P. A. R. T. Y.

Oh yes we will! There was a very special birthday around here over the weekend, one ending with a ZERO. A very wise woman once said, it seems worse to see it in print, so I won’t name the person or the number, except to say she’s a pretty awesome lady, and I love her to the moon and back. This birthday was, to us, a bit of a fresh start, leaving behind some rough times and shining a light ahead. And somehow, it fell to me to make the cake. I pondered a bit, and then settled on a plan. Pans were bought, and Wilton paste. 5 hours in the kitchen later, I’d burned through a dozen eggs, a litre of milk, and 1.5kg of flour, as the cake stack grew before me. Brilliant. Cake of Awesomeness is rocking. Stage two saw four blocks of chocolate and two cartons of cream converts into a rather large bowl of ganache, which set in the fridge as I attacked the butter once more and joined the layers with buttercream. Ganache applied, and then more buttercream, and colours. I took a deep breath, and started decorating. I had this grand vision of a beautiful flower-covered cake. Instead in looked like a clown on an acid trip drew a sunflower on top. *sigh*. Next on my to-do list – buy a cake nail and attend a cake decorating course.

Oh. And Bear tells me I didn’t do a very good job on the top layer. It doesn’t taste like anything except cake. Thanks baby.

Sha wop bop a loo bop

the weekend’s here! I love weekends. Whilst no longer the pinnacle of sleeping-late-lazy-breakfast-reading-newspaper bliss it once was, there is nothing quite like waking to a small child beside the bed, flicking on the tv for some cartoons and all snuggling in for another half hour or so. I did attempt to hid under the covers once and pretend to be dead, or failing that, asleep, but that merely incited a rather boisterous game of peek-a-boo. So I’ve resigned myself to a fate of Mickey Mouse, Pooh Bear, preschooler cuddles and sloppy toddler kisses. Yeah. I know. Sucks to be me, huh? But hey, someone’s gotta do it!

 

So as I attempt to whip the house into some kind of order, in preparation for the onslaught to come (why is it that husbands seem to make as much, if not more, mess as the children?), I just wanted to pop in quickly and share a little birthday card I whipped up a couple of Saturday’s ago, after realising I’d procrastinated to the point of walking out the door *oops* and thus had around five minutes tops to come up with a card.

 

Another birthday this weekend means I’ll be raiding the offcuts box again, and I’ll be sure to show the results on Monday. One weekend, two birthday parties and the promise of a thunderstorm or three. It’s going to be interesting!

One of life’s mysteries…

I decided on Saturday morning that my studio needed cleaning (which it did, it was a mess), and while I was going, I might just reorganise my art & craft supplies,you know, make the space more efficient. So why does the room now look worse than when I started? Hopefully the two munchkins will nap at the same time this afternoon, and I can finish it up, and list some stuff on eBay that I know I won’t use.

 

So not much creative stuff happened over the weekend. I did, however, make a little card for our godson, who recently turned one. I’m still not quite sure how that happened!

What is it about having children that makes life feel like it’s permanently on fast-forward?

For my mum…

Remember way back to preschool, and for mother’s day or the like, you would stick macaroni to cardboard, spray paint it silver, and then, proud as punch, thinking you were the next Picasso, presented the finished product as a gift? And mum (or whoever the intended recipient was) would smile indulgently, and pretend that it was so great, it should be hanging in the Louvre?

 

Well, I feel a bit like that with this painting. I’m not sure if I think mum will actually like it, or if it’s the grown-ups version of silver macaroni.

 

I have pondered it over the weekend, and still failed to reach a conclusion. I brought in an art critic (aka my long-suffering husband – “Don’t you think you have enough hobbies?”), and while he likes it, again, we failed to reach a concensus on it’s suitability for my mum. So I did what any self-respecting, confident amatuer artist would do. We bought a back-up present.

 

I also had a chance to use that gorgeous little owl stamp. Steeped in silver macaroni nostalgia, I decided to make the card as well.

I thought it was quite cute. But now,  pondering the hideous, and previously undiagnosed, issue of adultsilvermacaroni-itis, possibly it wasn’t the smartest move.

 

I think I think too much!