Sending out Christmas Cards

Oh how nice it is to have talented children. (thanks, Jen for designing my Christmas card!) I know, I am shamelessly bragging about my kids, (who are all grown adults now) so bear with me for a minute. I am so proud of all of them. They are gifted and talented and thoughtful and respectful and kind. I thank God for allowing me to be their mother.

Nine years ago on Dec. 13th I had a massive heart attack. It was a day none of us will ever forget. I died. twice. and came back to be able to enjoy seeing my children grow into five fine adults. I have been given a gift beyond measure...and Christmas will always have a special meaning for me.

Dear Santa:

Um. Yeah. Well really Santa...all I want is a few more hours in a day. Or maybe you can help me with some time management. Because I'm really bad lately. I just don't feel like I can get anything done. Well, anything that I'd LIKE to do...I'm too busy doing the stuff that I HAVE to do. Now I just have to shift Christmas shopping into the HAVE TO DO column and I'll be all set.

Oh I know, I'm whining and that means a lump of coal in my stocking.
Off to do some dishes and laundry and making dinner. Harrumph.

So much to be Thankful for...

The bird is in the oven and this afternoon we will all be feeling as stuffed as Tommy Turkey feels right now. I'm looking forward to having all my kids back home. Traditions are the glue that bind families together. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Trying to capture the Christmas spirit..."it's a GOOD THING"

I know, I know...it's not even Thanksgiving yet...and we definitely need to celebrate all that we are thankful for...The turkey is thawing in the refrigerator, the cranberries and yams and rutabagas have been bought. I even made a little Thanksgiving vignette on my mantel...

But- the Hallmark Channel has been playing Christmas movies all.day.long. I guess one could call it commercialism...I mean, after all, it IS HALLMARK. It's what they do. But the movies are feel good movies of family and Christmas cheer and the true meanings of Christmas. How can anyone fault a channel that is promoting family values and goodness? As Martha Stewart would say, "it's a good thing"... and I decided I'm watching at least one Christmas movie a day. I've been feeling pretty down as of late...and ANYTHING to restore my belief in family values is a "good thing". Oh yes, most of them are predictable and Cheesball U.S.A. but they leave you feeling loving and charitable and believing in the magic of Christmas...

Only 33 days until Christmas. I haven't begun my shopping...after all, it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Collaborative Cake Creation

My dear friend and walking partner has been planning a surprise 50th anniversary party for her parents for months. Since I have been taking cake decorating classes, she asked me if I would like to make a sheet cake for the party. Oh silly me, I suggested we make a tiered cake instead...of course, you only celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary once, why not make a little fancier cake? (Mind you...I have NOT taken the TALL cakes class, only the Basics and the Flowers and Cake Design classes.)

I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she thought a chococolate/white marble would be the best option...but then me, being me...I suggested the top cake be white with raspberry filling just to add another flavor option. She decided to give me artistic freedom with the cake and said she'd pick it up on the 13th.

Jordanne offered to come over and help me and of course I welcomed her input and talent. While we worked on this cake until 11:30 last night and gave birth to this beautiful creation of confection, the sense of satisfaction I felt when it was all assembled overwhelmed me. In my heart and mind, I began to ponder that this cake collaboration was analagous to raising children.

As a parent, we provide the ingredients and build the foundation and basic structure with love and hard work, (albeit not without mistakes) She worked with the frosting; I gave her the decorators bag to go ahead and design... although together we decided on a basic idea of what we wanted the end result to be ... but as this cake began to take shape, together we worked, each adding our input and talents, neither one of us completely certain of the outcome, we worked long and hard to bring beauty and life and meaning to this creation.

Thank you so much Jordanne for working with me on this little project. It meant more than you'll ever know.

P.S. She just came to pick up the cake and absolutely loved it. I only charged her the cost of the materials but she insisted on paying us something for our time. I told her I would take Jordy out to lunch...what day are you free, kiddo?

Second course, Final project

This is my first attempt at chocolate ganache. I must say it is so easy to make and what a shiny impact on these cupcakes. I even filled these fall funfetti cupcakes with some whipped ganache.

This is my graduation cake final project (from my second Wilton course Flowers and Cake Design) We learned how to make all of these flowers and the basket weave technique.

I'm not gonna lie...this cake is filled with a peanut butter cream cheese whipped mousse and has started to slide...with all the frosting on the sides from the basket weave...the cake had a major earthquake crack in it...good thing it was only for our family. Note to self: do not fill more than one layer with this particular mousse. It was unstable to transport.


