Birthday Cake

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

My sister in law asked me to make a cake for a co-worker for her birthday. Since I didn't know anything about the lady, I decided to do something pretty conservative. The cake didn't turn out exactly like I had hoped. I have to agree with James, the "tendrils" are too heavy. They should be a little thinner. I think it looks like an Octopus is laying under the flowers. This was my first attempt at a bow and I wasn't too pleased with it, but I went with it anyways. The ribbon should've also been a little thinner. Good practice I guess, but I can be a little anal about things. Hopefully it'll taste good ! Alternating layers of chocolate butter cake and golden butter cake with cookies and cream filling, covered in chocolate fondant. Thanks for looking !

On another note, only because it just crossed my mind, and I don't mean to make anyone puke this morning, but.......you know what I love ???

(cue the songbirds)

I love falling asleep holding James' hand. Sorry, I have issues......

Blossoms

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

These are my first fondant blossoms.....I kinda like them...

Bad, bad, bad

This is my confession, and I'm really embarrassed. I'm very sad to say that I'm addicted to watching "Toddlers & Tiaras" on TLC. At the risk of offending someone, I will refrain from saying what I think about the show, but I can't help but watch it !!! Forgive me.

Playing In The Sprinkler

Playing In The Sprinkler
Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

My Threadcakes contest entry ! I needed one more detail, but I'm not changing anything now. It's late and it's been submitted. This was loads of fun to make. It's an orange cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, covered in fondant. All the accents are fondant, including the characters. So, wish me luck !

A little crowded....

I don't like it when James works nights for many reasons, so I try to make the best of it. One great thing is I get to lay right in the middle of the bed with the pillows stacked around me. It's Food Network all night long and it's pretty relaxing. WRONG !! Emma sleeps with me which I do love, but we watch the Disney channel, which at least puts me to sleep. Last night after VBS the animals were all feeling needy. So this is what my bed looked like. I had Emma to my left and Nalani, Clyde and Ringo to my right. Of course Nalani was almost sideways on the bed and she's not a tiny dog. She weighs about 110 pounds, maybe even a little more now. She sleeps like a rock too. I finally kicked them all out of the bed around 2 a.m., but all in all I got about 3 hours of sleep. I will more than likely be napping this afternoon !

BTW, I had to take this picture before I kicked them out.....

Silliness

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

Well, I've been working on something and I hope to reveal it by the end of the weekend. I made these guys last night and I think they turned out pretty cute. Since I'm not making these for someone else, I won't be too anal about the details. They are both made from fondant. I hpoe you like !

The smallest things...

He knows that the smallest things make me smile and make my day. This was in my Inbox this morning when I got to work.

i sure love you. have a great day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhivSh1hSc

So simple, but so big.

Silly Cake

If you were a cake awaiting a silly design, which would you pick ?? Do tell....

Totally Akward(and true) Tuesday - Secret Pee

While checking out my friends blogs this morning, I came across a story by Megan and had to participate.



As some of you know, I grew up doing musical theatre, and when I was in 8th grade, I auditioned for The Wizard of Oz and was cast. Well, being a kid, I was a munchkin of course and a couple of other things, but mainly a munchkin. The coroner to be exact. Since we were supposed to look kind of silly, our costumes were padded and some people had big bellies, most of us were girls playing boys, so we had wigs and moustaches. Well....opening night was a hoot. During the munchkin scene, when the witch shows up, all of us munchkins would go and hide. The mayor and I hid upstage in the center, facing each other. For whatever reason, Toto went ballistic and was barking uncontrollably at the witch. Toto had rehearsed just fine, but this particular night, he was not happy. The mayor and I got the giggles, but were trying NOT to laugh. I looked at the mayor, which happened to be a girl, and her moustache was falling off. I took her moustache and rolled it up in my scroll. So that made us laugh even harder. We were laughing and laughing and I couldn't take it anymore. I felt the panic come over me and I looked at her and said " I need to pee!". About 5 seconds later, I did, and once it started, the flood gates were open and there was nothing I could do about it. We were still laughing though. Once the scene was over and we got up to continue singing and dancing, I remember worrying that there would be a huge wet spot on the stage, but thank heavens for a big padded costume. The stage was dry. After that, I quietly went to the dressing room, and hung up my costume and didn't say a word.....Thankfully the wardrobe ladies washed our costumes every night. A few days later people started talking and laughing about it, and do you remember the song "One and one, we're having some fun, etc. etc." ? Number 3 ended up being "Three and three, we wonder who peed...." True story.



