Halloween Cake

This cake was for a bunko party. Dark chocolate fudge - the recent favorite flavor!! It was made to match the plates that she had for the party. 

I added some little guys to the side :)

Lingerie Shower

This cake was for Diane's lingerie shower. I practiced with some cookies, too. Still not happy with them.  Cake is dark chocolate fudge, covered in marshmallow fondant. 

Logo Cakes

These were logo cakes done for a retirement party. I did them a few weeks ago and I have a baby so I'm a little forgetful, but I think that they were dark chocolate fudge, strawberry and red velvet. Then I did a large one to go along with these that said "Congrats on your retirement... ." It was french vanilla.

Family Blog

For those of you that follow this blog and like reading about my family, I started a family blog: The Tuminello Family. Hop on over!

I have some cakes to post later today if I get around to it!

My girls

Most days I don't think that Taelyn and Lillian look alike, but I've come to realize that is because I don't really remember Taelyn's chubby baby look! She looks so different now than she did when she was a baby and it is hard to remember her that way. However, some days I come across her baby pictures and it really makes me realize how much my girls do look alike! Here are some pictures I was comparing today:

This is Taelyn at 4 months!

This is Lillian at 3.5 months. Lillian has filled out more now and looks more like the picture of Taelyn above. But they both have that same grin on their face!! 

Love these girls!!

Hostess-like Cupcakes for baby shower

Kelsey asked me to do some Hostess style cupcakes for a baby boy baby shower and they turned out so darn cute!! The cupcake was dark chocolate fudge and then they were filled with a marshmallow icing. I topped them with chocolate ganache and wrote little cute baby words on the top in the hostess style. They said "love," "baby" and "Alex" (which is the baby's name, of course!). These turned out so cute I made so extras for my bible study this morning and wrote the fruits of the spirit on them (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). I can definitely see these being a great treat for Taelyn's class this year and writing all of the kids name's on the top!

Spunky Circles!!!

This cake was made for a mother's birthday.... I believe it was the 75th. The bottom tier of this cake is dark chocolate fudge and the top tier is french vanilla. It is covered in buttercream and then the circles are marshmallow fondant. The bow on top is also marshmallow fondant. I sprayed it with pearl lustre spray to give it a shimmer. I love the colors on this cake!!!

Batman Cupcakes

My nephew, Grayson, turned 6 last week. For his birthday he wanted batman cupcakes! They are a mix of french vanilla and milk chocolate cupcakes. Topped with buttercream. Finished off with a royal icing batman logo. Happy Birthday, big man!!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

I had the great privilege of making cupcakes for a baby shower for my friend, Katie. Katie and I lived together at MC and during a few summers and she was my maid of honor in my wedding! I love this girl and I am so excited that she is having a baby girl in a few short weeks! And even more excited that she is moving back to Jackson so that we can spend a lot more time together and our girls can grow up together! The cupcakes were a mix of strawberry and milk chocolate. They were topped with buttercream and I finished them off with royal icing decorations with a cute pink footprint on them. Then I sprinkled them with nonpareils. Happy baby, Katie! Can't wait to meet the sweet girl!!

Gumball Machine Cake

Last weekend I did a gumball machine cake for a 5th birthday party. The colors were all primary colors. The sheet cake was dark chocolate fudge and the gumball machine was milk chocolate fudge. The cake was covered in buttercream. I thought these colors looked so pretty together. We did a mini gumball machine for the birthday girl. It was strawberry and covered in buttercream.

Cupcake Cake

I just wanted to post some pictures from the cupcake party so that you could see how cute the cake was all set up!!

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!

Cupcakes are so popular now. And they are so much fun to decorate! I had 65 cupcakes to decorate for this past weekend. And one giant cupcake cake! I have wanted to make one of these for the longest time and I finally had an opportunity to! Twenty-five of the cupcakes went with the cupcake cake. We decided to ice them to go along with the colors of the sprinkles on top of the cake.

The remaining cupcakes were for my niece's birthday. They were iced in pink (of course!). I made cute white chocolate 4's and S's to go on top of these cupcakes; however, since it was 100 degrees by 10am here in Mississippi, the white chocolate didn't hold up long enough to make it. Sad. I don't currently have a picture of the pink cupcakes, but will post a pic if I can get my hands on one! Here are some pics of the toppers.

Let the sports wars begin!!!

This past weekend I was asked to do a cake for two boys' birthdays. One was an LSU fan and one was an Ole Miss fan! Now, I've been to an LSU/Ole Miss game and it was ugly! These two teams seriously hate one another. When I was putting the two sides of the cake together I felt like they were going to repel one another... the way magnets do when you try to put the like sides together. Overall, I think the cake turned out cute though. One side is chocolate fudge and the other is french vanilla. The cake is covered in buttercream.

Cookies!!!!

I've been wanting to try these iced cookies for awhile and finally felt up to it this week. I wasn't that pleased with the taste of the cookie because I used half white and half wheat flour, but I'll know better than to try to make a cookie healthy for next time!! I also am not a big fan of royal icing, but it is necessary in order to make these cookies look the way that they do. From what I've read, the cookie has to be the real standout when making these, not the icing. They turned out cute and I can see them being teacher/school happies for us this year! I'll keep working on them until I am please with how they taste! Here are some pictures.

