Cake Decorating Class

As promised at the end of this post (though, admittedly, a little late), here are the cakes and cupcakes I produced in the three weeks of my class. It was actually four weeks, but the first week was more of a here's-the-plan and show-and-tell structure.
My first week, I was pretty frustrated because we spent the whole class practicing techniques, so I barely got any time to try to decorate my cake. By the time I got home, I was in no mood to elaborate on what I'd accomplished, so the first week is definitely the weakest (no pun intended) of my efforts. Observe! I know, it's sad.


Now, for the second week, we had learned from the first week, and my friend Rachel and I decided to decorate cupcakes instead of tackling an entire cake. As a result, I finished some nice, simple samples. Luckily I took pictures with my camera-phone before we left the class because they didn't handle the trip home well at all.





And finally, the piece de resistance. I'm quite proud of this. It's looks almost exactly the way I was planning and how it looks in the book. The colors are perhaps a tad off, but that's part of practicing.


So, I learned that the next time I take a cake decorating class, I'll buy a cake from the Target bakery and pre-made frosting/icing 30 minutes before class. It's not about how it tastes, it's about how it looks (just for the purposes of the class, I mean). I also learned that it's easier to do the flowing, swirly frosting for the main cake (like on the yellow cake) rather than trying to make it smooth (like the blue cake). But I also learned that a little bit of practice and experience goes a long way. Now I have a lot more confidence to make birthday cakes for Lincoln (and any other chillins who may follow).

I Am Now a Wreckporter

For those unfamiliar with the blog cakewrecks.blogspot.com, I suggest you check it out. I've been following it for a while now, so a good place to start might be the fan favorites on the right-hand column. It's amazing what "professionals" will try to sell. I've never given much thought to trying to find something to submit, but when I saw this cake at the Wal-Mart bakery last night, I knew it needed to be shared with the world. Sorry the pictures aren't very clear - I only had my camera-phone with me, and I couldn't exactly take it out of the container so there wouldn't be a glare. :)



I don't know about any of you, but nothing makes me want to go on a picnic more than the prospect of 3-inch ants on the watermelon. Who thought that was a good idea??!!
I submitted my pictures to cakewrecks, so I'm hoping you'll be seeing them on the site soon. You can bet that I'll be announcing it when/if they are!!

New Pictures of Lincoln

Just wanted to let everyone know I posted some new pictures to the facebook album "Just Can't Get Enough." The link is on the right-hand column of this blog. We have a cute video, too, so maybe one of us will find time soon to upload that. :)

Lincoln Anecdotes

These might be more for my record-keeping than to entertain because I'm afraid that there are no pictures of the following stories and that telling them doesn't do them justice. I'm going to tell them anyway. :) Cause I love them.
First, Tyler left early on Saturday morning to attend the Republican Men's Club Breakfast. He was super-sweet. I was beyond tired (we'd stayed up late reorganizing the living room, that's a story for another post), so Tyler went to get Lincoln, and brought me the baby and the bottle. He propped Lincoln right next to me, propped my hand up holding the bottle, and turned on the TV for Lincoln to watch (no joke, the kid is FASCINATED by the TV). As Tyler got ready, he'd adjust my hand every now and then when it slipped because I was half-asleep. When he left, Lincoln pretty much just chilled out. He woke me up once when he had slipped down to where the covers blocked the TV, and I just moved him up higher on the pillow and turned my head. When Tyler got home, he started laughing at us because I was completely asleep, and Lincoln was just hanging out, watching TV, and chewing on my hair!
Next story - We usually do our grocery shopping on Saturdays. It takes half the day, but we generally like the errands. Occasionally we'll plan to do them earlier in the week when we have something planned for Saturday. But this past Saturday was fairly normal, and we were wandering around Target mid-afternoon. Lincoln was hungry off-and-on, so we had a bottle sitting on his lap that we'd give him when he seemed to want it. Then at one point, I looked down to see him pick it up with both hands and aim it for his mouth! It was priceless, but the best part might have been when Tyler and I looked at each other at the exact same moment with an expression of did-you-see-that??!! It was great. And then we looked back at Lincoln and clapped and praised and all that silly stuff. I think we were alone in the aisle, though, or we most likely would have gotten some VERY odd looks.
Like when I was pushing Lincoln around Target singing primary songs for 20 minutes 2 weeks ago. For some reason, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam and I Hope They Call Me On A Mission seem to settle him down. Go figure... I'm waiting for woot.com to offer an iPod shuffle or some other mp3 player for less than $20. I will totally load that up with songs just for Lincoln. Well worth the expense. Why hasn't some company come up with a musical toy that you can program with your own songs?? Honestly.
And I HAVE taken some pictures in the last few days, so those should be going up in the facebook album soon. And a new video of him in his jumper. AND I retook the street sign picture. The lighting wasn't as good as the first day, but better than the second. I think it's good. I had to stand on my step stool AND hold the camera over my head to get the barest HINT of the bottom of that L. Sheesh. I'm not even sure if I'll post the pic, cause I'm afraid you'll say "try again"!
That's all my rambling for now. If you made it this far, I'm sorry to say there's no reward for your persistence. But I certainly appreciate the love. :)

New Poll

Well, the response from the last poll was overwhelming to retake the picture. Here's one taken at a different time of day but from a different angle. You can see all the letters, but would the first one still be better if all the letters were clear? I am genuinely torn on this one. I quite like them both, but I'm a little partial to picture 2. Thoughts? Votes? Thanks everyone, by the way, for taking time to give me input on this, since it really makes little difference in your own lives. :)

Picture 1

Picture 2

Poll

As some of you may be aware, here in our little city of Huntsville, AL, there is a street named Williams Avenue and a street named Lincoln Street. In a happy coincidence (for us), these two streets intersect, and for some time I've been wanting to take a picture of the street sign with "Lincoln Williams" on it to put in Link's room. Well, last night I had the chance, but we were kind of in a hurry, and it was on our way somewhere, so I didn't have any props (i.e. a step stool). So you'll notice in the picture that you can't quite see the bottom of the "L" and the "I". It could be Uncoln Street. Your poll is this: shall I leave the picture as it is, and trust that it's apparent what it is, or retake the picture. Retaking the picture wouldn't really be that big of a deal, so if you honestly think that would better, vote for it. There will be no hurt feelings here. I want the picture to be a treasure.

Just a Quick Update

All is well once again. We're all happy and healthy and plugging away. Lincoln is once again our sweet, happy, chill baby boy. And, amusingly, rather than learning to roll from his front to his back once he's gotten himself stuck, he's just adjusted to liking being on his tummy! My favorite picture of this:

I LOVE it! It's a fair preview of our little four-year-old running down to watch Saturday morning cartoons.

Lincoln also hit the 5-month mark recently, so we got a picture with his elephant. We took TONS of pictures, but he just wasn't in the mood to smile. C'est la vie. He's cute even when he's just looking at you intently:


And finally, he's started to grab things more, and one of his stuffed animals he likes is his monkey. It's as long as he is, but he likes how soft it is, I think. Tyler's dubbed him Mortimer M. Monkey, so we may be seeing more of him in the future...


In other news, I'm taking a cake decorating class this month. I've always wanted to be able to decorate cakes and cookies as well as my mom. It's a long-standing inferiority complex/pride-in-mom I've had. I'll post pics of my cake next week if it's worth showing...