unbe-freakin'-lievable!

Seriously, you HAVE to check this out:

http://bazzillbasics.com/blog/bazzill-cardstock-tailgate-party

Words cannot describe how amazing it is! And it's ALL made out of paper! This lady has a lot of time on her hands and/or is super talented. I am leaning toward the latter. Wow x5!

it's almost October

Do you know what that means???

Three full months of cute holiday decorations adorning my house!

Woohoo!!

week 3

I know, I am a little behind on my cake decorating update. But give me a break...it has been a busy week (and I wanted to blog about other things that weren't exactly related to cake decorating). Week 3 {and the last class of Cake Decorating Course 1} was crazy! It was our last opportunity to show off what we had learned, so I had this brilliant idea to do tons of cute flowers on my cake. My preparations actually started over the weekend. I discovered this amazing teal dye color that I knew I HAD to use on my cake, so I made hundreds (and that is not an exaggeration) of tiny little flowers in teal, pink and purple. My mom thought they didn't match well together...but really they did. She just didn't have the vision...

Below are several pictures of my tiny flowers. It was quite the process as I had to make the flowers, and then a day or two later realized that I forgot to add the white centers. Each time I moved the flowers, approximately 100 of them fell apart. By the end I was left with about 1/2 the flowers, and the rest made the lovely pile of crap pictured below.

I am happy to report that I used my extra frosting to work on some roses, and I think I finally discovered what I was doing wrong. Number one, my icing was probably too thick. And secondly, I was in the habit of refrigerating my icing all day, everyday, which is a bad idea. Room temperature icing flows much better...trust me! I still can't say that I rock at making roses, but I am getting better. Check them out:

And finally, I made a triple layer cake, covered in a butter yellow icing color.

I thought I would go against the rules and purchase a Betty Crocker cake mix (Wilton suggests you use Duncan Hines) and I really wish I wouldn't have. The cake didn't rise at all, so in order to get a cake that was higher than 2 inches tall, I had to use 2 cake mixes and combine three layers together. I did, however, try something different to lessen the overwhelming icing amounts. I filled the layers with chocolate pudding. YUM! Honestly though, it didn't taste as great as I hoped it would have...

Anyway, the cake turned out to be a ball of frustration for me. The flowers were fragile, but the leaf icing I made was the wrong color and looked strange on the cake. Because I made millions of flowers, I felt obligated to use millions of flowers on my cake. I think it's a bit over-the-top, but here is the final result:And a couple of side shots:

I apparently have an issue making my leaves look normal and consistent. But it is what it is. I can't change it now. Oh crap! I just realized that I forgot to add a picture of my cake innards so you could see my chocolately layers. And sadly, the pics are on my parent's computer and I am somewhere else. Oh well. I will just post it later. Anyway, that is my cake decorating course 1 final cake. I hope you have enjoyed taking this journey with me. I am officially finished with the class now, and I even got this amazing certificate to prove it:

Not to worry though...I signed up for Course 2 {and may simultaneously take Course 3}. Sorry folks, I am not done blogging about cake! Okidoke, have a great weekend friends!

a milestone

It was Monday, September 21, 2009. The time was 5:21pm. The temperature was a blistering 105 degrees:

The radio was playing that horrible Taylor Swift "Romeo" song (ugh!). I was driving North on the 101 toward the 60.......and this happened:
I know, I know...it's a little hard to see due to the dirtiness of my car and the unfortunate position of the sun, but my car hit the 100,000 mile mark. Pretty exciting...

Shout out

A quick shout out to my best friends in Utah (aka The Fabulous 5, the A-Team, etc). You know who you are and you will immediately know what I am talking about when I post this hilarious quote I stumbled upon today:

FRIENDS will help you up when you fall

but...

BEST FRIENDS will push you back down and laugh

I will forever be scarred...but looking back, it was pretty dang funny!

whY?

It is no big surprise that I love me some football. But mostly I just love me some BYU football. The first two games of the season were spectacular. But the game on Saturday vs. Florida State was a bit painful to watch. Again I ask myself the question:

However, there is some good news! As painful as the game was to watch, I could not keep my eyes off of the screen. And this is the reason why:

Blogging world, meet Christian Ponder. The Quarterback of Florida State. Not only is he dreamy, but he is freaking talented as well. He KILLED our defense and he won my heart! You are number one in my book baby.

You are welcome to come to Arizona anytime...

emotional girl

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to give up, and you wake up feeling like the whole world is against you? That is how I feel today. And I apologize in advance for this post because it is probably going to be long and depressing. But seriously, there have been a few things that have been building up inside of me for YEARS that are coming to a head today, and I feel like I may explode if I don't get them out.

