Green Ham Cake

When I made June's birthday cake, I tried to google how to make a green ham cake, but all of the suggestions I found were confusing, and not big enough for what we needed. There were 40 cake-eaters here! What I wound up doing was using two boxes of yellow cake mix. I know, I'm a slacker, but I'm on a gluten free diet and don't have any flour. I don't want to buy any either. I wish I had taken photos of the process, but my husband's truck broke down the night before the party, and it took 3 hours out of my evening to get that sorted out. He called me right when I was setting all of my ingredients out to start. I didn't get to start mixing batter until after 9 p.m., and was in such a rush that I didn't even think to get my camera out.

I mixed up one box of cake mix and baked it in a 13x9 pan. Then I mixed up the second box and divided it into two loaf pans, one was about 2/3 full, and the other one was not quite half full. I used the 13x9 cake as the bottom layer of my ham. I covered the top with a thick layer of frosting, and put the taller loaf cake on the front (bone end) of the ham, with the shorter loaf directly behind it, and cemented in between the two loaf cakes with more frosting.

Then I starting carving the hard edges off with a serrated knife.  I used the scraps to fill in the top where the loaves stair-stepped down, I cut a slight curve on the back of the 13x9 cake, but really didn't wind up taking off much cake. I pasted it all together really well with store bought frosting, which seemed better for sticking things together.

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I frosted the cake with home made buttercream, which had about half a bottle of green food coloring in it. I did a crumb coat first, and then slathered on the rest of the frosting as smoothly as a could, and stuck it in the fridge overnight, because at that point it was really late. I got up at the crack of dawn the next day and smoothed out the frosting by laying a paper towel over the cake and rubbing it with my hand. I had to be a bit more firm than if I had just let the buttercream crust before smoothing it out, since the whole thing was cold.

I cut a marshmallow in half to use as the bone, and attached it to the cake with a toothpick. I forgot to tell anyone that, and when my husband served the birthday girl her slice of cake, he gave her the marshmallow end, toothpick and all. No one lost an eye though. I bought some black Wilton decorator icing to draw the outlines on the cake. I LOVE that you can screw the wilton decorating tips directly to the tube. I did not know this when I bought it, since I have never used it before, and it totally blew my mind.

Sneak Peek: Olive Juice

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Happy Birthday to June!

Well, a happy belated birthday. It was on the 12th (I promise I told her happy birthday in person on the right day). I can't believe this baby is already one!

We threw a Dr. Seuss themed party last Saturday in our back yard, and I thought I would share our Seuss-themed ideas. We decorated the tables with Dr. Seuss books, and added Dr. Seuss references wherever we could.

Thing One and Thing Two had to go inside because one
of the kids was nervous around dogs

The Happy Birthday banner is made out of paper coasters. The cat in the Hat cut
out, that I think is intended to be a classroom decoration, came from amazon.com

I made spikey tissue pom poms, which were also hanging from the pecan tree
that shades our patio

For her invitation, I scanned the cover of Happy Birthday to You and altered it to say "June" instead of "You."

For the inside, I scanned a spread from the inside of the book, and added a little poem we wrote:

Our little June is turning one
So join us for some birthday fun

We hope that you can come and play
To make this an extra special day

There will be cake, and hot dogs too
The only thing we need is you!

For the food, we served:
Frankfurter roast- from The Sneetches (hot dogs)
Hop on Popcorn (kettle corn)
Bippilo seeds (jelly beans)
Grinch Dip (spinach dip)
Fish in a pot- from The Cat in the Hat (goldfish crackers in a tea pot)
Cat Hats (strawberry and marshmallow skewers)
Pink Yink Ink- from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (pink lemonade)

I made little signs for all of the Seuss food with a font I downloaded
and images from the books they are referencing

We also had some non-Seuss food: pretzel sticks, pirates booty, potato salad, baked beans, and a cheese ball.

For entertainment, we had was some sidewalk chalk, a bubble machine (that broke), a photo booth, and a McElligot's Pool magnetic fishing game that I made out of things I had around the house (I will try to post a tutorial later).

I think he caught all the fish at once!

