They're Too Cute To Strangle!

Today I had one of those moments when I have to think back to when our dogs were tiny and cute....that way I won't try to sell them or give them away. I happened to be the first one home today, which is unusual. Our dogs are locked in the kitchen when no one is home so as soon as I came through the door, I started calling to them and I could hear their nails clicking excitedly on the kitchen floor as they started doing their happy dance. This continued until I got to the kitchen entryway....then I stopped in horror and grimaced as my lower jaw hit the floor. My dogs do not generally steal stuff and chew it to bits, they do not gnaw on our table or chair legs, and I like to think that at 5 1/2 years old, we have seen these habits all but disappear. Maybe that's why I was so shocked to see tons of tiny, empty, silver tins in various crushed positions...all over the kitchen floor....along with a complete coating of crushed wax pieces. My dogs ate a bag of 50 tea light candles. There probably wasn't 50 left in the bag, maybe 30. They didn't eat the wicks b/c also lying among the wreckage was a ton of wicks with the little metal circle at the bottom of it. But the wax....it was everywhere...and stuck to the floor when mixed with enough dog drool. And in case you are wondering....the wax is passing through their system nicely.....so I'm just trying to remember back when they were little and cute and you couldn't possibly get mad at them:





These photos are actually from the night we brought them home...I think Bethany was 2yrs old and those puppies! Mike certainly couldn't resist...


These almost look like the faces they were giving me this afternoon!

It's All About The Price....

I know it's hard to believe, but when I'm not blogging, playing with my kids, yelling at my kids, working full time, reading a good book, etc....I like to read magazines. All kinds. Funny thing is, I really can't afford to subscribe to them, so I get a lot of my Mom's cast offs. Somehow she got a whole bunch of free magazines from points from one of her credit cards, so I now get Money and Entrepreneur as well. This is great, except I don't have time to read them all, but I can't throw them out unless I have at least leafed through them cover to cover. I will actually get anxious if I have to put one in the recycling bin without ever having opened it...I mean there could have been a really good website in there, or a great tip on how to get the stains out of something I don't even own...or at least not yet! Anyhoo, the magazines are always the same, Woman's Day, Money, Family Fun, Entrepreneur, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and Kraft Food (which is really good and free...sign up at their website!)....but somehow an "In Style" magazine made it's way into my house. I'm not that familiar with the magazine, but it almost seems like a "Glamour" magazine for adult women...yes, ladies, Glamour is for the teens! So, of course I have to read through it, although there is more looking than reading. After reading through it, I can see why I don't read these kinds of magazines. They are meant for the female millionaire, or wife of a millionaire. I'm not kidding...clothes that cost what I take home in a week, or a month! Then I came across this page:


You probably can't see the fine print, so I'll tell you all you need to know. The black spider web ring is $1200, the gold circle pin is $1500, the green flower ring is $6600, the raven ring is $7750 and the gorgeous lizard and pearl ring...................$17,400! Seriously. I won't even tell you what percentage of my yearly pay that is. AND it gives a phone number after each price in case you can't wait to call right now and order yours! I really think that even if I had a ton of money I would buy this type of stuff. People are going hungry, yet somewhere, someone right now is saying to themselves....where is that phone? I need one of these for the country club dinner this weekend! I won't go into the article about designer Robert Cavalli's yacht and all the REAL fur he has just laying around to snuggle up in. I thought real fur was a no-no and had been for years...but apparently the rich still buy it secretly by the boatloads...no pun intended!

In all fairness the magazine did have 2 pages with 17 ideas to help out different charities. I'll list some here:

Pantene Beautiful Lengths (www.beautifullengths.com) - donate your hair and they create wigs for women undergoing cancer treatment.

Keep A Child Alive: Text 90999 with your mobile phone and you pledge $5 to help keep children of AIDS alive in Africa.

Lance Armstrong Foundation: The reason I personally like the whole "Livestrong" line is because the proceeds benefit all types of cancer...you don't have to pick one or the other. This particular article was highlighting a new line of Livestrong active wear coming out. (www.livestrong.org)

Volunteer at a local ASPCA shelter or actually adopt a pet.

I think I'll stick to my low-cost mags in the future!

Barefoot Is A-OK With WalMart....

