I saw this in a store the other day.

In case my last post made anyone think that I had given up cakes then rest assured that didn't happen. I just have to take things slower because of Nathaniel. For instance, last year for the Austin cake show I started my cakes about two weeks ahead of the event...this year, I started yesterday, and the event is not till the end of February.

Anyhow, before this year's cake show rolls around I should share some things from the last years. to start with in this blog I'm going to brag a little about an opportunity that came to me because of a cake I entered in last year's "That Takes the Cake" show. You might recall that I posted a blog about my excitement that one of my cakes made it on the Cake Wrecks blog; well, that same cake also got me a magazine interview. The magazine is called American Cake Decorating and I made it into the Nov./Dec. issue on technical cakes.

Here are some pictures of it for your enjoyment!

First, the Cover of the magazine:

Yup, that's my cake on the cover!!! From this view point you can see the LED lights that were inside.

Next, on pages 20 and 21 you have my article:

If by chance you can't see them very well here are the pictures and the writing separately. (If you click on a picture you can see it at it's biggest.)

The two pictures on the the second page (above) were actually taken by me. I emailed them to the magazine people so that they could see what it looked like with the lights off. It was very bright in the hall where they took their pictures so they didn't have any shots that showed the blue light very well.

(Click picture to enlarge it to read.)

I guess they have a bit of creative license when they write an article because I never said I dreamed this cake up. I specifically said I couldn't sleep when I thought of it. But I guess their way made a more exciting beginning to the article. And anything that's quoted by me in the article could be true...hard to remember since I had only been home from the hospital a week and half after the birth of my son when I answered the interviewers questions. I might have been a bit loopy.

Then lastly, we have page 56. On this page they included each contributor's favorite tool to work with. Here's the page:
And after the magazine went out I received an email from a gentleman that ran a cakes and catering company in Kentucky that wanted more information about the metal icing smoother I used so that he could go get one. That was nuts....but pretty neat.
That means at least one person somewhere read the article. :)

Life Decisions

I know most people would expect an update and pictures of Nathaniel or possibly some new pictures of cakes here on my blog, but I'm not writing about either of these. Well, I guess this is about cakes but I'm not going to upload a bunch of pictures of my new stuff. (Though I intend to get around to that some day.)

Today I need to talk about motherhood, life decisions, and giving things up. I got a couple of interesting emails today. I was contacted by someone who is opening up a bakery in San Antonio. They had come across my website while looking for Austin Bakers. They also found my resume on LinkedIn. They liked what they saw and wanted to know if I was at all interested in a job as they were looking for professional head bakers for the bakery they were opening up in San Antonio.

There was probably a whole five minutes that I sat there contemplating the offer. I saw myself working at a bakery making cakes all day long. I saw myself creating masterpieces, receiving praise for my delicious work, and getting paid on top of it all. My dream job. I nearly started hyperventilating with the excitement that I felt!

And then I came back to reality.

I looked down at my son who was wiggling in my lap. He's only 6 months old and has turned into Velcro baby these last few days. I haven't showered in two days. He cries if he can't be with me 24/7 and even needs to be sitting against me or he'll keep one hand on my leg while he's playing with his toys. He didn't used to be this way. Now, he's permanently stuck. I don't know if this is just what 6 month olds are like or if he's going through something. Maybe he's not feeling well. He's been sleeping a lot lately too. But only in my arms. Anyhow, the point is it hit me suddenly. I can't do this. I can't get a job as a head baker in a shop and become a famous decorator...at least not right now. And it's not just Nathaniel, Monte loves his job here in Austin. He's good at and enjoys it. I'm proud of him. And a good job, good pay, good health insurance.....you can't really pass that up (especially in this economy) to go chasing after dreams.

A few years ago, before I was married, before I had a child, before I had a house mortgage, it would have been easy. I would have moved to San Antonio. I would have taken the job. I would have taken the chance that it might not turnout great, that the business might fail, that it might be mediocre. But I would have tried. Now, I just can't do that. I've made a decision about my life. And in all truthfulness I do love my home, I love my life here in Austin, I love my husband's company, and most of all I love my family. But this is the first time that my dreams of home and family have been in conflict with my dreams of career and ...well... my own interest and selfish pursuits.

