Rosegirls: Mini Melters Order 1

MINI MELTERZZZZZ! My Rosegirls Mini Melter order came promptly and securely packaged. Jenny had weaved bubble wrap between each bag so they moved nary an inch. She had predicted a possible March opening, but has since moved it back to April, so these guys give me plenty of time to play around with my mixology. I also placed a second tiny order once I saw the custom date was pushed back. How nice is it to be able to order anytime we want now?! (Cash on hand not withstanding). Let us commence our wax chat shall we?

Bananas Foster- I tend to be picky with bananas. If I smell mainly Laffy Taffy or Runts artificial banana scent, then I usually pass. This banana seemingly starts to veer in that direction, then my nose picks up that caramelized sugar scent that accompanies flambe Bananas Foster, adding a much need depth for my taste. I almost even get a creamy crepe note too. I am looking forward to blending this with spicy bakery. By the by, don't those look like a pile of butter pats? 

Tobacco- And if those were pats of butter than these are chunks of fudge. Mmmmm. This tobacco scent reminds me more of vanilla suede than tobacco leaves, but I love it. I want to blend this with Twilight Woods and Warm Vanilla Sugar or Blackberry Amber. A beautiful fragrance that I am thrilled Jenny is carrying. 

Blackberry Amber- Gaw-geous. Dark berries, florals, musk and amber all swirl around in there, crooking their fingers at me. Love!

Birthday Cake- Jenny mentioned getting a new Birthday Cake and baked Zucchini Bread back during the last custom opening, I believe. I was antsy to try both but ended up picking this one first. Boy howdy, this is strong! Vanilla and white cake that pack a punch in your nostrils. This will be great for blending or even on its own. I am thinking of a vanilla heavy blend of Vanilla Bean Noel/Vanilla Ice Cream/Birthday Cake. 

Vanilla Crunch Donuts- This is lovely. It reminds me of those unfrosted cakey donuts you can get from Krispy Kreme (or Dunkin Donuts I suppose, but I am a Krispy Kreme gal myself). I feel like there is the MEREST hint of cinnamon, just a whiff, the kind you can't really taste but lends to a depth in the blend. Very yummy. Especially blended with blueberries and pumpkin.

Grapefruit- So good. This grapefruit is a juicy sweet Ruby Red. Cut in half, dripping with bursting pulp and sprinkled with white sugar crystals. I am solemnly swearing to make a blend with grapefruit as the overpour. I can see this going really well with Marilyn. 

To be honest, I don't normally blend with wax. I like my wax, like my food. Separately and one at a time (if it is blended in a chunk already, that is ONE scent- kinda like the pile of stuck nachos being ONE chip). But I am excited to give these a go for blending. What scents do you think I should try from the Rosegirls Mini Melt list? What of these would you blend together?

Music Shuffle TAG

LOL! I posted this, this morning without even talking about the rules! OOPS! I was tagged by Lolo and the rules were to put my iTunes (Pandora/Spotify) on shuffle and answer the questions with whichever song was next in line. It was a ton of fun! Thanks Lauren!! 

How am I feeling today?
"My Immortal"- Evanescence. Ouch, kinda downer.

Will I get far in life?
"Champagne Supernova"- Oasis. 

How do my friends see me?
"Tin Cup Chalice"- Jimmy Buffett. On point.

Where will we vacation next year?
"Chanson Pour Les Petits Enfants"- Jimmy Buffet. Oh how I wish! That would be fantastical! >listen to this song!<

What is my theme song?
"Love to the Test"- Niki & The Dove. Weird song. Great title for this question.

What is the story of my life?
"Mad World"- Gary Jules. HA!

What was high school like?
"1979"- Smashing Pumpkins. Ironic. 

How can I get ahead in life?
"Get Ready"- Lady, The Band.  I concur.

What is the best thing about me?
"No One To Call"- Caitlin Rose. 

How is today going to be?
"It's A Big Old Goofy World"- John Prine. I can't even tell you how much I love this. I am the vast minority probably, but still want to serve it on a platter... so here ya go.