Since we are on a serious budget at the moment, and Walmart...excuse me, that's "Super Walmart" has the cheapest prices on a lot of items, I have been there quite a bit in the last month. The problem is, the only time I can make it there is during my lunch time from work, after work or on weekends. It is just so crowded all the time! Even driving in to and out of the parking lot gets me anxious. My husband got me to start parking way away from everyone else, and it does help.

So tonight we needed to go to Walmart. This was a special treat as all 4 of us were going - me, Mike and the girls. Special treat means I will be aggravated within 10 minutes of being in there because of all the stupid people I know I will encounter, Mike will be aggravated within 20 minutes b/c the girls will have started either arguing or competing about something. Then it will escalate to one of us yelling at the girls in the store, and there you have it, we have now turned into the exact people we wanted to avoid at Walmart. The minute I get in that store, though, I want to just crash my carriage through all the "clutter". (For those of you who like politically correct baloney, you might want to stop reading.) By "clutter" I mean, people who feel it is necessary to wear their pajamas, along with their slippers, to Walmart. I guess in a way, it's a good thing. Almost like a uniform for the stupid people; they might look normal but then you look down at their fuzzy slippers and "oh, I'll just go around the other way". Tonight we had an extra special visit as we saw a woman, with a family, walking around in the grocery aisles, barefoot. Now before you go saying maybe she is homeless and can't afford shoes, I think if they pawned some of the gold they were wearing, she could go and buy at least a $5 pair of Keds knock offs in the Walmart shoe section. Now after getting almost everything on my list - I don't know why I thought I would be able to get Edamame at Walmart? - we headed for the register. The line was particularly slow in moving - we probably waited about 20min in line and there were only 3 people in front of us - and Mike says, "Is this where people come when they don't make it as cashiers at other stores?", which is when I gave him my "don't be rude" eyes. For the piece de resistance, while waiting in line, we got to watch 3 shoplifters get read their rights, handcuffed, banned from Walmart and thrown in the awaiting cruisers. When Mike mentioned they would be banned from Walmart, Bethany looks at me and says, "Mom, you should steal something because you would love it if you were banned from Walmart!" Hmmmmm.....

So What If You're Late...Take Time To Enjoy....

Every weekday morning I have to drive my genius across town to her smart school. No bragging, just the facts...ok maybe a little bragging. The next street over from ours happens to dissect a lake at one point and it's right there, every morning that the sun is out, we get to enjoy a wonderful view. It's just very serene and peaceful...all the ice has melted, the sun is just getting into the sky and lately there is steam coming off the water. What a treat. Especially when the swans are in view as well. Yesterday there was a very large swan that was just coming out of the water by the road when we were driving by. There were no other cars so I stopped. He stretched his body and neck up tall and spread his enormous wings out wide. Only for a second or two, but he was magnificent. Unfortunately for me, I had no real camera and my cell phone had died so I didn't even have a cell phone camera!

So today I decided I would never leave the house again without my camera. Again we had great views so today I was prepared. We actually stopped, turned around, I got out, took photos, turned around again, took more photos. Nothing compared to yesterday, but it reminded me to stop and enjoy once in a while...so what if it makes you 5 minutes late?

I would have liked this photo if it wasn't so centered but I was trying to focus and make sure no other cars were coming at the same time.

I love this photo for the reflections.

Java Time, Unwind Time, Me Time....

This here is one of the things I miss most about being home on furlough last week....and one of the things I look forward to every weekend. Brewing some coffee and making myself a nice, big cup in my favorite coffee mug with raw sugar (partially seen in the background). We bought a pair of these mugs at one of our favorite stores called, "Santa Fe North" located in North Conway, NH. I love unique Southwest items, but particularly the character shown here, Kokopelli. He is a mythical, flute-playing and somewhat mischievous character of the Native Americans. I always thought he was specific to the Hopi Indian tribe, but not too long ago I believe I read something saying many tribes had Kokopelli in their stories. So I guess I'm not really sure since I'm not an expert. No, I don't suddenly want to play tricks on my family after using the mug, but something about the mug itself relaxes me...weird, huh?

Aunt Edamame And The Fitness Game....

