my baby's FIRST birthday!

I can't believe that my little JP is turning one!  One year ago, he gave us quite a surprise by showing up early, about 5 weeks before his actual due date.  He had to stay in the NICU for about 16 days until he was strong and able to feed without assistance of the gavage tube.  I still remember how small he was when he was born, how I was a wreck when I had to say goodbye to him after I was being discharge from the hospital, that we couldn't take him home yet.  But now he is grown to be a healthy and smart boy who brighten our days with his smiles, his quirks, and babbles.

I'm dreaming of a themed birthday party, how everything was custom-made and beautiful.  But my lack of imagination and being on EI, only allow me to do so much.  After hours and hours of poring through internet, I found inspirations!  The theme that I came up with, I have to admit, this is not my original idea, I blatantly copied it from these talented ladies at Dulce Sobremesa and Style Me Gorgeous.  I don't know how to do graphic design, so I turned to my little "haven" that I like to visit almost on, at least, weekly basis, called Michaels.

I LOVE the simplicity of this blue elephant with the red balloon.  I turned to my trustee inspiration, Martha Stewart.  I purchased some felt stickers with elephant in it (I love you, Martha Stewart!), a couple punches, one is the elephant punch, and a balloon punch!  With a little imagination and a few countless hours after the boys were all asleep, e voila, all done!

It was such a blessed day too, after a whole week of rain and gloomy gray days, we finally had some sunshine today.  We enjoyed the good food, the great weather, and of course, the company of our close friends.  Thank you so much everyone for coming and the wonderful gifts for our little James.....

Helloooooo Kitty!

Oh Hello Kitty, you are so hard to make!  I took a challenge to make Hello Kitty figurines and hoped for the best.  One wrong placement of the eyes or nose, it's no longer Hello Kitty, it's more like "Hello Katty" (quoted from Bonnae).  First night of making Hello Kitty, I almost die with frustrations.  I took a full day break and strategized of how I am going to tackle this character.  I rarely took a commission doing existing characters since they are the hardest to make and if you don't do it right, it's horrible.  I did tackle that achilles heels of mine and I am pretty darn happy with the result.  You don't look so bad, Miss Hello Kitty!  Then I got another call from the hubby (who ordered the cake for her lovely wife, aka my buddy, FC) and requested another small cake with another small cake for a surprise cake.  Oh.  Help.  Me.  Lord.  I couldn't say no to him as they are super nice friends of ours who always so generous and kind.  

And so I did it.....  Here are the two cakes:

The above cake is a 4" personal cake.  The cake is a double chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.  

This is the second cake for the surprise celebration:

Happy Birthday to my dear friend, FC!

                                                    

Black and White

I love the most basic colors in the world, black and white.  Nothing more versatile than black.  You can pair black with ANYTHING.  I don't know how many black items that I have in my wardrobe.  

This month, it's been black and white themed month, well so far.  It's quite striking when they are paired together, beautiful bold contrast.  I've been very privileged to be a part of one of my maternity doctor's wedding.  She picked the elegant, black and white color as her theme color.  It's such a beautiful venue that she picked as her intimate celebration, overlooking a lake.  

It was such a gorgeous day too, perfect for wedding.  

The following week, I made a black and white cake for my husband's close friend's wife's birthday.  The husband requested for an elegant and chic cake.  Very appropriate for his wife, who is very elegant and chic.  I did a lot of handcut fondant, using my x-acto knife.  It was challenging at first, but the looks are lovely.  I wished I took a better pictures of these cakes, though.  

  

Oh, I just can't get enough with Black and White theme cake... I made this one back in March:

  

Beauty Shots

Oh, after waiting (not) so patiently, the beauty shots of the cake that I made for the Enchanted Forest photoshoot are done!  This dreamy photoshoot was done by Athalia's Photography.  This was one of the wonderful themed-projects that she does from time to time.  I was very flattered when she asked me earlier to  be involved in the project.  Unfortunately I had to turned down the earlier project due to my crazy busy household chores, looking after my 3.5 years old, a baby, and my husband.  At the end of July, she asked me to be involved in her latest project.  She gave me a picture of a bride, in the forest as an inspiration.  By God's grace, I was able to pull it off, though it was such a crazy weeks for me, 4 cakes in a span of 2 weeks.  
I was a little disappointed that I was not able to be there to see the photoshoot.  In the morning of the photoshoot, I handed the cake to her and I knew that it will be a great photoshoot.  I was wrong about that part, it was not great, it was AMAZING!  I was blown-away!
So, without further ado, here are the pictures of the cake.  Enjoy!
(For more pictures of the dreamy photoshoot, do stop by at her blog and her website).

 

all photos courtesy of Athalia's Photography