What's in store this weekend?
"Don't Worry Baby"- Beach Boys. Ok. I won't.

What song describes my parents?
"When the Stars Go Blue"- Tim McGraw. Poignant.

What song describes my sisters?
"Foolish Games"- Jewel. NOOO!!!! I do love this song though.

How is my life going?
"What A Wonderful World"- Louis Armstrong. I will take it.

What will they play at my funeral?
"Rehab"- Amy Winehouse. Oh man. I hope this is not a portent.

How does the world see me?
"Salvation"- Cranberries. Nice sentiment, however, I only know one fella that can lay claim to that. And it is NOT I.

Will I have a happy life?
"The Great Escape"- Boys Like Girls. Fun!

What should I do with my life?
"Tonight, Tonight"- Smashing Pumpkins. Take it one day at a time. 

What is some good advice for me?
"Under the Bridge"- Red Hot Chili Peppers.

How will I be remembered?
"God Only Knows"- The Beach Boys. This is getting creepy. But I love this.

What do I think my theme song is?
"Layla"- Eric Clapton. LOL! Not so much the femme fatale. 

What does everyone else think my theme song is?
"The Warmth of the Sun"- The Beach Boys. <3 

That was fun and slightly alarming! LOL! Thanks for tagging me Lolo! I now TAG The Bohemian Sassenach, Furianne, and #WhatImMelting. I hope your February was a great one (where did it go... seriously). March: full steam ahead! It is one jam packed month for me as far as work goes, but the bliss of Spring Break lies at the end like a pot o' gold. Any exciting plans in March?

Lush Life: Snowman Shower Jelly

Shower Jelly is fun. Wibbly wobbly squishy wishy fun. This particular Snowman Shower Jelly was part of the previously mentioned Lush gifts that Liz sent me. She also gave me Whoosh, which is in the fridge chillin' as I type. The girls and I played around with the Snowman Shower Jelly one evening and had fun with it. We even used it to wash our hair. Most of the bits did end up falling to the shower floor, but Savanna and Scarlette scoot around down there anyway and just scooped them up and continued their shenanigans of brewing "potions" making "soup" and "drinks" and their normal shower play that utilizes the millions of empty product containers, spoons and such that litter the corners for just such purposes. SpongeBob would be proud.

The scent fits well year round with its fruity vibe. I am not sure snowmen and fruit tag along together too well but hey, I am not the brains behind Lush. A vanilla mint would have been cool, or possibly a fresh fallen snow scent like Demeter carries. In the end, it worked, the kids liked it, the texture is playful (like bathing with firmer Jell-o) and I would probably buy it again for us to use. 

Have you tried any variant of Lush's Shower Jelly? 

Streetman Company Store: Sinus Relief Bath Soak

Lauren sent this gem in my box of Muffin Club muffins this past week and I used it right away. The Streetman Bathworks Sinus Relief Bath Soak container directed me to pour the entire contents in the bath water. So I did! The scent of eucalyptus and mints floated about the surface of the water then faded. The Epsom salts worked their relaxing magic and felt nice on the skin. Thank you Lolo for sharing!

This reminds me... I need get to making some bath salts to refill my apothecary jar. 

Up The Creek Scents: Custom Loaf... you'll never guess the scent...

American Cream Pink Sugar Marshmallow Bean Noel you say???? How ever did you guess?! In an effort to not be redundant I will keep it simple.

My first loaf from UTC. It was pre-sliced (yes!) and this time the blend smelled more Marshmallow Bean Noel heavy than the chunks in the bag, which were more American Cream heavy. I love both to pieces and it is nice having the variation. For simplicity sake, I broke up and re-bagged the chunks for grab and go efficiency. 

Free Samples in:

Pecan Waffle Cookie Bakery- Strong buttery waffle scent with extra sugar in the batter. Yum!

Strawberry Rhubarb Zucchini Bread Noel- Digging the strawberry rhubarb, it must be pretty strong and tart to pull through UTC's strong zucchini bread noel like it does. I want to blend strawberry rhubarb with American Cream now. Yes. I have a sickness. No, I don't need rehab. 

