Happy Birthday, Karis ... part 1: The Cake

Turns out, there is one thing our girl who loves all things edible doesn't like. 

Cupcakes. 

We had a little birthday celebration for Karis while we were in DC with my parents and bought Karis a genuine DC cupcake complete with ganach and pink frosting.  Karis was very excited to see it! And, she loved everyone singing happy birthday to her.  But then, she got a taste of the frosting.

She gagged. Then signed, "all done, all done, all done!" (I'm pretty sure the raising of her hands like this means, "Get me away from this cupcake RIGHT NOW!")

So for Karis' real birthday, we decided to do something a little different.

(Can you believe this girl is ONE?!?!)

An adapted version of Southern Living's Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake. 

Made gluten free and with less sugar. 

3/4 stick of butter, softened

1 cup of  sugar

4 oz cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used Pamela's bread mix.)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup berry glaze (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to  350.  Beat butter and sugar together.  Add cream cheese.  Add eggs, one at a time.

2. Gradually add flour to butter mixture, beating at a low speed.

3. Stir in vanilla extract.

4. Pour one-third of the batter into a greased loaf pan.  

5. Make the berry glaze by heating berries over medium to high heat with a few tablespoons of water, add a few tablespoons of sugar if needed.  Continue to heat until syrup forms. 

6.  Pour a few spoonfuls of the berry glaze into the batter of the loaf pan.  Swirl with a knife to mix batter and berries together slightly.

7. Add next one third of batter and repeat.  Add remaining batter and repeat.

8.  Bake at 350 for one hour.  

We topped the cake off with the remaining berry glaze mixed with powdered sugar. YUMM!!! 

(Karis was more fascinated by the candle than the cake.)

And she was REALLY sad when we wouldn't let her touch the candle.

But, she LOVED the cake!

And, since no one year old should only have one or two birthday parties, we celebrated with some family and a few friends on Saturday.  For this birthday party, we decided to do strawberry shortcake.

Success! (Although, to be honest, the strawberries were a success. Karis wasn't overly fond of the shortcake or the whipped cream.)

Cousins!

We have some fun guests this week!

Erin came with her two little munchkins for a week.
After a very early morning flight for the girls (and a mama),
a nice walk to the park was in order.

Nothing better than a nice swing : )
No baby swing for little K.
She had fun watching her cousins though!

Look at that static hair!!!

Six more days of fun!!!

Sewing Buddy

This little Sweet Pea likes to play in the sewing room! 

There are lots of fun toys with interesting texture, shape and color.

I remember playing at my mother's feet while she was sewing.

I loved going through each scrap of fabric, stacking her spools of thread, 

playing with her button box.

Incredible memories!

My children did the same.  Playing with their sewing toys, the hum of the machine,

a smiling mommy : )

And now my grandchildren are enjoying their time in the sewing room!

1 small box of fabric + 1 tape measurer + 1 pencil box + 1 - 4" piece of elastic =

1 happily exploring baby!

Homemade Baby Gifts

Clearly, we love babies. We also love making things. So, of course, we love mama-made baby gifts! Babies don't really need a lot: just love, milk, and someplace safe to sleep. But, they sure can use a lot.

Things like: 

towels...

burp cloths...

quilts...

bows & tutus...

onesies...

(picture forthcoming)

and receiving blankets!

We found this self binding receiving blanket tutorial from Piece N Quilt and couldn't wait to try it out. Now, we can't wait to make more self-binding receiving blankets. (For all my preggo friends out there, yes, you can expect these receiving blankets as gifts. Sorry for ruining the surprise!) 

We made a few modifications. We made ours a little smaller than Piece N Quilt called for- just because that's the amount of fabric we had. She also recommends flannel, but we used seersucker-our favorite! Seersucker is a great weight for receiving blankets- not too heavy, not too light, just perfect to snuggle up that new bundle of joy.  We also top stitched along the edge of the binding and along the edge of the blanket itself to help it maintain its shape through washing. (I'm saying "we" because my sweet little baby was awake and wanting to help while I was making this, so Nana helped out by playing with her while I sewed! It takes a village to raise a child and make a blanket apparently!) 

Didn't it turn out sweet? 

Now, the only thing it needs is a little baby to wrap up!!  

How Pink Became My Favorite Color

When I found out I was having a little girl, the first thing I said was, "Are you sure?"  Then, I asked, "How accurate is this sonogram?" After much reassurance from Doc and our sonographer, I finally believed we were having a girl.

It was hard for me to believe at first just because I am not what you would call a girly-girl. Ribbons, bows, frills, and pink were not in my vocabulary.  Once I accepted that we really were having a girl, I started thinking of all the sweet colors we could decorate her room with-- baby yellows, grass greens, sky blues... you get the picture. No pink.

So you can imagine the shock (mine and everyone who knew me) when I decided our sweet little baby girl's room was going to be pastel pink and green!  Nana knew better than to wait for me to change my mind and this quilt was born.

The colors are perfect! Soft pink mixed with light green.  And it's just the perfect touch of old fashioned.  Nana used Gracey's Baby Star for the pattern and the fabrics are a mix of old scraps and new favorites.  

Now that she is here, our sweet baby girl loves to look at the different patterns and colors.

And, as you can see, pink has quickly become my favorite color!