Mummy Cupcakes!

I saw these on Martha Stewart's website yesterday and couldn't resist! I made them for our little "Monsterlicious" Halloween shindig tonight :)

Sweetest Little Hooter :)

This last Thursday night marked the final class in the series of "Cake Decorating Basics" that my mom and I have been taking from Chemeketa. Our mission for this class: The Buttercream Transfer. Simple in concept, but time consuming. I will walk you through the process with my pictures...



The basic frosted cake ready to decorate...MMM buttercream :)


On waxed paper, I traced the image of my choice (how cute is this owl?!) and then stuck the whole outline into the freezer.


Here's the view of my little owl from the top, frozen and ready to fill.



After the border is frozen, you can fill in the spaces, one color or section at a time - freezing it each time between colors, to keep the border firm and the colors in their places. This is why the process takes so long.


Perfecting the border with a toothpick...the best tool to have in this class!


I took too long in class, so I had to finish my owl at home. I had already filled in all of his colors, and frozen the image. Then I plopped him on to the top of my cake and peeled off the waxed paper. Voila...owl!


I piped around the border to smooth everything out...



I added dots of course, because they're my favorite :)


My best "Vanna."


Ta-Dah! He's not perfect, but not bad for my first try!

I've enjoyed this class so much, I think I'm going to continue with the "advanced" cake decorating series that continues on, starting next week! We learn fondant flowers, royal icing, and chocolate work next...yay! Stay tuned for tricks of the trade and a few ridiculous pictures in which I will most likely be posing with my projects - post sugar high :)

Cake Class #3

Last night was cake clinical - night 3. The class size is getting smaller and smaller. Can't stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen :) Mr. USA wasn't there either - perhaps last weeks' shirt mural was enough to send him on a walk of shame.

We focused on ribbon roses last night, which are much harder than I thought. It took more focus and less giggling, but the learning process was still fun. I still have a lot of practicing to do, but I was pleased with the outcome. I don't mean to brag, but I actually liked my cake very best out of everyone's! Here's a few pics!


Prep and practice! You can see all of my roses lined up on the counter ledge ready to go.


Roses on. Border done!


Add some leaves to cover up any wonky spots on your roses...


Action shot...


Finished top view.


My mom's finished cake! Writing with frosting was not my forte. I didn't want to ruin my cake with slopping words, so I went with a different design :)


Posing with a cake is ridiculous, Emily.


Voila :)

Flower Power

Last night in cake class, we focused on flowers and decorated a dozen cupcakes. Again, hilarious. My mother - God bless her, lacks the ability to focus and listen to instruction apparently. She had most of her cupcakes frosted before we even had our first flower instructions. It appeared as though she had not eaten dinner either, when I looked over at one point during class and she has frosting smeared clear across her face. When I burst out laughing, she laughed too - only to reveal her frosting coated teeth as well. I died. "OMG, mom. I can't take you anywhere." I'm pretty sure we disrupted the class with this one and got deemed the "class clowns"...

However, I have to say...this was NOTHING compared to the only single (older) gentleman taking this class. He had worn a white dress shirt (and no apron) last night and half way through class, I look up, and he has red and blue frosting ALL over his white shirt. It looked like he had attempted to rub it off too, because it was smeared into the fibers of his shirt like a giant oil painting mural. How did this happen, you ask? I HAVE NO IDEA. I laughed out loud to myself and tried to get a picture, but couldn't. Perhaps he was just trying to be patriotic.

My mother also is very thrifty, I mean inventive. I have captured a picture (below) of the rosette platform she constructed using a stool leg slider, an old nail, and a blob of glue. My platform is the white one that came in my decorators tool kit. You will notice the difference, however...hers works just the same, so I have to give her some credit...


White Trash cake decorating anyone? Hilarious.


My tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness Month...hehe :)


Making flowers on the practice board!


My mom's finished cupcakes...terrible lighting, I know.


My cupcakes at class! Mostly swirl roses, but a few "shaggy mums"...leaves too!


I finished up the rest of the batch after I got home, trying the different techniques we had learned. I still have like 3 pounds of frosting left.




I'm not sure what this flower is called, but it was fun to make!


The best part of class :)

Goodwill Hunting.

My bosom buddy Shannon and I have decided to team up and start a little something in which we will be referring to ourselves from now on as the "Goodwill Girls." Here's why:

We both have a slight obsession with vintage findings. We both enjoy a good treasure hunt. We both have budgets. We love D.I.Y. (do it yourself) projects. We both have ideas, visions, and creative intuition just begging to be utilized with endless possibilities in store. Why not team up and blog about it?

Last night was our first official venture out to a little store you may have heard of called "Goodwill"...get the nickname now? Our sole purpose in these (now regular) trips, will be to find treasures amongst the piles of crap that we can refinish, re-purpose, or restore...all of which we will do on a budget, using methods and supplies everyone has access to and can recreate themselves...and we'll show the steps involved on how to do it! Before and after!

