Friday, October 21, 2011

I really, really want. . . .

So I am pregnant, living in a land far from the USA, and having some cravings that can't be satisfied.

I want:

  1. Cheese ravioli
  2. Taco Bell Tacos and Nachos
  3. Bagels with garden vegetable cream cheese 
  4. Pizza Hut
  5. Subway
You get the idea. . . all places that don't exist over here :) I am trying to get up the motivation to try and make my own cheese ravioli, but from past experience it is a rather time consuming job. 

Monday, October 17, 2011

Christmas is Wooing

In the mood for some Christmas music, try this :) Listen to more of Leigh Nash on http://grooveshark.com

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Wedding

Saturday we headed off to the reception area about 10:00. We wanted to deliver the cake in one piece and get home again to prepare for the wedding. The drive to the camp seemed to take about 30 minutes, and the last part of the drive was HORRIBLE. It was a very bumpy dirty road- which we later discovered is not the main entrance and seldom used.

We got the cake settled, fixed and put together. There were already lots of good comments and I was eager to have it be completely decked out so people could see the end result. But since there were several hours to wait I put the flowers in water and we headed home.


Amelija's godmother had agreed to stay with them for the day and we had the whole day to ourselves. The wedding was nice!


We headed to the reception early to get the cake finished. It was a great success, not only being very lovely but VERY delicious. It was a black forest type cake. Chocolate cake, with cherry filling, a cream filling and delicious swiss buttercream over that, entirely covered in marzipan. It was scrumptious!





Thursday, October 6, 2011

Wedding Cake with Two Kids

Today I began making the wedding cake I have to make for Saturday. I have been preparing all week little by little to make this process as smooth as possible. This is the first wedding cake order I have accepted in three years. The first I will have made with two children. . . yikes!

I have been mostly worried about tiring myself out, as full days in the kitchen leave me with an achy back. I began this day on my knees and jumped right in after breakfast.

Much to my amazement my kids are playing VERY peacefully together, and they are staying out of the kitchen so far- unheard of! Wow! Thank you Lord of watching out for me and making the beginning of this day smooth so far :) It is now 9:00 a.m :)

13:47 The morning didn't progress as smoothly as I would have liked due to an unplanned trip to the store. All my lists and trips to the store somehow left me with no milk and therefore only one cake baked. After returning home my kids were ready for a snack and they were then much more emotional and grouchy. Oh dear. Somehow I got the 6 layers of cake made and baked and lunch made. I turned on cartoons (which is only a special occasion thing in our house) and hoped that would keep them busy. It worked for a while, but when it was time to eat and I turned it off we had a 3 year old fit on our hands. YUCK. So now the kids are fed and in bed. Though D is still not asleep- he doesn't nap every day anymore.I am off to make fillings now.


Whilst the kids napped I got a lot done. I made my cherry filling and the cream fillings. So ends the first day.


Day 2:


Morning: Now comes the time of putting together the cake. However, my kids have not been in the best of moods and by 9:30 a.m I was feeling rather stressed and desperate. My husband encouraged me by phone to stop and give the kids some moments of my undivided attention. We read 4 books and then I was able to finish filling the cakes. I realized the biggest problem was that they weren't "allowed" to taste what I was making and doing. Once I started leveling the cake and had leftovers they were both happy. Not to mention that I had left over cream filling and cherry filling which they both loved!

The afternoon had a few bumps along the way because of a trip to the store ended in the frosting flopping due to mixing two different brands of butter. I had to run to the church to choose flowers for the cake. And my husband saved the day by getting more butter. Finally about 20:00 I was able to finish frosting the cakes and get to the decorating.


I had chosen to cover the cakes with marzipan. Originally I had been daunted by this idea since I had never used marzipan and didn't know how costly that would be. However, after watching this link and some other very good videos on marzipan I was ready to try my hand at it.

I stopped decorating at 22:00, my back was killing me and I was ready to head to bed. I was pleased with the results of the cake and even though simple it looked stunning with the fresh flowers. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Cravings

In regards to my long absence I must tell you that having had all my guests suddenly leave I found myself very tired, and VERY sick.

However, much to all our relief it is not a catching sort of sick, but rather morning sickness. Yes, we are now expecting baby 3. I am so happy, but have been doing nothing for quite some time. Lying down seems to help a bit, and so I have done a lot of that the past month.

Finally now at about 9 weeks the morning sickness is beginning to lessen- and I find myself craving things- especially things I can't get over here in LV. . . . Sigh. . . I will have to let the pickles do their trick since I have lots of those.

I am slowly regaining my energy, and trying to get back into painting. So that is what is new on my end. How are you?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Been Busy

So sorry I have been away. Life has been very crazy here of late. I have so much family visiting. We are having a grand ole time, but have very few  moments at home. We are out seeing the sights

Yesterday we were at Rundale Palace- I thoroughly enjoyed the gardens. I was able to relax and soak in the colors, textures and smells of the French style formal gardens. I went away feeling inspired by all I saw.

I probably will be absent from my blog until my company goes home at the end of August- so until then- have a safe and restful August!


Rundales Palace


Monday, August 1, 2011

New Items

Too much time has passed and I have been very absent from my blog. I have been extremely busy. I have a ton of visitors coming this summer and the fun keeps building as they keep drifting in. My sister and her baby and my sister's friend just arrived this week.

We have been busy running around town, taking in the sites and walking around Old Riga- a beautiful old city in Europe- too much kept hidden from the world.

But I have also slowly been getting some items finished and listed. Here are a couple: