DIY Cake Smash

 I'm doing a cake smash for a friend next week and I wanted to do a little practice session to make sure I have everything right beforehand.  I wanted to use seamless paper for it, because I love that look, but we're on a pretty strict budget so I had to improvise a little.  I also don't have a lot of studio backdrops because most of the photography I do is outdoors.  So this session was a very DIY project for me.

TIE:

First I started with the tie.  I knew the backdrop was going to be green and blue, so I wanted a tie to match.  I also didn't want to go spend money on a tie that was going to get destroyed during a cake smash!  So I went to Pinterest, of course!  I found a super easy tutorial and some old scrap fabric.  Perfect!  It took me literally 15-20 minutes to make.  You can find the tutorial here.  The only change I made was that instead of doing elastic I added a band of fabric with velcro on the back.  I've made a bunch of other ties for church and I used elastic on those because they would be cover by the shirt collar.  With the cake smash I knew he wouldn't have a shirt on so I wanted the tie to look as much like a normal tie as possible.  The tutorial recommends using interfacing.  I had some left over from a project, but you can also do it without the interfacing and it works just fine.  The interfacing just makes it a bit more stiff.

BACKDROP:

I wanted the backdrop to be colorful and fun.  I took a white piece of fabric (I used some duck cloth that I had, but you can use whatever you have, such as a white sheet) and taped it up on the wall.  (Actually it was taped to my bookshelf.  Whatever works, right?!)  I went to Zurchers and got two rolls of streamers, one blue and one green.  They were $.77 each.  Can't beat that!  I also got five balloons that were $.27 each.  For the floor I have some wood pieces that my friend gave me.  I'm assuming they came from Home Depot or Lowes.  You just snap them together for the shoot and then take them apart for storing when you're done.  If you don't have something like that you may have to get creative.  If you wanted to go buy one I think they're about $20 for a package of flooring.  I prefer the flooring over a vinyl faux floor.  If you want to get closeups you can sometimes tell that the flooring isn't real if you're using vinyl.  The flooring is also cheaper that most vinyl.

CAKE:

The cake was pretty simple too.  I made a box cake mix and poured it into two 6-inch cake pans.  When the cakes were done cut the top off so that it's no rounded at all.  You want both sides to be flat.  Then I put them in the freezer.  This is my favorite trick.  Not only does it help make the cake easier to frost, it also makes the cake more moist!  I made the cake frosting out of shortening, almond extract, milk and powdered sugar.  You could also buy frosting, but again, we're going for a DIY session here.  If you make you're own frosting make sure you're using white shortening.  Butter flavored shortening is yellow.  Take the cakes out of the freezer.  I put my cake on an oversized spatula so I could slide it onto a clean plate after it was all frosted.  Set it on the spatula (or plate if you don't have a spatula that would work) with the flatest side on the bottom.  Put a large dollop of frosting on and spread it around.  Put the second layer on top with the flatest side facing up.

Now you're going to put on a crumb layer of frosting.  You'll notice when you frost the cake you'll see crumbs in the frosting.  It doesn't look very good.  It took me a long time to discover this trick.  Just don't worry about how it looks.  Try to get this layer smooth and make sure it completely covers the cake.  Then stick it back in the freezer to harden.  After about ten minutes or so you can take the cake out and put the final coat of frosting on.

There are a few methods for making the frosting smooth but I used a knife and hot water.  Dip your knife in a cup of hot water.  Using the flat side of the knife start spreading the frosting .  There are a number of youtube videos you can check out if you're having trouble.  Keep dipping the knife in the hot water.  This helps make a nice, smooth surface. Mine's not perfect, but I still think it's adorable.

For the dots I used Sixlets.  You can get them at Winco in the bulk section or Zurchers.  You don't need many so even though by the pound they are a little pricey, it shouldn't be more than $.50 or so.  You also need to determine the the child will be okay with sixlets.  I was using my son for this session and I knew he would be fine with them (and I'd be keeping a close eye on him anyway), but if it had been someone else's child I would have either checked with the mom/dad or I would have found something else to use.  If you decide to use Sixlets or something similar you will just put them on randomly.  Viola!  An adorable cake that's pretty simple and cheap.  Way better than paying $20 for something that's not nearly as cute!

