Random thoughts on 2nd Pregnancy

I did do cakes this weekend, but once again I only got pictures with my cell phone, so I am trying to get some better ones from the actual party/shower before I post them. If I don't have them in a few days I'll just post the cell phone pics. Both turned out cute!

In the meantime, I have some random thoughts on pregnancy... namely, the second pregnancy.

I really enjoyed my first pregnancy. Yes, I was tired (so I thought), but it was nice to be able to come home and hit the couch and rest after a full day of teaching. I went to bed when I wanted to, on the weekends I slept in. It was wonderful having 9 full months to mentally prepare for becoming a mother and I needed every second of those 9 months (probably needed a little longer! I was no where near as mentally prepared as I should have been).

Then comes the second pregnancy. NOT. FUN. The exhaustion is about the same, but then you have to add to that the boundless energy of a two year old. I come home from teaching all day long and I play with my little girl - who goes NON-STOP until she passes out at night! I just hit my third trimester and I've all but given up on having a clean house... the vacuum is just too heavy to push around! I try to cook two or three times a week, but that is all that I can promise my very forgiving family! I'm due April 20, and in "pregnancy years" every month seems like a year. I know that April isn't too long from now, but it seems forever away. Sweet friends keep trying to remind me how much easier being pregnant is than actually having the non-sleeping, constantly nursing newborn in your home - and I remember how difficult it was. However, I am still ready for April to be here. At this point I would rather be a sleep deprived zombie and be holding that precious little girl in my arms than to feel like I've run a marathon after giving my two year old a bath at night. You can come back to this blog in late April and there very well may be a post wishing for pregnancy because at least I was getting my sleep at night! But as of right now - I'm ready for pregnancy to be over!!

Not to mention that I failed my 1-hour glucose test and had to take the 3-hour glucose test a week and a half ago. I will say that it went much better than I thought it was going to. My problem is that I google everything. Retroverted uterus in the first trimester - I google it to learn that 3% of women who have retroverted uteruses (uteri?) can have miscarriages up to week 20 in the pregnancy - so of course, then I am freaking out that I could be in that tiny percentage of women. My doctor has encouraged me to stay away from google, but we have a long standing relationship and I keep running back no matter how many times he hurts or scares me. So - before my 3 hour glucose test I google it to find out what to expect. And boy did my good friend, google, have me expecting the worst! So for all you women out there who have to do this test you should know - it isn't really that bad. I read all about women throwing up, passing out, getting overheated, and on and on and on. None of this happened to me even though I was expecting it after everything I read. Yes, you can't eat or drink anything past 7pm the night before. But I'll admit this - I ate a large dinner in an effort to curve my hunger until 11am the next day when my test would be over - but I got VERY sick that night. So everything I ate was gone. I worried that I would be absolutely starving by the end of my test the next day, but I was fine. I went in, they took my blood, I drank the glucose solution and that seemed to get me through the 3 hours. I was definitely hungry when I left, but nothing that was making me nauseated or light headed. Also, I read that the glucose solution you have to drink for the 3-hour test is twice as much as the 1-hour and twice as sugary as the 1-hour. Not true! They gave me the exact same little bottle of orange glucola that I had to drink before the 1-hour test. And despite what I read, I didn't have to drink the solution every time I went back to have blood drawn. That was definitely a nice surprise! Now, having blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours isn't fun (I have the bruises still on my arms to prove it), but it really wasn't terrible. And I passed my test with completely normal numbers. So, I've continued to enjoy the ice cream and kit kats that I enjoyed before my glucose test! Thanks goodness - I need them to help me through this pregnancy that feels like it will never end.

Have I complained enough this post? Sorry, about that. I know that no one comes to this blog to read about me complaining about pregnancy. I am so incredibly thankful that God is blessing us with another child. I am happy as I can be to be pregnant with a healthy baby and I need to just be grateful. So now that I've gotten all of my complaining out to the blog world I am going to attempt to just enjoy my last few months of pregnancy and remember that my exhaustion is going to only get worse when I'm not getting 8+ hours of sleep at night! I just think I'm tired now, right?!

My verse to live by: "Do everything without complaining...so that you may...shine like stars in the universe..." Philippians 2:14-15.

On a different baby note - Baby's name is going to be Lillian Noel. Lillian is my grandmother's name. We are going to call her Lillian, but we are going to call her a shortened version as well. So how should we spell the shortened version? I need your opinion!! I want to keep the double L's, so our options are Lilly, Lilli or Lillie. Tell me your favorite!!

