Hey...I remember this place.

But....does this place remember me?  I can't believe I've gone so long without so much as a wordless Wednesday post, or a recipe or anything.

Well I'm back in the swing of things, and I plan on using this blog to do exactly what I meant for it to do in the first place.  Keep me motivated, and motivated is exactly what I need to be right now.  The Mr. and I are planning a trip to Vegas in June, and I'm going on a loooooooooong journey with my Grandma to Colorado, and I'd like to do it about 30-40 lbs lights, and hopefully sticking to my blog will help me stick to that too, since it's helped me 'keep on track' in the past.

In other news, I no longer have the 6 year old living with me.  His mom is out of the nursing/rehab home, and is healing nicely.  She's glad to be back in her own home, with her youngin' back in her everyday life.  Now that he's gone, my weekends have been filling up with cake jobs.  I've been making cakes and cupcakes every weekend, for the last five weekends.  I'm loving it, but I really need to get into another space that has more working room.  Maybe I should see about renting out kitchens somewhere.

Here's a few of the creations I've made lately.

These were for my pool shark of a dad. 

My first paid wedding cake.

Not one person wanted to cut into this cake.

A little bedrockian.  

Well, now I have to go finish cleaning up from yesterday, then get my butt to the gym, since I have a girls only dinner at Olive Garden tonight.  Say yes to the salad and NOOOOOOOOOO to the breadsticks!

No promises, but I should be here tomorrow.  I even set an alarm for it.  Need to get back to the consistent writing, since it really does make me happy.  


Until later!

Wooooooohooooo to a New Year!

Happy Happy New Year to all you crazy, wonderful people out there.  I can't wait to get this year started and put the last year to bed, somewhere in the back of my head.  Yes, plenty of awesome things happened last year, but I'm all about the present and future.


It seems that Tuesday's seem to be my 'go to' day for blogging, mostly because of my mad love for Miss Impulse and Miss Shawn and their wonderful, rebelicious no rules blog hop.  Go check em out.  They're totally rad.


But first, let's chat, shall we?  
I spent my NYE with my best girls, Jen and Kate and their munchkins, oh and Kate's husband, blah blah blah, was there too.  We had a variety of spirits, and I think I tried them all.  Fireball, wine, vodka and a teensy bit of champagne made for a whopping headache the next day, lemme tell ya, but I did manage to stay mostly sober and totally manageable all night.  We were supposed to go into the hot tub, but somehow when the kids got out of it, they turned off the heat, so when we went to jump in, after midnight, in out bathing suits, the water was a cool 80*.  Fine, if it was 105* outside, but not so fine when it was 40*, so we just drank more instead.


Ohhh, and I made a cake for it.  It was purdy.

Happy New Years!

I had fun with this cake.

Then  two days later, two weeks after my oldest's birthday, I finally made her cake.  
Wanna see it?

A pink cake for a pink kinda kid.

See a pattern here?

I made no resolutions this year, just gonna try and keep going towards that five year plan I've been working on.  And maybe have some more fun. And enjoy the fact that I will have not one, but two kids graduating this year.  The older will graduate in August from college where she is studying to become a medical biller, and my younger, who will be, sniff sniff, graduating, sob sob, high school, bawl bawl.  It's going to be a seriously emotional summer this year.


Ugh, I just looked at the clock and realized it's almost work time.  For some reason, all of a sudden 12 days off just doesn't seem like it was enough.


I won't be back tomorrow.  I have a self written, honey-do list that starts early, and goes until work time.  But Thursday, that's MY day.

Sunshine, on my shoulder.

Sometimes makes me cry.  But, that was only because I was looking at it through my viewfinder on my camera to get these beautiful shot of the sunrise, yesterday morning.  Since seeing the sunrise from my front yard is pretty much impossible due to all the trees.  I embarked on a 15 minute journey to go around my neighborhood and down the street to find some nice spots, but the sun is tricky.  Sometimes while driving to find that perfect spot, the sun rises without you.  Luckily that didn't happen to me...........this time.

This would be perfect, if it wasn't for the power lines.

But the color can't be beat.

Officially the best picture of the day.

On a side note, the younger and I did our most extravagant cake to date this weekend.  A two tier green and orange zebra cake.  I only had three meltdowns while making it.  Once when one of the 12" cakes came out of the pan in about 37 pieces, and then when I ruined not one, but TWO batches of frosting from over whipping and curdling.  After all was said and done, it came out beautifully, and the birthday girl was ecstatic when she saw it.  Mission accomplished.

We loved making this cake.

Now, if y'all will excuse me, I'm going to take the kid to school , and enjoy the fact that The Mister, went back to bed and I might just get some alone time to do some things, I want to get done for myself instead of someone else.  

Later Gators!

Marisa

You mean if I go camping, I'll get more business?

The younger and I have now done two birthday cakes.  The first, a mini princess cake and 24 cupcakes, that were to be made the same weekend we were to go camping.  We totally pulled it off, but did miss out on a day of camping for it.