After taking the pre-smash pictures I make sure I got a few good shots of the cake.  Then I stuck a sparkler in the cake for some extra fun!  Don't worry, my son was still in his high chair watching his mother in all her madness.  I love the sparkler pictures.  They're so fun!  Just make sure you the the before pictures of the cake first because the sparklers leave black ash on the cake.  After the sparkler pictures I took the Sixlets off the top, scraped off the frosting and added new frosting.

THE STUDIO SET-UP:

Here's what I did for the set up.  I have my flooring and my backdrop.  I set it all up where I knew I'd have the best lighting.  I happen to have an umbrella and an external flash so I used these for extra light on the opposite side of the window.  You'll also see a reflector on the left side.  I had that leaning against a chair to bounce a little extra light onto my son. 

I purchased my equipment from Amazon and this is what I used. (prices based on time of posting 4/27/2015)

Flash- $35:  Neewer TT560
Wireless Flash Receiver- $21: Cowboy Studio Wireless Flash Receiver
Umbrella Stand Bracket- $7: Neewer Umbrella Stand Bracket
Umbrella Stand- $15:  Light stand for studio or on-site photography
Umbrella- $9:  LimoStudio 33" umbrella reflector
Reflector- $10for the 24" or $15 for the 43": Etekcity 24" 5-in-1 or you can get a larger one here LimoStudio 43" 5-in-1


If you'd like to see more of my work, please visit my page at caylybascomphotography.blogspot.com

Hanging Shelves - DIY Beach Series

This project doesn't get much easier and I LOVE the way it looks.  In fact, so far, this is my favorite project. 

Materials:

• 1'X2' Boards- I got mine at Home Depot.  They were in the shelf section.  They were already white so I loved that I didn't have to do any painting.  Each was $4.
• Rope- I got mine from Joann's in the home decor section.  I believe it was 3/4".   It came in a package and was about $13 for the whole pack.
• Cleats- Also from Home Depot.  These ones are about 6".  $3 each.
• Drill and drill bit the size you want. We did ours 1".

You'll probably do some adjusting based on how you want yours to look.
These are just general instructions.  I won't get too specific.  If you have questions about how we did ours, please ask!

Drill a hole at each corner.  I made them about an inch from each side. Slip the rope through and tie a knot at the bottoms

Drill the cleats into the wall. and hang the shelves by the rope.  You can just lay it over the cleats or you can do like we did and wrap it around a few times.  Mostly we did that because our rope was too long.  It ended up making it a little more stable so it doesn't sway so much.  We also considered putting something sticky on the back and attaching it to the wall so it wouldn't move around, but with the way we tied the rope, we decided it wasn't a big deal.

And that's it!!!

How I cut my monthly grocery bill by $150 without price-matching!

I've known for a while that we have a problem.  A big, fat, ugly problem.  We spend way too much on groceries.  For a mama that's trying to stick to a budget it's an issue that has literally kept me up at night.  Now, what I consider to be a lot of money on groceries might not be a lot for you and your family.  I've talked to a number of different friends in different financial situations, and the numbers have ranged from about $200 for a family of 3 to about $600 for a family of 6.  We were right in the middle with a family of 4.  I couldn't figure out how in the world we could cut back.  I felt like I tried to be frugal with our groceries, but I always ended up spending tons of money and then came home feeling like we still had nothing to make for dinner.