I was extremely flattered by the job offer. It made me feel good. Yet I felt sad too and fought back tears as I typed my reply. I turned down the offer. And then I held my son till he fell asleep again.


As mothers, or fathers, have you faced this moment yet? How did you deal with it?

Nathaniel
Born June 14th at 5 pm
7 pounds 6 ounces
20 1/2 inches

(One week old)

Mom went into the hospital on Monday June 13th after her water broke at home. Unfortunately it was nearly 30 hours later before little Nathaniel made his appearance. An emergency c-section was performed but happily both mother and baby made it through fine and are healthy and well.
(Two weeks old)Now all mom and pop want is a little more sleep.
Nathaniel will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and already weighs over 10 pounds. He's a really good eater; though, his parents really wish he would maybe eat a little less and sleep a little more.
:)

But at least his parents find him terribly funny!

(I love my carrot.)

(And big strawberries.)

(Call me.)

(oops...Excuse me.)
(I'm so funny!)

36 Weeks

37 Weeks

38 Weeks

39 Weeks ... And Waiting

Cake Wrecks is one of my favorite blogs to spend some pointless time. They usually post really bad cakes...things that are misspelled or really poorly done but leave you laughing so hard. Occasionally, however, the blog owners post good cakes that they like on Sundays. They have a strange sense of humor and will probably make fun of even their favorites, but it's still a very well known site that gets lots of national traffic and has won awards.

Anyhow, a friend sent me this link. See if you can figure out what's so cool about the blog post below.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2011/03/sunday-sweets-that-takes-cake-2011.html





p.s. Having trouble figuring out what's so cool...well, here's a hint from the comments at the bottom of the page:

Christy S. said...

Wow! Love the one with the calavera... and the one with lights in the middle... and Wolverine... Almost impressive enough to make ya wanna risk a date to the Very Hazardous State of Texas ;)

March 27, 2011 9:42 AM

Arlene said...

Ooooh at that first cake and at the rainbow lit up one..wow. I so would be unhappy with the person that cut into that first work of art. If only I had that skill..

March 28, 2011 1:20 AM

The Restaurant Manager said...

Those are amazing! Love the blue cake!

March 27, 2011 12:23 PM

-Sea Nymph- said...

Is it bad that the rainbow light-up cake made me think of the Pandorica from Doctor Who?

March 27, 2011 9:46 PM

john said...

I can hardly wait for a Wreckerator to attempt Cassandra's "split quarters" cake.

March 27, 2011 12:03 PM

Babies and Bad Dreams

I'm an Aunt!!!
Well, I just can't help myself and I have to post this. I'm super excited because my brother and his wife had their little baby boy early this morning. He showed up at 5:06 AM (Mountain Time) on 2/1/2011 (nice birthday numbers), was 20 inches long, and weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces. His name is Ethan.

Ethan, 5:06 AM, 2/1/2011, 20 in., 7 lb. 12 oz.

This makes me super excited for my own little boy who will be coming in June. Just 4 1/2 months to go. I wonder if the cousins will look anything alike.


On a strange note. There were strong storm winds last night and I had horrible stomach cramps that kept waking me up. Whenever I'm hurting I tend to have nightmares. Well, it just so happened that between 5 and 6 this morning I had a doozy of a nightmare. It started off with me holding a little all white kitten that then began to root around and I realized that my baby (as it now looked like a baby) was hungry so I was trying to learn how to make formula so that I could feed him. That moment was really special in my dream and I was really happy feeding him. Then in the next scene he looked more like a chunky little toddler and he was pulling things off the mantle, and I was diving to catch them before they hit the ground and broke. And then I thought, "Wow! I didn't know you were big enough to do that." So, I took him out of that room to play and then he looked like a very small all white bunny, and I put him down to play with our pet guinea pig who also looked like a bunny. And then when Wicket jumped into his cage my little baby tried to follow but couldn't make it up the ramp and got his neck caught and then something snapped. And a friend of mine ran to try and free the baby and it's eyes turned red and he convulsed a couple of times and I knew that he had broken his back and was dead and my friend turned to me holding my baby out to me and kept saying "I'm so sorry" and I started backing up completely sick to my stomach and I started to shake with sobs and I began to hyperventilate and then woke myself from my dream in a panic.
I was shaking and crying and having a hard time catching my breath and I reached down and felt my tummy willing the baby inside to move so that I could know he was still alive and I turned and faced the clock and it was just after 6 AM (which would have been 5AM in Utah where Sara was giving birth) and I stared at it just praying that my baby was still alive and trying to deal with the pain in my abdomen.

