Roses and sugar

For our next Guide meeting we are having a “Bring a Friend” night.  Being as we typically do snacks for these nights I offered up some cupcakes as I’ve been wanting to get decorating again.  As a result I spent the better part of today, Sunday, in the kitchen playing with sugar and flour.  Yes real flour.  I figured that since I’m the only gluten-free individual in the troop, and regardless one of the other leaders wouldn’t be able to eat them (she’s dairy and sugar free) I might as well just make regular cupcakes and not have to worry about eating too many of them myself!  

I pulled out my trusty “Betty Crocker” Cookbook and located my favorite cake recipe from when I was younger.  Ah, the ease of the “Busy Day Cake.”  I have many a good memory of Joy and I whipping that cake up when we wanted to bake something.  Three batches of cake later, I had 36 golden yellow cupcakes cooling on my bakers racks.  Therefore it was now time to whip up some buttercream and fondant.  The problem here was actually rather simple.  Somehow, in all my years I’d never actually made either.  For the buttercream I figured I would go with a Wilton recipe (as found here), after all, how could Wilton possible steer me wrong?  Other than requiring more milk than the recipe called for, I was very happy with it.  As a side note, if I ever get my Kitchen Aid Mixer I can’t wait to try making Italian Meringue Buttercream.  It sounds so fancy.

When the buttercream had been whipped up, it was time to tackle the one thing I’d wanted to try to make for years, but had been worried it would be too hard and finicky – Fondant.  Wow, was I ever wrong.  The recipe I used (as found here on Cake Journal) was super easy, even more so than the buttercream!  Within 15 minutes I had a beautiful mound of pure white fondant.  Now to try and put the ideas in my head onto the cupcakes.  

First I thought I’d make a whole bunch of fondant flowers, let them dry and place them on the cupcakes just before taking them to Tuesdays meeting.  Then I thought about making this cute flower and bird thing I found in with my flower cutter press thing.  I was also thinking it would be fun to cover the cupcakes in fondant and then put the flowers on them.  This third idea is the one I decided to go with, however, by the time I had fondant on the first third of the cupcakes, I realized I didn’t have enough to do ALL of them this way.  After a quick re-think, I decided to cover half of them and put buttercream rosebuds on top, and cover the other half in buttercream and make little fondant roses to place in the centres.  You know what, I’m actually really happy with how that idea turned out.  Maybe it’s not a cute or professional looking as the other ideas, but the girls now have choices, and I didn’t spend extra time making cupcakes they are just going to demolish any way.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all that, I think I want to make Guide Themed cookies when we invite the second year Brownies to our meeting.  I bet they’d all get a kick out of that

Hello?

I know, I know…everyone is still waiting for pictures of the new car.  Really at this point I think you’re just waiting for an update of ANYTHING!  What can I say?  Once again life just got away from me.

The other weekend I went winter camping with the Girl Guides.  Let me tell you, that was a tiring, cold weekend, yet it was awesome.  The girls had a blast, and our 8 got along swimmingly with the 19 that the other troop brought.  M was very well behaved, though by the end of the weekend she was so tired that I felt a little like I’d developed a sudden growth.  Actually, I felt like I had two, as one of our other girls became super sookie and chose me to cling to!  The theme of the camp was pioneering, so the girls got to do a whole bunch of olden day related activities, and everyone came home with a bag of goodies.  Of course we did our best to tire them out by spending a good chunk of time running around outside.  The girls had a great time doing that, I on the other hand, nearly froze my toes off!  To add to that indignity, I had on three pairs of socks – one regular, one fuzzy warm pair and one pair of hand knit wool socks from Jana.  My toes should have stayed nice and toasty.  Even though the next camp isn’t until June, I’m already looking forward to another fun-filled weekend with the girls.  Maybe we’ll get more of our troop out this time.

