Heather Von St. James

Heather contacted me and asked if I would be willing to share her story about how she survived cancer so that she can raise awareness of it. I love to help in a good cause so here is her Blog about Mesothelioma cancer. It's an amazing story, share it with someone you know! The Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance Blog

Alien Cookies

Here are the alien cookies! It was so much fun to make these. They are actually cookie cutters that I already had, but flipped upside down to make the look more "alien" like. I made them for the staff and volunteers at the DSC, I think they enjoyed them.

The cookie cutter for these ones are a party hat

This one is a gingerbread man

This one is a  bell

I made this actually on accident, it's a alligator!

How the Space Center came to be at Stone Gate

Well, I'm back again. A lot has been going on in my world in the last month! We have some exciting news.....we are building a space center. Some of you may be familiar with the Christa McAliffe space center. Well, it closed last year. A lot of people were so upset by it. I have never had the opportunity to go there, but my husband went in high school a couple of times and loved it. We had a close friend who had worked for the district and he told us about the space center closing. My husband Ryan being the person he is asked "what can I do to help"? Our friend replied "Well, unless you can make space simulators I don't know if you can help".
For those of you who know my husband know that he would do anything for a friend. He went to work (Stone Gate) and told the board of directors what was going on and what they thought about maybe looking into building another space center at our facility. Over the month of December they decided to go for it. Here is the website for you to check out: Discovery Space Center. We really wanted to carry on the legacy of the space center that it's creator Victor Williamson has made. And also be able to give kids an awesome out of this world experience! We are so excited to be working with him and former space center staff in building this new space center. It has been overwhelming at times the amount of people who are so willing to come and help with design of the ships, painting, construction and much much more. They are really great people! So, in a nutshell that's how the space center came to Stone Gate. It has been a whirlwind and very busy but hey, it's better than being bored! It also gave me a great excuse to start creating alien cookies, I will post about them later.

Christmas Cake Pops

I have learned to love a challenge. I know that sounds strange! But when it comes to baking/decorating it's actually fun to try and figure out how to make something I've never done before. Now, I have made cake pops before but never in front of an audience. I'm LDS (just in case you didn't know) My visiting teachers came over to share the monthly message with me. One of them is in charge of a monthly relief society meeting where we get together as women and do service projects, have a speaker or learn how to do something new. She asked me if I would be willing to make cake pops and teach the sisters how to do that. I said yes but I was nervous. I had only taught a decorating class for kids the oldest was 13. So teaching adults was a little intimidating to say the least. The good thing was is that I love all the women in my ward relief society, so I knew that I would be among friends. I just wanted to do a good job. Whenever I get a request like this one, I go to the craft store for inspiration. I found all sorts of fun Christmas stuff I wish I could have bought it all! But, I do have a budget so I only bought a few things. It was really fun playing around with how I was going to decorate them. Here is what I came up with:

These ones have holly leaves, candy canes and white sugar sprinkles. The sticks are actually straws, they are the sturdy paper kind. I found them at a party store. They have so many colors, I think I will use them instead of the plain white sticks. I think they make them much more cute!

I decided to make some of them more fancy with the white chocolate swirl. I really like the mini candy canes

Teaching how to do these went well. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I had a great time! and I think the sisters who came did too. And again I didn't get a picture of them on the pretty platter that they were on. I need to get better at remembering that. All in all I was really grateful for that opportunity to share my talent with people that I love!

Baby Girl Shower Onesie Cookies

My sister in-law is due in a few weeks with her first baby. She is having a girl and we are so excited to have another girl in the family. We are dominated by boys here! For her baby shower I was in charge of the dessert so I made these onesie cookies for her shower. I should have gotten a better picture of them on the pretty platters that they were on but, I was too busy having fun watching my sister in-law open all of her fun pink themed presents!

I outlined the diaper part first then I used a thin glaze icing for the diaper

I just played around with some of the designs, I used a butter cream for the clothing part

These were so fun to make and they were a hit at the shower. But most of all my sister in-law loved them so that made it all worth it!

Baby Onesie Cookies

So my friend Megan had a baby boy and I wanted to bring her and her family something. So, I had a baby onesie cookie cutter and this is what I came up with. I had so much fun decorating these!

3 Tier Wedding Cake

Here is the 3 tier wedding cake that I made back in November. The bottom 2 layers are actually styrofoam. My husband has a friend that owns a business that makes things out of styrofoam and he had cake rounds made for me. It makes it nice because some people don't want a whole cake. So, I have this one already made we just put a top cake on it and it looks just like a real cake.

Even more christmas cookies

I made these for my friends who just had a baby boy!

More snowmen, stockings, candy canes, trees and snowflakes

More Christmas cookies!

I had so much fun making these cookies for my friends and neighbors for Christmas. I ended up making a lot more than I had planned on and stayed up till 1am. It was so fun I lost track of time.

