{Busy Bee} Jake's 7 Month Photo Shoot

Kathy Lawson of K.L. Images (the busiest and most creative bee I know) had a wonderful concept for a photo shoot and wanted my son, Jake to be her little model. Well, we were all for it seeing that Jake is a natural in front of the camera (I am a little biased of course) and since he was turning 7 months old the day of the shoot, I would have this month covered for his baby album!

I must say that his photographs came out beautifully and I found it hard to choose a favorite. How can you resist this little man? No wonder he has his mom and dad wrapped around his little finger (and his grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. too).

After seeing how well the pictures turned out, I decided to create New Year's cards to send out since I didn't have time to send out Christmas cards. Better late than never, right?

To see more of Kathy Lawson's photography just check out her blog, K.L. Images.

{Party Bee} Owl Themed First Birthday Party

2011 is the start of a very fun and busy year for The Sugar Bee Bungalow. We will be creating many sweet and pretty treats and designing plenty of parties! What more could a girl ask for, right?

First party on the list is an owl themed party for an adorable little boy who is turning one. As you can see by the invitation, the owl is a fun and retro owl (appropriate for a fun little boy) with blue, orange and brown as the color palette. There is so much that can be done with this theme and the creative juices are definitely flowing! Hold tight, I will post the event at the end of the month for those of you who want to see the final results.

I am very excited about this party...whooo's ready to have a hoot!?!?!

{Sugar Bee} Santa Baby Bellies

This Christmas was a very special and important one for my family because it was my son's very first Christmas. Thus, as the month of December quickly approached, I knew I had a little bit of planning in order to start my family's Christmas traditions off on the right foot.

I had to make my Christmas gift list (and check it twice), buy P.J.'s to wear on Christmas morning, have the perfect outfit for my son to wear on Christmas Eve, listen to Christmas music and watch a few Christmas movies to get into the spirit of the season, and finally bake some cookies for my family and friends to enjoy (and one day for my son to enjoy as well).

The theme of this year's Christmas was "Santa Claus" for a few different reasons. Mainly because it would be the first time Jake would sit on Santa's lap (a.k.a. Grandpa) and receive Christmas presents from Jolly Old Saint Nick. But also because this year he would be Santa's little helper and dress in a matching Santa baby outfit. Not to mention I own a very cute apron that looks like Santa Claus' red suit, with a matching apron for my husband and son. If I would have had just a little more time to plan and decorate, I would have also coordinated a Christmas card design and all of my table linens with the Santa Claus red suit theme!

Because the decorative theme seemed to revolve around Santa Claus, I decided that the cookies would also have to tie in somehow. Thus after browsing online, I found a blog website called Tidy Mom and the author featured a sugar cookie design that looked like Santa Claus' belly. As soon as I saw her cookies, I knew I had to replicate them!

After hours of work in the kitchen, I baked several dozen Chocolate Chip Cookies (with and without nuts), Santa Baby Belly Sugar Cookies (as I like to refer to them since my son's belly had a close resemblance to that of Santa's), and of course my Mint Chocolate Covered Oreos.

The result of my efforts were very festive and colorful cookies that were thoroughly enjoyed. What a busy and absolutely amazing and blessed Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

{Queen Bee} Andy Food Culinary Studio

Last year as a wedding gift I received a gift certificate from my co-workers to the Andy Food Culinary Studio to take a cooking class of my choice. Well with having a baby and moving into a new home, finding time has definitely been a challenge. However after a year, I was finally able to schedule a class!

Today I attended the Andy Food Holiday Cookie Class and it was so much fun. The class was filled with a lot of ladies looking to have fun, learn some new cookie recipes and knock-out their holiday baking!

The class was split into groups and each group had a couple cookie recipes to complete. I had the pleasure of making Chocolate Crackle Tops and Coffee Twists. The result was dozens of pure decadent delight!

We started with the Chocolate Crackle Tops. The dough was very stiff and gooey therefore we had to use spoons to create our dough balls.

After we spooned out the dough we rolled the dough in powdered sugar. Without the powdered sugar, our hands would have been covered in chocolate cookie dough....so very messy!

As our Chocolate Crackle Tops were baking we started making the Coffee Twists. These cookies were a lot more time consuming. We had to take small balls of dough and roll them into 1 inch balls. Then we rolled them into long worm-like shapes, twisted them and rolled them into a sugar and coffee mixture.

 Here is the class busy at work trying to get their cookies done on time! My group is on the very left corner.

The finished product was dozens upon dozens of delicious cookies. The top picture features the Chocolate Crackle Tops. The bottom picture contains the Coffee Twists (they are the ones in the center).

Here I am in a cookie coma after making several dozens of cookies! What a day!

I would absolutely recommend taking any of the classes offered at the Andy Food Culinary Studio. They would be great to take with a friend, mom, sibling, or significant other. I can't wait to go again!