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How Harry Arrived…

January 13, 2013 by ciccocreations

We got a surprise on Wednesday night around 10:15.  At 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant, my water broke.  We were just getting ready for bed and settling in for the night.  I had been having quite a few braxton hicks contractions over the last couple weeks, but nothing too alarming.  And when my water broke, there were no other sings of labor.  In fact, when my husband and I were getting ready to head to the hospital, I asked him not to call the grandparents or anyone yet because I didn’t want to get everyone all excited to just call them back an hour later and let them know I had actually only peed my pants.

But after the initial exam at the hospital, sure enough, my water had broken, and as I had noticed from the lack of pain and discomfort, I was NOT in labor.  But, once the water’s broken, baby’s gotta come.  So I was put on pitocin and I just had to wait and try to get some rest.   Of course, who can rest when they are having a baby!?!  So Paul and I hung out in the L&D room.  My nurses kept turning the pitocin up and the contractions kept getting stronger and stronger.  Sometime after sunrise (forgive me for not remembering the actual times, I was a little distracted) the contractions were getting teary-eyed intense and I was set up with an epidural.  I’m glad I got it, but getting it put in was pretty… hmmm… not sure the right word actually.  But, well, I didn’t like the experience.

After the pain of contractions -and the feeling in my legs- went away, they turned the dosage up higher, higher, and higher to really get labor started.  When I had been on pitocin for about 16 hours and was ready to get a good progress report, the nurse informed me that I had made no progress.  The baby wasn’t dropping and my cervix wasn’t opening (not enough, anyway).  The Dr came in and recommended a c-section and that’s what we did.  I was prepped for surgery and off we went.

At 2:50 pm, Harry was born.  I was told afterwards that he was tangled in the cord with it wrapped around his neck and that’s why he wasn’t dropping and I wasn’t progressing.  I am glad we made the decision we did.  I am bummed, though, that immediately after he was born, I pretty much passed out and was in a foggy, shivering, blur for about the first two and a half hours of his sweet life.  Paul was able to stay with him while they cleaned him up and got him crying.  Paul came and checked on me a few times and reassured me that the baby was so super cute and that baby and I are both amazing.

Eventually, I got moved into our recovery room and they brought the baby in.  I was still a bit foggy from the meds and sadly, I don’t really remember the first few  moments I held and fed him.  Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t remember much about that afternoon or even the first night.  I’m pretty sure the grandmas came in and visited for a bit, though.

What I do remember is that the next morning after feeding, Harry was really alert and we were able to snap one of my favorite pictures of him (so far).

Image

And there he is.  Content and sweet and we are so smitten.  And that’s when my life actually starts.

Posted in Mommy Stuff | Leave a Comment »

Our Gender Reveal Party

September 10, 2012 by ciccocreations

Last night, DH and I had the pleasure of sharing with our family and friends the wonderful news that we are having a baby boy.  Seeing the growing trend on Pinterest, we decided to throw an official Gender Reveal Party.  I made the invites and had them printed by a pro.  We sent them out a couple weeks before the party and were thrilled with the number of guests who responded.  Since we’ve never been to a GRP before, we weren’t sure who would be interested in coming.

Here’s one of the invites proudly displayed on our fridge.

Once the invites were out, I started planning…  I wanted to plan equal parts pink and blue since I didn’t want to ruin the Big Reveal.  I bought some decorations from Oriental Trading Co, including some french fry containers.  I made some chocolate covered Oreos that once dipped in milk chocolate, I dipped in either pink or blue chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.  I also got some Hershey bars and colored in the “HE” and “SHE” with pink and blue marker.  I added a couple other goodies, too and then put them out well in advance.

The favors are almost ready. The stickers were something I added. OTC has these little boxes in other colors and they can be used for all sorts of fun purposes.

We placed the favors in our Easter baskets since they matched the theme so nicely.

