I still like pretty!

Oh hey there. I know it’s been a while. I seem to be all work, no play right now. Ok, not all work, but definitely more work. You won’t hold it against me, will you?

Also, if I ever get the privilege of turning 80, I really hope someone makes a big deal out of it. Am I right? I mean, really; 80 isn't something to be taken lightly.

There should be some flowers. Perhaps like these.

Or maybe these, all prettied up with some apples!

And there ought to be some tissue paper poms and some custom signage.

Maybe with a picture of me when I was a child (well, you know, if I was a little boy back then).

Maybe custom signage all over the place!?

If you hadn't guessed, we had a big ol' birthday party bash for my uncle's 80th.

There was a dessert table, because well, duh...

Some of the birthday boy's favorites made their appearance: homemade chocolate chip cookies,

homemade peanut butter blossom cookies,

non-dairy Rice Krispie treats,

and vegan (so I could eat them 'cause I'm selfish like that) mini-donuts from Mighty O Donuts (in two flavors - vanilla and orange, no less).


Also, got milk?


Maybe you do, but, do you got adorable milk bottles? (That just doesn't have the same ring to it, but I tried.)

The ugly cake was delicious (or so I'm told - it was made with cream and whole milk and cream cheese and butter, so it wasn't for me). (Do note my lack of photograph highlighting the drippy, lopsided cake. Not an accident.) It was homemade red (wine) velvet cake with a butter cream cheese frosting. Tragically, it turned out to be a massive cake fail in the pretty department. Probably one of my worst cakes ever, in fact. Sigh. That was a busy morning and I just didn't have time to tame uncooperative frosting.

There was also a candy bar because, well...because knowing when to stop is not my family's strong point.

Cinnamon lips.

Salted caramels.

Australian licorice, Reese's Pieces, Coconut Jelly Bellies (I wonder where those could have come from!? Hello, wedding leftovers!).


Oh, and Swedish fish!

Mmmm.

I know some people are over the vintage stripped straws. But, I'm not one of them. I'm still quite into these straws. This is why:

And don't pretend you didn't see that mini vintage suitcase. You know you love them as much as I do. (Ok, maybe not that much - I do have 3 sets. That might be a tad on the ridiculous side...again with the knowing when to stop.)

Did I mention there were donuts!?

A good time was had by all, and many were forced to take home way more treats than they wanted. But I betcha they ate them in the car on the way home.

And then there was caramel corn.

No, really - it's the best caramel corn you've ever tasted. Hands down.


This photo doesn't even do it justice, but it is pretty enticing.




I made at least twice this amount for my neighbor's fundraiser for Homeboy Industries. She raised a bunch of money and it was awesome. And we "taste-tested" caramel corn. (It was worth the butter-induced stomach ache.)

Oh, and you should know that it didn't rain on our pretty heads during our engagement photos. Yay! Funny story about that... I mentioned to Chris that some people "prop" their enegagement sessions. He thought that might be odd, so I showed him some photos. All of a sudden he had prop ideas left and right! There were clothing changes and there was shopping to be done! (PS - this photo shoot was only supposed to last an hour!) I talked him down to only one clothing change. We started dressed in our finest - Chris looking dapper in a suit, me in a white top and a grey pinstriped pencil skirt. We were fake reading the Wall Street Journal. No, I can't make this stuff up. He loved every second of it. About half way in we ran to the car to change into our more casual beachy gear. It was then that we realized that I hadn't packed my pants. Or, heck, even my t-shirt. So either the rest of the shoot was going to be all boudoir-ey, or we had to stick with the suits. Needless to say we remained in our formal wear and still had a great time. I can't wait to get a look at the photos from Abbey! I promise to share!

Also, Chris bought me flowers for my dance recital a couple of weekends ago. So pretty. Chris and Serena picked out the the pink roses and one of the students bought me yellow tulips. The combination made for a lovely arrangement.


For those of you who actually read this far, you should know that I have invitations! Printed, even! I can't wait to share them with you once all the pieces come together. Hooray!

Working and Cake

You may want to know where I've been. I'd like to know myself - help a girl out and tell me where the last two weeks have gone! The reality is that I've been working. And working. And trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. So, no big.

But, of course, some cupcakes snuck their way into the last couple of weeks. That's just what happens at my house.


First, there was Cake Chelan (ala cupcakes). I created this cake in honor of someone's birthday some years ago. It's definitely one of my favorites. How could it not be? White cake (sometimes with coconut extract thrown in if I remember) with a lime cream filling (these were dairy-licious, so I couldn't eat them, but I have a vegan version as well - Mmm), topped with a coconut meringue frosting and toasted coconut. Yes, it is amazing.

Up close and personal:


Right!? I know. Here are some with red stripe cupcake liners. I mixed it up a bit.


