cardinal love...

Just to be clear - this post is not about the cardinals who are vying to be the next Pope {i'm sure that was what you were thinking}. Rather, I am referring to some charming little birdies who graced my brother and brand new sister-in-laws wedding cake. How lucky am I that I got to make something so special for them!?

Let me tell you about this happy little couple {here they are at the World of Coca-Cola on their honeymoon}. I am just pretty sure they would be content spending the rest of their lives sitting in their apartment, drinking tea, and watching movies together. They're pretty relaxed and chill - which is difficult for the type-a perfectionist in me. Beyond wanting cardinals (and NOT 2 male cardinals) I was given free range. I made 3 different toppers for them to choose from.

I'm not sure why it's so much fun to dress up animals - I loved making the top hat and veil, adding in all the feathers and little details... I modge-podged a page from an old poetry book onto the lid for a papier mache box. Their cake was a single layer, so they asked me to cover the bottom of the box as well - the finish product made it look like they had a little second tier on their cake.

There is alot of touch-up work that goes into these birds. If you've ever purchased these craft birds, you know what I am talking about. Trimming feathers, painting beaks, repairing wire legs, the occasional lop sided eye :)

Need some birds for your wedding? I will be taking on a couple of special orders for cardinal cake toppers in my etsy shop.

a crafty affair...

I plunged into the craft fair world last fall {and it has only taken me months and months to find a minute to blog about it!} For the past two years our Young Life area has put on a craft fair to raise money - crafters pay a fee for their booth space and a table; in turn they keep all the money they make. I learned a few things about craft fair's along the way:

1. the web, blogs, and pinterest have tons of GREAT information - steal it, take in all the vast knowledge and previous experience of those who have gone before you in the craft fair world. Here is a board I particularly loved.

2. it's really hard to have exactly what people want. years working in a LQS taught me that. people ooh and ahhh over the samples and beg to buy them, but when the same thing is up with a price tag on it, they are suddenly not so sure. i sold a decent amount of items, but went home with a moderately full car. any advice out there? is that pretty normal?

 3. designing a booth and props is fun! part of the crafting process for me was to create a little awning out of pvc pipe and some stands for display. i think presentation makes a big difference in sales {people really wanted to buy my props... see item #2 above}

4. people might not come with alot of money to spend. it seemed like this - and other fairs i have visited - are often visited by the casual browser and NOT the big spender. perhaps the ease of online shopping has made bigger purchases a little easier to shop for. i could be wrong, but most people are in the market for smaller dollar items - not the hand pieced and quilted queen size quilt or the hand hooked 100% wool room sized rug. buyers tend to plan for those items rather than see, have to have, and buy them on the spot.

5. enjoy it. though some use craft fairs as a primary income source, i look at it as a little extra fabric money and a chance to visit and get to know other crafters. {i think i spent most of my income at other booths}

I have included a few photos of my craft fair items to break up the text and give you some color to look at. Check out my etsy {the online craft fair} if you are interested in acquiring any of them. If you see a 'must have' in the booth picture at the top but not in my etsy, email me and I may still have 1 or 2 :)

year one...

We celebrated our first anniversary yesterday - it is hard to believe 365 days and all four seasons have gone by already! Many have asked what has been most difficult, what we have learned about one another, and what annoying habits have been discovered. I have no real answer for these questions, we dated for a very long time and knew each other pretty well before we got married. Certainly we grew together over the past year, but there have been no major hiccups or aha moments - it has been a wonderful year for us :]

I wanted to share some wedding cake pictures. I made the topper myself, and it turned out to be the jewel of the wedding decorations, certainly my favorite thing. Recently, I finally threw away the five or so 'test birds' that were in various stages of completion. For being only inches tall, they certainly took quite a bit of work!

I used several pieces of vintage lace and trim that came from my grandparents attic. Nearly everything is made from scratch: the top hat from cardstock and glitter, the birds are entirely hand sewn, the legs are wire wrapped in strips of papier mache and then painted, the beaks are a sharpened dowels that have been painted... lots of work, but great results :]

The cake is vanilla with layers of raspberry cream, made by Camelot Cakes. She is a wonderful baker and decorator. Aren't the flowers lovely? The fondent 'branches' are great touches.

On Sunday we unwrapped our cake topper. Layers and layers of aluminum foil and saran wrap inside and outside of a Tupperware cake saver. I'm happy to report that it was just as delicious as June 20, 2009 :]

Still to come this week:
* Pillow Basics #2
* Pillow Talk Swap Wrap-Up