Krista's Baby Shower

This past Saturday on May 12th, I hosted a baby shower for my friend/esthetician, Krista Martindale.  Since this was her only shower for baby Zoey, it was very well attended.  I didn't know any of the guests except for Sandra.  Everyone was either from Mike's family or clients of hers that have followed her since she left InSpa.  30 guests had RSVP'd that they were coming. That's a lot of adults in our home. When we learned that many were planning to attend, we decided to use the whole house instead of just the upstairs.   

I wish I had taken pic's during the actual party, but was busy being the hostess so everything I have here are pre-party.  A couple months ago, I offered to host a baby shower for Krista.  She was thrilled and immediately excepted the offer.  Since baby Zoey is due July 4th, we figured mid-May was the perfect time. 

She had wanted a pink elephant theme, but we were unsuccessful in finding online invitations with a cute elephant.  We ended up choosing a different style, but I didn't tell her that I was on a mission to stick with the pink elephant's.  It was more difficult then I thought.  The first thing I found for her with pink elephants were these really cute onsies.  So between the onsies and elephants, I combined the two and was able to come up with some cute decor. 

We decided to have all the guests enter through the daycare entrance which is my downstairs kitchen.  I had it spotless and well decorated for the party.  Since I didn't know anyone that was coming, I had pink elephant name tags for everyone to fill out. 

When I learned we were going to use the downstairs too, I panicked.  I didn't know how I was going to decorate the daycare room.  My dear friend Kathy Griffard helped me out.  With her handy dandy cricut machine, she made die cuts for me.  (I told her that I would gladly exchange a home cooked meal if she would help me with creating the decor)  She totally came to my rescue.  I showed her the cute onsies that I had purchased and so from there, the creativity began.  She die cut for me elephants and onsies.  It was absolutely perfect!  We had the elephants towing a line of onsies.  I changed out my daycare bulletin board for a baby theme wall.  It worked out very well. 

Upstairs on the dining table, I had on display a diaper cake that I had made.  It was the first one I had ever done.  I think it turned out well.  Believe or not, those were the only diapers she received.  Mike's step-mother gave her 4-months of diaper service though.  (Totally awesome, yet expensive gift)

For the dessert, I made Spiked Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes.  They were gorgeous and tasted delightful, so they say.  I didn't eat any since they had Raspberry liquor in them.  Not much, but the frosting had a wee bit more.  They sure smelled delightful.  I also made elephant sugar cookies with a raspberry flavored buttercream.  I wanted to paint them like the stars and moons, but ran out of time.

I also provided a few cupcakes that weren't spiked as well, just in case.  Krista wanted to serve mimosa's to everyone.  Once everyone arrived and had their name tag on and their drink in hand, I had everyone go into the daycare room where I had 30 chairs set up in a circle.  We all introduced ourselves and how we knew Krista.  I then explained how the party was going to go.  (It's that whole RS thing in me.  I can't help it!)

We then went upstairs where I had a full spread luncheon planned.  I served chicken croissants, egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, my homemade potato salad, pasta salad, strawberry-spinach salad.  Also had a fresh fruit platter and fresh assorted veggies.  I forgot to take a picture of the cold raspberry soup!  It was so pretty and displayed in mini desserts dishes. 

After we spent about 45-minutes upstairs eating, we then mingled downstairs for games and gifts where we had more room to sit.  The shower lasted a few hours.  She received so many gifts I didn't think the party was ever going to end. 

It's my own fault that I cause clean-up to take so long, but I refused to use paper products. I got out the crystal dishes as I wanted everything to look as elegant as a baby shower could possibly get.

By the end of the day, I was truly exhausted.  Took about 4 hours for clean up.  Mainly because I had to wash everything by hand.  I don't regret at all.  The shower went very well.  Everyone was so nice and appreciative that I hosted a shower for Krista.  All the hard work involved with the details were all noticed.  I tried so hard to make it as nice as possible and not leave out any details. 

Bountiful Baskets!

So my dear friend Torrie, told me about Bountiful Baskets a few weeks ago.  Am I crazy because I look forward to my produce pick-up every Saturday?  Or do I just have no life...

