The Life of Jennifer Dawn: June 2009

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Tutorial on How to Make a Diaper Cake

A lady at our church is having a baby shower tomorrow. My sister and I wanted to do something special for her, so I suggested we make a diaper cake. I was going to teach Allison how to do this tonight, but she was swamped with homework from her summer classes. She managed to pull herself away long enough to help buy the items we needed though. Since she didn't get the opportunity to come back home with me and learn how to make one...I decided I would do a "how to" post on making the diaper cake. Here it is, Sissy!

Materials:

*diapers (A pack of 60 will easily make a 2-tiered cake. Use more diapers to make more tiers.)

*rubber bands

*ribbon (Wide ribbon works best to hide the rubber bands.)

1. Roll up a diaper and secure it with a rubber band.

2. Continue to roll all of the diapers.

3. Stand the diaper rolls up to begin forming the cake around the circumference of the cake tray.

4. After you have a couple rows formed, find something circular to place in the middle. This will stabilize the opening in the bottom tier.

5. Use glue dots to place a ribbon around the diapers. In order to make everything more secure, add a few more diaper rolls while your circular item is still in place in the middle of the cake tier. When the rows are made nice and tight, the cake stays together beautifully.

6. Now you are ready for the next tier. Use the same circular item you used to place in the middle of tier one as a guide for beginning tier two. Begin by placing diapers around the item. Once you have the circumference set, you can remove this item. (Note: If you plan on doing another tier do not fill this tier in completely with diapers. Leave an opening, and make this tier exactly the same way you made the first tier--only smaller.)

7. This particular cake is only two tiers, so I filled in the rest of the rows with diapers. Secure a ribbon around the diaper rolls using the glue dots again. If you have extra diapers, stuff them into this tier or any other row on another tier that needs to be a little tighter.

8. Begin placing your gift items into the opening in the center of your cake leaving off the top tier since it is the only tier that doesn't have an opening.

9. Finish placing all of your gift items. Pacifiers, baby caps, mittens, and booties all fit into this cake. Place the top tier over the opening where you put your gifts.

10. Make a bow out of your remaining ribbon to secure onto the cake with a glue dot.

Now you have a lovely diaper cake that any mommy-to-be would love!

Diaper Cake Poem

Here's a cake for your special day,

Because the stork is on its way.

Flour, sugar, milk, and eggs

will make a cake so sweet,

*But diapers, booties, and baby mittens

will make a handy treat!

*Substitute this line with things you are including with your diaper cake.

Dollhouse Bookcase

Lydia's Papa (my dad) made her a bookcase shaped like a dollhouse. It looks wonderful in the nursery! We love it!

Lydia says, "Thank you Papa!" Well, she would if she could talk. Thanks Daddy!

And thank you Pappaw Shelton for transporting it for us!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Cameos

I have always LOVED antiques--antique books, antique furniture, vintage clothing... Recently I got on a cameo "kick" when my sister mentioned she had been looking for a cameo ring. After scouring a local antique store, I just couldn't find what I was looking for though. I went home and searched for cameos on etsy.com, and that is when I found these beautiful pieces. I was so intrigued by my new treasures that I decided to do a little cameo research...

Cameo Facts

*The origins of the cameo date back to 15,000 B.C. when figures were carved into rocks in order to relay a message, story, or moral.

*Throughout history cameos have served many purposes: to tell a story, to commemorate an important event, to honor a person of prestige, to be worn as a sign of personal wealth and prestige...

*Cameos have mostly been worn by women, but at different times in history, men have also worn them. Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Pope Paul II, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, and many other individuals of great fame have worn cameos.

*Stone, shells, gems, and other materials have been used to create cameos.

*Gods, goddesses, heroes, rulers, biblical events, and Greek and Roman mythology have all been depicted on cameos.

*Cameos have made appearances on helmets, swords, rings, jewelry, vases, dishes, and many other items.

Although history has influenced and changed the cameo through the years, one thing has remained the same. They have always served as a symbol of beauty.

Sources: New England Antiques Journal and Anna M. Miller's Cameos Old and New

Just Because...

Tim came home last night with a bouquet of pink roses for me. It was one of those sweet "just because" gifts. They look lovely in the guest bedroom/office right now. It is so sad that fresh flowers don't last as long as the love they are given with...

I had an idea though to make them last long after the flowers have wilted and died. I took some pictures of the roses that I am going to enlarge, frame and hang as a grouping on one of the bare walls in the shabby chic guest bedroom. I have been looking for something to hang up, and today I found the answer right under my nose as Lydia and I were smelling the beautiful blossoms.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Summer Strawberry Cupcakes

Lydia was all set-up to help mommy make strawberry cupcakes, when a startling discovery was made...we were out of eggs. No problem, Aunt Allison had the answer...