Melting Basket 28

The Rosegirls Melting Basket of yore (actually only last week) had many awesome scents and none were duds. However, I simply cannot repurchase them all, so I am narrowing it down to: Warm Voodoo, Peppermint Coconut Marshmallow, Ooey Gooey Caramel/Celtic Moonspice/Marshmallow Smoothie, Blueberry Pumpkin Vanilla Crunch Donuts, and Raspberry/Mango/White Tea. 

Rosegirls- Macintosh Madness & Rosegirls' Garden

Rosegirls- Blackberry Mocha Cookies

Rosegirls- Wildberry/Cotton Candy Frosting/Baked Zucchini Bread <3 gift

Sniff My Tarts- Under The Big Top

CFTKR- Fig & Pomegranate

CFTKR- Maple Honey Bread

CFTKR- Amber Vanilla

CFTKR- Ultimate Serendipity

CFTKR- Serendipity Marshmallow Delight

CFTKR- Iced Lemon Biscotti <3 gift
CFTKR- Cannoli <3 gift
CFTKR- Boysenberry Zucchini <3 gift
CFTKR- Sugar Corn Pudding <3 gift
Beezy- Vanilla Frosted Grahams
Beezy- Apple Clove Butter <3 gift
Super Tarts- Wicked
Tiffany Candles- Amaretto/Birthday Bash <3 gift
Granny's Kountry Candles- Banana Nut Bread <3 gift
JLCCW- Blackberry Jam Butter Cookie <3 gift
JLCCW- Zucchini Bread/Glazed Cinnamon Donut <3 gift
Lasting Scent Candles- Salted Caramel Candy <3 gift
Sugar & Spice- Cinnamon Strudel Cookie Butter Crack <3 gift

As usual, if you are curious about any, just ask. I focused more on my heavy bakery scents due to the cold weather and spring being right around the corner. Time to melt these bad boys!

Dollar Tree glittery shamrocks. These are it, as far as St. Patty's Day decorating goes.

Some extra perks to the Montessori Middle School job have been beautiful outings to various parks and preserves. More recently, Crystal Springs Preserve, where Zephyrhills bottles a portion of the springs. 

Some recent culinary obsessions include: Too Jay's Matzo Ball Soup and registering a Starbucks gift card and acquiring points by drinking their new Tiramisu latte and Caramel Flan latte.

So want to hear something crazy? Now that my Rosegirls Mini Melters order has shipped, I have no outstanding wax orders. None. And that won't change until Rosegirls opens for customs in March and my name pops up on the Glitterati custom list. I am happily melting away at what I have and I very much enjoy swapping with friends, doing Round Robins, and pawing through my stash in general. I still enjoy plotting, buying and melting; I think I have just started slowing down a bit. There is a box of  Valentine's Day items from FuturePrimitive en-route from the UK, but that be all for now. Some vendors I would like to try this spring include: Sugar & Spice, Sniff My Tarts mystery box, and maybe TDC or CFTKR or TBG. What are your waxy plans for the next few months?  Any spring releases you are looking forward to non-wax related? Have any pending orders?

Rosegirls: Muffin Club 2

Diving right in to the Muffin Club order a few friends and I placed last Rosgeirls opening! WOOHOO! The first two are the chunks and the last is the overpour.

Strawberry Jam/Sicilian Lemon Cookies/Royal Sugar Cookie- Is it a crime to admit I think I rank Royal Sugar Cookie over Monster Cookie? I love them both, but man is that RSC yummy. Add lemon bars and strawberry jam flavors and I am in heaven. Heaven. Gosh I hope there are warmers and wax in my house in the clouds. 

Sweet Lemon Confection/Orange Revival/Sage- Lemon races out of the shoot but juicy oranges and a soft herbal sage catch up from behind. A wonderful, super, amazing summer scent. Makes me want to blend with sage next opening: Peppermint/Biolage/Sage? Sage/Lavender/Apricot? Sage/Sweater Weather/Vanilla Musk? Oh! The possibilities!

