A Little Birthday Never Hurt Nobody

Cardigan as a top: Thrifted, Jeans: Target, Shoes: terribly old Target ☺, Handbag: Coach

I'm not really a "handbag girl". I basically have one bag that I carry ALL THE TIME. I've got some little special bags for the rare special event and do I love my fanny packs! I've got a great little collection going! Anyway, the straps on my everyday bag had worn pretty thin. I've grown to love the simple, easy, and chic style of Coach and I love to check the outlet website for good deals! I downsized quite a bit when I went with this little bucket bag and I gotta say - I love it.

 

DIY - The Easiest (Fondant Free) Minecraft Cake Ever

My son loves Minecraft and he asked for a Minecraft kind of cake for his birthday. I thought I would make a Creeper cake but I decided to just make the actual Minecraft Cake itself! I looked on Pinterest for inspiration OF COURSE and then ended up kind of winging it on my own.

I am NOT A BAKER! So this cake is very very simple and uncomplicated! I do not work with fondant. I mean, I would love to, but I really didn't have the time to get into fondant for this cake. He already had one birthday party with all of his friends so this was just a little family get together. We did a big Steve Diamond Sword cupcake cake for his birthday.

My cousin made it and it was awesome and so so so tasty. My little cake was just a runner up filler kind of cake if you know what I mean.

Anyway, if you do want to make this cake you will probably do a much better job than me so don't be discouraged!

Since it was so simple on the outside I decided to make it fun on the inside!

I followed the directions and it was easy!

I needed to make a square cake and I did NOT have square pans. So I used two circle cake pans and just trimmed the edges after they were baked and cooled.

I divided the batter up so I could make six colors. The fun part!

Snapchatted the whole thing of course. Follow me at jessicawnc1

You start by pouring in some red, then orange on top of that red, then yellow on top of the orange and so on and so on. It will spread to corners on it's own.

The second pan I went backwards and started with the last color first.

After they baked and cooled I trimmed the circles into squares.

I frosted the bottom layer with a brown colored icing. My son doesn't like chocolate icing or I could've just used chocolate. Instead, I used food coloring to get it as close to brown as I could. See. Told ya! You can probably do a lot better than me!

Then I added the top white icing layer.

I used red gel icing that comes in a tube to make the squares. I didn't get them as sharp edged as I wanted to, but that's where fondant would've helped me. :(

I whipped up some green frosting and put it into a sandwich bag and piped it around the bottom just to make it look a little prettier.

I could've left it just like that but I thought it needed just a little something else. I piped out some squares for grass.

I added some of the Minecraft figurines that my son collects.

All in all I think it turned out pretty cute! I definitely could've had sharper lines on the "cherry" squares and the white icing meeting the brown icing for sure.

Ta da! This is where it sat and waited on him to get home from school. He really liked it and the cake was pretty tasty!

SO in case you are looking for a super easy, quick and non-fondant cake to make your kids - or whoever - on their birthday don't sweat it. If I can make this then you can definitely make it!

Life Lately {Spring Has Sprung}

I am hoping that the nice weather is HERE TO STAY!!!

I've been trying to slow life down a bit and not hyper focus on any one thing. I am so bad to do that. I get my claws into something and I don't let go. I took a vacation day from working out and watching what I eat. Turned into 2 days really and about a half of a 3rd day! This week I am back to exercising but just doing it at the gym. I'll be back to T25 next week. I am one week away from finishing the Beta phase. Anyhoo...

We finally got Riley's "tire" swing up and he LOVES it.

I love seeing these little lambs in the field near my house. SO adorable.

We celebrated Riley's birthday with some of his friends from school at the gymnastics spot down the road. SO much fun.

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary on the down low by just walking around downtown and doing whatever popped out at us. It was a lot of fun.

Our first date was at Vincenzo's downtown so of course we strolled by there. It's now closed which is sad but it's still adorable to look at!

We tried a new Indian spot and it was very tasty! I broke away from my same ole' same ole' and tried a curry dish instead of Saag Paneer. DELICIOUS.

There is the longest line ever in front of French Broad Chocolate Lounge and that's to be expected. It's a great place for chocolate. But if you don't want to wait an hour, this place is just as tasty! It's called Chocolate Gems. Yums. And they also have gelato :)

We took an awesome 2 mile hike up to Mt. Pisgah. It was so breathtaking at the top. We brought a monocular and we were able to spot the Biltmore Estate and the Grove Park Inn. Too cool! Oh and we saw a lot of smoke in the distance and sure enough when we got back to internet there was a horrible brush fire that got very out of hand and burned a lot of acres. Close to our neck of the woods! Not good!

What are you guys doing?

Oh and don't forget to enter our Mother's Day Giveaways. There are two prize packs!

A Celebration Girl

Dress: NY&Co, Sandals: Dolce Vita, Bag: Charming Charlies

This outfit was two celebrations in one. The first being it was a night out for my birthday dinner and the second being I was finally able to get into this dress! I have had it for years but I've never been able to put it on and not feel like it was cutting me in two. It's linen so it is the wrinkley-est thing ever which is always so aggrevating but hey. Whatever! I went a little crazy on my birthday week and ate non-paleo foods but I am back at it now. I think I have mentioned it in passing on here but the paleo diet has really worked best for me and my husband as far as dieting goes. It helped me lose that last 10 pounds so I could get in this dress! I would like 10 more but I think I will need to incorporate some exercise for that. I'm just about ready too. I get through with physical therapy on my right knee very soon.