Salem is lucky enough to have what I call a Goodwill "Bin" store - where everything that gets rejected from the main Goodwill stores, then goes directly to the bin store where everything is then thrown together into giant bins, only to be sifted through with sheer madness, just hoping for a buried treasure to surface. There are literally lines of people waiting for the new bins to emerge from the back rooms. Hey, first come, first serve, finders keepers, you snooze, you lose! What's even better about the bin stores? You pay by the POUND! The more you buy, the cheaper it gets! YES. Treasure hunting at its finest :) Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Bins in time last night, but we'll get there soon enough.

Here's what we found at the regular Goodwill last night though. Love it.


This "E" still had the Anthropologie price tag on it!!! Anthro: $10. Goodwill: $2.99. SOLD. I was very excited about this :)


Vintage beverage dispenser: Made in Italy, $9.99


Can you imagine this little storage piece refinished with cute knobs and lined with a cool fabric or vintage wallpaper? Endless possibilities!!



SO much fun, so little time!

Once upon a BFF.

Back in February of this year, one of my nearest and dearest childhood friends decided to end our friendship - OUT.OF.THE.BLUE. Over email. Without a single, solid reason. Her email was cold, short, and emotionless. I tried calling, I begged her in an email and voicemail to meet with me in person to talk...her house, my house, the church...it didn't matter to me, but she never even responded to any of my attempts. When she sees me at church to this day, she looks the other way. We had been close friends for almost 25 years; neighbors for probably 20 of that. Upon reading her email, I could actually hear my heart shattering in a million pieces. I have never experienced such blatant rejection in my life. It has been almost 9 months and I still struggle with this pain every day. A hole was left, so big - no patch can hold it.

Today while I was praying for her, I felt compelled to email her and let her know that I was thinking about her and praying for her. I don't know why God led me to do this, since we have had virtually no contact since her initial email at the beginning of the year, but regardless - I listened.

God has a funny way about laying things on our hearts at random times, or even using other people's unrelated situations to encourage us to do something. I pray my email to her today finds her well. I pray that perhaps it opens up a line of communication again to grant healing and closure. I wish I knew why she ended our friendship. I wish she would talk to me about it. I wish she could look me in the eye...especially when we pass each other in the halls of our church! The effect her harsh written words had on me were staggering. They left a gaping void in everything I believed about true friendship. I pray for her heart everyday and hope she can find it somewhere in her being to eventually come to me so we can both heal. I don't know if she will even respond, and if she does I realize any restoration will have to be on her terms, but here I stand - arms wide open.

Have my cake...and eat it too!

My mom and I just started taking "Cake Decorating 101" through the local community college. We decided to take this class for fun...let me repeat: FOR FUN. This is a non-credit "community" (hobby) class. This class is taught by a young mom who happened to be donning pigtails and a couple of barrettes from her daughters hair drawer last night. This isn't "Cake Boss," people. However, I am amazed at how serious some of the "students" were in last night's class! One woman was practically in tears because she was having trouble with some of the piping techniques and her first cake wasn't absolute perfection. On the other hand - my mom and I spend a good majority of the class giggling. I mean, what else are you supposed to do when your frosting bag gets an air bubble and upon piping your design, lets out a big frosting fart?! Of course the overly emotional woman shot us a dirty look, but it was worth it. The biggest challenge this class presented for me was: don't lick your fingers. Easier said than done.

Last night was our first actual hands-on-cake experience, and I have to say, SO.MUCH.FUN! Of course, by the end of the night I was practically sick from all of the frosting I had eaten...which may or many not have come from my fingers :) The frosting was so rich, I actually sent the cake with Tommy to work this morning, so I didn't have any...but it looked pretty cute :) I will document each class with a blog entry for all to see my talent and training in progress!

Here's last night's rendition of a cupcake cake!! Not too shabby for my first try!

My August.

August 20th, will not be a day easily forgotten in my mind. My best friend Angela, had just moved back up to Oregon and it was the first day we could actually spend the day together since her return. I took the day off, and we spent the day lunching, shopping and chatting just like we always had. On this same day, my dad was driving up to visit me and my brother for an entire week. He had been living down in Fresno, California with my grandma (his mom) taking care of her, but was aiming to move back to Oregon in October so he could be near us again. It's a 12 hour drive, so he had split it up, staying the night in Redding with a friend the night before. He was scheduled to arrive at my house - where he would be staying most of the week - about 4 or 5pm. I figured I had plenty of time to do my shopping with Angela, and be back in time to greet him. He arrived around 4:30pm, and he beat me home. Tommy was home, and let him in to the guest room where he took in his bags and brought in a bag of fresh California produce, as he always did. This trip he brought a bag of vine ripened lemon cucumbers and a few hand picked avocados...perfect.

