Rainbow Cake

As you lovely readers may have seen, I have been wanting to bake a rainbow layer cake for some time now. I've mentioned it in a few mayhems I'm sure as well as random goals. Well, tonight I finally set myself to the task... 

Here's how it went:

First the pouring

Then the mixing of colors... yes I was also taking pictures with my polaroids, holga and rolleiflex during this process...

First 4 colors in the oven!

All colors out...

Oh man, need some help on that :(

The frosting begins. Silly me only getting one container of frosting. Figured I would leave the other layers to do tomorrow then realized that I wouldn't ever do it so I went back to the store (really close) and bought 4 more containers...

And so the layers stacked... yes this is my leaning tower of rainbow cake...

Frosting cakes is no easy task. Maybe I should have cooked the cakes more or heated the frosting or frozen the cakes THEN frosted them so the outsides didn't crumble... so much to research about making layer cakes.

Almost there!

And Done! I threw some confetti sprinkles at it, yes literally threw them on the sides :) that was possibly the most fun, well, that and mixing the colors...

All in all I can't say I'm impressed with my own creation, my perfectionism gets in the way of that but I did set out what I meant to do and I've learned many lessons.

1. Do NOT make a layer cake with 3 boxes of betty crocker cake mix and 8 inch round pans. That makes a very large cake which will be quite daunting for your first layer cake...yeaaaah

2. Get smaller cake tins

3. research how to keep each layer flat without losing pieces

4. wait until cake is 100% cooled to take out of tin or dish

5. do not set cake on tin foil, even if you spray it the foil with pam... you lose some bits

6. buy lots of frosting for layer cakes

7. research how to frost side of cake

8. research how to frost top of cake

I give pastry chefs THAT much more credit. I also give Hula Seventy a whole lot of credit. She made her daughter the cutest rainbow cake.

found here!

I already knew that lady was fantastic, I mean, look at her photography... but sheesh, good at rainbow cakes too! Look at the color of those layers. I'm just shaking my head in wonder.

Back to my point though... I DID IT! I didn't excel but I did complete and now I need to find people to eat it for me. I had way too much sugar today.

Oh yes and I went and saw Bridesmaids this evening. So. funny. I highly recommend it. 

Now off to do some writing and call it a night.

xoxo

Tuesday (Wednesday?) Mayhem

I decided for this week's Mayhem I'm going to inspire for my Week 3 goals!

enjoy!

Bake/cook something

finish blanket

laundry

write... and blog

finish roll of film

These are unrelated but still mayhem worthy...

just something great to remember

aaaand look at this cute little guy, he's pretty adorable.

xoxo

My Eight Weeks: Week 3!

A little late in getting this started this week but better late than never! I can't believe it's already week 3. Next week we're half way through. Goodness. Not going to lie, I'm really liking this project.

So here goes:

Recap of last week:

1. Finish and connect all squares for baby blanket: ALMOST! Have two more strips of squares to attach!

2. Finish film roll in Rolleiflex: Nope, sigh.

3. Finish book V in Dark Tower series: YES! Did it!

4. Do all laundry... I want to see the bottom of the hamper (all of it): None of it got done.

5. cook 3 different meals: Pretty sure I did this, need to document each one next time.

6. Put $10 toward credit card each day ($70 at the end of the week): Did not. 

As the weeks go on I am starting to figure out what I need to do for my goals. I need to think of big projects or goals and break them down so they are easy to think about each day.

This week's goals:

1. Finish blanket, that means connect last two strips and crochet border.

2. Finish film roll for Rolleiflex and develop. 

3. Do 3 morning pages each day starting today 

4. Do 3 loads of laundry

5. Make at least one thing off of this list. Take picture.

6. Blog 4 times (other than this).

7. Spring clean Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, etc

Easier to complete and less daunting to think about hopefully. That sounds silly but I want to be able to cross off each thing at the end of the week and be proud instead of feel lazy. Baby steps right?

What are your goals this week?

xoxo

week 1, week 2

Another Day At the Goodwill

I'm going to start this off like many others and do a little gripe about how blogger wasn't working and took foooreeeeever (draw it out like a sassy 4 year old trying to get her point across, yeah, like that) to come back so I couldn't post these yesterday. UGH! (4 year old stamping foot) The real bummer I had though was losing two comments because of this whole thing! 

Brandi and Melissa, I got your comments in my email. I would respond but there's just no way now as they aren't on the posts anymore but I love you guys and thank you for reading and such!

So now that my gripe is done and things are all smoothed over... 

Another Thrifting Post!!!!! 

I've noticed that I don't really ever take pictures of the stuff I end up getting but of the stuff that just blows my mind (but not my wallet's mind).

My pictures are all about the rejects... either the things so horrifying they should never have been bought in the very first place or the stuff that's so awesome it makes you laugh (and/or cry) but should never make it into your house...

