Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wordless Wednesday- Mamia's Birthday surprise....

Are you playing this week?  Link up here at Wordless Wednesday and check out some fellow wednesdayers....


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMIA!!!!





















All in all... the cake was a hit (and delicious as well!)

Love you Mamia!!!  I hope you enjoyed your party and that God blesses you with many, many more years filled with love, happiness and family!

:oP

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Happy Birthdays

Today is both my Mother's and my daughter's birthday!!! I want to wish them both the most wonderful day ever and that God bless them with another year of life filled with love and happiness!

Isabel's birthday party will be this saturday... thankfully giving me a few more days to get her cake going.

My mom is getting a surprise dinner tonight!

So I made her cake... my sister and I decided that we needed something that would match her personality.  LOUD AND VIVACIOUS... so that being said, this is what we decided on....




It is a white cake with strawberry shortcake filling (homemade whipped cream with chopped strawberries)  covered with fondant.  I like the gift box look so that is what we decided on. 

What do you think???

Let me tell you that I can not wait to take a bite of this one!!!

Check in a bit later for pics of the party!

:OP

Monday, August 23, 2010

I Need some help....

I posted this the other day, but for those of you that did not read the post I'll refresh your memories!  I am trying to start my own cake baking business.  I love to bake and try new recipes, and I'm actually pretty good at cake decorating.  but mostly I want to do something I can do from  home.  I've been looking for jobs in my field, but right now they don't pay much and I would end up working strictly to pay for daycare.  Ummmm not really my idea of making the best use of my money!

My friend had me make a bridal shower cake for a mutual friend, and apparently it went over really well.  I have some business cards, but I want to be able to get my cakes "out there".  I have an album on Facebook that I have made public so all can see, but unless you know I make cakes I can't imagine you would have a need to see my pics... 

I would like to make a website, but I haven't the slightest idea where to begin!

So my question to you is.... do you have any suggestions??? 

Post your comments and tell me what you think I can do to spread the word!  I appreciate any and all ideas!

:OP

Sunday, August 22, 2010

My first sale!

I've been away for a few weeks now... I just haven't been in the mood to post lately.  I'll try to bring you up to speed, and I'll do my best to keep it short and sweet!


First of all I want to thank Mel at Fishing and Wishing and Debra from Vachcouture for the beautiful beaded bracelet I won!!!   I must admit I received it last week, but like I said I really haven't felt like posting so I didn't!!!  but here is a pc of this beautiful bracelet...  absolutely LOVE it!  Isn't it gorgeous?!


Thank you soooo much!!!!!
Oh, I'd like to point out that Tyler told me that it is beautiful and wants me to wear it everyday. 

My sister had her birthday last week, the big 31.... haa haa haa!   We threw her a little party and made her the cake... it came out awesome!!!

I made a two tier butter cake, one with peach jam and the second with blackberry preserves... soo yummy!

I used fondant and made the tiers look like gift boxes...







The birthday girl... she loved it!

and now I finally get to the title of this post... my friend Darcie emailed me asking if I would make the cake for a mutual friend's bridal shower... ABSOLUTELY!!!

So I took her ideas, made some suggestions, did some research and this is the result...





It's white cake with milk chocolate ganache filling... covered with fondant and gumpaste sunflowers.

I LOVED it... more importantlly, everyone at the party loved it too!!!! 

I'm so happy, I finally made my first cake sale!!!

I've been trying to figure out how to get a cake baking business off the ground, and thanks to Darcie this may be it!  I'm looking into getting a web page, but for now stop by my Facebook page and check out the pics of the other cakes I have made.

AND that's pretty much it... other than the normal everyday activities.  So consider yourself caught up in the excitement that is my life!
:o{)

Monday, August 2, 2010

I'm such a slacker...

I'm warning you now... the title is the reason this post will last forever!



I won a give away on Mel's blog... Fishing and Wishing oh, I don't know... about a MONTH AGO!!!  I really wanted to post on here a picture of the item I won.

I won this really cool wall decoration by Max 'N Me Studio on Etsy.  These are unique works of art created by a mom and son duo with a portion of the proceeds being donated towards arts programs for children with autism! 




Isn't it wonderful!  I absolutely love it... I'm giving it to my dancer daughter Isabel, for her birthday... which is right around the corner.  Thanks Mel and Max 'N Me Studio for the wonderful art work!!!!!


So the other things I am behind on is my ridiculous obsession with ebaying.  I discovered eBay about 6 years ago and went nuts... I bought a bunch of "stuff" that I honestly really didn't need.  So I swore off eBay for a while... every so often I would relapse and purchase a thing or two... but two weeks ago I searched for wool yarn.  WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!  Needless to say $100 later I have sworn off eBay once again!    But take a look at this yarn...



100% wool... hand dyed... Isn't it lucious?

And wait until I get the rest of it!  oh, and I also purchased a couple of grams of silk yarn direct from India!

I'm signing up for Ebayers Anonymous tomorrow!!!


