White Chocolate Weddings ~~ Oh, sweet love!

Today I'm participating in Faded Charm's White Wednesday!

So....moving right along....  Weddings!  There's several special weddings written on our calendar this summer.  One of them, my niece, will have a reception filled with Sweets. Yes, Desserts with a capital "D"! Won't a ddessert rreception just be perfect? 

So...lucky Mark and everyone who comes near....I am experimenting with sweet desserts!  One of my first experiments I made was White Chocolate Cream Puffs.  I just made a batch of cream puffs (easy to make, they are in every cookbook, or look on All Recipes), then made a box of instant white chocolate pudding (yes, they make that now!), and topped them off with melted white chocolate chips.  They were so yummy!

But I didn't like how heavy the pudding felt, and the white chocolate on the top became hard, and yummy as they tasted, I didn't like how the combined effect.  I'll experiment with a white chocolate mouse type filling, then maybe even leave off the topping. What do you think?

All this white chocolate reminds me of the cake that our friend made for Jessica's wedding.  I have a picture of this on my refrigerator. I don't think a day goes by that I don't dream of that delicious cake. 

Gorgeous, too!  Jessica had found a photo of this cake online (don't remember where) and gave the photo to our friend to make.  The cake was a gift, and oh what a gift Jessica and Craig received! 

The pieces all around the perimeter of the cakes was rolled and cut white chocolate. I can't even imagine how many hours she spent working on this gorgeous cake.  There were three different flavors, but the piece I had was white chocolate---ah----TDF!!!! (to-die-for).

Here's one of the pictures of the cake from our photographer:



Speaking of weddings, this was my favorite wedding picture of Craig and Jessica, in black and WHITE:

...can't stop there....here's a few more favorites of mine...

Thanks for visiting today!  Blessings, Heidi

Linked to Cinday's Show & Tell Friday here.



Tool Box * Tote Box * Carpenter Box * Tulle Box * Tool Box *Wedding Card Tote*

Of

(made from driftwood from our beach!)

I don't care what people call these, but I call them a "tote".  For years I have purchased every old tote I could find at garage sales.  Hint:  These are usually found in the garage, with rusty and junky "man" stuff!  I bring the home and paint them white and store all my "girl" stuff in them, such as tulle, tags and trims!

(my tulle tote)

Mark and I made a bunch of these to sell at the Home Based Business Fair, where I primarily sold my hand painted custom signs.  I had a couple left over and when my daughter's friend needed some sort of "box" for her wedding for cards I knew the RUSTIC tote I made would be perfect.

(One of the totes I was selling at the Fair;

this was after a long day, I was about to tear down)

Back to the sewing room....

(tote for glues on back of sewing table)

On all the totes I made for the Fair I painted a strip of chalkboard paint on the front, and included some chalk for the buyers.  For the rustic wedding tote I'm giving to the bride she can hand write whatever she wishes, "Cards", "Best Wishes for the Mr. and Mrs.", "Love Notes",etc.  It will be a lovely addition to her rustic style wedding.

Then just today I saw on Funky Junk Interior's blog a post about making totes!  So guess what? Now I don't have to show and tell you how I make totes!  Funky Junk has a guest poster, Julie from "Follow Your Heart Woodworking", who tells how to make the tool boxes (totes--whatever!)  Her method is pretty much the same as mine!  The only thing is I'm pretty lazy in the shop, taking short-cuts when I can, so I use a nail gun with small sized nails to speed up the process.  Also, I use wood glue when I put them together, before nailing. 

But check it out here, "Let's build a tool box!".  Or, if you wait long enough, someday I may add totes (tool boxes) to my Etsy store!

Happy building!
       ~Heidi

Always showing and telling over at Cindy's "MY ROMANTIC HOME Friday Show & Tell.  If you have a couple DAYS go check out all the wonderful links!

Linked to Common Ground's Summer Blog Block PARTY!

Birthday Issue

Hurry now....jump on over to Amy Power's blog to sign up for the next issue of "Inspired Ideas".  This wonderful "Birthday" issue will go live late this afternoon!  Amy and her girls have worked their candles off getting this issue together! 

I'm exited to have something in this issue as well.  Here's a sneak peak at my project:

More soon!  Hugs, Heidi

(Linked to Cindy's "Romantic Show & Tell Friday" here.)

May I show you a few pictures?

May I?  After all it's already May! It's a been a while since I've posted so I'll just play catch up today.  My nephew's wedding was fabulous.  It was really a weekend-long celebration.  We caravaned down in trucks, vans, and cars, helping to make the long (10 hour) drive fun for the grandkids.  I had a number of surprises for the kids, and every hour or so (when they were in our truck) I'd try to pull out something new.   

But you can't keep a princess from her sleep...

The wedding candy bar that my neice and sister set up was a hit, as any candy bar will be.  I painted the signs to match the wedding invitation colors.  ("Love is Sweet" has been selling fast in my Etsy store!). 

Young and old alike enjoyed selecting their favorite candy:





Last Saturday I had a table at our local Home Based Business Fair.  What a blast to meet so many people and be able to show my hand-painted signs in person!  A lot of people asked me if I stenciled the signs--no! I hand-paint each and every letter!   I also had made up some wood totes (carpenter totes, garden totes) to fill with things for Mother's Day or Father's Day. I had painted a strip of chalkboard paint on the side, and included chalk.  I even sold some of my dress pattern kits, altered nest spoons and clothespins, as well as sets of Brown Paper Bag Scrapbooks.  I also took orders for custom family signs and other custom signs. 

I finished the Passion Week booklet-study guides and gave them out to a lot of ladies (about 45).  I shared the study with our Ladies Bible study, as well as gave them to my family and even mailed a few out.  It was a study of Jesus' final week before dying on the cross and was ressurected from the dead (Easter Sunday).  It was encouraging to see so many ladies really get into the Bible that week and become passionate about Jesus' final days.  They learned so much, we shared and encouraged each other and were all affected in so many ways.  I really would like to offer it as a download, so let me know if you have any interest.  After I printed them out (4 small pages per page) I could them down and secured the pages together with binder rings.  I may offer it as a (free) download on Issuu.com or Mediafire.com, if I can get one of those to work for me. 

Speaking of Issuu, Amy Power's previous issues of "Inspired Ideas", such as the Christmas issue, are still available to view for free.  Check her blog to purchase the "Spring Inspired" issue  ($3.30). So many of the projects can be used other times of the year as well.  Soon, though, Amy will be releasing her lasteest issue.  I can't wait, I'll let you know when it's out!

Mother's Day is Sunday, whoo-hoo!  That means breakfast in bed for me (my Mark is the best!).  Just today I saw on the blog, One Pretty Thing, a wonderful collection of Mother's Day ideas.  They are good for adults and children, go look and get ideas now. I love that blog.  Here's a card she gives us link for:

On to more sign painting now. I hope by now you are getting a little more sunshine daily!

Blessings, Heidi

{{Linked to:  "Whatever Goes Wednesday #64 at Someday Crafts

and "What I Whipped Up Wednesday at Sugar and Dots.}}