I'm going to start with a blurry picture, of a woman, not an object (and I'm not considering her a reject either). I saw her shopping and was really kinda intrigued by her rainbow hair. I wish the picture was better but I was trying to be sneaky... and I'm no super spy.

After sneakily taking a picture of a person I started on the things.

I wanted this little soap dish but decided $5 and another creepy child thing in my house was too much.

So then Nicole (you know, from House of Leaves) found an adooooorable kitten... and made an even more adorable face.

Which leads me to the deer head and farmer dude. Two separate treasures if you'll believe it. I was in love with the deer head but again too many weird little things in my place already... walk away.

It's all good though, Nicole made another adorable face... and found a little bear.

CANDLE! A CANDLE! No way! Who would want to burn that poor white owl's head off. What would be the point once you start doing that? I'm all for being creative but I'm not for animal shaped candles where you watch your creature slowly dying from the flames. A bit sadistic for my taste really. We were a trifle upset thinking about the possibility of burning this masterpiece...

but, (no pun intended) Nicole found this awesome little boy statue, oh yes, it's true, his butt is to scale... ummmmm awkward?

Wow. WOW! That's all I had to say when THIS piece caught our attention. This was harder to say no to, 

then there was this! Just when we thought we had beaten our urge to buy more Native American things! Can you see the detail? The feather like objects have pictures painted on them. I seriously (no seriously) think I might go back for this. The bear/wolf/I don't really know's head at the top is really selling me. 

One more lovely native piece. A bust. Magical really.

After the knick knack aisle we thought we were done with the real gaudy things but fortunately we were wrong. Can you see this clock?! Two gold painted peacocks, jewels in their feathers, and fake flowers lining the inside of the clock's actual space... breathtaking.

After we left that piece we found we were "here, hare, here." Soooooo, that means we're there?

And after a stroll through the books we came across sexy frog... prince charming mayhap? Psh who needs prince charming with a frog this sexy?

Truth be told (but not photographically documented) I did leave the store with a few good things. A queen size two foot tall air mattress for one, which will replace Nicole's on the ground twin one (which I have appreciated very much I just thought it might be time to get something of my own), I also found a book (surprise, well, not really) and a cute little statue of an owl on a small stack of books that says "weather owl."

All in all a very fun trip. 

Oh yes, and then we ended the festivities as we usually do

with sushi.

xoxo

ps. two words

your team

<3

Monday Mayhem: This and That

There is no special subject I was thinking about today while perusing pinterest. Just looked around and found some good stuff. I've been cleaning house (and email) all day so this was a nice break.

a gorgeous place for a tattoo... maybe my "que será, será" one?

I die for shoes with different colored bottoms

 

I want to go to Palm Springs for a vacation.

So helpful!

Want to make something like this, you know, after all of my other projects are done. 

Another gorgeous tattoo. Helpful ideas for filling in what will be a sleeve someday.

Well, I'm taking a quick nap then heading out for the night. How was your Monday?

xoxo

My Eight Weeks: A Sometimes Sweet "8 Weeks to a better me" project

Last week I said I wasn't committing but all through the week I kept thinking about my goals and even set some other non home life goals that I jotted down elsewhere. While not everything got done on the list I did think about my goals constantly and therefore was more likely to work on them or plan a time where I could.

recap of last week:

1. Crochet 8 squares: I completed 4

2. Use all food in fridge: well, food is still there but I haven't thrown as much stuff out this week.

3. Wake up by 12pm on days off: yeahhh, maybe another time.

4. Take a picture a day: Definitely was able to do this one! More than one picture a day most of the time! A lot of them are on film so I'll have to wait to share.

I'm stoked about my determination this past week to take more pictures. I also blogged more which I didn't put down as a goal but definitely is on my mind lately. I have a lot of loose ends on projects and to-dos around here so that's where this week's list comes in.

This week's goals:

1. Finish and connect all squares for baby blanket

2. Finish film roll in Rolleiflex

3. Finish book V in Dark Tower series

4. Do all laundry... I want to see the bottom of the hamper (all of it)

5. cook 3 different meals

6. Put $10 toward credit card each day ($70 at the end of the week)

Phew! That's a lot of stuff and some of them are going to be a stretch but not really if I keep myself organized. :)

What are your goals this week?

Also, check out the button on my sidebar for the link back to the originator of this project!

xoxo

I just want to say...

Dear Mom,

I just want to say thank you for being an awesome mom. I know it couldn't have been easy... 

case in point

Thank you for holding me, and loving me

for teaching me how to swim,

for sharing your love of dolphins (and sea world),

 for sharing your birthdays when bars were somewhere I couldn't be brought,

for cheering me on,

and sticking by me even through junior high...

and high school...

and beyond.

I love you very much. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo