Cakes of Late

It's been a crazy busy couple of months for The Sweet Ladybug...that's my cake gig. Yesterday I wrapped up my last two "big" cakes before our much needed vacation. This one is the teddy bear baby shower cake and I don't have the pix loaded from Tisha's party cake yet.



The teddy is sculpted out of fondant...really fun to do and a lot like working with polymer clay. I haven't done something like that in years...I think it was 8!!? years ago when my friend Michelle had a girls night of clay ornament making or something. Wow. Anyway, I digress. He was a super blobby looking bear until I lopped off about a third of his hiney.

The bow is made from a mixture of fondant and gumpaste. Gumpaste dries a lot faster than fondant and I think made it easier to work with. I rolled it so thin that it felt like a piece of fabric. The gumpaste must also keep it from stretching as it held shape really well. I followed an online tutorial over at CakeCentral (where all great cake things live) and it worked like a charm.

My favorite cake of late has to be the "Bo Hunts Game" hunk of camo that I made for part of my brother's Christmas gift. He liked it. The buttercream colors were nasty looking on their own, but together they just disappeared. Ha. (My attempt at hunter humor.) Along the edges it said "Run Game Run. Fly Game Fly. Swim Fish Swim. Hide Game Hide."


I also got to take another shot at castle building last month. This time the whole thing was gleaming as I sprayed it with an awesome little thing called "luster dust". Bring on the bling!


I still want to try a more realistic looking castle someday...ahem, no pink & purple....all fondant covered with cobblestones and flowering vines climbing the towers. Maybe that's what I'll make for myself. I doubt it....we're pretty caked out at our house. Chips and salsa anyone?

Silly Rabbits

So, Maria, since I've been a slacker blogger, here's a random post to keep my quota up :) !

Right now Kai is bathing his dragon (aka stegosaurus) in the downstairs bathroom sink. He is singing a little song and has used half a travel sized tube of Country Apple lotion as the soap. The hand towel is completely drenched...and--oh, yes, the water is running again...must have needed a warm up refill in the 'tub'!

Elena is sleeping after a 20 minute tantrum and discipline session. She flipped out when I asked her to take off her new Cinderella dress for lunch...she is currently struggling with submission to authority. Is there a four-year old who isn't? We have small breakthroughs here and there, but it's a continuing battle.

Here is a picture with my kids and nieces, Naomi and Stella (the middle two redheads), from before Christmas...I haven't even uploaded from the camera since then!



Eric and Elena and I visited Discovery Homeschool Academy this morning and are really excited to enroll her for the fall. It is a one-day/week enrichment program for homeschool kids...a little taste of classroom school with fun things like art, music, PE and school lunch! She said she thinks she'll like the arts and crafts the best. Her friend, Aidan, will also be starting Kindergarten at home and is planning on going to Discovery too.

I'm planning for the Powell Gardens bridal fair coming up in February where I will have a demo cake and hand out info & samples for my business. My friend Molly is going to spend the day with me...I'm just as excited for the girl-time as I am the potential for new business! My goal is to have my dummy cake (which will be in competition with all the other cake vendors' dummies...some who TOTALLY intimidate me w/their awesome talent) done by next week so I won't have to scramble after vacation.

I also just got word yesterday that I have another couple who wants to contract me for their May wedding...yay! Soooo...now I'm also doing a pricing review, something I should probably do annually anyway. I've been keeping my bridal prices cheap since I'm just starting out...but now that I have some experience, I'm going to actually make enough to pay myself...how about them apples? Duh. All in all the cake world is still staying fun...especially as I get to do new things...like I made a sculpted fondant teddy bear for a baby shower cake this week. He's really fat and really cute. I like the artsy stuff!

Okay, so that's a wrap on this random post...I'm sure there's more to come sometime....Peace.

Disney Excitement

Our family vacation this year is generating much excitement...we're going to Disney World! As children, Disney wasn't even really on the radar for me or Eric...it just wasn't going to happen. So being able to take our kiddos when the magic of fairytales is so real they can almost taste it is truly wonderful.

