My Baking Collection Part 2: Candles & Sprinkles (2015)

Since I just posted last week with a look into my supply of pans and cookie cutters, I thought I would follow up today with a little more fun.

Do you all like sprinkles?  Oh good, because there are a ton in this post!  Check it out!

The 'Fun' Cabinet

Above my stove is a deep double cabinet where I hide, ahem, I mean store all of my baking supplies.  The right side is the boring side where I stash flour and salt, blah, blah, blah....  But on the left is all of my fun candles, sprinkles and cookbooks!

(You can click here if you want to see the rest of my kitchen)

Open Door View

View Behind the Sprinkles

Notice two things: 

1)   Icing tubs can be recycled to make fantastic supply organizers (the little white tub in the bottom left corner)

2)   Yes, I absolutely store my paper umbrellas in a decorative glass jar. I mean, who doesn't?!?!

Baking Cookbooks

I keep my collection of baking cookbooks tucked away in the back of this cabinet.  I would like to (eventually) display them, but for now that isn't practical.....unless of course I wanted crayon scribbles and missing pages :D

Fun Fact:  The book pictured on the bottom left is my favorite.  It belonged to my MIL and is the book she used when baking for Husby and his brothers when they were kids.

Candles & Candle Holders

These candles are the fun sparking/ re-lighting kind!

Fun Fact:  About three years ago a local grocery store had a shopping cart full of cake candles that were clearanced out at .25 a box.  Why? Because a distant store in the chain was closing and the inventory had been sent to nearby stores for clearance purposes.  So even though the exact same boxes of candles were still available in the shelf at their full price, these candles were only .25

Do I even have to tell you that I stocked up?  Heehee...next photo please...

My Personal Rainbow

You are looking at about $4 here, thank you clearance!

Sprinkles!

It is too completely normal to keep each color of sprinkle available and on hand at all times! 

At the time of this photo I was keeping them in the plastic storage bin featured in the center...but it was bulky....and I have more sprinkles now too...so they no longer fit!  

One day I would like to transfer all of my sprinkles into clear mason jars and use pretty cupcake liners for the lids (thank you Pinterest!), but for now they are tucked into the cabinet.

A Little More

Left:  In addition to the small jars of sprinkles, I also like to keep these bigger tubs on hand.  Baby Girl thinks they make a great treat.  And giving the length of time it takes to eat a tablespoon of sprinkles compared to the amount of sugar consumed, I think it's a fantastic 'junk food'!

Top Right:  You gotta have food coloring, just gotta.

Middle Right: Remember those paper umbrellas I was talking about?  They were also in the clearance cart for .25  I've only used them once for baking,  Seems like most often they end up in sand castles or the Barbie house ;)

Bottom Right:  A few more sprinkles :D

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I have a treasure hunting update (with the cake pans mentioned in the last post) coming soon.
I hope you enjoyed my candles & sprinkles as much as I do, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

My Baking Collection (2015)

Recently I was sorting through my baking pans and cookie cutters and I thought; why not share the fun?
So come in and take a look at my collection!

Bakers Cabinet

I love this little cabinet.  Not only is it home to my decorative cupcake collection (top cabinets), but it also houses all of my baking pans and cookie cutters down below.

You can click here to read more about what's up top.

Let's go inside!

This spacious cabinet is full of fun baking ware.

(The drawer is where I stash leftover paper plates, napkins and flatware from our parties.  It also holds our aprons and a table cloth)

 The Basics

Pictured here are loaf pans, round pans, a rectangle pan, pie plates, cookie sheets and cooling racks.  

I have about 10 of these cookie sheets for when we do our holiday baking.

 More Basics

Here you can see mini round pans, standard and mini muffin pans and a bar pan.

If you are someone who likes the edge pieces of your brownies, a bar pan works great!

Fun Shapes!

Here you can see an assortment of miniature star and flower shaped pans, as well as standard and mini bundt pans.

Silicone Rules!

Top:  My silicone cupcake liners.  I know you all have seen these several times, I use them over and over and over!

Bottom Left:  A giant silicone cupcake mold!  This thing is awesome!  The two larger pieces each take half a cake mix to create the top and bottom portions of a large cupcake.  Want to get fancy?  Use the smaller insert to create a hollow in the bottom section of the cupcake.  When it's ready, fill it with candy, whip cream or ice cream!

