Sweet Georgia Peach

Remember a post about a dear friend of mine? Well her birthday was coming up and we had to surprise her. So after a late night of phone calls and schedule checks, we planned a time for "our little group" to meet. I had made the preps weeks ago, but it wasn't until the night before (uh...last night at 11) that the cakes got baked. You know how I am with procrastinating. Bring on the pressure! But I finished an hour before the "meeting".

 Back to the preps. I wanted to try out my food coloring and paint a few scenic pics. To be honest, I had NO idea I could do that. I spent my sunday afternoons as a little girl watching Bob Ross on television. (The guy with the afro hair and monotone voice. Lulled me to sleep everytime.) And apparently I remembered a few things.

 Start with the sky, then the scene in the background. Like these lovely little mountains. Then work on the objects up closer.

 It just kind of happened that I ended up with all four seasons. I had an extra one that didn't make the cake. (Hahahaha....I'm hillarious! Cake!) And that's the one on the far left with the red flowers and birds.

 Drying. After painting them, I layed them on the side of the pan that was going to be used to bake the cake. That way they'd be formed to the sides already. Brilliance. I know. ;o)

 I do know that i HAD to have a skunk on this cake. For certain reasons. Georgia=skunk. But in a good way. This little girl was pretty much made the same way I did the giraffe and zebra and lion. But she was going to be sitting on a stump and so that's where she sat until she dried. *Ewww she fluffed!*

 LOVE the stripes. And the little pig holding her big poofy tail up.

 For the pictures, I was going for a rugged framing job with wood grain and all. I was just going to cut strips of white fondant and paint with brown food coloring but started coloring fondant with brown and the marbling that occurs before total incorporation (big words! go me!) looked pretty spot on as far as wood grain was concerned! SCORE! Discovery in the process. LOVE IT!

Sidenote: My grandparents had a little tree made out of wire that sits on their fire place. As a little girl, I would just sit there staring at it, thinking how cool it was. I eventually  learned that my very own dad had made it. So for the cake and the theme I was shooting for, one of those trees would've been perfect! SO I talked to my dad about it and he helped me figure out how to do it. I think it looks rather awesome!

 Now for Miss Skunk to have somewhere to sit, I had decided before hand to make a tree stump. I baked a mini cake, wrapped it in white fondant, then cut a circle out for the top that I painted on the turn table. Spinning it as I painted from the center- out. After that, I painted the "bark".

 Small leaves that I had cut out and molded a while ago. Then because I have to have cute things floating around,  Icurled wire in differents ways and attached some leaves to it to give the "blowing in the wind look".

 For the main layer I had brown luster dust that I was dying to use and went for the darker on top, fading to lighter towards the bottom. I still have to work on that process. Or find a better brush to apply it with.

 And here it is! I love it! I have to say it's my favorite so far. The next few pics are shots of all the paintings on the sides. Double click the picture for a bigger view.

I think she liked it! (She didn't throw it at me so I'll take that as a good sign!) ;o) I really enjoyed making it. It had to be perfect and it came pretty darn close.

Love ya G!

Hollar Up to the Crazies!!! Love and Miss you B. K. N. W. & C. (And your expanded families as well.)

Ashton's Football Cake + more

For Ashton's end of the season football party, I volunteered to make a cake. I needed an excuse to make one. And Ash has begged for a football cake since I made Eli's lego cake.

Shot of the down markers

 I decided to not cover the whole thing in fondant because: 1. that's a HUGE piece to have to roll out. 2. That's a LOT of fondant that would just be pulled off and thrown out. 3. I was determined to frost a cake to super smooth status. I had doubled the batch of frosting and BARELY had enough. The sides suffered.

 The score board is black fondant with white acrylic paint (I've since added white food coloring to my cake tools!) and red food coloring.

 see? The sides suffered. Indeed

 This tiny little football was the big hit among the players. Everyone had to have it. I had made a helmet with each boys number just so they could have that instead. But it was the football. Should've made footballs instead. But then, they probably would've wanted the one helmet in the middle.

