Cake Pops...Yes, Please.

I LOVE Bakerella.  She is THE lady who invented the ART of cakepops.

I found THESE cakepops on her website and I knew they would be perfect for Lotte's Sesame Street party.

I knew my cakepops couldn't be as fabulous as Bakerella's {she is a professional after all} but I did NOT expect mine to turn out as cute as they did!

{I have a note about Lotte's cakepops...they would not have been as great as they were without the help of my Bestie from Kansas.  She helped soo much with the cakepops and everything for the party!  I wouldn't have been able to get it all done without her!  Love you Aunt Surrahs}

Bakerella's directions are so easy to follow, and her pictures are amazing.  I did have to make a few changes...I couldn't find white sixlets.  So I bought pre-made royal icing "eyeballs" from Michaels.  They were super easy, because they were ready to use, no decorating required.  After putting these eyes on Cookie Monster we decided he looked weird and he needed something bigger. Genius idea...............Coconut M & M's!!

Also, I didn't have enough time to fluff out the fur with a toothpick, so I tried something different.  I put the chocolate in my decorator bottles and squeezed it on in zigzagy patterns.  It worked really well, and went a lot faster than I expected it to take.

Big Bird's Beak.  It mystified and baffled us.  After trying several techniques and even enlisting an almost PHD Engineer, we settled on pushing the candy corn into the cake ball and then dipping the whole thing in chocolate.  Like Bakerella recommends, make sure your yellow chocolate is really runny.

My favorite part of the whole thing was the display.  I used $1.00 flower pots from Walmart with styrofoam.  For the filler to cover the styrofoam, I used something related to each character.

Cookie Monster had mini-cookie cereal...The kids loved eating this.

Oscar had gummy worms...like his pet and best friend slimey.

Big Bird was filled with bird seed.

And for Elmo, we used goldfish crackers...duh, like Dorothy, his pet goldfish.

to LIKE or to LIKE anyway

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b) cute
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A Birthday Dress

I was going to make Lotte a ruffle-y dress for her party, but I wanted something that sort of matched her invitations.  So I had to go with scallops!

In order to get as much color as possible I went with vertical stripes that ended in scallops.  I measured her waist and doubled it.  Each strip sewn together, turned and top-stitched is 3 inches wide.  There are 12 scallops {2 each} ROYGBP :)

I gathered the sewn together scallops and attached them to a 2 inch wide strip of rainbow fabric and a white bodice piece.

For the braided neck line I got my inspiration from Me Sew Crazy.  I would have loved to use the woven braid, but Lotte's size is just too small.  It really needs to be on a bigger kid in order to do it justice.

She loves her party dress.  And it was exactly what mommy was hoping for.

Decisions, Decisions

I am really torn.

I need an outlet for my creative juices.

My problem is, I don't know how.  I'm not sure which direction to go in.  I mean there really isn't much that I don't like to do or many things that I won't try.  That makes it difficult to choose one over the other.

I need to make some decisions.  What product would I be best at selling?  What is my brand?  What should my platform be, Etsy, markets and/or shows?  How should I promote myself?

I know many other women are out there doing their thing and struggling with those same questions and issues.  I hope I am able to make some decisions relatively soon.  I need to make myself happy by doing what I love to do, and I also will love to have an opportunity to make some extra income to help my family {or at least support my crafting habit}!

A Birthday Swimsuit

So now that the PARTY is over.  I'm going to start showing off some of the details.

Her party was at my aunt's beautiful pool, so of course Lotte had to have a party swimsuit!

I had planned on sewing one for her using No Big Dill's so easy tutorial, but I was running low on time and I was having a hard time finding the perfect material to use.

So literally two days before we were set to take her pictures I asked Mister to stop at BRU {Babies R Us} and see if there were any plain suits that I could spruce up.

And that's when I came across this beauty!

She was on the clearance rack for $6.00 and then they were having a sale for an extra 25% off clearance prices!  So it was practically a steal!

I took off the yellow tutu skirt and sewed on my own tutu to match our rainbow theme.  It was so incredibly easy because the straight sewing line was already on the suit!

I added a few more tutu flowers to the front to make a little bunch.

It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it to.  And it was less than $5.00 for this refashion because of the sale and I already had the tulle!

If you haven't seen her party post click HERE to see it in all it's glory! :)

I have linked Little Lotte's Swimsuit up to these gracious hosts this week:

Fun Fridays at KoJo Designs

Sundae Scoop at I heart Naptime

Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

Tute Tuesday @ Little Birdie Blog

We Did It Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado

Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss