Baby Nesting: Part 1 - The Registry

Part 1: Registry Tips from a Been-There-Done-That Mommy

First and foremost, every mom has different opinions on this topic. Here are mine:

A Few of My Must haves:

Besides all the regular stuff, here are a few things that I found essential:

1) Pacifier clips, if you plan on using a pacifier. These will keep you from having to search the car and clean them off every time they drop. Also, once baby gets a little bigger, it's easier for them to find it themselves.

2) Video Monitor - I know some moms say that they would rather not be able to see, because it makes them crazier, but having an eye on baby without having to get out of bed is essential if you want to sleep. We started out with a Summer Infant monitor, but it began crackling the first year. We now have invested in the Motorola monitor with two cameras. If you choose this one, make sure you get the bigger screen (3.5 inch) and the camera(s) that pan around the room.

3) Plenty of crib sheets and changing pad covers - I found myself changing these two things constantly. I would suggest having three of each.

4) Full Size Pack n Play - This was essential for travel. And if you get the big one, they can fit in it for about two years. My mom used it instead of a crib at her house.

5) Breathable Baby Bumper - essential for the worry-wart mom (like me). This bumper is mesh that allows baby to breathe when they sleep up next to it. At first, they won't be able to move much, so it may seem like a waste. But, as Leah grew she would roll up next to the side of the crib, and I didn't have to worry about waking her or having her not be able to breathe. They are definitely not as cute as traditional bumpers, but they reduce SIDS and scary situations. It's worth it!

A Few Items I thought were Totally Unnecessary

1) Wipe warmer - whatever the baby gets used to is what they are going to be used to. If you are out and about and you have cold wipes, GASP! the baby will get upset. Just stick with straight out of the package wipes and they'll be fine!

2) Sterilizer - You can usually put your baby bottles and breast pump accessories in the dishwasher. For faster cleaning, Medela sells sterilizing bags that can be used over and over in the microwave.

3) Ultimate Crib Sheet - I was told that this was, in fact, the ultimate baby item. It keeps you from having to change the sheet all the time. However, it had so many snaps that it was just as much a pain to change as a sheet, and did not coordinate with our bedding set. If you use a traditional bumper, this may be a better deal, but I didn't like it at all.

4) My Breast Friend Nursing Pillow - unless you're planning on nursing on a parade float like Momma Duggar, this is unnecessary. It is not soft, not comfortable, and can easily be replaced by a Boppy, which has more uses. Truthfully, it just got easier to grab a couch pillow or two for nursing than even the Boppy. A Boppy is good for propping baby though.

5) Diaper Genie-type contraption - We started out with this, but by the 4th or 5th month, we just started tossing the peepee diapers in the trash and walking the poopy diapers out to the garage trash. The convenience was not worth it when we finally had to clean that thing out. Ick...

6)Travel system - I know new mommies just have to have the matching set of all the gear, and I have to admit the travel systems are a little bit smaller than they were 3 years ago... But, I still stand by my advice to anyone who will listen, to save the money (and your back) and buy the following instead: carrier car seat, coordinating base for each car, and a snap n go stroller frame (amazingly light and super easy to maneuver through clothing racks). Later, when baby is too big for the carrier car seat, you can buy a nice umbrella stroller for $50-$70.

Allison's Top Ten Registry Tips

1) As tempting as it is, don't open up and wash EVERYthing before you know you need it. I had 2 Ultimate Crib sheets, 3 swaddle blankets (Leah couldn't stand swaddling), and blankets galore washed and ready for Leah. We didn't end up using them! Store credit is way better than stuff sitting in your closet.

2) Bottles - we hated the Dr. Brown's bottles because they had so many parts. Other mothers swear by them and say they are the only ones that work. So, the fact is, you don't know what kind of bottle Little One will take. Register for whatever your heart desires, but only open one package at a time.That way, you can see if they work and return what doesn't. Keep trying one package at a time until, hooray, something works. We really liked the Medela brand and the Playtex Ventaire, but Leah didn't have any reflux or gas issues.

3) Take a friend with you when you register. This friend should have had a baby, of course, but also a baby in the recent past. (Moms are wonderful for child-rearing advice, but aren't necessarily up-to-date on the latest baby gear).

4) If you plan on having more than one child, consider registering for gender neutral whenever possible. This goes for anything that isn't so exciting and can be used for more than one child (grooming kit, closet organizers, bottles- just buy new nipples the second go-round, etc.)

5) Definitely go gender neutral on any big ticket items if you plan on having more children- car seat, pack n play, high chair, swing, jumparoo, etc.)

6) Before you go to the store, decide what kind of registry person you are: the I-need/want-everything-I- could-ever-need/want person, the I-only-need-the-necessities person, or the in-between person. This will help you decide what to scan. Do you have enough people buying for you that you should register for things you won't need right away (spoons, bowls, booster seat, potty, convertible car seat, umbrella stroller)? If the answer is yes, go for it! If not, only register for what you need right away.