Do you consider yourself fit? If you do, then you probably don't need to continue reading.... I read an article in Reader's Digest about what it means to be fit at 40. I can hear the groans out there already, and I normally would be right there with you, however with 40 ready to kick me in the ass in 2 months, I've realized the need to be healthy. OK, I guess one always knows one should be healthy so I didn't just realize this fact; I'm just saying it's only going to get harder....so who's with me?!!! (cricket, cricket) I thought so...tough crowd. Ok, ok, I can understand your hesitation so here is a website from the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to take a fitness test: www.adultfitnesstest.org. I just took a look at the website, but I haven't done the test yet, although I will let you know when I do. The Reader's Digest article has goals for healthy 40 yr old men and women...I'm only going to give you the stats for the women...screw the men - they skip their cookies one day and lose 10 pounds!

Push ups: women should be able to do 33 (on knees) without stopping

1.5 mile-run: women should be able to do it under 12 minutes - this would be tough for me - kind of like "I don't cook", well "I don't run"

Half sit ups: women should be able to do 60 in one minute - piece of cake...did I just say cake?

Sit and reach: women should be able to reach 9 inches beyond their heels - can someone explain what the hell this is to me? Where am I supposed to be reaching and how am I positioned that I am reaching beyond my heels?

The website does look promising, but the knee-ups while running with 9 inch heels do not!

I recently discovered a food that could help you on your road to fitness. It is spelled edamame, but who knows how one is supposed to pronounce it. From what I have read it is soy in its natural form. It looks like oversized pea pods, although I bought it shelled and frozen. I just boiled it, put some Olivio on it with salt and butter and it was delicious! I thought it had almost a nutty flavor.



Then today I added some cold, left-over edamame to a pasta salad I had made. Very yummy!



This is supposed to be a super food...really healthy for you, although I'm not an expert on food, as we all know. Many of you are probably reading this saying, "I've been eating that for years! What's the big deal!" Well if that's the case smarty pants, please send us how you prepare your edamame. I have a feeling I'll be adding it to everything...."Mom, what's this in my cereal?"

Cell Phone Coupons, Online Zen And More!

So I realize I took a little break here, but I was on furlough last week...which I thought would mean I would have more time to post some good stuff...however, my inner domestic diva was out of control! It was my daughter, Jamie's birthday on St. Patrick's Day (ugh how I wish I could have held her in just a few more hours and she would have been born on the 18th!)...we are not Irish at all, but even I grew up celebrating march 17th in a big way....I can't even imagine if my birthday was on St. Patrick's Day. OK, let's not think about when she is older just yet! Anyway, she turned 12 and had a birthday slumber party with 7 other girls. I spent most of the week doing laundry, cleaning, baking and yes, even cooking! nothing fancy, of course, because we all know I can't cook! Anyway, WAY too much drama with 8 - 12 yr olds running around. Never do that again!
The serial breast feeder made a surprise appearance at mass this past Sunday and sadly, there was no breastfeeding involved. Oddly, the baby really doesn't look like it has grown since last year...I'm glad I didn't have to witness any breastfeeding, however I never get tired of watching unsuspecting church-goers expressions when it happens...in the front pew! You realize I'm going to get reprimanded by several people at church for this posting now...you think I'm joking!

Moving right along, I have a couple of fun sites and a couple of frugal sites. It's all about options today...what's you're mood? Fun or frugal?
FUN SITES:
The things we can do with our cell phones these days!
www.cellfire.com - once you sign up for free, you can download coupons onto your cell phone, then bring them up when you are at the store and they just scan the code on your cell phone screen! The site has a section where you tell it what model cell phone you have, and it will tell you where to go on your phone to download their application! It's free, however you will probably incur data charges - so it recommends use with unlimited data plans.

Bad memory? Call Jott at 866-JOTT-123 and dictate your reminder - the service types it up and sends it to you as a text msg at the time you tell it to - service is free, text msg rates apply.

This is kind of funny because it seems useless, but I can picture drunk people using it. I have not tried this, so don't hold it against me if you try it and it doesn't work. If you hear a song on the radio that you want to know the name of, dial 866-411-SONG and hold the phone up to the music - the service identifies the song and sends you a text msg with the details. This costs 99 cents per song or you can sign up at www.411song.com for bigger plans.

No GPS? Dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) and tell them where you are and where you want to go and they will send you a text msg with turn by turn directions! Service is free, long distance charges may apply.

Want to feel less stressed? Or at least that's what I read about this site: www.myinnerworld.com. I did register, it took a few minutes and there is nice, relaxing music to listen to while you are exploring your inner self, but I found some of the stuff a little hokey. I did find some tips on feng shui (or however you spell it!) since that interests me, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually visit the site.

