The Poker Cake

Steven came home from Iraq for some R and R this past week. We are so happy to have him home, even if it is just for 2 weeks. While he's been in Iraq, he turned 21 so we had a party for him. I, of course, made a cake for the occasion. Here it is...

The Valentine's Day Cake

I'm somewhat proud of this cake I just made. I was up pretty late finishing it and hopefully everyone at Jessie's Theatre Production after party will enjoy eating it too!. Obviously, I used the gum paste roses on the cake. I think it turned out well!

Roses are pink...

My friend Mignon is helping with an event this weekend in Sumner, The Wine Walk. Her daughter will be performing with her theatre group and the theme is weddings and the 40's. To assist in their project, and to get some hopeful advertisement for myself I am making a cake for the after party. Today I made my first gumpaste roses. The first one I made I followed the directions in the book and it's in need of some love. The next ones I made I basically just did what I felt was realistic. Here is a picture of the few I have made so far.

The castle cake

Here is the cake I made for my good friends daughter. She turned 8 this month. She really loved the cake and I had fun making it.

Karizma's Sweet 16

Today I delivered a cake for the HHH for a girl who is turning 16. Her name is Karizma, very cute name! Anyway, I tried to do something a little special for her and I hope she always remembers her 16th birthday! Happy Birthday Karizma!

The new doo

I got my hair cut today and I LOVE it so much. Ellyce did an outstanding job doing what I asked for. She always does such a great job!

My new haircut...I think.

Okay, so yes I am a huge Twilight fan. But a few months ago when I went to get my haircut I was looking for a specific kind of cut and I couldn't quite explain it right to the hairstylist. While watching the movie Twilight one of the characters, Alice walked onto the screen and boom, there was the cut I was really looking for. So I think I will go armed with a photo of Alice to my hairdresser and get my haircut and then color it back to my original hair color as I am tiring of my blondness. Tell me what you think...Alice is the short one.

Twilight!

Last Saturday my friend, Melissa and I went to go see Twilight. I had read all the books in the series but she had not. The books were so great, I was anticipating watching the movie and let me tell you, it lived up to all the hype! It was a wonderful movie. It was such a great movie, I wanted to see it again so I talked my husband into seeing it last night. Initially he had wanted to go see it because he is very into the supernatural/sci-fi type genre but after speaking to a coworker (yes it was another man) he had decided it probably wasn't for him. After just a little eye batting and whining, he agreed and we went. We went to the 7:20 showing on a Saturday night, which we never do. It was crowded and to make things worse, it was crowded with alot of teens. Of course there were many couples there too because it is a great date kind of movie but he hates seeing movies when its crowded period and the teens made it that much worse. He made it clear to me that he loved me very, VERY much to be subjected to this kind of movie experience. So we sat through the movie and every so often, I would look at him to gauge his reaction. He is very hard to read sometimes so I couldn't tell if he was enjoying it or not. Of course I was loving every minute of it, again. So the movie ends and we walk out to the truck and I ask him what he thought of it. His exact words were "I am hooked!" I was so excited to hear that! You can bet once that movie comes out on DVD it will be in my player ALOT! Rob Pattison is to die for in that role!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Dora Cake

Here's my cake for a 2 year old Sanjya from HHH. Hopefully she enjoyed it! It was cherry chip with lemon filling. Happy Birthday Sanjya!

Today was Becky's retirement party at Farelli's. She has worked 30 years at the post office and Wednesday will be her last day. There were so many people there for her. I hope that many people show up for my retirement party in 30 years. Here's a couple pictures of the cake I made for her. The mailbox was a bit iffy but they seemed to like it. Everything in the photo is edible except the post and the stems for the flowers. The letter below is made from gumpaste and used edible ink.

More cakes

Today I made two cakes. One was donated to Helping Hand House for a 7 year old girl and one was purchased by my supervisor for her twin 15 year olds. She has a boy and a girl. I sort of forgot that I had the one for the HHH. Actually, I thought it was due on the 21st. At any rate, I was able to get both done and delivered on time!