A day or two after all the favors were ready to go, DH came home from work to find this in the entryway. The kitties obviously had a fun afternoon! We remade the favors, and moved the baskets far out of reach from the kitties until the day of the party.

For food at the party, I decided to do a pasta bar.  I made some Alfredo sauce from scratch.  I’ll have to post that recipe later , it’s one of my favs and gets lots of praise every time I make it.  But for the red sauce, we went to Spaghetti Factory and bought a couple pints of their delicious meat sauce.  It’s one of my absolute favorites, so I used this party as an excuse to get some.  We served two types of pasta, fettuccine and gluten-free rotini, fresh French bread, salad, and a fresh veggie tray.  My mom helped by bringing a crockpot of meatballs and we grilled up a few chicken breasts, too.  It was a delicious but still relatively simple array of yumminess.

For the desserts, I wanted a fun array of pink and blue.  My friend Kristin made cake pops in pink and blue.  DH and I made rice crispy treat balls, dipped in milk chocolate and drizzled with pink and blue chocolate.  I put some marshmallows on a sucker stick and dipped them in pink and blue chocolate, too.  And, my own personal indulgence, I got some of the cheesecake squares from Sam’s Club.  They are so yummy and a fun dinner party is a great excuse to get them!

All the yummy treats looked so bright and festive. The decorations from OTC added a lot of great color, too. The gift bags on the back of the table were gifts for the grandparents.

Once everyone ate, we got down to business.  We started by playing an Old Wive’s Tales game.  I shared certain symptoms I have had, and asked guest to vote if they think the baby is a boy or girl based on the OWT.  I handed out little paddles for people to hold up to show their vote.  According to the final score, the OWTs had girl in the lead, but only by 1.

DH kept score on a big score board we’d made while I read the questions.

After the game, it was time to let the cat out of the bag… literally!

We tied a blue bow around Troy’s neck and helped him into a duffle bag. We placed the bag on the coffee table and let him out! He was a bit bewildered by the excitement, but I think he actually enjoyed the attention.

After we announced the gender, we also announced the name.  This time, though, we included everyone instead of just the cats.  I made some lottery tickets that had the baby’s name hidden under the scratch off part.  Everyone scratched at the same time, and we waited for the lucky winner to share the name.   The winning ticket happened to be handed to DH’s mom, so Grandma Katie got to tell everyone that Baby’s name is Harrison Daniel, nickname Harry.  The scratchers were a fun way to announce and I will have to make a how-to post later (they were really easy!).

There’s the winning ticket on top of the stack!

Once the gender and name were announced, we continued to enjoy the food and company.  We posed for  a few pics, too.

We are so happy and can’t wait to meet Baby Harry face to face this January!

Posted in Crafts, Parties and Events, pinterest | 4 Comments »

Bathroom Facelift

August 10, 2012 by ciccocreations

We, or rather, I love doing projects around the house.  In fact, it’s one of my favorite things about homeownership,the freedom to paint the walls whatever color I want, and other fun things like that.  They can be quite a headache sometimes, of course.  That’s why DH doesn’t love these projects quite as much as I do.  But we both agree that the projects are always worth it when we’re done.

One room we hadn’t gotten to was the guest/future-kid’s bathroom.  But, I have been wanting to give it a facelift for a while, and DH is on summer break, so we decided to get it done.

As you can see here in the picture, it’s a decent bathroom.  Nothing special, but not unusable either.  It got the job done, but we really wanted a bathroom that would be an oasis, a relaxing place to refresh and rejuvenate.  I know, that’s quite a lot to ask from a little space!

Turns out I only have one before shot. Sorry! I thought I had some on file, so I didn’t take any before we started the project. But this still gives you an idea of what we were working with.

Our plans started with repainting.  I used left over paints from other rooms in the house, so we ended up with white, cream, and green.  I also planned to have molding put around the mirror, and near the ceiling.

