Frosting, flowers, and felicity

You know how you have this great idea and you get all excited and think how fun it is going to be? And you really and truly think it isn't really going to be that big a deal? I mean, I am fairly intelligent...I have been around the block a few times...but I thought I would host, along with some girlfriends, a little surprise birthday party for a set of twins and my bright idea was that I will make the birthday cake! 

I have been wanting to decorate a cake for a while now since I used to decorate a long time ago...like about 20 years ago. Never mind that I didn't have one cake pan, and only one frosting tip. And it wasn't until I actually baked the damn layers did I realized I didn't have even have a cooling rack. So luckily my vintage stove had a storage space on the side, that I quickly removed all the pans and removed the shelving and stuck bowls underneath it and made a makeshift rack.

But the dumbest thing of all? Is when making and carefully decorating a three-layer "creation" and stepping back, sore hands from piping, cleaning your mess up, and only then thinking..."How in the hell am I going to get this thing over to the house?" Brilliant.

Well, in my last posting I showed you a lot of buttons and crafts. That is part of this story. That is how nuts I can get. I will show you my attempt at the cake and the little party (which was a lot of fun, by the way) and then next posting I will show you the little craft project I did. For my cake, which in honor of the Royal Wedding this past weekend, I am calling my cake: Royal Pain in the Arse. That is about as royal as it gets. I came up with this idea of covering it with paper flowers. Well, I am sure I didn't come up with the idea, I am sure it has been done before somewhere, and if I was smart, I would have researched it and would have most likely found a much easier, faster, prettier way to do this. I never really think to look things up - which is really stupid now that I think about it.

Okay, on with the flower show that I loaded up in my bowl. I thought it would be "fun" to sit and watch TV and make lots flowers during "a" movie one night. However, after TWO Lifetime movies, three  episodes of Deadliest Catch, lots of paper cuts, and many ugly flowers, I ended up with only one measly bowl of several squished flowers tucked under the pretty good flowers, that I found uses for somehow during the party...

So the next day, I am feeling pretty good in spite of being up all night with my TV marathon, flower-making, paper-cutting extravaganza, party-for-one. So THAT is when I got the bright idea...hey! Maybe I will also make some handmade French collar corsages for the girls....not that I ever made any, nor seen or heard of them before...and I want to make them on the same day that I am making this cake.  And no, I don't do drugs or even drink soda with caffeine. Just a wild hair now and again.

So below, I will recap where that wild hair can take you if you don't tame it:

Now, you didn't think I wouldn't show you my wild hair, (the other "wild hair" is located somewhere else) did you? Yup, unwashed, in my headband, wearing an over shirt over my pj's.  SO while I have this going on, I have the kitchen behind me...

My makeshift "cooling rack" which is just a shelf out of my stove balancing on small bowls. Forgot to buy cooling racks....and I forgot...

...and I forgot to buy those cake cardboard thingys...so I had to cut out some cardboard and cover it with foil, which will come back to haunt me when I got and cut the cake later, but I don't know this yet...

Now, I am starting to layer and add frosting in the middle...

...but if you look closely, you will see that I wasn't thinking and I covered the entire bottom lower with frosting. Then when I went to add the second layer...well...then I realized that I didn't need frosting on the ENTIRE bottom level, so I had to scrape it off - hence the shiny top of the bottom layer...the beginning of the cake earning it name...

I am however, proud that I did remember the step to add a very thin layer of frosting (one is under the chocolate one too) over the cake to keep the crumbs under control. Well, at least I think that is what I was taught 20 years ago in class :-)

Now this gets interesting. Since my flower-making was really make-believe since I had no clue as to what I was doing...I made them too fat to stick  into the cake. Tooth picks didn't work, but I discovered that corsage pins did! Just gotta be careful not to let the sharp part poke through to the other side of the flower as you stick it into the cake.

But, I had to be careful as I poked them in the cake not to let the pin slide up out of the flower....the cake is truly earning its name by now...royally earning its name.

Can you spot it?

