Part 2 of asian tradition: the 100th day celebration for baby!  The day to celebrate and wish for the baby to live 100 years.  (I believe this tradition originates from Korea).  As we did a full moon celebration for Abigail’s full moon, we kept this one low key.  Immediate family for a dinner only.  And since I didn’t make a cake for the full moon celebration, I’m not missing the chance this time!

I wanted to make this cake extra special, so a week or so prior, I started planning little elements I would add to the cake: Sparkly Cake Topper, her name in Royal Icing, and Butterfly fondant accents.

1. Sparkly Cake Topper

Since I don’t have a very cool machine like a Cricut to do this sort of thing, I did it old school way – by hand/xacto knife.  The Dollar store had a pack of 2 silver glitter cardstock for $1.50.  I took a 1/4 of it to make this.  (save the rest of course).  Printed the design on regular paper first, and then traced it on the cardstock. Carefully slice it out.  And then traced the 2nd copy, but flipped (Mirrored) so that it will fit on the other side.  I chose to make 2 layers as the cardstock wasn’t super sturdy and I didn’t want the sign to wobble.  Hot glue 2 toothpicks on, and then put the 2 layers together…voila:

Sparkly 100 Day Cake Topper

My baby girl is about to be 1 month – already?! Where does the time go…(rhetorical answer: feedings, changing diapers, admiring, taking photos).

Chinese tradition calls for a “full moon” celebration – basically the baby has now passed the “everything is ok” mark and everyone can come and see the baby and celebrate her birth.  I think in the olden days, they may not even name the baby until after it has pass the full moon.  This celebration can be as small or as large as you want. Some people go all out.  (note, many chinese households now also adopted the 100 days celebration instead to celebrate).

We have 40 people coming for Abigail’s full moon – a mixture of family and In laws’ friends – to be held at a chinese restaurant banquet.  Though I wasn’t exhilarated at the thought of having to “make” something so early into my new mommyhood…I also didn’t want to not contribute to the celebration.  I obliged and allow my husband to “outsource” the cake.  But I wanted to make the favours for the guests.  I decided on macarons for them.  In hindsight, it was a lot of work and time when the baby is only 3 weeks old leading up to the dinner. Definitely not recommended for anyone thinking of doing this for their baby’s party.  but everything worked out, as they often do, so here I am sharing the pictures!

I wanted to do 3-4 macarons in a gift bag of different colours and flavours.  I had to balance finding fillings that has the ability to keep frozen and stored for the week (which most macaron fillings can handle), but also it be ok once they are sitting at the restaurant and not in the fridge.  Here’s what I ended up making (approx 35 each):

• White Chocolate ganache with pink coloured shell
• Lemon filling with yellow coloured shell
• Vanilla buttercream with soft pink coloured shell
• White Chocolate ganache with purple coloured shell

Ok, so we did something we said we wouldn’t do prior to getting a puppy – one of those things where we should to make a snide remarks when we see it – one of those thoughts we had on the folks that do….we put a costume on our puppy.  I apologize for any eye-rolling I have ever given to any furbaby’s parents.  Until we got Ellie, we had no idea.  Come on! Look how damn cute she looks with her ladybug costume!!!

she doesn’t look that impressed here…(prob more of me stalking her around the house taking pictures):

She’s tired from all the picture taking and looking cute…

After slaving over the computer to create the perfect design, I was ready to tackle the DIY wedding invitation project.  I estimate it taking approx 2-3 months to complete as it involved many steps and continuous labour.  I figured out all the little steps that I will need to do, and decided to do it in a self-assembly style.  ie. I would create all the little components individually and then piece it all together at the end.  I chose not to ask for help in this entire process simply because it really wasn’t needed.  Most of the prep work was all about cutting and stamping, in which I only have 1 tool for.  The actual assembly of the card require precision and I was too much of a control freak to let someone else put that together.  quality assurance, you know?  Other than the embossing part, most of the jobs were quite simple, something I do in front of the TV watching movies and catching up on shows.

Early in the wedding planning process, I made up my mind to create from scratch my own invitations for our estimated 300 guests.   I wasn’t going crazy – I simply couldn’t find a vendor that had the design, detail, and look at the price I’m willing to pay.  I had a image in mind on what it will be, and I was determined to create it!

Truth to be told, the “image” of the wedding invitations evolved a bit during the planning process for various reasons, but mostly due to chinese customs.  Who knew you’re not suppose to use navy blue on wedding invites?? (i thought it was only black that is taboo!)  That was my original look and first draft – Navy blue cardstock, orange body ribbon as accent, white cardstock inside with black letters. (Blue and Orange were my chosen wedding colours).  I knew I needed to have chinese in the invitation as well, but wasn’t quite sure how to incorporate yet.  However, our families strike that colour concept pretty quickly when I described/show them a crude sample.