When the handyman came over to put in the molding, he strongly discouraged us from framing out the mirror as I had wanted to.  He pointed out that the molding would have to be glued to the mirror and with time, if the bathroom was used regularly, the steam would erode the glue and ruin the molding.  So, we decided to have the builders grade mirror just removed, and we went with a framed mirror instead.

Of course that meant we had to go back and repaint the wall where the mirror was pulled off, but it was so worth it in the end!

Luckily, the mirror came down nice a clean. The wall still had to be cleaned up and textured before being repainted. But in the end, it looks so much better with a framed mirror.

I found this mirror at Ross for only $35! What a steal, huh! I had expected to pay closer to $100 for a mirror the right size and look.

I wish I had a before picture of this light fixture to show what a huge transformation a can of spray paint can make! Before, it was a crusty old chrome finish, it looked so out-dated. We didn’t want to pay to replace it altogether, so we took a can of hammered bronze spray paint to it instead. I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result.

This angle here shows how we painted the bathroom. We decided to paint the walls white and the ceiling green. The cream we used for the molding was also used on the cabinets down below.

Here is a finish shot of the bathroom. The framed mirror looks so great and the shelf set I found at Target is a great way to add in some additional decorations and color.

I was so excited when I found this curved curtain rod at Ross for pretty cheap. It makes me feel like this is a posh hotel bathroom! The curtain itself was a Target find also, and is what I used as inspiration for the rest of the bathroom.

I found a couple prints on Pintrest and created a few myself. Everything in the frames I simply printed off from a colored printer. I am really happy with the finished product. A great combo of guest friendly and kids friendly.

Here’s a better angle of the artwork in the frames. I love the “Suspicious Owl Suspects Something” and also the picture of the soap saying, “Rub me on your butt!” Very fun and silly.

At the end of the project, we are both so thrilled with the way everything turned out.  Our future kids are going to have the best bathroom in the house!  In fact, DH has said a few times that he wishes this was our bathroom.  But I supposed we will just have to do something similar to ours in the future.

Posted in Crafts, For Print, Home | Leave a Comment »

Drum Cake for Baby Dedication

July 14, 2012 by ciccocreations

As I mentioned, I’m WAY behind, so here is a cake from about 10 weeks ago…  A Drum Cake, or at least, that’s what I’m calling it.  A friend contacted me because she was having her son and daughter dedicated at the same time, and wanted a cake to represent and celebrate both of them. She had found a picture of something similar and requested a few personalizations.

Generally, I’m hesitant to make a cake based on a picture.  I’m always afraid that in copying another picture, the cake will fall short from the client’s expectations.  If they have a clear idea or expectation in their mind about what they want, it’s sometimes hard to live up to that in reality.  Plus, if things don’t go as planned, then I don’t have as much flexibility in the process to change the plans.  But, this concept seemed simple enough, and with the personalizations, I agreed to make the cake based on the provided photo.

Each tier was three layers of vanilla cake with raspberry filling in between.  I did a six inch and an eight inch.  I used a basic vanilla buttercream under the fondant.  And the pink fondant, (as with the first communion cake) was made from strawberry marshmallows.

I was so flattered the next morning when Wendy called me to thank me again and let me know how much they enjoyed the cake.  They were not only pleased with the look, which is important, of course, but they also thought it tasted delicious!  And that is the most important part!

 

Posted in baked art, cake | Leave a Comment »

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

July 14, 2012 by ciccocreations

 

I apologize, I really need to get caught up on sharing some of the projects I’ve done lately.  I have a handful piled up to share, but I’ll start with this delicious batch of cupcakes I made for my Grandpa’s 88th birthday party this week.  (Sadly, he wasn’t well and missed his own party!)

These cupcakes are a basic chocolate fudge cake, delicious in and of itself if you ask me.  But I wanted something richer, so I really went for it.  I used my apple corer to empty a small well inside the cupcakes, then filled it with caramel.  And, it’s the easiest caramel ever to make.  Simply fully submerge a can of sweetened condenses milk in water in a crock pot and turn it on low for about 6 hours.  That’s it!  Once its’ cooled, open the can to find wonderfully creamy caramel.