So here's how it works, there's a one time sign up fee for $3 and then after that you can place an order every week if you want to.  Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op.  They post what they will have available on Monday's at noon.  If you wish to order their standard basket, which is a surprise every week, it's only $15.  What's so awesome about this, is that you may end up with produce you wouldn't typically purchase which forces you to try new things.  So far there has only been 3 items that have shown up in my baskets that I have never purchased before.  Beets, artichokes and a large jicama.  

They will continue to take orders through Tuesday but if you wish to add any extras on to your order, you'll want to do that on Monday's before they run out.  Extras are first come first serve.  Last week I ordered 8 lbs of strawberries for $11.  They were beautiful. 

They also had available for sale, fresh tortilla's.  Only $10.50 for so many tortilla's, that I was giving them away.  White Corn and flour. 

Because I still have so much produce on hand, I gave my last order to my mother as part of her Mother's Day gift.  She loved it!  Since Ryan and I have gone vegetarian M-F, this has been awesome.  We plan to start juicing soon.  Hopefully that will get even more vegetables in our system.   

Moon and Stars Special Order

During the course of our Dublin Dollar Fundraising, I became friends with several other parents in our community as we met on a regular basis to plan fundraising events.  One gal I met early on is named Barb Swan.  She was the parents that kept track of all the hours the students worked at each fundraising event.  Barb was also the head chair of the LFP Farmer's Market that was held mid-July that I couldn't attend due to my family reunion.  I just supplied Barb with all my baked goods and she made sure they were well taken care of.  Since then, Barb recognizes my passion for baking and has placed several personal orders over time.  Her first personal order was a blackberry pie for Christmas Eve dinner. 

After I returned from Ireland, Barb had asked me for another special order.  She is hosting a book club party at her home this evening and wanted my baked goods. 

The book that they read is titled "Night Circus".  Never heard of this book before but she wanted cookies that tied in with the book.  She requested Moons and Stars.  Hoping for black and white frosting, easier said then done however!    

She had asked that I individually wrap 14 of them for hostess gifts.  Also asked me to put my name and number on them for advertising.  She said that most of the ladies she's invited to book club tonight are all women who enjoy hosting parties and spend money on catering.  She thought that maybe she could drum up some business for me.  Very thoughtful of her

So these cookies were a bit more challenging then I thought.  Definitely a learning process.  For the stars I used a sugar cookie icing like I use for my gingerbread boys.  It has Karo Syrup in it which gives it a shine and smooth surface.  However, I had to hand paint the icing on every cookie to get the tips of the stars and the nose on the moon.  The border that I initially planned to do didn't work out at all.  Spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I was going to finish off the edges of each cookie and make it look nice. 

BTW- black frosting is terrible to work with.  No matter how much black you use, when starting with a white base, you end up with gray.  I fought with the black for hours and ended up having to stick with the same black icing in used initially and just thicken it a bit.  I ended up tracing around the moon.  There was no other way.  So yes, the starts are fancier.  I also hand painted glitter on each star as well to give it a sparkle.  All and all, these cookies took me about 2 days to produce but if doing it again, would be able to do it in half the time.  Don't think I really made anything off this order with the time I invested.  Maybe next time;)

Mormon Prom 2012

Mormon Prom 2012.  This is the second year in a row that Kenedee has attended Mormon Prom.  Last year she had a blind date and swore she would never do that again.  This year her boyfriend David took her, but first there was drama!  Kenedee had been planning for this special night for a few months.  She special ordered her dress from China and then when it arrived we had to have it altered to fit her very petite body.  48-hours before prom, David learned that he had to participate in a 2-mile run for track to see if he qualified for districts.    7 PM on Saturday night, no less.  OH MY GOODNESS!  The world came crashing down on Kenedee.  She wasn't mad at him, just the situation and the fact that he didn't know about this run until right before prom.  She was crying all day.  She tried to find some back-up guy friends, but everyone already had plans.  Ryan and I felt so bad for her.  We were both a bit surprised that David wasn't in a position to turn down this run.  Oh well. 