Sports Ball Cake

I did a cake last week for sweet Reece's 1st birthday, which was sports themed. His mommy wanted to incorporate several different sports and had this design in mind. We did a 3 tiered cake with the bottom layer french vanilla torted with buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant to look like a basketball. The middle layer was milk chocolate fudge torted with buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant to look like a football and the top layer was french vanilla torted with buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant to look like a golf ball. Reece's smash cake was a large french vanilla ball covered in buttercream to look like a baseball. Cute, cute!

LucyPalooza

I made a cake! And I enjoyed it so much! I can't even remember the last cake I did before this one, but when Haylie asked me to make a cake for Lucy's first birthday I thought about it for about 1.5 minutes before I decided that YES, I was definitely ready for it. I had told myself that I would resume cake decorating when Lillian started sleeping through the night. Well, unfortunately that hasn't happened yet, but I think I just needed to do something that I really enjoy!

Lucy had a princess party, so I did some researching on the internet and found several cakes that I really liked and just pieced them all together into one beautiful cake fit for a princess! The bottom tier was strawberry (to go along with the mounds of pink that was strewn all through Haylie's house!) and covered in white buttercream. I did a quilted pattern on the bottom tier and put edible pink pearls on the cross pattern. The top tier was french vanilla covered in pink buttercream. I piped a sash around the top tier and added some pearls to it. I topped it all off with a white chocolate tiara that I hand piped. I added some of the edible pink pearls to dress it up! The whole thing was sprayed down with a good coat of lustre dust to make it shimmery... princessy!

Lucy's smash cake was a miniature carriage in coordinating colors. The wheels are white chocolate. Cake is french vanilla covered in buttercream. Here are some pictures, but once again, I took them with my cell phone so the lighting is bad!

Taelyn and I made some cute princess cupcakes, too! Yep, Haylie even had the three year olds working on the party!!!

The entire party was truly amazing! Complete with a huge castle that Nick built out of big boxes, a craft table with crowns, tiaras, swords and wands, and a horse drawn carriage giving rides around the neighborhood! Happy first birthday, Lucy! I am so honored to have been a part of it!

To co-sleep or not to co-sleep

                                                     

Co-sleeping... it's such a debated topic among parents these days. In my opinion, if you enjoy sleeping with your children and it works for your family then do it. No judgement here. One of my best friends co-sleeps with her children and she is happy doing this. I think it is great. However, those of us who do not want to co-sleep shouldn't feel like we are being judged or considered any less of a mom because of that decision.

There are several reasons why I choose not to co-sleep. The main reason is that from the time I wake up in the morning until the time that my children fall asleep at night (and even during the night with my 10 week old) I am needed by them. I am holding, cuddling, feeding, playing games, changing diapers, wiping tears, entertaining, reading books, etc. My priority all through the day is my children. It is exhausting, but so worth it. However, I need time for myself. I feel like this helps me to be a better mom. On a good night, after my children go to sleep, I will typically have 2 hours all to myself before I go to bed. Usually I use this time to get in bed and read. I like having this time each night where I am not being needed. I can just relax and enjoy the quiet. If my children were sleeping with me, this would not be possible.

I feel like the majority of the pressure to co-sleep comes from the breastfeeding community. I feel strongly about nursing my children. I nursed my oldest daughter for a year and plan to nurse my little one for a year as well. Breastfeeding proponents make me feel like I should have my daughter in bed with me at night so that she can nurse all through the night anytime she wants. That does not sound like a good night sleep for me. I am a light sleeper, so I wake easily to noises and movements. We all know that babies make a lot of noises and move constantly in their sleep. I've read in books that to co-sleep safely you should put your mattress on the floor and sleep without blankets. And you need to wear clothing that allows your nursing child to latch on whenever they want through the night. Well, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if my mattress were on the floor and I didn't have any blankets on me I wouldn't get a wink of sleep. And as far as nursing through the night... they say that most of the time you won't even wake up when the baby latches on and nurses - HA! I promise if my baby latches on and starts nursing I won't be able to sleep through that. And if I did sleep deeply enough that I were to be able to sleep through a nursing session I would definitely worry that I would be in danger of being one of those parents that accidentally suffocates their child while sleeping in the bed with them.

The reason that I have been thinking about this so much is because I read this article last week: http://www.slate.com/id/2143241/. The article is called "Go ahead - sleep with your kids." It is subtitled "the urge is natural. Surrender to it." It is written by a father who feels like the natural thing to do in life is to sleep with your children and nurse them around the clock. This article really infuriated me because to me he is insinuating that you are selfish if you aren't okay with what he is suggesting. Well... I think it is really easy for this FATHER to point fingers at MOTHERS and say this is what you should be doing. He isn't the one that has a child latched to him all day long. And he isn't the one that is being needed constantly by children and doesn't have time to himself. I don't know anything about this man's personal life, but I'd be willing to guess that he goes to work away from home each day and has plenty of time to feel like a grown man and have adult conversations with others. I'd be willing to bet that he doesn't spend his days in the floor pretending to be cinderella's wicked stepmother, reading books and playing Cootie over and over again. And I know that he isn't feeding his child with his own body countless times all day long. Yet, he thinks that mothers are selfish if they are asking for a couple of hours sleep in their own bed away from their children each night.

Well, Mr. Wright (ha, ironic name, huh?!), I think that you are wrong about this. I don't think that mothers are wrong if they choose to co-sleep and this works for them. If they are happy with their children in their bed then it is great. However, I don't think that I am wrong for choosing not to co-sleep. And if he would like to come nurse my child all day long, then I may be willing to give co-sleeping a try!