Do you have a funny story that you'd like to share ? Post it on your blog today and then head over to Tova Darling and you can provide a link back to it !

My crafty turn

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

Well, it seems like every time I turn around someone is crafting something ! Lately, I've had an obsession with pickle jars. I can't seem to throw them away. After reading other blogs and seeing all the projects that have been going on, I figured I better get after it. So, I decided to throw some ribbon on a few of my pickle jars. Emma usually has ponytail holders strewn every which way, but putting them in this jar helps keep them together, and the bright colors really add to her bathroom. I put ribbon and 3D butterflies on a larger jar for her scrunchies, bracelets, sunglasses, etc. If anything, it gets them off the floor !!! It is by no means perfect, but I think it turned out pretty alright.

San Antonio, TX

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

As I said in my previous post, I have house work to do after being gone for several days, so I will do some small posts today. We spent several days in San Antonio this week and had a big time. We went to Natural Bridge Caverns and the drive through safari on the way. We had never been to the caverns. It was really neat, but I did feel a little panicked every now and then. I'm a claustrophobe. We spent two very hot days at Sea World. I'm always amazed at what animals can be trained to do. I didn't spend a lot of time editing pictures because there were so many, so what you see is what you get. You can check them out in my sets in my Flickr. Take a look !

Back in action....sort of...

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

Since we've been out of town since Sunday, and since the housework needs some tending to, I'm going to do some tiny posts today. Last Friday our church had a father daughter sock hop. It was a lot of fun for the kids and I was very pleased to see that most everyone dressed up. They had moon pies and root beer floats and Emma dominated the hula hoop contest. I think she went for 6 songs in a row before the judges were making the contestants do tricks while hula hooping. When she won, she was hopping on one leg. Impressive for a 6 year old. You can see the rest of the pictures in my sets in my Flickr. I didn't spend any time editing these, but I hope you enjoy them !

My new love

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

Call me weird, but I have been wanting an old chair for my bedroom for about a year. The kicker was, I wanted bright green. I've found several on Ebay for great prices, but the shipping was outrageous, so I had given up my search. The other day I went into a local shop and was asking about some other items, when I told her I'd given up my search for my chair. She told me that the lady 2 doors down had one for sale. Unfortunately, her shop was closed. The following day my mom went by and checked out the chair and said it was perfect. Since I will be off of work next week, my plan was to go in next week and buy it. When I got home yesterday James had already gone to the store and bought it for me ! It is probably the best surprise I've ever gotten and my favorite thing I've ever owned. I know, I'm a nerd. I'm so thankful he got the chair when he did. He said as he was carrying it out, a lady was walking in and said "he got my chair!". So....it would've been gone next week !

BlueQ

Thank you Pioneer Woman, thanks for nothing !!!! BlueQ...I'm officially addicted. Not a good thing, but my my, what neat stuff ! They have the most awesome, and most unique stuff I've ever seen. I have a question, at what age do you officially qualify as a cougar ? Because I SO want this soap

I think I would drink more water if I had a cool water bottle like this one. Yeah, I'm sure of it.

My mom definitely needs this car freshener...she is the crazy cat lady you know....

And since tattoos, real and fake, are popular around our house, we need these. Maybe my sister will get some for the new baby. (hee hee).

The possibilities are endless. There are way too many products that I'd choose. Check it out and once again I say thanks for nothing to the dear Pioneer Woman herself.

Drowned rat

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

The other night whilst preparing the dips for the reunion, I heard tons of laughter coming from the front yard. I finally had to go look, and this drowned rat was running through the sprinkler. The summer was so fun when we were kids. We grew up on a street that was filled with kids, and on super hot days, everyone would have their sprinklers going, and all the neighborhood kids would run from house to house just to cool off.

and this....