There were a couple left, but since I couldn't eat the cake or filling, I ate the frosting off (it's that good) and then yard-wasted (what? that's totally a verb) the rest. Don't hate me.


I did bribe my uncle with one of these puppies. Then, he mowed my lawn. But there's something you should know. If you leave my uncle alone in your yard with a lawn mower, you may return home to this:


Yes. To interpret this little gem for you, it was Chris' birthday last weekend and my uncle's present to him was mowing his age into my lawn. No joke. Awesome. Now I need to bribe someone else to finish mowing that patch!

And when it rains birthdays, it pours birthdays. It was also Chris' daughters 8th (8!!) birthday. She's into horses right now since, you know, she's an 8 year old girl. So, I made her some horse cupcakes from the Hello, Cupcake book.


They aren't perfect, but I had to assemble them in approximately 10 minute's time - remember that work thing I was talking about? Yeah, I got home after 7pm that night. Thank goodness Chris cooked dinner! (Yes, you read that right. And, yes, I ate it. Love me some TJ's curry sauce!)


I covered the orange circus peanut candies with chocolate. This first one looked fine, but he other two were a hot mess, but sometimes these things happen. Plus, they were all devoured within about 20 minutes of being "born," so there's that.

I have tons and tons of things to do and many many pictures to take. I'm working on some invitations - I hear those things need to get in the mail. I promise there will be more wedding goodness soon.

In the meantime, I'll be figuring out the rest of my life. Wish me luck!

Cake x 4

I made some cakes this weekend.

My friend's adorable daughter turned 5. She loves pink and purple, you know, because she's a girl. But, she had a science party because she's awesome like that. She also has good taste...she wanted a lemon cake with blueberry filling and I made a lemon buttercream frosting as well. All vegan of course.

Mmm...filling.


I made the cake into a beaker because, well, I can't draw anything else science-y.


In fact, I can't draw a beaker all that well, either, but oh well.

I did think it needed some bubbles:


Also, Chris' mom is in town all the way from Wisconsin, so we celebrated Chris and Serena's birthdays 5 weeks early so Grammy could join in the celebration.

The birthday boy and girl don't agree on cake. So, mini (many?) cakes were born.

She wanted chocolate with raspberry filling and chocolate frosting.




He wanted chocolate cake with no filling and vanilla frosting (although I threw some almond in there as well...mom approved.)



I made myself a little vegan lemon cake with blueberry filling from the leftovers of the beaker cake.




It did make for a cute little cake trio, although I wish I had put the cakes on cake plates.


Some day I'll be able to do it all. (That there is delusion, people.)

Mmmmmm bread.

I need to go gluten free. At least for two weeks. Just to see if it's causing my headaches and general yucky-feeling-ness. So, I made bread. Makes sense, right?

And I made these:


They're almond macaroons. They're phenomenal!


And you know what!? Gluten free! There is exactly 3 ingredients: almond paste, sugar and egg whites.

So, I'll go gluten free just as soon as I finish that loaf of bread. (Which obviously won't be long.)

But let's be clear. I'm making more of these cookies. :)

Cake Wreck

Have you ever had one of those days where *nothing* goes as planned? No? Really? I don't believe you.

I managed to make a cake last week that I'm afraid I might see on Cake Wrecks. While that website sometimes makes me laugh so hard it brings me to tears, it won't be as funny when one of *my* cakes ends up on there. And this cake already brought me to tears.

I should've known. A red guitar is clearly outside of my ability levels on the decorating front. I knew that going in, but the family who enjoyed the rainbow cake was so excited about their guitar cake that I think I became delusional about my abilities.

Luckily, they are super nice people and didn't gasp when opening the cake box to find this.


I tried. Hard. I even tried not to cry *in* the cake. I was successful, but the cat didn't appreciate it when I used her to wipe my tears.



And, yes, I'm aware that the neck of the guitar is waaay too short. However, if someone pays for a cake, I don't imagine they want four inches of cake and 10 inches of neck, so, I modified the thing a bit. Into a violin. Ok, even violins have longer necks than this. Sigh.

I guess it looks so-so-ok. Hopefully it won't really end up on Cake Wrecks. Because then I would cry. Again. And it would remind me of the series of disasters that this cake brought. (1) Overbaked chocolate cake! Nooooo! (That's what happens when your oven is at least 50 degrees hotter than it's supposed to be. Although I'm used to that, so what's my excuse!?) (2) The frosting wasn't thick enough to give me a nice edge. It was too schloopy. (3) The butter in the red frosting had a funny taste to it. Yuck. (4) I ran out of powdered sugar before making the white icing, so I had to use regular sugar because it was LATE and I just had to be DONE, so it was all grainy and gross. I'm not sure I've ever had such a hard time with cake before.