Happy Birthday, cute girl!

We've had a busy few weeks- here are the birthday cakes- which came out pretty well. I used a new buttercream recipe, which didn't set up as well as I would have liked, but people liked it anyway. The cake was filled with ganache frosting, dark chocolate, thank you very much and as ever I used this yellow cake recipe, which I adore. I'll admit- this was not my best cake ever- as far as the decorating went. I had grand plans, but in the end, this is what I had. I decided to just use figurines from the Disney store that she could play with aftewards- they were a hit. Hopefully, they are not painted with lead.

You may have noticed

I have added a picture of what we presume to be a ground squirrel carcass. I just wanted to share some of the camping fun we had recently. I also wanted to show you what I *wanted* to throw into the camp of the people we *presume* stole our fire wood the other night. But I didn't. But I seriously considered it. Still, I didn't. And to think that very day my darling husband saved your kids kite from flying away while you were gone. So you stole our wood under the cover of darkness to return the favor. nice. Your kids should be proud.

I so made this sweater

and brilliant Julie made the hat, the periwinkle one. Which I love.

ooooh

I saw these great mom jewelry designs today Lisa Leonard designs and I think they're great. Plus, one of my new favorite blogs- Simple Mom is offering a contest to win one. You really must check it out.

found pretties

The cute girl selected some flowers and then carefully arranged them for me. You know, maybe not the ones I would have chosen, but it came out looking great, even in the BPA leaching nalgene bottle looks good here.

Monkeys, monkeys everywhere

We made from scratch monkey bread a few days (weeks?) ago. Oh dear- very delish. I hear there is some version of the recipe with pop n fresh dough, which would definately take some time off this- but still, its not hard, its very good and well, we like to do things the hard way around here. I feel I should warn you, its a large recipe- we made this loaf sized pan and also a large round casserole type dish, too. What?? I don't have a bundt pan. Sue me. Monkey bread

My oh so brilliant gardening tip of the day

Ok ok, its not brilliant and its not even original, I bet, but you can use old t shirts to tie your tomatoes to the stakes in your garden. Just rip them into thin strips and they make nice gentle stretchy plant ties. That you don't have to pay for. And you are re-using. You're welcome