7) Consider asking around to borrow large items that aren't essential or that are only used a short time. These might include a jumparoo, a Bumbo chair, a swing, etc. You may find that your baby doesn't like the swing or Jumparoo after getting a brand-new $150 one. Also, you will be doing the person a favor by getting it out of their garage/attic for awhile!

8) Breast pumps are expensive. If you think you will use one, register for it. If you aren't sure yet, wait. You can always send hubby/mom out for one when you know you need it (or order one on Amazon!). If you do get one, don't open it up until you need to.

9) Do not register for blankets or clothes. People will buy you those whether you ask for them or not, and chances are you are buying those things too. :) For toys and books- if you see something that you really want baby to have, register for it. Otherwise, people will buy you these things too.

10) Take all registry advice with a grain of salt. It's your turn! Do what you want!

A Family Baby Shower

My husband and I ran around with the same group of friends in college. Most of us live in Houston now, but now that we all have kids, it gets harder and harder to get together. So, a great excuse is a baby! 

Our close friends, Amy and Joel, are welcoming a baby girl in June, and I wanted to throw a mini baby shower to welcome her! We invited a few of our favorite little families. 

The theme was very simple- pink, pink, and more pink. Tough for all the guys that were invited! 

The decor

I made another banner for the mantle. I used these awesome glitter letters from Hobby Lobby. The background paper is cut into 4.5 inch flower shapes (accent essentials cartridge) and the white is 4.25 inch. I used double stick tape and a matching ribbon to put it all together. Pretty painless.

I borrowed the lanterns from my ma-in-law. I think they are from Party City. And I made the tissue pom poms. 

The food

For appetizers, I put together a simple veggie tray with ranch, a spinach parmesan dip from Costco, and Wholly Guacamole. With an array of chips, everyone was happy for a while. 

For our main course, I served Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper pulled pork with King's Hawaiian rolls (and pickles!) and Barefoot Contessa's tarragon chicken salad (minus the grapes) with mini croissants. I also had fruit salad on the side. For those picky eaters (like my child), I had a small deli tray with meat, cheese, and crackers. 

The cake!

For this cake, I used the same recipe that I used for Leah's birthday cake, but I left out the sprinkles. This recipe is a yummy lemon cake that turns out very moist. It is my new favorite!

I made a two-layer 8 inch cake and used white buttercream for a thin crumb coat. Then, I took a small circle cookie cutter and gently pressed it into the cake where I wanted my roses. This was used as a guide so my roses would be about the same size and shape all throughout my cake. 

Next, I put a small amount of soft pink coloring into my icing. I made a piping bag of this icing out of about 1/3 of the icing. Then I added more coloring and made a second bag. Then a little more coloring for the last bag. This made the ombre effect on the cake. I used a star tip to create the roses. If you try this technique, start from the bottom of the cake with the darkest icing. Each individual rose should start from the middle and work out. Wherever my crumb coat showed through, I put a small star. 

For the banner, I used cookie sticks (in the baking aisle at Michael's), ribbon, scrapbook paper, and letter stickers.

We all had a great time! 

Twin Baby Shower Goodies

I was asked by my lovely sister-in-law to recreate the peapod cookies and cupcake toppers off of Hostess with the Mostess. As far as I can decipher, I believe the original design was from Sweeten Your Day in Utah. They were so cute! I was excited for the challenge. Her friend is expecting twins- a boy and a girl.

Using the pictures off of the site, I recreated them. Here's how:

COOKIES
I needed two batches of cookie dough and a double batch of royal icing for this project. (I used the royal icing for the cupcake toppers, too.)
Roll out and cut your cookies with a scalloped cookie cutter. The original design was a square, but I already had this cutter which was rectangular. Either spray your pan with Pam or use parchment. I had a few stick and fall apart on my first batch. Boo!
Bake them until you start seeing that golden brown on the edges- about 10-12 minutes.

Roll out and cut small circle cookies for the baby heads. I needed 12. Make sure you bake these separately  They don't take as long!!

For the icing:
I took out a good amount of white and put it in a piping bag (tip #3). Then, in 3 small bowls, I put a small amount of icing. In one bowl, I mixed in soft pink. In another, I used brown. And in the last, I used egg yellow.Make sure you cover these with a damp towel while you are mixing the others. I put these in piping bags with #3 tips.
Use the rest of the icing to make the green. I kept the icing in my stand mixer bowl, adding a small amount of  green and mixing it on med-high until I was happy with the color. Then make a piping bag (I used tip #4) with the green. Always keep your icing covered while not in use, even the tip of your piping bag!

