It's Been a Whole Year

Wow, i can't believe it's been a year since Clem entered our world. We had a wee party for him today, and while i didn't tear up then like i thought i would, i am now. I'm exhausted but can't excuse it all on that - a whole year!!!!
The weather (and G20 summit- ug) was not in our favour so we ended up having the party in our backyard. Too bad, because i really wanted to go here. But, it was lovely in our garden backyard, and since the 'theme' was garden i guess it was the best setting. When C's older, the adventure park/castle playland will be a perfect setting.

I made him some birthday attire for his big day. Of course, he had to have his own crown, like mommy and daddy. His is made from a recycled green sweater that my mom felted for me. I followed Amanda Soule's directions in her great book. I hope for C to embellish it more over the years. He even wore it for most of the afternoon! But he promptly took it off when he saw the cake. I also made this cute romper from a vintage/used pattern i scored at VV months ago. I just love the bowtie and i think he'll need to wear them more often!


We made chocolate cupcakes and carrot cupcakes from THE cookbook. The carrot ones did not turn out too well lookwise, but they tasted pretty lovely. They caved in and shrunk a bit? I used spelt flour instead of all-purpose as C's still not really doing wheat. Not sure if that was the reason? The chocolate were perfect and both were covered with icing that i made green by adding a bit of chlorophyll and tumeric too. I hope you can see the look i as going for- green for grass with a few brown stepping stones and garden do-dads added in. I even made a miniature bunting banner for it - to go with our life-size ones!

As you can see, C loved his first taste.

I also tried making the chocolate icing from the Babycakes cookbook. I really wanted C's first taste of non-fruit sweetness to be agave and not sugar, but it just didn't work out. But for the second time, the coconut oil solidified as i whipped it and it turned into a nasty, chunky mess. Tasted nice but so not attractive. I've had no luck with their icings. Any suggestions folks? I read maybe to use less oil and more dry soy milk powder....
As party favours, i bought great seed packages from Urban Harvest for everyone, and topped it up with some cute toys - chocolate ladybugs, small mushrooms, and windmills. I think it was a nice touch to a sweet little party for our sweet wee one!