The Fickle Hobbyist

Archive for the ‘photography’ Category

After weeks of designing and planning, Abby’s French Lavender party came and went.  I have to say, things went pretty smoothly.  I was very happy with the end result.

If you remember this was the inspiration for the party.

I have to say, it turned out just how I was planning.  I DID abandon the actual lavender after much internal debate.  I figured kids wouldn’t be too keen on the lavender flavored lemonade, and really I wanted to make them happy with the food and drink, so plain lemonade and vanilla and chocolate cupcakes it was.

Here are some pictures of the party.

First was my Amy Atlas inspired dessert table.  I am constantly amazed by Amy’s gorgeous tables and really looked to her for inspiration.  I hope I did her proud.  (who am I kidding?  she’ll never see this.  haha)

(you can click on the image to view it larger)

Here are a few close ups of the details.  This is Abby’s actual silhouette.  I used the same technique I did HERE way back in February.

Of course you’ll remember the Eiffel Tower that I made. Also notice the Old Fashioned Lollipops. (those were a big hit) I used the same mold to make the candy coating white ones.

Here you’ll see the cupcake toppers that I featured in the post HERE.

The cupcakes were for the guests, but Abby got the top cake all to herself.  She was nice enough to share with her sister, though.  (Who ate only the marshmallow fondant and left the chocolate because she “doesn’t like chocolate” this week.)

This was only my second time working with marshmallow fondant, but this time was significantly more simple.  I found a great tutorial video on youtube that had a way easier method than the one I used before.  Perhaps you’ve made it before and you’ve had to knead in the melted marshmallows by hand?  I would highly recommend using the mixer with the dough hook!  I don’t even have a Kitchenaid.  I just used a hand mixer and it worked amazingly well.  My fondant took probably 10-15 minutes to make which is FAR less time spent than doing it by hand.

The “A” on top is just some melted candy coating stuck to two lollipop sticks.  I used a purple pearl dust on the purple fondant and it was SO pretty!

I found some purple cotton candy at Kroger last week and promptly picked it up.  HOWEVER, while it looks ok for about 10 minutes, I would recommend against using cotton candy on the dessert table.  (I think I remember reading on the Amy Atlas blog that she had the same problem)  The cotton candy MELTED into a big sugar blog.  haha  You can see that it’s starting to wilt even in these pictures.  It doesn’t fare well in Houston humidity, even with the AC on full blast.

Right next to the dessert table, we had the drink table set up.  It was arranged on the coffee table which worked out perfectly for the little kids to be able to get their own lemonade.

I have to say, though small, I think the water bottles were my favorite detail.

Although, the straws were pretty cute too.  (they say “quench” in French)

I didn’t take a close up of these cookies on the table, but I had to share.  Did you know you can buy the frosting paper at your local bakery for around $5 a sheet?  I arranged 12 monograms on one sheet and bought the sugar cookies and frosting at the bakery.  Shhh, don’t tell all my secrets!  The baker actually gave me a “messed up” sheet free because the side monograms were cut off, so I got 4 extras.

Abby was SO delighted with her party!  It warmed my heart to know that she really enjoyed herself.

She got to spend the day coloring, making crafts, having a tea party, eating cake, opening presents, and most of all; enjoying the company of some of her best friends.

It was a great day, and SO worth all the planning and preparation!

I recall reading on Amy’s blog in the comments, one lady said something along the lines of “The only reason these tables look so amazing is because of the display materials.  No one can do this on a budget.”  (she means like the vases, etc.)  I am here to say It’s not so!!!

ALL the vases and things you see on the dessert table are from the Goodwill.  The ONLY thing I bought at a non second hand store was the frame holding Abby’s silhouette, and even then it was 50% off at Hob Lob.  I even got the lemonade dispenser at GW for $6!!  So if you think you can’t create a cost efficient dessert table, I just want to say that it just takes some time scouring the shelves (I’ve been collecting these for a couple months) and a little imagination.  I designed and printed all of the decorations too, so it can be done.  Yeah, it’s definitely a lot of work, but if you’re like me (and if you’re reading a blog like mine, chances are you are) you enjoy this type of thing anyway.  Dive in and make it the best party ever!

-Autumn

After we visited the strawberry patch a while back, it sparked the desire to go back to this little orchard I had visited two years ago.  It’s a small little orchard but has a TON of stuff.  They grow apples, peaches, blackberries, tomatoes, squash, and a bunch of other delicious veggies and fruits.

I found out that they had a Facebook page, so I made sure to add it so I could find out when the blackberries were ready.  The only thing was, the place is about an hour away, and they aren’t big enough to be open every single day.  Typically just Wednesdays after work at 6, and Saturdays.  However, I couldn’t put it off any longer, so we made our way over today.