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

"Take a picture of my boogers"

Maybe it's the rain.....

The MUCH needed rain.....Today I'm feeling down though. Actually, I've been not feeling like myself since our IUI a week and a half ago. I'm not really sure why, but I've been out of sorts. Today I feel bad about myself, I feel sad that I'm not PG, and jealous of those that are, I'm annoyed by some things going on at work, and because I am not that confrontational, I just keep it in. I just feel blah. I know I shouldn't feel the way I do, and I know that the enemy is working harder on me right now since I'm falling victim to a lot of my thoughts......Maybe it's just the rain. It will pass.

I've been tagged !!!

Megan from Infertile Myrtle has tagged me today ! So, here it goes.....

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Going to San Antonio
2. Father/daughter sock hop at church Friday (I'm cooking so I can be nosy)
3. 5 o'clock Friday
4. Getting pregnant
5. Bible study tonight
6. Singing with James Sunday morning
7. Playing golf again
8. Going school shopping for Emma

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Went to the store
2. Came to work
3. Watched a video tutorial on butter cream
4. Worried about things I probably shouldn't
5. Had lunch with James and Emma
6. Booked a hotel for San Antonio
7. Bought tickets to Sea World
8. Cried

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Play golf well
2. Play any sports well(not very athletic but secretly wish I was)
3. Play the guitar like a pro
4. Figure skate
5. Have a baby
6. Have any job I wanted regardless of what it paid
7. Take some awesome cake decorating classes
8. Spend a day at the pool

8 Shows I enjoy:

1. CSI
2. Unwrapped
3. Food Network Challenge
4. River Monsters
5. Property Virgins
6. House Hunters
7. Food Detectives
8. Locked Up

8 Friends I'm Tagging:

1. Ellyphant
2. MAK-now
3. Love Leslee
4. Consistently Inconsistent
5. B.Jane Brewing
6. Obsessed With Cupcakes
7. Pretty Partridge
8. Crystal's Corner

I hope everyone has a good time doing this. It's just something fun to pass the time. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you did yours so I can come check it out !!!

Lonely sunflower

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Originally uploaded by amberdawn82777

Well, it wasn't really THAT lonely...It was one of 3, but stood tall among the rest. I took this picture over the weekend at our family reunion in Hockley, TX. The sunflowers over looked my family's small garden. This is one of my favorite pictures I took all week. I'll post more later about our weekend....

Southwest Corn Spread

In an earlier post, I was trying to decide what dips to take to the family reunion. Well, I went with a classic fave, Spinach Dip (easy way out too), and I made a Southwest Corn Spread that I found in the Taste of Home recipe book. It was pretty tasty last night, but I would be willing to bet that once the flavors marry, it will be great. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup lime juice
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1 can (8-3/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
Tortilla chips or crackers

Directions: In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and lime juice until smooth. Add the chilies, onions, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt; beat until combined. Stir in corn and walnuts if desired. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Serve with crackers or chips. Yield: about 3 cups.

It was very southwesterny, but I think it could have been a little saltier for my taste, so be sure and serve it up with some salty tortilla chips !!

I played a trick on Emma last night while I was making this recipe. I was mixing the cream cheese and lime juice with my hand mixer as she came into the kitchen. She said "ooooh can I lick the batter!!" I said "Sure......(hee hee hee)". She got a glob on her finger and as quick as it went in her mouth, it came back out. She thought it was funny and we all got a good laugh ! I love that kid.

Happy 4th everyone ! I wish you all safe travel and many blessings over this weekend !!

It's good to be a man

It's good to be a woman too, but I think, generally speaking, men are allowed to get away with a lot more than women do. Typically, men can act as silly as they want and us gals look at each other in disbelief, shake our heads and say "boys will be boys". tsk tsk. Look at this fun ! A big guy slip and slide !!!

Now don't get me wrong, had I not nearly had my innards ripped out the day before at the doctors office, I too would've been slipping and sliding all over the place. I may have gotten some crazy looks from some of the other ladies, but who cares ! I only get to live this life once. So girls, get out there and don't be afraid to act like a goon !!! You'll love yourself for it, I promise :)