Hi, it's me again

Hi, remember me? I'm that girl with a camera who never seems to post anymore. Life is crazy that way. Sometimes I want to just step back and watch it all happen instead of being wrapped up and swept away in the ever racing current of life. Of course those moments are rare and far apart.

What's new for me? Let's see, I got a promotion and a raise. I'm in the office with my boss now, which is fun because it's a little bit quieter and I have more of my own space. It's weird not being in the main office area anymore, but I'm getting used to it, and I have to say that I like it. And my third monitor. And my Mac. You know, fun toys.

We are slowly but surely getting everything done for the wedding. We found and booked our amazing photographer team and videographer team, I am SO excited. I know they are going to capture lasting, incredible memories for us. I am really looking forward to doing our engagement photo shoot with our photographers too :) We know where we are getting the cake, just have to go put in the order. It's DELICIOUS. As a cake baker, I can truly appreciate the deliciousness of the cake we're going to be getting. (one of the first things that happened in the planning is that my mother and my fiance forbid me to make the wedding cake....a demand I was more than happy to comply with) We will be putting the invitations together soon and choosing the bridesmaid dresses.

With the weather cooling off as we go into October, I find myself wanting to spend time in the kitchen baking up deliciousness with fall flavors and spices. Perhaps I will indulge this weekend.

Photostory Friday: 2 am

Hosted by Cecily

2 am

Never fails.

It doesn't seem to matter how prepared I am,

how difficult the design is

how quickly I work,

You will find me in the kitchen

surrounded by icing, decorator tips and couplers,

spatulas, toothpicks and icing bags,

until

2 am

Results like these? Make it all worth it.


Hosted by Cecily

**Hopefully it's apparent, but this is a surfboard, modeled after my future father-in-law's board, the board which our friend Shawn loves. The cake is for Shawn's last day working with us before heading to a new job.

Photostory Friday: Let Them Eat Cake

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I know I've been rather scarce of late, but I have an excellent reason. (aside from just being way too busy for my own good) I've started taking Wilton cake decorating classes at our local Michaels. I've always wanted to do this, and with classes 50% off this month I just could pass it up. Here is my first cake that we did in class on Wednesday.

I brought it to work on Thursday and it was devoured rather quickly. It was a white cake with strawberry pie filling and extra almondy flavored frosting. And I do mean extra almond. See, that can happen when a certain girl (me) misreads a recipe. Teaspoon and tablespoon are two very different measurements, in case you were wondering. It still tasted delicious, just extra almondy. Almond extract reminds me of Christmas, so I love the flavor and scent. Here's a picture of the filling before I layered the cake.

I was up till 12:30 icing this and getting all my class buttercream prepped, but it was so much fun! The next day we found out that one of our guys was leaving today because he got a job to pen a screenplay for a major motion picture. Totally random, but really exciting. I immediately decided I wanted to practice my new cake skills. I knew I wanted to do a film reel and found some great ideas online. I was thinking about a few other things, and the bf suggested a screenplay sheet cake. It all turned out really well. I came home from class around 8:30 and worked until about 2 am. I finished everything up last night and got to bed by about 11:30. Later than planned but much earlier than the previous nights. (I'm still in need of sleep though)
The screenplay turned out pretty well...that was the first one they cut into. Dave was very surprised and very thankful that I'd taken the time to do this. The bf helped me carry them over to their office. They were all really excited to see two cakes. The film reel is still my favorite, I'm thrilled with how it came out.
Both cakes are devil's food with colored vanilla icing. The black circles on the film reel are colored chocolate icing (started as vanilla). The "film" is fruit-by-the-foot. I got the idea to use that from one of the websites I found when looking for ideas to help me out. The best part is that I made both cakes using just the things that we have learned in our first two classes. Everyone really enjoyed them, both visually and tastily. (shut up, I'm tired and allowed to make up words if I want) And Dave was really excited, which was the best part. I would really love to design and make cakes as a business someday, and I already have people at work commenting about it. So much fun, I'm so glad I finally decided to do this. I will definitely post more pictures as I make more cakes! I'm slowly building a portfolio. Three cakes already in about as many days. I'm ready for a good long nap!

Today's Photostory Friday brought to you with inspiration from the lovely ladies below. Check it out and play along!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Kitchen Fairy

I mentioned in my last post that the bf has to be to work somewhere around 4 am for a HUGE network upgrade that they're doing. Craaaaaazy stuff. Our Network Team and systems guys are going to be there SUPER early, and they're probably going to be there until noon. I asked the bf over dinner tonight if the management would be ordering them breakfast since they were going to be there so early. Imagine my surprise when he said no, probably just coffee and donuts. Now, I know that about 90% of our team who will be there are NOT married, and there is only one woman, but still, donuts and coffee for breakfast? For the group who will be physically replacing our entire campus network? HA!

So, after I sent the bf home early to try and get some sleep before he has to get up at an ungodly hour of the morning to go to work, I went to the store. Two stores actually. I was thinking at first that I'd just make the bf some homemade chai and take it over to him, but I know he won't drink the coffee or eat the donuts, and he tends to get short and cranky when he's hungry and has low blood sugar. But I'm friends with everyone who's going to be there, so I couldn't just take something for the bf, I'd feel bad (and probably get a really hard time about it) So I got a bunch of stuff for the guys. Bananas, oranges (cut into wedges in a bag), strawberries and a few yogurts. I was going to buy some muffins, but I don't have a Costco card, and buying muffins four in a thing gets to be somewhat pricey...so I got mixes (I wasn't feeling nice enough to make it from scratch) and made them a dozen blueberry muffins and a dozen chocolate chip muffins. I also got napkins, plates and spoons (which will work for the strawberries AND the yogurts) I also got a gallon of orange juice and some cups.

Of course the bf has no idea that I'm doing this, so I'm setting my alarm for just before 4 am. I'll drag myself out of bed to make him chai and then take everything over to campus. I know where he'll be (either his office or over by the cold room where they're doing the actual hardware changes) His truck is pretty unmistakable...and if I have trouble finding him, I can always call and feign a bad dream (yes I've done this...only for a real bad dream a few weeks ago that had me shaking and unable to fall back asleep for a while) I figure I can talk through the bad dream, ask him what he's up to/where he is. If he doesn't answer, chances are he's in the cold room...he doesn't have great signal in there.

Side random note: the cold room isn't really all that cold...at least I don't think so. A circuit breaker tripped in there several months ago and took down our entire network (minus res halls, thank goodness we didn't have cranky students). This was before the bf and I were dating, but we were talking when the network went down and he had to go to work, and I decided to take him and Lane (one of his two network co-workers...she's a sweetheart...older lady) drinks. Only I couldnt' find a place open that made chai for him, but I got Lane coffee and came over. I hung out for a few minutes with them, and then went upstairs to the other cold room with the pre-bf bf to see their other team member. Only our entire systems team was there working on stuff. And me? I was in my pajama pants and a tank top. So the joke is that our entire systems team has seen me in my pajamas...they made cracks about it being a pj party. It really was amusing. But the funniest thing is that I was in a tank top near midnight in the cold room and I was perfectly comfortable...and I looked around at our systems guys and they're all bundled in jackets and some of them even had on hats. It was rather amusing.

Wow...that was a long and random tangent. Anyways, I ought to get to sleep here since I too am going to be waking up in a few short hours. Of course it's by my own choice. And also? I get to come home and crawl back into bed. :)