84. Give a friend a fabulous surprise gift

So Harry Potter book club day with the girls was just full of fabulousness! First the cake, and then the presents. It did happen to be KW and KB's birthdays, but, for the record, I am still counting these as surprise gifts. KB and I have known each other for almost 20 years now (haha wow, that is just scary), and have never really done the birthday gift thing. KW and I have just become friends (yay new friends!) so I'm not sure there was any sort of gift giving expectation. Therefore, surprise gifts. Now on to the fabulousness.

I am a huge fan of Etsy.com. While reading a blog one day I came across these awesome prints available on Etsy. I knew KW had to have them! And what a perfect time to give them to her. Just a couple days later, I remembered a conversation I had with KB about aprons. I really wanted to make her one, but didn't think my sewing skills were quite up to par with what I had in mind. Enter Etsy yet again to save the day.


All in all, I think both ladies were surprised and I was happy to give them something that I hope they both enjoy. It was also nice to celebrate the coming together of friends both new and old!

65. Bake and decorate a fabulous non-birthday cake

This list has really allowed me to stretch myself and try a lot of new things. It has really opened me up to some creative endeavors that I have fully enjoyed. Cake decorating seemed like it could be a fun and useful skill to have, so I added it to the list oh so long ago. When I had the girls over for our fifth Harry Potter book club meeting, I figured it would be the perfect time to try out this task. After a trip to Michaels and Walmart I realized that cake decorating tools did not come cheap and this was not an art form one simply dabbled in. So I bought some food coloring and a few icing tips and headed home, hoping that my lack of tools would not lead to a lacking cake.


After a few disastrous moments in the beginning (the first of which was one layer of the cake coming out of the pan in about twelve pieces), things started to look up and I really got into it.



I was pretty proud of the final product. And most importantly, it was quite yummy. I don't believe I will ever venture into full fledged cake decorating, but I think this may be something I try again. Perhaps in the form of cute cupcakes.