This time, we planned another camping trip and a week before we leave we are offered another, bigger job.  A slightly larger personal cake, with forty cupcakes, adorned in a Hawaiian theme.  Although this was only our second "paying job"  and by paying job, I mean we get paid what we spent, which works for us, because we get to practice for free and we get out name out there.  It's a win-win, once we get better we can start trying to make a profit, but for now, were just happy to help friends out.

"Coconut drink" cupcakes.

Flamingos and flip-flops.

Surf's up, dude!

Pretty, grown up cupcakes.

Coconut bra and grass skirt cake.

Hibiscus flower toppers.  Not my best, but hey, that's why I practice.

And oh yeah!  After we got the bakery part of the day done.  It was about 6:30pm and we weren't ready for camping yet.

Did I mention that we were supposed to leave by 4 pm? 

Did I mention, I'm always late?  Always!!!!

Did I also mention that earlier that day, I went to pick up The Misters truck at the local park and ride, so that I could take it in and have the tires rotated and oil changed.  Then when I got there, my beep-beep keychain thingy didn't unlock the doors, so I figured the battery was dead.  No biggy, I think and proceed to unlock the door with my key.  HOLY SHIT!!!  The alarm goes off.

What do I do, what the hell do I do???

Wait, if I get in and put the key in, surely it will stop.  WRONG!!  It does not stop, I panic, put it in drive, and drive home, two miles, with my alarm going off every thirty seconds, stopping for fifteen second intervals.  It sucked, and for the rest of the day, if you opened the truck door, the alarm would go off.  I would then have to wait until 4 pm to take the truck for tire rotation and oil change.

Did I mention that we were making forty cupcakes and going camping??

Did I also mention that The Mister was going camping and I had to buy food for two separate camping trips and then realized that we only have ONE of everything and we now need TWO of everything.  Tent, cooler, sleeping bags, camp stove, toilet paper.  You know, the necessities

So even though it sounds like we never made it.  We did in fact arrive at our campsite at approximately 9:15 pm on Friday night.  Exhausted and ready to relax and that's exactly what we did for 2 days.

Thrilled to have her picture taken.

Equally as thrilled as her younger sister.

Why the hell won't they let me take a picture.

It never worked.

No Bigfoot, but we did see Cousin It.

Gorgeous weather.

Best.Candid.EVER

D  wrote love notes on the firewood with the wood poker stick.

D, the dog and I slept in this..  Just so you know, it's a 5x7 tent.  5x7!!

Cool fungus.

The always beautiful, Skookum Falls.

Finally, I got a pose.

So, the moral to today's random assortment of proof that I do have ADD is, that every time I plan a camping trip, a baking job comes up.  I think I'll plan another one soon.

Tutu's, cupcakes and camping. Oh my!

It seems like an eternity since I've been on here, but in all reality it's been like five days.  Although, that is the longest I've gone for quite some time without even sitting here and working on something, anything, I haven't even bought a single needless item in like a week.  Wait, that's a good thing, right?

I haven't just been lazing around with my time, though.  Oh no, I've been a busy bee.  Friday and early Saturday involved making a tutu for a very special princess, then baking and decorating, with the younger, one small cake and twenty-four cupcakes for the princesses birthday party.

Pretty Princess Tutu

Pretty Princess Chloe.

Aren't they lovely.

Princess cupcakes.  Really blurry ones.

Frog cupcakes.  You may be a frog now, but someday you'll be a prince.

Princess cake.

After delivering the cake and tutu on Saturday morning, it was a dash to get back to the house, finish packing our stuff, then the car for the eighty-five mile drive to our camping destination.  Salmon La Sac, just outside of Roslyn.  If you've ever seen or heard of the show, Northern Exposure, Roslyn is the mock Alaskan town, they filmed in.  Well if you drive about fifteen miles passed there, you're smack dab in the middle of beautiful surroundings.

It was my first Memorial Day camping trip in ten years, and I have to say, it's just as crazy as it was a decade ago.  If not crazier.  So crazy in fact, that my camera stayed hidden for most of the time, for fear of it getting alcohol poisoning or talked into fire walking.  I did take it out in the daytime for a few shot of the awesomeness that is Mother Nature.

Such a happy camper.

The view from the campfire, minus the water.

 

More of the campsite.  The "hotel" campers.  Wait, is that Bigfoot walking behind that tree?  Oh, no, it's just Brandon.

I honestly can't believe that the tarp didn't melt, with the size of the fire that was under it.

Not so happy camper.  Hasn't had her coffee yet.

He played himself out in about an hour.

Hippy in the woods.

I have no words for this, except, I'm sorry.

Don't let the beauty fool you, that shit's cold.

Came home from camping a day early, eighty-five miles back home, twenty-four hours later.  But that's okay, I had all day Monday to hang out with The Mister and listen to him tell me how much he hates it when I'm not here to cook for him, or make coffee in the mornings, and that I should never leave him again.

Then I make him coffee and breakfast and all is right again.

Rock on!
Marisa