First and foremost is my love life...or lack thereof. It is no big surprise that I am in love with a Peruvian, and have been for about 6 years. I can't say that our relationship has been the best...we have had many ups and downs. But I consider him one of my best friends and he will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart. From the beginning, my family has given me a lot of crap about him. They are very open about their dislike and it really affected me negatively. You know when someone tells you not to do something and you just want to do it more? That was me and my relationship with him. I have always known that we would not be together forever, but I guess I just always hoped that something would change so that we could be. I never talked to anyone about my relationship with him because I knew people didn't approve. So no one really has any idea. Anyway, to make an already long story a bit shorter, he recently moved back to Peru. I haven't seen his face for over a month, but we have talked to each other quite a bit. Not seeing him is killing me. Not being able to say goodbye to him killed me. So the other day I made a decision to stop hurting myself. I really said goodbye to him (via phone). I haven't talked to him for several days. And it is hard...

I think what is the hardest is never knowing if I will ever fall in love or be loved again. It took me 21 years to find someone who was attracted to me, so how much longer will it take to find someone else? Guy don't like girls like me. Sure, I think I have a pretty face...but my body is ATROCIOUS!!! And most men don't see past that. About a year ago I was the skinniest I had ever been. I was looking great! But nothing could change the way I was feeling inside of me. I am an emotional eater. And I let my emotions get the best of me. I seriously need to get a handle on my emotions, but am not sure exactly how to do that. So the cake decorating class probably wasn't the best idea... Being surrounded by cake = eating cake. Hmm...

I believe the reason this is all coming out today is because last night I did something I shouldn't have. As you probably know, my dear friend Sarah is getting married. It has been exciting to see her relationship grow, but it has been even more exciting to hear her wedding plans. She has been talking a lot about her wedding video and having a videographer at her wedding. It made me think about my brother's wedding video and how cool it seemed at the time. So I borrowed my mom's copy of the video last night and watched it. And it honestly struck a nerve in me. It made me think about life and how much has changed in the last 10 years. But at the same time it made me sad...or maybe I should say jealous...because I saw how happy they were in the video. And I began to wonder if that would ever happen to me. Would I ever find someone? Will I ever get married? I spent the rest of the night looking through my high school yearbooks and then reading my patriarchal blessing. I had this feeling that I might have missed my opportunity. Sure, I have made TONS of mistakes lately. But I am working on them. I am trying to be better. That has to count for something, right?

I guess what it all comes down to is my attitude. Instead of focusing on the negative I need to focus on what is more important. How grateful I am for the knowledge I have of my Savior and His atonement for me. He is the ONLY person who knows and understands what I am feeling, for He has felt it. He suffered for my sins. And He has promised that he will ALWAYS be there for me, cheering me on and lifting me up when I fall. He is the only source of true happiness. And I know that if I put my trust in Him (hard as it may be) that He will help me find the confidence I need. He will help me lose weight. He will help me move on with my life. And I know that if I change my life and do the things I am supposed to do that He will lead me to my eternal companion.

WOW...that felt good! And I am happy to report that I am feeling better already! I guess all I needed was to let it out. I am sure my family will chastise me for publishing this, but I don't really care. I needed it. And sometimes you gotta do what you just gotta do. Thank you for letting me vent and thank you for listening. I promise not to do this again for quite a while.

P.S. Comments stating that I am a great person and will find someone are not needed. I really am fine. Probably just experiencing PMS.

ode to cake

Do you like my new song selections? I figured since I blog so much about cake decorating these days that I would change my music to match my blogs. I love Cake!

Ok, here is the update from cake decorating week 3: We did cupcakes this week...which was a bit more manageable for me. But before decorating the cupcakes we worked on our roses. This picture (on the left) says it all: I HATE ROSES! For the life of me I cannot figure out how to do them. To prove my point I am going to let you in on a little secret about my lameness: I spent my Friday night practicing my cake decorating skills. L-A-M-E-!!!! I practiced making a rose then, and for some reason I think I did a better job that day than I did at class on Tuesday. The blue rose here on the right is the one I did over the weekend. Hmm... One day I will figure it out. Or I guess I will just have to stay home this weekend and practice some more...

After attempting, and utterly failing at the roses, we learned about scallops and then focused on some really cute drop flowers. I liked those a lot, but had issues doing the twisty-turny drop flowers. I think the pictures in the book are rigged because no one in class made flowers that looked even similar to the ones in the book. Oh well.