Once the cookies have completely cooled, outline them with green.

 Once all of the cookies have green outlines, make your green flood icing. You should be done with the green outline icing, so empty your piping bag back into the bowl of green icing. To make your flood icing, add a teaspoon of water at a time to the green icing. Stir it until thoroughly mixed. Add water until you can drag your spoon through it and it goes back to its original shape in about 3 seconds. When you have the right consistency, cover it up and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. This will allow all the air bubbles to come up. Then, pull a spatula through the icing to get rid of the bubbles.

I use squirt bottles to flood my cookies, but you can also use a piping bag. Make another outline with this icing touching the outline that is already there. Try to cover any imperfections in your outline with the flood icing.

Then, fill in the rest. Use a toothpick to move the icing to fill in spots. Also use a toothpick to pop any remaining air bubbles. 

 Let these sit at least 6-8 hours or overnight before decorating.

When the flood icing is dry, make the white scallop outline on each cookie. On the boy and girl cookies, attach a circle cookie to the corner with white royal icing. Then, use the brown to make the face on the circle. Add the bow or tuft of hair to the head. Finally, add the name!

For the "Sweet Peas," just do the scallop outline, then write "Sweet Peas," and last add the flower. Use your yellow to add the finishing dot.

Done! (Excuse the messy table in this pic, toddler at work!)

Your hand will probably feel like "the claw" by now. I know mine did. But it will go away. :)

CUPCAKE TOPPERS
I used a leaf cookie cutter to cut the peapods. To get a more rounded edge, I cut out a smaller shape than I wanted and then rolled them out a bit to flatten them. This also made them all slightly different shapes and sizes, which I like.
I then put them over a wooden spoon to get a curve. I let them sit for an hour or so, until they kept their shape. Once they kept their shape, I covered them up. That way, when I added the baby faces, they wouldn't be too brittle.

I then cut out and shaped small rectangles for the stems. I adhered them to the peapods with gum glue.
To make gum glue, dissolve a very small amount of gum paste in about a tablespoon or two of water. Use a food brush to brush it on.

I used a clay extruder that I bought off of Amazon to make the curly ques. I put a small amount of green in the extruder and used the seven-holed disc. After cranking, it made 7 at a time. Time saver! Twist the ends in between your fingers to bring them to a point. Then curl them around and let dry.

Next, to make the babies' heads, I used a small amount of copper food coloring to tint my fondant the flesh color. It looked orange at first, GASP!, but the more I worked it in, the more peachy it became.
I rolled it out and cut it out with a small circle cookie cutter. I rolled each circle into a ball and smashed it with my thumb to make the baby heads. Squish them together in pairs and attach them to the peapods with gum glue.

Now the details:
Using brown royal icing, I put two eyes on each baby face. I used a small heart cookie cutter to indent the smile into each face. Then on the girl baby, I added a small pink bow with pink royal icing.
Lastly, I attached the curly que to the top of the boy baby's head with gum glue.

Let dry. Cute, cute, cute!


Here are the tools I used for this project:
a clay extruder, a medium leaf cookie cutter, a wooden spoon, and a small Wilton fondant roller with guide rings

Experimenting with Fondant

Welcome to my new blog! I have been thinking about doing this for awhile. A way to chronicle my creations. I have been dabbling in the sugar arts during my first few months of "retirement." I wanted to learn how to make those beautiful cookies and fondant decorations that are so popular right now.
For Leah's two birthday parties, I have paid someone else (love Etsy!) to make her fondant decorations. They were oh so cute, but oh so expensive! But, I didn't care, because I didn't have time to make them. But now I do. So, with the help of YouTube, the World Wide Web, and a few friends, I have been able to figure it out as I go.

The first thing I made was the 3D bees for my BFF, Cassie's, baby shower last summer. My mom helped me immensely. I watched a video on YouTube, bought a few supplies, and got to work. Here is how they turned out.

Pretty cute, huh? Especially when the bakery I contacted wanted $5 a cupcake! I made a delicious lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, too. Total price for 2 dozen cupcakes? About $30! And I got to learn a new skill.

This summer, Cassie was planning her precious baby's 1st birthday party. The theme was bugs. Ladybugs, caterpillars, and butterflies, which was soo cute! I volunteered my new skill to help her out. In a huge leap of faith, I told her I would make 10 3D ladybugs cupcake toppers, 10 3D caterpillar toppers, 10 polka dot toppers, larger smash cake bugs, 12 2D ladybugs, and a ring of grass. A little adventurous, but I'll do anything for that girl! Here is how they turned out.

So, now I am hooked. It takes a long time and can get a little tedious, but looking at the final product is so worth it. 

** Update: Cassie got her party on Pizzazzerie! Which means my cupcakes are on Pizzazzerie! Go check out her party page!