BIRTHDAY CAKE

This past weekend, I made my second birthday cake.
A cake for my dear niece who turned 15 on August 9th.

Cake was chocolate fudge with cream cheese filling.
Chocolate ganache all over it- with sliced almonds on the side. Blue and Violet candy melts drizzled on top.
Fondant stars, and 15 made out of gum paste.
This cake took me 6+ hours to make. However, it's my favorite cake as of yet... especially because of the colors. Plus, the cake was so much fun!





On another note, things are well on the homefront. The hubby's home. He'll be home for sure until Friday night. This has been the longest that he's been around all summer. I'm so glad to have him home!

Life is GRAND!
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extremely grateful

Every night, I write down 5 things that I am grateful for before going to bed.
Number 2 on the grateful list is always for my husband's safety. Number 1 has something to do with my dad (which is supposed to help me with my grief).
Anyhow, yesterday was a truly emotional day for me. There was a helicopter crash where my husband was at, and 9 people died, 4 were injured.
When I spoke to my husband, he was bothered by the whole situation, because he says it could have been them- should they have not spiked out for the night.
It's a scary and horrible thought, and yesterday was not a day that I would ever want repeated again!

My heart goes out to the families of those firefighters.
They are all noble people doing an incredibly heroic job. It's so easy for me to put myself in their situation because my husband is out there in the front lines, doing the same thing, risking his life, our life.
My prayers and deepest sympathies are with you all.

Gum Paste and Fondant

Last night, I had my final Fondant and Gum Paste class.
I learned tons from that class- how to make flowers and work with fondant and gum paste. Cakes definitely look much better covered in fondant.
Here's my cake for that class... Cake is Lemon with blueberry filling. It was glazed on top before the fondant was put on.

Decorations are carnations- made out of gum paste, and leaves made out of fondant.


Sorry for the bad picture quality. I had to the the pictures with my camera phone as the hubby has our camera with him.

Life is GRAND!
Super Panda

a follow up

Here's some left over pictures from the tea on Sunday. Thanks Megan for posting these!



Life is GRAND!
Super Panda

FIREPROOF- NEVER LEAVE YOUR PARTNER BEHIND

I am a Firefighter's wife.
I have been for 4 1/2 years now.
This is something that he has always wanted to do, and it's a journey we embarked on together. 6 1/2 years later, here we are. He is out on fires, while I'm at home.
It's a tough job, and I often wonder if I'm strong enough for it. It's not for the faint of heart. There's a lot of independence involved, and it definitely takes 2 strong people to make the marriage work. Devotion and passion are also keys.
There was a time when I thought we wouldn't make it. Thank goodness for perseverance, because we fought for it, and here we are today- in love and incredibly happy (even though he's away a lot). I've often thought about why I did not marry someone who had a regular 9- 5, or even why he couldn't have a regular 9-5.
Then I realize that that life would never have made either of us happy. This was his passion, and I signed up for it. I am here to support him- in any way I can.

Anyway, here's a movie that documents all the hardships that go on in a first responder's marriage. Marriage is tough enough on its own. However, when you're partner is committed to the community first, it becomes a lot tougher. Yes, they are heroes,however they are husbands (and wives) as well.

Watch the trailer to Fireproof... it doesn't hurt that my talent is on the trailer.



Life is GRAND!
Super Panda

It's Tea Time!

For most of those that know me, they know that I love going to tea!
So that's what I did today. I went to tea- with the friends I enjoy the most.

The day started off with me bringing this cake to Emila's house.


When everyone that we were carpooling with had arrived, we then left for our destination- The Huntington Gardens.


We arrived a little early so we walked around the Rose and Japanese garden prior to tea.




After we killed some time, it was then time for tea- yummy!

I decided to take individual shots at tea...
Here's Kisha

Nicole

Emila

Megan

and me... but my picture was taken during our tour of the Jungle garden.


After tea, we walked around the garden some more.



The garden was awesome! There were tons of different garden themes, as well as a museum. It was definitely a great day. After we walked around the gardens and the museum, we then headed back to Emila's house for some birthday cake.
Here's how the red velvet looks like sliced.


After the birthday cake, it was time to head home. Too bad for me, I left my camera at Emila's house and had to go back. I had a lovely day with some great friends. I really enjoyed myself.

By the way, I finished Breaking Dawn. Loved it.

Life is GRAND!
Super Panda

100 things about me (81-100)

81.) I'm scared of going hungry. Like I definitely have issues with it. It's less now that I'm in therapy, but it's still present. Perhaps it's the remnants of the fat kid inside of me. The hubby and I use to fight over when he was not hungry and I was, cause it terrified me. WEird, huh?
82.) I thought coming up with 100 things about myself would be a breeze. However, I thought wrong. It was pretty hard. However, I've learned quite a bit about myself in the process.
83.) One of my goals is to be an awesome cake decorator. Perhaps it'll teach me some patience, since it takes a few hours to do a simple cake.
84.) I've been told that I "cuss like sailor." This has happened more than once.
84.) I'm scared to bake more, and become great at it, because I'm scared of getting fat. Wow! This sentence had the word "scared" in it one too many times. But, yes, it's true. I LOVE to bake, but I'm afraid it will mess with my waist line.
85.) I look forward to reading my horoscope every month on astrologyzone.com
86.) I get grumpy easily when I'm hungry.
87.) I tend to get extremely excited about the future... especially the future that I've envisioned. It's all about visualization baby!
88.) I'm the product of an all girl's Catholic high school.
89.) I hate one word answers to questions I have- or one word comments for that matter.
90.) I'm not such a huge of fan of sarcasm. It builds walls isntead on bridges.
91.) I'm not a fan of high heels. I'm more of a flats kind of girl. Strange for being my height, that's for sure.
92.) I wish I had more pictures for my blog. I hate picture- less blogs.
93.) I'm incredibly picky about the pens I used to write with. Only one kind works for me- It's the Pilot G2- 07.
94.) I almost always bring a lunch to work.
95.) I enjoy not wearing make up. Although, I would hate to run into somebody without it. It's amazing how much make up really changes a person's face.
96.) I am having the hardest time coming up with the rest of the things to put on here.
97.) My left shoulder hurts from boxing.
98.) I am rushing this and just coming up with bullshit. HA!
99.) I am leaving work in a bit to spar.
100.) I'm excited I'm done with this. It was definitely hard!