Lollipop Cake

I have pictures of the lollipop cake from last weekend. It turned out very cute! I'm not sure if you have ever worked with fondant before, but interestingly enough, the weather affects how this substance can react. Last week was very wet in Mississippi. It rained almost every single day. As a result, the fondant was so sticky! I had to use a TON of powdered sugar to make it act right for the accents on this cake. And my lollipops took a very long time to dry. I was getting worried by the end of the week, but luckily they turned out fine! Here are the pics of the cake and the smash cake.

This weekend I have another first birthday cake and a baby shower cake! I'll keep you posted on how they turn out!

My Little Baker

I did a very cute lollipop cake for a first birthday last weekend, but the cake had to travel an hour and a half away, so I didn't stick the lollipops in the cake before it left. They were going to get put in once it reached the birthday party. All of that to say - I don't have a completed picture of the cake with the lollipops in it. But they promised to take one for me at the party, so I'll post it as soon as I get it.

While making this cake I had some left over cake batter so I made an extra 8 inch round for Taelyn. I thought she would probably have fun decorating it and it would give her something to do while I was decorating the real cake. She is always wanting to "help," but I'm sure you other mothers of two-year olds can attest to the fact that a two-year old's help is usually a set back! However, I don't want to make her stay out of the kitchen when I am working on cakes because I don't want her to grow up dreading when mommy has to work on a cake. I think it is important to involve her when I can.

So she had a blast decorating "HER" cake while I was decorating mine! I gave her some of my extra white icing to cover the cake and then let her pipe it with hot pink icing and gave her sprinkles for the top. She had the best time and has talked all week about "HER" cake. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Hot Pink icing is her favorite!!!!

SPRINKLES!!!

Finishing touches. My poor table will never be the same after all of the icing that I had to clean off of it!!

Blog Future

So... I'm trying to decide what to do with my blog since I'll have a newborn (and a 3 year old) soon and I know that it will probably be awhile before I feel "up" to doing cakes - or before I will have the time to do it! The truth is that I really enjoy blogging, and would like to blog about more personal things going on in my/our lives than just my cake making. However, I'm not sure if this is the place for it. Or to put it bluntly... if you guys care about my personal life outside of my cakes! And my header does revolve solely around cake making. Hmmm... decisions, decisions.

I need some help from you people. I know that I have some readers out there (not a lot, but some) because my handy, dandy site tracker tells me that I do, every couple of weeks. I don't have a lot of commenters, but I need you to comment to this post to tell me your thoughts on this. Or send me an email.  Should I transition the blog to include more than just cakes? Should I change the title/header to reflect this or just leave it how it is? HELP!!!

I am working on a cake for this weekend and then I have two for next weekend... so stay tuned for those pictures! I'd also like to tell you a little about Haiti and my new baby monitor, but not in the same post.

Let me know your thoughts!

Craftiness of a Different Style

Well, I have made something lately, but it wasn't edible. I didn't do any cakes in the month of December, but I do have a few coming up in January so stay tuned! I have been in the "market" for a bow holder for Taelyn (my 2 year old) for a couple of months now, but didn't want to spend $40 buying one. So, I decided to try my hand at making my own. I haven't painted too much in my life, but I saw a few cute ones that I thought I could attempt to duplicate. This is a picture of Taelyn's bedding, which I wanted the bow holder to match.

I figured I would make something with an owl, and this is the design that I ended up with.

I painted it all by hand and was pretty proud of myself! I thought that painting her name in a particular font was going to be really difficult, and it wasn't particularly easy, but it was a lot like piping icing, which I am used to! When I am writing on cakes, I usually find a font that I like and then look at that font while I hand pipe the icing. So this is the method that I used for painting Tae's name on the plaque part of the bow holder.

Once it was painted I simply added the cute ribbon and a bow on top! Looks great in her room! I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt to paint something else. Like - maybe a canvas or some letters for Lillian's (baby #2) room. Sounds a little overwhelming, but I'll let you know if I give it a try!

Baby Shower Cake

This post is WAY overdue! I made this cake over a month ago and I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures. I guess since I haven't had any cakes lately it's good to spread my posts out a little!! That is how I am justifying my "blogging laziness" at least!

So I made this shower cake for one of my best friends, Kacey, who is having her 2nd baby boy in the next few days/weeks. We are waiting to hear how long it is going to be at this point! It was two-tiered with a fondant bow. The bottom tier was milk chocolate and the top tier was french vanilla. Both were covered in marshmallow fondant with fondant accents. I have attached her invitation because the cake was made to match it.