So, when my brother called this morning to tell me his good news it struck me when he said that Ethan was born just after 6 AM my time. My brother was welcoming his little newborn into the world just as I was shaking off a nightmare that mine had died. Weird.

Well, baby and I are doing fine today. Felt him move around quite a bit early this morning. I think my adrenaline surge must have given him a push. Maybe I shouldn't eat three bowls of salad and a box of nerds just before bed. At least not on nights when arctic winds are expected to come gusting through Texas. Oh well. I do wish my mind didn't have such vivid and emotionally exacting dreams.

On a nice note, however, here is a video clip of Ethan. I've never uploaded a movie clip to my blog before but it seemed like an appropriate time to give it a shot. :)

It's just a bunch of yawning but I think his big fat tongue is oh so adorable.

It's a boy!

Any name suggestions? We're positively stumped.

2 0 1 0
in retrospect

I received a lot of Christmas updates from friends and family this year. They are always fun to read. Some of the friends I heard from I probably haven't personally talked to them in 3 or 4 years yet they include me in their mass email of Christmas wishes and a letter about their year and what they've been up to. I haven't really ever done one of these but I found while reading a friend's the other day that even though I haven't spoken to him in years it was nice to hear that he was in medical school now. It was nice to see pictures of him with his family. It was just nice to know that life was well with long lost friends. Anyhow, I've decided that because I enjoyed the letters I got from others and because of the doozy of a year that 2010 was that I would give it shot and send out an update of our lives into the wild blue yonder for the enjoyment of others...if they care to read it all. So here goes.

2010 started off a little nerve wracking for Monte and I. The previous year had been spent with many health challenges for both of us and Monte had taken a turn for the worse. He was not responding to any medications including the IV treatments he was getting and the doctors had informed us that surgery was just about our only option. They scheduled the surgery for February and didn't want to wait any longer as they said if Monte lost much more weight it would make surgery much more difficult and dangerous. So, mid February Monte had his entire colon / large intestine removed. He was in the hospital for over a week.

Monte in the hospital in February.

Then they sent him home with a illeostomy bag and lots of medication and rules that he could not return to work for 6 to 8 weeks. His digestive system shut down about 5 days after the surgery and he had to go back to hospital, pumped full of fluids, and eventually undergoing a blood transfusion. But after nearly two weeks in the hospital he was back home and recovering well. He recovered faster than the doctors expected and they decided to move the second surgery (to remove the ostomy bag and replace it with a pouch made out of his small intestine) up a whole month cause he recovered so quickly. So, the last week in March he went back to hospital for the second surgery. This one went fine too and recovery was easier for him the second time around.

Monte after coming home from the hospital. He couldn't shave in the hospital and he assures me this is the only time I'll see him with a beard. He hated it.

During his leave from work when he couldn't do much, couldn't lift anything, and was on heavy meds we spent a lot of time touring houses on the internet. Our lease on our condo was ending in June and we were trying to decide what to do about that. We got very lucky and found a place we loved. The family in the home had another house built and wanted to get moving so they didn't haggle too much on price and wanted to close early. So for my birthday in April we closed on our first house.

I had a black and white party for my birthday last year.

All the food was black and white. And everyone came dressed in black and white.

It was the last party we had in our condo.

And by June after a few coats of paint we celebrated our 2nd year anniversary in our very own new home!!!

Monte and I on June 17th our 2 year anniversary!

We got lots of help with the move since Monte wasn't supposed to lift anything heavier than a bread box. And then we spent the remainder of our summer enjoying our very lovely backyard.



Backyard

and Front Yard

Here we are painting our bedroom.

Master Bedroom before painting.







And then Master Bedroom after we painted, added a light to the ceiling fan, and bought new curtains.

