Taylor, Author at TaylorMade

Fresh Peach Dump Cake – a Recipe

August 13, 2012 By Taylor 42 Comments

Happy National Peach Month… did you even know it was national peach month? Because I didn’t- even before I made this dessert. I guess its a good month for it because I was craving a peach dessert. How intuitive of me :)

It all started when I went to the farmers market and spotted these amazing peaches. I was originally going to juice them (in my juicer) but like I said, I wanted a cobbler of some sort.

I am also a big fan of dump cake. We grew up eating dump cake in our family so I thought our recipe was the only version; canned cherries, pineapple and nuts. With the birth of Pinterest I saw a recipe for pumpkin dump cake and almost died! So I figure we can pretty much dump anything in and call it dump cake.

I wanted to add something else and I had a few plums so I threw those in too.

The beauty of a dump cake is that you can “dump” in whatever you want, throw a box of yellow cake mix on top, add some butter and bake.

I used:
4 fresh peaches and 2 fresh plums

cinnamon and nutmeg

a box of yellow cake mix on top

and butter

Fresh Peach Dump Cake

4-6 fresh peaches chopped

2-3 fresh plums chopped

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 box yellow cake mix

3/4 stick butter

– Preheat to 350

– Mix fresh chopped fruit with spices in the bottom of an oven safe dish

– Sprinkle cake mix over the top

– Slice butter and place on top

– Bake for 45 mins to 1 hr @350

So yummy… what kind of dump cake have you made? Post a link if you have a go to dump cake recipe!

Fish Soap Party Favor – a Tutorial

August 6, 2012 By Taylor 18 Comments

Remember Finn’s Fish Party last week? I was pretty casual about the whole thing because the biggest slip-n-slide ever was the main event :) But I did make the kiddies party favors. It was almost a craft fail, but I saved it and it ended up OK. Seriously though, I almost ruined the only homemade aspect of the bday party… tragedy!

When I was looking up fish party ideas, I came across this Martha Stewart Tutorial. Of course, Martha’s “Fish in a Bag Soap” were way better looking than mine- in my defense I found this the Thursday before the Saturday party. My BFF and my mom totally came to the rescue with supplies!

What you need:

Pure Glycerin

Scented Oil (optional)

Plastic Treat Bags

Fish

I wanted to find plastic fish but I couldn’t find them anywhere. My BFF called me and told me she found these erasers, perfect! I later found out the fish I wanted were available on Oriental Trading.com and Amazon. But the erasers looked good too.

About the bags, I originally bought craft bags with a pleat on the side, and the soap got stuck after drying… boo! You HAVE to get the bags with only one seam on the side and no folds. My mom came to the rescue because I found this out the day before the party.

What I Did:

Fold the bag down (about halfway)

I used clothespins and an old shoe box and clipped the bag to the side of the box, making sure the bag was touching the bottom too.

My glycerin came pre-cut, so I used one and a half squares of glycerin. Then using a glass measuring cup, I melted it in the microwave for 45ish seconds. That is when I added my Grapefruit Citrus oil, just one drop.

Then pour the melted soap into the bag carefully, you don’t want to get soap on the sides of the bag, a funnel would help but I didn’t have one… procrastinator.

Carefully place a fish eraser into the bag, make sure not to splash.

Continue with these steps and let them cool.

I used ribbon to tie them up. Because of the clear color they are kind of hard to photograph but they turned out really cute. And for twelve fishies I spent about $15ish which I was pretty happy with.

Have you ever made your own soap? I really liked doing it, I want to do another girl craft party with different girly soaps. We could use mint leaves and lemons and other cool fresh ingredients!

A Very Fish-y Birthday Party

July 30, 2012 By Taylor 12 Comments

Next week, my little tiny baby Finn will turn 3. So we celebrated this past weekend with a big ole Fish Birthday Party! I’m not kidding when I tell you I barely even feel appropriate putting this on the blog because there is so very little that is “taylormade” about this party. But I made Finn and its his party so here ya go.I found a pack of fish cutouts at a party store and just kept it simple with balloons. I used a fish net for the table and had “fish snacks” and pizza. Then I accidentally bought a round tablecloth for our huge rectangular table :/

Clyde says where is everybody?

Best party investment ever for Texas!

My little fish

The dual lane slip-n-slide was a big hit with the kids!

My mom, once again did an amazing job on the cake!! Remember last years cupcakes?

Finn is like me, if we choose to be the center of attention (which happens often) then its ok… but singing happy bday is still a little awkward haha.

He was totally spoiled :)

And I made cute party favors :) I will tell you all about my almost craft fail later this week.

It was the best birthday party ever! I can’t believe my baby is so grown up. I guess I can still say I have a 2 year old for a few more days. Happy soon to be birthday sweet boy!

A Gallery Wall

July 26, 2012 By Taylor 8 Comments

Hi Guys! I feel liked I haven’t blogged in a long time (only a week) but time is really slow when everyone in your family has the stomach flu one. after. another. And “Mom” isn’t the best role to have when it comes to puke. Anyway we are all better and getting ready for Finn’s Big 3yr Old Birthday Party! I will have a Party Post for you next week… but in the mean time, here is my new Gallery Wall.

To me, the beauty of a gallery wall is that its a work in progress at all times. I am a big lover of “change”. I mean- when I list my hobbies, one of them is rearranging. So the Gallery Wall is perfect for me because I can change it easily, I can add to it and I can be on the hunt for unique stuff. Its also perfect for small pieces that would look weird on a large wall. Speaking of looking weird, here is my living room haha… I don’t like the layout at all, this isn’t our forever house and to be honest we have already outgrown it. See the faux playroom in the corner :/ Why do kids have so much stuff??

So what exactly are all of those pieces and what do they mean to me?

1. One of my favorites: When I was a teacher, a cute student of mine made me this bird puppet. The best part is if you open it, there is a detailed bird mouth. I love it!

2. My mom painted this when she was 20 and it has been somewhere in my room the whole time I was growing up.

3. from Target
4. from Ampersand
5. Ahh, I LOVE this, its new and it’s my very own Katie Daisy :) I love the saying, the colors and everything about it… this pic doesn’t do it justice but it is so pretty in real life. You can find it HERE. I really love THIS one too… I’m thinking about it

6. This was a deal of the day on Pick Your Plum one morning, its our last name :)
7. I loved THIS ancestry chart tutorial from Homemade by Jill, she was so sweet to email me the file so I could print it on my silhouette too! I have only done mine and hope to do another one for my husband. I didn’t realize how hard it would be but I love searching and asking all of my grandparents what they know. (which apparently isn’t a lot from the looks of it – oh cool dad, glad you know your parents name :)

8. from my aunt’s local store – Nana’s Attic
9. Lula and Gus – love this! You can find it HERE. I have a total bird theme in my house so it fits right in :)

So does anyone else have a gallery wall? I hope to one day have a full wall floor to ceiling full of cool pieces.