Recipe for Summer Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients:

Strawberry Cake Mix
2 cups applesauce

Directions:
Mix ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Spray the pan or use cupcake papers. Fill each section 2/3 full. Bake at 350* for 25 minutes. Cool. Add strawberry frosting. Makes 18-20 cupcakes.

That's it! Nothing else. How simple is that?! The applesauce brings out the fruity taste of the strawberries, creates cupcakes that are more moist, and makes them slightly more healthy. Well, they're a little more healthy until you add the icing.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

First Bites of Solid Food

For the past week, we've been giving Lydia Grace a little rice cereal in her nighttime bottle. Today I thought I would try giving her some with a spoon. It was messy and fun...

It's a baby...

GRAND PIANO from the 1940's!

After dreaming of owning one for many, many years...the dream has become a reality. Time to go to the music store for some new sheet music...

Reviving the Lost Art of Letter Writing

Lately I have been reading the book What Would Audrey Do? by Pamela Keogh. It is a charming book that gives an in-depth look at the life of one of the world's most elegant and lovely ladies. As I was reading, I came across a section called "THE ART OF THE PERSONAL LETTER". It occurred to me that few people write letters anymore. I could name on one hand the number of people in my personal life who still correspond with letters. It is fast becoming a lost art. The world we live in today communicates through instant messages, text messages, e-mails, Facebook comments, MySpace messages...

With everything being typed, even cursive writing is becoming obsolete. While some things need to pass with the changing times, I do not believe letter writing should be one of them.

In studying the finer points of star behavior, it seems clear that the well-timed note is what separates the truly well brought up from the arrivistes. Socialite Babe Paley (like Princess Diana and Jackie O) sat down and wrote her bread and butter notes the night she came home from a dinner party or event. George H. W. Bush was famous for typing notes himself (on a typewriter, not a computer) to practically everyone he met, and this garnered him a heck of a lot of goodwill across the political spectrum. Thankfully for us, Audrey was a great letter writer...if AH could take the time to write, surely you can, too. (Pamela Keogh)

The book Puttin' on the GRITS: A Guide to Southern Entertaining by Deborah Ford also has something to say about letter writing and thank-you notes:

Thank-you notes let those around us know how much we appreciate them. A good thank-you note should be hand-written, and it would be on a decent grade of paper, not notebook paper. You don't have to use the best stationery available, but you should use something that shows that you've taken some care. (Deborah Ford)

I must confess that the last of our baby shower thank-you notes just went out, but better late than never with a new baby in the house. Lydia is 3 1/2 months old and the baby announcements just found their way from my stationery basket to the mailbox. Yes, I have a stationery basket, and I am going to vow to use it more. It contains a file for letters I want to keep, my address book (which I am still updating), note cards, stationery, pens, a greeting card organizer, and everything I need to send out lovely letters to family and friends.

Inspired to write more letters, I started searching for some beautiful stationary. Here were my favorites:

Hallmark's FREE Printable Stationery

DIY (Do It Yourself) Stationery Ideas

Just because people aren't writing letters as much nowadays doesn't mean that after thousands of years of tradition letter writing has become obsolete. It just means that writing and receiving letters has become even more SPECIAL!

Happy letter writing!

*Affiliate links have been added to help guide you to some of our favorite books.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lydia's First Wedding

Lydia went to her first wedding last Saturday. I think she enjoyed herself. Her Aunt Allison was a bridesmaid.

She got to dance with her daddy.

I remember my first dance with my daddy. It was at a Father/Daughter Fifties Dance for Girl Scouts. Yes, I was a girl scout once upon a time... My mom made the poodle skirt I wore that night. (I promise if you check back I will find the picture and add it here.)

In recent years, I danced with him again at my wedding. My mom didn't make the dress this time, but she did help pick it out. A couple of weeks ago, I came across a book online called Dance Me Daddy. I have ordered it for Lydia. It is a darling book written by Cindy Morgan (singer/song writer) and illustrated by Philomena O'Neill. The book is all about that special bond between a little girl and her daddy. A bond that Lydia and Tim most definitely share. When the book arrives, I am going to put a picture of her dancing with daddy at this first wedding in the front of the book (the picture shown above). When she gets much, much, much, much, much...older I will be able to also put a picture of her dancing with her daddy on her wedding day in the back of the book.