We learned how to make lilies,violets, apple blossoms, primrose, daffodils, daisies, roses and rosebuds in this class. I NEED LOTS OF PRACTICE. It looks like a garden threw up on this cake. haha.

It's not as easy as one would think...it's all about getting the perfect frosting consistency and perfecting the technique. It was a fun experience...I'm so glad we did it, I learned so much. I did realize one thing: the older you get, the harder it is to learn new things...gosh I felt so inept at times. I didn't know there was such a thing as "Cake Stress".

We're taking a break from Cake Decorating classes until after Christmas. Now I've got a few months to perfect my techniques. I did get asked to make a 50th wedding anniversary cake for November 13th and now I've got to decide what I'm gonna do...more cake stress.

More football, homecoming, and cupcake love...

Joshua, Jordanne and Jake...The NCC "Game to Remember" where the players had special jerseys made with the pink cancer ribbon on them. The players wore stickers on their helmets honoring loved ones who died from cancer.

My three sons and their dad after Joshua's college game. Looks like the "little" brother isn't so little anymore.

Jacob and Aubrey getting ready to leave for Homecoming. What an adorable couple they make.

You can't really tell, but the orange leaf is made from melted candy corn, rolled out, and cut with a small leaf cookie cutter.

...more Halloween cupcake love...and yes, those are supposed to be mummies.

Scrumptious cream filled cupcakes for the football team dinner...

...I know, this is a bit extreme, but hey, it was the week of homecoming...what can I say?

lots of football brownies were made that day...40 to be exact! I know this seems insane, but I look at it as practice. These brownies were so yummy. They were covered with melted milk chocolate and peanut butter. mmmm.

...Actually, I think of baking as therapeutic. It cheers me up when I'm sad...calms me when I'm stressed...it fills me with a sense of well-being. It's something that I can take charge of from start to finish...I control the outcome...and all is well in my little cupcake world. I mean, really...how can you not be cheered up by a cupcake?

...stay tuned for the cookies I have to make for the out of town football game on Friday.

I have no words...

...so I will use someone else's.


Expect hope to be rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
-Sarah Ban Breathnach

Final class project

Hard to believe these pathetic roses ended up looking halfway decent in a cluster...(I totally struggled with these ribbon roses and feel so inept.)

... So my birthday is today and it's quite ironic that I would be able to make my own birthday cake for our final class project. The "old bag" is what Pat lovingly calls me. I felt pretty silly making my own cake in class so I had some fun with it.

practicing my skills on cupcakes...

morbid blood spattered "DEXTER" inspired cupcakes...

Mmmm. yummy bloody bones. I am truly more impressed with these cupcakes than I was with the season premiere of Dexter. How disappointing! I sure hope the next episode is better...

I am 47 today and so thankful to be alive. Happy Birthday to me.

More cupcake love

THIS IS A CUPCAKE...{Vanilla bean with Bavarian cream}

...and THIS is NOT.

I made the SVSU colored cupcakes for my college football boy who happened to be one of the leading tacklers this past week in his game.

He's "a little light in the ass" (as his coaches tell him) so I figured a little buttercream love couldn't hurt to pack on some pounds.

So proud of you Josh. Keep up the good work.

Brownie experiment on Football Friday

(* Note to self: wait until piping dries before packaging)

I made a pan of brownies yesterday morning at 7:30 am. It was one of those very organized, well thought out out mornings. I had put together Jake and Pat's lunches the night before...had the coffee pot ready and fully loaded...why not make brownies?

After I got home from my walk I cut out the brownies with my football cookie cutter. I melted some candy melts with a little peanut butter, poured it over and smoothed it. Then I refrigerated the footballs, piped on some white buttercream, and voila! The yummiest peanut butter browies. And look how darned cute they look packaged in a cello bag with a quick makeshift label! Now the wheels are turning...

One 9x13 pan of brownies only yields 9 footballs with a lot of leftover scraps. What to do with the leftover scraps? Stay tuned to my NEXT experiment.

Mmm. Raspberry filling

Well my cake was the last one posted...the one with blue and yellow. I have to say, my technique is a bit off, but the inside of this cake rocked! Yummy layers of raspberry filling. It was so moist and yummy. As a cake EATER...I definitely would have enjoyed a little bit more frosting. Note to self: LISTEN TO THE INSTRUCTOR WHEN SHE SAYS, "The bigger the blob (of frosting), the better the job." After all, you can always scrape off frosting...

my self scoring:

Taste- 9
cake assembly-8
icing- 7
decorating technique- 6

30pts./40

I definitely have some room for improvement... but not bad for my first classroom cake. Next week: Filled Cupcakes. Hmmm...already thinking about what kind of cupcakes I'm going to make.

