that's a lot of freaking cake

So I've been on part deux of my cake decorating madness through Michael's.  We're doing fondant and gum paste this session.  So I made my niece a birthday cake.  She was turning 4 and wanted a pirate/princess cake. 

I googled it.  And lo and behold, there's a lot of images.  Go ahead and look.  You'll find the inspiration for the one I made her. 

So for my very first fondant cake.....drum roll please (yes, I played the drums, I can do a sah-weet drum roll).....Ta Da!!!

It's a pirate/princess cake.  Bottom layer is a 10" cake - marble with ganache filling.  Top layer is a devils food cake with bavarian cream filling.  I think everyone liked it.  If not, they are good liars and that's ok too! :)  

Punky Brewster anyone?

I’ve been trying to inflict my 80’s childhood and 90’s teenage years onto my children. And they JUST DON’T GET IT.

I try to get them to watch the Smurfs and the Snorks on Cartoon Network. Turn off that Wow Wow Wubbzy and let’s watch some little blue half naked smurfs instead! And Asreal. And Gargamel. Loved them. The boys do not.

The other day in the car, J-Bird said something about his buddy. And so I burst into the jingle “My buddy, my buddy, my buddy and me!” And then subsequently “Kid sister, kid sister, kid sister and me!” He was not amused and told me stop singing. Do you remember those dolls? How freaky were they!?!? Yikes.

I’ve also tried teaching them some bad-arse dance moves. You know, the arm dribble up and down thing when Kriss Kross comes on singing “JUMP” – you know you’ve done it. You’re probably bobbing your head and doing the arm motion right now, aren’t you? I am. Hard to type that way, I tell you what.

I will also sing that stupid Dan Baird song to them “I love you period. Do you love me question mark? Please please exclamation point. I wanna hold you in parentheses.” I had to google who sang it and I honestly didn’t realize what the song was about but I swear I only sing that one chorus to them. Ahem.

Last straw the other day was trying to teach them the Joey Tribbiani “How YOU Doin” line. They could NOT get it. “How are you doing Mommy?” No, not quite. “How’re you doing?” No, not yet guys. “How you dooooing?” Sigh. Then T-Dog pipes up with “why can’t we say it our way??” And so I had to tell him it is FUNNY to say it like Joey Tribbiani. Cue a blank look from the backseat. At least my husband and my friends get my stupid references. I will teach these boys yet though!

Booky McBookerton

My oldest kiddo has been writing books lately.  He's done two this week so far, with the second book being a "chapter book" as well.  They've got illustrations, a complete story line with a beginning-middle-end, and the characters even talk throughout the books.  I think it's great.  He's in first grade this year and has developed a real interest in books and stories.

He reminds me of when I was young.  I wrote "books" all the time.  Ok, so maybe they were just glorified stories but I did them ALL THE TIME.  And drew pictures to go along with each one.  I was probably his age when I started, and I remember doing them throughout elementary school, but one time really stands out to me. 

My third grade teacher was Mrs. Julson.  Our grade was one of the largest to come through the school at that time and so the powers that be added a third section to our grade from first through fifth grades.  So Mrs. Julson wasn't one of the "normal" third grade teachers, but she got saddled with us that year.  Anyway, Mrs. Julson really encouraged me to keep writing and keep up with the drawings as well.  At the time, I kind of brushed it off - like, yeah, I know they're good but whatever.  It's just a story.  Just a picture or two.  I took sort of a little-kid pride in them, but was still kind of embarrassed by them as well.  You know what I mean?  I kept writing throughout elementary school, eventually phasing out the ones with pictures and writing "real" books - using Sweet Valley High and the Babysitter's Club books as my inspiration. :)

Fast forward to high school.  Mrs. Julson's husband (you know, Mr. Julson.  ahem.) was the school superintendent.  I was around the office for something and he stopped me and asked me if I still wrote stories. 

I was floored.  How did he even KNOW about them?  And further, how did he remember them?  I stammered out that I didn't really do them anymore.  I walked away with a mixture of pride but disbelief.  You mean teachers actually discuss students outside of school?  Shut the front door.  Really? 

Looking back, I realize I should have kept up with them.  I don't even know if my mom kept them over the years or not.  I do know that I will be keeping T-Dog's though! 

Chotchkies chotchkies everywhere!

I've become addicted to the blogging world.  I am a couple months in now and have my faves I check out every day (here's looking at you, Roo and Jen!), and then I start clicking on links and likes and comment-makers and it becomes this huge spiraling rabbit hole of blogs and ideas and whirling whimsical creatures, oh my! 

No seriously, I can spend hours clicking through blogs, seeing what I like and what I don't like.  Hours. 

I find myself drawn to the ones that have funny stories mixed in with your basic awesomeness.  You know, like me. ;) And I can spend eons looking at beautiful cakes and ideas there.  Then I get to the craft blogs.  There are A LOT.  And they all seem to be friends and use the same ideas as each other and tweak it just a bit to be their idea, but that's noneofyabusiness.  I'm not going to even attempt at understanding the rules of borrowing designs and whatnot.

What I don't get is this.  What do people DO with all of these crafts?  Are their houses just overrun with teeny tiny sculptures of metal and buttons?  Are they the Griswolds of the craft world?  The joke back in the day would reference doilies at grandma's houses.  These crafters nowadays are starting YOUNG.  They have a lot of years to jam pack their homes with "stuff" ("stuff" being the word that I chose to use rather than something that could be deemed as oh let's say offensive.  Wouldn't want those crafters come after me with their hot glue guns and shiny pennies). 

Let me get this out there though - I am NOT knocking the crafts themselves because there is really quite a lot of stuff that I think looks so cool.  What I'm questioning is the need to make 12 of that same thing.  What do you do with them all?  My seester made a wreath the other day and it looks awesome!  Would I mind if she gave me one?  Nope, that'd be great.  Hint.  Ahem.  But what if she makes them for every change of season, every occasion, every time she sneezes?  What would we DO with all those wreaths??? 

At least my chosen creativity outlet of the moment is edible.  Throw a party and there's nothing left. :)

Vino....my dear dear friend

There's a site out there dedicated and called "moms who need wine" and I *love* it.  There are a bunch of contributors who tell stories - I like to think they're all true, maybe I'm naive, but I like my life like that. 

And some of these stories just ROCK.  And make me cackle out loud.  To the point where my DH will push pause on the tv and wait patiently for me to catch my breath and wipe my eyes and read out loud to him the stories.  Some I edit because he wouldn't think that was funny AT ALL but I do.  Love love love them.

My seeester (let me insert OLDER here) has started a wine club for us girls.  We get together, each of us bringing a wine that fits the bill for the night and then $5.  We do some taste testing of all the wines and then rank them.  Whoever's wine gets the highest ranks wins the pot of moolah. We had our first club gathering last week - and it was F.U.N.!  I did not win the cash money, but I did get a good list going of new wines I like and will be trying out!  WOO HOOO!!! 

Thankfully I did not get pulled over on my way home, as my sister thought it would be funny to try to put a teeeny tiny amount of red wine in my glass and ended up spilling all over my jeans!  Yikes!  How could I explain that one!! 

Final Cake!

Well, my 'decorating basics' class is over at Michaels (sniff sniff) and we had to make our final cake.  I went with the good ol' devils food with a homemade raspberry filling.  Frosted with a bright purple and covered with some bright flowers. 

I'm not finding that the decorating is actually hard at all.  I think I was just scared that I couldn't do it but ya just gotta try.  So anyway - my final cake:

Again, it's off my cell phone, sorry for the quality.

This coming week I start 4 classes of fondant and gum paste.  I think it will be F.U.N.!!!!