camouflage guitar cake

HI

I recieved an order for a camo guitar cake a week ago, quite an odd request when you think about it...

I stressed a bit about getting the camo effect, but i think it went well... Its a madeira cake covered with fondant and fondant accents... I tried to do the strings with spaghetti, but they just wouldnt stick, so i used fondant after struggling for an hour.









Have a nice week!

I'm SOOOOOOO Excited!!

Why you ask?????

Well, because my camera broke. The camera that I love.... I mean truly LOVE.... and that I hardly go anywhere without. Ca-put. And the camera doctor says it's not really worth the cost to fix it. So exactly why would that make me so excited? Well, in the beginning it didn't. And I've actually survived about 6 weeks now with only a crappy point and shoot. Sorry, for all of you out there with point and shoots, but really, once you've gone DSLR, you tend to become a little camera-snobby and you just can't go back.

So after many weeks of contemplating biting the BIG bullet.... buying a new DSLR..... new lenses..... new high-speed mega gigabyte SDHC cards to store all the mind-boggling amounts of digital info from that new DSLR....... Well, I finally did it.

And it was no small task. I've spent far too many hours researching.... talking to the experts..... reading every internet review comparing every new DSLR...... pouring over every issue of my PCPhoto magazine.... all in an effort to make the best decision in buying my new pride and joy. It's crazy expensive (well, to me, the cheap-skate anyway), and I don't want to make a mistake. I'll have this little baby for a long, long time.

So what did I decide? Well, it was reeeeeally a close call. I came within a breath of buying a Nikon D5000, but in the end, Canon's brand new EOS Rebel T1i 500D won my heart. Listen to this....... 15.1 megapixels, 3.0" 920,000 dot high-resolution screen, full HD video capture at 1920x1080 resolution, shoots 3.5 frames per second.... and on and on...... I'm so excited. It's ordered and in transit right now. And to make my life even better, I decided to dramatically upgrade my telephoto lens to the
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. It's supposed to be fantastic. I can hardly wait to start snapping those pictures! Here are a few picture of the camera and lens and then some shots I uploaded taken with this same camera. I'm a lucky girl.... this may be my Christmas, anniversary and birthday presents for the next year but that's just fine with me!



You can click on each of these photos to get a high-resolution, larger view to really see the image quality



So now I can even take pictures of the moon! Well, maybe I'll just stick with pictures of the kids, but it's amazing what this little camera can do....... can't wait!!

FIVE CAKES!!!! All due on the same day....

WHAT A CRAZY BUSY last couple of days this has been!!! I had 5 cakes, all needing to be ready for Saturday morning. Here they are....

First Birthday Cake for Max!!! (made to match the Mod Monkey party decor)

Buttercream icing w/ Fondant accents (monkey on main cake is chocolate fondant)




Here it is w/ matching smash cake...


Hannah Montana Guitar Cake for Kate's 6th Birthday!
Buttercream icing




Firetruck cake for Jason's 1st Birthday (w/ matching Firetruck Smash Cake)

Buttercream icing, w/ some fondant accents and white chocolate for ladders

Lots of little details on these ones...


I just love this little smash cake...



Ohhhhhh, how I love Change!

Well, what do you think about the new and improved blog design??????????

I Love It!!!

Everytime I look at it, it makes me think of the R.E.M. song "Shiny, Happy People." And you know, that's fitting. Life has been pretty wonderful lately.... and I have a lot to be happy about. So I'm glad that that happiness is now reflected in my blog that I've grown to love so much.

However, that is NOT to say it wasn't a crazy amount of work.... I figure I have 40 hours or so in designing it now and I'm only about 75% done.... more tweaks and changes to come. It's just my nature (or maybe my sick compulsion).... I must do and re-do and do and re-do, no matter how much sleep I've lost, til I'm satisfied that I've done my best. That's how I learn -- trial and error..... it's the best way for me. And my, my.... how much I've been learning lately!

So now to the post...... my kids had their elementary school fundraiser yesterday. This year instead of the typical wrapping paper sales, restaurant nites, and of course, our annual Spring Fling fundraiser, the school opted to let a group from outside the school come in and handle it all for us. The Fun Run crew were like former college cheerleaders, getting the kids pumped up to get pledges for a 35 lap run held yesterday. The kids would call friends and family, ask for donations for each lap, and the school would rake in all the dough.

It was actually a GREAT concept.... so much fun for the kids.... the Fun Run Crew taught character building lessons, psyched the kids up every day to raise more & more money, it involved lots of exercise and parents came to cheer the kids on, too. What could be better for our children? And I have to say, as a former fund-raising psycho mom who would work tirelessly for months to raise each and every little dollar..... well, this is absolutely BRILLIANT!! The Fun Run Crew does the work and we all benefit.... with no countless hours of volunteer work. I hope it was a success economically for the school, but I KNOW it was a hit for all the parents and their kids. Great job Ogletree!!! Here's a slideshow from the race.......


