REAL Cake Decorating

I've been dabbling in cake decorating for a little over a year, and I just love it. It gives me such an awesome outlet for my little creative streak, and when I'm done, I have a cake to eat! What could be better? I've just been kind of winging it, trying different techniques that I hear about online or on one of the many cake shows on TV, but I have never had any real instruction. So I finally decided to take the Wilton classes so that I can actually have some kind of idea of what I'm doing. And to make it even more fun, my dear friend Jen is taking the class with me.

Our first class was last week. It was mostly introduction, so not much decorating going on. We practiced making stars on some sugar cookies, so not horribly exciting (so I didn't take any pictures), but I still learned so much! This week we actually got to decorate a cake using a gel image transfer method. Here is my finished product. I'm happy with it!

Next week we'll be learning all sorts of techniques and decorating some cupcakes. I'm so excited to keep learning. Wilton offers 3 different classes, and I plan to take all of them, hopefully over the next couple of months. I can't wait!

Pumpkin IVF

My experience in attempting to grow pumpkins has been so much different this year compared to last. Especially when it comes down to how these pumpkins are blooming. last year, I had tons of male blossoms. I would go out to water the garden in the morning, and it would be bursting with bright orange flowers, but never had any female buds come to bloom. This year, however, I've only had about 3 male flowers bloom. They've been growing, and right before they would open, they will shrivel up and dry out. I suppose the excessive heat we've been having hasn't been helping things. BUT, the other day, I got to see a sight I have not yet seen....

Finally! A girl has come to the party! What's even more amazing is that I've only had about 3 male flowers open, but there just happened to be one open on the same day as the girl!

So of course, I had to play matchmaker with these two crazy kids. What can I say.... I just don't trust the bees to get the job done, so I have to take matters into my own hands. The male needs to pollinate the female in order to make a pumpkin, so I took the male flower, stripped him of his petals...

And performed what I like to call "pumpkin IVF".

This is uncharted territory for me, so I have no idea what to expect from this point. All I know is, she might be pregnant. Only time will tell, I suppose. Here's what she looked like today.

I'm not entirely hopeful, as the male flower didn't really seem to have a whole lot of pollen, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. But even if this one doesn't pan out, I at least have new hope that maybe we'll get somewhere this year!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben's birthday party was featured on gabbafriends.com. For being featured, I was entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card to the Gabba Store. They separate their features into categories (birthdays, holidays, Gabba Sightings, etc.) and select one winner from each category at random each month. I found out on Wednesday that I had been randomly selected out of the birthday category! I won! I was so excited. I never win these things! I can't wait to spend it. They have some super cute tshirts for the boys, and I also plan on getting a CD with all of our favorite Gabba songs (which I may live to regret!). Thank you, Gabba Friends!!!