An upgrade for the Mr. and Mrs.

After 8 long months, I am back at this blogging thing! Donavan and I have been busy making my little 800 square foot mansion into OUR little 800 square foot mansion. One of the wedding gifts we were lucky enough to receive was this lovely mirror from our Crate and Barrel registry.

When we registered for it, neither of us was exactly sure where it would go but we loved it so much we didn't care. As it turns out, though, we found the perfect place for it hanging above our new dresser! Now our room is looking way more adult-like. Here is a shot of the space before:

AND AFTER! VOILA!

The wedding colors have been selected!!!

This week marked the end of a looooong road to picking a lovely selection of colors to fit the season and feel of the wedding. So, without further adieu...

(Warm gray, linen, harvest yellow, barn red, teal)

Sweet little birds with sweet little notes...

These sweet little guys helped me ask my gal pals to be my bridesmaids. It was so fun putting each one together and thinking about each friend and all of the fun memories we've shared over the course of our friendship. I guess they went over well because every one said "YES!"

I threw in a lovely array of macaroons to sweeten the deal for Elissa...

Bridesmaid Dresses galore!

So, I am currently trying to weed through the millions of cute bridesmaid dresses out there to pic the perfect ones for my special ladies. Here are just a few of the contenders. Ignore the color, I am just interested in the styles:

What's better than a rainbow cake???

A rainbow cake AND a proposal!
That's right, my nearest and dearest Mr. Mumm asked me to marry him atop the most beautiful rainbow cake I have ever laid eyes on. I, of course, said yes.

Crafty friend showcase

I consider myself a very lucky gal to know so many craft-lovin' peops. Take my friend Rachel for instance. She has the most amazing taste in fabrics. She is able to throw patterns and colors together and create magic! She has a baby on the way and she recently made the cutest little bibs. I love all the fabrics she chose and I know one day she will be having to teach me her sewing tricks so I too can have incredibly cute bibs at my disposal. That is, unless she starts selling them. In which case I would just buy a million from her. Check out the cuteness she made with this little stack of fun:new at the newmans: gettin' crafty

I, Lindsay, have officially entered the 21st century

No, I have not gotten a smart phone. BUT after over a year of mulling it over, I finally created a facebook fan page for my etsy shop! Check it out: Letters by Lindsay on facebook

Happy Friday

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My dear friend Emily is here visiting this weekend!
We're taking a "One Yard Wonder" sewing class tonight at Bon Bon. Should be fun!
Tomorrow is my 2nd annual cookie party. Should be a jam-packed-with-fun-weekend as usual when Emily is involved.

Gnomes Galore!

I have a thing for gnomes. My friend Katie and I have been talking about throwing a gnome themed party for some time now. We get so excited talking about it and overwhelmed with all the details we want to include: full gnome costumes, gnome size treats, a photo taking area, costume props for people, etc. Ran across a blog called xoelle where the writer and her family all dressed as gnomes for Halloween. They all look amazing! I love the shot of them in their garden:) You can read about the whole project here. What great Halloween costumes!

Katie, if you are reading this, I think the gnome party planning needs to officially begin.

A Mini Sugar Pants

This is my nephew. He likes sugar just like his mom and aunt. My sister sent me this picture recently and I can hardly stand the cuteness.

I have a thing for hats. Dog hats.

Have I mentioned I love buying Furter clothing more than I do myself? Yes. It's true. Today I decided he needs a Thanksgiving hat so I went on over to Etsy and out in "Dog Thanksgiving Costumes" and I could never have guessed the adorable dog attire I found here! This girl out in San Diego hand makes these hats and costumes and her dogs are to die for cute! I ended up getting this festive hat for Furter:
The turkey one was a close second but ultimately, I think it would overwhelm Furter's small head.

Pumpkin Carving and Baby Arms!

