And it is done!!!

After days of frustration and countless mishaps and obstacles, my course 3 final cake is DONE! The woman from mom's club is due to pick it up in the morning. Hopefully, she will show, but if not, we'll enjoy it ourselves, although definitely not all of it. It's HUGE! I finally decided to go with Cherry Chip and Vanilla Buttercream on the top and Chocolate with Mocha Buttercream on the bottom, mainly because I already had all the ingredients for those two flavors and I didn't want to have to buy anything else for this cake.

I found a woman who has a cupcake business really close by who is willing to rent me commercial kitchen space. YAY! I can become legal, or at least head that way. She charges $25/hr to use the kitchen, so I can't really afford to use it regularly. When we get back from Oregon, I'm planning on going down to the kitchen and talking to her about the specifics, to see if she has a minimum hour requirement or anything. I'm also going to be checking with the church to see about using those facilities. For the time being though, I'm going to focus on getting ready for our trip to Oregon. This cake took up most of the last 3 days, so I have a lot to catch up on around here.

See you all soon!!!!

Another Trip To Yosemite... and results!

Here is tunnel view... in June and July, the axis of the earth tilts just right so that at sunset, half dome (center) is illuminated while everything else in Yosemite Valley is shaded...

I'm proud of this shot....  it still takes my breath away....

Jason

The "Sweet Madness" begins!

I have my first order! Sort of. Not really. But I can pretend :D. I have to do a final cake for my Course 3 class, a two-tier, wedding-style cake. The only problem is, we are leaving for Oregon one day after my final class and I just can't bring myself to throw away 40+ servings of cake! So I emailed my moms club and asked if anyone wanted a two-tier cake. One of the women is having a triple birthday party July 4th (for her husband, son and daughter, who all have birthdays in July) and said she would take the cake and freeze it and use it for that. She has given me free rein as to colors and flavors as long as it tastes good :-). YIKES! She even insists that she wants to pay me. OH NO! I'm not ready for this. Ok. I am, but I'm REALLY nervous! I'll let you all know how it goes and of course, I'll post a picture :-). Oh, and did I mention I've never met this woman?

Need your help

I've decided to take the necessary steps in the direction of legalizing my (non-existent) cake business. It's really hard to become legal selling cakes in CA, so I want to start now, so that when orders do come in, I'm not scrambling to get through all the red tape. One of the first things I need is a business name and I'd love some help from your creative minds :-). I wanted to go with "Sweet Magic" and legally I could, but there is a cake company in the UK with that name and they already have claim on the web address, so I'd rather not mess with any possible confusion that may evoke. So, jump in and help me out with your creative suggestions.

Thanks!

A cute conversation

Sitting on the floor in the kitchen while I prepared lunch.

GABBY: I wish we could get married.

JAMES: I didn't say we couldn't get married now. I meant before!

GABBY: Why did you say no before?

JAMES: Because you were a child then. You are grown up now, so we can get married. *pause* After naps, we'll get married, ok?

GABBY: Ok.

A change of plans

We've decided to modify our trip plans a little. I didn't think that 3.5 days was enough time to see everyone and do everything we want to do while we are up in Oregon, so we've decided to extend our vacation a little. We now plan to travel straight through on Saturday, June 28th (a week from this Saturday. YAY!) and arrive at Mom and Dad's Saturday evening sometime. They have offered to let us sleep at their house Saturday through Tuesday, then we will stay at Mary and Nate's until early Saturday morning and drove home that day (the 5th). I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you again!

Jason's birthday wish comes true!!!!

My camera's battery died and I was unable to get any pictures :-(. A perfect birthday for Jason, who hates getting his picture taken.

He turned 34 today and we had a very laid back day. He doesn't like big hooplas for his birthday, so we had a fairly laid back day. The kids and I went out to get his gifts and some ingredients for his birthday dinner this morning then we hung around the house while the kids napped. Jason barbequed Tri-Tip for dinner and we had his requested Black-Bottom Cupcakes for dessert. They weren't as good as Judy's, but it was my first time making them so he gave me a pass ;-).

James gave Jason a pencil sharpener that James has been playing with since. I had a hard time keeping Jp from opening it before we got home and it never did get wrapped. James gave it to Jason as soon as the van pulled into the garage :-). Gabby picked out some brightly-colored erasers for Daddy. From me, he got a new NIV Study Bible and a case for it, one of the things he asked for.

Oh, btw, there's another house for sale two houses down from us. 1690 square feet, 4 bedroom, 2 bath, $190,000. Anybody want to join us down here in the sun? :-)

Fondant debut

Tonight I made my first cake decorated in Fondant. I was kind of annoyed at my instructor because she jumped in and started decorating for me when I stepped out to use the restroom. She hadn't seen her husband in 3 days and I was the only student tonight in her last class of the day and she wanted to go home. GRRR! I still think of it as my cake though, since she only did minor things to it.

Our trip to Oregon in July

Jason and I finally sat down tonight and set the dates for our trip up to Oregon. There is still a small chance that his work will interfere with the days we want to come up, but chances of that happening are slim, so we're going ahead with our plans.

We plan on leaving CA on Tuesday, July 1st, staying the night in Medford and arriving in Oregon mid-day Wednesday. We will be sleeping at Mary and Nate's (Thank you, Mary!). We will be spending the 4th in Molalla with Jason's side of the family, but everything else is up in the air. We will be leaving early (as in 3am) Sunday the 6th and driving all day to get home that evening.

I can't wait to see all of you!

More fun!

Because Gabby still has 5 more inches to grow before she can go on any of the bumper boats and 7 more inches to grow before she can drive a go-cart, I had to find something for the little princess to do while the boys played.

Thankfully, there is a play structure right next to the go-carts that she loved.

Here she is, coming down the slide :-).

Today, I decided to have a relaxing afternoon and make Benji a fire truck cake while I watched a movie. Here's the finished product, which he LOVED by the way. It's so much fun to make cakes for kids because they could care less that the frosting isn't smooth and the colors aren't quite right :-).

So much fun!!!

Benji the man is in town and life at the Herrings is FUN, FUN, FUN!

Friday, we spent a few hours at Boomers. The boys had been waiting for this for months! They hit the bumper boats first, then moved on to the go-carts.

They waited in line for several minutes. Unfortunately, when their turn came up, Benji got too scared to go on them and Jp had to go by himself.

He still had a blast though, as you can see :-). He was the first one in line and as soon as the guy gave them the go-ahead, he was off...

...in the wrong direction. Oops! :-)

Dropping in ...

...for a quick hello. Yes, we are still alive here at Hotel Herring in Sunny California :-). Jason's parents were here last weekend and now Melissa (Jason's sister) and Benji are here, so we are staying busy. I would love to post pictures, but unfortunately, I accidently deleted all of them from my camera yesterday :-(. 

We had a great time with Wayne and Judy. We went to the Farmers Market and San Francisco on Saturday, church on Sunday then back to the airport on Monday. Jason and I have been fighting a cold, but other than that, things are well here.

I'll try to post more when things slow down a bit.