College Quilt

Finally finished a "college quilt" for Greg.

Andersen Family Newsletter

We know this isn't really "new" news, but thought we would share our Christmas newsletter with each of you :) If you click on the image, it will make it larger.

Wedding cake and flowers

A girl in our ward hired me to do her wedding flowers. She wanted silk because she was getting married and having a reception in Utah and then an open house here two weeks later. This was my first wedding job using silk, so I was already a little nervous, but then she told me she wanted red, white and blue flowers and I was afraid everyone would think it was the 4th of July. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find suitable, affordable silk flowers here - I ended up ordered most of them. They turned out well - I used magnets for the first time too - so no pins needed. Their situation hasn't been good for quite a while -her mom was a single mom raising 3 kids - and they approached me about doing a cake. I really enjoy the food side of things as you know, so I said yes. We did fondant because it had to travel, too, but I had only done cookies with fondant, so it was a learning experience. I was pleased with how it looked, although the top layer had major problems duriing the trip to Utah, the buttercream got warm, the fondant started to tear at the edge and slid down the side of the cake. They got it patched and put a flower over it, and I made a new one for the open house here (I was planning to do that anyway) All in all it was pretty fun and looked good.

Happy Halloween!

Just thought I would post a picture of the candy bar bouquets I made for our visiting and home teaching families. Some of the others that I already delivered had a central orange and black lollipop with Happy Halloween written on it and some wooden witches, ghosts or black cat wooden cutouts skewered in as well. The hot chocolate spoons were fun to do - idea from your home-based mom blog.

Teacher's Breakfast

I catered a teacher's breakfast for their first day of school this past Tuesday. It was my first paid food venture and it turned out pretty well. I prepared several kinds of quiche, cranberry orange scones, a new blueberry breakfast cake recipe, and cinnamon twists (cinnamon rolls , basically, but twisted like in the Make a Mix book). I made some pink and green flower arrangements with zinnias from my garden and printed up some menu tags. Because I had seven quiche to display, plus all the breads, I needed more cake stands. I used an idea I saw on Homebased Mom and in Christopher Lowell's book, the hassle-free host, and stacked glass plates on overturned vases. They were a fun addition to the silver restaurant cake stands I had. I didn't get any pictures the day of the event - I'm always running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, but here are a few after the fact. The new blueberry cake recipe came from Alexandra's kitchen and it is a keeper. Check it out and be prepared to drool!
Here is the address:
http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/06/29/buttermilk-blueberry-breakfast-cake/

Jacob and Derek

Derek's Junior Prom

Jacob's 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony

Flowers