A quick read...read of your color that is! www.colorstrology.com lets you know your color based on the month you were born and gives a short couple of paragraphs on what it says about you.

Coupon crazy? I read a heartwarming story about the 2 women who started this website so I thought I would try it out: www.hotcouponworld.com. I found some coupons, but it was downhill once I tried to print them out. I had to download a special application just to print them out and then it wouldn't work anyway so I had to uninstall it. That frustrated me enough for today. Although they also have a website www.organicgrocerydeals.com that looked a little more promising....I just needed to shut down so you can check it out for me and let me know if it's worth it...thanks!

Martha Stewart Time Warp....

So taking a look back a recent posts, I can see I have somehow ended up in this other dimension where I cook and bake and try to be all domestic-like. I've definitely taken a bit of a departure from my modus operendi, but I'm making my way back....right after this post. Again, I blame www.thepioneerwoman.com and www.bakerella.blogspot.com - everything they do is made to look like the kitchen-impaired (that would be me) can do it so I get these crazy ideas in my head that it would be fun...yes, I get ideas that baking and cooking would be fun....this madness has to stop! After this....

So bakerella is famous for her cake pops and if you go to her blog she has tutorials on how to make them. They are simple, in theory, to make. I tried it out so I could being some as treats to Bethany's class today...here's how it went.

You start by mixing crumbled up cake with frosting then forming it into balls. Mine were not perfecting looking balls like you would see on bakerella's blog and mine were all different sizes as well - no size or shape consistency for me. Then you dip a lollipop stick in melted chocolate and stick it into the cake ball and leave to set....

Now I should mention here that these should have been on wax paper, but of course I had none. Once the lollipop sticks are in, put them in the freezer to set. Once set, melt chocolate, dip the balls then tap to get rid of the excess. This is where I think I went wrong. I think I got rid of too much of the excess. Or maybe it was because mine were not perfectly round....but once I dipped mine, they were a little lumpy:

I put sprinkles on to try to take away from the lumpiness. Bakerella makes ones that look like little cupcakes on a stick....very cute, but I didn't have any other color melting chocolate other then white or milk, which you need to make them look like cupcakes. Of course I didn't have much cutesy stuff to decorate them with besides sprinkles.
The other issue I had is that once you dip them, you are supposed to have a block of Styrofoam to stick the sticks in while they set. The closest thing I had was the lid to a Styrofoam cooler, which kind of worked. Ya want to know what worked even better? The second sheet cake I had baked and had cooled...i just stuck the sticks right in it! Worked like a charm....but see how lumpy they are? Maybe next time I'll figure out....I mean if there is a next time : )

What A Bunch of Know-It-All's....

So I'm home on furlough this week...can't remember if I mentioned this previously that the company I'm working for has done layoffs and everyone who is left (thankfully I'm one of them) must take 2 weeks furlough...this is one of my weeks. While it will really hurt when I don't get a paycheck for this week....I have a long list of projects I've wanted to tackle but never have the time - unfortunately I don't realistically have time for all of them. Top of my list was to do something special for each of the girls this week and seeing as I'm not usually able to go to any school activities, I thought I would help out at each of their classes one day this week. Bethany, my 8 yr old, was thrilled and couldn't wait. Jamie on the other hand grew wide-eyed and thought I was joking...no she wanted nothing to do with me being at her school....I guess I would have been embarrassed in 6th grade too. So today I spent the afternoon with Bethany's class. Now you have to realize it is a class of 14 advanced students. Half are 3rd grade and half are 4th grade. You would think it would be such a pleasure to teach or be with a class full of advanced students, the problem is...they are a bunch of know-it-alls...literally. Several times in my short appearance is was corrected by one or another of the students so then I just observed. When one student commented on how quiet it was because they are usually all talking I said maybe it was because I was there, then he asked whey I wasn't talking. Because I'm a dumb ass, smarty pants! I would have felt bad, but I witnessed one of the students arguing a point with the teacher...she has to deal with it...at least I could just sit back and keep my mouth shut!

Just Face It, Funny Feet!

