Cake Class

Last night was my last cake class. I was very sad. I'm very grateful that my sister in law suggested that we take it. I learned a lot and found a wonderful new medium for my craftyness.

So in honor of my class here is a photo tribute of all the cakes I've done since beginning 7 weeks ago.

This blue thing is my first attempt I believe after two weeks of class. I don't think I am a fan at froofy traditional cakes. But for my first this isn't too bad.

Now I loved the 4th of July cake! I made the flowers 3 days ahead so that they would have time to harden. The flower lay out isn't exactly what I had planned but my board wasn't big enough. I improvised and I love how it turned out.

Desmond's Dino cake @ Chuck E. Cheese. I learned after making this cake to do the lining first. I think the two tone frosting distracts from that blunder and that this cake turned out okay in the end.

For week six we baked a cake and brought it into class to decorate. Brett said he thought it was very cheeky of me to bake a cake and bring home one I bought from the store. Again the traditional froofy cakes aren't really my favorite though this one turned out much better than my first (not surprising). It looks a bit wilted because it was very warm in our classroom and the butter cream did not hold up well. But check out that rose!


My most recent cake to date. I did this dinosaur landscape for Desmond's birthday at my Grandmas house. All edible the rice krispie treats are dinosaurs. The water is piping gel, the dirt is pureed oreos, the rocks marsh mellow fondant, and all the rest of the frosting is butter cream. Yum! Fun stuff huh? I had a great time making all of them.

Next cake on the list? My moms birthday cake. I'm not gonna lie, it's going to be gorgeous! But that isn't until the end of August so you'll just have to wait. :)

See you around. I may have a scripture case update later today hopefully by tomorrow morning.

Slumpage

Ahhh! I've got to get out of this lazy slump!!

Its directly linked.

If I get up an go running I get a lot done during the day, especially sewing.

If I don't go running I have very lazy days.

Since summer began we haven't been running until 6 am. Most people will say "holy cow! 6 am is hecka early to go running"

Not so much, I feel it is too late.

We were running at 4:45 M,W and 5:00 T,TH,F. Brett is driving to work at that time and would call me and yack my ear off forcing me to wake up.

Now he is at work when I need to be waking up and I can't bring myself to wake up on mt own. So I am not getting up and going running and thus not getting anything done through out the day! Unfortunately this has gone on for a while and its got to stop!

I did get up and run yesterday morning and I did get some sewing done :) and even though we don't have a dinner menu for the week, because I wasn't here this weekend, I whipped up some dinner with the supplies we had on hand. And I got all of our laundry done, not just clothing backed up over a week, but bed linens and towels too!

Today I did not wake up and run and I've wasted a lot of time on the comp. I did try to take Desmond to the free family movie at Regal but that was a major bust. Oh well.

So where am I as far as sewing stands? I am partially done with my last 3 scripture case orders and then I'll be sewing some bags for the craft fair, who we've finally heard a bit from. Should be getting our letters back soon.

Back to the bags. I've got five coming up, so far. With my payment from the scripture case orders I'll buy the needed supplies to complete those five bags and hopefully a few more. We'll see.

That reminds me, I've been commissioned to make a dress for a friends little girl. Exciting! I already have the fabric and such so that will be purely profit which can also go to the craft fair, yay!

Sorry this was kind of a wild all over the place post but whatever, it is what it is!

My Weekend

This is going to be a post of many pictures.

We are suppose to close on our house on July 27th so with us going to Grandmas on the 25th I really wanted to get out and have some fun this Saturday. We went over to our friends house and hung out with them for the day.

We went with them on their puppies first ever walk to the park. Lorelai thought it was great to follow the puppies and then was happy to be at the park of course. After that we went to lunch at El Rosal yum! Then we explored the bass pro shop! Man am I pumped up to go camping!

One of the happiest parts of the day was when I came home and found my prize had arrived! Whoot! Thank you Carrie for all the awesomeness!

2 Moda Layer Cakes!

5 Patterns!

1 Pillow from Moda Home!

Great stuff huh!

Now for the lame...

I tried making cake pops. It did not go so well. On Friday I made a 9X13 cake. While it cooled Lorelai and I went to a play date. When we got home I crumbled added the frosting and made the balls and stuck them in the fridge to firm up. I checked them Friday night. Not so firm. I checked them Saturday morning, Still not terribly firm. Finally Saturday night they were firm enough but I had had a long day and it was late so I let them stay in the fridge till Sunday after church when I stuck them all onto sticks and put them in Styrofoam to let the chocolate harden. They look just fine here.

