Spotlight - Michelle Denna

My name is Michelle Denna. I absolutely love the outdoors, volleyball, laughing, and anything that allows me to be creative! Tate and I were married 5 years ago this month, and are the parents of two wonderful boys; Cannon (4) and Lincoln (1).

I started blogging a few months ago, in an attempt to get myself organized in several areas that I have a particular interest in:

myfamilyprepared.blogspot.com is intended to help my family and I achieve 'emergency preparedness'. I am extremely passionate about this topic, and therefore seem to accumulate large amounts of information. This blog is used to help me sort and make sense of it all; from food storage to sanitation to everything else.

bigboredombusters.blogspot.com is an ongoing list of ideas and activities to keep kids entertained. It is also intended for notes on parenting and helpful hints on child development; as both of my boys' unique characteristics have exposed me to several early intervention and development experiences.

menumanaged.blogspot.com is simply my digital recipe book. I have developed a love for cooking, and am always on the lookout for new ideas.

createmybliss.blogspot.com was created so I could document all of my ongoing crafty creations. It is a combination of layouts, designs and project how-to's; mostly what I use it for is to provide myself with new ideas and inspiration.

I believe amazing things happen when individuals become involved in what they are passionate about. In a way, doing this helps me feel like I've accomplished something. Mostly for myself, hopefully for others along the way...

Michelle,

Thanks for sharing your passion and creativity with the rest of us. I love your blogs!!

- Michelle W.

Spotlight: Raven Haymond

I am the mother of two young children who fill my days with hugs, snuggles, and various cereal products. We've lived in Pleasant Grove for two years and I love the fact that there are fields right across from our building and horses just a short walk away. On the musical side, I play the violin. I am currently taking fiddling lessons and am also a member of the Pleasant Grove Orchestra. My addiction to good books came in handy when I studied English for my B.A. and my M.A. and my husband's talent as a ballroom dancer led me to write a thesis on ballroom dance culture in Utah. I've just started a training program with the hopes of running a 5-K sometime this fall. I never thought I'd be any sort of runner. Finally, I am a dark chocolate person.

Why mini cakes? My mother teaches art classes out of her home in North Carolina and happened to be having classes one week when I was visiting them this past year. Since I had taken some cake decorating classes, she asked me to teach some basic techniques to her students. I knew that I wanted each child to have their own cake to decorate, but time, space, and budget didn't allow for dozens of full-sized cakes. I was standing at her kitchen counter one day mulling this over when I had the miniature cookie cake idea. We could take 4-5 cookies, stack them, fill and frost them with buttercream, and each child would have their own, proportionate, miniature cake. The cakes were a hit with the kids who enjoyed building them and decorating them with simple piping details. The took home miniature cakes and I brought the idea back to Utah, wondering if I could sell these miniature cakes. I decided to just give it a try and that's how Dollhouse Cakes was born.

For full details, you can visit www.dollhousecakes.com . Basically, I make customized miniature cookies cakes. The customer chooses the flavor of the cookies and the flavor of the frosting from my menu of choices and together we design their cakes. I have various levels of decoration to suit different tastes and budgets and you choose the number of cakes you want. One cake makes a sweet treat for one person and a dozen cakes can give each birthday party guest there very own miniature cake. Each slice looks just like a miniature layered cake and the flavor combinations are pretty delicious. They are fun and different way to celebrate any occasion.

As a mother, I've found it important to have some kind of creative outlet that allows me to work and express myself apart from my children. Having various activities like playing the violin and making these cakes refreshes me and reminds me of the person I am outside of my mothering responsibilities. At the same time, I prefer these activities to work around my mommy schedule, not against it. Starting up Dollhouse Cakes has been a blast. Working with my husband to design the website and baking trial cakes was exciting and invigorating. It's fun now to receive actual orders and know that someone out there actual likes the miniature cakes. It's nice, as a mother, to have that concrete validation and I think it's good for my kids to see that life is about taking chances, creating, and trying new things. I guess it's just nice to have something that is completely mine and that gives me a space to be creative. It doesn't hurt that I'm creating with buttercream and cookies that always need taste testing.

Spotlight: Mandi Lee Taylor

From time to time, we'll have a spotlight on someone in our community to tell us more about them and what they do. Here's our first!!!

My name is Mandi Lee Taylor. I have lived in the gateway village for about 5 years (I bought my condo before it was built!) and have loved it. I graduated from BYU in 2004 in early childhood education and taught first grade for five years. I also spent some time as a head teacher at the BYU child and family studies lab (aka Preschool).

During my first years of teaching I took a second job at a photo lab. I had always aspired to learn more about photography, and this was a great opportunity. I developed prints for a handful of professional photographers and became deeply interested in their work, I started to shadow them on shoots and assist them with lighting.

I had a son about a year ago and now stay home with him full time. This has given me a bit more time to develop my photography skills and expand my knowledge. I have taken several classes, and am still doing all I can to become better with each shoot. It has become a passion.

I think that we all have the ability to recognize beauty around us. The special thing about photography is that it freezes a moment of beauty and stores it away permanently. Photography gives me an opportunity to search for simple beauty and fresh perspectives, it has opened my mind to the detail of our world.

I offer sessions for all types of photography: newborns, children, families, couple, weddings.
Each session is 1-2 hours and is shot on location. I give my clients a high resolution CD with 50+ images (copyright released), so they can print and publish as they wish. Right now my pricing is INSANELY affordable.

For more information visit Leetaylorphotography.blogspot.com or email me at Leetaylorphoto@gmail.com! I would love to take pictures of you. . . .or teach you more about photography!

Thanks Mandi!