What We've Been Up To

Hi friends! It's been way tooooo looooong. First of all, Happy Mother's Day! I've been working on this post for 3 days now (crazy!) so I'm finally hitting publish today, Mother's Day. Hope you receive lots of love from your little monkeys today. 

I thought I'd play a little catch up here sharing some of my favorite pictures from this past week. We've been busy around here! Wow.

First up, I'm preparing for my studio's spring dance recital which is next Saturday already. It just came so suddenly, I'm still trying to catch my breath on this one! This week was one of our dress rehearsals and I took the girls outside to take photos of them. They looked so beautiful and ethereal flitting about in those bright green fields. I tried to capture them playing out there, twirling and talking and laughing, just as a fresh change to some of our really pose-y dance pics. I'll share more of these pictures soon, but in the meantime, here are some phone pics that we snapped. 

Last weekend was wonderfully relaxing. I've been trying to take advantaging of the chill time while I still have it, as these next few weekends are really busy for me. So here's what most of it looked like … warm cinnamon rolls for breakfast, visits to the grandparents and the park, happy heart eyes for all the spring blooms, long naps, walks on the beach (just kidding).

On Tuesday I celebrated my birthday and what they generally means for us is lots and lots of eating out. We started at The Creamery for brunch and I had a crazy good Bloody Mary and one of their specials which was some sort of Eggs Benedict with avocado, bacon and plantains. Really good stuff. As you can see, we ended up matching very nicely for Cinco De Mayo, always a good plan when you're, ahem …. 35 or older. Oh yes, and I cut my bangs!

Couldn't resist a few photos of the pretty stuff which are on constant rotation in my Insta feed. This Asos dress (too big - super sad face), those Swedish Hasbeens (thanks Johanna!), and mama and mini swimsuits which are being put to actual use every Wednesday morning for a mom and babe swim class. She's attending with her cousin Jude and they smile through the whole class like it's the best thing ever. 

Here are a few pictures of all the party shopping I've been doing. There's the recital decor, which is going to be so amazing (think clouds, stars, moon, candles) and then there's Scarlet's party and the flower workshop (giant confetti balloon and fresh flowers), and the dinner party which I grabbed these amber glasses and milk glass candle sticks for, care of St Vinnys.

And lastly, some pictures of a cake I worked on with my favorite local cake creator Hey Sugar! Heather asked me to paint some flowers on her cake, something I'd not yet tried. It was such a cool opportunity, the chance to create a floral painting on fondant, and it reminded me of how relaxing and therapeutic painting is. I just rarely carve out time to sit and do this sort of thing anymore … in fact, the idea of taking a class sounds really nice. Anyone want to join? :) 

Heather created this masterpiece for our darling friend Nichole, who gave us her vision - gold, painted flowers and the lyrics to some of her and her husband's favorite songs. Photo by Kendra Bilotto. 

So you're all caught up! Let's hope that I get some outfit photos today and soon a mama and mini style post. It's the plan anyway. Lovely day everyone!

Hey Sugar! - My Favorite Cake Shop

Hello friends! I want to introduce you to a newly opened and locally owned cake shop - Hey Sugar! - owned and operated by my lovely friend Heather. Her cakes are the BEST I have ever tasted and I would call myself somewhat of a cake diva due to the amount of cake-like baked goods I consume each week. That's got to count for something right? Hey Sugar! is an absolute gem, you guys, and I wanted to share some of Heather's work with you, those cakes she's baked for me (we are huge party people and now are in heaven that we've found a cake lady to match our enthusiasm ;). 

Below is the 3 tier cake that Hey Sugar! made for Scarlet's first birthday. It was a delish vanilla and raspberry cake with an ombre ruffle in fondant along the outside as well as a beautiful ombre center. She also brought the butterflies as additional eye candy for our butterfly's first birthday. The top tier was Scarlet's smash cake. 

We also added a couple of other small cakes to the mix, simply because we were dying to taste all of Hey Sugar's yummy flavors. This one below was a chocolate and salted caramel cake and it was outstandingly rich and ahhhhh … just amazing.

And here we have a small cookie dough cake, equally good and quite possibly my favorite. This picture was taken just after I smashed it myself (just kidding). But really, so good.

For Monty's summer birthday, Hey Sugar! created this rice crispie treat cake with that fun little message on top. Monty doesn't like cake actually (I don't know where he comes from) but loves rice crispie treats. As do  I … but you knew that already. :)

And finally, here is Heather's latest creation. We recently celebrated Elliot's 5th birthday and he requested a Batman cake. Boy oh boy, did Hey Sugar! deliver. It was the coolest cake we had ever seen and not only did it have a Batman symbol but it also had a cape, lots of tiny bats with googly eyes and cartoon-like skewers shouting "Happy Birthday Elliot". This cake was an oreo flavor per Elliot's request. It had both vanilla and chocolate flavored cakes, oreo icing and oreo along the base. She can do anything and everything! 

If you're a mama who's constantly searching for someone to bake your child's party goodies (instead of another cardboard cake from Festival like last time), look no further and get in touch with Heather. Her talent has no bounds, friends, and she is well worth every extra dollar spent for something unique, special and incredibly delicious. I thought I would add some pricing info to give you an idea of what is offered and where prices start. As you can see from the pictures, cakes can be smaller single sizes (for a birthday perhaps) or can be large and tiered (for a wedding). I already have 2 more coming for 2014! Next on the list is a carrot caramel pecan cake for my mom's 60th birthday. Oh yum!

Hey Sugar! pricing guide:

Cakes start at $30 

Cake pops starts at $2 each

Frosted sugar cookies start at $2 each

Cupcakes start at $2.50

Cinnamon rolls start at $30 for a dozen 

To book Heather for your next event, send her an email to htvolkmann@att.net.

And as a side note, Hey Sugar! will have an assortment of the yummiest cupcakes in the best fall flavors (which we're busy brainstorming together) at my workshop event in November. So even if you're not into crafting or flowers, come for the cake!