 The prom was in the same location as last year.  The Issaquah community center.  13-stakes were invited.  For 2-years in a row, a family in our stake The Quinton's (whom I don't know) have a mansion in the Highlands and have hosted a lovely dinner for all the youth in our stake prior to prom.  What I didn't know until Saturday night, that this was only the 2nd year they've hosted a dinner, so even if Tessa would have went to Mormon Prom this wasn't offered then.  This beautiful mansion is located off of the Puget Sound with a gaited security.  We've had the priviledge for the last couple of years, to provide a shuttle service in our luxurious 15-passenger van (lol) from the stake center to the Quinton's.  

The Quinton's became quite wealthy when Bro. Quinton founded Quinton's medical supplies.  Since then have been millionairs.  Lucky for these youth that we have such a generous couple in our stake willing to put on such a lovely dinner with photography and music for about 1.5 hours prior to leaving for prom.  They do this so that all the youth with or without a date can enjoy a true "Prom Experience" without having to pay money.  The stake leaders are the servers.  I guess it's just an amazing home (mansion).  What a neat opportunity for the youth. 

At about 12:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, Kenedee received a call from David saying that they moved his run to 3:00 which meant he could be dressed and ready by 4:45.  Kenedee was thrilled.  We made arrangements to pick him up at his home and I took him to the Milstead's where they wanted to do photo's under the cherry tree.  (Don't mind the cars in the background)  When I picked up David, I was able to meet his mother and noticed that David had a wrist corsage for Kenedee.  I knew she would be upset because she didn't have one for David since she didn't think he would be going.  David said he planned to give it to her even if he couldn't have attended.  Yes, I think Kenedee was a bit embarrassed since she didn't have a boutonniere for him, but she got over it real quick.   

Julie and I both noticed that Kenedee and David kissed right in front of everyone.  I was speechless and didn't know what to say.  Kinda caught me off guard.  I've seen her kiss him before, but I wasn't expecting that right in front of everyone including Julie. 

In this picture is Shanna Gregory, Kenedee of course, Nichole Milstead and her older sister Jessica Milstead.  The girls all got ready at Shanna's then Jessica drove them to her house for pictures.  David and I arrived to the Milstead's before the carload of girls even arrived. 

In this photo also the dates of the others.  Parker went with Shanna.  A childhood friend of Kenedee's.  Bryce took Jessica.  Don't know him, but recognize him from our Ireland trip and Kenedee and David and then Nichole who was going to go as Kenedee's date until David came through.

Ryan spent a couple of hours really making the van look nice by washing it and vacuuming it out, little details but we wanted to transport these couples in something that was at least clean and free of debris.  Ended up that we only transported one other couple besides David and Kenedee to prom.  Almost could have got by with just the Venza and saved a ton of gas and time on Saturday.  Oh well.  During prom Ryan and I enjoyed a nice dinner as we did last year at Jak's.  Best borboun pork chops ever! 

My Baking Creations 2012

So just a little reminder, I love to bake, in case you couldn't tell. You would think I'd be burnt out about now with all the baking I've done over the holiday's. Nope, bring it on! With all the the fundraising I did, I kinda built up a little cliental of people very interested in my baked goods. Oh, there are some things I can't do or at least need more practice at. For one, I haven't mastered candy making. Mainly because with making candy you can't multi-task. You have to sit there and stir till your arm falls off with a thermometer attached to your pan and if you leave it for 1 second, you can ruin your candy. That's not for me! I have to be able to multi-task in everything I do.

My first picture here is my famous Blackberry Pie. This is Kyle's favorite. I've already had a returning customer now whom I've baked a blackberry pie for twice already. Once for their Christmas Eve dinner and again for her son's birthday in January. 

Next is my mother load carrot cake. Full of carrots, pineapple, coconut and raisins. I don't put nuts in my cakes. Not a fan of them in my baked goods. I do garnish the homemade cream cheese frosting with a handful of chopped walnuts for looks, but do hold off if requested. My carrot cake was sold at our PTSA boosters auction in February and went for $240!

Next is my Banana Cream Pie made with a cooked custard. Oh so delicious. Needs several hours to chill in the fridge so I need lots of notice for that one. Also a booster auction item. Not certain what it went for.

Oh the eye catching "Fresh Fruit Torte" made with a vanilla custard and a citrus glaze. So pretty and yet a very light dessert since it's all fruit. Have made several of these recently. Great summer dessert!

