My Everything Corner

Oh my goodness, was my last post really about Halloween???  Time has flown by so quickly, and now that my daughter's birthday has passed, it is time to start thinking about the next event, Christmas of course!  We have a very relaxed holiday planned, as we have every year and hopefully everything goes as planned, as it usually does.  My little girl's 12th birthday was the exception this year.  The poor thing was so sick on her special day, I had to take her to a walk in clinic for a Dr. to take a look.   A bad throat infection has settled in and for the first time that I can remember she has to go on a round of antibiotics.  After only 4 out of 30 pills down, she is showing signs of renewed health! In the meantime, I've been wandering around with my camera and taking advantage of any photo opportunity that crosses my path.  We've had some incredible sun rises and sets, and one good dose of hoar frost.  My sweet, tiny kitten is 5 months old...

I'm a little late on this post.  My birthday was on the 6th and we we forced to celebrate it early because the husband had to leave for work.  So these photos are from the 3rd.  I just have to take up some space bragging about my wonderful family and friends. First of all, Kaitlynn, who is only 11, and a completely fabulous young lady, wanted to cook supper for me. She decided that keeping it simple would be best.  She did not want a whole lot of help from her Father. The dinner consisted of a delicious, tender porchetta, roasted asparagus, and twice baked potatoes.  Everything tasted so good.  And they took it one step further, and made sure there were leftovers for the next day. Yay! - Two days with meals made for me! Our tasty dinner! Dinner was followed up with this fantastic white cake that my daughter baked from scratch.  She also did the decorating.  Did she not  do a fabulous job for her first time ever???  It is a...

This post is a little delayed, being that my daughter's birthday was on December 6th, but I wanted to get this photo on the blog.  It's an odd age to be a big fan of Dilbert, but one weekend after finding herself with nothing to read, she went through our many bookshelves, and thinking that Dogbert was the most adorable thing ever, she decided to pick it up and read what he was all about. She quickly took to all the characters, although Dogbert has remained her favorite.  She has had to ask me a couple of times to explain a joke, but overall has a remarkable understanding of the text.  She even set to drawing her own comic, based on the Dilbert characters. She turned out to be such a big fan of the book that I didn't even need to ask what kind of a cake she might want.  She also received a Dilbert book for her birthday, and although she received 2 of the same Dilbert calendars, she was overjoyed that she could keep one on her bedroom desk, and...

It is hard to understand where the time has gone, but my little guy is turning 8 tomorrow, and going into grade 3 next week.  He says he is not looking forward to all the hard math he will have to do.  But he is excited about recesses and gym class.  So as far as that goes, he sounds like a typical little boy.  He also adores LEGO and anything to do with Star Wars, and again, typical.  What makes my little man stand out from the crowd, is that he is exceedingly funny.  I can be in the worst of moods, and with perfect timing, he will give me one of his off looks, and without being able to help myself, I will burst into giggles.  He's always trying to get a laugh out of someone, especially his sister.  He can almost always set her to giggling and leave her wanting more. I could go on and on and in detail about all of his redeeming qualities, but in this moment I am feeling grateful for his sense of humor.  I hope to give him an awesome bi...

The first cake of the year was done for my darling husband's 38th.  Everyone in our household loves the Smurfs, so it was an easy choice.  Papa seemed like the most obvious choice seeing as how the cake was for 'Daddy'.  And no other Smurf says "Birthday Party!", like Jokey.   The next cake came in July for my sister-in-laws birthday.  We always have a summer BBQ for her, and the kids thought that I should do an owl for her.  They knew I would agree, because I have a bit of an obsession with owls, and my collection keeps growing.  Maybe a post on that later.   The next one came a short month later for my now 7 year old son.  He loves Star Wars.  I completely adore R2-D2, so there was no question.  The other side of the cake says "May the Force be with You", of course, and this was my favorite cake of the year.       My daughter is obsessed with wolves, once again making the theme of her party...

This cake features an antique John Deere tractor. It is a 1953 Model 40 to be exact. It was a fun one to do, and I hope my customer's Father is happy about it. This is a Zhu Zhu Pet cake. Actually, it is a replica of the one I purchased for my 5 year old at the end of August. He loved it, especially when he was allowed to decapitate and devour it.

Here is a cake that I stressed over for nearly 6 months. I didn't how I was I going to make it, where I was going to make it or how I was going to get it to Manitoba, (a 10 hour) drive from where I live. In the end, it all came together quite nicely and with relatively little fuss. Six months of stress for nothing. I baked and decorated the cake at my in-laws, which shortened the end drive with the cake in tow to only 2 hours. Of course I was still concerned about the heat wave we were experiencing. The bottom cake is chocolate with chocolate buttercream, while the middle tier is vanilla. The top is styrofoam, and the my sister's keepsake. Believe it or not, it was the little styrofoam 'cake' that gave me the most grief. In order to adhere the fondant to the foam, I coated it in a thin layer of corn syrup. So when it started to heat up and melt, it had no where to go but down, and that created the dark spot you see on the ribbon. I fixed it before the receptio...

I decided last night that the name of my blog needed to be changed. 'Blue Jeans Jewelry' just is not going to work for all that I would like to write about. The jewelry hobby/business that I have started is only a small part of what I enjoy doing and what I find interesting. Nearly 13 years have gone by since I developed an interest in cakes. Thanks to my Mother-in-Law, her talent, and her interest in my work, I've done countless cakes over the years for my friends and family. The Chinese New Year cake you see here was done this past February as a celebration of The Year of the Tiger, the sign my husband was born under. Each sign was painstakingly hand-painted in edible ink on fondant. The cake is iced in buttercream, and the tiger is also done in buttercream, but on a separate piece of fondant to give it some height. This July, I will be doing my little sister's wedding cake, and a scrabble cake for a dear friend of mine whose Mother-in-Law will be turning 90. I've...