It has been very stressful where I work lately...I may have mentioned this previously...so last week I came home, stressed as usual, and was greeted with this sight....my 8 year old really makes me laugh at the right time...sometimes. This was just what I needed to get out of my funk that particular day. I mean really, how could you not smile at this? Then there are times when she keeps me on edge....like last Sunday at mass. It was the 3rd grade CCD class mass...so most of the 3rd graders took part in the mass. Bethany got to do the first reading....she had been practicing for a week and I knew she would do well....however....Bethany has this habit of breaking into a British accent now and then...just because she thinks it's cool. She might go a whole day speaking to me as if she came off the plane from London. Then there is her Elvis impersonations....she does pretty well actually. So when Bethany got up to the podium at church and started her reading, I was waiting for it and for the lecture I would get from my parents and her teacher afterward....I mean it was different when she was a 6yr old in the youth choir and broke out in an air guitar in front of a packed house for the annual Christmas concert....at what age will people start saying she is rebellious instead of "that was cute"? To my surprise she ended her reading without sight of another accent - and I dare say she was the best reader out of all of them - but I could be biased. Of course she got a wild case of the hiccups after receiving communion...when it's nice and quiet...so a bunch of 3rd graders were giggling every time she hiccupped.

Orange You Glad It's Tropicana?

This is genius! I bought Tropicana OJ a couple of weeks ago and the packaging was new - I mean I noticed the design on the carton was different, but nothing else. Then the next day when I went to open the carton, I couldn't believe I was looking at a mini-orange! Creative genius! In this economy I'm sure many businesses have to think of ways to get people's attention...of course I didn't notice it until it was already in my house....but isn't it cute? Aside from that, I wonder how much money it cost them to make orange shaped caps v. the old ones?

The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella...a Daunting Duo

Really, what was I thinking? I blame it on another blogger www.thepioneerwoman.com who I read. She had a piece about a baking blog: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ and between the Pioneer Woman making EVERYTHING look easy and bakerella making EVERYTHING look yummy...I got caught up in thinking I could just jump right in! You have to check out both their sites - they make me want to be a better blogger....and baker....and photographer...and, well you get the picture!
So, back to my cake.....
In response to a few comments on my lovely fondant cake posting, and again I emphasize that I AM NOT an expert on anything that has to do with food, however I can tell you what I've read. Regular fondant, and by regular I'm guessing I mean the kind smart people buy from the store that is already made for you, does not taste very good and I believe I read people peel it off sometimes. However, I also read that they sell stuff you can use to flavor the fondant, so that would be helpful. Now the kind I made is made from powdered sugar (YUM!), mini marshmallows (double YUM!) and water so it tastes pretty good...but also remember that under that thin layer of fondant is a boatload of butter cream frosting (sugar overload!).
For another reader, as I already confirmed, I know I'm not the Ace of Cakes! Nor do I want to be...however I think it would be really cool to spend a day in their baking studio - Duff rocks!
And lastly, for that clean freak out there...I promise to clean the grout between the tile on my kitchen table....because I just have so much time and nothing else to do!

Fondant....Friend or Foe?

OK people, prepare to be amazed! I did some baking this past weekend (stop laughing) and some of it went surprisingly well...some of it, not so much. As most of you well know, I don't cook and baking, as far as I'm concerned, is cooking. However I have dabbled here and there when I find something I think is cool, or, as in this case, I WATCH TOO MUCH TV AND THINK I CAN DO ANYTHING! I love the show "Ace of Cakes"...they make amazing cakes and more importantly, they make it look sooooo easy! My first mistake was to even entertain the idea that I might possibly be able to make a beautiful fondant cake. Well, I knew we were celebrating my Mom's birthday yesterday and since we are on a very limited budget at the moment, and since my Dad said he would buy dinner and I could take care of the cake....I thought, "why not?". So I spent Friday night online, reading about using, making and decorating with fondant. You Tube has many awful, deceptive videos of people showing you how EASY it is to use fondant. By the time I finished watching and reading everything, I was ready to start my own fondant cake business! It was so simple...I mean I know I hadn't even made the cake yet, but it was so easy....right? Well it took me two days to make the cake and by the time I was done (literally an hour before my Mom arrived) I never wanted to see fondant again....until the next cake! I'm going to take you through a quick journey of my fondant follies. The first photo is actually one of the highlights of my weekend with fondant. A mini fondant rose...which I made! Do you believe it? I still can't believe I made it...I will show you how to make it later. I started by making the cakes - my Mom loves chocolate cake so that's what I made. Somehow I made the determination it would be round...from what I read it seemed it was more difficult to smooth the fondant over the corners of the square cakes. Also somewhere along the line, Jamie and Bethany became consultants on the cake project and they decided it was going to have 3 layers. Those girls, they really know how to challenge their Mom....and they know how to make me laugh....the eggs were innocently sitting on the counter one minute...I ran to put a laundry in, and when I returned....

