Nashville: Two Times in One Week!

This past weekend mom and I went to a wedding in Nashville for the daughter of one of her college friends. It was a beautiful wedding and so great to see everyone. I also enjoyed a bit of shopping in Nashville and found some great owl bargins.

The cake! So pretty!!! I don't think I want to even attempt to make a cake that big.

One of the center pieces for the tables. There were also flowers on some.

So fun!

Mother of the Bride dancing with her daughter before singing shades. She broke her foot just a little over a week before the wedding and rented a knee scooter to get around. She also had some pretty gold ribbon around the cast!

Getting ready to sing shades.

Mom with some of her old college friends/"sisters"

The front table! So cute! There were also pumpkins outside with an H carved in it.

Someone started the train...guess it happens at a lot of weddings...ha!

What makes it even better is that the MoB is leading it! So fun!

Resting yet still dancing!

Mom with some of her friends.

Mom with me!

The weekend before I headed to Nashville with some coworkers on Sun. afternoon to go to a sensory course the next day. We did shop some but were so tired from busy weeks decided to head on to the hotel. I also had major mouth pain and felt lovely while there. There ended up being a tiny cavity but not the source of the pain...who knows. My dentist said it could be stress...most definitely! :)

Picture above is with coworkers and below with some OT classmates!!! So good to see them but missed a few. :( At this point of the night the pain was a little better but not great.

After being in Nashville 2x in a week, it did make me miss it a bit, but I am also so glad/thankful to be where I am! Just wish some of my classmates/friends lived here, too! :)

Just Another Random Post

These last few months have been so very busy. There is just not enough time in the day!!!!

• no more working on Fridays...my 3 day weekends are back!
• thought I needed a root canal...it was just a tiny cavity but the pain was from stress...really? ha!
• never had time to decorate the 74 cookies I made for the bake sale...they are just waiting in the freezer for now...maybe for the football game this weekend!
• working on a 2 tier monkey cake for a shower Wed.! (need to make a gift but it may have to wait)
• working on 2 Big Brother t-shirts (pics soon)
• finished one shirt and working on a second for co-workers kiddos (pics soon)
• finished 20 copies of 2 picture slideshows (DVDs) for a wedding we went to this weekend...so glad to have that project off the list (wedding pics soon)
• finished and mailed shower invites for Nov. shower
• went to shoe store to see how I run/walk...got new shoes and inserts...one week later, and I may change back to my other shoes.
• lots of sewing projects that need to be finished before Nov!
• planning a couple of cakes for upcoming events!
• a vacation is needed and coming very soon!!!!!!

Happy Fall Ya'll (Final Fondant Cake!)

My last cake classes were this week...so so glad to be finished. It was fun but way to much time/work. I do not recommend taking two classes at once for sure! Tuesday night was the last course one class and we made roses. I did not put the roses on my cake and ended up just putting little flowers all over the cake when I got home just to be finished with it. I took pics but will spare you all looking at the buttercream mess! ha!

Saturday was the last fondant class. Naturally I waited until the last minute to work on it Friday night after going to part of a local high school football game. At least I had made the cakes the week before after last Saturday's class (6 cakes and 74 cookies were made last weekend and put in the freezer for the week...crazy!) I was up until 2 am getting ready for Saturday's class Friday night! Needless to say I crashed yesterday afternoon and still have not fully recovered with allergies on top of very little sleep!

Decorating cookies for this weeks bake sale at work will have to wait until tomorrow night!

Ok so here is the cake from Saturday! Happy Fall Ya'll!

I really like the little owls! Hoot Hoot!!

The fondant is homemade marshmallow and turned out really good and smooth this go around! I was so excited about getting it right this time! ha!

Hopefully, I will have pictures of cookies this week! I need more time in the day!

If you love cupcakes...

(if you love cupcakes), then clap your hands, (clap your hands)...

Or just enjoy these pics of some cupcakes that will seriously make your mouth water for more. I have always used icing from the can...gasp! With this class, I have had to make my own icing...I really didn't know what I was missing. ( Still love me some icing from a can though! ha!)