This was the wedding cake I was going to do, but decided that I just wasn't too that point yet in cake making, so I handed it off to Lindsay. She did a fantastic job!!!!

 I was able to make it to her house 1 day to help make roses. So I made like 6 of them. She did all the rest! Like 150!!!! of them! UGH!

 She was so kind to invite me to help assemble the massive cake. I loved seeing how that was done.

"Gluing" with royal icing, all the roses on.

 Jared and I had actually been invited to this wedding but we didn't make it. Jared later heard that the cake was a huge hit and EVERYBODY loved it! Especially the bride. Awesome job Lindsay!

The day trip the kids just couldn't thank us enough for.

You reach a point in your routine that a getaway trip becomes vital. And this particular day. It didn't matter, it HAD to happen. We spent the morning cleaning. And when dad got home from school. We were outta here! I kept tell them we were going to go to the mountains, but they assumed just up the road. But I've had my sight on a particular area for awhile now and I didn't care that it took an hour to get there.

 Nobody challenged my decision. So when we got to Daniel's Summit, it wasn't what I was hoping for because the peak fall colors had already come and gone and the trees were mostly bare, but the day was nice, sunny, and peaceful.

 I asked a lady at the gift shop for a nice trail and she pointed out a direction we could go. So we went the opposite direction. (She pointed us DOWN the mountain into a ravine-ish area and there was snow. I needed to keep in the sun as much as possible.

We happend upon these beautiful horses and chilled with them. My love for horses is kind of in my blood, so I didn't care if we were trespassing like Jared thought. They are actually pack horses that common folk, like ourselves, can 'rent' to ride up a trail for the day or so. And they're weren't any trespassing signs that we could see.

 AND...if we were, nobody met us with the tip of thier shotgun, so we were good. I just love the coloring on this black and white one.

 Our "hike" consisted of meandering along a well traveled dirt road and posing in the aspens. I was needing to flex my cameras muscles that hadn't been used in a while.

 The camera kept coming back to Kael, and she nicely abliged when she noticed Jared pointing it in her general direction. Sometimes one of my little stinks made an appearance. But only to be a stink.

 I have no idea what he was trying to do, but he really thought he was being sneaky. Even though Jared was plotting the whole thing off to the side.

 Nothing like riding a wooden fence. Brings back memories of Idaho.

 Always running AWAY from me!

 Nice pose Kael. In the background is Strawberry resevoir. A lake I have grown to love from the MANY trips to Vernal and back.

 He found a full bundle of sticks that he requested I pack back to the car so we could bring them home. Which I did. Because it's Eli. And that is all.

 Trying to be artsy fartsy and take black and whites of old dead twisted trees. I was having to lay on this log to get the shot of one such trees.

 growth among the dead

 We love Uncle Coley. A Lot! And every chance we get, to show that love. Jaden pins it right on the head.

 Batting snow

 Couldn't let his big brother have one up on him. So he batted as well.

 Old dead twisty wood.

 Beautifully creepy.

 There were about 3 old tractors parked spuradically around the mountain we were on. Made for great shots.

 Weird when your baby isn't a baby anymore.

 A late lunch at the logde. YUMMY And the log decor....loved it!

 On the way home I saw the coloring of the brush and thought it looked like a rainbow. Can you see it?

Jaden, on the way home, said, "I know I keep saying this, but I just have to say thanks again. For taking us."

Perfect end to a perfect day. This is Deer creek. And that snow capped moutain is Timpanoogas. Love that I wake up to that. E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y!

Before they Rot

We finally cut the cord on the "big ol' pumpkin" and gave him a face. Somehow he became Eli's pumpkin and he choose a "goofy face". I think he looks rather cute! (The pumpkin too.)

 We had a late bloomer with this little watermelon and since the frost came and killed his life support, we took him in and gutted him. Then gave him some eyes. It was the least we could do after taking all that we did from him.

 The middle pumpkin, I believe was Dylan's. And the football....I'll give you one guess.