Now, as you can imagine, or probably guessed, I had to make a few more flowers and ran out of time. So, what you just saw, took two days and the cake was dry as hell. So note to self: Bring back up cheese cake to really eat. The girls were really sweet, and ate it, but it tasted awful. So now that I spent about $120 on pans, tips, frosting, mixes, food coloring, cake cutter, and whatever else I got...I am determined to make a really tasty cake now that I learned the hard way. But, it did get some creative juices going. One big thing I noticed that was very different for me from 20 years ago when I did it quite well: I didn't eat as much cake batter and my cake really rose to the right levels. I do remember back then having to make extra batter :-)

Poking flowers in here and there, wrapped ribbon and cut out some vintage sheet music and glued to the ribbon. I learned the next day that ribbon doesn't keep the cake moister from seeping through the paper...so I decide it was just "sappy music for the soul" hahaa!

So on with the party - by the time I got there, I was pooped and not tons of photos...AND...the cake made it! A big tall box, lots and lots of towels and driving really, really slow and making people behind you really mad...just wear really dark sunglasses and look straight ahead.

This is Debbie, one of the birthday girls, her twin, Maureen will come later. She is arriving at her daughter, Caitlin's house, thinking she is going out to lunch to meet Maureen later. And me, Gretchen, Renee, and Carol with Caitlin are waiting for her as Debbie enters wondering why Caitlin is just standing there and not helping her in!

Debbie is Miss Hostess....it was nice to do something for her. And this was Caitlin's first party.  So it was extra nice that she got to have her first party for her mother.

Renee made these and hung them up. We all laughed because we all arrived pretty late and we said, "We sure can throw a party together in only 15 minutes!" Then Debbie showed up about 30 minutes later than planned.

I folded my French napkins and added little paper corsages for the girls and inside was a little chocolate bunny since it was only a day before Easter.

Potent punch! I drank a few cups and loved it! Champaign, wine, lime juice, lemonade,  and I think ginger ale.

Here is the other birthday girl...Maureen who just got off work.

Both Maureen and Debbie are wearing my craft projects but you really can't see them and will see them next post!

Holly - our other girlfriend. She is always with our parties.

And the Royal Cake in the Arse.
Warning: Made by Professional Wild Hair. Do Not Attempt this Crazy Stunt Unsupervised.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little flower and cake show. The best part of course is spending times with girlfriends and making them feel special. You know, the nice thing about creating isn't the craft, or the cake, but creating memories. I know we always say that: Creating memories...but it really is true. The laughter, the mess, the craziness. 

But sometimes...creating memories all on your own is good too. Being alone and creating private memories is very therapeutic as well. It isn't "making a mess," but "creating a mess." And it isn't "being alone," but rather "being with myself." And maybe it is just about sitting cross-legged on the sofa, licking the frosting bowl, and not having to share it with anyone, while you watch a rerun of Bewitch. I watch the show and realize they didn't really have teeth whitening strips back then and how weird it seems to see for real, natural teeth on TV. Maybe it's those watching old sit-coms and eating-frosting-moments that keeps life simple. 

As I sit on the sofa, sucking on my spoon full of frosting, I study Samantha's teeth and realize how dark they look compared to anything you would see nowadays on TV. But then I remember how pretty I thought she was when I was a little girl watching that show when it premiered. I take one more lick off my spoon and decide she is still very pretty. Her smile is natural, her laugh is real and not harsh. And I bet she is the type that would be happy to sit next to me and share my frosting with me. I would share my frosting with her any ole day.

Plus, she could twitch that pretty nose and clean up that damn mess of mine in the kitchen for me too.

From my house to your house,

"Artsy" Does Not Mean Crafty

So, I have had these jars of buttons for I don't know how long, not to mention bags and bags of other buttons, and I decided that I needed to do something with them besides just take  photos of them....

...And that is how only a part of the story begins. Do you have a story like that? You know...you have a bright idea, and no time for your bright idea, and not only do you have no time, but then you commit yourself to another bright idea, AND not only that, but you then announce your bright ideas to others, so now you can't even back out?

Well, if you are smart enough not to have gotten yourself in such a situation, then let me enlighten you, since I am just full of "bright ideas" lately....

But before I go on, here are some photos of my buttons to redeem myself - sort of. And the following photos are hints of my next bright idea dealing with paper...

