Frost yourself.

Hard at work making a "cake".

She freaked when she got icing on her finger.

But then she had an idea. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

The finished product.

Soon.

Very soon.

Inspiration!

I was sent this photo and asked to replicate the top two tiers (only do them level) with no girl and more of the 2nd tier grass.

So I made this!

Fun, isn't it?

Thoughts while I run.

Today, I ran for the first time in about 9 months. I ran for a few months while I was pregnant, and was only recently given the "all clear" to start running again. Although I run with music, I always find my thoughts funny as they wander all over the place as I try to distract myself from running. Some of my thoughts tonight are as follows.

- running when you are fat is hard. The last time I ran, I was probably in the best shape I had ever been in. I felt like a gazelle. Tonight, I felt like an elephant clodding along. I know it will get better, but man it sucks.

- right now, I weigh as much as I did when I first went on the South beach diet. I weigh exactly 50 pounds more than I did when I found out I was pregnant. This sucks and I try not to focus on it. I have a very healthy baby boy.

- the word "badonkadonk" makes me laugh every time. However, tonight when I was running and I felt my bum jiggling along, I kept thinking that if most people have a badonkadonk, mine must be a badonkadonkadonkadonk because it felt like it just kept bouncing around. I seriously thought about this one a lot tonight.

- I need to find a good supportive bra. 'nuff said.

- I wore all black while running tonight. It was dark out. I often complain about people who do just that while I'm driving because they are hard to see. I would have complained about myself.

- It was dark out when I was running. For some reason, I was really freaked out by a tree that I passed. I envisioned someone standing behind it watching me. I was creeped out.

- I hate my white running shoes. I want my black and pink Nike shoes back.

- my cell phone sucks. It shut off three times while I was running.

There were more thoughts, but it's late and I'm tired. Night, all.

Pattycake, pattycake, baker's daughter...

For Grandma Pat...

Before G was born, my mom came out to visit. Because I was roughly the size of a truck, I asked her to help me plant a few flowers in front of the house. She took this and ran with it! We bought a few flowers and I was happy. Then mom came for another visit when G was born, and secretly planted more and more flowers! Now there is an abundance of flowers in my flower beds and I have to keep up with weeding and watering. It's a good thing I have such a good helper!

6 years.

I love you.

Oh, and this was my wedding cake. It was white on white and had our names and our vows written on the tiers. Chris' aunt made it for us.

Schnookems

"Mommy, can I put on your lip stuff please?"

"Sure, sweetie."

"I look pretty, mommy?"

"Sure do!"

(And yes, her hair is out of control.)

Mullet Man

Business in the front.

Party in the back.

few words

Blogging takes a lot of time. It involves two hands for typing. I don't have a lot of time during which both hands are free. I have a bunch of posts, floating around in my head, but no time to type them out. For now, be happy with a simply photo post.

Gavin asleep in his sling.

Chelsea helping me make fondant.
Gavin getting excited and starting to smile.

Grinning at me, showing off those cute dimples! At his 6 week appointment, he weighed in at 12lbs, 6 ozs.

Love his smile. Makes everything all worth it.

And now, I'm being beckoned for another feed, so I say good night.

A cake wreck, I am not.

One of my favorite blogs is Cakewrecks. I love it. My favorite cake wrecks are the "this is what they ordered, and this is what they got" kind of posts. For examples, click here and here.

Now when I decorate a cake, I prefer to have a picture to look off of. I'm not a creative person, but I can copy a mean cake. If I don't have a picture, it takes me way too long to think up what I should do. So why re-invent the wheel? You send me a picture of the cake, I'll do the cake. I haven't had any formal training, and I just look and copy.I think I do a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. So this post is going to reveal a few of the "behind the cake" photos.

Sometimes, people give me a general idea of what they want, and I find a picture. For example, a lady told me to do a Star Wars or Lego themed cake. I found this one...

and copied it.

I like when I have a photo to look off of but the client has no idea what I'm going for. That way, although I'm copying a picture, if I change something or it looks a little different, they don't know! This cake, I was told to do a two tiered, crazy Hannah Montana cake. I saw this cake...

and turned the crazy up a notch to get this cake.

Sometimes people send me a picture of a cake that they like...

and I copy it. This is where I get nervous because although my cake is super cute, it doesn't look exactly like the picture. I'm always afraid the client might be disappointed. When someone sends me a picture of a cake from a professional bake shop, I get a little nervous. C'mon! These are professionals...

and then I amaze myself with how close of a replica I can make! Sweet!

This is another example of a photo someone sent me. They said they really liked this cake, but wanted paw prints instead of circles.

Here's my version. The name I made was too big, and had to go in front of the bottom tier. At the time of making the cake, things like this stress me out because "then it won't look the same as the photo", but then I realize that no one studies those photos like I do (I hope!) and probably would never notice. (They were going to put the Littlest Pet Shop figurines on at home, so my cake is missing those.) Some cakes, I manage to copy pretty much exactly.

While with other cakes, I see the picture more as inspiration, if you will. I take a cake like this, (with a paper logo stuck on the side of the cake)...

and I make this! Please note - my logo is made of icing! (Still one of my favourite cakes, ever.)