He had arrived with a truck full of boxes, as he was starting his transition back to Oregon, and had brought many things with him for me to store for him until his official move back. When he got to my house, he realized I wasn't home yet and that I didn't have the room to store anything (at least not 10 boxes worth of space) so he decided to go have dinner with his old buddy Jim, and store the boxes with him. I got home around 6, realizing he had already left to go meet up with his friend. We chatted very briefly on the phone, and he said he was having dinner out with him and wouldn't be back for a few hours. So, rather than just sit at home waiting for him, I made the decision to go back to Angela's and watch a movie with her; Tommy joined us. My dad called me in the middle of our movie saying he was headed back to my place...it was 9:20pm. I apologized saying we were in the middle of a movie but I'd be home in an hour or so, so I would see him shortly. It was a very brief chat, but I knew I would see him soon and he was staying with us all week, so I didn't give it a second thought.

We left Angela's around 11pm. We pulled in to our cul-de-sac about 11:20pm. As our headlights neared our driveway, I saw the shadows of something large and very unusual lying in our driveway. Oh My God. It was my dad. Face down and awkward, there he was. My heart stopped. I screamed. I cried. I started hyperventilating. I panicked. I shook. We jumped out of the car and approached him. His ankle was twitching, and he was breathing...heavy labored breaths, but he was breathing. Tommy looked at me and said with stern direction, "Emily, call 911." While he crouched down beside him, I fumbled for my phone and my shaky hands dialed those 3 numbers everyone should fear. I have never been so relieved to hear sirens in my life. Within 2 minutes, we had an ambulance and a firetruck pull in. I had a million things running through my head. Did he trip and fall and hit his head? Did he have a heart attack? A stroke? How long had he been laying here? Why didn't anyone else notice? Why is his skin so clammy? Why isn't he waking up to my voice or touch? Why wasn't I home? Why is this happening to me? Why me? Why me? Not now! Oh God! Why me?!

Paul joined me in the ER as quickly as he could. Just an hour later, after being put on a ventilator to regulate his breathing and a cat scan among other tests, the doctors did not "sugar-coat" anything. My dad had suffered a brain aneurysm, most likely caused from the brain tumor he battled 17 years ago. His "astrocytoma" most likely began to grow back and his brain just couldn't handle it for a second time. They said it was terminal, and we should start weighing out options for organ donation. Enter: bricks - a TON of BRICKS. Everything around me starts to fade. Slow motion. Surrealism. I think I literally heard my heart shattering inside my body. I see the doctors lips moving, but I cannot wrap my head around the words she is speaking. Why, oh why?

After being up all Friday night, we had to spend our entire day Saturday talking to the Organ Donation Coordinator about his eligibility to donate; that's what he would have wanted. We were sure. Long story short, he was not eligible based on his medical history with the astrocytoma. At that point, we knew he would not want to be kept alive artificially, so we needed to decide when to remove him from the ventilator. Before we decided to do so, we had a few of his closest friends and extended family join us to pray over him and say their good-byes. My mom, Paul and I each took a turn going in and talking to him and praying over him. I wasn't sure how. Do you pray for a miracle? Do you pray for God to take him and end any suffering he may be experiencing? We know without a shadow of doubt he was a child of God and that he would be going to meet his maker in Heaven, but regardless of that, how do you pray in these situations? I prayed that God's will be done. I said my good-byes. I told him I loved him. I sobbed; the belly trembling, throat wrenching, hideous faced, SOB. He is so warm still. How can the body be so alive, but the mind be so gone? Is this really happening? This is a nightmare. This isn't real. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

We removed him from the ventilator at 4pm on Saturday. He continued breathing on his own until Monday. With my brother and Tommy with me, I held my dad's now cool hand, as he took his last earthly breath at 11:38am. Nothing can describe that moment. It's over. Nothing can be done. He's gone. I am helpless. With tears of disbelief, we left the hospital - numb, exhausted, and delirious. He died the day before his 57th birthday.

I imagine he spent his birthday walking with Jesus on streets of gold - whole, healthy, and with the angels singing to welcome him home. I know God has infinite timing. I know in everything there is a purpose under Heaven. I don't understand it, but I believe it. I don't know why God brought my dad home to Salem to die. I don't know why I had to find him. I don't know why I didn't get to see him before I found him. Why didn't I get one more conversation, one more hug, one more week...?

These are questions that may always be in the back of my mind, but I do have some peace knowing where my dad is now, and I believe he was ready. I will continue to walk through the stages of grief as they rear their ugly heads. I will continue to have good days and bad - but I know I will navigate through these times with Christ who gives me strength. Death is ugly. Grief is uglier. Grace, however - is beautiful. I will continue to pray for a peace that passes all understanding. I know with time it will come - and for that I am eternally grateful.

Craig Tyler: August 24, 1953-August 23, 2010. I miss you, dad.