daisy cake. kind of.

I wanted to make a cake. I had been wanting to try this decorating technique for a while and decided that with this next cake I do I would try it. I also have been sitting on a new recipe for white cake that I was very anxious to taste. I decided the icing should be chocolate, because I haven't made a cake with chocolate icing since October.

That is unacceptable.

So I set out to make my cake. As things usually go around here I had planned on starting the cake in the morning and didn't get to it until about 9:30 that night. Which was about the time that JP came home.

With THIS!

I love flowers. Love them. I especially like receiving them. When I first saw these my idea of using chocolate icing went right out the window.


I knew my icing would have to be bright, and I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate these flowers into my cake.

And so, here is what I came up with...


Overall I am very happy with how it turned out.


My ruffles aren't very uniform. The technique actually ended up being a little harder than I thought, but it didn't take too long to get the hang of it. When I was a little over halfway done I couldn't believe how easy it was.


This was my first time trying two different colors in the piping bag and I love how this enabled me to blend the orange and white together.


For the top I wanted to be able to see the distinct colors of green and yellow, so I colored some icing yellow, then put in a very little amount of blue, making sure not to blend it completely. Then I dabbed it on with my spatula instead of spreading it smooth to give it more of a textured look like the flower center.


Now I need someone to eat it. Wanna come over?

yummy, cakeity goodness

I'm a nerd. There. I said it. Yes, I like Harry Potter. Yes, when I first discovered the books four of them were already out and I just might have holed up in my room for a few days and read them all. Who needed to go to class anyway?

Oh.

Yeah.

Oops.

Yes, I might have pre-ordered the last book, received it at my door on a Saturday morning and read all day to the finish that night. And I might have cried. Maybe. So I know these may be a little late with the final movie opening last weekend and all, but I just couldn't help myself when I was making these cake bites and realized I already had all the right color fondant on hand.


Let me tell you, there is a reason why only one of these things are adorned with Harry's glasses. Those suckers were hard to do! My fondant was a little dried out, so that didn't help. I wanted to have the arms of the glasses folded over each other but when I tried to position them they started cracking and breaking. I'll just pretend these are his glasses before Hermione repaired them in book one.

I told you I was a nerd.


The famous scar. Once I figured out how to draw a lightning bolt these were super easy. I'm a little embarrassed about the fact that I had to dig out one my books to refer to. I mean, it's a lightning bolt. I also couldn't decide which direction I liked them pointing so I did some of both.


The scarf was my favorite to do. While reading one of the many blogs I follow, I learned a little trick with putting the two colors together and I was very excited to try it out. This was my second attempt and I'm pretty happy with it!

On to prettier, less nerdy things...



The last batch of cake pops I did was a dud so I am pretty stoked about the looks of these!


I like the colors, but think there's a different combination I would have liked better. I am picturing these blue flowers with yellow centers on a green cake bite....but this is what I had on hand so I made do.


Oh, yummy.


Seriously.

goodwill find {plus a cute video}

I am most definitely not picky when it comes to the stores I shop at. I have my favorites, of course, but when it comes to one of us needing something, the first store we try is Salvation Army. If they don't have what we need we'll try Goodwill. If we still strike out after that we will hit up WalMart or Target. I'm all about the price and if I can find something at the thrift store that is still in good condition, I am all about it! Here is my latest find: couch pillows! The big ones, not the smaller ones. We've had those for forever.



$.99 a pillow? Yes, please.

Daisy has been REALLY into the Itsy Bitsy Spider lately, and it's the first song that she will sing and do the motions for all by herself. We have to sing it every night at bedtime...experiencing some problems posting the video...bear with me...okay...fixed!

my first curtains

Here is my latest project!


We have lived in this apartment for one year and twelve days. I have been saying I am going to make curtains for Daisy's room for one year and 11 days. It took all of two days to complete.


I had actually planned on doing a different kind of curtain. I had a pattern and everything. Please keep in mind, I have never made curtains before, and am a novice seamstress. I measured, I added, I subtracted, multiplied, divided, punched numbers into a formula several times until I was sure I had it. I figured out how much material I needed to make these super cute curtains with tabs at the top. I went to JoAnn's, used my trusty 50% off coupon and got this SUPER cute fabric. Started my project and wouldn't ya know, I was about 4-6 inches short. So at that point I pretty much just scrapped the pattern, watched a video on youtube and did the most basic, simple curtain possible. And funny enough, I think I like these better than I would have the other ones. Daisy loves them.