Lavender/Vanilla Bean Noel/Birthday Cake- The extra vanilla bakery with a touch of sweet lavender rivals my loaf of lavender smoothie. This one smells more smooth and softened. 

Pecan Waffles/Cotton Candy Frosting/Blueberry Cobbler- MMmmmmmm!!! A feast for the eyes and nose! It really does smell like a blueberry cobbler with the PPW acting as a nice batter and the CCF as the sweet syrup that holds the berries together. 

Christmas Past/Cranberry Orange- This ALMOST reminds me of Cranberry Lodge! Just add a pinch of cinnamon and it is THERE. Love this fruity bright spruce.

Cranberry Orange/Marshmallow Smoothie/Cranberry Marmalade- Finally. After hunting and buying and mixing and blending. The perfect spiced cranberry scent. Creating this in a loaf for when fall rolls back around.

Pink Sugar/Margarita/Watermelon Slush- The water melon margarita pull through the most, I can't really get the Pink yet. I do wish this was a bit stronger, but maybe curing will help that along as this is fresh out of the muffin pan. An energetic summery scent!

Vanilla Bean Noel/Strawberry Raspberry Guava/Marilyn- I love Blonde Moment/Marilyn! Combining it with VBN and SRG was pure genius. Sweet bubbly fun. If it was a girl, it would be Gidget. Is that too old of a reference? Ok, how about Cher from Clueless.

Peppermint/Royal Sugar Cookie- Mrs. Claus' Cookies magnified by 100. Buttery soft sugar cookie sprinkled with candy canes and peppermint disks. I cannot wait to melt this.

Peppermint/Christmas Past- I had muffins with this blend plus Vanilla Bean Noel added. I enjoy this more crisp and pine filled mint version better. It feels like a Vicks/Sinus Relief option.

Sweet Pumpkin Pie/Vanilla Bean Noel/Vanilla Wafers- Simply decadent. The pumpkin and vanillas are so creamy and delicious. This is my first time really smelling Vanilla Wafers and it is good. I would normally try to save this for fall, but I am not sure I can hold out.

Monster Cookie/Southern Creme Brulee/Pumpkin Chai- I mainly get a nicely spiced pumpkin cookie scent. I am not sure I can pull creme brulee out specifically. It makes me want to sample Southern Creme Brulee in Mini Melt form so I can get a better handle on it. Overall, I am happy with how this blend turned out. Probably not for non-spice folk. 

Ooey Gooey Caramel/Toffee Apple Crunch/Dunk My Donut- This reminds me of Toffee Apple Streuselkuchen and Apple Cider Donuts a wee bit. But I must say that I like this combination more than the other two. The caramel and slight spice from DMD helps keep the sometimes candiness of Mac Apple from being overpowering. An excellent September choice for when I am craving apples.

Marshmallow Smoothie/Celtic Moonspice/Apple Puff Pastry- This fella fits the September apple craving as well! Extra spiced apple goodness. Very much a comfort home fragrance. This will be loaf/pie worthy.

Peppermint/Lemonade/Sugared Apple- Wow. What an olfactory experience. The sweet apples take all of my attention first but then the lemonade tugs on my jaw bones and I realize my nasal passages tingle with minty coolness. I love unique blending and this is it! Excited to melt this baby.

Cherry Berry Punch/Lemonade- This very much reminds me of Hi-C Fruit Punch. Sweet, tropical, stain my lips red and give me a sugar rush punch. I very much like this and can see the girls asking for this one in their warmers.

Pink Sugar/Sweet Lavender/Peppermint- Lauren threw this in as a very generous gift (and other wax goodies too I cannot wait to melt!). Oooooooooh my. This is a pie. The peppermint is gorgeous with that pink lavender going on. My perfect bedtime blend. I cannot fathom why I have not blended this from Rosegirls already?! Have I lost my ever loving mind? Not to worry. This will be remedied. 

