A Girl Can DREAM, Can't She?

I seem to always be talking about weddings and getting married.

Well, a girl can dream, can't she?

I am not a big fan of diamonds, much less any jewelry altogether.  My dream engagement ring is a 14k white gold trellis solitaire. I would want it to fit either a 1/2 carat or 3/4 carat diamond. I don't think that is huge, but it would stand out.

I have also been looking up wedding gowns. Ooooh, the choices!  I actually found 2, this evening, that I think are marvelous!  It will obviously be a little while before this event will ever take place, so let me know what you think about them.

I know it may seem a little strange to already be picking this kind of stuff out, but what girl doesn't?  Anyway... its just fun and everyone knows I like to plan ahead. Hey, I might just have the simplest wedding ever to put together. You never know.  ;)

FUN IN THE SUN...AND SNOW

Last year Corey and I made a trip to NC to go snowboarding with our friends. After we got there, things ended up getting a little out of control. We ended up staying up the entire night, getting about an hour of sleep on a hard, motel floor only to wake up to a nasty, rainy day. Needless to say, I didn't get to go snowboarding that day...or at all last year.  Corey was able to go one other time after that, but I must have been working or something.

This year Corey and I decided to take a day trip to Ski Beech. We ended up going on a Thursday, so I got to ski for FREE!  This is also the first time that we actually got any pictures of me out on the slopes. I never took my camera in the past because I had too much to worry about learning, and I was worried that I might break it.

I'm hiding the fact that I am deathly scared of Ski Lifts.

Once we got off the lift, we sat down to get strapped into our boards and just watched as other people either gracefully got off the lift or stumbled like I did many times.

Cruisin (slowly) down the mountain

Here's an idea of just how slow I was going...lol

I like to sit down a lot

We finally got a much needed break. And Beech has BEER!

After the "intermission" we only went down the mountain a couple more times before we were completely exhausted. This is probably the best time I have had in awhile. It was nice to get away even for just a day. We even made it back home at a fairly decent hour.

BICYCLES

While Corey and I were watching my nephew one Saturday, we happened to make a trip to Walmart. Corey just couldn't resist taking Josh by the bicycles to see what he thought about them.  Josh definitely liked the bicycles. He rode around the entire toy department, then pitched a fit when it was time to go. We decided that since he enjoyed it so much, as does Corey, we would get him that bicycle for Christmas.  We did just that. Since we ended up being quarantined to our apartment for Christmas (we were horribly sick), we had him come stay with us a couple weekends later.  It was rainy and nasty outside, so we took him to a parking garage and let him loose.

If you can't tell by the ginormous smile on his face, he was really excited about his new bicycle.

He thought he was too fast for Corey.

He fell down a few times, but got right back up every time.

Josh LOVES trains. As soon as he heard one, he made Corey park the bikes together and then had to watch it go by.

I got 2 Thumbs Up from the guys. It was a nice afternoon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Since this was our first Christmas together (living together), Corey decided to do a holiday photo shoot.

This is our little family.

Capone decided to do a little dance for us.

He always knows how to make me smile.

Corey designed our tree and taped it to the wall. It looked super awesome once we got the lights on it.

FINAL CLASS

Last night was my final class for course 1 and 2.  I am sort of glad that the class is over, because now I have a little more "free" time, but I am definitely going to miss everyone that was in the class.  They will offer the 3rd course in January, and I am pretty sure we are all going to sign up for it so we can all be in the same class again.  

While the other 2 girls made pretty Thanksgiving cakes, I was in a whole other world. I have really been into this whole asian-inspired mood lately, and I am just not ready for all this cold weather.  So, rather than making the "normal" cake, I made something entirely different.

This time we had to actually draw the cake out on a sheet of paper and then come to class with everything that we would need, already prepared and ready to go. This really made things much easier. Since I already had a plan, I didn't have to worry about "brain farts" getting in the way. It was 

nice.

Corey also helped me out this week by creating 

me a cake template. That gave me something to sort of give me a better perspective of size and what it would actually look like in the end. He also took my pictures for me. He is much better at that than I am. lol

Better Late Than Never

Well, I figured while I was awake and posting blogs, I would go ahead and put up this picture of a cake I made for Bosses Day. It was very plain, but it was a last minute thing. Plus, at the time, I had only learned a couple decorating techniques. I know the first thing you may think to yourself is that I spelled "Bosses" wrong. Think what you may, but I contemplated for most of the night as to how I should actually spell this.  The word "Bosses" is spelled that way because it is the pluralized spelling of the word, "Boss."  I felt like since I was making this cake for only one boss, I would make it possessive, rather than plural. Some people may disagree, and sometimes I still question myself about the whole issue, but whatever. The cake tasted good, and everyone loves to get something when they least expect it.

SUSHI GOODNESS

Yeah...yeah, I know.  I have already been to about 5 classes or so, and I haven't even posted any cake pictures yet.  Other than the fact that I keep forgetting to take my camera to class, I am just too lazy to get on the internet and post. I promise I am going to try harder. 

The class has been super fun and a wonderful learning experience. I ended up spending a little more money than I had originally planned, but I think it was well worth it. My only problem is that I want to do things that I have not learned yet. I am definitely going to take the next level course which focuses on fondant and gum paste. I feel like once I learn that, maybe I will be able to branch out a little more and create some prettier, more contemporary cakes.

Anyway...A bunch of us got together and celebrated Jacie's birthday at Tomo. We just learned how to make plaques out of royal icing, and I thought this would be the perfect time to practice this method.  I googled some sushi coloring pages, and found a picture of a sushi roll and chopsticks.  This looked fairly simple to color in, so I went for it. It looked amazing on the wax paper, but I had a rough time trying to get it off in one piece. It was intentionally made to "stand up" on the cake, but the little "feet" I made, broke. Luckily I was still able to save it.

Everyone seemed to be really impressed with the cake, and that made me feel really proud of myself. I know I still have a long way to go, but that little bit of encouragement gave me the push I need to keep wanting to learn.

I am so excited that I have finally found something that I really enjoy and seem to be doing okay at. I really did need a hobby.