Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Begin Anywhere...

As you may have noticed, life at PiperBellies' blog has been rater uneventful, but things in my life have been the opposite. I've had a lot of things change...some good, some bad. Piper is growing up so fast, it's hard to believe what is before my eyes. I have loved and lost. I have planned, and changed plans. And through everything I am learning that life is not what we may expect it to be. It is messy. It is embarrassing. It is painful. It is confusing. But it is also beautiful and creative and ever changing. Life is just that. It is life. And we must live it now to our fullest capacity. I am ashamed to say that for most of my life I have not done that. I have held back for one reason or another. But now, I am trying to find the strength to push past the fears and to LIVE. I'm a rather personal individual, not one to share really personal and specific details to whoever happens to stumble across my blog. But I am a firm believer in the fact that we can, and should, learn from the people around us. Everyone has advice and experiences that we can glean from, as long as we don't lose ourselves to their advice. In saying all of this, I will tell you that I have started a blog of quotations. I'm not sure really how it will evolve, but right now I plan on putting up any sort of quote that I come across that speaks to me, and I pray that it also speaks to you. One quote a day. It may be a famous quote, a movie quote, a Bible verse, a song lyric, something someone said to me, someone I come up with myself. Anything. beginanywhereforlove.blogspot.com is its address and I invite you to read what I find.

SO...with all of that said, the PiperBellies blog will not be up and running anytime soon. I will be starting massage therapy school in February and focusing on that and baking and a cleaning job and being the best mom I can be and finding myself. I will absolutely still be taking orders from anyone who makes them. Please go to www.piperbellies.com for much more information on what to order and how to order it.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

This blog is under construction.

Please see www.piperbellies.com for PiperBellies informaion.

Contact Courtney at piperlove@ymail.com or 603.998.0439 if you have any orders or questions.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Its a Beautiful Day for a Farmers' Market!

This weeks cake!  Chocolate Cake with Strawberries, Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting and Chocolate Ganache.  You guys are going to want a slice of this one.  YUM.  2.50 per slice.  If you would like to make sure that you get a piece and avoid the very real danger of it all being sold before you get there, send me an email at piperlove@ymail.com, and I will save one for you! 

ALSO, I share a table with my friend Karen who roasts her own coffee...and it is absolutely fantastic.  Seriously. 3  years at Starbucks made me super picky about coffee, and this is the only stuff I will buy.  $10/pound, and I would pay $20.  She also sells iced coffee every week for $2 a cup...goes great with baked goods!!

Today, Thursday July 22.  From 3-7 in downtown Laconia.  Lots of great vendors, and what a beautiful day for a Market!

Would love to see you there!!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Cake of the Week

So I apologize for my inconsistency once again.  I haven't even posted my first wedding cake yet.  Ugh.  Life is crazy and I have a time management problem. 

WELL I am just posting tonight to let those of you who don't know already in on the CAKE OF THE WEEK for the Laconia Farmers' Market!  I bring a different cake each week...so far its been Coconut Cake with Raspberry Filling and Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting, Vanilla Cake with Apricot Filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting, and Lemon Cake with Homemade Blueberry Filling and Zesty Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.  People have been LOVING them, and I am always so excited to see the reactions!  The cakes have been such a hit that I've decided (thanks to the brilliant idea of my friend Lisa), to have an emailing list, informing those on it of what the cake of the week is, and allowing them to pre-order a slice, or a whole cake...or really anything from the PiperBellies table.  This is mainly for the cake though, because it has sold out every week, and I have had several people come and be disappointed to find only crumbs left.  SO if you would like to be part of this elite email list, please contact me at piperlove@ymail.com and I will add you!  I do also post the cake of the week on Facebook, but that is easy to miss, and not everyone has facebook.  AND as you know I'm rather inconsistent with the blog, but I'll work on having it up here and also on the website (www.piperbellies.com) every week.

