In the past, I’ve stitched meaningful, custom messages, but when it came to the child of one of the Cupcake Crusaders, I knew only a cupcake would do. I was lucky enough to have found a pattern by the embroidery genius, Wild Olive.

Pattern by Wild Olive at http://wildolive.blogspot.com

I was so inspired by Wild Olive’s cupcake pattern that I decided to design a few characters of my own.

I started with an acorn. I went ahead and made him a French acorn since it looked like he was wearing a beret. Doesn’t his little mustache really complete him?

My model is striking an appropriate pose! (She was SO little!)

Next up was a peanut. Hmm…why not a Spanish peanut? Perfect. He dons a mustache too, of course.

Hola

Last, but certainly not least, is a special design for Freya. A few years back my sister lovingly gave me the nickname “A-hole,” so “F-bomb” was a hilarious evolution for my daughter (…sick sense of humor, I know)!

My sweet, little F-bomb

I’m not so much a fan of making a resolution per se for the new year. The thought of making one gigantic goal just seems too grand a gesture and one that I’ll too likely fail at keeping! I do, however, like the idea that each new year brings a chance for reflection on the past and enlightenment perhaps for the coming year.

As usual, I am already starting out the year with a long list of goals—manage my time better, post more regularly to this blog, develop better eating habits, and the such. When I received an email advertising an online and, ahem, F-R-E-E yearlong quilting class, I couldn’t resist adding it to my to-do’s for 2012. Check it out here. What a great idea, huh?

Throughout the year I’ll be sharing the two quilt blocks I create each month on the Creative Exurbia Facebook page, here. Also, I’ll be sure to post the final product when the class wraps in December.

Happy 2012!

Freya — six months old

Here we are — six months into the wee one’s life and my journey into mamahood. It is hard to imagine that just six months ago Freya was born and that in just six more months time she may be walking and/or talking.

She is into everything these days (as much as she can be for a baby who can’t get to places on her own yet). If there is an item within reach, she grabs. Mostly she wants to explore “real world items,” such as drinking glasses, plastic bags, jewelry, etc. Over the past couple weeks she has gone through an astonishing amount of development. Her babbles turned into “talking” with hard consonants (“ah da da da da da” is popular around here). She has learned to roll from belly to back. She grumbles when she is bored and ready to move on to a new activity. She is working very hard on sitting up on her own. Maybe her best development for us as parents has been her new ability to sleep through the night with only one waking. Life changing, people!

My dear friend and fellow designer, Lyndi, gave us a wonderful gift. She created adorable baby update cards to be filled in every three months of Freya’s first year so that we can share and remember the little things!

Here is her sixth month update:

Design and calligraphy by Creative Exurbia

Each year I try my best to hand make as many gifts for the holidays as possible. This year’s gift list included a delicious present for my clients — hot cocoa on a stick. (Everything is better on a stick! See previous post here.)

I first spotted this tasty treat for sale at a retail shop and thought to myself, “I can do that!” After a quick Google search, I had devised a plan. I used this recipe for the cocoa blocks and this recipe for the marshmallows.

Cutting the marshmallows

Let me just tell you that everyone should make marshmallows once in their life. It was amazingly simple and truly that much fun!

Assembling the blocks on sticks

The result? A rich, creamy cup of cocoa or a sweet snack eaten directly off the stick. (Sometimes you just can’t wait for the milk to heat up!)

The finished product

Design and calligraphy by Creative Exurbia

Over the course of this year, I created a series of invitations for the Irvine Nature Center. Each of the three invitations used whimsical illustrations and showcased my calligraphy. A couple of them even included a matching envelope!

Click here to view the backs and the envelopes for these invitations and to see more design and calligraphy work that I’ve done for the Irvine Nature Center.

I’m happy to share that a guest post I recently wrote for the Cupcake Crusaders’ blog went live today. The post is a review of the beautiful and tasty cake pops from Sweet Sixteen Café located in nearby Lockport, NY. Read the review here.

Last week we celebrated Freya’s fourth month of life! Time is flying by. We’ve been watching her grow, and learn, and change, and discover, and then grow some more. It is all happening at an astonishingly fast pace.

Each day I have to remind myself to slow down, enjoy these small moments and really breathe in the details (like the crinkles around her tiny knuckles, the way she must first concentrate on an object before figuring out how to reach for it, and her ever-changing voice that excites us with new babbles and gurgles).

Thanks to my sister for outfitting Freya for this photo shoot — she even handmade the tutu!

Autumn makes me want to camp. I think it is the cool, crisp air and the desire to pull a thick hoodie over my head that gives me the itch.

Luckily, a few weeks back (Please forgive me. Having an infant in the house is a delicious time-suck that has left my blog a tad neglected as of late.) I was surprised with a weekend camping and beer tasting get-away to Cooperstown, NY.

Cooperstown has been high on my list of places to visit ever since my love affair with the Brewery Ommegang and their Belgian-style ales began a handful of years ago. Since then, I’ve come to find out that Cooperstown actually has their own “beverage trail,” as they call it. The region, apparently, was once the hops-growing capital of North America. Who knew?

Off we went with Benson, our pup, and Freya, our seven-week-old daughter, in tow for her very first camping trip. Oh my.

Despite my fears, Freya did amazingly well and slept in her inflatable travel crib like a dream. The brewery tour, on the other hand, could’ve went better. We had the map. We had a plan. We did not anticipate a hurricane.

My heart nearly broke when I found out that Ommegang had closed shop early due to the threats of Hurricane Irene. Before fleeing for home, however, we did make it to the very fun Butternuts Brewery (Porkslap Pale Ale!) and the delightful Rustic Ridge Winery.

Cooperstown, I will be back.

I feel extremely fortunate to have been asked to create the label for a new product that comes from the fabulous Irvine Nature Center in Baltimore. Their team hand-extracted, bottled, and with a little help from me, labeled honey produced from hives on-site.

If you’d like to get some honey for yourself, it is currently available at the Nature Store. Yum!

Click here to see more design and calligraphy work that I’ve done for the Irvine Nature Center.

Freya McAuley Berner

She is here! Freya McAuley Berner was born on July 8, 2011, ten days shy of her due date weighing in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring twenty glorious inches long.

Week One was full of activity and many momentous “firsts.” Among other things, we’ve been surrounded by our wonderful family, soaked up countless smiles and giggles while Freya sleeps, lost plenty of sleep, had a backyard bonfire (including hobo pies), went kayaking (Freya and I watched from the rocky shore), successfully fed the baby and changed her diaper in the car, took a walk with Benson along the Erie Canal, relaxed at a local coffee shop, watched the sunset over Lake Ontario, and learned, as Jeff so eloquently put it, not to aim a loaded gun (a baby) with its safety off (its diaper)…makes for quite the mess!

We are in LOVE.