I did a double take and then heard the giggling down the hall. Comic relief is very important when I cook and I'm sure they could see I was in need of some. I get too serious when I cook - I guess it's because I don't cook, so when I do, I have to follow every direction to the letter - I'm not very good at improvising...

For example, one of the videos I watched had someone making a layered fondant cake - each tier had two layers with butter cream frosting in between all layers. So here are some of the tiers for my cake. Those 2 big cakes are the 2 bottom layers and one of these small cakes was sliced in half (I cut the top half off), frosted then put back together and frosted again. I didn't end up using the other small cake - in my fondant delirium I was actually going to make a separate mini fondant cake for my Mom to take home....yeah...right.

Here are my 3 tiers, each with two layers. It doesn't matter that there's all kinds of chocolate cake crumbs in the frosting because it's going to be covered with fondant so no one will see. I was very generous with the frosting - and many of the videos and articles said it should be butter cream frosting - I have no idea why but who the hell am I to question it, right? So I frosted once, put in fridge for a few hours, removed and frosted again. Saw it on YouTube....that's why.

Now there is a canyon of a gap here between photos. I tried to spare you the whole, "Fondant is so expensive to buy, I'll just make my own" segment. Really, I can't tell you how many liars are on the web saying how EASY it is to make the marshmallow fondant...how EASY it is to use...blah blah blah. I made 4 different batches....one of them I kneaded it by hand. You have no idea how sticky this stuff is...then realizing you forgot to get a piece of plastic wrap before you started kneading so now you have sticky fondant all over the plastic wrap box, not to mention the plastic wrap itself. I learned a lot about fondant this past weekend. It is NOT my friend was the #1 thing. Others are: wrap the fondant unless cutting a chunk off, do not put in the fridge, it takes FOREVER to kneed in the tint color, once you cut designs out of fondant, use them very soon....as they will harden and then break when you go to put them on your cake...or so I heard...cuz I wouldn't do that, being a fondant expert and all.

So earlier in the day, the girls decided the cake would be shades of blue so those are the tint colors we bought. It comes in a gel - don't try to use the food coloring you buy at the grocery store - those are water based and will change the fondant and you might not be able to use it....or so a high school girl told me at the store. She was buying fondant stuff too and seemed very knowledgeable. I probably watched one of her YouTube videos....

So, it's now almost midnight and Bethany has stayed up with me kneading and rolling out the fondant and we finally have all three tiers covered. We rolled it out too thin so it doesn't look all smooth and pretty like it's supposed to. I have cursed so much that even though we aren't at church Beth is praying for me. She actually got the little massage thingy and was messaging my back while I was working...telling me to relax, it'll be OK. Then, after I thought I was all done, Bethany, in a very scared voice, pointed to the side of one of the tiers, the side I couldn't see from where I was standing. Poor thing, she looked like she was afraid my eyes were going to start shooting flames. But there it was, a big 'ol gap where the fondant was not covering the side of the cake. I wrapped them in plastic and called it a night. I had no energy to deal with it right then and there.

I apologize for the lighting/big shadow in this photo - I was all about the cake and not so much about the photos at this point. Jamie and Bethany have helped me tint and cut fondant ribbon for each tier. This was my fix for the big gap on the bottom tier where there was no fondant...brilliant! Now, you can see all the flaws. My fondant is bumpy, the ribbon is uneven. This gave me great stress, but this is the sacrifice in allowing the girls to help me with the cake. I do it because I want the girls to have fun and I always think I will enjoy doing this stuff with them, but truthfully, I think I'm just too anal and it stresses me out. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was wishing there was a champagne fountain on top of this cake!

Here are the fondant flowers the girls cut out...I bought a 3 piece set for $2.50 at Michaels. It had 3 sizes so you can layer them, which is what we did. Unfortunately we left them on these plates like this for a while and when we were ready to layer them and put them on the cake they were hard. The petals on some of them cracked and broke or threatened to brake...thankfully I also read online if this happens to take a small bit of shortening and kind of message the fondant back together....and it worked!

OK, now I'm going to show you how I made the mini fondant roses. Start by rolling a small piece of fondant into a ball. That's my finger so you can see about how big...and actually you could go smaller...but you kind of figure it out as you go along.

