Zerah's First Birthday!

Zerah had her first birthday last weekend! I can't believe it has been a year already since she was born. The time goes by so fast! I spent the week before her birthday getting some crafty items ready for her party.



I want to start certain traditions with her that stay the same as she gets older. One of the things I want to do is hang a birthday banner that she has her picture taken with every year on her birthday so you can see how much she has grown. I also like the idea of the banner being reusable and a non-plastic item, so I made her one for her birthday this year!




The pennants are about nine inches long and eight and a half inches across. Most of the fabric I used is leftover from dresses that I have made her this past year. I like that as we pull it out in years to come will be a reminder of all the little dresses that I made her this past year. There are a few pieces that haven't been made into clothing yet but will be soon. I took pictures during the process, so if anyone is interested in how I made this, I will be happy to post a tutorial soon.


One of Zerah's favorite things are ducks! It is one of the first words that she said and she loves rubber duckies, so I had to make her duck cupcakes. I have never tried making "fancy" cupcakes before, so I was super pleased with how these turned out. I watched this tutorial on youtube, which really explains how to make these 3-D cupcakes. My mom and I had a good time putting these cupcakes together the night before her birthday. I made Hershey Extra Dark Cake for the cupcakes following the directions on the extra dark cocoa powder container. I over filled the cupcake pan, and they overflowed in the oven! My mom and I were able to salvage them by trimming the excess off the sides, and it turned out fine.

The best part was as soon as Zerah saw the cupcakes, she said, "Duck!" and proceeded to suck on one of the duck's beaks. She got excited everytime she saw one of her cupcakes, which was my intention all along.;)


For her cake, I used the Great Big Cupcake pan from William's and Sonoma. It went together very easily. For the liner, I melted candy coating in the pan, and once it hardened, popped it out of the pan. I had to cut the bottom of the cake down to make it fit in the liner. I read that you can use small round pans for the bottom, and the cake will fit easily in the liner that way. I followed instructions that I found here for the liner. The cake was Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream icing found on the package for the cupcake pan.

We used sprinkles to decorate it and a "1" candle for the top!

I need to get another picture of her birthday dress. My mom found it for her, and it was so cute. It is a smocked, light purple dress with cupcakes around the collar. So cute! It was a great birthday! She received so many beautiful handmade items for her birthday that I will share later on in the week.