The Cake of the Week for this Thursday at the Laconia Market from 3-7 is going to be a Chocolate Cake with Strawberries and Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.  YUM.  Look for pictures on Facebook or the email chain on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.  Only 12 slices, so come early, or pre-order! 

Thank you everyone for all of your support.  I couldn't do this without you!

Love, love.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Farmers' Market Specials for THIS WEEK ONLY!

The Shortbread at Farmers' Markets this week will be Fourth of July themed! These are in limited supply and for this week only, so get them while you can! ($1.50 each...the usual shortbread price) If you would like to order some this week for a 4th of July BBQ, you must let me know by Friday afternoon!

Coconut Cake with Raspberry Filling and Coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting...YUM! Selling by the slice ($2.50/slice) at Laconia Farmers' Market from 3-7. THIS WEEK ONLY!

 Hope to see you there!!!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

New goal...again.

I realize that I tend to jump from goal to goal, and that this is not a desirable trait in life, but.....bear with me. 

I struggle, along with 90% of all women in Amercia, with my body image.  Sorry, boys...this is a kind of girly one...but you may be able to benefit.  This struggle is due to Victoria Secret models and their impossible proportions, Hollywood women who do not age (its not magic, its plastic surgery), and clothing designers who only design clothes meant to fit on a 6 foot tall, bulimic, 16 year olds.  This puts pressure on the average, real, American woman, to somehow fit into this super model image, which is just not a reality for 99% of us. 

God has made us all unique.  Some of us were born with hips that refuse to fit into jeans, hair that just will not cooperate when there is the slightest humidity in the air, our grandmothers knees, skin that belongs on a greasy 14 year old's face, but is for some reason stuck on yours.  Maybe you think your neck too long, or your nose is too big, or you have too many freckles, you don't have enough freckles, your hair color is ugly, your feet are grotesque, your legs look like tree trunks, your butt is all dimply, there is a muffin top bulging over your jeans, your boobs are too small or too big, your arms are flabby, blablablablaBLA! 

Maybe we haven't been as healthy as we should be, maybe we haven't made the time to exercise, maybe we have given our children or our careers, or husbands or boyfriends or whatever, every bit of ourselves, and have completely let ourselves go.  No matter what your life is like, I pray that you will realized just HOW important you are.  I implore you to make time for yourself.  Do not lose YOURSELF in your life!  You are amazing and you must take care of the body God has given you.  You will feel better...I will feel better... and more fulfilled.      

Listen, ladies.  Why are we constantly comparing ourselves to other women??  What is the point of that? Who cares how we "measure up" to these women against the shallow values of this plummeting society?  God made us who we are just the way we are on purpose.  Most of us are never going to fit into those size 00 jeans, which for some reason exist, and that's okay!  My goal is to be MY best.  Not anyone else's.

GET TO THE POINT.

Okay, basically my point is that I'm tired of feeling badly about myself.  There is not point in picking apart every little detail of my body and hating every bit of it.  I want to be comfortable in my own skin, not wish I was in someone else's.  My goal is to be healthy.  To exercise regularly.  I feel better when I am healthier.  But really the point is...accept yourself.  Be your best you, and be thankful for what you have.  Do not compare yourself.  Be you.  That's all.

Monday, June 14, 2010

congrats grads.

This weekend I made another cake for my friend Lindsey!  It was really fun because I had already made a cake for her, but last time it sort of had to match a couple of other people's cakes, but this time it was more personalized...still school colors and everything...just a little more HER.


My little brother Erik also graduated this weekend!  Woohoo!!  We had a big party at our house to celebrate.  His school colors are black and white but he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting...so this is how I made that happen...we also needed some cupcakes because there were so many people coming...it was really fun, actually, despite the small frosting catastrophe I had at 2 o'clock in the morning. 



Love you Erik!   So proud of you!

Okay, that is IT for the graduation cakes...though I do have another one in August...but for now, we'll take a break.  Whew.