Bottom Right:  This set of pans works in the same way as the cupcake mold.  You can create a large round, or dome shaped cake (think baseball party).  This set also contains the insert used to create a space for fun fillings.

Holiday

Top Left:  I know you remember this snowflake from the Frozen birthday party.  The gingy is also a smaller mold, holding about half of a standard cake mix.

Top Right:  A large gingy shaped cookie container and silicone hot pads.  The cookie container I use each year for our Christmas cookies.  The hot pads I use as another safe place to rest hot cookie sheets when we do our big holiday baking.

Bottom Left:  Christmas trees!  You have your choice here with these, either cupcake sized individual trees or a tree large enough for the entire group.

Bottom Right:  Small, and smaller, gingy molds.  I have used these for both cookies and mini cupcakes.

Cookie Cutters!

I have a small set of plastic drawers to contain my cookie cutter collection.  I sort my cutters by type and then separate them into plastic bags.  A lot more cutters could fit into the drawers if I nixed the bags, but I hate having to search for the cutters that I need.  It's much easier to grab the right bag and go!

Christmas!

The metal cutters on top are miniature while the plastic cutters in the bottom photo are standard sized.

Shapes on top, letters and numbers on the bottom.

Valentine's on top, miscellaneous shapes on the bottom.

Easter/ Spring/ Summer on top, Halloween on the bottom.

Now lets just take a moment to appreciate cookie cutters.  Not only are they great for cookies, but you can also use them to help you decorate your cakes.  I like to stick one on the top of my cake and then fill the shape in with sprinkles.  I have also been known to grab for a cookie cutter when needing to trace and cut out a specific shape.  My kids would say they are great for using as stencils and for cutting Play-Doh.  What are some of the ways you use your cookie cutters?  I'm always on the search for new ideas!

That's my collection so far....sort of.....As soon as I had the photos taken and edited for this post, my Auntie surprised me with a few awesome new cake pans, yay!  I'll be sharing those with you soon in a treasure hunting update ;)

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Autumn Mix (17 Pc Package 2015)

Welcome to the season!

Since tomorrow marks the first day of fall, I'm sharing with you this autumn inspired
wedding collection.  Take a look!

Red roses, yellow mums and deep purple mums come together with
autumn foliage to create this spectacular wedding collection.

Bridal Bouquet

Maid of Honor & 'Toss' Bouquet

Bridesmaid's Bouquets

Bridesmaid's Bouquets

Boutonnieres/ Pin-On Corsages

17 Piece Package

This 17 piece package will be arriving in my eBay store soon!

Want to see what is currently available?  Check out my eBay store here

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Treasure Hunting - Tea Party Fun!

A few weeks ago Baby Girl and I found this adorable little porcelain tea set while treasure hunting.  We paid $2 for the set and have been having a great time with it!

 Check out a few photos:

 

The tea set features a pretty blue floral design on a plain white background.

We added the miniature white ceramic plate to act as a cake platter.  This plate was also a treasure hunting find which you can read about by clicking here.

Sprinkle the Lalaloopsy was one of the guests at this little tea party :)

Of all the designing that I take part in, creating fun and memories is my favorite!

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our life. Have a great weekend designing your own beautiful memories and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Easy Classroom Party Favors

In addition to Baby Girl's birthday celebrations at home, she was also allowed to bring in a special snack to celebrate at school.  She chose to take small chocolate cakes and we sent along colorful birthday plates/napkins to make things a bit more festive.  

(Thank you Ms. Campbell for making the classroom a fun place to be!)

In addition to the chocolate treat I thought it would be nice to create some sort of small favor for each of Baby Girl's classmates.  I didn't want to send in any more sugar, so after walking through Dollar Tree (my happy place) for a bit I came up with these simple birthday flags; take a look!

Supplies

Pencils, birthday stickers and colored index cards were all we needed to create fun birthday favors.

(Everything pictured here was found at Dollar Tree for a total of $3)

Step 1

After cutting the index cards in half, we taped one to each pencil.

Step 2

Add stickers and sign.  You could do as much or as little detail here as you want; more stickers, fancy paper, etc...

And that's all it takes to put together a fun and useful birthday favor for 22 students!


I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Birthday Decor Update (2015)

Come in for a quick view of my recent birthday decor additions!

1st Birthday Bibs

You may remember me mentioning these bibs from Baby Girl's 1st Birthday post.  I have a keepsake box for each of the kids where I had been storing them,but decided to pull them out and use them as part of my birthday decor.