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Happy Birthday Cake :D

This was a cake i made last week.

A chocolate cake covered in fondant with fondant accents...

I must say this was a lot of fun to do, although it is a very plain cake.

This is what it looked like before i added the second colour...
Notice i am getting a lot better at creating those crisp edges, i am so proud of myself hehehe!:D


And this is after the second colour was added, a thin layer of darker blue fondant, cut to form the scollops..Side view,

embossed fondant stars...




I loved making this!
Have a nice day!!

Feeling Stupid? Here's some company.....

They get better as you read down.........



Have you ever said something and then later thought.... "Gosh, that sure sounded stupid!" If so, you'll surely appreciate this email I received and thought it would be fun to share. So next time you feel stupid, just dig this up and read it again......... you'll begin to think you're a genius.



(On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.)
Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: 'I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,' -- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest .





'Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.' --Mariah Carey









'Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.' -- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.











'I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.' -- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.








'Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.' --Mayor Marion Barry, Washington , DC








'That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it.'--A congressional candidate in Texas





'Half this game is ninety percent mental.' --Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark






'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.' --Al Gore, Vice President







'I love California . I practically grew up in Phoenix ' -- Dan Quayle while campaigning








'We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?' --Lee Iacocca










'The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.' --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.








'We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.' -- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.







'Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.'--Department of Social Services, Greenville , South Carolina




'Traditionally, most of Australia 's imports come from overseas.' --Keppel Enderbery







'If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record.' --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman


Feeling smarter yet?

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Just had to share this funny story....

Last night at Nana's birthday party my Aunt Angela was teasing me about my booty cake. We were all sitting around the dinner table and she said, "I mean really, WHO makes BOOTY CAKES?!?!!?" My 3 year old daughter Bailey turns to her, and proudly (and excitedly) announces, "MY MOMMY MAKES BOOTY CAKES!!! Yeah, she does!!" LOL

So just keep that in mind...I'm your go-to girl for a booty cake! And PROUD OF IT! ;)


My Supportive Daugters.... ;)

Bailey LOVES licking the spatula when I'm all done w/ the baking!!


Olivia says "FINE! If you're not going to share the spatula then I'll just eat YOU!!"

First Day of School

I soooooo wasn't ready for the first day of school this year. Summer's been really busy.... camps, friends, vacations.... it just seemed like we never slowed down. But I will say, the day the girls actually did both go to school, I was pretty pumped. I kept feeling guilty that we hadn't done some of the things I wanted to do together.... I felt like they really didn't get much of a break.... but THAT day, actually the 2nd day of school (I'll tell you about that one in a minute),
Woo-Hooooo! Mom's
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST!

I'm kidding of course, and I still had Jacob with me, but it was a nice little change of pace..... made even better that they both came home excited about their classes and their teachers. Macy got the teacher that every kid around here is praying special prayers to get.... Mrs. DeAnne (as she's known around these parts... she's a neighbor), although at school she's Mrs. Deweese. And Madison got the perfect teacher for her personality as well. That makes a mama REALLY happy. They're both transitioning well into 3rd and 5th grade.... it really couldn't be any better.

Now about that 2ND day of school....

at 9:00pm, the night before school started.... my child, Macy (WHO IS NEVER SICK!) came down the stairs with a bad stomach ache and said, "Mom, I just threw up everywhere"......... Murphy's Law....... Luckily, she was fine.... had a tummy ache the next day, but then was ready on Tuesday to go to her new class. Can't even tell you the last time that child was sick!!

So now that they're back in school, I'm starting to do a few of the things I've been wanting to do...... clean out some drawers and closets, organize, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!! But mostly I've been researching some new Photoshop software and diving HEADFIRST and FULL-FORCE into learning even more of its complexities. Anyone who does it will tell you.... BEWARE.... it's highly addictive. But I love it.... there's almost no end to the possiblities whether you're digitally scrapbooking or adding tweaks and special effects to photography. The more you learn, the more it sucks you in like a vacuum.... and the more you realize how much more you can learn. Exciting stuff for me....... love, love, love it! (Am I a nerd????)

So that's what brings me to this little entry.... my first scrapbook pages of hopefully many, many more to come of the kids on their first day of school..... What do you think?


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I plan to make books for each of the kids for Christmas..... it'll be like "A Year in the Life of Madison"..... Can't wait to get started...... and WATCH OUT..... I've got a camera in my hand just about everywhere these days!!

Nana's Birthday Cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA!!!! I LOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVE YOU!!!