quilts for ashley & rhett

so i have been SO excited and longing to write this post- its been in the works since june!!!!!

ever since i found out that ash was expecting sweet little rhett, i had decided that i wanted to make her a quilt for her. now i should say, i had only attempted one quilt before and lets just say its neatly folded, half done, in the top of my closet. but i wanted to do something super special, and i couldnt think of anything much better than a homemade quilt- something that says cozy, time, friendship, thought, planning, effort, excitement, and home. i decided that i couldn't wait until she found out the gender, so i found some beautiful grey fabrics. i love them- and with a cute pattern i found, i laid out a perfect quilt. my friend jamie (who is thebomb.com by the way, the most patient and helpful teacher there ever could be), spent hours with me, teaching me techinques, picking out the right type of fabrics, helping me plan and cut and order batting. we went with a super thick batting and a minky fabric backing, making this the perfect quilt to lay out on ashley's hardwood floors for rhett to play on, or take on the road for a picnic, or throw in the bag to go to a friend's house- whatever, but perfectly suited to serve as a play mat. it turned out fantastic, soft, thick, and simple. i loved it.

i was thrilled by how it was all coming together. then, we found out she was going to have a boy! and that day i decided that little rhett needed not only a grey quilt, but something to match his room. so i went to shops looking for navys and whites and little bursts of lime green. i picked out another pattern and was excited to learn even more technique from jamie.

let me just say, to all you fearful readers out there thinking "a quilt?! i could never do that!" you could. easy peasy. with some time (ok a lot of time) and some willingness to learn and mess up and try again, you could do this. especially with the aid of an awesome friend like jamie. quilting is competely within the reach of anyone who wants to try. in fact, i liked quilting so much, i ended up making both mine and nathan's moms quilts for christmas! (more on that later!!). so, reader, check out my favorite quilting blog, www.modabakeshop.com, pick out a pattern, and get to work. i'd love to see what you make!!!

britt's shower

last sunday, we had brittany's baby shower! it was such a sweet celebration of anticipation for little ella. we can't wait to meet her. 

we had the shower at ashley's house, and enjoyed an array of appetizer type foods and our cupcakes- which were quite a hit!

chillin' in the fridge

ash and i team-efforted the corsage- ash made the roses out of baby washcloths, then i arranged them together in this. and we taped it, yes, like scotch tape, together. ha!

ash and jamie made these awesome cookies, which we topped with our leftover candy ellas. beautiful!

the awesome cupcakes!!

our little girl punch- complete with teething rings :)

our food table- yummy, huh?

little lincoln- he was the last one we celebrated!!

the glowing mom and i- congrates britt!

me and ash with our creation

yes, we matched :)

it was a great shower and we can't wait to meet little ella!

strawberry cupcakes

so this weekend, in the midst of packing for my trip and watching my awesome husband play baseball, we helped host a baby shower! and what a cute one it was! while i plan on blogging on all the little details tomorrow, i thought i should start with the cupcakes ash and i made. they were pretty much awesome, i’m not going to lie!! while we are all about cake pops, based on the logisitics of the weekend we recognized that we wouldn’t have time to assemble something to our level of perfection. plus, with all the showers we do for our lifegroup, we like to mix it up- the first shower we did a three-tiered cake, then the cake pops, so we opted for cupcakes. inspired by none other than pinterest, we went for some fun cupcakes with a sugar cookie on top. we divided to conquer and ash made the cookies and i made the cupcakes, then we helped each other assemble.

so saturday night, after a long day at the baseball field, i got to work. and i lost the site i got the recipe from, but if you want it, i have it saved.  i liked this recipe because it had 1 1/3 cup of fresh strawberries- yum! and an interesting addition- strawberry milk! of course, most nesquick and what not versions of strawberry milk have HCFS in it, so i found the cute little horizon milks that are all organic!

the strawberry milk

yum fresh strawberries going in the food processor to make puree!

so sometimes my baking is all about improvising. while i went to the store the day before to get everything i needed, somehow i forgot that i needed more sugar?! so, i combined what i had- i'm sure this is a baking nono, but i mixed some organic cane sugar, some demerera sugar, and some brown sugar. it works, right?

the color was almost perfect, but i added a few drops of red food coloring because i wanted to ensure that the cupcakes turned out bright pink.

i tried out a new buttercream recipe, and we loved it!

this turned out awesome- and super fluffy!

my perfectly pink strawberry cupcakes.

i colored my frosting gray by using black coloring, but just a bit. then, using a star tip, i piped on the swirl.

then, sunday morning, once i got to ash's, i melted down some white candy melts and put them in a zip loc bag with a small tip and piped "ella" the sweet baby girl's name. now even though i only made 30 cupcakes, i made about 60 ellas, because, since they were made of chocolate, they were super fragile. i wanted to make sure i had enough in case some broke, and i thought we could definitely use some elsewhere.

the finished product!

look forward to tomorrow's post on the shower!