Cake Decorating Class

Our first cakes...can you guess which one is mine?

Our first cakes...can you guess which one was mine?

A week of fun...following my BLISS

Okay...this week has been one heckuva week for me...from going on a maiden voyage on a friend's boat...freezing batches of pesto, canning salsa and pear sauce...first high school football game of the season (yay Jake for getting the game ball with 14 tackles and one sack!)...Donny and Marie...canoeing on the Tittabawassee river with the man I love...sewing aprons, making lemon curd filled cupcakes, making sugar cookies, and now tonight: The Cake Decorating Class. Oh I'm so excited to do this. I'm going to have to take my camera along to document this process. Keep you posted.

Better get back to sewing those aprons. Of course I offered to make them for our cake class. I finished Jen's and Jordanne's (even though Jen can't be here with us to take the class, sniff)...I still have to make one for Shelby and Sheila...and maybe a new one for myself. Oh the things I do for the girls I love.

my childhood dream come true

Tiger Beat posters of Donny Osmond can't touch seeing Donny and Marie LIVE IN CONCERT at the Soaring Eagle Casino last night. I seriously thought I was going to pee.my.pants! What a class act. They brought their Las Vegas show to Michigan and Holy Whuh...was it amazing.

Yep, you guessed it...I was in love with Donny Osmond when I was a young girl. And last night my childhood dream came true. Swoon. He even sang "Puppy Love" and "Go away little girl". OMG. seriously. I had tears in my eyes! I wanted to tell my dad so bad. He always used to tease me about sleepwalking and looking into the floor register as I told him, "Donny is going to come for me...we are going to get married."

I tried to call my mom after the concert but she must have been at work. I was so excited to tell her. To think how many years I dreamt of seeing Donny Osmond in person and last night...was THE NIGHT.

Wow, those two can put on a show.

Eat Pray Love

Let me just start by saying I don't get out much...especially to movies. So when I even consider going to a movie I read the reviews first...NOT because I am not capable of forming my own opinions...it's because I'm frugal. And if I'm going to drop ten bucks on a movie in the theater...It's gotta be something I absolutely cannot wait to see. (which is why I generally wait for it to come out on dvd and then rent it.) Oh, Patience is a virtue...

I read some reviews on this movie...and decided it was NOT a movie worthy of my ten bucks. I just don't like the story. I'm sick and tired of the "Sex in the City" generation with their narcissistic, self absorbed, gotta "find myself" views on life. Get over yourself already. The world DOES NOT revolve around YOU.


"Oh how I've yearned to find someone who'll call out "finding yourself" as the total bullshit it is. 99% of the time, "finding yourself" is a polite way of saying, "I want to abandon my responsibilities to everyone and everything else and pretend that adult life is what I thought it would be like when I was 15 years old and didn't know any better".

First step in "finding yourself": occasionally think about something other than yourself."

{Posted by: Churchston Winsthill}



Perhaps if people really wanted to "find themselves" they should turn to the instruction manual they got from their manufacturer. Yep...the one who created the masterpiece. The "BIG GUY"...ya know, G.O.D.

skip the movie...and read the instruction manual...or better yet, get to KNOW the producer of your own movie.

Whoa! A New Look!

I woke up this morning and realized my blog was visited by the graphics fairy! A few weeks back I was complaining to Jordanne that I didn't really like the recent changes on my blog background. Being a recent photography and graphic design graduate, she customized a newly fashioned header for my blog. I LOVED this photograph she took this spring on a her trip to Kentucky so she knew just what I would like. LOVE IT, Jordanne! ...but not nearly as much as I LOVE YOU! Thanks a bunch, kiddo!

SKUNKED!

Well our puppy was so excited to have us return from our week long vacation up North. So much so that he really didn't even want to go outside...he just wanted to keep us in his sight. About 1 am this morning, Pat finally put the dog out...and about a minute later he says,

"Do you smell something?"

We both looked at each other and said, "SKUNK!!!!"

UGH. Duke came running inside, rubbing his face on the carpet. I bent down and sniffed his face. I nearly vomited. Oh dear God, this is NOT what I felt like dealing with at 1 am.