And then it was time for the figure piping. Some people bought really creepy clown heads and made a little body for the clown head to rest on. I am not really a clown fan, so I chose not to do that. However, I must admit they turned out pretty cute. I chose to focus more on the little faces. The truth is, I only completed one cupcake in class. For some reason I just wasn't in the mood to decorate my cupcakes in class. But the second I got home I decorated all the rest...strange, I know. Anyway, here are some of the cupcakes I decorated at home:I think these cupcakes are hysterical because they define my life so well. By the way, my dad is going to have a coronary when he reads this...but IT HAS TO be done for the sake of my blog. What do you think of when you see these cupcakes? Obviously the girl in the middle is me. The boy on the right is the type of guy my parents want me to marry (choose the right) and the boy on the left is the type of guy I find myself attracted to. Yes, I am ridiculous, I know! Anyway, I just thought it was fun to create these cute little cupcakes with faces on them. The rest of the cupcakes were covered in drop flowers, using all of my left over frosting. They didn't look the most appealing, but like I said earlier, I wasn't feeling like doing anything too over-the-top with my cupcakes that day.

However, I am glad I decided to finish the rest of the cupcakes because that night we had a little party for my pal Danny's birthday. I only had one goal while in class and that was to make a special birthday cupcake for Danny. So I tried my hand at recreating his face (keep in mind, I don't have artistic skill whatsoever) and added the title of his favorite card game (and his secret idol), then tried to add a little bit of a manly touch by adding some brown stars around the outer edge. When another friend called to talk to me about our little get-together he asked if I would bring my other cupcakes so everyone else could have one too. So, everyone else got to enjoy cupcakes with pink flowers on them. Oh well. They eat just the same. It was a fun night hanging with the old gang again, eating cupcakes and enjoying some amazing milkshakes. Good times made possible by my cake decorating class!

argh!

I am not a fan of POLITICS!!!

Work politics, that is....

the cake

Ahhh...the long awaited cake decorating post. Let me first preface this by saying that I was and still am very excited about my cake decorating class. It has been very fun for me to learn new techniques. Afterall, I have never used a cake decorating tool in my life. However, there is one thing that just puts my panties in a twist. Do you remember me saying that I never signed up for a cake decorating class because the prices seemed a bit high? I signed up at my local Hobby Lobby because the price was a lot cheaper and more reasonable than the other classes I had seen. Honestly, I am not sure what you get when you buy a cake decorating class at Michaels or JoAnns, but all I got provided in this class is a book, with a retail value of $4. All other supplies are up to me to purchase. And purchase I have! HOLY CRAP!!! This has turned into quite the

money pit class! Every minute I am buying something new that is needed for my next class. There is a student kit for each cake decorating level, but the kit does not contain everything needed to complete the class. So, me being the brilliant woman that I am, paid a larger chunk of change to get a bigger kit, with more supplies and a cute carrying case. But sadly, that monster kit does not contain everything I need either. ARGH!!! However, everything has come in handy and everything will be used...eventually. I am loving the experience and have had a great time so far. I just wish I had more money to spend on silly little cake decorating things...

So, Tuesday was my first official decorating class. Last week's class was just an intro, telling us what is needed for cake decoration and how to begin. But this week we all brought a frosted cake with us to class. We had to bake two cakes and use some sort of filling to stack them together. That was interesting! I have never claimed to be a baker, but I thought I would have an easier time stacking two cakes than I did. I also thought it would be quite simple to frost the cake. Wrong again! I went out on a limb and decided to make a Red Velvet cake...a flavor I have never made before. Red cakes with white frosting...not so much a good idea! Besides, my cake was extra crumby, so there were all sorts of red speckles in my frosting. Luckily, a crumb coat gets covered up by another coat...so eventually the redness died down.

The actual class was ok. I found myself more intrigued with decorating my cake than actually listening to what the teacher had to say. I think I taught myself better out of the book. The first thing we learned was how to make stars using the star tip. I have to say that I rock at making stars! And, as you will see shortly, my cake was made up of many little stars (and star formations as well). I stopped listening after that and just went to town on my cake. Everyone else who was paying attention learned how to make lines and curved lines with the star tip, how to outline and create handwriting with the round tip and some piping gel, and then learned how to make the base of a rose.

Each week we will be completing more of the rose and learning other fun techniques. I am excited to go forward and can't wait to see what next week holds in store! Oh, by they way, this cute lady is my pal Sarah's mom. We had some good times making messes together. She is so fun! She, like me, thought it was more fun to decorate her cake than to pay attention. Seriously, who wants to pay attention when you are concentrating on your masterpiece??


