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Happy Birthday, Reagan!

My sweet little Reagan was born three years ago

.  She is getting so big, but she is growing into the most beautiful little girl.  Her smile warms my heart every day.  She always comes into my room every morning wanting a "Good Morning Hug".  She affectionately calls her baby sister "Pipey", and when she is needing some love, she will come to me with a stern command - "Hug and Kiss!!!", meaning she needs a hug and kiss, right here, right now.  Reagan thanks me for "taking care" of her when I give her breakfast, and she tells me she missed me when I get back from the store.  Reagan has been the biggest challenge, most rewarding thing that has ever happened to me, and she has truly showed me my purpose in life, and what it means to experience the best kind of love there is.  These are some pictures from her birthday.

You're Invited........ I made 60 of these babies by hand.  Lots of paper, lots of printer ink, lots of blades for the paper cutter, lots of hours.

I made Reagan an adorable little Tinkerbell outfit with a matching hairbow.  I FREAKING LOVE HAIRBOWS.  She doesn't.  This one was on a ponytail wrapped so tightly around her hair that she didn't even stand a chance of pulling it out.

Gosh - she is SOOOO cute, right?

Don't even get me started on my cake.  I made marshmallow fondant, WHICH, everytime I make, I hate.  I hate the consistency, the feel, how it goes on the cake, the only thing I like..... it's cheap.  So that's why I did it.  I shouldn't have.  I may try it again sometime, I always do, and I'll probably hate it that time too.  So anyways, the cake tasted great.  That's about it : (.

My cookies turned out kinda cute.  I made a ton of these.  They were party favors, and I took them to Reagan's preschool for her class to share for her birthday.  Her teacher put up a Happy Birthday banner and they sang to her.  Wasn't that nice?

And boy am I ever glad I made extra cookies, because that is what I used to

bribe Reagan to let me take her picture.

We had the party at Jumpstreet, it's an indoor trampoline park 

We got there a lot and we love it.  It's just fun.

They let me bring my own tablecovers and plates, etc.  I like matching.  I'm not at all OCD in my real life, but when it comes to party planning, I get obsessed.

We had pizza and sang Happy Birthday.  You probably could have guessed that.

Reagan got SO many great gifts.  Thank you to everyone who came for all of your extremely generous gifts.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

And just so I don't leave out my little #2.  Piper is great too :).  I love her just as much :).  She will get a very special blog post after her birthday in September.

Cookie and Cupcake Decorating Tutorial!

Welcome to those of you that are new to my blog!  This is a tutorial for those gals that are taking my cookie and cupcake decorating class on March 15.  Please email me if you are interested in taking this class, or if you are interested in HOSTING another class at your home and you think you can get about 8 people to sign up! 

These are the supplies that EVERYONE will need to bring please:

12 cupcakes

12 cutout cookies (I am including a recipe, or you can use your own if you would like!)

1 (1 lb.) box C&H Powdered Sugar, please only C&H brand

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

We will all be decorating cupcakes, and cookies, but you do have the OPTION to assemble a Cookie Bouquet also.  IF you choose to assemble a cookie bouquet, please follow these directions to bake your cookies on sticks, and bring the EXTRA SUPPLIES at the bottom of the post.

No Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe:

2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp amaretto (or almond extract)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

6 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar well.  Add eggs and extracts.  Mix dry ingredients separately, and add to the butter mixture a little at a time.  You may need to add the last few cups of flour by hand, otherwise mix on low.  Chill dough for 2 hours.  Roll dough somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 inch and bake at 350 degrees from 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie.  You want to see just a little bit of golden brown right around the edges on the bottom.  

For those of you that choose to also assemble a Cookie Bouquet, these are the EXTRA supplies that you will need in addition to the supplies listed above.

* cookie sticks (NOT LOLLIPOP STICKS)

* medium sized flower pot

* styrofoam ball to fit snuggly inside flower pot

* dried beans

* tissue paper or shredded paper

*OPTIONAL- large cellophane wrap and wired ribbon with bow wire (bow wire is found near the ribbon in the craft stores)

You can find most of these supplies at Michael's Art and Craft Stores.

Here is a little tutorial on how to bake your cookies on sticks:

This is my (play)dough.  For sake of demo, it's my cookie dough, ok?  I love my little 9" rolling pin.

You can roll out your cookie dough between two dowels if you would like.  This helps your cookies bake evenly, and they look nicer!

Cut out your cookies . . . . you probably already knew that part . . . .

Next we will be using the cookie sticks.

NOT lollipop sticks (right); cookie sticks (left)

Place your cookie stick all the way onto the cookie. Don't press too hard, just enough to get the stick to sink in a little bit.

Roll up a little log of your leftover dough and cover the stick with it.