Owl Cake

This is a late post, but two weekends ago I made cakes! No sickness at all from them! I am waiting to get a picture from one of them, so I'll post on that one later. In the meantime, this is a cute owl cake that I did for a baby shower. The mommy has this on the baby's wall above the crib, so I made the cake to match.

The cake was french vanilla covered in milk chocolate buttercream icing.

I think owls must be trendy right now. I've done two owl cakes in the past 6 months. Plus, they had the cutest owl bedding at Target that my daughter picked out for her "big girl bed." We haven't made the transition yet, but it is soon to come. I'm sure that will make a blog post! Stay tuned for cake #2 from last weekend!!!

Fantastic Tutorial Results!!!

A great friend of mine took advantage of my lollipop tutorial and made a great first birthday cake for her sweet daughter, Ainsley Grey. She said that the tutorial was good and that making the lollipops was really easy! So you should try it out too. I was so excited to hear that someone actually used my tutorial and that the lollipops turned out so well! Here are pictures from the cute cake that Kim made!!! If anyone else makes fondant lollipops from my tutorial, please send me pictures and I will post yours as well!!!

                                     

                                    

                               Great job, Kim!!!

Lollipop Tutorial

I had a request for a post on how to make the lollipops from my lollipop cake.They were very easy to make and do not take too long at all! You'll want to make them about a week in advance so that they have time to harden completely and will stand up on top of your cake. I wish I had taken pictures of the process so that you could see each step.

1. You are going to make batches of fondant in each color that you want the lollipops to be. I use marshmallow fondant, but you can use regular fondant or store-bought fondant as well.

2. Once you have your fondant colored, you will take a good sized pinch (how's that for a southern girl's instructions!!) of the first color you want to start with. Simply roll it out into a thin string either using your hands or rolling it on a non-stick surface. This is similar to how we used to make snakes with play-doh! Make thin strings of each color that you want to use in the lollipop. Some of mine had 2 colors, some had 3.

3. Put each colored string together, pinching the top of the strings so that they will all stay together. You will then twist the strings so that the colors look intertwined. Once you have done this, you will only have one large string in your hand.

4. Put the large string on wax paper and start from the middle of the lollipop wrapping the string in a circle until you get to the outside. Use your hand to smooth the lollipop so that it looks flat.

5. The last step is to take a small brush and brush a small amount of water over each side of the lollipop. This will make the lollipop very sticky, but it will make sure that it stays together. Insert your sticks into the lollipops and leave them on wax paper for a few days so that they can dry and harden. I would flip mine to the opposite side every day to make sure that they don't stick to the wax paper.

Here is the picture of the cake again, so that you can see the finished lollipops.

Cake Break

Now for the BIG news! My husband and I are expecting our 2nd child in April, and ironically enough, the smell of cake and/or icing is making me really nauseated! I guess it is just that sweet, sweet smell that just isn't sitting well with this baby. I wish I had a picture of me working on my nephew's birthday cake. I put on one of those blue masks that cover your mouth and nose to do his cake. However, I could still smell the cake through the mask so I shoved a dryer sheet in there to block the smell! The dryer sheet was strong enough that I was able to finish the cake without getting sick. My mother-in-law called to "facetime" with me while I was working on the cake, and she didn't know what was going on when I first answered! Anyhow, after I finished the few weeks of cakes that I had already committed to, I decided that it was a good time to take a short "cake break." So for the next few weeks, until my nausea passes (let's hope it is only a few more weeks), I don't have any cakes. But hopefully I will be back in about a month, so check back to my blog then and see if I've updated!

Super Hero Cake

This was a fun one! This cake was for Alex's birthday and he started out wanting a Hulk cake, but then changed his mind and wanted ALL of his favorite super heros! We tossed around a few different ideas for this cake, and decided on a sheet cake with the super hero logos on top. This cake was french vanilla covered in buttercream.

Stroller Cake

This is another stroller cake for a baby boy shower. The colors were done to match the invitation: light blue, a darker shade of blue and brown. This cake was butter cake covered in buttercream.

Flip-Flops!

This cake was so much fun! I'm pretty sure that this one was dark chocolate fudge, but again, my memory is a little hazy because I did this a few weeks ago. It is covered in buttercream, but the thong and flower on the flip flop is fondant to make it stand off of the cake. And I put crumbled graham crackers around the edge of the cake to look like sand. I have posted the invitation for this party so you can see that I made the cake to match.

