Saturday, July 12, 2014

Cake Decorating

I started my first Wilton cake decorating class last Thursday and it was amazing!! I didn't think I really knew that much more than the average baker, so every time the ladies said, "I didn't know that!" I felt really good about teaching! 

I took some cupcakes to work the other day for someone's birthday, Vanilla Chai cupcakes to be exact, and they were kind of amazing. The girl who I took them to gave me the nickname "Kelly the Cupcake Kid." I love it! I really enjoy making cupcakes because they are so easy. And the first night of the class was all about cupcakes, so I was in my zone. 
But next week is about cakes. And while I have decorated them, I'm no expert! So I wanted to get in some practice. And Marius was so gracious as to have his 16th birthday just when I needed to practice decorating a cake!! 
Red is really hard to make, FYI. It takes a LOT of food coloring.
I toyed with a World of Warcraft cake, but didn't think my skills were quite there yet. Marius likes Bob Marley, so the red, yellow and green cake was born. The layers on the inside match the frosting on the outside. (I just now realized I did the frosting upside down... red was supposed to be on the bottom and green on the top. Oops.) The cake layers are flavored almond, lemon, and chocolate. 
The top has a pink shadow because I was trying a piping gel technique to give me a guide for the lettering. But I didn't have clear gel. And the pink was pretty bright. But the good news is that technique is pretty easy to master!

Ok, so wish me luck for the next session!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Going to longer lengths

I decided to try out the maxi length skirt and dresses that are popular this year. I actually looked into buying one, but didn't find anything I liked. (except for one that I couldn't afford!) So I made my own!

I started with a simple skirt to try out the length and make sure I liked it. 
Voile fabric, simple a-line elastic waist skirt. Added a short skirt on the inside for a lining since the fabric is pretty sheer. 

This one is a skirt pattern that I really liked that I modified to be a long dress. I'm not really happy with what I did with the sleeves, so I might go back and change that. I wore this for the 50th wedding anniversary party.
Pattern: McCall's 6120 extended to dress length
Fabric from Girl Charlee

And lastly I made one out of the new Bianca shirt pattern from Made by Rae. This one is my favorite I think.
This one is made out of rayon and is so soft! I wasn't sure how the Bianca pattern would work extended this long, but I'm really happy with it!

With all three of these I took an existing pattern and extended the length to reach my toes, using the same angle the pattern already had. Each one above is with a different type of fabric and they all worked really well. 

Sunday, July 6, 2014

June Recap

We did a little bit of traveling in June, as most people seem to do. There were weeks where it seemed every office was staffed with substitutes because EVERYONE was on vacation!

We started off the month with a quick trip to Munich where our friends were renewing their vows on their 20th wedding anniversary. On our way home we took a spur of the moment trip to the famous Neuschwanstein castle! After 12 years of living here I thought I had better see the most famous castle in the world!

Hohenschwangau
 Neuschwanstein
Rob preached on Father's Day - his second time to preach in German!
We adopted a new kitten. She needed a home and we wanted a kitten. A facebook poll decided she is a cross between an Exotic and a British Shorthair. We call her Katniss.
Ethan had surgery to remove the rod that was healing his broken arm.

We just returned from a quick trip to the US for Rob's parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary.
 While we were there the kids got to hang out with cousins they had never met.

And we got to spend some time with my parents.
We went to NASA!
And Haven dyed her hair purple. By mistake. 
So we had an adventurous June!