Monday, March 23, 2009

One of those days

I am having one of those days where I just feel stressed. My biggest stressor is this darn class at school. I thought I was doing so well but everytime I get an assignment back the grade is embarrasing. I'm feeling really stressed about it because today is the last day of the class and I don't foresee the teacher giving me a break on the last assignment. I'm not a quitter but I'm ready to give up on school. If I could afford the student loan payments I think I would. I have an Associate degree already...I'm just tired...so very tired.


On a brighter note, the babyshower cake was a huge hit! Very exciting. They loved it. I did another cake yesterday. Turned out pretty cute. That's all for now, I'm going to go figure up what that teacher will have to give me in order to get through this class. Here is my problem with my classes lately. My school is adversited towards working adults. It's so much easier and faster...no the work load is twice as much, you get burnt out so fast, and most of the teachers do not care that you have a life outside of school. I have had two teachers that understood that everyone was a working adult and most with children. These teachers lecture and had one assignment due each week...sometimes we just had to answer some questions about the lecture. Anyway...I'm done complaining.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Baby Shower Cake






It's ready. I think fondant would have looked much better with this cake, however, I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. I hope the hostess and the mommy to be love it.






I am extremely tired so no long post tonight I just wanted to get the baby shower cake posted. I had a very productive day, lots of yard work, homework, played with the kids, grocery shopping, took the kids to Aunt Amy's, a date with the hubby, and the cake. Anyway, I hope they love the cake. I'll report more tomorrow.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

So excited!

So I have a lot to report but first and foremost I would like to announce that (drum roll please)... my website is up and running!




I spent hours working on it and coming up with a logo. I'll be honest I changed the logo at least 50 times anyway, the site still needs a little work, but I am super happy with it! I hope everyone loves it. I really put a lot of work into it. I will note that the photo on my "Bree" page is a little out of date, but I do have plans to take a better, more recent photo to replace that one with.


Ok, next thing to report. The wedding cake tasting last weekend was a hit. The couple picked out a totally delicious flavor combo and picked a beautiful design. We didn't design the cake at the tasting because she had come knowing what she wanted which is fine with me. I feel like whoever did the cake in the picture she brought be did a little bit of a sloppy job so I re-created the design in my software to post tonight. I think it is going to be beautiful. I'm considering doing the vine on both sides. The cake she has picked has a white chocolate ganache filling, so the leaves will be white chocolate. Yum! She does want fresh roses on the cake, which is fine. She is struggling to decide whether or not she wants the red roses or these Queen of the Night roses. I have not seen them but she says they are almost black with white specks. I think either would look beautiful, but I do think that the red roses would make the black and white on the cake stand out more. I'm just not sure, and I'm not sure where to find these Queen of the Night roses. Any suggestions for me to offer her? I personally think the red, but I'd really like to see the other roses she's talking about. I had so much fun doing her tasting. This is a June cake.
I have another June wedding, actually on the same day, that was ordered last week also. The design is unique and abstract so I'm not sure if I will be able to re-create her design on my software, but if I am able to I will post. In the photo she provided me the abstract piece on the cake is black and there are green butterflies around the cake. She wants a soft purple in place of the green since that is her wedding color, and she knows she does not want black. That is fine, I really thought a dark chocolate would be stunning with the purple, but she is stuck on no chocolate or chocolate color on the cake. She wants either silver (no going to happen on buttercream) or dark purple. I feel like the dark purple is going to take away from the soft purple. The nice thing about the design she gave me is that the black or the abstract piece is there to make the wedding color "pop" or stand out. I don't think that the dark purple will do that and I feel like dark purple will stain just as bad a black will which is why she didn't want to do black. I'm feeling a little stuck on the colors, but I know we will come up with something stunning.
Let's see what else...the babyshower cake is due this Sunday. Very excited. The pregnant mommy topper looks so cute. She's sitting in my freezer just waiting to sit on her cake! So adorable, I will post pictures Saturday night or Sunday morning depending on what time I finish the cake. I need to go sculpt her little presents that will be sitting next to her.
Last thing I can think of right now is the September Plano Bridal Show. I'm considering having a booth at the Plano Bridal Show this fall. It's costly but I think the return on the exposure would be worth it. I'm open to advice on this (please).
That's it for today but I always have more in the works.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Baking...Baking..Tasting

This Saturday I have a wedding cake tasting for a lovely couple, Mel and Chris. I am baking my brains off for the next couple days. I've been so busy lately that I'm trying to catch up in a couple areas and apparently the tasting in one. I have 13 flavors for her to try so I'm a busy bee this week between work, baking, class, online school, and the kiddos.
I can't wait to see what we design for her wedding cake! I love wedding cakes...so beautiful. Even though your mouth waters, at the same time you think it's too beautiful to eat.

You know the number one thing I hate about weekends...there is never enough time to get all the things done that you need to do. I'm sure on the weekends I could better manage my time...but maybe not. I usually get a lot done, but never enough. It drives me crazy! The weekdays...it's just given that a whole lot isn't going to get done outside of work. If I could live on 2-4 hours of sleep a night I would. There is just too much to do!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Eventful Weekend













This weekend we had a lot going on. Today is so beautiful outside that we went for a walk to the park. I wanted the kids to play on the playground but it was packed with "big" kids. The big kids always make me nervous and push around the little kids so we just played under the trees for a while. It was really nice. Colbi rode home on Daddy's shoulders and Ava spent most of the walk home pulling the wagon. I did a little yard work this morning which was really nice. I enjoy yard work and I can't wait for my bulbs to start blooming.




