rainbow cake – Mary James {5th birthday}

So the birthday happened (last Thursday) and I will get to the actual day pictures of the fun (hot) day..but first: to continue the preperations…

Party countdown: 4 days ago (post delayed because cake wasn’t actually completed until day of)

Step 1: decorations

Step 2: invitations

Step 3: cake (here)

Step 4: party (to come)

For the cake – I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake. I bought 2 boxes.

On the first round (a few weeks away from the party) I made the first box…and divided it into 3 bowls, added food coloring to make pretty layers.  Then poured each into their own cake pan..

 

 

can’t you feel the excitement ;)  

The second round (which involved another box of cake mix and 3 layers but a much more hectic day so no photos) were made a week or so later and added to the freezer with the rest of their layer friends.   

I intended to ice around the cake, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it after I saw how stinking cute and fun the cake looked “naked”.

I didn’t realize the plates matched the cake until someone pointed it out (I’m real observant) so I snapped a picture

More to come on the party!

Ugh

I just got more soaked trying to close my stupid umbrella than I would have if I'd just not used it in the first place.

So I threw it out.
-abf-

happy {waaayyyy belated} birthday

mom!

my mother may very well be the most over-zealous person about ... pretty much anything and her fiftieth birhtday was no different. she spent the better part of about the past 30 months *"planning" this celebration(s).

when the actual day was drawing near and she still hadn't nailed anything down, my sister and i took matters into our own hands.

we took her to the beach with a some of her forever friends

then we hurried home to the most chaotic surprise party in the history of surprise parties (i'm guessing here but we've got to at least be close).

i think she had a blast.

. she always does.

*my mother hasn't ever planned a thing in her life. literally - not. a. thing.

please excuse the poor photo quality. these were all either taken with my phone or yanked from other peep's fb page. i'll try to leave the posts that need pics to Kristen ;)

Isn't She L♥vely?!

How gorgeous are the first photos from my darling friend, Mary Elizebeth's, recent wedding?

 

 

And in case it wasn't beautiful enough...

 

 

... a summer shower fell right as the ceremony was ending.

 

 

and made a perfect evening even better.

 

Congratulations Mary Elizebeth and Whit. And well wishes for a life filled with love, love, love.

xx

photo credit: m.e.'s a.ma.zing photographer, steve wells

happy 4th of july!

We hope you are having a fabulous fourth and in honor of today-
a few pictures for you to enjoy on this celebration of our independence:

enjoy & be safe :)

kristen

genius!

I'm sure this is no longer news to most of the blogosphere (since it came out... yesterday *gasp*) but it is still worth a mention. domino is (sort of) back. Can you even stand it?!


stacks of books make everything look cooler, huh?




i love this pendant light so much it might make an appearance in the new house...

This could not come at a better time for me (and that is what they had in mind, i'm sure) as I was (literally) crying over the loss of access to my *hard copies. They accidentally got misplaced - not lost, just literally put in the wrong place, a place that is not accessible to me until we move into the new house - in the midst of putting our things in storage. (have i not blogged about this? well, you've at least seen where my things are, right?) Anyway, i need them while i'm renovating the house SO, here they are. wow. thank you conde nast. this is the best idea you've had in a while.

the noises i'm near

Where I really live, the silence of night never really finds me.

Traffic is incessant; the train keeps the most irregular schedule - it doesn't know the difference between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Sirens blare through the darkness; so do teenage neighbors.

None of this bothers me though. It never has. It makes me feel connected. It makes me feel a part of my neighborhood, the community in which it rests and the great big world that I'm right in the middle of whether I can hear it or not.

Where I currently live, a wood pecker is my alarm clock - he's currently working on a metal chimney. Poor guy. Crickets and rain frogs harmonize their way through the tall grass and geese greet each other as the float back and forth between the flopping fish. Boats buzz by and tractors roll through.

It's a nice change.

But not one I think I'll get used to.

I miss the midnight train too much.