Once Upon a Time...

in a land far, far away there lived a princess..., well, actually about a dozen of them.

I have mentioned before, that I am over the girls age 12-18 at my church, and every year we start off the year with a special evening called New Beginnings where we introduce the scripture theme for the year, as well as the new girls who will be entering the program in the upcoming year.

This year the theme is from Joshua 1:9 "Be Strong and of a Good Courage..." When I think of courage I think of knights in shining armor and where there are knights there are princesses, and where there are princesses there are crowns and castles and pink, so we have decided this will be the year of fairy tales. (And as the mother of 6 sons, I am thrilled to have an excuse to throw a princess party! Do you blame me?)



Each of the girls was given a silver knight charm for their charm bracelets that I presented
on a castle card I made using the Big Shot and a castle die. They looked just like the slate roofed chateaus we saw in France. So fun!



I utilized Attic Gal Alysa's Vinyl lettering business to make these blocks with this year's theme for the girls. I just used a glittery blue metallic spray paint, them stamped the Medallion stamp in black before applying the letters. Darling!

One of the speakers read "The Paper Bag Princess" as part of her presentation. It was perfect!

The castle was a last minute addition when I saw the packing foam that came wrapped around my hubby's new flat screen TV (That kind of trash is dangerous for me!) Some spray paint and a screwdriver (for scoring the lines) was all it took (I just cut the foam with a bread knife. Easy.)

When my boys asked me what I was doing I told them I was making a castle. They looked at me like I was nuts. "Why?" "Because I want a castle. Every princess wants a castle!" They just rolled their eyes at their silly old mom.

But it's true. I do want a castle. Preferably one in France.

But what really caught the eye of every princess in the room that night was not a handsome prince, but a handsome cake custom made by my friend Michelle Valdez, who is starting a cake business. It was a big cake, and absolutely DARLING! Everything is completely edible! It really was the show piece of the whole evening! Nobody wanted to cut into it, yet everyone wanted a piece once it was cut. Rightly so! It was amazingly delicious!!! Homemade chocolate cake with an almond cream filling. I really didn't expect a cake that looked this good to taste this good!

I knew to ask Michelle to make our cake after seeing the cakes she made for our church Valentine's dinner (she made about 10 of them for that night!) It was a fabulous rich red velvet cake. RED VELVET, ladies!

If you need a special cake for that special occasion, and you like local, let me know. I'll hook you up!

Needless to say, that cake went a long way in helping all the princesses live happily ever after!