We Have Cake

During one of my third trimester energy spurts I decided that I wanted to make a birthday cake to take to the hospital for after baby girl is born.  I had seen the idea somewhere and liked the concept of celebrating her first true birthday with a cake to share with family, friends and hospital staff.

I decided that I was going to make the cake from scratch versus my usual method of cake mix.  I am not exactly sure why I decided to do this as I have complete faith in Betty and Hines's cake skills.  I guess I just figured it would be more special if I did it myself.

There is a reason I don't really make cakes from scratch...

1) I don't actually like to bake.  I like to cook but baking I can leave more than I take.

2) I am not much for following exact measurements.  I like to round and estimate.  This is actually kind of funny as this is a bit against my normal nature for most of my projects where I like to be pretty precise.

3) They tend to be a bit dryer than the box mixes and I do like me a moist cake.

I managed to get the layers made and frozen.  I still need to make the frosting but I do have back-up store bought in case I go into labor before I get that done.

Logistics of this plan are still being worked out.  In my mind I will be frosting the cake while in between contractions right before heading out the door.  I suspect that this will not actually be how it goes down and it will be my Mom that ends up frosting the cake after baby girl has made her entrance into this world.

I looked around for a "0" candle for the top of the cake but all of them were either blue or red and looked pretty stupid.  I decided to make a little paper flag bunting for the top.

We have plastic plates, forks, and a serving slicer all ready to go along with plastic champagne glasses for the sparkling cider.  What I really will want is a glass of actual champagne but it is probably not advised with all of the meds (God willing I get an epi) I may have in my system.  So sparkling cider it is!

Come out baby girl....we have cake!

Baby Monsoon

Back in January I was lucky enough to have some very good friends throw me a baby shower.

I should call it a baby monsoon!

What an afternoon filled with family and friends all to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby girl.

It was a combination work/friend/family shower and it was perfect.  Because both the husband and I work at the same place (and have for 12 years) we have a bunch of common friends/co-workers...all of whom are very excited that we are finally pregnant.

There were fun decorations...

Amazing homemade gummies for take home gifts...

Yummy foods...

 

Great friends...

 

And presents...practical presents...

Super cute presents...

Handmade presents...

 

And more presents...!

I seriously do not think we will have to buy clothes for an entire year (but I probably still will!).

I did learn one thing.  Opening a bunch of adorable baby gifts when you are 8 months pregnant and have a raging double chin does not lead to the most flattering pictures.  Seriously could I make anymore stupid faces!

One of the highlights for me was that the shower was planned around my Mom's visit for the holidays. 

As an only child this will be my Mom's first grand baby and it was very special to have her at the shower.  I broke down a bit while opening her gifts as I know she had been waiting for that day a long time. 

I couldn't have better friends, those memories will last a lifetime.

Cloth - DIY Berry Lemonade Bar

Is there anything more quintessential summer than lemonade?

The husband and I host a family BBQ this year for Memorial Day.  I decided to jazz up my lemonade a bit and make a "build your own lemonade bar."

Super easy, a bit unexpected, and yummy fun!

Step #1: Make your favorite lemonade recipe.
 -You probably want to keep the recipe fairly simple as you don't want really strong flavors to overpower your fruit syrups.

Step #2: Make simple syrups using your favorite berry or fruit.
-Basic Simple Syrup Recipe
 *1 cup sugar
 *1 cup water
 *1 cup fruit
 **Heat all ingredients to a boil and simmer for ~15 minutes
 **While things are simmering I did try to mush up the berries a bit so that I could get the most flavor out of them.
 **Remove from heat and pour through a strainer to remove any of the big fruit chunks.  Make sure the container you are straining into is heat safe as your syrup will be very hot at this point.

NOTE:  I was not really impressed with the blackberry syrup I made.  It may have been my blackberries as they were not very flavorful to begin with..the strawberry and raspberry turned out great.  I can't wait to try peaches once they are in season.

Step #3: Find containers to dispense your syrups. 
 -I used some cheapo vinegar bottles with spouts but you could use cute glass milk bottles or whatever else you have on hand.

Step #4: Cut up fresh fruit/berries to match your syrups and put out spoons for your guests to scoop the fruit into their lemonade masterpieces.

Step #5: Label your syrups with a cute tag. 
 -My printer decided to act up on me before the party so I ended up hand writing the ones for my actual party, not as cute as the printed one but they got the job done!

Have your guests fill up their glasses, mix in flavors to their hearts content, and enjoy the summer weather!

Cloth- Missing In Action

Apparently if you don’t blog for 3 weeks there is no blog gnome that shows up and takes care of things for you.  Someone really needs to  get on making that happen.

These past few weeks we have been up and down, left and right, to and fro.  Work has been busy, the yard and garden have been demanding time, friends and family needed to be visited....

...we also got HBO and Showtime.

If I am honest my time spent blogging has been inversely proportional to the amount of time I have recently spent catching up on Dexter, True Blood, and Game of Thrones.

Over the years I have gotten hooked on the popular HBO and Showtime shows even though we have never had a subscription to those channels.  I would patiently wait for the last season to come out on iTunes.  I would avoid any radio, TV, or print gossip talking about show spoilers like the plague. 

This year however I decided that if the husband could get stupid NFL Sunday Ticket every year I was going to subscribe to my channels for a few months to get caught up on all of my shows. 

What ensued was TV coma watching bliss…and consequently a total lack of blogging.  How can I be expected to craft, photograph, and write when there are epic battles for crowns, evil witches, and doomsday killers running amuck? 

Laundry room, what laundry room?

I finished up my backlog of episodes just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend.  And in true Wood and Cloth fashion we had a party planned at our house for Memorial Day.  Nothing like having people coming over to your house to smack you back into your non-vampire/serial killer/Westeros life.

I dusted off my crafty pants and went to work putting the finishing touches on the laundry room decor. 

I can't wait to post the results!