Tonight we learned how to make clowns (creepy) and little flowers as well as the second step to the rose (not fun and may be the end of me...j/k). I practiced the clown but did not want to waste money on clown heads. I decided to get a little creative and make other figures from another book. (I seriously should not be in a class because I really just like to do my own thing)

Enough rambling...here are the pics!

Sweet little elephant is all lopsided after turning over on the way home...oops!

It may or may not be a goal of mine to see how many owls I can sneak in my cakes during this class. We have required cakes some weeks but I may just have to tweak them a bit. I was lazy this week and didn't mix new colors which is why there is a pink elephant and then pink little owl. Makes it more fun with fun colors...don't ya think?!

After two animals, I got really lazy and decided I would practice these little flowers because they are really really easy and super fast. I think this might be one of my favorites from class so far. I mean seriously, how cute are these little flowers. I tried one out and it was simply delightful.

No cake in fondant class Saturday which will be very nice. We will be learning how to use royal icing! Woohoo!

Weekend Review

• worked almost all day Friday (kind of ready to have my 3 day weekends back!)
• lazy Friday night with mom since dad was in AL
• mum shopping for fundraiser at work (they will be really cute if anyone in this area is interested in buying some!)
• just for fun shopping...found more owl stuff in this town = awesome day!
• watched BAMA WIN!!!
• some cleaning
• made cupcakes for Tuesday night cake class which was sooo much easier than a cake which reminds me of why I have always liked making cupcakes more than cake
• more cleaning
• more mum shopping...my car is loaded with mums
• went to my first XO mtg as an advisor...so fun!
• still have tons of projects to finish
• still cannot login to FB!!!

Hoot Cake! (Beginner Class)

Tonight was class two of the first course. I just had to do an owl! I know you are all so surprised. The book wanted us to do a rainbow (no thank you) and our teacher let us pick our own design if we wanted to do something different. We could have also picked the character cakes and I am so glad I did not as it would have taking forever to do all those little stars. I added dots for fun and added a few too many...oh well...that is why I am practicing! ha! (The green looks better in person...at least I think it does)

First Cakes (Fondant Class)

So when I planned on taking a cake class, I signed up for the first one...the beginner course. After the first class, my friend and I decided we would go ahead and take another one while we were at it...fondant...might as well get them both under our belts why wait for the next one to be offered. The teacher was fine with us doing both even though we had already missed the first class. This was all Tuesday night...by Wed. we were planning on jumping in and taking the other class but still needed some questions answered. Naturally I had previously agreed to babysit Thurs. night and did not get home until after 11pm after working 10 hours. After working most of Friday (still working overtime), I finally made it home to bake the cake for Sat. morning class...Tues. night's cake would have to wait. Now we all know I have made plenty of cakes but for some reason this one was a challenge. It had to be at least 3 inches. Mine was 2 1/2 inches. I still had to go to the store to get ingredients for fondant and butter cream icings as well as other supplies, so I decided to just try again with the cake. By the time I bought everything and got a quick bite to eat it was almost 8...class was at 9 the next morning. I made the second cake which was also 2 1/2 inches and attempted to make the marshmallow fondant...would have been good to read the directions correctly. After 3 failed attempts I called it quits! I had no more marshmallows anyway. I moved on to butter cream which was a success and iced my cake! I think I went to bed around 2am and re-read the directions to find my error in the fondant process. I got up extra early to finish gathering everything and even thought about trying again with the fondant...decided I would buy pre-made fondant if mine was really bad...well, it was bad so store bought fondant was purchased in the middle of class. We all made the same cake to learn certain techniques and here is the finale product!

So what did I do with the first 2 1/2 inch cake?! Decided to make the fondant successfully and then get a little creative making something different from our class cake! The fondant was much better, but I could still use some practice...I think it was too soft/sticky! It also tastes a lot better, too!

Tuesday's class is just butter cream, so that should not be as bad. The cake is made and in the freezer. Just have to decide on a design (owl or elephant...not sure yet!) and make the icing!