(You can click here if you missed the 1st Birthday post)

Bibs on Display

It was so simple (and adorable) to tuck these bibs into a couple of miniature cake domes.  I like having them out with the rest of the birthday decor where I can see them everyday!

Blue Duck

This cute little guy is holding a yellow balloon.
I found him for $1 at Wal-Mart.

Yellow Duck

A duck with a cupcake?!  Sign me up!
I'm pretty sure I found this one at Wal-Mart as well.

Birthday Art

This is one of the gift bags from Baby Girl's birthday party.  I really liked the simple, colorful print so I cut out one side of the bag and framed it.

You can click here to see another post about turning gift bags into framed art.

I hope you enjoyed this decor update post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Baby Girl's 'Actual' Birthday (2015)

About a week ago, my sweet Baby Girl turned 6.  We already had a Frozen themed birthday party (before school started) so we could spend her 'actual' birthday relaxing. 

Baby Girl decided to wake up early (a half hour earlier than she would on a school day) and get started opening gifts.  She took an entire hour to open three gifts and had so much fun!  It was great to be able to sit around in our pajamas and take as much time as she wanted.

After she (finally) finished opening her gifts she made her brunch request:  French toast, hash browns, ham, cheesy eggs and smoothies.  It was basically everything she could think of!  After brunch she spent the day playing with her new toys before having cake and a pizza dinner.

You can keep reading to see cake and gift details

*or*

Click here and here to see the Frozen party decor supplies.

Click here to see the decor photos.

Click here to see the baking details.

Click here to see the invitations.

Supplies

Top Left:  A happy birthday banner candle pack from Dollar Tree, a #6 and a red star left from the #6 star pack that was used for the Frozen party cakes.

Top Right:  A Betty Crocker sprinkle mix and Pilsbury Funfetti icing in bright yellow.

Bottom Left:  Lalaloopsy 'Candle Slice O Cake' with her little pet and heart shaped balloon. 

Bottom Right:  Sprinkles

(Other than the Lalaloopsy doll, which was a surprise, Baby Girl picked out every thing her self)

Cake Time

My niece was in town for a couple of weeks and she helped me put this cake together.  It was fun watching her carefully put the sprinkle candies in the perfect spots.  We ended up only using the larger sprinkles because the cake was getting too full.

Gifts & Cards

I was all set to pick up an adorable ice cream printed wrapping paper when Baby Girl spotted this red floral print.  She really wanted this paper with fancy bows, so that's what she got ;)

The paper is from Dollar Tree.  They have a nice selection of quality paper but you might want to grab an extra roll.  One roll was just enough to cover the two larger gifts.  Luckily I had some plain red on hand that matched nicely for the remaining gift.

Baby Girl also got three cards this year.  One each from Daddy and I and an additional one from the Little Man.  He is now big enough to scribble his own card 'message' and was quite serious in doing so ;)

Side Note:  I'm not a bow person, I rarely ever buy bows.  But when Baby Girl saw them and said, 'Ohhhhhh!' I had to oblige!  So now I'm inspired to do something fun with them.  At first I just tucked them in with my other birthday decor, but I'm thinking a wreath will be a better solution.

I'm going to start buying the kids bows for their gifts.  When I have enough in several colors I'm going to put them all together in a big, colorful birthday themed wreath.  I could always go out and purchase several bows right away, but I think it will be cuter if the wreath is made from bows actually used for my kids gifts.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm slightly sentimental like that :D

Bows like the ones pictured here can be found at Dollar Tree where they are 2 for $1.

If you want to see more birthday fun you can check out the following links:

Click here for Baby Girl's  Strawberry Shortcake party.
Click here for the Little Man's hunting themed party.

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

From the Archives: 1st Birthday!

In the spirit of birthdays (we just finished celebrating Baby Girl's 6th) I've decided to go back and share some of the fun from her very first! 

We used to live in a very tiny house, so when it came to celebrating Baby Girl's first birthday there simply wasn't room for a party.  We decided instead to have a birthday dinner with each set of grandparents.  Guess what that allowed?  I didn't have to settle on just one design theme!

Check out these photos from each of the three birthday celebrations that Baby Girl got to have.
Up First - Birthday at Gramma & Papa's House:

Candy Jars and Balloons

The ceramic candy jars were a grocery store purchase for around $5 each.  I bought them with the intention of using them as party decor first and then later incorporating them in to my kitchen.  I didn't have the kitchen space at the time to display them, but I knew I would eventually.