I knew I wanted to get a bunch of blackberries so I can make my grandma’s cobbler.  Plus, I want to make jam and freeze some berries for desserts later in the year.  (last time I seal-a-mealed a bunch and then Ike came through and we lost them all when the power went out.  boo!)  We ended up leaving with two buckets full which was about 10 pounds.  I can’t wait to get to them tomorrow!

There were plenty of ripe berries, but I was shocked by the amount that were still waiting to ripen!  There were SO many!  They produce a large crop at this little place.

Typically it’s hard to keep the berries out of the kids’ mouths as they pick, but because they had just sprayed (organic) for bugs, we decided not to partake.  Abby was really anxious, though!

We met up with some friends who also picked with us.  I love that the kids like to do this type of thing.

The peaches were still a little hard, so we decided we’d come back for another round in a little while.  I know the hubby will love to hear that I’ve got a bunch of farm fresh peaches to make him HIS favorite, peach cobbler.

What I love about this place is that it is so quaint.  The people who own and run it are really sweet.  (they even had bug spray there for us!  lol  It’s the little things)  They have a pretty sizable herb garden behind their house that they are so kind to share with patrons free of charge.  (but be a dear and tip them.)  Look at this beauty I found blooming in their herb garden.  Have you ever even seen one bloom???  Such restraint.  I’d have eaten that sucker a week ago.

Do you have a local farm or orchard near you?  Don’t you just love the fresh, in season produce you can find during the summer?  It’s one of my favorite things about this time of year.  I can’t wait to make some cobbler tomorrow…

-Autumn

So this post is not a craft, but I thought I’d share a few photos anyway.  Like I said, we went on a little family vacation while Bry was home this time.  We’d had it planned for a while, and even in light of recent events, decided to take it.

We drove over to San Antonio on Thursday and spent the weekend.  It was a nice little getaway and we really enjoyed ourselves.  I used priceline to get our hotel, and when we got there, we discovered it was actually one of the extended stay places that are actually like apartments.  We had a full kitchen, complete with dishwasher and full sized fridge.  It was awesome.  Especially for $50 a night!  The girls loved that there was a pool.

Thursday we hit up the outlet stores and Bry got me my Mother’s Day gift.  I picked out a super cute wallet and a new pair of shades at the Coach outlet.  I was a happy camper.

Friday morning we went to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  It was AWESOME!  It’s one of those places you buy bags of feed and you can drive through a “safari” and feed the animals.  We saw all kinds of things, but the ones I loved the most were the zebras.  (even though they were super feisty and tried to eat my steering wheel, window, windshield wiper, and fluid sprayer!  As you’ll see at the end of the video, I wrap it up by saying “Ok, he’s biting!!”)

They also had little goats in a petting zoo.  Here’s my favorite pic from that.

We actually drove through the safari a couple of times which was cool.  I hated the stinky ostriches, though, and Joss had a mini meltdown when one poked its head into the car and I squealed.  She started crying and trying to claw her way out of the car.  haha  I couldn’t help but laugh.

Yes, we are weird.

Right next to the Wildlife Ranch, there is the Natural Bridge Cavern tour.  It was AMAZING!  Of course, inside the caverns it was 99% humidity and at 70 some degrees outside, it made it feel closer to 90 inside.  Needless to say you walk out of there pretty sweaty from schlepping back up 210 ft, but it was still really cool.

Everyone really enjoyed the tour.  I wasn’t sure the kids would really get how cool it was, but they seemed to learn some things.

It was super easy to get them to sleep that night after being out in the heat all day.  The next day we woke up and headed to the Alamo and the River Walk.  In school Joss had recently covered the Alamo so she was pretty excited.  However, when we got there she quickly got bored, (and so did Abs) so we did the tour and looked around and then walked down by the river.  We toured the little shops and had lunch outside.  It was a cloudy day, but I think that was actually ok since it wasn’t too hot.

We picked up some trinkets for the girls and headed back to take naps and then we went to Benihana for dinner.

The girls had never been to a place where they cook the food in front of you and they thought it was “awesome!”.

Joss was a bit scared of the pyrotechnics, however.

Jocelyn spent a good amount of time trying to figure out her chop sticks. She was stoked when she finally got it to work. And check out the mouth full of food Abby has in this clip. I think it’s safe to say they liked the food!

And here Abby shows off her budding chef skills. I think she’s got a future as a Japanese steakhouse chef.

We had originally planned to go to Six Flags on Mother’s Day but it had begun to drizzle, and we decided against it.  Surprisingly there were no fits from the little ones.  We stopped by the outlets (for the ones we hadn’t visited yet) and then headed home.  It was a great trip!  We can’t wait to go back for another long weekend.  Maybe next time we’ll head over to Sea World.

-Autumn