Can't ya tell? Little goober wouldn't pose for me.

rose cake

The JP and I celebrated seven years of marriage on Sunday! We actually had a date night Friday night, but we wanted to make Sunday special too since it was our actual day. JP remained true to his cooking passion and did it up right! Salad, steak, crab cakes, a little wine and...CAKE! The steak was seriously good and in the words of JP, "This steak is so beautiful I just want to take a picture of it."

And he did.

I know. It's huge. I couldn't even finish mine and that's saying something.

I'm surprised he didn't take a picture of the inside of it because he probably talked about the perfect color pink and the fine line between brown and pink for a solid 3-4 minutes. I usually don't like any pink on my steak but I'll admit, this steak tasted superb.

I was pretty proud of my contribution to the dinner. I had seen this idea on the blog i am baker (which I absolutely love, by the way - if you like baking at all you need to check her out!). She keeps making me add things to my "want to try this" list.

So, here is how mine turned out:

Pretty cool, huh? The inside is red velvet. It tasted pretty good, but I'm still looking for a red velvet recipe that will make my taste buds throw a party.

Also, it would be prettier had I made sure I had enough red food coloring. This is more like "pink velvet".

I was so nervous when I started piping the flowers. Seriously. I stood there for a good minute, piping bag in hand and pointed at the side of the cake, staring at it like I was trying to aim at a moving target. I don't know why, it's actually very easy. I guess maybe it's the perfectionist in me.

You can tell it's not perfect by far. The roses are all different sizes. I think I can attribute that to the fact that I was more worried about making the rose look like an actual rose than I was about how big it was. I think if I had a go at this cake one or two more times that I could make it look the way I want it to. However, I'm happy with this first attempt and now I can't wait for a special occasion so I can make it again.

oh thank heaven for

I would like to preface this post by explaining a little about JP. To put it simply, he loves food. I don't just mean he loves to eat food, although he does enjoy that as well. He loves everything about food. He loves learning the technique of how to cook it, sear it, broil it, [insert other various cooking verbs here]. I think if he could have his way, him and Gordon Ramsay would be BFF's. He likes all the cooking reality shows, especially "Top Chef" and "Kitchen Nightmares". I will admit they are entertaining, but I'm more of a have-it-on-in-the-background-while-doing-something-else kind of fan. I like that when JP watches these shows he gets in the mood to cook and wanting to try new things. I just have to be willing to put up with the horrible passable awesome British accent and him yelling, "Green burgers kill people!" at least once a day while he's in the kitchen trying to mimic a new technique he just watched on the show. But I digress.

Before we met, I had not known anyone with such a close relationship with food, and it was an adjustment for me to realize that he had a bit of an elite pallet. Whenever he makes a dish, if he thinks it's good he will say, "I'd be happy if I got this in a restaurant." I will usually eat anything on my plate that doesn't move so I guess you could say we sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Something else JP loves: 7-eleven. Specifically their slurpees. We lived for a brief time in Nashville, TN and it killed him that there were no 7-elevens. We moved from there two years ago and he insisted it wasn't because of the lack of his beloved slurpee, but I'm still suspicious.

Today only, 7-eleven is offering free, 7.11 oz slurpees. If you live near one, or even if you don't and you're up for a road trip, you need to get one. I'm not a food fanatic, but even I love the sweet, cold goodness of a 7-eleven slurpee. And there it is, the point of this post. The rest is free. :p

i used to run

Like, for real run. I don't claim to have ever been very good at it. For instance in the picture above (I'm the one in blue) I am about to commit a hand off error, but we won't talk about that. We won't talk about how we blew away all the other teams. We won't talk about how we lapped them on the track. We won't talk about how we had it in the bag...and then blew it by getting disqualified on this error. No, we won't talk about that. I'm over it. Completely. But, I did enjoy running immensely! Since school ended for me there hasn't been very much running going on. I just haven't kept up with it like I should have. Then when I start up again here and there I can't figure out why I don't do it more because it's so darn refreshing! Today was the second day out jogging since baby #2 came along. Here are the things I took away:

*The Domino Effect - the longer I live, the more terrible things I see, the more thankful I am for my health, the more I praise God for it! Today was just one of those days where it felt good to be alive! I felt every muscle and joint working the way it's supposed to, albeit a little slower than I remember. I thanked God for the ability he has given me to simply run. He is where my strength comes from and I am so thankful that He has seen fit to give me good health thus far. I know it can be taken away in an instant, and I hope that I never take it for granted.