It was the dipping the entire ball into the bowl that things totally fell apart. The candy didn't melt thin enough and the balls fell apart in the dipping. This is the best I got and it was even ruined because my mom tried to touch it.

Oh well. Bakerella mentions some thinning crystals that I'll have to get my hands on and try. Maybe it will turn out better next time.

My next baking project will be Desmond's cake for Grandmas house.

Next Sewing Project? Basket ball and soccer ball scripture cases.

Doesn't really matter though I guess because nothing gets to be done until I finish cleaning my room. That wont be much longer though.

A Trip to the Happiest Place in Modesto

I got paid for another scripture case today so what do I do with it? Well, spend it on the rest of the material required to fill the order and it was great!

Joann's is having a buy two yards of novelty fabric get a third yard free and since the required fabrics for my orders are pretty generic as far as boys go I decided to get a yard each (rather than the minimum 1/4yard required) and got a third boy type fabric free. Whoot! Plus the iron on letters were buy one get one free so I really scored with those too because my customer specifically requested names on the cases.

Soccer balls for Jack

Basket balls for Robby

Any Boy

And just for your viewing pleasure and her future mortification....

Here is Lorelai's first attempt at shaving her legs, Age 1

Ahh, Now Thats Much Better

I posted this a couple of days ago but the pictures shamed me and didn't do justice to my work so here we go again. (P.S. Its now in our Etsy Shop)Don't you think the colors look so much better this time around?
Hey now, I think I spy something sneaky!
Yes yes! There it is! An inner zipper and pocket!
Lovely, I feel so much better now.
And here is one of my recent orders. Since this one has the traditional outer pocket and not an inner pocket (though if one were requested that could most def. be arranged) it is the more awesome tricked out version of this one so I am going to say that it belongs in the Second Generation category.

I'm totally loving on the flower, what about you?


I just can't stand the awesomeness of these scripture cases. I think a new door has been opened to a higher quality, I think flowers are going to be incorporated much more often.

Dispite all of this awesomeness I stayed up late last night thinking over a problem. This pink scripture case is for a little girl and I'm sure she is going to love it but I would be honored to carry it around. Its spans through the different generations. I think boy cases are going to be more difficult. My husband has a superman case is that because he is unique? I've made cases for my girl relatives, cousin, aunts, and grandma but none of the boys have ever asked for anything. Is that just because they are dudes? Or because they can't imagine anything they would want. I just don't know.

The Second Generation

Here is the next generation of scripture cases! Isn't it beautiful? I couldn't find the Nikkon so the picture quality doesn't do justice to the vibrant colors. Feel free to get teary-eyed anyway.
What's so different about this scripture case than ones I have made in the past?

That's right! The beautiful inner zipper pocket.

This case like the others fits the standard sized quadruple combination or triple com + Bible
Like all the polka dots? I was inspired by one of my favorite designers birthday outfit (not to be confused with birthday suit :P)

Expect to see this beauty in our Etsy shop very soon!

Oh my heck!

I must have this for my sewing room!

Crafting, it's in our blood/ My First Quilt

In case you didn't know Emily and I are related through our dads. They are twins and we cousins are their awesome offspring.

There is no doubt that Emily inherited a massive amount of her craftyness from her mom (Joanie!) and it was my mom (Mom!) that taught me to sew. But there is no denying that our fathers side can hold its own in the craft world.

I want to talk about our Great Grandma Ruth for a minute. Grandma Ruth passed away in 2003, it's okay it was really her time, she was 99 years old. I spent some time with her growing up but I wouldn't say that I knew her very well, Em would probably say the same.

But from what I hear she was one amazing woman.

* She survived 2 world wars

* Acted as woman of the house when she was only 11 because her mom was too sick

* Raised 4 wonderful children 3 girls 1 boy

* Has around 25 grandkids

* I have no idea how many great grand kids!

During WWII Grandma Ruth was a real life Rosie the Riveter! Her abilities were specially requested when it came to cutting the manholes in submarines and ships because she could cut a perfect circle. She would ride the train a couple of hours to get from work to home and along the way she would crochet flowers that eventually made up a beautiful table cloth that covered the display table in her Relief Society. We used it for the funeral service and then grandma Myrna donated it indefinitely to their wards Relief Society. But here is a pic!

Anyway, she made a beautiful grandmothers flower garden quilt all by hand many, many years ago. In recent years its begun to fall apart and while Grandma Myrna is still trying to find somewhere to repair it (it is soooo delicate) in the mean time she and I have endeavored to recreate it! I get a flower done from time to time while working on other projects in between. Its an on going process but through it I have really grown as a seamstress.