I scooped the caramel into a ziplock back, snipped of the corner, and squeezed some into the center of each cupcake.

 

I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting, for the top.  The frosting consists of one block of cream cheese, one stick of butter, about a teaspoon of vanilla, about a tablespoon of milk, and about a pound of powdered sugar.  I use the term “about” when referring to these measurements because it all depends on the texture you’re going for.  I wanted smooth and creamy, but still firm.

 

The cupcakes were so rich and the caramel inside was a wonderful surprise.  Of course I totally forgot to take a picture of them all finished and placed on the cupcake tower.  I also had plans to drizzle them with caramel sauce as a garnish (and as a clue to what’s inside) but when I went to the store to get the caramel, I got a distracted by the other things I needed and totally forgot about it.  So I ended up adding a few prickles instead.

Posted in baked art, Cupcakes, Parties and Events, Recipes | Leave a Comment »

Mini-Tiered Cake for a Sweet Little Man

June 4, 2012 by ciccocreations

My friend’s little boy was turning one last week, so she asked me to make the smash cake for his party.  She had decided to do a “Little Man” theme with mustaches and candy shoppe flair.  The colors she picked were teal and red and she asked me to make a mini version of a big cake.

I had no problem making something that fit her request perfectly.  I did a small, two tiered cake.  They were four inches and three inches.  She gave me the dye she was using for her cupcakes and I was able to find a pressed sugar mustache that was just the right size.

As you can see from these pictures, Levi was more than happy with the cake.

 

Looks like he liked it!

Posted in baked art, cake, Parties and Events | 1 Comment »

Solar Mason Jar Lanterns

May 17, 2012 by ciccocreations

Yesterday, I shared the garden markers I made from mason jar lids.  Today, I want to share the solar lanterns that made up the other half of my dad’s garden themed birthday gift.

There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to make these puppies, and since I didn’t photograph the whole process, I’m not going to give a full on tutorial.  But, here’s the basics…

I started by finding garden solar lights.  I had to shop around, because I remembered seeing some at The Dollar Tree, but when I went to The Dollar Tree to buy some, they were all sold out.  I asked the clerk if she could check some other stores and save me the trip, and she begrudgingly obliged.  Turns out, the previous weekend, the solar lights I was after had been the featured item in the Sunday ad, and all the stores were sold out.  I ended up finding them at Big Lot’s for about $2 each.  Not too bad.  The ones I found were like these, but obviously much cheaper.

Once I had the lights, I twisted of the top, and went shopping for mason jars.  I wanted to find jars that were small enough to really show all the light, but still had a big enough mouth for the light fixture to rest on.  I ended up getting wide mouth pint sized jars.

I removed the inner lid and only kept the rim.  I glued the top of the light to the screw on rim using my ultra awesome powerful glue, E-6000.  While these were drying, I got to coloring the insides of the jars.

To color the jars, I poured some high-gloss modge podge into a bowl.  Now the insides of these  jars shouldn’t be exposed to the elements in theory, but I wanted to use the weather resistant solution any way.  I mixed several drops of food coloring into the modge podge until it reached my desired color, then poured it into one of the jars.  I rolled the jar around until the entire insides were full coated, then I poured out any remaining mixture.

I repeated this step until all the jars were coated and then I moved them to the oven warmed up to about 350.  I imagine they could have just as easily dried at their own pace, but the oven allowed them to dry in a flash.  As the jars dried, the color went from a creamy opaque to a crystal clear.

When the jars and the lids were all dried, I screwed on the tops and wrapped around some wire to make a handle.  I used needle nosed pliers to twist the ends of the wire into cute little swirls.

And, they were ready to go.

Posted in Crafts, Home | Leave a Comment »

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