 Jade and Ash started this Halo pumpkin and I finished it. Mykael and Jade carved their pumpkins at their mom's a few days previous and I think Jade's pumpkin there looks A LOT like this one.

 But hey, if you've got a great idea the best thing to do is spread it. Especially to young influential minds like your little brothers.

Posers. And brotherly love.

Cakey Cakey

This cake was for a daughter of our really good friends. I cut out each individual star with some awesome "plunger cutters". Then I painted luster dust to make them sparkly. You can't really tell because of how fine the powder is, but maybe if you double click on the picture you'll be able to see it.
Cake: Confetti with buttercream frosting and rice crispies as well.

Ashton

Two stories about Ashton (I didn't want to forget them So I'm here):

Every time there is a home football gameat the high school, Jared takes the boys/or Ashton to it. Being on the little league here in the community, we get emails for all sorts of activites football related. So it was brought to my attention that during the homecoming game, all the "future football players" were going to be recognized. I planned on going but something happened, that I couldn't and Jared and Ash had to rush to make the kick off. What happened was something that I wished I was there to witness personally AND have video footage as well. But have neither.

During halftime, all the players from 1st grade and up were invited onto the field in the endzone. Each grade was called one at a time to be recognized. The announcer was standing a few yards away and asked that all the players run out to him. Of course 1st grade was first and Ash starts running. Stops. Looks around and notices he's the only one. Runs back to the other guys and hides. The announcer sees this and asks, "there are NO 1st grade players here tonight?! It's ok. Come on out." Ash peeks out and timidly steps forward. Then runs to the announcer. Alone! Jared says that you could hear a pin drop then every females in attendance let out a loud , "Ahhh". To see this little boy on the field left Jared's chest puffed up with pride and mine as well when he told me the story. Ashton got "THE LOUDEST" cheer from the stands than any of the other grades that were brought to the field for their recognition. I'm so proud of my boy. For finding a passion, (albeit football) and for being brave enought to do that. I know that, at that age, I could NOT have done it. Alone!
This little one may be stretching his wings sooner than what this momma will like.
Jared has a picture on his phone that I will try and download.
***********************************************************
Second story:
Tonight was Ashton's "End of Season Football Party" honoring and spotlighting all the players. It was a LOT of fun. Held at a bowling alley equiped with high tech lazer tag and arcade games. But during our pizza dinner, all the players had taken claim to one banquet table to enjoy each others obnoxious bodily noises  company, when little Eli came a long to join. This didn't sit well with the other players because comments like, "you can't sit here!" and "you're not big enough!" came flying at him. Innocent Eli happily exclaimed, "Yes I am! I'm 5!" was only met with cruel laughter from the "big kids". BUT to my surprise, (I was SHOCKED!), Ashton says, "Hey guys, he's cool. It's ok" And they stopped. Just like that. Little Eli was then welcomed and unbothered after that. I couldn't believe it! But I am SOOOO EXTREMELY PROUD of my boy for sticking up for his little brother like that! Only in my wildest dreams! I guess something is going right, in our home. I won't take full credit for it, cause I really don't know what inspired him to do so.

....Or maybe I do. I kind of wonder if it is acutally a friend of Ashton's that has started coming over every day now. He comes from a tough home situation, so I make acceptions when he comes to play. (like putting off homework to spend time with him) I even had him help us (the family) with walnuts yesterday. He was an excellent helper keeping Ashton on task, and it was during this time that Ash was pointing out faults of Eli's and laughing,when his friend say, "It's ok, he's still little. You need to be nice". I. WAS. FLOORED! I would never expect that to come from this little boy, but it did. So when the boys ran off to play, everyone was included. And everyone was fine with that.

I know I've preached this kind of treatment to my children till I was blue in the face, but sometimes different teachers reach kids that you/I couldn't. Even if this teacher was another child. I just need to remember that. And have more trust.

Perhaps that's what needs to take place in our own lives. Just a simple statement of accepting/(sticking up for) someone for who they are, then people following suit. Regardless of politcal views, relgion, ethnicity, or whatever the circumstances may be.