Speaking of masterpiece, this is mine:

It didn't quite turn out like I thought it would, but I am pretty happy with the end result. It was my first cake, so I will chalk it up to a success. I think the thing that makes me most proud is

that I actually did use every technique learned in class. The stars and the bottom border are filled with mini stars. Each star is also outlined using the round tip and piping gel, and then the top blue border incorporated the curved line technique. Woohoo! Gold star for me! All in all, I really enjoyed my experience.

The day after class I took my cake to my friends house. We chomped on cake while watching So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. Good times! Sad story though, the cake wasn't very good. Not really a red velvet fan. And not really an icing fan. It was pretty much an icing overload. But hey, next time I will do better! That is all we can hope for right?

P.S. I included this picture of the cake innards so you can get the full effect of my masterpiece.

And finally, here are the other cakes that were made in class. Mine was definitely one of the more unique ones. Everyone seemed to use pink frosting and/or make flowers (which is what I originally had in mind). I am glad I decided to do what I did. Looks like we will have some amazing cake decorators coming out of our class!

freaky

So, the other day I had this crack smokin' dream. I don't usually remember my dreams, but this one was so real and psycho I couldn't help but think about it all day. You know that freaky Chucky doll?

Yep, that's the one. He was in my dream. Except he was not a small child, he was an adult Chucky doll. And he was my teacher. And, for obvious reasons, I didn't care for him much. I entered the classroom, which consisted of several bunkbeds lining the sides of a small warehouse. Apparently we were having a class sleepover. Lucky for me, Chucky the teacher was not sleeping with us. But as he was exiting the classroom/warehouse I decided to throw a soccer ball at him. He didn't turn around, in fact he acted as if nothing had happened and just kept walking. Just then, my classmates formed a circle and began saying that whoever threw the soccer ball at the teacher was going to pay (apparently no one saw me do it). I was a little frightened, but not too scared. I found a bunkbed to rest my weary head on and started falling asleep. I was on the top bunk mind you. Just as I was falling asleep I felt someone pull my leg, pulling me off of the top bunk and onto a different bottom bunk (the bunk below the teachers' bunk). Guess who was my classmate that did that to me?

It was Katherine Heigl. Strange, I know. She was doing it more as a joke, but the fact that I now had to sleep on the same bunk as my teacher (even though he was not there at the time) did frighten me a little. I tried falling asleep, but as I was doing so I felt someone breathe into my ear (and I really felt it in real life too). FREAKY!!! Just then I woke up, totally expecting to see Chucky standing over me. I seriously threw my arm out to smack him, but ended up smacking my pillow instead. My heart was racing. I looked all over my room, thinking someone had to be in there...afterall, I did just feel someone breathe into my ear...

Luckily, no one was there. And thinking about it now, I attribute the breeze on my ear to my ceiling fan. Needless to say, once I calmed down and tried to fall back asleep, all I could picture was a freaky Chucky doll hanging down from the top bunk, staring me right in the eye. How do our brains come up with these things??

I-N-S-A-N-E

Here's to hoping none of my blogging friends have to experience Chucky in their dreams...

color me jealous

At this very moment, my parents are on an airplane headed for Peru. And when they get off the airplane they will be greeted by this cute brown boy:

...and his cute mother:
{I am jealous}

I would pretty much give anything to be there with them. I miss that kid! One day I will go visit... But for now I will just live vicariously through them. :(

ace of cakes?

I am in love with Duff...the Charm City Cakes man. I am inspired by his work, I love watching his tv show and I also think he is pretty dang sexy! But before I met Duff, I have always had this desire to take a cake decorating class. For years I longed to go to my local Michaels store and sign up for a class. But the price of the class always scared me and I was just too lazy to do it. So a few years ago when I discovered the Ace of Cakes show it really ignited the passion again. I tried my hand at a few things, but this was the best I could do:

L-A-M-E

I lack artistic skill, I lack baking skills, I don't know how to make frosting, and I just basically don't get it. Both of my sisters-in-law have made FABULOUS cakes over the years and quite frankly, I am jealous. A couple of weeks ago I found out that my local Hobby Lobby store offers a cake decorating class...and the price seemed reasonable enough. So I signed up!

Woohoo!

Every Tuesday in September I will be trying my hand at cake decoration. Who knows, maybe I will realize that this is not the thing for me...or maybe I will become a master decorator. Either way, I look forward to the experience. One day, I will make something amazing like this:

...but for now, we are taking baby steps. Wish me luck!