Right about this same time another thing started to happen that would affect my grocery shopping.  Walmart's price-matching policy changed.  I used to use that a lot and saved quite a bit on fruits/veggies.  Now they won't match Rancho Markets, a local Hispanic grocery store that has amazing deals on produce.  I'm talking 6 lbs for a dollar watermelons. Walmart figured out they were losing money on deals like that so they stopped price-matching Rancho Market ads.  That made shopping a little more inconvenient but I could understand why they did it.  Then I found out they stopped price-matching anything that wasn't exactly their brand.  I tried to get some great value cheese, but the ad said Western Family brand.  Well, Walmart, you don't carry Western Value.  That was the last straw for grocery shopping at Walmart.

The thing I found to be the biggest problem with staying in the budget was that we ended up at the grocery store two to three times a week.  I'd find that I didn't have one or two items for dinner.  Quick run to the store and another $50 because I found more things that sounded good at the moment.

It was time to come up with a plan.  And that's exactly what happened.  My friend, Rebekah,  introduced me to the two week meal plan.  I had thought a lot about starting a meal plan, but didn't really know where to begin.  She explained what she did and I thought it could work for me.  It takes very little preparation and I was amazed at how much it's saved us.

So here it is:

Get a piece of paper out and number lines 1-14.  Decide what you want to have for the next two weeks.  Now, this is the hardest part for me.  I hate coming up with something to eat, hence the reason a lot of nights end up being pizza nights.  For the most part that has changed.  To make things a little easier on me I have a set of dinners that are on my list every week.  Two of my days are spaghetti, two are tacos, at least one is stir-fry.  In the summers one is hotdogs and one is hamburgers.  That takes care of at least 7 days.  Half way there.  Then I start to go through Pinterest and a few of my favorite cookbooks. I go through each of the recipes I choose for the ingredients.  My staple meals are easy, because I typically have everything I need for them on hand, or intent to get the ingredients every time (such as tomatoes, lettuce, and onions for the tacos and hamburgers).  I make a list of the things I need and estimate how much I expect them to cost to make sure I fall within my budget.  It sounds like a lot of time but it really only takes an hour or so (or three if I'm watching "Friends").  Two hours of planning for the month to save me $150 is soooooo worth it!

Some weeks, like this week for example, I have most of the stuff I need for the next two weeks so I will look for other deals on snacks.  I normally don't get a lot of junk food because it's so expensive and I'm super cheap.  This week, however, I was able to splurge on squeeze fruit for the kids, Capri Suns, Oatmeal Cream Pies, etc.  I also purchased a few gallons of water to add to our emergency supply and a package of diapers for the little one.  I spent a total of $103 for the two weeks.  I have to mention that I also did Bountiful Baskets this week, that I'll pick up on Saturday.  That's another $17  This is my first week doing it while on the two-week meal plan.  I think it will work out well because our current produce normally lasts us about a week, so it will come just in time to replenish for the next week.  If we don't have to go to the store for more produce it means I'm less likely to spend more money on other things while I'm at the store.

Here's an example of my dinners for the next two weeks:
1. Mini Tostada Salads
2. Stir Fry with Soma Salad
3. Spaghetti and homemade bread
4. Chili Dogs
5. Tacos
6. Philly Cheesesteak Quesadillas
7. Zesty Chili-lime Chicken Taquitos
8. Pizza
9. Crispy Tortilla Roll-ups
10. Spaghetti and homemade bread
11. Hamburgers
12. Southwest Pasta Salad
13. Tacos
14. Breakfast for Dinner

The actual cost of the ingredients for those meals this week was under $50 because I had most of the stuff already.  The rest was made up of 4 gallons of milk, about $10 worth of yogurt, water, snacks, diapers, fruits/veggies, etc.  Your "other" section may look a lot different than mine.

Here are a few tips:

• You'll notice a lot of our meals are of the "Hispanic" variety.  That means a lot of my ingredients can be used for more than one meal.  Instead of using a little cilantro and letting the rest go bad, I can use it all and save a bit too :)
• To help save a little money and save on time before dinner I purchased a five pound package of ground beef and cooked it all up at once with some onions.  I separated into containers before putting it in the freezer.  Now all I have to do is take out a container and heat it up with any seasonings I'd need for that meal.