Now, I am the first to admit, that I can be "artsy" and yes, very creative under the gun when needing to come up with something and needing to make "do" with nothing. But when it comes to "crafts-crafts," people are really shocked to learn that I really don't do crafts. Instead, I do "make-believe" crafts. Meaning, in photo shoots, or store window vignettes, or at shows when setting up, I can use wire, cheese cloth, bungee cords, tape, paper, and hot glue like nobody's business and probably outdo just about anyone standing in my way and run them over when under a time limit and I can hear Debbie Dusenberry of Curious Sofa yelling out, "Ten minutes until the doors open!!" But what I do in those circumstances isn't the true art of crafting that I admire so much in my readers' REAL crafting. However, it doesn't mean that I don't sit down once in a while and attempt to create something. And whomever the victim....ahem...receiver of said craft is....knows it is made from my heart, because God knows it is not from my talent.  :-)

So, in just a matter of days of each other, I had three or four projects all happen at once - all interesting projects, and on top of that, a good friend of mine, Debbie McReynolds, was flying home WEEKS early from NYC from her work...only days after her birthday, in which I had planned a belated party for her weeks down the road, and suddenly now her birthday celebration is going to be a week away on top of the other things I have going on....thus the sudden craft crash course.

I have decided to make Debbie and her twin sister a personalized gift as well as her grown daughter, Caitlin, who is hosting the party. Which by the way, I should confess that I have a quirk (calling it a "quirk" makes it sound less rude) that when under the gun, and stressed, I tend to "host" parties at other people's homes. So, I call up Caitlin, and tell her I want to throw her mother a surprise party, to which Caitlin is all thrilled, and then I suggest we have it at her home. Caitlin is still happy because her home is fairly new and we girls will help her get it all together and this is where I come up with my second bright idea of making the cake and then my third bright idea of announcing it to the girls. I should be glowing like a friggin beacon with all this "brightness" I have going on within me lately.

Okay, so never mind that my basement is STILL not organized or my studio and my stuff is all over the place, so I drag my goodies all upstairs to our tiny table to do my "crafting." And never mind that it has been about 20 years since I decorated any type of cake other than to stick birthday candles on it, and never mind that I don't even own cake pans....and never mind that I am leaving for the lake in three days for vacation. Now, will someone out there please tell me that I am not the only that has time management problems and feels that somehow I am exempt from have only 24 hours in a day?

Well, my project was to make the girls corsages for the party out of French collars. And I will show you the results and steps in the next posting. And I did make the cake...which looked pretty good, but it was dry as hell and tasted worse. (Note to self...bring back up cheesecake to party to EAT and bring "pretty cake" for looks only.)

But below, I thought it would be fun for you to see the "behind the scenes" shots of what it took for this very uncrafty (but artsy!) gal to make three friggin corsages and one cake....so sad....

My barber husband has this photo credit: He was on his way out to the garage and I handed him the camera and he beamed when he saw the photo and handed it back to me and started to walk out and then as I said to myself, "I think I can work with this...." then he stopped short, and said, "Hey! What does that mean?" And I, being so used to being so critical of my own work, I quickly said, "I mean my hair, honey..." So, I cropped it out. He is so sensitive for such a big, ole fishing guy. (I lovingly call him "my little Rose Petal" when he gets a little sensitive...but don't say anything to him....) But, to be fair, when I get frustrated over something stupid, he will say, "Your head is going to pop like a daisy!" And I will admit, I don't think I have ever seen a daisy pop before....but oh well, it makes me laugh.

 Okay, that is it for now. I know I always like looking at "behind the scenes" on TV, magazines, blogs...it sort of makes me feel more human because I can see that the people behind the scenes are human. I mean, I know they are of course, but it is sort of morbid of me in a way. Like me standing in line at the grocery store and I can't help but glance at the gossip rags that have the issues of the stars without make-up. 

I don't get "glee" that they aren't great looking without it, but rather, I get a sigh of relief that they are more normal than I make them out to be, and frankly, makes me like them a little more...okay...except for the ones that really do look fantastic without a stitch of make-up on...damn them. But then I convince myself they have the best chefs, trainers, imported water, spa days, and plastic surgeons and whatever else. And then I have to wonder, who is has the real issue here? Them or me for giving it so much thought?

I ponder this only for a moment as I push my cart out of the store and open up my little skittles bag.  I pop a handful of tart little candies in my mouth and decide it really isn't worth the energy to think about it.

Until next time, I am sure I will ponder much more important life's issues and I will show you the results of my mess. By showing you the mess....you can't expect much...all the better for me!

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

From my house to your house,