Ghosts in the Graveyard

Once again time has slipped by quickly.  I've been meaning to update the blog for a while now, so bear with me and all the pictures!

First I thought I better add the pictures of the other two wedding cakes I did in August.  These were both for the same couple who were having two receptions and therefore needed two cakes.  Breanne was one of the mia maids I taught when we lived in Tremonton and now she's all grown up and married.  Makes a girl feel pretty old, I tell you!

 I also promised in my last post that I would include some pictures of Abbie's baptism.  It was a wonderful day with the exception that I had to give one of the talks.  But once that was over and done with, I was able to enjoy the day with family celebrating Abbie.

The gorgeous girl all dressed up

Abbie and her daddy

Family photo op.  This is how most family pictures turn out for us...someone not looking, someone else with their hands in front of their face, etc. etc.

Since Carly and Abbie's birthdays are only 3 weeks apart, and they were both due for a friend party this year, I talked them into doing a combined party.  And what was even better was that we had the party somewhere besides our house.  If you have not tried this route, I highly recommend it.  The downside is that because it costs more money, they were not able to invite as many friends as they normally would.  But I think in this case the pros outweighed the cons and they had a great time at the Syracuse Family Fun Center.

The cake and party favors

 Next up was Carly's 10th birthday.  Wow...double digits.  Ever since her birthday Savannah has been asking me how long until Carly turns into a teenager and I tell her a long time, but it's starting to feel dangerously close.  For her party we met at a park close by and had cake, presents, and then went ice blocking.  It was a lot of fun.  We also enjoyed dinner out at Mimi's.  Yum!

Enjoying the loot

Carly's minion cake

 

It's often the little details on a cake that make it extra cute and fun to make.  Check out the slingshot in his back pocket!

The same weekend of Carly's birthday we had a request from Drew's friend to do a Batman cake and sugar cookies.  Once again, Drew stepped in and saved the day by decorating the entire cake for me while I was on a hike with the activity day girls.  He also helped me frost the cookies. 

Sometime in the following weeks there were a few other cake orders:

Backyardigans, Blue Dino & Snow White

An anniversary cake for our friends Celest & Korey, complete with a little figure of their daughter.  This "trail" cake was a lot tougher than I thought and probably will not be attempted again.

A surprise 60th b-day cake for one of my friend's dad.  He played football in high school, baseball afterwards, and now works at a golf course.

This was a thank you cake for Caputo's Deli for hosting the surprise party

 
 A Squirt cake for my friend's daughter Elizabeth.  I believe this is the 7th cake that Marge has ordered from me, making her the most repeat customer I have.  Thanks Marge!

And last but not least is Halloween.  We have a fun family party with Drew's side a couple of weeks before the big day.  Everyone carved a pumpkin and we ate dinner together.  So much fun to play with cousins and cause a general ruckus at Grandma's house.  

One of these pumpkins is not like the other....

 For costumes this year I wanted us all to be mummies because I had seen a really cute homemade costume on a blog.  The only one I was able to talk into this costume idea was Abbie.  And I was actually quite glad.  This thing was a bugger and so much harder than I thought it would be.  I flat out did not want to take the time to sew all the strips on and when I couldn't find my safety pins we had to pull out the stapler.  But she didn't seem to mind and the end result is decent...from a distance.  Here are our little spooks in their costumes

The Mummy

Ghost Bride

Madeline

"Oh...you're a girl dragon!"

We've had some fairly busy times lately and I'm feeling the burn out.  Our house has been up for sale for 7 months now and although I try to accept that it probably just won't sell because we owe too much, I can't help but get my hopes up a little when someone comes to see the house.  Although showing the house is another stressor in and of itself.  It seems that they always want to come when I've got a cake to work on and the house is a disaster.  I keep asking the girls to keep their rooms clean to no avail.  And then there's my job.  My wrists have really been hurting since this summer.  I think it is because I've taken on more typing with both jobs.  I dream of the day when I don't have to work and get to call myself a stay-at-home mom.  Working from home definitely has its ups and downs and I think some people don't even consider it a real job.  Well I can tell you that it is very real.  I've really been struggling with my stress level since we've been trying to sell the house, type 5 hours a day, make cakes nearly every weekend, and clean up after four little kids.  But I know we are blessed and this too shall pass. We did quit the night cleaning job and that has helped a little.  It is much nicer to stay at home with Drew in the evenings and enjoy some mindless television.

What I've been watching:  The Walking Dead and Doc Martin

What I've been reading:  Wild Mountain Thyme and The Witch of Blackbird Pond

And speaking of The Walking Dead, I leave you with one final shot of our Ghosts in the Graveyard....

Four Wedding Cakes and an Almost Funeral

Holy cow!  Things have been insanely busy around here, or at least it feels that way to me!  I somehow signed myself up to do four wedding cakes on the same day the first part of this month.  Actually, it was three wedding cakes and one groom's cake, but who's counting right?  I didn't even get pictures of the first two, so you'll have to just envision something lovely.  The other two are here:

 All I can say is thank goodness for lace, ribbon and flowers.  They totally saved this cake!

The groom's cake was a surprise and I am assuming a combination of a few of his favorite things.  The Delorian from Back to the Future, Super Mario and wake boarding

 Delivery of these cakes almost killed me (hence the title of this post).  Things started to melt and shift, and the groom's cake actually lifted off the board and sunk in on one side because the dowel slipped.  It took some adjusting, but we got it back up to an acceptable state.

I've also had quite a number of birthday cake orders in the past few weeks.  Feast your eyes on these:

 Monster High topsy turvy

 An "under the sea" themed cake for three sisters.  Yes folks, it's another triangle cake!

Side 2

 and Side 3

The Hunger Games.  This was another solo cake by Drew who just happens to be the perfect husband.  He knew I was pretty "caked out" by the time this one rolled around, so he took over and let me go shopping in Park City with my BFF.  I love this man!  And check out that mocking jay!  Can you believe all that detail?  It's made of gumpaste.

 An ombre tutu complete with crown for a sweet little 3-year-old

 A football cake for my nephew who...well... lives, breathes and eats football!!

A pirate cake.  Argh!  This one turned out pretty awesome and has made it to my list of faves.

Sparkly butterflies and rainbows

And then there was an order for a 4-tier cake in honor of the 4H Club of Ogden's centennial celebration at the Weber County Fair.  This one was straight buttercream, which is both good and bad.  It takes a little less time because you don't have to make, tint, and cover the cake with fondant, but the trick is trying to get the buttercream as smooth as possible.  This also means the cake tiers themselves have be pretty straight and level.  They were really happy with how it turned out and couldn't say enough nice things.

And last but not least is one last birthday cake for my sweet Abbie.  She turned 8, if you can be believe that!  So we're also gearing up for her baptism this coming weekend.  I'll be sure to post pictures of that too. 

 Drew did all the scenery on the bottom tier and also made the incredible tree out of modeling chocolate.  We kind of cheated on this one and bought the little figurines from the Disney store.  Sometimes you gotta take a little help where you can get it! ; )

 

We did find time to put together a puzzle we brought back from Disneyland.  And we also made a trip to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.

 

To cap things off, I'll leave you with another little snippet of what I've been up to.

What I've been reading:  Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore and End of Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher

What I've been eating:  Honey and vanilla Greek yogurt

What I've been watching:  The Forsyte Saga and Parenthood

And now I'm off to bottle some pickles.  I can almost hear the collect "hooray!" from the Maxfield's.