I’m trying to figure out at what age things really started to shift for me, confidence-wise. My earliest memory of feeling powerful enough to change my own life was in my early 20s. I had a part-time job at Hobby Lobby and a wedding photography business that I wasn’t cut out for. I wasn’t making much money and I wasn’t enjoying my work. Although both those experiences are super normal for someone in their early 20s, I was searching for a way to create a better career for myself.
I did scrapbooking for a hobby and I started to see that the same people in the scrapbooking magazines I bought also had books and product lines you could buy at the craft stores. I remember telling my friend that I thought I could do that for a job. It was pretty clear from her face that she thought I was a bit crazy. To be fair, it was a crazy plan. But two years later, I was the one who had the book in the stores and the product line in the aisles. When I would go into Hobby Lobby, all my previous coworkers would want to ask me questions about the book and the magazines I was in.
It was such a big life change for me between the ages of 22 and 24. I didn’t finish college and I didn’t have any connections. So how did I do it? I’ll share it with you today!
Setting goals is scary. A lot of us don’t set the really big goals because we’re afraid of failing. The “secret” to my first big career moment was that I wasn’t afraid to fail. I knew I could do it and I was fine with trying for as long as it took to get where I wanted to be.
Here are a few tips for making and achieving big goals:
-Write your goals on paper and say them out loud.
These actions give life to your dreams and goals. It’s weird and scary the first time you say it out loud, but it gets easier (and more real) each time you do!
Choose goals that you know deep within yourself that you can achieve.
-Realize that failure is not that bad.
There are many goals I’ve made where I didn’t complete them or changed my plans along the way as I found something bigger or more meaningful. Failure is not always a bad thing. A lot of our business ventures have technically been failures, but each time we learned valuable lessons that we needed to move forward.
Additionally, even if you complete a goal to 50%, you are 50% farther along than you would have been without making that goal in the first place!
-Play the long game.
So many people quit the first time they hit a speed bump or get discouraged. The most important part of achieving big goals is that you are prepared to play the long game. Don’t be one of those people who misses a workout on Jan. 4 and then quits that whole plan! It’s normal to have bad days and setbacks, but keep the big picture in mind and motivate yourself to keep going with smaller rewards and goals along the way!
One of the most important things I want to teach my girls is how to make and achieve big goals. I want to help them to find something that seems “too big,” make the goal, do the work day in and day out and then celebrate their successes with them. It’s such an important confidence lesson in life that I want them to learn.
Do you have big dreams that you’re afraid to say out load? My challenge to you today is to write them down and say them. That’s the first step! You can do it! xx – Elsie
I loooooooove vintage, but I find I don’t wear it as much as I think I do—especially in day-to-day life. I do a lot better when we’re on vacation, or we have a special event like Easter or Laura’s yearly Mad Men party.
Scarves – My number one vintage collection is scarves. I collect 
Dresses – Vintage dresses make it so easy to get dressed! I usually have to get them tailored, but it’s worth the extra $10 to have them be a flattering length and fitted at the waist.
When considering what kind of cake to have at a birthday party, every good mermaid knows that only the finest sandcastle cake will do! A sandcastle cake? I had never made one before, but figured I could give it a shot. I wouldn’t recommend waiting until right before the party to decorate the cake, like I did, but I would definitely advise flexing your baking muscles and giving this sandcastle cake a try! It was truly a lot of fun to make.
Making the “Sand” for the Cake
How to Make Marshmallow Fondant
Step One: Microwave marshmallows for 1 minute to begin melting them.
Step Three: Transfer the hot mixture to a stand mixer and gradually mix in 2 pounds of powdered sugar. Save some of the sugar for kneading in the next step.
Step Five: Coat your hands with butter or shortening. This will keep your hands from sticking to the dough.
Step Seven: Add food color and knead it into the dough to fully incorporate the coloring. I had to do a bit of experimenting to get the correct color of fondant that looked like sand. It’s helpful to keep a bag of the cookie crumb “sand” nearby to compare my color.
Making Fondant Shell Decorations
Step Three: After trimming away the excess, press the remaining fondant into the mold again. This is in case any of the fondant lifted out of the mold while trimming.
Prepping the Layer Cakes
Assembling the Sandcastle Cake
Step Four: Place four dowels into the 8″ layer cake as 
Step One: Print two of 
Step Three: Tape together the card stock cone templates to act as a platform for the fondant cones. Use your fingers to blend the seams. The seams do not need to be perfect as they will be covered in crumbs, but you will be able to tell if the seams are very poorly blended.
Step Five: Working with one moistened strip at a time, gently press cookie crumbs onto the surface of the fondant.
Step Seven: Trim the crenelation strips to fit the areas where they will be applied and press them onto the buttercream. Be sure to use enough buttercream or the weight of the fondant will cause the pieces to fall off the cake.
I used a wood cheese board as a cake plate, because none of my cake plates were big enough! I have seen people use upside-down pans covered with cloth and even hat boxes used as cake stands. The gaps at the sides of my wood platform bothered me (I’m such a diva sometimes), so we decided to add card stock waves to the edges to complete the whimsical look of the cake.
As you can tell in the image above, the vanilla wafer crumbs did absorb some of the moisture of the buttercream, but it didn’t get any worse than you can see in the above image. We had the entire bottom half of the cake leftover from the birthday party and served it at a family event the next day. I’m happy to report the crumbs held up nicely, didn’t absorb any additional moisture, and the cake still looked great without the towers and the fondant crenelations!
