For the Young Prince (To Be)

The week following our visit with Dakota’s family was awash with business, stress and yes, sickness. One reason I haven’t been keeping up very well with my blog lately is, aside from sickness and traveling, I’ve been hard at work on gifts and centerpieces for my sister’s baby shower. I couldn’t mention much about it or post pictures of my work before now, since my sister reads my blog, and I wanted at least some of it to be a surprise.

I’ve been making diaper cakes and other baby gifts for a number of years now, and I started my own business, HD Designs, back after Emma was born. I’ve made countless diaper cakes and custom cakes along the way, but I wanted to try something different for Erin’s shower. I wanted to think big and grand—like a castle. Never had I done anything like it, but it was fun to be stretched and try to think in different directions. After about two weeks of much trial and error, I finally arrived at a finished product that I was happy with.

One of the neat things about the cake was that it was 3 layers of diapers and bottles, and each layer was built around a box stuffed with more gifts. It was the most work I’ve ever gone to for a diaper cake, but it was probably the most fun I’ve had creating one.

I also spent time on other projects related to the shower. One thing I’d wanted to try for a while, but just hadn’t had the time or opportunity to play with, was making candies out of onesies. I had seen it before where a onesie had been rolled and wrapped up in such a way as to make it look like a piece of candy. I thought it was cute, and enjoyed being able to personalize the candy labels for my sister.


A few more sock roses, washcloth roses, and one more smaller diaper cake, and my work was done.



Unfortunately, the disaster I had so feared struck just before we were to travel to Chicago for the shower. Emma caught a bad cold, and Dakota and I came down with a stomach bug or something just 2 days before we were supposed to leave. I felt so sick, nothing was packed, and I was scared that if the girls came down with the stomach bug too, our trip to Chicago would not happen. Fortunately, the worst of it passed in 24 hrs, so once I could get on my feet again, I started packing. Slow and steady was my mantra. We got out later than we had planned and had to do some night time driving, but at least we were able to make it there. And we were able to have some rest and recovery time at my family’s house. I’m also happy to report that both girls managed to avoid the stomach bug, at least so far. (My next big fear was that one or both of them would come down with it during our 6 hr drive to or from Chicago. Thank God for keeping them healthy!)