Chocolate-Raspberry Cake with my "Own Fudge Created Frosting". On of my daycare mom's ordered a chocolate cake from me just last week. After playing the 20-questions game on how she wanted me to customize this cake, we ended up with this. Dark Chocolate with a raspberry filling lathered with fudge frosting, fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings. By the time I was done playing with the frosting, I had filled my entire Bosch mixer with frosting eating it as fast as I was making it. Decided to send out an email to friends letting them know if they were interested in chocolate-raspberry cupcakes could have them ready in a few hours. So because of the frosting, I ended up selling about 6 dozen cupcakes as well. Some mini size some regular. They were a huge hit. 

The famous assorted cookie platter.  Holds 6-dozen 3-inch cookies.  Great for parties and way better tasting then those from the grocery store.  Usually my assortments consists of White-Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal M&M, Double Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodles and my secret ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I've sold several of these trays recently.  I need at least 3-4 days notice with this one as it takes time to bake up 6 different types of cookies. 

As I continue to get special orders, my portfolio will increase.  Some of the other items I've done were posted on my past blogs.   This last one was my Valentine fundraiser.  I did red velvet cupcakes, frosted sugar cookies, sugar cookie kits and personalized sugar cookies.  Very successful 2 days worth of baking!

Personal Fundraiser - Holiday Cookies Platters 2011

So after I came to my senses and realized how many families were enjoying my baked goods, I decided to do my own personal fundraising. Instead of baking and giving all my holiday cookies away, which I usually do every year at Christmas time, I was going to sell them instead. Perfect timing since it was for the holiday season, but at the same time hoping to get support for our fundraising efforts. Included on my flyer was also peanut or cashew brittle as well as fudge. I put together 9-inch containers (great for personal consumption or gift giving) then I offered 12-inch and 16-inch platters as well. I also offered sugar cookie kits complete with homemade buttercream frosting and embellishments. Who knew that I was going to start something that kept me baking the entire holiday season? 

I made almost $2400 in cookie platters from Thanksgiving to Christmas. All those monies went directly to Kenedee and Kyle's account. Of course there were costs involved to make the products, but I always look at the big picture. It was all a learning curve for me. I was told by everyone that I could have charged a much higher price for everything but once my prices were posted I didn't feel I could go back and make changes. Friends were responding to me email/flyer within 5 minutes of posting it. WOW!

Anyways, I hope Ryan will allow me to do it again this year because people are already asking. I've already decided on what I would do differently and what cookies took too long to make so I won't repeat those one. Yes, this personal fundraiser was hard on the family life I will admit. My family never saw me as I stayed down stairs as much as I could to keep the mess from my upstairs. (Sure would have been nice to have had a TV installed in my daycare kitchen while all this baking took place!)

The family helped me out as much as they could, they were awesome. Ryan chauffeured the kids everywhere when I couldn't. He also would do Costco or Sam's club trips for me when I would run out of ingredients in the middle of a batch of something. He also helped keep the house picked up and did the laundry for me. I had Kenedee and Kyle weighing, measuring and packaging embellishments for the sugar and gingerbread kits, which BTW is very time consuming. All things said and done, we survived the holiday's and yet look forward to doing it again.

 

The beginning of the BAKE SALES - 2011

Okay so this is how it all started.... June 2011, I became an active parent in the DublinDollars Group. This group was formed of parents who wanted to get involved with fundraising idea's to help raise money for our March 2012 Ireland Trip. Shorecrest High School Marching Band including the bagpiper's and Highland Dancers were invited to participate in the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade. Our high school has been invited back every 4-years since the early 90's. It's quite an honor to be invited by the Lord Mayor himself. A 12-day trip to Ireland was scheduled from March 14-25th, 2012, and both Kenedee and Kyle were amongst those students to participate in this parade.