I grabbed my laptop and quickly googled: HOW TO GET RID OF SKUNK SMELL.

Two hours later we had lit candles, sprayed the house with OUST, baked cinnamon on a cookie sheet, cleaned the area on the carpeting with ODO-BAN, sprayed clorox bleach water on the deck and counters to neutralize the smell, and bathed the dog in a mixture of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and DAWN dishwashing liquid. (which worked like a charm on the dog, by the way)

But- The smell still lingers in the house... I still can't figure out why we smelled the skunk in the house before the dog came in... It was so strong, I thought for a minute it was an inside job.

First thing this morning I opened up all the windows to air out the smell. Ryan and Shelby came over tonight and immediately said,

"EWWW- what's that smell?"

Dang. This is NOT going to go away for awhile.

Go on over to Mabel's House

I read a beautiful post on a blog I frequent that made me cry. It said so much...and on the eve of driving 8 hours north to go see my mom...I thought I'd send you on over to Mabel's House to read Liz's awesome writing and insights.

I love you MOM! I can't wait to see you soon!

The Shack- Summer reading

Taking a personal "time out" to do a little reading and soul searching.

Jacob was assigned some "summer reading" for school...and of course, I just had to see what they assigned the senior class to read. One of the books was "The Shack"...and for me, it's turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. And who says God doesn't speak to people these days?

...Sadness has a place in every human life...and unfortunately we all experience it from time to time.

The Bible says “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Eccles. 3: 4). We will all experience sorrow. In Wm. Paul Young’s novel, The Shack, it’s called "The Great Sadness".

Lately I feel deeply saddened by circumstances that are going on right now. I can relate to "The Great Sadness" the author speaks of. I am only half way through the book right now...I am savoring it like a delicious piece of decadent cheesecake. Letting the author's words settle into my spirit and grow; leaving me hungry for more.

What I’ve learned today is that, "Great Sadness is one of God’s greatest gifts; that it has an important place in every life, that it has many faces, many expressions; and that God offers special grace to those who mourn, through us."


“It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. – Papa.”

...so happy for mandatory summer reading...Now if only I could get my kid to read it. Now I'm going to go have a piece of cheesecake.

Goodwill and Garage Sale Hunting

look at the detail of the arms.



{Please excuse the major mess in our garage...it's seen a lot of action the past few months with kids moving in and out}

My good friend, Diane and I went out today in search of pre- 4th of July garage sales. Much to our dismay, there were only a few advertised in our local paper. We only really found two sales...not much of anything but I ended up with a few platters, a unique tin can, and an old ottoman for 2 bucks. I have been looking for a square ottoman for some time now, so I cannot deny I let out a little squeal when I saw how cheap it was.

Since we couldn't find any more garage sales, we ventured out to a few stores, then out to lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Goodwill is located in the plaza next door, so we decided to take a look. I found a few edible arrangement tins and a wrought iron thingy. As we were about to leave, I decided to take a quick look at the furniture in the center aisle. Oh.my.gosh. Sitting there under a 1970's desk was this to die for mid-century modern danish lounge chair priced at $8.99!

Can you believe I hesitated? I guess my biggest worry was if Pat would have a few choice words for me after dragging yet ANOTHER "old piece of crap" chair into his cluttered garage.

My friend Diane cheered me on, telling me all the wonderful things I could do to this chair to breathe new life into it. SOLD!

I told the lady at the checkout I needed help with a chair... she went over to tell the young man to bring it over. As he was heading over, carrying the OBVIOUS CHOICE chair, I quickly told him, "Oh, no... I wanted the hideous floral one." He chuckled at my choice of words describing my new purchase. I chuckled inwardly to myself thinking I just SCORED big and they were none the wiser.

Jer 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Yep, I've got plans of my own for these two diamonds in the rough...stay tuned for the hope and future.

Happy ONE MONTH anniversary, Jen and Patrick!

Oh What a NIGHT! Never have I seen my daughter, Jennifer so happy as she was on the day of her wedding. Such a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception. We had so much fun...dancing and letting our hair down.

Jennifer and Patrick came home over Memorial Weekend...and are now back in Chicago. Jennifer is getting adjusted to living in a big city, being a wife and setting up their beautiful new home. She's been painting the boring white walls in their condo...I cannot wait to go visit them so I can see what she's transformed their place into. It gives me such joy to see them finally together, where they can start their exciting new life together. Although I miss her dearly, I realize she's always just a phonecall away...makes me wonder: How can a person be so happy and so sad at the same time?