Lingerie Shower

I'm so sorry! I've been such a lazy blogger lately! I have done some cakes that I need to update you on! The first is a lingerie shower cake. This cake is a little risque! I ordered one like this from a professional baker a few years ago for a friend of mine, and I thought it was so cute that I wanted to copy it for this lingerie shower. The girl that the shower was being thrown for was described as "vintage-y," and the host wanted the cake done in a light shade of pink and mocha. I did this so long ago, that I can't even remember what flavor the cake was! Sorry! But it was covered in buttercream.

Baby Baptism

This cake was done for a sweet baby boy's baptism. His mommy has a large family, so this was a biggie! The bottom sheet cake was french vanilla and the cross was chocolate fudge. These seem to be the two most popular flavors of cake that I get asked for. The cake was covered in white buttercream icing. Mommy wanted his monogram and the date of the baptism on the cake. This is not the best picture because once again, I took it at night after I finished the cake and I used my cell phone to take the picture.

Sophie's Birthday

My favorite niece, Sophie, had her third birthday this weekend. My sister-in-law said that the only thing that mattered about the cake was that it was hot pink! So, hot pink it was! I did a round french vanilla cake covered in HOT PINK buttercream with white marshmallow fondant accents. Happy Birthday, Soapy (as my daughter calls her!!). I love you!

Canton Academy High School Reunion

The Canton Academy classes of 1992 and 1993 had a high school reunion this weekend and I was able to do a fun cake for them. We (the host of the party and I) decided to do a cake that looked like a yearbook, but put items on it that represented the school. This included their mascot, paw prints, etc. The cake was french vanilla covered in buttercream.

We represent... the lollipop guild!

That is the song that I was singing all night while I worked on this cake! A sweet one-year-old was having a lollipop themed party for her first birthday. The main cake was a two-tiered cake covered in lollipops and other fun accents. The bottom tier was chocolate fudge and the top tier was strawberry. The icing was buttercream. The lollipops, curly-cues and polka dots were all made of marshmallow fondant. These lollipops were so much fun to make. The colors of the fondant matched the colors that were on the invitation. Her smash cake was french vanilla covered in buttercream - made to look like a lollipop.

Fun Cakes!

A friend that I teach with asked me to do two cakes for him this past weekend... one for his son and one for his daughter. I asked what they wanted, because typically I do more complicated cakes, and he said chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Do you want it shaped like anything in particular? No. Do you want anything on it? Not sure. One day last week when his son and daughter were at school I got a chance to find out what they wanted. His little girl drew this cute picture of what she wanted her cake to look like.

His son said he just wanted it to say, "Happy Birthday, Logan" with purple and gold colors. He's an LSU fan, but don't blame him... it's his father's fault.

This is how the cakes turned out!

                             

I was certain that the kids were going to hate the cakes since they seemed so plain to me, but my friend's sweet daughter came to me at school and said that her smiley face cake was the BEST cake she had ever seen. She said that it was even better than the picture she had drawn :). I love kids... it is so easy to make them happy! Happy Birthday, Logan and Liza!

Firetruck Cake

This cake was done last weekend for Parker's third birthday party. I've been a little slow in posting all of my cakes since school has started!! The party was decorated so cute! There were these great fireman hats to wear and the party took a field trip to the local Fire Station! It was really great. The firetruck on this cake was french vanilla covered in fondant. The sheet cake was french vanilla and covered in buttercream. Yes, another black cake. There were little black mouths running all around this party! The accents on the sheet cake were fondant.

Book Cake

I did another retirement cake last weekend for one of the sweetest government teachers EVER!! I am really, really fond of Mrs. Renee and couldn't wait to do a cake for her in order to somewhat thank her for everything that she has done for our family!! The cake pales in comparison to her generosity, but it was a start to show my gratitude!!

This was another book cake since these seem to appeal to me when doing cakes for teachers. Probably because I like to read ... and this one was appropriate because Mrs. Renee and I share books! Since she was a government teacher, I decided that I should drape a flag over the book, in addition to the same classroom items that I put on the last retirement book cake. The cake was french vanilla (seems to be a favorite lately), the icing was buttercream, all of the accessories on the cake were marshmallow fondant.

I put all three pictures up because I wanted you to see all angles of this cake. Not like you care! But I would have been wondering what the other side looked like if it was me viewing these pictures for the first time!

Happy Retirement, Mrs. Renee! Enjoy yourself!