Finally, I am mostly settled into the new place. I do not plan to move again anytime in the near future. That was enough work and chaos, piled on top of everything else going on in my life, to hold me for quite some time.

Most people are probably thinking, "Oh, you're just one person with a handful of odds and ends. What's the big deal?" Not even.

I have my great grandmother Eva's bedroom suit that borders on antique, an oversized microsuede sofa (in spa blue that is my favorite piece of furniture), a leather chair with matching ottoman (a great LL Bean hand-me-down from my Aunt Linda), an antique secretary (another hand-me-down from my dad's side of the family), a faux leather armchair (a steal from Target online), a coffee table that's been floating around in the family since I was a little tyke, a fabulous end table that was granny's, a fabric tufted bench that conveniently stores all of my arts and crafts paraphernalia, a massive TV and TV/DVD hutch (compliments of the brother when he upgraded to an overpriced, flat screen last year), a giant bookcase (that was also granny's), a smaller wooden bookcase (an exact Pottery Barn replica from Target about 6 years ago), a small wrought iron bar cart that's about to be on the receiving end of a makeover, a square dark-wood pub table with 4 tall chairs (scored the entire set for $99 which will hold me til I can utilize my broke-down Duncan Phfye table again one day - which I had also been storing in the guest bedroom for the last 6 months and had to be relocated to storage - but that's another story) ... along with the furnishings I have plenty of kitchen items, linens, clothing/shoes, pictures, mirrors, lamps, decorating accessories and all of the odds and ends accumulated over the years. I did pair down these items substantially and participated in a group yard sale at the end of July down there - yet I still had lots of stuff to get a handle on.

Additionally, we had to move my brother's washing machine. Santa brought him a set of fancy front loaders in fire engine red last December that he requested and picked out - go figure since he hates doing laundry but that is what he wanted for Christmas. Fortunately, my parents had the vision to keep his perfectly good washer in storage. His other dryer was discarded as it had died in the Fall and was the catalyst for his Christmas present request. They purchased a new dryer which my dad installed Saturday as a housewarming, early birthday gift. :)

But back to moving: Let's just say that I envy folks who move and their employers provide all of the arrangements for the packing and heavy lifting and transportation and unloading and unpacking, all the while picking up the tab at the end (which seems to be 1/2 the people I know). I guess the one trade-off is burning a bunch of calories in the process. Being a single head of household makes it even more taxing, but it is always a great thing to have family and friends who volunteer to just pitch in and help you make it happen. For them, I am extremely grateful and appreciative. And at least, they got a good story to tell about renting a U-haul moving truck from the guy who invented the internet in the 1970s at a very dysfunctional storage center in Effingham County! Though It was not in the least bit amusing at the time!

I was spretty overwhelmed for the first couple weeks following the physical move. I worked a few weeks, moved over the weekend, worked the whole week, spent the next weekend having a yard sale and cleaning the old place from top to bottom, worked the whole week...and finally had a couple weekends to focus on making sense of my new home.

I felt like I was doing nothing but sleeping in my bed and digging through boxes and bags to find stuff every day. There were many things I wanted to tackle but could not because I was either out the door to work or had a queue of assignments (papers, projects, exams, etc.) screaming at me from an 8 week online summer class (condensed down from the norm of 16 weeks). I hate to say it, but I really did not learn much of anything in the class! I was simply trying to keep my head above water by reading and researching the minimum to accomplish each of the assigned tasks.

Luckily my mom hadn't yet started back teaching, so she spent an entire Saturday helping me and got the ball rolling for the whole "settling in" process. I've spent the last couple weeks working on a few projects to spruce up some of my accessory items that had become old and tired to me. It's been fun making things fresh again. For instance, I had a plain, carved wooden lamp that was stained a chocolate color. I used a really shiny, high gloss red spray paint to give it a new look and found some inexpensive rope ribbon to tie around the shade which gives it a nautical look. I want to have a coastal theme in my living room and it is gradually coming together the way I envisioned it. Maybe I will be able to post some pics down the road.

This week's goal is to secure cable. It's been nothing but a huge fiasco filled with technical difficulties that I won't even go into on here. I'll spare everyone the details but if it isn't resolved by this week, I will be moving on to another provider. No HGTV, TLC or baseball games is making me insanely cranky!

A Little Team Spirit + Christmas Spirit this Year

There is an upcoming holiday event in the 'Boro, The 3rd Annual Festival of Trees. November 15-20, 2010.

(I am still processing that it's already mid-November and that Thanksgiving is days away.)

I will be at The Festival of Trees Saturday, November 20th with some cake samples, but my Aunt Linda and I also decorated wreaths that we donated for the Christmas tree and wreath raffle. Raffle tickets are only $1 each. Each tree and wreath has its own raffle box so that you can choose which ones you wish to spread your chances.

