Saturday, January 26, 2008

Rainbow Cake

So I mentioned last time that I am taking a cake decorating class. It's the Wilton Method at Michael's. I'm taking the class with my mom and we are having a lot of fun. We have even signed up for the next course. For the first class the instructor showed us the tools and gave us the skinny on how everything works. So our homework was to bring in an iced cake ready to decorate. And the cake was to be 8 inches around and 4 inches high. He recommended the Wilton baking pans but it was not in my budget so I used my 9 inch pans and made three layers. I made my blue icing and we were to make it nice a smooth like the picture in the book. Well that was challenging!
When we got to class we learned the techniques used for this rainbow decoration and then we got to apply our new found knowledge to our cakes. This particular decoration used the same tip for all the applications. It was pretty fun. I got my cake all done by the end of class and I was quite proud of myself. If my cake had been an 8 inch round the rainbow would have fit along the edge but I think it looks pretty god anyway. Our instructor gave us some tips on making the icing nice and smooth and on icing between the layers.
I've made lots of cakes in my adulthood and I've gotten some great tips from this class. Now I also know how to do some other fun things. I'm having a bit of a hard time with the flowers. I need to practice, practice, practice.
Switching gears: Here is another card I liked from Kimber's swaps. I don't know who made these cards but I only photographed my favorites so that I could CASE them later. Certainly Celery is one of my favorite colors so I'm always drawn to cards done in that color. I'm also loving all the patterned paper being used on cards these days. What took us so long to start doing that?
Have a fabulous weekend.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Beckie and Me in Palm Springs

Well, I'm obviously doing a poor job on my goal to post more regularly! Today I'll tell you about my two day excursion to Palm Springs a couple of weeks ago. I was to meet my dear friend, Beckie at 11:30 at the PS Airport when her plane landed. So off I went, leaving my house around 9am. Shortly after 10am, Beckie called to say that she had missed her connecting flight in Phoenix. Dagnabbit!! Well, I decided to sally forth and find something to do in Palm Springs when I got there. It was a nice drive down. I had never been to Palm Springs before. When I arrived I drove through the town and figured my way around. It is a pretty small town so that didn't take too long. On my way I discovered a movie theater and decided that seeing a movie would be a great way to kill some time. So I found a parking space and headed over to the cineplex. As I approached I was looking at the movie posters outside and I didn't recognize a single movie! How odd! I figured I must have found the uppity movie theater of foreign films. So I figured I would ask where the regular theater was. Ha! All the theaters in town were playing movies for the International Film Festival! What lousy timing on my part! Now, I have seen a few foreign films over the years, but only on recommendation. I'm more of your romantic comedy fan.

So I had lunch at a fast food place and found the library. I sat in the library reading my book and then took a walk in the adjacent park. It was quite a relaxing day, actually. I finally got to pick up Beckie at 4:30pm. We checked into the hotel and met up with our roommates. Beckie, Kimber and April were all there for the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference. I was just there to visit with Beckie! We had a fun evening walking around Palm Springs and visiting. The next day I took photos of some of Kimber's swaps. I like this one the best!

Beckie, Kimber and I went to breakfast in the hotel and visited some more. I had a great time until it was time to go. They had to get started at Leadership and I had to get home for Cub Scouts. Here is a pic of me and Beckie. Aren't we cute?

On my next post I'll tell you about the Cake Decorating Class I'm taking with my mom. I have pics of my first two cakes, too!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Resolutions and Two More Calendar Pages

Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? I have. And that's unusual for me. Normally I don't bother. But this year I feel like I need to focus on some things I want to change. My first resolution is to get caught up on my chronological scrap booking. I just finished scrapping Christmas 2005...so that's a full two years to catch up with and then 2008 to do also. Yikes! I've just been neglecting my scrapbooking far too long, ya know.

Another resolution I have is to be kinder. Overall I think I'm a pretty nice girl, but I have a bit of a sharp tongue that can get me into trouble occasionally. So I'll probably have a bloody tongue for a while! haha

Lastly, I resolve to be closer with my family in spiritual ways. I want to have scripture study and prayer daily with my family. I have been so bad about making that happen and I want to change that this year. It's never too late, right?

Oh yeah...I also want to be more consistent with this blog. I guess you'll be seeing a lot more scrap booking pages!



For today, here are two desk calendar pages from the swap I was in. I hope you like them!