Kid's Bedroom Before.





Then Nursery after we painted...I'm not done with the paisley circles I'm painting on the walls yet. And it doesn't matter if we eventually have a boy or a girl...I wanted a blue nursery.

Dining room




and Living room.

The stairs we left yellow but I added an owl to the wall.




It matches the ceramic owls that I made in college that sit on top of the nook.

The first time we mowed our new backyard! The grass was ridiculously high when we moved in. We put our guinea pigs out in it and they nearly got lost.



Then a picture of kids enjoying our play set during our open house party.

There is no furniture in our living room as we put our couch and our tv upstairs in the loft but those sort of things will come later. It's just so nice to own our own place. Right now the place seems very large to us. The guest room is still full of boxes and art supplies and our guinea pig has the whole living room to himself. The house has three bedrooms so there is plenty of room for expanding our family. And the backyard came with a playset. This is all very good cause in September we found out I was expecting. We didn't tell anyone and surprised my family at Christmas with the news that not only would my parents be becoming grandparents in January with the birth of my Brother's first child but they would be twice blessed as their daughter was due in June.

It's a baby! We'll find out January 12th if it's a boy or girl. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a girl cause we have no idea what to name a boy.

This is an ultrasound from a check up on Dec. 1, 2010

Here is a picture of my brother and I with our spouses over Christmas break at my parent's house. Sara is 8 months pregnant and I'm only 3 1/2 so my baby bump is small.

As you can guess it was a very exciting Christmas and a nice way to end the 2010 year. Now we are in January and are looking forward to many exciting changes to take place this year in our family. We are also praying for good health this year. Some test results lately have not been so good and there is fear that my health issues may be cause by Chronic Lyme Disease so the next step is to verify and possibly get on medication to protect the baby. That's all a little nerve wracking and stressing for me. But overall I'm really excited about the idea of being a mom. And now that the all day every day nausea has let up I can start really enjoying being pregnant. Monte and I find out this coming Wednesday if we're having a boy or girl and baby is due June 16th. (One day shy of our third year anniversary.)

That's the big news around here. Other news is that I'm getting back into my cake decorating. I had to take 3 or 4 months off since the smell of anything made me terribly sick, but the Austin cake show is coming up the end of February and I plan on entering again. I have some new ideas I want to try. I'm not happy just going traditional so we'll see what the judges have to say this time around. For your enjoyment, however, here are some pictures of a few cakes I did before I got pregnant and took my leave of the business for a while.

We'll start off with this. This is not a cake, however. This is Monte's birthday cookie. He really likes cookies and I made him a very big one. Decorated it with icing and served it in slices with ice cream. It was extremely too sweet for my tastes.

I made Calvin and Hobbes using a frozen buttercream transfer. It's one of my new favorite techniques. I pipe the design backwards onto some wax paper and then fill in the background. I put it in the freezer for 45 minutes and then I remove it from the wax paper and flip it over and place it on the cake...or in this case cookie. :)
Here are some birthday cakes using the same technique.

Buzz Lightyear and Woodie cakes for a pair or twin boys who were turning 4.

And a pretty design for my sister-in-law's birthday cake. This one had a delightful raspberry filling. Here is the Chutes and Ladders cake I did for the cake show last year along with my butterfly wedding cake. I used the frozen buttercream transfers to make the game pieces. That was my first time trying out the technique. The ladders and slides and spinner are all made of fondant. And of course baby shower cakes are always popular. Here is a monkey cake for a monkey themed shower. And this is just a cute little sleeping baby boy. And here is duck pond for ducky theme baby shower.

This was a Father's Day cake. Also a duck pond. The father and son are made of gingerbread cookies. The real father and son enjoyed feeding the ducks together hence the theme of the cake. And here's a little boy's Lego birthday cake. That was a fun cake. And next is a little girl's very very pink very large Disney princess castle. The cake is all real with cookies and icecream cones on it but the princesses were toys for the birthday girl. And this was for a first birthday party. They served a large cake to everyone and then had a mini cake with polka dots made for their little one. He devoured it!
And lastly. Here are some fondant pieces. I was just playing around one afternoon. I don't have anything to do with them yet. I just wanted to experiment.