My Aunt made three wreaths, and I made one. I called my theme "Braves Country" since it is Braves on a more rustic, grapevine wreath. This could be pulled off for any sports team. I bought 3 star-shaped ceramic ornaments for 49¢ at Hobby Lobby. I printed off 3 pictures that I liked and cut them to fit on the front side of the ornament. I used some Mod Pod that I had in my crafting box, coated it very heavily with a sponge over the pictures on the ornaments and let it air dry over night. I wrapped a shiny blue ribbon around the wreath. I decorated it with red and silver foliage (found at Hobby Lobby) with just a touch of greenery (as not to detract from the team colors). I hot-glued blue glass Christmas balls along with red and silver stars from a garland I cut up. The glass baseball ornaments I found were much too overpriced, so I took a plain white glass ball, and while looking at a baseball, drew the stitching on with a red sharpie. I made the huge red bow and added it as the final touch.

So if you are in the area, stop by and buy a $1 raffle ticket for my wreath. All of the proceeds go to a couple of local charities that provide Christmas for families in need.

Ceramic star ornaments - after I used the
Mod Pod to adhere the pictures to it.

The CE ladies snapped my pic when I delivered it.

My wreath (above) and one of my Aunt's
wreath (below) on display, ready for next week.

Is it Fall yet???

A nice, productive weekend at home in the 'Boro. . .

Saturday evening Jennifer called me to come hang for a while and eat fresh seafood; one of the perks of being so close to the Georgia coast. Her boyfriend Rob and a few of his friends had been out on the sea all day fishing. They brought back fresh fish and crabs that they cleaned and cooked. So we sat down to Jennifer's kitchen table right at midnight and chowed on some whiting, hushpuppies and crab legs. It was quite wonderful! I was thrilled she called me with the invite.

Earlier Saturday I finished a cake and made my first wreath. I have had the same over-the-door wreath hook hanging BARE on my front door since last Christmas when I took down the holiday one at the end of December. I often think I need something festive hanging there when the seasons change or new holidays approach...then I look at the price tags on store bought wreaths and catalogs and push that thought aside. I was feeling Fall-ish (even though the temperatures outside are mid 90s). I recommend looking online for "how-to" tips as a guide.

I was quite pleased with the final product. It's such an easy and inexpensive project that can yields a pricier look. You can spend as little or as much as you want. Hobby Lobby here had all of their floral supplies 50% off this past week. All in all I spent $14 on the entire project!

I bought a basic 16" grapevine wreath (retails for $4 but was $2 with the 1/2 off -- so cheap!). I also took the time to rummage their clearance corner in the floral section. Most of these were too summer-y for autumn decorating, but I did find 2 flowers that I liked: one a deep red and one a deep orange for $1.70. In the fall floral section I splurged on a large red flower that caught my eye (1/2 of $7), along with a cluster of autumn leaves and 2 sections of stems filled with bronze ball clusters.

I did not use a glue gun, instead some thin gold wire that I already had on hand. This way when I get tired of the look, I can easily clip the wire, remove the current foliage and start from scratch by recycling the wreath base. The stems of the foliage all tucked into the many grapevine wreath branches securely, so I used minimal wiring. I determined how I wanted to arrange the 3 flowers and worked the other accents around these. As a final touch, I picked up a bolt of zebra print ribbon with gold-fringed edging (also 50% off) and wrapped it around the wreath. Finally I made a bow to hang the wreath from the door hook.

I carried over the leftover ribbon to a white ceramic dessert stand that my cousin Wendy gave me for my birthday last year and weaved it around the rim to display some cookie sandwiches I had made with some icing left from the cake.

Wild about Dachshunds!

My cousin Wendy marked her birthday August 31st. She loves dachshunds and has one at home that she adores. This lead me to make a birthday cake for her featuring a little black dachshund in honor of her little black dachshund Prissy.

I baked three layers of a new cake recipe I recently found in a cookbook, cannoli cake. It was a little something different, yet tasty with a good flavor. The recipe called for cutting each layer in 1/2 horizontally and adding a ricotta cheese and Marsala wine filling. The cake was then stacked and iced in white butter cream icing -- as smoothly as possible. She is not a fan of fondant, so I wanted to use it as minimally as possible.

The third and top layer, I cut out to make a cushion. The "cushion" was iced in buttercream and covered with hot pink dyed fondant. A fondant tufted "button" was added to the center, and I used an ice pick to etch the faux stitching.

I dyed black fondant to create the dog and saved a little white fondant for her eyes and mouth and also to make the black and white leopard print snuggie to wrap around the doggie and coordinate with the animal print base of the cake. I rolled out the remainder of the black fondant and used a basic kitchen knife to cut out leopard-inspired stripes and applied these to the cake base. This was not too difficult to do...I simply took the knife and cut free form stripes with a little curve to get the animal print feel.

