Holiday Fabulousness w/ Red Pearl Designs!!

My friend Megan Ward is the mastermind behind Red Pearl Designs. Last week she showed me a few samples of these oh-so-fabulous die-cut Christmas cards! They are truly as beautiful in person as they look online! This is such a unique idea for Christmas cards - I love it! As people receive them, they're pretty enough to string a ribbon through and hang on the tree...which is just the idea behind them!

If you check out her blog, she tells you 4 ways to win 50 FREE Christmas cards - designed just for you! Take a quick look and see her blog...it's a $125 value and it's easy to participate. Hurry - the deadline to enter is Tuesday, November 9th!

The first set of pictures are stock samples of the die-cut shapes that are available.






The pictures below are examples of Megan's personal work!
With her creativity, anything is possible!





Megan's creativity doesn't stop at just Christmas! She offers a complete design service for anything you may need. Invitations for any occasion, birth or adoption announcements, logos, business cards and brochures - just to name a few! Don't hesitate to contact her for any or all of your design needs.
Take a look at her website for even more ideas!

Go Team - Operation Bra Drop & I Give a Shirt!

Shannon and Lauren - my fabulous fitters! Thanks ladies!!





Last Friday afternoon, I had the privilege of teaming up with I Give A Shirt for their event for local homeless students in the Salem/Keizer school districts. Because "Operation Bra Drop" has received so many fantastic bras, I was able to set up a "Bra Boutique" for the female students that attended this event! We had bras in practically every size, so the students that came were able to get properly fitted and sized into a few bras of their choice! I was blessed to be a part of this event and was able to fit one of the girls into her first real bra ever! She even wanted to wear one of the new bras out! I know we're making a difference in these lovely ladies' lives. Thank you to all of my Felicity Boutique customers and friends for donating bras and making this possible!

We will do this event again in January and we're hoping for an even bigger turn-out :)

Mummy Cupcakes!

I saw these on Martha Stewart's website yesterday and couldn't resist! I made them for our little "Monsterlicious" Halloween shindig tonight :)

Sweetest Little Hooter :)

This last Thursday night marked the final class in the series of "Cake Decorating Basics" that my mom and I have been taking from Chemeketa. Our mission for this class: The Buttercream Transfer. Simple in concept, but time consuming. I will walk you through the process with my pictures...



The basic frosted cake ready to decorate...MMM buttercream :)


On waxed paper, I traced the image of my choice (how cute is this owl?!) and then stuck the whole outline into the freezer.


Here's the view of my little owl from the top, frozen and ready to fill.



After the border is frozen, you can fill in the spaces, one color or section at a time - freezing it each time between colors, to keep the border firm and the colors in their places. This is why the process takes so long.


Perfecting the border with a toothpick...the best tool to have in this class!


I took too long in class, so I had to finish my owl at home. I had already filled in all of his colors, and frozen the image. Then I plopped him on to the top of my cake and peeled off the waxed paper. Voila...owl!


I piped around the border to smooth everything out...



I added dots of course, because they're my favorite :)


My best "Vanna."


Ta-Dah! He's not perfect, but not bad for my first try!

I've enjoyed this class so much, I think I'm going to continue with the "advanced" cake decorating series that continues on, starting next week! We learn fondant flowers, royal icing, and chocolate work next...yay! Stay tuned for tricks of the trade and a few ridiculous pictures in which I will most likely be posing with my projects - post sugar high :)

Cake Class #3

Last night was cake clinical - night 3. The class size is getting smaller and smaller. Can't stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen :) Mr. USA wasn't there either - perhaps last weeks' shirt mural was enough to send him on a walk of shame.

We focused on ribbon roses last night, which are much harder than I thought. It took more focus and less giggling, but the learning process was still fun. I still have a lot of practicing to do, but I was pleased with the outcome. I don't mean to brag, but I actually liked my cake very best out of everyone's! Here's a few pics!