The balloons consisted of one cupcake and one ice cream cone.  Because we weren't having the celebrations at home, I needed balloons that were going to last awhile.  I decided to only do a couple because by the time we loaded up the balloons, cakes, candy and the kid, our truck was packed!

(You can click here if you want to see where the candy jars now live in my kitchen.  The collection has gotten quite a bit bigger since that first birthday!)

Mini Cakes

The cake mix I used here was Funfetti with vanilla icing.  I got the idea for the Life Saver/ candle combo from the back of the Funfetti cake mix box.  (There was noooo Pinterest back then!) Baby Girl had her own individual layer cake (pictured left) while the guests each had one of the mini bundt cakes (pictured right)

Side Note:  Baby Girl had a cute little 1st birthday bib that she wore for this party, but more on that later....:)

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Birthday Dinner at Mamaw & Papaw's House:

Hula Monkey

For this celebration I decided on a tropical theme.  My parents have a pool and I knew we would be swimming, plus Baby Girl had the cutest little Hawaiian dress to wear for the evening.  So an island inspired dinner just made sense!

Again, I kept it simple with just one larger foil balloon and a couple of latex.  The paper lanterns were a treasure hunting find for .50

Monkey Close -Up

Isn't she cute?

Birthday Cakes

These were chocolate with chocolate frosting.  To decorate I used large sprinkles and pink M&Ms




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Birthday at Home:

Balloons & Gifts

For Baby Girl's actual birthday I combined her leftover cupcake/ ice cream balloons with a pretty pink #1 foil balloon.

I included a shot of her gifts because the polka-dot paper is the cutest annnnd because this is when we got the birthday ducks!

*I'll have a birthday decor update post soon.  Not only did I find a couple more birthday themed ducks this summer, but I decided to pull the kids 1st birthday bibs out of their keepsake boxes.  You will have to check back next week to see what I did with them ;)

Actual Birthday Cakes

I think these were plain vanilla cakes with lavender icing.  A few more pink M&Ms and pink sprinkles topped them off nicely.

Side Note:  I have an adorable framed photo of Baby Girl with this little cake that inspired me to decorate for birthdays with framed pictures.  Each year I make sure to get a nice shot of the birthday kid with their numeral candle.  They are all framed and mixed in with the rest of my birthday decor.

(You can click here if you want to see the rest of the birthday decor)

 That was my Baby Girl's very first birthday celebration, I can't believe she is now 6!
 
I'll be back next week with photos from how we celebrated her actual 6th birthday as well as that birthday decor update.

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Treasure Hunting Update (Late Summer 2015)

Work-Cation:  When you are super overly excited to spend the day working, and the 'work' is fun!

  What am I working on?  I have decided to revamp my eBay store a little bit with a more informative listing style.  It might take me a few days to get everything the way I want it....cause you know...we need groceries...and the kids need baths and stuff (like every day)...!  But I'll get there!

Until then, check out this treasure hunting update featuring many items from that 'everything's FREE' garage sale that I found a few weeks ago!

Frames  (Free)

I think I already used both of these...and already forgot what for...:D 

Silicone Tree Mold  (Free)

When I was busy trying to find space for this cake mold in my bakers cabinet, I was inspired to create another 'in to the cabinet' post.

Look for a post coming soon that will feature all of my cake and cookie supplies!

Cookie Cutters  (Free)

I love cookie cutters, they are so much fun!  Can you believe this entire basket was free?!  

Not only are cookie cutters great for the obvious cookie making, but they are wonderful toys too.  The kids like to use them for Play-Doh shaping and as stencils when coloring.

Mirror (Free)

Did you see the post where I fixed up this free mirror?  You can click here in cased you missed it.

Large Frames ($2)

These are really nice, heavy duty wooden frames.  They can be used for a single large portrait, or as a collage setting for 12 small photos.  I didn't like the black so I sprayed them gold and stuck them in the closet (hence the lovely photo backdrop).  There they will wait until the right project enters my imagination.

French Bread (.50)

In the words of Baby Girl, "Mom, why do you need another fake bread?!  We already have some!"

 Ummm, actually what we have is one fake loaf of skinny bread and two fake loaves of fat bread...but no fake loaves of bread with herbs!  :D :D :D

(You can click here to see my other oh so necessary loaves of fake bread!)

And that's it for now.  I'm going to head on back over to eBay for a bit more fun...I mean 'work'!  ;)

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015