*Old, Shirtless Man - my first thought on seeing this old, shirtless man huffing and puffing away, barely moving was, why can't he wear a shirt? Then I thought, maybe he, to some extent, appreciates the domino effect too. And it's hot.

*Progress! - I jogged a much longer distance than I thought I could. I actually didn't want to stop as soon as I started.

*Kids - My little people seem to like the jogging stroller, which is great because I can't use them as an excuse not to run.

*Hungry - I sure could go for a carrot.

Then later at home I did my magic trick:







Before:


After!



This Sunday I will have been married to my man (referred to occasionally and fondly as "JP" here in this blog and nowhere else) for seven years! I am all ready for our date. He's taking me out tonight and I have no idea as to the what or where. Funny thing is, he would probably reveal all secrets if he had his way. I like to be surprised, but I always have to convince him not to tell me anything. So here I am, all ready. Granted a few hours early, but I take advantage of nap time when at all possible!

2 am seasoning

I couldn't sleep last night. At first I was baffled as to why sleep wouldn't come. While it takes me a few minutes to fall asleep, I always, inevitably, fall asleep. Unless I am pregnant, or awake with a baby, I never have problems with sleepless nights. When it finally came to me, that the 16 and some odd ounces of soda I guzzled right before bed was probably the cause, I realized I wasn't going to be sleepy any time soon. Dumb. So what does one do when one cannot sleep in the early morning?

Make homemade taco seasoning, of course! I found this recipe over at Smashed Peas and Carrots and though I haven't had a chance to actually try it yet, I am excited to do so! I love saving money, and healthier is great too! With my couponing I can sometimes get taco seasoning for free, but if this is as good as I think it will be, that won't even matter anymore!

The fact that it was so incredibly easy is reason enough to do it! I literally dumped all the seasoning in a little bowl and stirred it around. The end. Voila!

Looks pretty good, and smells good too! And since it only took a couple of minutes to do, I was still standing in the middle of my kitchen, bleary eyed, yet very much awake. Oh well, I killed at least 2 minutes if you count the time it took me to retrieve all the spices and containers from their various places.

in the nick of time

I've known for a few months that I wanted to make an Independence Day wreath for my door. It's a holiday that I don't really have any decorations for, so when I saw this I knew I had to try it. And not a moment too soon. The holiday just sort of sneaked up on me. I finished it late last night so we get to enjoy it for several days, anyway. And when I say "we" I totally mean me, myself, and I. When I finished I triumphantly held it up for JP to admire and said, "How awesome is this?" He said, "Cool, is it a rescue ring?" Always the jokester. Actually I think his exact words were, "Cool, is it one of those circle things to save people?" Knowingly, he is a guy, and not particularly, shall we say, captivated, when it comes to things involving yarn and hot glue. However, to his credit, he did voice that it was indeed cool, and even showed interest in how I made it. And that's why I love him. It is pretty darn cool, though.

bags galore

This was one of those projects that I've had on my list for a long time. I had gotten to the point where the plastic bags were taking over my pantry. On a side note, my pantry is a laundry room/canned food storage/cat box room. It's a little cramped around here so I don't have the luxury of sitting idly by while the plastic bags we save slowly engulf our apartment. JP thinks we have too many. I think we just needed a solution, so here it is!

It's funny I put it off for so long because this really didn't take long at all. It did take me a couple days, but that's in the midst of the million and one things to do in taking care of a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I'm betting it would have taken no more than 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time. I followed these instructions. I really liked how it turned out! Although I think mine ended up being a bit larger than hers. Honestly, it looks kind of massive. I guess I was a bit generous when cutting out my fabric strips. However, upon stuffing it I found that I really needed it to be large!

It was very easy! What's even cooler is I found all the fabric at JoAnn's in their remnant section! They constantly have these left over pieces of fabric at 50% off...and if that same fabric is on sale on a bolt on the floor, then you get that percentage off too. It's awesome! So that made the cost of making this one bag holder mere cents on the dollar! I have enough to make a few more as well. I'm thinking....presents! Yes, I think some women in my life need these.