Ooops! this step and the next one are swapped, but that's OK. You flatten the fondant ball in between plastic wrap so it's like a thin pancake. To start the rose, you roll the first "pancake" as shown in this picture...just roll it up like a rug.

This picture didn't come out so good, but this is the ball of fondant, flattened between plastic wrap. Not sure why, but so sayeth the YouTube video and we all know I have to follow directions, so just get a piece of plastic wrap!

Now just keep flattening balls of fondant and layering the "pancakes" around the original rolled up one. I probably used about 10 "pancakes" for each rose. Tedious, yes. Amazing, yes. Hard to do, no.

I only made 6 for my Mom's cake due to time constraints, but they are really cool.
So we layered the cut out flowers and bought silver dragees - no idea why they are called that - basically they are silver, edible balls used as baking decorations - to put in the center of the flowers. Use dabs of water to make fondant stick to itself - water makes it start to disintegrate I guess...so to stick the flowers to each other and to the cake, use water.

Here is the finished product:

The layered flowers did a nice job of hiding many flaws.

My Mom walked in, oohh'd and ahh'd over it and promptly broke off some flower petals and ate them! Bethany could see the flames coming out of my eyes and ran....literally the cake was finished an hour before my Mom destroyed it. Yes, it was her cake, as she so cleverly pointed out, and yes, it was her birthday as she again pointed out. Ugh.

Here is the cake after Bethany got to it and lit it all up for her Grammy.

Those people on YouTube are fondant wizards with the way they make it look so easy. I didn't do too bad for my first time, but Ace of Cakes I'm not!

Hopping Down The Bunny Trail....

I took this photo this morning when Jamie and I were sitting in my car waiting for her bus at 7am. We just had a big snow storm 2 days ago and you can just make out bunny tracks across this person's front lawn. I took this with my handy dandy cell phone camera - just to show you I am a little tech savvy....ok not really I just thought it looked really cool. Cool...that's funny because it was 9 degrees while we were sitting there in my car!

Texting For Idiots....

Now even though I have this fancy blog, believe it or not, I'm not all that tech savvy. I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. This goes for all kinds of gadgets in the tech realm. For example, I think I was the last one on earth to get a cell phone that had a camera on it...I thought I was so cool. But my biggest downfall has to be texting. At first, I didn't understand what the point of texting was. I mean, just pick up the phone and talk to the person! It would take me 1/2 an hour to type on my tiny little cell phone buttons what I could say in 30 seconds! Really, please...just call me! Texting seemed like it was for the "younger" crowd...every time I saw someone under the age of 30 their fingers were flying over the cell phone buttons like some magical wizards. Every once in a while they would pause, maybe laugh, then the dancing thumbs would begin again. Then it hit me. The reason texting is so popular is because it's the adult version of passing notes in class! When do people text 90% of time? During meetings when they are not supposed to be making calls, at their desks when they shouldn't be making personal calls, during movies, dinners and all kinds of other situations that see talking on a phone as rude. Right? Well, for those "texters" out there....if us "non-texters" catch you texting during any of these times....it's still RUDE!

Laugh, And The Whole World Laughs With You...

OK, I forget that the posts go in by the date/time you write them, not when you post them...so this post was supposed to come after the next post...anyway Mike and I went away and had some good laughs during our little excursion (I say little because I don't even think we were gone for 24hours!), most of the laughing at my expense, of course! If you don't understand something I refer to, read the next post and it should make sense. If not, can't help ya! So I need to give you a little background here. Last week I went to JC Penney to check out the Sale racks and I got a nice suede and faux sherling type winter coat - the suede is probably faux too, I have no idea. Anyway, it has a hood, etc. and I've always wanted one. It was orig. $200.00, marked down to $29.99, and I got 15% off, plus I had a $10.00 coupon (the coat wasn't the only thing I bought, but WHAT A BARGAIN!). So of course I had to wear my nice new coat for our trip. We took all back roads and stopped at some out of the way pottery galleries...most of them we walked around shocked by the extreme prices but pretended to talk about where we would put the pieces in our house to make it seem like we went to these places all the time. I am interested in pottery, but only to see if I can replicate what they do. We stopped at a custom jewelry place (because it was next to another pottery place) and went into the chocolate shop (because they were giving away free samples!) - although we did buy fudge to go! We finally get to Provincetown, or P Town as we all call it; we park the truck and I'm getting out so we can finally go and eat when Mike looks over at me and starts laughing hysterically. He comes over to me and proceeds to carefully rip the PRICE TAG off that was hanging out from under one arm!


