Jungle Baby Shower

I sold my first cake yesterday. This is a custom order for a baby shower. I had so much fun doing this custom cake knowing it was for a special occasion. I had some trouble with techniques but practice makes perfect.
Of course I was really excited to the car cake for Matt, but I was not happy with the way it turned out. I tried to fix the boo-boos but it never looked the way I wanted it to. With this one I had a lot of trouble putting the fondant on the layers, next Wednesday's class will cover that one. I've just been figuring it out on my own and I still get big folds at the bottom of the cake. With this cake I had the folds but I could camouflage them with the decorations. What a difference!! I love the way it turned out and I know that it was a hit at the party. I can't wait for another order.

"Snow"-man's land

This awesome book Hello Cupcake was purchased on a lark and became a passion that started things off for me. This is one of the first projects I tried to make I think it turned out pretty well all things considered. The very first one was the "Shark scene" for any family members that were unlucky enough to be around for that one, my sincere apologies, it did not make it to the photo opp. It quickly became obvious that there were skills that I did not posses and I really, really wanted them. And here we are one class down and two more scheduled for October, I'm loving this.

Car Wreck?

I'm a bit divided on this one. I made a replica of my bro-in-law's Scion for his birthday. I'm really proud that I accomplished it all on my own but I'm not really happy with the final product. Of course I am overly critical of my own work and all I can see are the flaws when I look at it. Wreck or not, it tasted good and that's what matters in the end...right? The thing I really love is the license plate I rocked that.

Roses in bloom

In my last session of beginners cake class I completed the "coveted" Wilton rose. Voila.




Looks pretty, but is a pain in the butt. And that my friends is why they created fondant! That's coming up in the next session.

Burger anyone?

This is my second hamburger cake. I did this one on my own with tinted frosting and fondant accents.



The one I made at class was decorated with the airbrush. I need a lot more practice with the airbrush, take a look. My cake is the one on the left. Not bad but I really like the way the second cake came together.

New obsession

Like I really need another one? But seriously how cute is this puppy? This is the result of my first cake decorating class. Well technically it is my second class. I wanted to take the more advanced classes at Joann's but in order to do so I had to take the basics class first. Boring. I had already figured out most of that stuff on my own. But the instructor Tracie, who is very cool, also offers classes outside of what the Wilton program offers. So after the first class at Joann's I signed up for the soonest she had to offer. LOVED IT. I am so happy that I did it. Now I have three more basic classes to get through.

Puppy Power

We have two puppies now Piper and Lila. Piper is a 12 week old Shi-poo (shih tzu/poodle mix) and Lila is a 8 week old Chi-a-poo (chihuahua/poodle mix). They are such fun loving girls. Lila loves to be held, and Piper loves to play tug.

Tough decisions

We had to make a very hard choice last week. We realized that Daisy was not the right dog for our family and took her back to the shelter. This was so hard for me, but I know it was for the best. Andrew and Wayne were not bonding well with her, or Daisy with them either. She is a very hyper playful dog and even taking her to the dog park to play and run, usually twice a day, she was still to rough with Andrew and he became very nervous with her. There were a couple of times she snapped or growled at him, not during play that scared him. I tried to get him to use the training techniques that I have learned about to teach her not to nip at him or jump on him, but he just wasn't getting it and there was only so much I could do without his help. It all came to a head when out of the blue Andrew asked me if we could have a vacation from Daisy, just for a week. That's when I knew there would probably never be the right connection between them and that's why we wanted a dog in the first place. When we took her in she wasn't upset or nervous, and didn't even look back when she was taken away. So in the end it was heartbreaking, but totally right and honestly a big relief. There were some good life lessons learned from this experience and I checked up on Daisy and she was adopted before the week was out.

Morning fun

We are all playing outside this morning and Cleo decides to climb the tree. It was crazy and I had to get a step stool and get her down. Dumb cat.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Andrew's birthday was on the 25th, we had his birthday party early on the 21st. It was a Star Wars theme so we had jedi "training" activities. We made light sabers out of pool noodles and duct tape, we saved jedi's from carbonate (action figures frozen in ice then melted with sponges in a relay race), and a target practice, but the biggest hit (har har) was the light saber training. Translation: the kids beat each other up the whole time. Andrew loved it, and they all had a great time. He got a pile of gifts and only two of them were not Star Wars items, we have a very happy boy.
I have been getting really into cake decorating lately so I went wild with the cake and made Captian Rex's helmet. Now, don't look to close because I really need more practice with fondant, but for the most part I am very proud of myself. It was a lot of work but the kids were in awe and one girl told me that I was amazing, that was fun.

Welcome Daisy

This is Daisy, she is a dog, she lives with us now.

What? I know what you must be thinking, yes I have never had a dog before, but I didn't know how much I wanted one until we got her. All three of us had different reasons for wanting a dog, Wayne wanted some security, I wanted a playmate/companion for Andrew, and Andrew, well he's a young boy he just wanted one. Yes dogs are a lot of work, and yes most of the work falls on me, but look at that face. We met Daisy at the local pound, they told us she was a stray but they said she is a Labrador mix, and that she's about 7 months old. Wayne and I think she is mixed with Boxer, and others have guessed she is mixed with Pit Bull or Beagle. I personally don't care what the mix is, I just know that she is adorable and she is ours.

Year? What Year?

Yeah, okay so it's been an entire year since my last post, what-evs. Record keeping is seriously not one of my strengths, oh well. I have a bunch of fun things to talk about so... let's try this again, shall we?