Oh my, where has the time gone? School has been overwhelming as of late. I've still managed to make time for a little fun, but there is always so much more I want to do. 

I did get to do a little something for myself. My friend Stella and I made some door wreaths in honor of the fall weather we both hope is swiftly on its way. 

This is hers.

And this is mine!

It was so fun to make and wasn't very expensive. I love it. It looks so very fall. 

Little Clover has been living it up. She is the perfect dog for us. Can you tell? One day she will be entirely too big for this, so we're just enjoying it while we can.

Clover is a very sleepy puppy. She sleeps on Korey.

On the couch.

In the car

At the river

Ok, she didn't actually sleep at the river. 

Ace, Stella and Brad's dog, came too. 

And Nanette

And Stella and Brad, of course.

There is nothing more masculine than a man carrying a poodle.

and nothing sweeter than a poodle wrapped up tight in a blanket.

We got to see what Clover is going to look like in just a few months.

And we were so excited to see that Clover still loves the water!

She swam and played the whole time.

And of course, all that swimming and playing led to a lot more sleeping.

It's a hard knock life. 

Lingerie Shower update!

Remember the panty fores? Well, my sister's lingerie shower was Saturday and it turned out so well. 

We had a ton of sweets!

And the panty fores were a big hit.

I was so proud of the cake that I made for it! My sister in law, Koleigh, carved the outline for me and let me borrow her decorating tools but I baked and assembled and decorated it myself!

and I helped decorate my parents basement for the party!

So fun. Can't wait for the wedding!

Petit fores

I'm helping throw my sister a lingerie shower this weekend. I want it to be fun, but tasteful. For the most part, the decorations just look like a normal shower so I wanted to spice things up a little with the food. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a bakery that would make a cake shaped like a corset so I'm trying to make one myself. 

This was the first attempt. Unfortunately it was a casualty of faulty pan greasing and fell apart instead of coming out in one piece. 

So instead of throwing away several cake mixes worth of cake, I decided to make cake balls. I got the recipe from Bakerella. The recipe is almost identical to the one I posted before when I made the tooth pops with Destiny, minus the popsicle sticks. 

I used this icing

and mixed it with the cake using a fork until it was well combined. 

Then I shaped the mixture into balls....but balls weren't very interesting and I wanted to make something cute for the lingerie shower, so I started shaping them into.....

panties!

Then I dipped them in melted candy coating and let them dry and then decorated them by piping melted white chocolate and sprinkling colored sugar. 

I think they turned out pretty darn cute, even though I may need an intervention to stop referring to them as panty fores. (I'm a sucker for puns.)

Study Break!

Today I took a little study break with my friend Destiny to make cake pops. What are cake pops you may ask? Well, go right on over to bakerella's blog because she is the Michaelangelo of cake pops and can tell you all about them. We did our best and more than a few of them turned out a little off, but it was really fun, and perfect to take to class tomorrow to get people pumped up for our second week of finals. Of course we had to do something dental related, so we decided to modify one of bakerella's cake pop recipes and make....

tooth pops!

Most of them turned out soooo cute...and admittedly a few of them look a little silly. 

I will also admit that I sampled one of the less cute ones and they taste just as good as the prettier one I also sampled...just in case anyone was worried. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

They were not super easy to make, but it was a lot of fun and I definitely needed the study break.

We followed the directions on bakerella's website to make the cake pops.

First we baked a yellow cake according to the directions on the box and let it cool completely. Then we used a fork to break the cake up and mixed it with a tub of icing. 

Next we formed little balls out of the cake and put them in the freezer so that they could harden. At this point we did study, so it wasn't a complete study break. 

Next we shaped them to make them look more like teeth and glued popsicle sticks in them using melted chocolate candy melts.

We had some supervision during the whole process, which was good because the hardest part was dipping them in the melted candy coating and getting it to look smooth and even. 

Once they set, Destiny painted on the smiles while I painted on the central groove anatomy. 

I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

but then again, I am a sucker for nice teeth. 

Ashley's Bridal Shower and the rest of spring break

I promised you an update about Ashley's Bridal Shower and if I don't do it now, I won't do it because finals weeks are about to swallow me up. (yes weeks, there are two of them for me. 30 hours of classes will do that to you. Hateful isn't it?)

I had a lot of fun planning and making stuff for Ashley's shower. She was beautiful and everything turned out so well! except for that cake I tried to make another i am baker cake. It tasted delicious, but after making it I realized that I needed to carve it completely differently. 

Isn't it awesome?! Well it's obviously the one she made...mine looked all wonky and I didn't get a picture of it, but it tasted awesome so it's a shame my artistry skills did not come through for me this time. Maybe if I had used some dental tools to carve it out. I have had an extreme amount of practice with those this year. Here is the link to the instructions in case you would like to give it a try. I had the great idea to use funfetti cake instead of white cake and strawberry cake to make the heart. It looked really neat, it just didn't look like a heart. 

I made a few pom poms including the one above the table with these instructions from Martha Stewart. Martha really knows her stuff. These were so easy to make and they were so pretty. 

I made this banner too. It turned out cute, even though it needs more color in my opinion. I bought cards with a decorative cut edge and glued glittery blue letters on them and then just strung them up on some glittery polka dot ribbon. I bought the rose garlands at Party City.

At this point my friend Correen spilled a glass of water and I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of her. If you want to see the pictures I took, she blogged about it on her website. I love her dearly but I thought it was so funny. Karma got me though and the next few pictures have a spot where my filter got dirty. Next time I guess I should take a picture AFTER I help her clean up.

My cousin, Brooke, her mom/my aunt Cindy, aunt Claudia, and aunt Sheron!

This is Correen with Lyric, the smallest of her 6 children. (3 are stepsons) Lyric was a doll and I was so glad I got to spend some time with her and Correen.

Kelley, also one of my very best friends, came too but I didn't get to take a picture of her. I was so happy that I was able to see her too! She is a fellow bridesmaid and such an encouragement to me. 

This strawberry cake was amazing! Dianne, the receptionist at my dad's office, made it herself. It was as tasty as it looks!

My mom's favourite sisters! 

 

We had so much fun! I told Ashley that it was tradition to break every ribbon on every gift, so I'm looking forward to seeing all my nieces and nephews in a few years! As you can see from all of the gifts, many more people came than I took pictures of and I was so thankful to get to see every one of them. I wish I had taken more pictures of people but I was too busy socializing. It is quite an art to balance taking pictures of all the action and still being a part of everything that is happening.

That night, Korey took me to see David Gray in concert in Atlanta. It was amazing! He sounds just like his CDs. I can't wait until he comes back so I can see him again!