MARSHMALLOW FONDANT CAKE DECORATING

For mutual this week, the older girls in our youth group got together to decorate miniature cakes. I've never used fondant before, so it was fun to learn about. It was easy too! Marshmallows, powdered sugar, and Crisco. 

Megan Plaisted was awesome enough to host the event. It blew my mind she actually has a fondant cricut! Am I the only one who didn't know such a thing existed? 




The only problem was, it was too pretty to eat afterward. I admired it for 3-4 days before working up the nerve to cut into it. The edible glitter was my favorite. I finally justified ruining my masterpiece by pulling out the ol' camera to document it first. 

If it didn't involve eating an exorbitant amount of sugar (very little self control here when it comes to sugar), cake decorating is a hobby I could totally get into. 

HOLES

Well, the Super Bowl is about to start. I'm still not sure who's playing...but I'm excited for some awesome commercials! 

I'm working on the above flag banner for our Young Women's football-themed New Beginnings this week.




This is what I looked like after a long weekend of paint prep. This phase of the house building pretty much sucks. 




First, we had to putty in every single nail hole...in the baseboards, around the doors and windows, in the closet shelves, crown molding, and the mudroom lockers...before sanding it and caulking every seam. 

Now I haven't really done the math, but I'm guessing there are approximately 500 BILLION nail holes in this here house of ours. Pretty close, anyway. 




But we...meaning Andrew and Lane...got the master bedroom ceiling up! Isn't it gorgeous? It'll be stained this week. 

BE-YOU-TIFUL

At church, I work with the teenage girls. For Christmas, the adult leaders made these signs for the girls as gifts. 

I volunteered to get the wood. Andrew and I happen to have a lot of it hanging around these days. We cut scrap wood and routered the edges to look pretty. 

Understand that I use the term "we" loosely. I have a great fear of tools with the ability to permanently remove appendages from my body. 

Then, I distressed the edges with sandpaper. 

Next, the leaders all met to modge podge the letters on. The YW President had cut them out using her Cricut. 
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(in case you're interested, she used the fonts Rage Italic for the cursive letters and Andalus for the rest.)  

I love the emphasis on the fact that being uniquely you is what makes you beautiful...not by how you compare to others. I don't think young woman hear that enough. 

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Each sign was made using different colors and designs...as if to further illustrate this point. 

Then I took tags with this quote...

(also made by our super creative YW President) 

And tied them to each sign with ribbon.

All ready to go!

I think the girls really liked picking out their own. I thought I'd pass this idea along to others in the Young Women organization for Christmas or birthday gift ideas...or just anyone with a young lady in their life. 

Our inspiration came from here. I'm sure you can find similar ones all over the Internet for ideas.