We're staying at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort at Disney World for 3 nights. We may be a bit crazy, but we're going to hit the Magic Kingdom for just one day and then spending the other day at our resort and doing other things like riding the monorail, hopefully seeing some memorable sites along the way. We figure we'll do a longer tour of the parks when the kids are a bit older.

My Aunt Cle and Uncle Ed live just north of Tampa so they'll join us at the Magic Kingdom and then we'll spend the second half of our vacation at their home. We have lots of fun things planned: a trip to the beach at Seista Key, a live mermaid show at Weeki Wachee Springs and a cruise on the Crystal River to hopefully view some manatees--I'm not sure if that link is the company we're going with, and we're not donning wetsuits to go in the river with the beasts! We're also going to take in Rainbow Springs State Park, some disc golf and Eric and I are going to enjoy a date night out in Tampa while the kids stay with Cle and Ed.

All in all...the kids are of course most excited about the airplane, the pools (heated, thank goodness), seeing the princesses (Elena) and being big enough to ride the kiddie roller coaster (Kai) "I AM BIGGER!". I have a feeling we may need a vacation after vacation...

List Mania

I'm a list maker and the latest one to pop into my head is a list of fun things I'd like to do...or that I missed out on doing as a kiddo. Tonight I was playing jump rope with my kids and it started me thinking about this stuff...of course, I wasn't counting on the un-lovely feeling jumping rope brings when you're over 30 and out of shape...I think I need to borrow Eric's knee brace and take something for my headache now!

1. Double-Dutch jump rope
2. Really play the piano...more than Yankee Doodle etc.
3. Travel around Europe...but I've upgraded from wanting to "backpack"-around to wanting to "stay in posh hotels"-around.
4. Swan dive--just into the pool from a board...all I can do is a pitiful 1/2 belly flop-1/2 kind of flat dive thing--not a pretty sight.
5. Read classic children's literature like Tom Sawyer etc...I have finally read Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia...but I know there are so many more....hopefully homeschooling will help knock this one off my list.
6. Ice Skate
7. Learn to tap dance

The Blood and The Wine

The sacrament of communion is one of those things I think we will never fully understand while here in this life. Lately it has become infused with an even deeper sense of meaningfulness that stems from part of the portrait of my Grandma Ruth as told by her pastor at her funeral.

He said that to Ruth, communion never seemed just a simple ritual, instead she approached the table each week with reverence. The Sunday before she passed away, he observed her as she received the bread and the cup...there she paused, thoughtful. She took the bread and then turned to the cross and held up her cup as in a salute to Christ, perhaps knowing that soon she would be in his arms and enjoying Him for eternity. What an image this simple story has painted on my heart!

I have received communion 2 or 3 times since and the power of the cross and revelation of Christ--His love of having such a personal relationship with each of us...and my grandmother's peace and confidence in this friendship--have moved me to tears and an overwhelming gush of emotion each time. Partially, I'm sure this is part of the grieving process for me, although I think communion will never be the same in my life.

There is a song by Nicole Nordeman titled Legacy. I love this song on many different levels...as a mother, sister, friend, sister-in-Christ...but today my mind is drawn to it in thinking of Grandma. Here are the lyrics and you can listen to a snip of the chorus here if you click on the icon beside the song...it's number 7:

I don’t mind if you’ve got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who’s who and so-n-so’s that used to be the best
At such’n’such … it wouldn’t matter much

I won’t lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an ‘Atta boy’ or ‘Atta girl’
But in the end I’d like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I don’t have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthy list of all that I enjoy
It’s an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy

Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, “Well Done” good and faithful one…

Nicole Nordeman- Legacy

Christmas Wedding Cake

What a fun time of year to be tying the knot! These are Jessica & Travis' cakes I made last week...yummy...or at least they smelled yummy. Two layers of chocolate cake and one of classic white. The sheet cake was one of my favorite flavors, Almond Cream Cheese. All buttercream icing, satin ribbons and gumpaste holly & bow topper. The gumpaste items I can't take the credit for...the bride ordered them from a talented sugar artist that specializes in gumpaste decorations even before contacting me for the cake! Even with the yucky weather, it sounds like it was a great reception for the bride and groom. Cheers.

Block Posters

Check out this cool site...I've got to make one!

Block Posters