what we've been up to lately...

We've been pretty busy with Etsy orders lately. Although that means less time to work on some projects I've been wanting to create and post about, I cannot be happier. This is exactly the type of work I just love doing. Not only does it keep my creative juices flowing, but it just brings me this wonderful peace- creating things for people who have chosen me to make something for them! Who would have thought!? Seriously, I just love doing this stuff; it's so much fun!!!

I wanted to post a little about these very things that have been keeping us quite busy. Not only to say to everyone "Yes, we're still here..sorry we're not posting so much!"...but to also give you readers- our friends...a more personal blog. You guys are our friends! Why not sit down and have a friendly conversation with ya?

.Order One.

If you're a regular follower of Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe's blog, you know- I love working with moms! Like I always say, they're some of the most creative ones out there!! Well that being said, one mom contacted me via our Etsy Shop and wanted to know if we'd make our Hello Kitty Inspired Edible Cupcake (or Cake) Toppers...tini sized! Aggg! Ok ok, so I've always said I love a good challenge...this order was no exception! Let me just explain a few things, haha... We almost always create our own stencils for our edible decorations. Anyone can go to the store and find cookie cutters...but we want to make our edible things our own. So with the help of my talented husband, we draw, create, then stencil, hand cut, hand pipe, hand shape and hand paint ALL of our things! The exception? Our "X's and O's"...I couldn't resist a cookie cutter for that!

Anyway, with all that being said, that means we do NOT have little teenie cutters for our Hello Kitty inspired heads...we have a head stencil and a bow stencil we have made. We then cut each and every one out by hand! Our normal heads are about 2" in width, this mom wanted hers to be no bigger than 1.5"! The heads- no problem...the bows...my oh my! The smaller version's bows were no longer than a tic tac and a half! Yeah...let's ponder that for a while.... :)

Like I said, we hand cut each and every little head (in this case, each head was about 1.5" across) and every bow out by hand.

Next, I make a little batch of royal icing and very carefully "glue" every bow to the top right ear of our little heads. It's at this point I get super giddy about doing these- they just look so cute each and every time!! I wanted to give up a few times while cutting out all the teensie little bows for this custom sized head, but once they were attached- I couldn't help but smile at just how adorable they truly were!!

I then color a little batch of royal icing a soft egg yolk yellow hue and pipe every little nose by hand. Yes, I know there are edible markers out there...I myself have some...but there's something a bit better about hand piped things. Plus it gives the little faces a 3-D effect.

I then hand color another little batch of royal icing black, and hand pipe all the little eyes- making sure they are both spaced apart correctly and placed above the nose correctly. Let me just tell you- this matters! I learned the hard way...

Finally finishing with her little whiskers...

Seeing the finished product just brings me SO much joy! Isn't she cute?! All that hard work is totally worth it when you are left with this at the end.

I wanted to give you all a bit of perspective. :) On the left are our regular sized Edible Hello Kitty Inspired Bows- perfect for cupcakes, tinis or cakes: they are NOT big by any means! On the right are the new little bows we needed to make for this particular custom order. Like I said before, about the length of a tic tac and a half!

.Order Two.

We also received an order from another mom on our Etsy for two dozen of our regular Edible Hello Kitty Inspired Bows. I love making these! She is going to use them for such a cute thing- Mickey and Minnie Mouse themed caramel apples! Cute right?? I asked her to send a picture...I hope she does!!

.Order Three.

Lastly, we received an order from a bride on our Etsy asking for us to make a few dozen of our Edible Polka Dots in the colors Red, Yellow, Orange, and Kelly Green to be used on her wedding cake! now that's pretty neat!!! I can't wait to see how that looks!
So, that is a little update on what we've been doing this last week! It's been a busy one, that's for sure! I can't wait to see what's coming up next.