The older kids mostly played with the photo booth. At first no one would take a picture. The kids only wanted to play with the props and wouldn't get in front of the camera. I was worried it would be a flop, but eventually people started using it, and the pictures were really cute!

Our Seuss-tastic photo booth was made by hanging curtains (which I already
had for my artist market display) and streamers on the front of my shed.
We bought a $6 wireless shutter release for the camera and set up the tripod
so people could take pictures of themselves with the remote. 

Since my camera was being used for the photo booth, my awesome sister (who's esty store is here, if you need any jewelry supplies) volunteered to take pictures of the party for me. She did an awesome job. She also did an awesome job helping set up the party, with a little help from our husbands.

Ignore the bare dirt around my patio. My dogs won't let any grass grow there.

Oh and the cake! I almost forgot the cake!  It was from Green Eggs and Ham. I made sugar cookies and used store bought cookie icing to decorate them like green eggs. The cake was an adventure, which I will also try to post a tutorial on in the near future, but I think it turned out well, especially since I had no idea what I was doing.

Green Ham cake!

June was not interested in eating any cake. She got so messy that we had to give her a quick bath before she could open presents, but I don't think any cake actually got in her mouth.

There's always next year.

The last thing we did was buy a copy of Happy Birthday to You, and some colorful pens. I asked all of the guests to sign the book for June so she will have a keepsake from her first birthday party. I thought it was something special to do so she would know who came to celebrate with us.

It's hard to see in the photo, but there is a little sign that says
"Would you, Could you, Sign this book?"

The Jewel Farm

I'm so proud of my sister for opening an Etsy shop! It's called The Jewel Farm, and she is selling unique, high quality beads and jewelry making supplies. You can follow her of facebook by liking her page (here).

Turquoise Round 12 mm 7 3/4 strand from The Jewel Farm

She also has a blog (thejewelfarm.blogspot.com) that focuses on jewelry, jewelry making techniques, and fashion.

Sweet Dreams

So, I don't want to jinx anything, but my baby has slept all night long 3 out of the last 4 nights. As in, she didn't wake up at 5 a.m. to nurse. That's more than a fluke, right? Could I really be on the verge of having a regular sleep schedule again?

She has been "sleeping through the night" (i.e. 5-6 hours straight) for what seems like forever, but that 5-6 hours starts at 8:30 p.m., so that doesn't mean that I get to sleep through the night, since I can't seem to get out of the habit of going to bed at midnight. For the last 3 months, she has only been waking once around 5 a.m., and then sleeping until 8:30. Some people have criticized me for feeding her at 5 a.m. all this time, and have given me unsolicited advice on how to force her to sleep 12 hours straight. Sometimes I let her cry a little if she wakes up earlier, and she goes back to sleep, but if she cries for more than 5-10 minutes, I assume she is actually hungry and/or needs to be comforted to go back to sleep. Especially when she is having teething pain.

I am hoping that we have turned a new leaf. I have been walking around like a zombie for so long, I have forgotten what it feels like to be fully rested. Even though my wonderful husband lets me sleep in on the weekends when we don't have anything to do, lately it seems like we always have something to do in the mornings. I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time. Hopefully this is the real thing and not just 3 happy accidents.

When life hands you lemons...

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My almost good day

I was feeling skinny yesterday. I don't really know why. I have weighed the same since about 2 weeks after June was born. I have been told not to expect to lose the rest of my pregnancy weight, about 10 pounds, until we are done with breastfeeding, which will (hopefully) be very soon. June will be one next week. I feel like we have done our best, but it's time to move on. Breastfeeding is hard, and I'm tired of it. June may disagree though, so we'll see what happens.

Back to yesterday. I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings for well over a year. I try to put them on almost every day, and I am happy to announce that yesterday I was finally able to squeeze them onto my chubby finger. I thought to myself, "if my rings fit now, what else fits?" So I tried on my favorite skirt. Guess what? It fit too! It was not quite as flattering as it once was, but it zipped up.

And then I ate lunch. The skirt had to come back off. Then my hands got a little swollen, and the rings had to come off too. So, I can fit back into some of my old things on an empty stomach. It's still progress, right?