I hope some of these blends help stir your creative thinking for the upcoming Rosegirls opening next month (tentative). I absolutely get giddy over Muffin Club and look forward to these guys more than my actual personal order. I enjoy melting things I have not thought of or may be a little outside my comfort zone. That is usually when I fall hard for a scent. Plus I am super blessed to have three wonderful friends to do this with. Are you plotting a Rosegirls order? Are you in a muffin or pie club?

Lush Life: Green Fun

This Green Fun bursting with lime and citrus fruity celebration came my way via Liz from Furianne. We swapped boxes not too long ago and she generously included some of her Lush Boxing Day haul. The girls barely let me have this chunk of play-doh soap long enough to squeeze a creature out of it. Which I was determined to do.

The girls lurked right out of the frame jumping up and down, fingers itching to get in the tub with it.

While this was sitting on the computer desk, I walked in on Adam one day to sniffing it. He caught me watching him and said "This smells pretty good!" My citrus fella. It does in fact, smell pretty good. It reminds me of lemon lime candy, such as Now and Laters. It lathers and bubbles great as a soap, but probably not well enough to be a bubble bar. The girls love it, I love it, we are happy. 

Have you tried Lush Fun? What do you think?

'Fumes: Winter Favorites

Winter here in Florida is a running joke amongst most of the nation I imagine. However, for a Native Floridian, it is all I know and brisk cloudless days of 60 degrees exemplify winter. Since December I have found myself reaching for the following perfumes more often than usual:

Sonoma Scent Studio Winter Woods: So thick and chewy my mouth waters. This is not gourmand by any means but the sticky resins, amber and tar are so pronounced they literally have a texture and my mouth waters to smell this fragrance. On my skin it feels like a smokey and sweet caress, sensual and natural. This beautiful fragrance worked its magic on me slowly. This is my second 3 mL spray bottle ($11.00) but it confirms what I should have known.... I require a bigger bottle. 

Dior Poison: Yes. Poison. I like to find mine in old thrift stores where the juice is so dark, it looks like balsamic vinegar- and even carries that note. On chilly days when the wind is whipping and kids are flying kites, I travel in a wake of poisonous grapes and tuberose. Please don't ever get stuck in an elevator with me on those days. Your nose hairs may fall out, but mine will be pleasantly enthralled with this perfume floating about me in a purple haze. Try it again. You may like it. But not at the thrift store... leave those for me.

Hermes Eau des Merveilles: Perfect for those humid free days when the sun is bright and sky is crisp blue: this aroma takes me to the shore. Not a typical sunscreen, jasmine, driftwood beachy smell, but fresh, breezy, light and a tad salty. The drydown transitions into a snuggly, come hither soft woods. Like wearing linen pants cuffed at the calves while walking along the Gulf. Comfortable and timeless.

Serge Lutens L'orpheline: Grey incense and musk that brings frigid foggy London evenings to me more handily than a passport. There is a silvered edge of coolness that I adore about this scent.

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure: Reviewed here and I still adore this paired with Aftelier Ancient Resins. My favorite incense perfume hands down. Amazing year 'round, but extra special during the winter personally.

Serge Lutens Un bois vanille: A candied woods fragrance that glows in cooler temperatures. Sweet, carefree and alluring by turns. I feel it may be perhaps a bit cavity inducing during the humid summer days here in Florida, but from fall to spring it gets high mileage in my rotation. More thoughts on this perfume here.

Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan: Musk to the tenth power. Raw, feline, and feral. Honestly, I have no qualms wearing this kitten all year, but in the winter I relish in the warmth it provides my emotions when I can inhale it on my skin. A little leather, a little vanilla, a little woods and plentiful musk. A skin scent on me. My lips but better if it was a lipstick. Mannequin hands if it was a nail polish. 

What scents have been gracing your skin this winter? What have you been reaching for during these cold days and long nights for fragrance?

ScentSational: Oud Noir

Oud Noir- Oriental woods, with floral and spice.

The wax world has scent trends much like the perfume world, or cosmetics with color trends. In wax there have been times when serendipity, sugar corn pudding, wildberry mousse, or cotton candy have been in high demand and frequently blended and sought after. In perfume, spurts of time passed where every new fragrance had pink peppercorn as a note, and more recently, oud(h). 

