Baby Shower Cake (and cupcakes!)

This was for Chuck Spencer's Baby Daddy shower (Kathleen couldn't make it). Can't wait to meet that baby!

Tidbits!

1. Baby shower cake is ready to go. Pictures... Soon.
2. I'm ready to take cake orders. Email me at hilarysamsa@gmail.com. Let's talk!
3. Natural Law: If one child sleeps through the night, and you have more than one child, another child will wake you up. Chances of sleeping through the night decrease as number of children increases.
   
4. Appointment with Dr. Dude this morning. The gist: Remember to spend some time focusing on me, call if I need to, I'm doing great, etc. I was in a different room today and it made me feel extra... I don't know... squirmy. No window!
   
5. I have entered a place/time in my life where I am not horrified by ankle socks. I'm wearing them right now. I wore them out in public.
6. Too much coffee today. Have peed 2876491 times. Kidneys are angry. Too much information?

That's about it for now. I hate it when people say they're tired/busy, but... zzzzzz

Steampunk Cake

Photography by my lovely husband Jason

I'm putting together a cake blog here but I'm still going to post stuff here. I just wanted one that was ONLY cakes for when I want people to go look at cakes and not read all about my life... ;)

"...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

I read The Declaration of Independence to Mina today. She was squirmy and wiggly and interrupted a lot, but anyway, it was good to read it, and I encourage you to take a moment from sparklers and grilled meat and red, white and blue treats to read the want, will, and hopes of the people. I got a little choked up at that last paragraph.

Poor kiddo

Leta has a fever.

For the last couple of days she's been asking to watch the news. "Whatever, she's going through a news phase..." She gets all choked up about it though. She can't finish her sentence without going into silent chin quiver mode.

Just a few minutes ago she asked again, "Mommy, why aren't we watching the news?" Her little voice cracked.

"The news is on at certain times of the day, dear. Why do you want to watch the news all the time?"

Her eyes teared up and she whispered, "Because I like watching Michael Jackson".

*cry*

That is all.

Sigh... I tried

I have always tried to refer to all the body parts with their proper names.

However, the girls have come up with their own names for things. I'm sorry but it's true. There is the "pee-pee butt" for girls and the "funny pee-pee butt" for boys. They've been saying this forever and they think it's hilarious. I assure you they came up with this all on their own.

...

I think it's kind of funny too. Shhhh

I've got baditude.

I was looking at some pictures today and getting grossed out by tan people on beaches looking happy, and then I watched America's Next Top Model and was REALLY grossed out by Tyra's extremely annoying personality, and all those other phonies, and now I'm watching some stupid show called Hitch or Ditch, and watching this gross group of girls picking out dresses just gives me the creeps.

It reminds me of when I was growing up and the blonde/brunette balance was way off in any given situation, I would start feeling all skittish. Like the blondes were taking over or something.

This show is so bad!!!

I'm glad Jason has baditude about it too. We're sitting here making snide comments at the TV.

I have nothing good to say. I guess I should ZIP IT!

I just wanted to write SOMETHING.

Do you see all the greys in there?!

Sick of hair pictures yet? I'll post more after I get my hair cut. ;)

My hair says it's humid

I'm really really glad I'm getting it thinned out soon.

In other news, we have no hot water. I'm having a mini anxiety attack over all the house stuff lately.

I don't have anything good to say except that last weekend was really fun and I love the ladies in my family.

Hope all is well with all of you! (Are you still there???)

Paisley Cake

My gracious friend Laima needed a paisley cake for someone's birthday so I had some fun with this. Originally I wanted to pipe black and white around the burgundy and yellow but I couldn't make a black that didn't taste terrible and my buttercream frosting is very yellow and not white. I'm still having a bit of a problem with steadiness but I know that as my hands get stronger this will get better. And then I will develop carpal tunnel and need surgery.

Until then... CAKE!

Complaint Department

Cullen took off all of his clothes and pooped in the crib again today. This is getting old pretty fast. Never again will I send him to bed with just top and bottoms. He needs a onesie so he can't get to his diaper.

Now he is in bed crying hysterically because his favorite blanket is in the wash.

The insides of my eyelids feel like someone jammed grass in my eyes, and I can't seem to keep them open.

Four Cake-Wrecks of the Apocalypse

My friend Laima agreed to provide me with cake to practice on. She brought over four small layer cakes and told me to have fun... I didn't really have any brilliant ideas so I just started to play. This one I was hoping for a sparkly vinyl look and it ended up being very sloppy, in part because I was not precise in anything that I did, and I don't know what I'm doing with fondant yet. Also the weight of the fondant smooshed the cakes, and the icing beneath (mousse actually!) melted, and it ended up being all warped and stuff. Also kind of icky looking, color-wise. I'm going to mix the color in rather than paint over the top next time.

Yuck!!!

This sort of ivy cake would have been alright but my buttercream frosting was melting in my bag! I tried to keep it cold but folks, butter melts fast in a hot hand. The internet tells me I will have better luck if I add some cream of tartar next time.

OH it gets better! I had this really fantastic idea, see, when I looked down at all of my fondant scraps... I thought Laima would so enjoy a sort of glass mosaic looking cake since that's kind of a Thing of hers... It looked really great at first. The glossy dark blue gel was just right. However, things did not stay where they belonged... Oh my... Oh my... It's just disasterous.

I kept this one to eat myself. Since it's a spice cake it kind of tastes like Good and Plenty candy. It's quite tasty actually if you can forgive its appearance.

But I don't know if you can.

I wanted to do some roses for the cake that I figured would go to Laima's mom, but my frosting was too melty! They melted into blobs by the time I lifted them from my rose nail. It was getting late at this point and just decided to make something else with my rose tipped bag of yellow frosting: This ugly yellow flower of some kind. No fondant beneath, just the icing the cake came with, which kind of looks like paint peeling off of a brick. Charming, right?

Well I learned a few things, and I promise that next time I will present you with awe-inspiring things of beauty. Practice, practice, practice...

First cake... Mushrooms...

It started out white with lots of gold shimmery stuff.

Mess!

I had a lot of trouble with my leaf tips. I think I need different ones.

Peanut butter frosting looks like worms.

Playing...

Mixing colors...

The corners of my cake came too close to the edge and I had to smoosh some stuff with my lid. Lesson learned!

Decided to make it green.

Mina told me I needed to paint the bottoms of the mushrooms brown and I think she was right.

The end!

Ace of Cakes, here I come!

I got my new cake decorating supplies yesterday and I can't wait to play with them. Anyone need anything decorated?

I have a few tidbits for you today:

1. I killed a wasp in my basement today. It was crawling around on my washing machine. Should I be worried?

2. I sprinkled diatomaceous earth today because we have ants invading our kitchen. I'll let you know how it all works out.

3. I visited Dr. Dude yesterday and updated him on my everything. He and his wife visited Happy Bambino and liked my paintings. (So he says... :P)

4. Cullen took off his diaper and pooped in the crib for the first time today. I say "for the first time" because I seem to recall this was a regular occurrence with Mina. She even drew poop murals on her walls. Oh, those were fun times. Picture me at nine months pregnant with Leta, scrubbing the poop off of the walls and crying.

5. I cleaned our our junk drawer today and discovered an embarrassing surplus of batteries and pens, two things we are always searching for.

CAAAAAAAKE

I ordered cake decorating supplies today! They should be arriving in 7-10 days, then I will be devoting many of my evenings to playing with frosting and gum paste and fondant and oh, oh what fun. Hopefully in two weeks I will be posting pictures of this adventure.