So Ava had her first hair cut yesterday at a place in McKinney called Sharkey's Cuts for Kids. She got to sit in a pink Barbie jeep and watch Dora while they cut her hair. Then we got to go back to the zebra painted room where she got her nails painted. It was so much fun! She was just a regular toddler which made me kind of sad when I realized how fast the last 2 and a half years flew by. In addition, this weekend Ava wore her last diaper. She is offically only wearing big girl panties from this day forth. I can't believe it. One down and one to go. I can't believe how big they are.


Last night the girls stayed with Matt's sister because my mom treated us to a lovely dinner in celebration of Matt's birthday which was Monday. We went to Roy's Hawiian Fusion. It was so good! For an appetizer Matt got these tiny skewered steak with rice, so yummy! And I got the seafood chowder. It was good, but it needed more then one scallop and one shrimp. Then for the entree Matt got the potroast and I got the blackened shrimp. Both were fantastic! If we went back I would probably get the pot roast for the mere fact that it would have been more filling with the potatoes and everything then the 4 shrimp and steamed fresh spinach (by the way, the best spinach I've ever had) For dessert Matt got the Creme Brulee and I got the Chocolate Souflee. Yum! It was great!


Friday morning I received the baby shower invitation I've been waiting on to design the shower cake. It had a lot of color and a lot to work with. I came up with a bright pink, small, two tier cake with white glittered polka dots, a black bow tied around the middle of the cake, a small pregnant lady sitting on top with a few gifts around her. I need to perk up her belly a little bit and even up her legs, but over all I think she's pretty cute.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Stupid Stupid Stupid...


So my mind has been going nuts for the last couple of days because I keep replaying in my head what I said to Bronwen Weber who is like my idol. I was so nervous when I met her I choked! I couldn't think of what to say and like an idoit I said "it's really nice to meet you..." before I even told her my name or anything about me. I hands were shaking I was no nervous! Stupid! Then I started thinking to myself just wrap this up and get out of here. You already so stupid so just ask for a picture and get out of here. Luckily Bronwen is one of the nicest people ever. With her big smile she just went along with it. But I can't stop replaying that moment in my head and it's driving me crazy! What's even worse...I can't think of what else I would have said to make it better then it was. Hahaha. The only thing that comes to mind is the scene in Wayne's World when they drop to their knees in front of Alice Cooper and say we're not worthy, we're not worthy.
Anyway...so I am still waiting to receive a picture of the baby shower invitation so I can start designing that. I've got all these ideas floating around in my head about it, but I can't put anything down on paper until I know exactly what they are wanting...so I'll keep waiting :)
Next event, I mentioned yesterday was the McKinney Cake Show. I need to place at this one just because now that I've got my feet wet, I want a medal. I have an idea but of course I keep second guessing whether or not that is what I want to do. I want to do something clean and impressive...but what? I have this princess and the pea idea that I've been playing with but I'm just not sure if that is a winning cake idea.
I'm going to keep playing with some ideas. Next weekend I have a wedding cake tasting for my sister-in-law's best friend. I've come up with some great combinations that I think she will enjoy. I can't wait to design her cake!
This weekend, I got so spoiled. My sister in law, Amy, was with me in Austin and she great at doing hair. All weekend she was doing my hair for me and it always looked so good! Then yesterday morning I got ready for work and I was so disappointed. No one to do my hair? :( Hahaha. It was nice!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Austin


So I didn't place. :( BUT I am still proud of my cake and myself. It was my first competition and I went through with it, my cake made it there in one piece, and I learned a lot. I really didn't know what to expect and I was really worried about making my cake too busy. Turns out I didn't make it busy enough but that's ok. I learned from this and I am going to start preparing now for the McKinney competition that is a month and a half away.

So on the way to Austin I didn't think to put my cake in the center of the back seat...well know I know because the sun had bleached my fondant on one side. I really think that hurt my chances of placing because it just...didn't look right. And my piano keys looked sloppy because they got too soft and when I moved that teir to place on top of the bottom tier the fondant began to slide. Luckily, the next competition is 3 and a half minutes away from home versus 3 and a half hours. I've got some good ideas for the McKinney show. I'm submitting a wedding cake and a novelty cake. I plan to start my novelty this week and hopefully my cake dummies will arrive soon.


The trip was a lot of fun. It was great to see my grandmother and get to send time with my cousin and his girlfriend. We did lots of fun stuff and got very little sleep. I'm hoping the work day flies by today because I am so tired.


Janet posted the pictures of my girls. I don't know how I am going to pick which ones to buy! I love so many of them. She took this one picture of Colbi wearing her sunglass with her pink heart shirt and oh my goodness it is so cute! I love it. I think I'm going to hang some of the pictures in the playroom but I'm not sure yet. I really missed my kids and husband while I was gone but it was a really nice surprise to come home to a house that was nearly spotless.
So...my brother-in-law's cousin is in need of a baby shower cake for a shower she is planning. I am impatiently waiting to see the invitations so I can start designing something. I haven't done a baby shower cake in forever so I am really excited. I'll update once I see her invitations and I have some ideas brewing.