Still more cake decorating!

Tonight is the last night of Course I for cake decorating.

We finished our three-step lesson on how to make a rose (really, was it necessary to drag it out three classes?).





We learned how to make various leaves and vines. A few of us also learned a smaller flower, the sweet pea.

How did I do?

More cake decorating!

For tonight's class, we made the EXACT same cake that my mother made for me as a child. Goes to show you that if something isn't broken, don't change it!

Voila, my clown cake. Yes, I named him Tom. I was practicing my letters, but didn't have room for something longer!



I looked through my photos to see if I had that photo from when I was a kid, sticking my finger into the frosting while wearing yellow feetsie pajamas (not unlike my friend, the clown), but no luck. My sister will have to do some spelunking in the family archives for that...

Cake Decorating, take 2!

Alas, i didn't take a picture, but made a sweet little Valentine's Day cake. We learned how to make hearts, dots, and shells.

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo. Seriously...

Cake Decorating 101

In my never-ending quest to limit whatever freetime I may have, I signed up recently for a cake decorating class. Wilton, the ubiquitous supplier of professional cake decorating products, offers small classes at both Michael's and AC Moore. My mother took a class when I was a child and I remember her bringing home amazing cakes. I've been dying to take a class for years, so when I ran across a class at AC Moore, I jumped on it. $22 for the class, plus supplies.

Well, the supplies could run you considerably more, if you don't watch out! At first I thought I could borrow most things from my mother -- at least the frosting tips. Most of the other supplies don't age well, so it was off to the races to buy pastry bags, couplers, icing colors, etc. Tom accomplanied me on one trip and quickly calculated that it's cheaper in the long run for me to buy an entire kit, using those wonderful 40-50% off coupons that are in the paper, than it is to purchase items individually.

Tonight was the first class -- an introduction to making the frosting, how to level a cake, how to put together a pastry bag with the frosting tip. Good thing I watched my mother as a child do all these things!

For each of the next three classes, we bring in a plain, small frosted cake to decorate with whatever skills we've learned from that class. Stay tuned!

A Trip in Atlanta...literally

Moana and I flew down to Atlanta last night for a quick visit with one of our client companies. Our main contact met us this morning at our hotel to walk over to our breakfast meeting. As we're walking down Peachtree, Moana is reflecting on how nice it is to be able to walk without worrying about slipping on ice. Just as I'm about to comment on how much of a klutz I am...


BOOM


Down I go. If it weren't for my bag, it would have been a face plant, and if it hadn't been for gloves, surely I would have gashed both hands. As it turns out, the sidewalk had a big divot that I completely overlooked. Yeah...that's it...


Our client was horrified. Moana almost died laughing. My knees were sore and dignity bruised.

Home Economics

There was a great article a few weeks ago in the New York Times about budgeting during these touch economic times, and I set it aside to comment on. I can related to the story about homeowners who find themselves buy large quantities of food because of a good price. We installed open shelves a few months ago and unearthed a good deal of food supplies...and discovered we have all sorts of dry goods that we'll never eat!

Tom and I both feel very, very lucky to have what we hope are stable jobs. We were even luckier to have found tenants earlier this year for our house. But now is the time for everyone, lucky or not, to take a step back and look a their home finances.

Recently we canceled our gym membership. I think this is the first time since my college days that I don't have a membership somewhere, but we found ourselves wasting it for months on end. I've been rationalizing that by not paying $110 or so a month, within three months we'll have saved enough for a Wii! On a more serious note, we're hoping to walk the dog more and get back into running, maybe buy some weights off of craigslist.

As for food shopping, we've seen the prices go up and quality go down at our local Shaws. We've been buying more items in bulk, where appropriate, at BJs. I got a big kick out of picking up a three-pack of Chai tea mix. It's the same stuff Starbucks is using to make my $3.78 Chai lattes, and I got at least 20 or so-worth for just $7. Now if only I could find bagels that Tom likes nearly as much as those at Dunkin Donuts!

Tom rediscovered the local butchershop, McKinnon's in Davis Square, where the prices and quality are outstanding. We're still participating in the meat CSA, but find for cold cuts and one-off items that we don't plan to freeze, McKinnon's is the way to go. We ended up dropping the vegetable CSA, feeling that we wasted more than we ate. We recently dropped by Wilson Farms in Lexington, and while the prices aren't complete bargains, the quality and selection is so much better than the supermarket, it's worth shopping selectively.

We sold my car last year and have survived 13 months on one car. This cut back on insurance, taxes and fuel costs significantly, and we were pleasantly surprised at how we dealt with the change. We plan our weekend errands much more carefully now, so I imagine we've cut back in a small way on one-off trips that waste time and gas.

What have you cut back on? What habits have you changed to save money/energy?

Finally, a Christmas tree...

When Tom and I first moved in together, he spent an outrageous sum of money on a very beautiful Christmas tree, having grown up with fake ones for most of his life. After that first year, the novelty wore off, and he realized that having a real tree is a bit more work than he had anticipated.

The past two years, we haven't had xmas decorations, much less a tree. Two years ago I was traveling like crazy, and last year we were in between houses. I think maybe I had a wreath. So when I announced to Tom earlier this month that I fully intended to get a tree, let's say he was less than thrilled...

They're such a mess...
Where are we going to put it - we don't have room for our regular stuff...
It's two weeks 'til Christmas - why bother...
They're too expensive...

And so forth... But I dug in my heels. We compromised: I could get a tree, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Ha -- a familiar refrain to many wives (kind of like the dog he wanted, but I make sure she has food and gets baths on a regular basis...but I digress!) So off I went to Home Depot tonight, where decent trees can still be had for $29.

The chase was on, however, for the stand. I went down to our house in Plymouth after Thanksgiving and collected all of our holiday decorations. No stand to be found. I don't know what it is with these things -- I'm fairly certain that in the nearly 15 years that I've been living on my own, I've bought at least five or six of them. They mysteriously disappear every few years...no doubt still attached to a tree and thrown out in a fit of rage when they fail to unscrew.

Target: sold out. Kmart: cleared out. Home Depot: nada. Yikes -- I have a freshly cut tree and no stand! I'm about to run out to the 24-hour CVS in Porter Square when my mother-in-law calls me from the front door: wait! My sister-in-law may have an extra! Many, many thanks to Judy who dug through her basement and found a spare stand!

A little help from my father-in-law getting the tree upstairs and upright in the stand, and presto: Heather has her tree.

Take that, Tommy! ;)