Oudh in fragrance used to be harvested from a specific type of tree that had a fungal infection, then produced a resin called agarwood (or oudh). Due to endangerment, most oudh is synthetic now. To read more about this particular fragrance note visit the Fragrantica website (love that place!).

In this particular wax tart, it is not so much down and dirty oud (which smells rich, slightly dirty and musty- yes I have an oud perfume and I like it- Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Oude Arabique) but more like a dark and bass thumping Hollister store full of cologne bedecked men. Two cubes melted with a medium light throw for several hours in my bedroom. 

It does smell good. Romantic even. Full of woods and dark places like the Noir suggests. But nothing like oud. At least to my nose.

Lush Life: Northern Light Bath Bomb

Northern Lights Bath Bomb found its way to me via Santa. Adam really is pretty awesome at picking out Christmas gifts. This bath bomb fragrance duplicates Lush's popular Christmas Eve bubble bar scent of jasmine sweetened with ylang-ylang. Unfortunately, I found the scent to be rather light. I would have preferred it to be much more strong.

The colorful display entertained me for a bit. The cylinder lazily wobbled about the tub leaving a colorful stream in its tiny wake. Fushia, purple and magenta came first, followed by aqua and a lime yellow that left behind floating stars. There was a pink ring left around my tub with this bar but nothing a bit of rubbing didn't remove before I exited stage left. Overall, I would buy this one again if it came out, hoping it would be a bit stronger this year. 

How are your reading goals coming along? I finished up the second book, Fool Moon, in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. Harry is Chicago's only P.I. wizard for hire and finds himself in dire straits more often than not. The first in the series is Storm Front. The writing is very conversational, pithy and punny. It makes for a quick, funny read, and does not take itself seriously at all. There are several in the series but I do not plan on reading them back-to-back. Apparently Sci-Fi did a one off season of the show, trying to make one episode out of each book. 

Currently, my eyes feast upon Blue Lily, Lily Blue the third book in the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. What are you reading or watching?

ScentSationals: Anchorage Edison Warmer

ScentSationals advertised a 20% off sale in honor of Valentine's Day via Instagram a couple of weeks ago. These old fashioned multi-filament bulbs fascinate me when I see them in upscale home decor stores and restaurants. ScentSationals has a beautiful collection called "Edison" that features such bulbs, and quite a few have a decidedly nautical flare. 

I chose the Anchorage warmer after some deliberations between that and the Hurricane Lantern or the Nautical warmers. The cracked aging and aqua patina were deciding factors. In a rare moment of foresight I also bought an extra bulb and in a frequent occurrence of impulsivity, I picked a wax clamshell in Oud Noir.

Here she is in all her finely aged and patina'd glory. 

In her new habitat, my nightstand, she casts a beautiful glow. Now the down and dirty deets: 

-It is a 40 watt bulb, so nice and hot.

-I find the lid slightly hinders throw, but I just take it off if I am melting a lighter fragrance.

-If the wax is allowed to cool and harden it pops out very easily. I was quite surprised by this. Occasionally if the wax is softer, I just remove the melting plate (bowl) and pop it in the freezer for easier wax removal.

-This is my first square warmer that the wax melts around the whole perimeter. Usually I am left with unmelted wax in the corners. Not so here.

-Normally priced at $24.99, was on sale for $19.99. 

-Replacement bulbs are $4.49, was on sale for $3.59.

-Shipping was $5.99. 

-I love her. She creates quite the cozy, romantic atmosphere.

Are there any warmers you have been eyeballing lately? Do you match your warmers to your home decor or go for more utilitarian features?

Raising up a Nautical Nerd: Pokemon Birthday Party

Pokemon. It is kinda a thing around here. Namely with my eldest daughter, Savanna. Past birthdays included: dinosaurs (twice), dragons, and now Pokemon. Can I tell you how much it tickles me that she has her own "things" she is into? I love it.

DahliaDesigns on Etsy made her invitations, which I then printed out onto cardstock and mailed with a few Pokemon tattoos to the guests. I could not recommend this vendor more, she had excellent communication (to verify all the info and spellings) and was quick with sending the image. 

