A little monkey business

So, what is this monkey business about?  Well, on the weekend I had the pleasure of making my neighbours' youngest son's first birthday cake!  Wow, that was a mouthful!  Jordan (a.k.a. JJ) is a little cute monkey who just turned the big ONE!  He is super adorable and cuddly!  I was excited when Lisa (JJ's pretty Mama) knocked on my door a few weeks back asking if I would make his cake.  Uhmm, yeah man!  They are such lovely neighbours there was no way I was going to say no!

Lisa handed me a copy of the birthday invitation - pure cuteness!  I absolutely loved it that I used it as inspiration for this cake.  I really wanted to make this cake as close to the invitation as possible.   So, after a sleepless night (because I had a pretty busy weekend I couldn't work on it any sooner) this is what the cake ended up looking like!  I hope you like it!

 Click after the break to see more pics...

Happy bunting

Today, I am excited to share with you a crafty project I did last week for my twin boys' bedroom.  For about a month now my hubby has been bugging me to put something on the wall on top of their closet.  Now, you're probably wondering why?  Well, our son Javier has been having some issues with that blank wall for a while now.  Before we put him to bed, he would stare at that blank space and cry.  To be honest, it freaked us out a little, but we prayed it out.  This would happen almost every night, so we decided to have the lights off when tucking them in.  This seemed to work, but we wanted a better solution so that we didn't have to omit reading to them before bed (whilst in their bedroom).  So, (finally) I put my crafty hat on and got started.  I knew I wanted colour, but wasn't sure what?  I contemplated putting some canvas art up there, but I wasn't too excited about it.  Then I thought of putting up a poster, but that wasn't getting me all excited either.  Then I thought 'bunting' - that's it!  That got me super excited!!

After rummaging through my craft box for inspiration, I decided to use some of my collected paint chips for this project.  It's the perfect solution for adding colour to a room.  Don't you love it when light bulbs start working?

The best thing about this project is that it cost me NOTHING!  I already had paint chips, a single hole puncher, scissors, and some wire...oh, and command hooks, on hand.  Oh yeah baby!  I just used the same bunting template I made from here for this project.

Click after the break to see more pics...

Lolly's Fairy birthday cake

Originally, Helen wanted a Tinkerbell doll cake for her daughter Lolly.  After struggling to find the perfect doll to use for the cake, she decided to change the theme to Fairies.  Not too drastic a change as Tinkerbell is also a fairy.  Thankfully, Barbie has a great selection of fairy dolls at the standard size (not small like the Tinkerbell selection).

I will never forget Lolly's reaction to her cake when she walked into my house to pick it up last Saturday morning.  Her eyes widened and she immediately said "thank you" in her sweet and shy voice.  Sooo adorable!  She didn't want to cut the cake either.  Luckily her Mum thought ahead and baked a second cake to cut and share with her family and friends.

Here are some pics of Lolly's Fairy birthday cake.  Enjoy!

Click after the jump to see Lolly with her cake...

Basketball cake for Malachi

Good morning guys!  Thanks for dropping by.  Today I get to share with you my nephew Malachi's 6th birthday cake I made last weekend.  A couple of weeks before his birthday he requested a basketball cake.  Fortunately, nothing as complicated as his dad's cake here.  He wanted a court with a figure of him in it.  Of course, I wanted to make his birthday wishes come true.  So, starting at 6am that very day the cake was needed (at 12noon) I started his cake.  I could have started sooner but I also had another (bigger) cake to make due that morning, and those strawberry cupcakes I shared with you here due that morning, too.  Talk about overbooked!  Funny thing is, I have a diary to keep track of all my cakes so I know whether to decline or accept orders.  It's a bit different if it's family, though.  So, how did I manage to make all that?  By not sleeping of course!  (I do NOT recommend this to anyone btw - you need your sleep!)

Okay, so what did Malachi's cake look like in the end?  Here are some pics for you to enjoy.

 Unfortunately, we had a little accident with the cake on our way to Malachi's party...let's just say 'Malachi' ended up legless :-(  I know, I should have taken the figurine off the cake after snapping the pics and attached it at the party.  Lesson learnt!

Click after the break for more pics!

Cupcake fun!

Are you all ready for a cupcake-packed Wednesday?  I hope so, 'cause that's all I have in store for you today.  Here we go...so, last week was one busy cupcake week.  To get this party started, my cousin (in-law) Trisha wanted mini chocolate cupcakes for her colleague's birthday last Tuesday.  She wanted something girly with a message that read "Happy 21st birthday MJ" (which is supposed to be a joke because her colleague is actually an older lady).  So, with some paper crafting involved, this is what I came up with...

Want to see more cupcakes?  Simply click after the break...

SPCA Cupcake Day surprise parcel

One morning last week I opened my front door to a lovely surprise parcel from SPCA.  I had won the Most cupcakes baked by an individual contest for this year's cupcake day (woot woot) and as a prize I got a box full of goodies!!  I'm sooo excited to share them with you.  I also can't wait to use them on my baking!

So what did I get exactly?  Well, I could list them out, but I think in this case a picture (or a few) is worth a thousand words.  Click after the break to see all the goodies!!  Excited much?

September in a glimpse...

It's October already?  Where did time go?  What a great September we've had together.  I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.  And now for your monthly treat, here's September in a glimpse...

Most Generous goes to Summerland Primary for allowing me to hold a bake sale for SPCA Cupcake Day at their school.  What a great turn out we had!

Most unique goes to these boxed mini cupcakes that went down a treat oh-too-quickly.

LOL (Labour of love)
DIY stuff I managed to squeeze into this busy caking month included the hanging floral lantern and paper bunting and also our Project Monogram.

Most blogged-about has to go to the Rugby World Cup (with a bit of league in there, too)!  You can find them here, here, here and here.

Best Day Out goes to our Fathers' Day here and here.  That was one awesome weekend!

Most birthdays celebrated goes to a busy month for our family with JR's thirtieth, Jan-Jan's and mine.

Most significant goes to my decision to switching from regular eggs to using only SPCA approved uncaged eggs.

Most proudest moment goes to the graduation cap to celebrate my friend's sister who graduated from University!  Well done!!  What a great accomplishment!

Most organised goes to my ribbony madness solution!  Ha, let's see how long I can maintain those pretty little things, hehe.

Most scrumptious goes to my red velvet cupcakes!  Talk about delish!  Mmm...

Most ARRRsome birthday cake has to go to Wacky's pirate ship!  What a fun cake that was to make!  And to top things off, what an arrrsome pirate party!!  Ahoy!!

Wow, can't believe we squeezed all that fun into one month!!  Let's hope this new month of October is just as fun (or even more)!  So stay with me as we continue our sweet journey into this world of caking and creating!  I hope you're as amped as I am!!

Blessings!  xo