In other news... I tried my hand at knitting some longies, I found this really nice Patons sock wool blend yarn and decided they would be really cute for Sebastian.  What do you think?








I think they look adorable!


OOOH I forgot to mention, I made my first salad made from items harvested from my garden!


Yes, I realize the tomatoes are green, but they are delicious this way!

So I added a 1/2 of a ripe tomatoe and some shredded carrots from the fridge... but the end result was the tastiest salad I have had in a LONG time.


Just look at it... Isn't it lovely?

I tasted just as good and better!

Now that you managed to stick with me to this point... I'm gonna let you take a break!

Chao baby!
:OP

Giveaway goodies...

My friend Mel has some of the BEST giveaways going on right now!  Stop over at Fishing and Wishing and check out the great things she has listed.

First of all she is giving away some soothing bunnies from Collection Oberschin at Etsy, they are too cute!  I really like the balms listed for soothing headaches. 



Then she is also giving away a beautiful lampwork bracelet from Vachcouture at Etsy, you have to go to their shop and check out the gorgeous bracelets, necklaces and anklets for sale!  All custom made, all one of a kind.



She also has this wonderful beach bag that I am soooo coveting!  Original Satindoll at Etsy has some of the cutest handmade, original bags I have seen!


Sooooo, go check out the shops at Etsy and help support our fellow artisans... AND don't forget to go to Fishing and Wishing and leave a comment to see if you can win one of the these great gifts... or another!  Also make sure you mention that you read about it here!!!!!

:OP

Happy Birthday Sebastian!!!

I'm a little late... but this past week was a whirlwind of prepartaions and fun! 

Believe it or not... Carlos Sebastian turned 1 on July 29th!!!  I still find it hard to believe that it has been a year since my baby was born!  I can vividly remember that day like it was yesterday... and it makes me a little sappy.  Yes I get the oooh my baby is getting big.... but I'm fighting it back!

So we threw a birthday bash a week ago, mostly because my sister was flying to Colombia this friday and wouldn't be here if we threw the party this past saturday.  But it was great!!!!

I was very excited to make his birthday cake... what with all my vast experience as a cake baker.  So I got the Wilton's Year Book to check out the cute cake ideas and see what I could come up with.  So I picked the most complicated cake I could possibly find and said "What the hell... I know I can do it!!"


Yes, its completely edible.... and I was determined to make it!

So I began, 3 days befor the birthday to create the circus creatures that would decorate the cake.



Here are the "heads" and the other pieces of fondant I would need to make the animals.
Oh, did I mention that I have NO EXPERIENCE WHAT SO EVER working with fondant???  Oh yes, my cake decorating experience is limited to buttercream frosting and roses.

GULP!!!



These are the brownie "bodies" 



Yes, I know I look awful... it was only like 98 degrees for four days straight!!!  Even the AC wasn't cooling the apartment down enough to make it comfortable.



Monkeys and Tigers



The completed product!!!



Isn't it cute?  Yes... I noticed AFTER that I left a HUGE gap in between the two circles on the front of the cake...and of course by this point they were pretty much stuck on the cake so I had to leave them.  Oh well... it is an ORIGINAL.

Then off to the party... and the big reveal!  I was sweating bullets, because I didn't want anyone to say that it looked crappy.  I knew it wasn't horrible, but I was stll worried that it wasn't good enough. 

So breath held, I brought the cake out....

AND

THEY ALL LOVED IT!!!!

The kids all ran over calling the animals they wanted....

The adults asked me what bakery I had bought it from and if it had cost a lot....



The birthday boy couldn't wait to grab the elephants!

I was ecstatic!  I really didn't expect anyone other than the kids to love it... but they did!
I made a butter cake with strawberry jam filling, buttercream frosting and fondant!

I loved the fact that when my cousin asked me what bakery I had gotten the cake from, my mom's friend quickly stated that "SHE MADE THIS HERSELF!!!"

I couldn't stop smiling!



Isn't he cute as a button???  My mother-in-law sent me this outfit and I think he looks like a little doll.



The birthday pavillion...



Sebastian enjoying his fondant elephant...



The birthday boy taking a wack at the pinata!



hee hee hee... He's sooo scrawny!  poor Tyler...



Sneaking a peek at the big gift bag...



He LOVED this dinosaur walker thingy...



Then a dip in the pool...

I love this pic of all my boys!




Surfing on dad's flip flops!

I don't have any more pics because I got lazy and then put the birthday boy to bed.

But all in all it was a fabulous party! 

AND I got a bunch of requests for birthday cakes! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEBAS!!!

:oP

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Garden Project- update

We have had about three days of ridiculously crazy weather here... bright, sunny, hot all day... then torrential thunder storms at night. So I haven't been able to go water my garden, even though I have felt like a drug addict with withdrawls... I haven't been able to go and water and prune and weed and love my little plants and veggies.


So imagine my surprise when I headed over there yesterday to check the garden and saw how much plants can grow with a few days of consecutive heat, sun and lots of rain!


Instead of blabbing to death about what I found... I'm just gonna show you....

















I'm soo giddy!!!!
:OP