Sometimes, I take a picture and think "I can do WAY better"...

so I do!

This is the photo of the wedding cake a bride wanted. She was pretty flexible. I was a little nervous because my flowers and leaves turned out much larger than the photo she had sent.

You guys all reassured me that the cake was beautiful, so I really hoped the bride liked it. I haven't heard back from her. I know my cake was stunning, but it did turn out a little different.

(Wow, now that I'm looking at it again, it is very different from the photo. I really hope the bride was pleased!)

Then, there was this cake for today. I think my ladybug's face is WAY cuter, but their leaves are amazing. I didn't have enough room on my board. (and I chose to leave off the beads of dew - at least that's what I think the white balls are.)

There you have it. This post is a pretty vulnerable one for me. haha. I'm a pretty harsh critic of myself. I know my cakes are pretty dang great, but sometimes, when you compare them to what was requested, they do look a little different. But still I know that I'm no CakeWreck!

I know, I know.

I should blog.
Short and snappy.

- life is pretty good. settling into routine with the kiddies, but wish that we could be outside more. today we finally made it to the park, just C, G, and myself. I rocked G to sleep, put him in his stroller, and C and I were off. G of course woke up about 45 minutes later and screamed all the way home, but it was a start.

- i miss exercising, walking and running. soon - very soon - i should be given the okay to start again. i'm eagerly waiting for that "okay". I can go for walks, but G makes it really hard as he screams every time he's in his carseat.

- now that i'm not pregnant, but still carrying all that extra weight, i'm feeling extra self conscious. of course, being asked when i'm due from a random stranger doesn't help. i know i can lose it, but with breastfeeding, i have to be sure to lose it slowly so that it doesn't affect my milk supply.

- my heart has been longing for a few of my friends from the past. i would love to have conversations over coffee with a few of them. i hate distance, both emotional and physical.

- not sure why i decided not to use capital letters. it's not like hitting the shift key takes extra time.

- doing cakes again is fun and i wish i had more time for it. i hate having to turn people away and i've done that alot lately. still call me though, on the off chance that i am free. i don't like hearing that people don't want to call me because i'm so busy. let me decide!

- supper is ready. we're back on SBD phase 2. good times.

Time flies when you're having babies

So I want to say it's been a month, but technically it isn't a month until the 14th. However, it has been 4 weeks, as 4 weeks ago at 2:30something, Gavin made his entrance. Granted this isn't the best picture, but it's how he is exactly at this moment - fast asleep. Love him!

*Edit - I'm adding some statistics. When Gavin was born, he was 21.5" long and weighed 10lbs 4oz. Today, he is 24" long. Two weeks ago, he weighed 10lbs 6oz, and today he weighed in at a whopping 11lbs, 11 oz. That's my boy!

A Tale from Bonneville Farm.

Once upon a time there was a sweet little cow*. This cow loved being outside, frolicking in the fields, chomping on the most wondrous green grass, standing around mooing with all the other cows, occasionally meeting new cows and of course, getting out of the field on occasion to cause a ruckus on the farm. Every once in a while, this cow enjoyed sipping from the trough on the other side of the field that was only for animals of a certain age.

However, one day, something miraculous happened and this innocent, fun-loving sweet farm cow soon realized that life as she knew it had changed. She stared in awe and amazement at the beautiful little calf* staring wide-eyed back at her. She snuggled and loved that baby calf, and realized that for the next little while, it was her sole purpose to provide nourishment to this young one. This often meant that the sweet farm cow had to stay in the barn, missing out on certain events - frolicking, mooing with others, and causing ruckus - because if she left that baby calf, it would make the most awful noises until she returned. That little calf was a hungry one, wanting to eat all the time, and sometimes, only once or twice of course, the farm cow debated running away, with thoughts of hiding in another field, gloriously soaking in the rays of the sun, while sleeping the afternoon away.

It was sometimes messy and chaotic on the farm, even though there were other cows willing to help out. Sometimes, instead of eating home grown, fresh green grass, the other cow in the barn would pick up a quick meal from Old McDonald's farm down the road. In spite of all this, the farm cow loved that tiny calf more than anything. She gladly sacrificed her peaceful days, her slumber-filled nights, her smokin' hot cow body, and her time spent with other cows to nurture that baby calf, knowing that she was doing what was best for that little one.

If you listen closely, you might just hear the occasional moo coming from that sweet farm cow.

"Moo."


*Animals in this story have been changed to protect the true identities of those featured in this story.

Public or Private.

Let me first state that private blogs annoy me. I hate having to log in all the time, even though I click the "remember me" little box. I also hate that my blog feed reader that tells me when someone has updated their blog can't read private blogs, so I have to check each private blog individually to see if it's been updated.

I've loved having a public blog, but it seems the trend lately is for private blogs. There are advantages, sure. Every once in a while I wonder about posting all the pictures that I do, but most of the time, I'm okay with it.

Right now though, I'm just so nosey. I like knowing who is reading my blog and lately I've been getting a lot of hits from Newdale and Neepawa. I'm curious who is reading. Come on - if you've been lurking, introduce yourself! Don't be shy! I want to know who is reading! (This applies to everyone - not just those from those two towns!)