Savanna adores Pokemon, but I was unsure if her five girlfriends enjoyed it as she does. I wanted to hand out a party favor that even a non-Pokemon enthusiast could make use of later. So I decided on charm necklaces (Origami Owl knock-off style). The lockets were half off at Hobby Lobby and the ball chain necklaces (from Etsy) were leftovers from a previous dinosaur party. SnaptoitCharms on Etsy has hundreds of different little trinkets to put in these locket style pendants for only $3.00 each. They even created two additional ones custom just for me at no extra charge, all I had to do was send them an image. I figure if they don't like Pokemon, the girls can take them out and put in whatever they want down the road.

The days of me sewing the girls' birthday outfits has passed  >sigh< But I knew she would need a fun, cool shirt for the big day! So where do you think I would find a Pokemon shirt?! TeeFury?! THAT old geeky place? That I only gush about every other month. Yeah. There. I let her pick out what she wanted and it ended up being this totally awesome Pokemon/How To Train Your Dragon mash up art. Did I mention that one of her previous parties was dragons? More specifically How To Train Your Dragon. Very fitting.

Party City got most of our business as far as decorations go, with some of her stuffed Pokemon as accents. Thankfully Pokemon is still pretty popular so the decorations choices were plentiful. That is not always the case.

I may not get to make their outfits but I do make a point to hand make their cakes. I have been able to use the same dragon/dinosaur shape in years past (and if she had chosen Charizard I would have been able to get away with it again). This year she wanted a Mew cake. Mew is pink so we chose Paula Deen's Strawberry Cake recipe with a tweak here and there.

Strawberry Cake (mostly using Paula Deen's recipe):

18 1/4 oz  strawberry cake mix (Paula uses white- but I like EXTRA berry goodness)

3 oz box of strawberry gelatin

10 oz package of frozen whole strawberries thawed and pureed (Paula uses sweetened but I find the icing so sweet that it tastes best with unsweetened)

4 large eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 round pans (9"). In large bowl, combine cake mix, gelatin, berry puree, eggs, oil and water, beat at medium speed. Pour into pans and bake 20 minutes (or longer if your puree was really cold still). Toothpick method to check for doneness (is this even a word? Well call me Shakespeare, because I am using it). Cool. The cakes. Not me. But sometimes. 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup of butter (I used unsalted this time, but salted tastes nice as well)

8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

10 ounce package of frozen strawberries, thawed and pureed (you only need a little though)

1 teaspoon of strawberry extract (Paula uses 1/2 but again, with the berriness level... must have more)

dash of red food coloring if shooting for a certain shade of pink

About 7 cups of confectioner's sugar (I ended up using about 6 for the texture I was looking for)

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed. Beat in 1/4 cup of the pureed berries, add extract. Gradually add the sugar until desired texture. Add food coloring if desired.

I pulled up a photo of Mew and cut the first pan into a thin crescent and large oval. The second cake I cut into two thin semicircles and a small triangle. 

Use the large oval as the head, semicircles as legs and the thin crescent became the pointed ears. The small triangle was eaten, leaving the larger portion as the body. You must eat the small triangle. It is part of the instructions and we must follow instructions mustn't we? Plus a good cook must taste test. Isn't nice of me to just build it in?

I frosted, then outlined the details of Mew's body with black cookie icing. I saved some of the strawberry icing to be placed in a ziptop baggie for piping the tail onto the board. It looks scarily like intestines but yeah. I am not a professional. If this ends up on Cake Wrecks I will just consider it PR. So ha. Just remember to link back.

Seven little girls are easy to feed. They grazed on popcorn, lunch meats, cheese, fruits and veggies. We played some games like Silly String tag, toss the Poke' ball into the bucket and set off fun popping things from Japan (thanks Ashley!!). It was a fun and sweet morning for all of us.

Scarlette has mentioned a "whale" themed party for this summer... hmmmm... maybe she is part mermaid. Stingrays last year and whales this year? Though 5 year olds can change their minds, so we will see.