Kim's lingerie/batchelorette party 2night

Posted by Liana at 7:56 PM

Check out the cake I made her!

I've turned into a couch potato

Posted by Liana at 11:53 PM

...according to my Nike+ Mini-Me. Haha. Actually, I went to the gym on Monday, Tuesday, then Mikey dragged me out for a three mile run/walk in the dark on Wednesday night... but I haven't been tracking on Nike+ with my iPod and shoes... so I look like a total slacker!

The Mini-me thing is super cool... you login to your account and can make a little guy or gal to look like what you look like when you're running, kind of like Wii. At first, my mini-me had blue eyes, but it put it on as eyeshadow instead of the eye color and Mike told me I looked like MiMi from The Drew Carey Show!

Guess I better charge my Nano up so I can stop appearing to be a lazy-bum mini-me! I might look much cooler too if I actually bought some proper running clothes like the cool choices they had on Nike+!

Q.T. Pie

Posted by Liana at 2:13 PM

A few more snaps from Kimberly's shower. These are of fellow bridesmaid Carrie's son, Joesph, aka QT Pie.

My Man in the Mountains

Posted by Liana at 2:48 PM

A few more pics from our travels through Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains.

The Salt and Pepper Museum

Posted by Liana at 2:21 PM

About a month ago, Mike and I took a REALLY long road trip to TN and NC for another funeral and to go help my parents get their house ready to sell. We found ourselves in Gatlinburg, TN in-between and happened upon the World's ONLY Salt and Pepper Museum!

The owner has personally collected over 20,000 different sets of shakers and has lots of them on display to see in this modest house connected to the flapjacks house we had breakfast at.




They had fun shakers...


...and branded shakers...



...kitty cat shakers..


...froggy shakers...


...little duck in a tub shakers...


...and shakers of about every other animal...


...walls and walls of shakers...


...toilet shakers...



...and last, but not least, some of my favorites from the "Americana Memorabilia" section


There were SOOO many other amazing, cool, unique shakers... but I think they'd take up my WHOLE blog if I posted them all!

It's amazing what someone can do with focus and passion and this was proof of one woman's love for collecting. How cool! Next time you're in Gatlinburg be sure to check it out!

The DIY Cake #2: Behind the Scenes

Posted by Liana at 1:10 PM

In continuation of my previous post, more behind-the-scenes goodness on The Cake!

After the cakes were baked, we put them in the fridge to chill overnight. Cutting the cakes into smaller layers was easy the next day, especially with a proper cake-cutting knife!


You get quite a bit of leftovers (the tops are uneven so those went into this massive scrap pile)


Then it's as simple as putting the layers together with LOTS of yummy icing in-between. I used vanilla for the middle layer, chocolate for the bottom, and cream-cheese for the top.


I used regular store-bought frosting to ice the cakes before they go BACK into the fridge to chill again which helps later in the process so it's not a big melty blob.


After the cakes had time in the fridge again, it was time to roll out the homemade marshmallow fondant we made earlier, and put everything together.


What a mess this makes!


One. Cake. At. A. Time.


All stacked!


Then it was time to pull out the good-for-many-purposes glue-gun to put some ribbon around the layers and then we used florist-tape to cover the ends of some gerber daisies for more cake decorations


All done!

Kimberly's Bridal Shower Details and THE Cake!

Posted by Liana at 11:26 AM

A few Saturdays ago, we (the other bridesmaids and I) hosted Kimberly's bridal shower over here and it turned out to be a FAB-u-lous event if I may say so!

It's no wonder Kimberly and I are such good friends... as she puts it recently on her oh-so-adorable "Life is Peachy" blog: We are two gals cut from the same cloth, just different dye lots!

Plus, we both have this minor-obsession with anything Real Simple or Martha-esque and would prefer DIY nights at home to many other girls-night alternatives. Haha.

Well, these traits certainly manifested themselves for her shower... including The Cake! We tried the DIY fondant then Mike and I put together some homemade marshmallow fondant a few nights before the shower. After working with both pre-made and home-made fondant, I think I'll stick with the pre-made stuff from here on out. The stuff we made must not have been quite right because we had some cracking and sticking problems. All in all, I was able to use the decorations to cover up the sad mess of a fondant cake that I'd put together... and it turned out "not bad" for a home-made cake.





Here's a look at the "innards" ... it turned out SOOO tasty with adding pudding to the mix and using the regular store-bought frosting for the middle layers.


More sweets, and proof of why Jason is so SWEET on Kimberly: She's not afraid to voice her opinon. (Another reason why we must be friends!) haha


For the party-favors we wanted to do something a little more nutritious to counteract all the sweets, so we went with her "Life is Peachy" theme...


...and the PEACH didn't stop there...what's more appropriate that bellinis to go along with the mimosas?


Last but not least, we threw together a few quick flower arrangements using these elegant candle holders and Publix 3-for-10 flower bunches. Yep, a whole $10 spent on these pretty buds!




In the end, it was a great DIY trial-run for the BIGGER event - the actual wedding flowers and cake! We are however getting the pre-made fondant and she has access to a wholesale florist so this should be fun!