With each passing year, I love Halloween more and more! This year was my 4th annual pumpkin carving party. It is always so much fun looking at dessert recipes and picking which ones I want to make for the party. I made my first attempt at an Amy Atlas style dessert bar set up. This year I made "Buried Alive" cupcakes (modified from a Rachel Ray muffin recipe), Oreo spiders and mini eyeball cupcakes. I purchased giant chocolate dipped and sprinkled marshmallows from the bakery counter at Hallmark and popcorn from Velvet Creme Popcorn (headquartered within 1/4 mile from my house!). The "Buried Alive" cupcakes were the hit of the party! The most popular question of the night was "Where did you find all those baby doll arms?" Hobby Lobby. In fact, I cleared them OUT of their baby doll arms. After a potluck dinner and the dessert buffet, people carved and painted pumpkin. Lauren's was my favorite: a dinosaur with a talk bubble saying "OH YEAH." Being that she lives in an apartment, it got to stay on my porch for Halloween! All in all, a great Halloween to go down in the books.

To Have and To Hold

One of my bestest friends is getting married in Mexico this coming April. I have been gifted the honor of creating her wedding suite. Just finished up the save-the-dates and look forward to shipping off the little guys in the mail tomorrow morning. She wanted to do something unique and involving candy. A match made in sugarpants heaven as far as I'm concerned.46 tiny suitcases filled with "champagne bubbles" candy will be headed toward guests' mailboxes starting tomorrow!

Sweet Suds

Ran across this little soap shop in Vancouver where they make dessert-shaped soaps! They had their window set up like a bake shop except everything is soap. Kinda depressing when you can't eat any of the "sweets" but also pretty freaking cool! My favorite was the fruitcake soap! How cute would that be in your bathroom during an ugly sweater party? They also had tiny soaps wrapped up in cellophane like candies.

Glee Love

A few months back, I purchased the "Message-in-a-cookie cutters" from William Sonoma. I didn't have a specific occasion in mind for which I planned to use them but they were just too stinking cool to not buy and just have on hand. Surely and occasion would come. And that it did. I am a recent addition to the "Glee" fanbase after watching all of season 1 on dvd over a week long period. Let's just say I was a liiiiiiiiittle excited about the season 2 premiere. I made some special cookies for the watching party at my friend Aaron's. They were delicious and perfectly perfect for the occasion. Thank you Mr. Sonoma.

Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

So my birthday was officially THE best birthday of my life. My friends and family really showed me some major love. After an over-the-top sugary sweet surprise party, Donavan and I headed up to the NYC for 8 days of doing whatever we wanted. It was Donavan's first trip to the big apple so we had some sight seeing mixed in with our SoHo wandering and subway navigating. New York always amazes me and it truly is my favorite US city. Sorry Atlanta. Sorry Kansas City.

Some friends came up for the tail end of the trip to celebrate my birthday. I put together some "NYC Celebration Survial Kits" for everyone complete with a subway map, cosmo flavored jelly beans, a Lindsay-themed crossword puzzle, and gummy rats.

Fantastic Fair!

This year was another great time at the Iowa State Fair. We made our usual stops: the birthing barn to see baby animals, the FFA projects, the 4H projects, the tractor exhibit, and the food carts. After lunch I am always in the mood for some fair sweets and this year it was harder than ever to choose! Right after we'd downed ice cream at the dairy barn, I came across a new booth where they were selling "Fair Squares" which were essentially rice krispy treats on a stick. I appreciated the cute booth design and the unique idea. Maybe next year I'll save room for one.While I am a fan of the fair sweets, Donavan is a fan of the fair meat.

A Rainbow Cake Dream Come True

I did it! I made a rainbow cake! Finally! I used the occasion of my friend Shawn's birthday to try out the recipe I wrote about so long ago. It took me about 4 hours to make but it was totally worth it to see the look on people's faces at Shawn's birthday lunch when I cut into the unassuming white frosted cake. You see, I wanted it to be a surprise for everyone so as far as anyone knew it was just a regular 'ol cake. It was so pretty to eat and it tasted good to boot! A rainbow cake dream come true indeed for this sugar pants gal. Behold:
1. Some color inspiration to start with.
2. 5 bowls of beautiful batter.3. The layer that didn't quite make it to the final cake. So sad. 4. The birthday boy's life slogan decorated the unassuming cake:)

5. Ta Dah! Color! So easy to make and so many smiles.