpiece. I was so excited about this design. It has a lot of potential and I plan on using four mugs as a centerpiece base for other tablescapes.
Sugar cookies were painted following Rosanna’s designs on her mugs. I wrote about the cookies here. It was challenging to paint the designs! I have new respect for Rosanna’s design skill.
The fashion plates are so pretty!
These are not dresses, they are napkins! Small squares of fabric folded are diagonally and draped over a miniature hanger. A bit of ribbon and trim… and you have sweet petite dresses!
This server was made to accommodate round plates. But rectangle platters made for more interest.
Dessert Tea – Layered Desserts with Vanilla Bean Cake, Raspberry Mousse and Orange Gelatin with Raspberry and Mandarin Orange Slice.
To continue the fashion theme, I cut 6″ to 8″ squares of fabric for petite tea napkins and fringed the edges. Each napkin was folded and draped over hangers to look like dresses. Most were folded diagonally. Each was tied at the “waist” with ribbon, a little flower tucked in the waist and a small piece of trim was draped over the top to look like a collar.
I made the miniature hangers from pieces of coat hanger cut with wire cutters. One coat hanger made three miniature hangers. The metal cake stand was perfect from which to hang the napkin dresses.
The tea service was on the back of the table, behind the desserts. I wrote how I made the Sugar Bonnets here.
On the tiered server, top to bottom: Spritz, squares of Fudge and Shortbread, Butter Cookie Dresses.
I experimented with a new baking pan to make the Layered Desserts. They were delicious and so pretty! I will post the recipe some time.
The Layered Desserts looked perfect on the long rectangular tray.
I also made a Lemon Orange Cheesecake topped with Pineapple and a Marmalade Glaze. So delicious!
Dessert Tea – I didn’t have time to make round pastry shells. It was quick and easy to cut squares with a pizza cutter and place the pie pastry in the tart pan.
Dessert Tea – a table set with a delicious assortment of desserts: Layered Desserts, White Chocolate Praline Cake, Pineapple Marmalade Cheesecake, Cherry Tarts, Spritz Cookies, Fudge, Scottish Shortbread, Butter Dress Cookies, Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Macadamia Frosting, Honeydew Melon Balls with Blueberries and a bowl of Cherries.
Dessert Tea – napkins folded diagonally and hung on a miniature hanger, tied with ribbon and draped with lace.
Two bowls held Honeydew Melon balls and Blueberries and Cherries, garnished with fresh mint.
Cherry Tarts were on a glass dish.
I only had four covered glass dishes but that was enough to place four Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel and Macadamia Frosting.
The birthday cake was a White Chocolate Praline Cake with homemade Strawberry Raspberry Jam topping.
All together, the table looked lovely and the event was a huge success!
I submitted my photos and won an honorable mention in the tablescape contest… happy face! =)
My daughter-in-law was thrilled with her birthday, the girls loved the dress napkins and all our guests enjoyed the delicious desserts.
And it was the perfect event to celebrate the return of my health and stamina after such a long recovery. A sweet day indeed!
05 Thursday Jun 2014
It was a happy 21st Birthday! Twenty-one is a big birthday and the “toys” will never be the same again. We got our son 4 items: a big hunk of awesome steak wrapped in meat paper, a loaf of hearty homemade bread wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, a bottle of champagne, and a bread board.
He was amused at the loaf of bread and had not yet opened the steak wrapped in meat paper and cutting board wrapped in cutting board paper.
Thank you, God, for good bread, for good meat, for good wine.
Life doesn’t have to be complicated.
Enjoy the people you love!
26 Monday Aug 2013
Tags
Sorry I haven’t posted for a bit. We’re doing a bit of remodeling. We put two windows in a wall that had none. Woot! But here’s a photo while you wait. I just put this photo, Fork, on my 500px account.
Fork.
I have enough photos that I could post one a day for a year. I’ll try to post photos when I don’t have time to write. Thinking of you all!
29 Wednesday May 2013
Tags
cloth dolls, crafts, Princess dolls, removing stains from cloth dolls, sewing, stuffed dolls, tiny dolls
I made these for my granddaughter for her birthday last week – Two Little Princess Dolls, barely 5 1/2″ tall. It was a challenge to make them heavy. I believe doll legs and arms should flop down when you hold them so I filled the bottom part of the legs with sand to give them weight. I also half-filled the arms with sand too. The rest of the body is filled with fiberfill.
I made these dolls with legs that bend at the knee so they can sit.
Actually, I only made the dresses and tiaras last week and put new hair on them. I created the pattern for these dolls back in 1985, inspired by the work of Joan Russell from the early 60’s. I made about 20 of these little dolls. Most were given away and I don’t even remember who I gave them to. I embroidered my name and date, J A Monroe 1985, on the back of each doll and every one was different, with a different combination of eye and hair color.
Embroidered name and date on the back of the dolls.
Alas, when we moved to North Carolina from Miami in the 90’s, we went through a flood and the five remaining dolls were submerged under flood water for several days. They got badly stained. The original hair was a silky “dry clean only” cord that couldn’t handle water. Here you can see some of the bad staining.
The dolls were badly stained when they went through a flood.
Fortunately, I was able to bleach out the stains using full strength bleach on a cotton swab. You can see how perfectly the bleach is removing the black stain. I removed the ruined hair from two dolls and sewed on hair of embroidery floss. The blond hair doll used to have black hair. What a change!