In creating my dachshund, I searched and searched online for cakes with dachshund themes, as I did not want to make just any dog. I only found one; a tan and white version that the artist had taken pretty clear close-up shots of and posted on a message board 6 years ago. This proved helpful for getting me started. Keep in mind: this is the first time I have attempted any sort of animal, and I don't really recall being particularly skilled at molding clay animals in art class in elementary school either! I thought it turned out well for a first attempt.

Another cake first was the bow. I have never attempted to create fondant bows (aside from the Relay for Life remembrance ribbons for the cupcake fundraiser and that was totally different). I dyed a deep purple fondant (I wanted to use a lime green but the store was out of that shade of green at the time) and rolled it out. I measured a couple strips to wrap around the base of the cushion. The bow took a number of attempts to create. I don't own any fondant books and have no training on it, so it is trial and error based on my sketches and examples I have researched online.

I do need to invest in a couple of good fondant applications books, if anyone has any suggestions.

( By the way, The "W" was purchased at my local Hobby Lobby and was the only non-edible cake deco piece on the cake.)

Wild about Dachshunds!

Kate & Emily also made off with a present also.
My Aunt Linda gave them each a couple hundred
silly bandz and kindergartner Emily and I had a counting
lesson. She did a pretty good job with her numbers too!

Cupcakes for a Cure!

Cupcakes for a Cure...

In an effort to raise more funds for my Relay for Life Team, I made some relay-themed cupcakes to take to work and solicit donations today.

Thanks!

Turner Field, It is. (Eeeek!)

I have not been able to find a Turner Field cake online. So I am willing to attempt it...baby steps. I may only be able to create it in "abstract" terms -- unlike the Ace of Cakes episode where they did one of the Cali baseball stadiums -- down to the exact number of seats in it. For a first try, I am shooting for the outline of the field/stadium and a few landmarks, like the signs...maybe even the Welcome to the Bigs restaurant if I am feeling adventurous...well, we'll see. I am pretty open to let the creativity control the concept, since it typically works.

Eeeeee! I am excited to try! And it'll be a cool birthday cake for my dad since I was already thinking baseball and Braves.

Here is a sketch I am working on to make a pattern for the Braves outfield sign. Two glasses of Moscada (been saving this bottle forever) and the JM Trio in (Another Kind of Green is fitting with a baseball diamond, right???) -- so anyway it could probably be much cleaner...but I am enjoying myself right now -- not thinking about HW or papers or projects (just found out I got a 100 on my project a couple weeks ago that was stressing me out!).

I must also mention that the Braves had an awesome season opener tonight at Turner Field versus the Cubs...just saying. Go Braves!

Having my Cake and Eating it Too

Having my cake and eating it too...
...because what's the point of having a cake and not eating it.


My mom's a kindergarten teacher and has always taught on the elementary level. I grew up around construction paper, markers, paints, glues, sequins, etc. She has always had a knack for creating stuff out of odds and ends. And it's amazing what she's pulled off with a stapler and some fabric which explains why I used a few staples on some curtains recently...

I'm not quite sure where the cake-creating-interest came from now that I think about it. I have watched different cake-deco TV shows over the years and always find these fascinating. About a year and a half ago I felt compelled to buy some fondant and a Wilton fondant roller at Hobby Lobby and just sort of went with it. Since then I have made a few cakes here and there for birthdays and other occasions.

Baking is not necessarily a gift for me. It's taken quite a few years to finally master my grandmother's homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe which is a proud accomplishment since it's a skill shared by most of our female ancestors on my mom's side. (Baking cookies still alludes me.)

With cake baking, finding and doctoring a good cakemix has been my safety net. I can also turn out a pretty decent poundcake base for a cake, which is ideal for hardcore decorating because it is nice and heavy.

I took the Wilton Cake Decorating I class last fall which proved to be hardwork! My experience has been with fondant, so it was great to take the steps back and learn the basics of how to ice a really smooth cake, pipe borders and so on...and I still have much to learn in this area by all means. I have not been able to locate any fondant decorating classes around this area, so I am more or less teaching myself and relying a lot on the internet and booklets/magazines.

If I want to go anywhere with this craft, I know I need to practice a LOT more. I also will need to be in top form, because my friend Sarah has asked me to make her wedding cake for the end of October 2010 on Hilton Head Island. I am excited about this opportunity and that she is trusting me with one of the most important elements of a wedding. Fortunately, Libby is volunteering her services to the venture, since she has culinary classes on her side and is always willing to help me with my baking.

My goal this Spring and Summer is to kick it up a notch and practice, practice, practice. I'd like to challenge myself to 1 cake a week (or 2 weeks), depending on what all else is going on in my life. (And yes, I have seen the movie Julie & Julia and there is no way I am attempting to crank out a cake a day like Julie did with her daily Julia Child dinners! Gotta be realistic!)

The next cake on my agenda will be for my Dad's upcoming birthday, and I am thinking baseball. I will keep you posted.