Can you imagine all the people in those galleries that were laughing at me! That was great!


Here is Mike as I was finding things to take pictures of around our table...


Here is Mike after I came out of the ladies room and explained that the soap dispenser was located on the wall, far above my head (who puts soap up that high?)...if that wasn't bad enough, it was a defective dispenser! When I finally managed to position one hand under the dispenser while using the other hand to press the front in, it actually squirted straight out....right on to my shirt!


This was a lovely, stained packet of Equal that was in the sugar dispenser. Like someone spilled coffee on it and they stuck it back in with all the rest hoping someone would still use it! Sorry this one is kind of fuzzy but I think you can still make out the brown stain. Funny thing is, when we had breakfast at our resort, there was a sugar packet with the same issue there - sorry no photo. Isn't that weird?

After we left this restaurant and went to a few shops, we were about to leave when Mike decided he needed to use the little boys room. We happened to be parked right near public bathrooms (the aforementioned very clean bathrooms). When Mike came out he said the guy that came out right before him had ducks all over his pants. I said it must be a Cape thing. Mr. Duckpants got into a late model Mercedes and was driving in front of us much of the way to our resort and I dare say Mr. Duckpants was drunk the way he swerved all over the road.


OK, I had a few beers in me now so I was a little slow getting the camera out. There was this HUGE swan in the middle of the street and that old guy in the photo went out into the road to get the swan to follow him - I don't know if it's his pet or what, but it followed...and it also shrunk down to normal size....I'm serious, it was HUGE!

This was the Espresso area in our room. Mike picked up the tiny cups and was like,"what the hell am I gonna do with a sip of coffee?" Then he saw it was an espresso machine and he was bummed....

This is just a funky carving in the middle of a parking lot for a small shopping plaza...kind of weird, but kind of cool. I could see us saying, "you know the bagel shop I mean, the one near the eagles"...."Oh, NOW I know the one you mean"....

A Little R&R For Me & the Mr....

So I subscribe to this travel newsletter kind of thing from Travelzoo.com - every week they email me with the top 20 best travel deals. I don't know why I sign up for it and I don't know why I even bother to look at it because 99% of the time I look at everything, sigh, and say, "wouldn't it be nice to go to these places?". But a few weeks ago there was a deal for this great resort in Chatham, MA, which is the elbow of Cape Cod, in case you didn't know. The Chatham Bars Inn is very luxurious and you definitely feel pampered there. So, after checking with Mom and Dad to make sure they could watch my lovely children, I booked one night. I wish I had booked more, but it was much needed alone time and we did have fun. I think I enjoy our time together most when we are laughing and thanks to Mike getting good news with his test results this past week, we were able to do a lot of laughing. So here are some of our highlights:





This is a typical shot around the dunes down in Provincetown. Yes, Provincetown has a high population of gay and lesbian people there, no way around it, but it also has some of the best views, food and beaches. Of course it being February and about 30 degrees, we could only enjoy the first two.




This was taken from our table at a restaurant I'm sorry to say I didn't get the name of, but it's right on the pier across from the parking and a public restroom (very clean, according to Mike). I had a wonderful lobster roll and Mike enjoyed a Fisherman's type platter with fresh scallops and clams.





This was half of our room - nice corner fireplace...sorry it came out a bit fuzzy...the other side has a huge flat screen, bureau, fridge, bathroom, espresso area and closet.






This was the view from the main house, where we had breakfast the next morning. It was snowing so you probably can't tell that it's actually looking out over the ocean.

This is looking across the wide, rambling front patio that stretches across the front of the main house. Wonderful in warmer weather....it was a bit windy and cold (24 degrees) this morning!

The Chatham Lighthouse - no explanation needed.

This is across from the Chatham Lighthouse. The snow was literally pelting us sideways...actually make that...pelting ME sideways. Mike sat in the truck and watched while I took photos.

Anyone familiar with Cape Cod knows there are only 2 ways to get on or off the Cape...2 bridges, The Bourne Bridge and The Sagamore Bridge - they are identical. This is the Bourne Bridge.


And so we returned home...a little more relaxed. Highly recommend it.