I saw these cookies on the website Sugar Belle

Penguin and Candycane cookies

This year I was looking all over for a penguin shaped cookie cutter but couldn't find one. So I saw this cookie by Wilton on pinterest and I had to make it. It was so fun to do! I loved it. Here are also the candy cane cookies I made.

New candy cane designs

1st Rose Wedding cake

Here is my first real wedding cake that I made. I was decorating it at Stone Gate and the bride walked in. I was nervous of what she would think, but she loved it. What a relief! I had a lot of fun decorating it but it's even more rewarding when the bride loves it.

I'm back from my hiatus.....

I need to apologize for my absence. This past year has brought a lot of change, challenges and new beginnings. We moved, my husband had 2 grandparents pass away along with 2 great uncles and an aunt (which he was close to). That was a time of reflection for us, we sat back and really counted our blessings, and realized how important family is.

 I have a part time job....meaning I get to work mostly from home. Along with all of the things that have happened this year I know more now than I ever have before that God is aware of me and loves me. He is aware of all of us and just wants us to be happy. But the only way to be truly happy is to keep the commandments and follow our Savior.

So, I have been able to work a little at my in-laws business called Stone Gate Center for the Arts.
It is a beautiful old LDS church building which they renovated into a center for the arts, weddings, luncheons, work parties or whatever you need a big space for! Anyways, we do the catering and setting up for the events. I have to admit, it's been fun to be able to work again but it's the people that make it fun. I have also been able to make a few wedding cakes. I will post pictures of those later.
We did move, which was a blessing because we needed more space. I have a huge island now for baking! It's been full more than a few times with cookies or other goodies that I have made. I love that I have more space. 

So, now that this year draws to a close I am happy. I am really looking forward to the new year and what is will bring! I hope that you and your family have a wonderful rest of the holidays!

Princess Cake

We had a mother daughter princess night and it was so fun! I made Rose cakes (they are Styrofoam) for the center pieces and then we put jewels around them. Everybody thought they were beautiful some people even thought they were ribbons. Here is a picture:

Reese's Pieces Pastel egg cookies

I love peanut butter and chocolate together so why not in a cookie? I just used this basic chocolate cookie recipe. Instead of Cadbury chocolate I added Reese's pieces eggs.


I crushed them up with a rolling pin.....



Then I mixed the other ingredients in my mixer......

Look at that dough, yummy hu?

Roll the dough into a small ball....

Bake....

Then enjoy a delicious treat!

Cadbury Easter Cupcakes

I signed up to take cupcakes for a Relief Society meeting, this is what I made! I like to use Betty Crocker triple chocolate cake mix, then I add chocolate chips in. It makes for a nice surprise! The frosting is just a basic butter cream then I used Cadbury eggs on top.

Spring Flower Cookie

I LOVE spring flowers, so I made one into a cookie!

Pine Wood Derby Cookies!

We had a Pine Wood Derby for our Activity Day girls it was so fun. Here are some sugar cookies that I made!


Here is a trophy and a car

Happy Pi day!

I wanted to make PIE in honor of Pi day but I didn't get to it. We have been on quit the roller-coaster the last few weeks. We are dealing with health issues and we had a death in the family. But we have been blessed with amazing family, friends and neighbors. So, don't worry!! I am going to get baking really soon.

Valentine Cookies

Where I live there is a restaurant that has the best sugar cookies I have ever had. So, I went on a search to find a recipe like theirs and I found this blog. I made this recipe and to me it tastes like thier cookies. Weather it's the original or not I don't know, but they are heavenly! It made a lot of cookies, so I have been giving them away to ladies that I visit teach and the kids are going to give some to their primary teachers tomorrow. (If you don't know what Visiting teaching is or what primary teachers are visit HERE).

I have really enjoyed learning how to bake. Like I have said before, I never made cookies unless it was the store bought cookie dough. Even then I rarely bought it because I lacked the skills to make them turn out right. It may sound weird but I really have learned a lot about myself while learning to bake cookies. If you are reading this and think you can't do something, try it! You may surprise yourself what you are capable of if you just start.



Sorry I don't have pictures of the whole process. I used a tiny bit of red coloring to get pink. The other nice thing about the icing is you don't have to use a lot of color like you do with the butter cream frosting, which means you don't taste the food coloring. This is the icing/glaze it was really runny so I dipped some cookies in it then wiped the rest off. then I decided to put some in a bag with a tip so it was a little more controlled, I liked it a lot better.


Here's what I did, I have always wanted to use sugar sheets on cookies. I bought a heart shaped punch. I know they don't look perfect but you get the idea.





I had a lot of fun making these. I like the icing a lot more than the butter cream frosting it's lighter and I think it tastes better. This is a really easy recipe and makes a lot. Try it you won't be disappointed. Here's to more baking!