Kenedee, a senior in highschool and her 4th year of Highland Dancing, has just completed her 2nd year of co-captain for the year. Kyle, a freshman this year dropped marching band and took up the bagpipes. Kenedee say's she talked him into it, Kyle begs to differ. They really needed piper's so Kyle committed to play for the next 4-years. By the time Shorecrest returns to Ireland, Kyle will have just graduated. This was a once in a life time opportunity and I wanted to make sure they were able to attend. At the time this whole process began, Ryan granted me permission to go as a chaperone so there were 3 in our family traveling to Europe for the first time. (Will post about that trip later)

As a parent wanting to get involved yet still working my full-time daycare job I decided the one thing that I could do while working from home was to be the head chair person for the bake sales. I can bake while kids are napping and feel like I'm still accomplishing something. My goal was to sell more then they did 4-years ago. The total then was almost $350. I don't know how many bake sales it took to sell $350, but I set the personal goal to sell at least $1000 worth during the course of this fundraising season. Who knew what the next 9-months would be like. Here's my story....

July 2nd, first fundraiser for this trip. Carwash in Richmond Beach. They wanted a bake sale to go with it. Okay, no sweat, right? I sent around sign-up's (which I'm very experienced at doing thanks to RS) and asked for any volunteer's to help provide baked items. I guess I figured everyone knew how to bake, so I thought. I wanted everything in portion control sizes, individually wrapped and everything delivered to my home the day before so I could organize and make adjustments if need be. UGH...I WAS MORDIFIED by what showed up for that first bake sale. Apparently everyone that has never baked before were the one's who signed up. It was a disaster. I had people bringing me everything under the sun and not to mention, hardly anyone showed up with product the day before like I requested. They showed up at the carwash with their hot pans of brownies right from the oven, too warm to even cut. (BTW, that day was about 85 degrees outside as well. Thank goodness we had a tent to protect us from the heat) There were so many different items it was so overwhelming for those who were shopping. Some items couldn't even be sold, they were that bad. Maybe my standards are a set a little high, but seriously, I didn't feel right about putting some of these items out for sell. Thankfully we had several "Coffee Event" fundraisers coming up at the rest stops where they needed more baked goods. Since those items were set out for donation only and "NOT FOR SALE", anything left over from the car wash was used at those events. First bake sale of the season brought in $400. I was pleased with already selling more at this one event then 4-years ago.

After this first car wash, I decided to take matters into my own hands and change how the bake sales were going to happen.  With the exception of 2-3 other people whom I hand selected for certain items, I decided to do all the baking myself for any future bake sales.  I had no idea at that time how many more were going to be planned or asked of me, but I was fine with it.  Baking is my passion so it was all fun and at times a new challenge for me.  By the time the summer was over, I had baked for 5-6 carwashes, a farmer's market and a rummage sale.  Each opportunity to sell baked goods, I would try and change things up a bit to add variety for those many returning customers.  My name was getting out there in our community and people were requesting certain items and placing personal orders.  I discovered a couple of websites that become my best friend.  On-line companies that I could purchase packaging materials from.  I wanted everything to look like it just came from a bakery.  Another parents was printing up labels to for me so that I could inform customers if products and nuts or not.  I quickly learned that I wasn't charging enough for my baked goods.  One parent in particular would come to my bake sales and buy just about every frosted sugar cookie I would make.  (His wife was the one making my labels) 

Then it became Fall.  We had several more events and concerts lined up where my baked goods were requested.  I challenged myself once again.  Almost every time, I would sell out.  So I started thinking, man I'm spending a ton of money on ingredients and in the big scheme of things, I could have just wrote checks out for my own kids' WCE account and they would have benefited even more.  By me providing bake sales, the monies went into a general pot which all the students who earned hours could tap into.  (Once again will explain that later)  I then sent out an email to parents requesting donation's for basic baking ingredients and gave out my wish list.  Parents were eager to donate as long as they didn't have to bake themselves.  FINE BY ME!

Even after the holiday's we continue'd with a couple more events ending with the Big Band Swing Dance.  By the time all my baking fundraiser's were over, I personally helped bring in about $3500 in baked goods for the DublinDollars Group.  That's a lot of product when most items went for $1-2 each.  It varied by the event.  I met my personal goal in more ways then one, and for that I'm thrilled. The picture's I posted on this story were for the LFP Farmer's Market July 16th and 17th.  I was actually at my family reunion in Utah and couldn't attend it, but delivered all my products the night before I flew out.  The Farmer's Market was a huge success but there were a few others that helped provide items.  I couldn't do it all this time since I had already planned this trip.  I was okay with delegating, but thought about the event the whole time I was gone.