Smoosh the dough around the sides so the stick will bake into the cookies.

Flip the cookie over, and bake on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Here are some of the supplies for the bouquet assembly: Flower pot, styrofoam ball, and dried beans.

It doesn't matter what size your pot is, just make sure that the ball fits snuggly inside.  You want to have just a little hump coming out the top of the pot from the styrofoam.

If you want to wrap your bouquet up in a big, fancy, gift wrap, you can bring a roll of cellophane wrap.

And, to tie it all together, bring some thick, wired, ribbon and bow wire.

These are some examples of what you will be able to do after you take the class:

Let me know if you have any questions!  I look forward to meeting everyone!

Cassie Selle

480-695-0212

cassieselle@cox.net

Easter

Happy Easter!  We had a nice Easter.  The highlight for me was seeing the girls in the adorable matching dresses that I made for them.  I couldn't get a good picture of the two of them together because, well, Reagan's a maniac.  That's an understatment.  The designs were a bit different, but I used the same fabrics.  Piper had a matching headband, and Reagan had a purse and a hat.  (The hat was SO hard to make, and I don't think it fit real well.)

Reagan had an egg hunt at school and it was SO CUTE!  The Easter Bunny hid all kinds of eggs on the playground and the kids went CRAZY collecting them.  It was so fun to watch.  Reagan was pretty mad when there were no more to collect.  It's hard to do anything fun with this silly child because when it's over she is MAAADDDD.

This was the best picture I got of the girls together in their dresses.  We also had a picture with the Easter Bunny where they both actually SAT still on the Bunny's lap.  There were no smiles, but hey, there were no tears either; I'm happy.

We waited in line for an hour to see the Bunny.  This is Reagan playing at SanTan while we waited.  I would post the pic here, but the quality really sucked.  Can't get much for $25 these days.  And of course they wouldn't let me take my own pics.  Rip off.  But, ya gotta do it.  It's the Easter Bunny.

That same crazy bunny did deliver a pretty sweet Easter basket to the house.  He hid it in the BATHTUB!  (That used to be my favorite place to find my basket when I was growing up!  What a co-inky-dink!)  He also hid eggs out front!  With more jellybeans..... Reagan ate more candy the past 3 days than she has her whole life before. 

I have pics of the egg hunt and I might upload those later and post them if I quit bein' lazy. Check back soon too, because there is a very special little girl having a very special birthday party soon.  And there are some very special invitations in the works.... yes, everything is special; I'll stop saying it now.

Cakes!

These are a couple of cakes I made this weekend. This was for a "VIP" themed 40th birthday at the W Hotel. White chocolate ganache filling....... yum.

This is a "Two Peas In A Pod" cake. It was made for a lady that was having twins and wanted something very simple. I also made cupcakes to match but I forgot to take a picture!

Family Rules Canvas

I have totally fell in love with these "Family Rules" canvases that people have been blogging about. I first saw it on the blog Loving My Lovebugs. And, although mine does not even compare to how cute hers looks, I got good practice with this one and I'll probably eventually make another one that looks better. Plus, this month is National Craft Month so I am celebrating by doing a few fun projects. This is what it looks like.Start with a blank canvas. (This isn't the size I used, I bought this then changed my mind and bought a 12x24 instead so I didn't have to overlap the scrapbook paper in the middle)
Cut 12" x 2-3" coordinating papers.

Mix a million paint colors until you finally find a color that you like to match your scrapbook paper.

Paint the sides of the canvas.

Spend 3 hours finding fonts and sizes that you like on your Cricut and cut out every little tiny letter for all of your "rules". If you are talented on the computer you could probably figure out how to print these directly onto the scrapbook paper. I'm not that cool, though.

Line everything up, get your sizing right.

Check to make sure your 2 year old isn't upstairs tearing the covers off of your bed and pouring green glitter and green paint all over your sheets.

Open your Mod Podge. I love this stuff.

Mod Podge every single one of those silly little letters onto their paper strip. I hope you don't have to be anywhere. This took a long time.

Let your strips dry for a few hours.

Mod Podge every strip to the canvas. Let it dry for a few hours, then do a layer of Mod Podge over the top of it all. You can wait another few hours and do another layer if you are obsessive, like me :).

So, all in all this was fun. I definitely underestimated how long this would take. I am a fast worker, and I say it took about 6 hours total.

Here are my rules:

Family comes first

Be thankful for what you have

Pickup after yourself, help eachother pick up

Use nice words

Hold your head high

Always tell the truth

Encourage your siblings, share in their joy

Forgive easily

Say I love you often

Give to others first

Use your manners... yes, please, no, thank you

Say your prayers

How did I do for my first tutorial?