Good Idea Gone Bad

I’ve wanted to learn everything about cake decorating for a while. With Ahnna’s birthday getting closer I thought I might do some practicing with fondant. I love the clean look fondant has and I would love to eventually become comfortable with it. Here are the top five things I did wrong when I decided to work with fondant for the first time ever.

1. Made it myself
2. Didn’t research how to work with it
3. Did not have proper tools
4. Made it myself and
5. Made it myself

My kitchen was a huge mess. I hate the feeling of gritty materials like flour and sand and powdered sugar. Not only did I have to endure kneading in powdered sugar but there was powdered sugar everywhere, I still think the floor is a bit sticky and I mopped it twice. I ended up spending so much time on making the fondant that in the end I didn’t have the energy I wanted to have decorating.

I plan on trying fondant again but I’m going to buy it and read up on it a bit so I can just focus on the fun stuff. So below are my practice cakes. The original designs I had went out the window so I just doodled really. I don’t know what I am going to do with them. I’m so sugared out from earlier I can’t think about eating them. I don’t know where the “sweet dreams” writing came from. The cake looked like a night sky and there is no occasion for the cake and I wanted to write something…

Another Reason why Rent Here is So Cheap

Remember that Office episode where someone pulled a prank on Micheal where they put something so smelly on the floor of his office that they had to replace the carpet and no one could tell you what the thing was?  Well sometimes our apartment complex is downwind of where I think they made the thing.  I have lived near a refinery, pulp mill, and a cow pasture  but NOTHING has been as bad as this smell.  I have no clue what it is either.  Its what I would image burned poo to smell like, and that is the only description I can come up with.  It’s horrible, I can’t stand to be outside long enough to walk down to the mailbox and back (such activity is what moved me to write about it.)

A few movies

I don’t usually get to see new movies but this weekend going to the theater sounded great.  Nathan and I saw Hancock.  I thought it was very entertaining.  I am a fan of superhero movies and I just like how someone came up with a new one and a new story.  Sure there were a few loop holes in the plot but it was still fun to watch. Plus I just really like Will Smith, he’s a great actor.

I also watched P.S. I Love You with my mother-in-law this weekend.  It was automatically way cheezy in my book since it was a chick-flick and it also moved a bit slow but once again it was entertaining, I wasn’t board at all which is a good sign when talking about most chick-flicks.

Tomatoes!

To be more self reliant I need to know how to take care of a garden and grow whatever food I can.  While we are still moving around and living in an apartment, I find it difficult to focus on doing it.  Not too long ago my mom encouraged me by giving me a large pot with two types of tomato plants in it.  Amazingly enough I have not killed it yet.  Better yet it is growing!  I have small tomatoes appearing all over now and it is very exciting.  Personally I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes but Nathan LOVES them and I think it was a good starter veggie to grow.

Silverwood

Sorry about the lack of pictures, I have become somewhat lazy about taking pictures lately. A few days ago Ahnna and I went to Silverwood with my brother Jeremy and Mimi, Michelle, Aiden, and my sisters kid Duncan.  It was a lot of fun!!  It was a warm day except the raging wind made for a winter-like chill when wet at the water park.  Ahnna and I sat at the very edge of the wave pool and she had fun splashing around and watching the waves.   Later on my niece Michelle and I had a ton of fun in the deeper end of the wave pool.  I could have spent all day there but I’m sure Ahnna would have missed me.  I really want to go back on a day when Nathan can come and we can leave Ahnna with Grandma or Great Grandma.

Sad but True

We got a warning a few days ago that our power was going to be off for about two hours today so Avista could do some much needed service. I forgot about it until it went off today.  At first I thought ‘no big deal.’  Then I went to go take a shower but realized I’d have to do so in the dark (forgot all about lighting a few candles at the time.)  I kept catching myself wanting to get on the internet to do one thing or another. I tried to read a book but I just fell asleep for a while.  I can’t believe how horribly handicapped I felt without power for a while.

And we’re back

Our family spent the 4th weekend in Bellingham and Lake Stevens Washington.  We had a great time lounging with my family.  Nathan can’t remember the last time he set off fireworks and he got to do it with my brothers kids which was great.  He was very bummed that Aaron, their oldest son was gone.  He wanted to wrestle with him.  Aaron spent the 4th in Boston because he is on the east cost for five weeks of wrestling camp.  Lots of pictures were taken but not by me unfortunately so at this time I have no pictures to post.  I need to get my brother to send me a cd.  My little niece Lottie was blessed on Sunday as well.  My mom made her the cutest little blessing dress.  We decided this was our last trip over there for a long time because of gas prices.  Vacations always end too soon. :p

Miracle of Miracles

Ahnna has been getting up with the sun for some time now, about 4:30 or 5:30am and not wanting to go back to sleep. Yesterday I finally put cardboard in her window and she went back to sleep after her 4:30 get up time and slept until 8! I got up before she did.  Oh yeah, it’s going to be a good day.

Dance Stuff

For the first time, Nathan and I have cable TV. We prefer not to have it but it is included in our rent so what can you do. I am happy to report that I have not turned into the couch potato I thought I might have. There is just one show on right now that I hate to miss and that is So You Think You Can Dance. I LOVE the show. I really love the contestants this year too. I look forward to it every week.

I use to be into early 1900’s social dancing, basically dances that led up to and branched out from lindy hop with lindy hop as my main dance naturally. I started to get into the history of it all and everything. I even danced with Frankie Manning, one of the original lindy hoppers. At the time I danced with him he was 87. The picture below is our lindy hop dance team with Frankie Manning in the middle.

Watching so you think you can dance makes me sad that I don’t dance anymore but it is a ton of fun to watch still. I would love to get into something like hip hop (as long as its not too skanky) but I have a million reasons why I just can’t do it right now. (sigh) oh well..

.

Fuzzy wuzzy had no Hair…

Nathan has had a heart condition for most his life. It is where his heart will start beating really fast out of no where. Usually when he is just sitting around. Some people have it really bad where it happens many times a day but for him it happens on average once a month. He went to the doctor a while ago when it was bugging him quite a bit and found out he could have a surgery to get it fixed but its not anything life threatening. For the most part it is just annoying to deal with. They had him come back for a check up on it and they decided to put him on a heart monitor for a month to see if they could record an episode.

Since they had to have little electrodes stick to his chest, he decided to shave his whole chest and belly. I thought it looked great but he says his pecs look flabby and and smaller, he really regrets doing it. Oh well, it will be fun while it lasts.