Prep and practice! You can see all of my roses lined up on the counter ledge ready to go.


Roses on. Border done!


Add some leaves to cover up any wonky spots on your roses...


Action shot...


Finished top view.


My mom's finished cake! Writing with frosting was not my forte. I didn't want to ruin my cake with slopping words, so I went with a different design :)


Posing with a cake is ridiculous, Emily.


Voila :)

Flower Power

Last night in cake class, we focused on flowers and decorated a dozen cupcakes. Again, hilarious. My mother - God bless her, lacks the ability to focus and listen to instruction apparently. She had most of her cupcakes frosted before we even had our first flower instructions. It appeared as though she had not eaten dinner either, when I looked over at one point during class and she has frosting smeared clear across her face. When I burst out laughing, she laughed too - only to reveal her frosting coated teeth as well. I died. "OMG, mom. I can't take you anywhere." I'm pretty sure we disrupted the class with this one and got deemed the "class clowns"...

However, I have to say...this was NOTHING compared to the only single (older) gentleman taking this class. He had worn a white dress shirt (and no apron) last night and half way through class, I look up, and he has red and blue frosting ALL over his white shirt. It looked like he had attempted to rub it off too, because it was smeared into the fibers of his shirt like a giant oil painting mural. How did this happen, you ask? I HAVE NO IDEA. I laughed out loud to myself and tried to get a picture, but couldn't. Perhaps he was just trying to be patriotic.

My mother also is very thrifty, I mean inventive. I have captured a picture (below) of the rosette platform she constructed using a stool leg slider, an old nail, and a blob of glue. My platform is the white one that came in my decorators tool kit. You will notice the difference, however...hers works just the same, so I have to give her some credit...


White Trash cake decorating anyone? Hilarious.


My tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness Month...hehe :)


Making flowers on the practice board!


My mom's finished cupcakes...terrible lighting, I know.


My cupcakes at class! Mostly swirl roses, but a few "shaggy mums"...leaves too!


I finished up the rest of the batch after I got home, trying the different techniques we had learned. I still have like 3 pounds of frosting left.




I'm not sure what this flower is called, but it was fun to make!


The best part of class :)

Goodwill Hunting.

My bosom buddy Shannon and I have decided to team up and start a little something in which we will be referring to ourselves from now on as the "Goodwill Girls." Here's why:

We both have a slight obsession with vintage findings. We both enjoy a good treasure hunt. We both have budgets. We love D.I.Y. (do it yourself) projects. We both have ideas, visions, and creative intuition just begging to be utilized with endless possibilities in store. Why not team up and blog about it?

Last night was our first official venture out to a little store you may have heard of called "Goodwill"...get the nickname now? Our sole purpose in these (now regular) trips, will be to find treasures amongst the piles of crap that we can refinish, re-purpose, or restore...all of which we will do on a budget, using methods and supplies everyone has access to and can recreate themselves...and we'll show the steps involved on how to do it! Before and after!

Salem is lucky enough to have what I call a Goodwill "Bin" store - where everything that gets rejected from the main Goodwill stores, then goes directly to the bin store where everything is then thrown together into giant bins, only to be sifted through with sheer madness, just hoping for a buried treasure to surface. There are literally lines of people waiting for the new bins to emerge from the back rooms. Hey, first come, first serve, finders keepers, you snooze, you lose! What's even better about the bin stores? You pay by the POUND! The more you buy, the cheaper it gets! YES. Treasure hunting at its finest :) Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Bins in time last night, but we'll get there soon enough.

Here's what we found at the regular Goodwill last night though. Love it.


This "E" still had the Anthropologie price tag on it!!! Anthro: $10. Goodwill: $2.99. SOLD. I was very excited about this :)


Vintage beverage dispenser: Made in Italy, $9.99


Can you imagine this little storage piece refinished with cute knobs and lined with a cool fabric or vintage wallpaper? Endless possibilities!!



SO much fun, so little time!