The sound of my voice

The other day I was stopped while driving in my postal vehicle by someone searching for an address. I wasn't at all surprised by this as I am stopped ALL the time by lost souls searching for their destinations. After all, I do work for the post office, so I must know where everything in the world is located. Truly though, it doesn't bother me at all helping someone out. The only thing that was different this day was that as I was giving this gentleman directions I thought to myself how much I liked the sound of my own voice. I found myself explaining more than I needed just so I could listen to myself talk. How weird is that. I know alot of people that do not like their own voice, well that's not me. So as I drove off I'm thinking to myself how much I do talk. I'm a talker and a listener apparently, of myself. hehe Any chance I get I'm usually talking. Toby Keith has a song called I Wanna Talk About Me and that is me to a TEE! I wanna talk about me AND listen to myself as I talk...that is me!!!!!

Football and Castles

Today I made cakes for two very different things. My brother-in-law asked me to make a cake for his dessert auction to raise money for his football team. They gathered cakes and desserts to auction so I just made a black and white cake. It was one layer chocolate and another white decorated with white and chocolate frosting. I tried to fancy it up and I guess it worked. It sold for $65.00, the second highest cake sold! Of course, I had to ask cause I'm so competitive! At any rate, it went to a good cause and hopefully the people enjoyed it.

The other cake I made today was for a three year old little girl so I made a pink castle cake. It turned out pretty well.

For a bridal shower

A friend at work asked me two days ago if I could make and emergency cake for her. Her family was celebrating a bridal shower on Friday and the person they were going to have make the cake was unable to do so. The brides mother wanted a bustier cake and Terry (my work friend) wasn't sure they were going to be able to get something like that from a bakery. She asked me if I would and I gladly said yes. Truth be told I was very excited to try my hand at a new creation. It would be one for the books. I worked for a few hours on it today and when she picked it up she was very happy with it. She said it was very lifelike and the bride's mother would be thrilled! I can't wait to talk to Terry tomorrow and see how things went. Let me know what you think too!

Recent cakes I've made

I've been so bad with my blogging lately. Sorry Mignon. You're probably the only one reading this anyway. But here are my latest cake creations...

Donated cake for a 7 year olds birthday.





My neices 10th and 11th birthday party.


My friend, Mignon and I made cupcakes!



Our labor day fantasy draft cake. The uprights didn't survive

My nephew and his beautiful bride, Christine, were married this Sunday. The day was perfect, filled with family, friends and sunshine. Everything was wonderful, considering the amount of time they had to get ready for the wedding. May they have a long, happy life together filled with much happiness and joy!



The Shoopman's!














Girls vs. boys














The cake! (I made it!)

Steven and Christine's wedding

As you know, Steven and Christine are getting married on August 3rd. We have mixed feelings. We are happy for the two of them, but wish it wasn't happening so fast due to him going to Iraq. The plus side to this whole thing is I get to make my first wedding cake! I am so happy, excited and nervous. I don't want to mess it up but I think what she has decided on is totally doable! I hope to take pictures all throughout the process of making this cake so I can look back on them. Wish me luck and pray for my nephews safe return!

Fishing

My husband, Chris went Sturgeon fishing today. It was a charter boat him and 5 other buddies from work booked down on the Columbia. It was his second trip. He's having alot of fun going too. Their guide is Willie Bloomquists cousin. He totally looks like a Bloomquist too! (Willie is a Seattle Mariner's player for all you baseball challenged.) Today he finally caught one that he could keep. He was very thrilled to bring it home. Maybe next year all four of us will try going. I think it would be a hoot!

Chris's big fish

Their guide

A wedding and a funeral

Today I received some more bad news. My 20 year old nephew, Steven, who is in the Army Reserves found out he is being deployed to Iraq. Not only is he being deployed, but he is going in the infantry. He's going to be right in the thick of things. The entire family is reeling from this news. I am so scared for him. He is too young to be going to war. His deployment is scheduled to last 400 days, of which 30 of those will be in Wisconsin for training. He will be allowed 2 weeks of R and R. My sister (his mother) is beside herself. I can hardly blame her.

Steven is currently engaged to a wonderful girl named Christine and they have decided to get married before he ships out in August. So on August 2nd we will be holding a memorial gathering for my stepfather, Chuck and on August 3rd we will be celebrating the joyful union of Steven and Christine in a small ceremony to be held at my sisters house. We are all in for an emotional weekend. Lets just hope we can keep it all together.