So this is my entry for Camille's Parade of Quilts

This is one of my first blocks made in 2004, before we discovered hexagon templates and just after I sadly realized I would not be able to do this on my sewing machine.

And here is my most recent flower block. Much crisper and you can't see the thread connecting the little hexagons.

There you have it! We need some 56 flowers to complete the quilt and are up to mid-30's! I hope you enjoyed the reminiscing.

And just for fun here is my husbands first (and most recent) quilt!

Oh and BTW I've almost finished 3 more football scripture cases and just have to pic up a bit of purple fabric and then I'll be all over making some more girlie ones! You can check out what I've already got by following my Etsy link to Carroll Cousin Creations there on the right. Ooo and I need to remember to add that custom requests for scripture cases are totally welcome! Good times, talk to you soon!

My baby is very Cute but NOt feeling well :(

I'm not going to go into detail because I may be famous one day and this blog could totally be published as part of my memoirs or something and I don't want Lorelai's teenage self to be totally embarrassed by my mommy over share. Just know she is one sad sweet little baby. But I still managed to catch this glimpse of happy cuteness.

She had run away after her bath this morning and went straight to my sewing machine.

Speaking of sewing machine I did this, this morning.



Now here is my dilemma. Do I post it now on Etsy to sell or do I stash it for the craft fair? We really need to build up our inventory!

As far as my second order goes, I'm still waiting on the fabric. First order loved hers.

Time to go to the Dr. I don't feel like I've covered everything I've felt like talking about so be alert for an update!

Ha!

Well, I've finished a scripture case order! I'll hand it off in the morning but I'll let you have a sneak peek right now!

So exciting. I don't really have much else to tell you I just wanted to show off a bit. Oh along those lines Lorelai said a new word today.

"Pretty" I caught the moment with a picture!

And here is another pic of a baby caught red handed. She was not given the spoon nor the can of frosting.

Can't Remember Snazzy Title

Well, yesterday was crazy busy for me!! In the morning I had to get some meringue powder so that I could make some royal frosting to make some certain flowers for a certain holiday this Saturday. Plus I loaded up on powdered sugar because it was wicked cheap at Wally World. So as soon as Desmond's bus picked him up we went to the store and tried to pick up those things.

We went to the super Wal*mart but its ridiculously lame as far as shopping goes so we just picked up a cake mix and boogied outta there.

Then we went to the school Desmond will be attending Kindergarten this fall and checked out his new class. Lorelai had a great time and felt like she fit right in.

Then we went to Wally World to get what we couldn't find at the retarded one.

Home. Failed Lorelai nap attempt while I whipped up some royal frosting. Went and got the screaming baby (Desmond's now home) and I separated and colored my frosting and set aside.

Desmond and I then made the giant foot cookie for cub scouts (failed to get picture but it was pretty darn cool)

As I was putting the cookie in the oven the sister missionaries called to remind me about our visiting appointment at two. Oh right, 45 min... cookie will be done hopefully Lorelai will down sleeping.

Knocked out Lorelai and rode my bike over to meet the sisters. The guy we were suppose to visit wasn't home so we tried to go and visit two other guys they can never visit because the need a member with them but they weren't home either.

So home again where my baby had woken up. I cuddled with her until the daddy got home then I locked myself in my room with my ipod and frosting and made up some special flowers.

Dinner.

Rush to cub scouts. Only one boy showed up and Brett went to school with my key to the building so cub scouts... not so much. I took the foot home and frosted it and dropped it off by myself.

Bath and kisses for the baby and she's down for the night. Cutting time! All through SYTYCD I cut scripture cases and got 6.5 cut out!

I didn't have quite enough of the USC to make two cases. But oh well! I'll figure something out for that.

The Dragonflies (the only really girlie one) is one of my Scripture case orders. I run with her mom in the morning and yesterday when we got back she handed me the material and the woman I visit teach who comes to do Pilate's with her mom said, "Make sure you let me see that, I'm thinking Christmas gifts" I chuckled and said for sure for sure! and she said "I'm serious!"

Me too Sis. Sid me too. :)

That's all for yesterday. I only got the fabric cut out last night. I need to cut out all the batting today. yuck! Oh well that's my job for today and I have not planned to go anywhere. :D

So here I go!

Oh and here are some pics of my favorite sewing things for your viewing pleasure!

Springy scissors! These are the ones Brett dropped his cheeseburger on and I had to take apart and clean and have never been the same but what are you going to do? They are still way more awesome than regular scissors.

My pin magnet. I think Lorelai loves it just as much as I do (different reasons though :D)