I used a cotton swab with bleach to remove the black stains. It worked very effectively.
The tiaras were made by first wrapping and gluing wooly nylon thread around a wire frame. Then beads were wired to the frame.
The black hair was removed and replaced with yellow embroidery floss.
The dolls looked much better with new hair and tiaras.
The clothing was so fun to design! It was a challenge to find fabric with the right amount of drape. For such a tiny doll, the fabric had to be thin and soft. The pink dress was made from a vintage silk scarf. The blue, sequined lace was from A Gilded Life. The blue dress has one snap and the pink dress has a hook in back so the dresses can be removed.
Click the photos so see a larger image for detail. Both dolls have heads fully covered with embroidered floss; I figure if little brother ever gets hold of them and pulls off the long hair, they’ll still have embroidered hair, albeit short. The brown haired doll’s hair is left long and can be slightly styled. To make the curls, I wrapped a tendril of floss with glue around a waxed toothpick and let it dry. It slid right off the waxy toothpick. The blond doll’s hair is stitched into a bun.
She loved the dolls! …smile… =) ..heart.. ♥ …happy…
Two tiny princess dolls, ready to begin their adventures.
12 Wednesday Dec 2012
Tags
birthday cake, cake, construction zone cake, dessert, diagonal cake layers, diagonal striped cake, food, striped layers
I’m not quite mobile yet so my 19 year old son made the awesome birthday cake and my oldest son, Everett’s dad, took photos. We used our own recipes for the Vanilla and Devil’s Food Cake layers but followed this site for the construction of the diagonal layers. Totally cool cake for a little boy!
When he first saw the cake, two year old Everett placed his elbows on the table and just stared at the cake dreamily.
Checking out the awesome construction toys on the cake.
Getting more excited!
Moving in close enough to smell all the chocolatey goodness of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Oreos.
As soon as he realized he could eat the cake, he ran to the kitchen asking for a fork even before we lit the candles and sang. He paused his careful tasting long enough to blow out the two little candles.
Cutting the chocolate and vanilla layers to construct the diagonal stripes was challenging and took precision. I had never made a cake like this before so my son was on his own to figure it all out. He custom chose the recipes that he thought would work best. He did a terrific job!
Construction Zone cake with diagonal layers.
Thanks to Lauren for her excellent tutorial!
09 Saturday Jun 2012
Tags
ballerina, ballerina banner, ballerina cake pops, birthday, birthday party ideas, cake pops, decorated cake, food, girl's party, honeycomb, honeycomb banner
Here are more photos from my granddaughter’s 4th birthday party. This is a long post with many photos. Please click on a photo to see a larger version if you wish. I made Ballerina Cake Pops for her in her favorite colors, purple and pink.
Ballerina Cake Pops
I drew little ballerinas on white plastic cut from clean buttermilk jugs. Then I carefully cut them out using embroidery scissors. The cake balls were made and chilled and then I inserted the ballerina into the cake ball. You can see the feet of the ballerinas sticking out of the bottom of several of the cake balls. It would have been easier to just make picks but I wanted my Granddaughter to have a little plastic ballerina to play with when she was done eating the cake pop, so of course they had to have legs.
Since there was a ballerina in the cake pop, I could not dip it as usual. I spread the melted white chocolate around the ball with an offset spatula. These were placed in styrofoam and then placed in the refrigerator to chill.
The prepared cake pops were allowed to come to room temperature before piping rows of sugar ruffles using a small rose tip.
All the cake pops were placed on a stage made of styrofoam around which I pinned crepe paper streamers and gilded trim.
She loved the Ballerina Cake Pops. I was so happy!
I made a banner of ballerinas but forgot to take a photo of them hanging at the party. Here are photos of the construction.
Honeycomb Ballerina Banner
The ballerinas were drawn in Photoshop, based on a similar project in Marie Claire Idees magazine. I had to modify the Marie Claire version since it was flat, not with a full honeycomb skirt. Here you can see the honeycomb bridal shower garland from which I cut the skirts.
The ballerinas are drying after I applied glue and glitter to the shoes, bodices and tiaras.
The ballerinas are prepared for hanging. A single thin wire will be attached through a pinhole at the top of each ballerina and strung with crystal beads.
The ballerinas are hung temporarily in my dining room as I work on the hanging wires on each one They looked lovely at the party and I’m sorry I forgot to get a photo.
I just adore my granddaughter and there is no project too tedious or complicated that I wouldn’t do for her.
19 Saturday May 2012
Tags
We celebrated the fourth birthday of my precious granddaughter today. There are more photos but I just had to post a few to commemorate the wonderful day.
We were busy watching her blow out the candles so none of us noticed her hand daintily holding her dress until we saw this photo.
She nibbled bites from the side of her sweet little cake.
Of course we must blow bubbles.
I adore her little cake with all the bites taken out of it!
Happiness wears curly pig tails.
03 Saturday Dec 2011
The day was splendid with brightness. First in the smiles of my family gathered around, then in the candles on the cake. I am grateful to have reached the beginning of my 54th year. I am joyful that one of my sons shares my birthday and is beginning his 30th year on the same day.
I’ve never understood why people hide their age. Every year is a gift from God and I’m glad for every one of them. Life is very, very good.
Candles on my 53rd Birthday Cake