Honestly, I think most of the reason life has managed to get away from me is because of Guides.  The week right before camp I organized a Chinese New Year celebration for the girls.  We did several crafts, ate some chinese treats, learnt a little about the history of Chinese New Year and discovered our Chinese animal and the really neat story that was behind that bit of history.  The girls had a blast, but I spent the better part of a week and a bit preparing and coming up with ideas for it.  Heck, I even recruited C to make a Chinese zodiac for the event since I could find a large enough that I could print off.  Thank goodness for having roomates that are also designers!  Saved my butt, that’s for sure.

Then just last week I did the computer badge with the girls.  This one wouldn’t have been so bad, but camp was the weekend between the two events was camp.  Camp of course took up all of my planning time that I would have used for the weekend, and therefore I had to put the whole thing together the Monday night before Guides.  All I have to say, is thank goodness the girls didn’t realise how much better it could have been!  That and they did have fun on the most part.  I must admit, I thought it was really cool that the other leaders were completely impressed that I made a power point presentation for it.  Heck, it was only the second or third one I’d ever done, so I was pretty impressed too!

Well, thankfully things are a little calmer again.  I don’t have to “plan” a meeting for a couple of months, though I am in charge of making sure the booking for bowling in two weeks is orgnaized, and I volunteered to bring cupcakes next week for bring a friend night.  This means I need to bake and decorate 40 cupcakes for next Tuesday.  Guess I know how I’m spending this weekend!

Oh right, back to that car you’re still waiting on photos of.  The thing is, I’m waiting for a nice sunny day, that isn’t intolerably cold so I can get the salt off of it and I won’t freeze to death taking photos!  Hopefully that day is soon.

New Car, Part I

Anyone who knows me personally is already aware that my Civic was totalled back in November and I acquired a new Impreza as a result.  I thought I would break the story into two parts, starting with the loss of the Civic.

On November 12th as I was heading to my part-time, seasonal job, I was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on what is known as the Magazine Hill.  I was second to last of nine cars that were involved.  Thankfully, I came out of the accident little more than shaken-up.  The only thing that I had to contend with was a smashed up car, and some mild muscle strain.  When I found out that I was never getting my Civic back I stopped by the collision centre where I’d taken it because I wanted to pick up everything that was still in it, and to take some photos.

Here is what the Civic looked like the last time I saw it…

Goldie

On New Years Day M’s dad and stepmom (J and S) brought her new-to-her fish tank over.  Her brother had decided to sell his, and of course J had insisted that he give the tank to her.  This had put a wrinkle in C’s and my Christmas plans for M as we had planned to bring home my co-workers old tank and set it up as a big present for her.  The plus, this one involved even less cost as it came with everything, fish included!

Fish tank number 2

The included fish is a HUGE goldfish, whom M decided to name Goldie.  Not overly inventive, but a much better choice than one of our previous fish, Big Guy.  Goldie is around 5-6 inches tip to tail and all that her 10 gallon tank can handle.  Of course M is thrilled to have her OWN pet, and I’m thrilled that Goldie appears to be very low maintenance, being the resident fish “expert” and all that jazz.  I suspect that Goldie’s care used to fall to S, and other than feeding when M is here, that his care will now fall to me.

Please welcome Goldie to the family…

Goldie (sorry for the poor  quality of the photo, but fish are really hard to take good photos of.)

M is not the only one in this house who is enamoured with Goldie, Barkis has decided that since Oliver has pets (my tank and Barkis were both brought home for Oliver!) he too can have  pet, and has adopted Goldie as his own.  Barkis can spend upwards of an hour staring at Goldie and trying to catch him through the glass.  He is very determined to succeed and it is very amusing to watch.  I intend to take a video of this at some point and share it with you all.  Though until that time, here are a couple of photos of Barkis and Goldie.

Barkis staring very intently at Goldie

Draped over the couch while trying to catch Goldie

Interestingly enough, this love seems to be double-sided, as we’ve watched what appears to be Goldie attempting to get Barkis’ attention.  As soon as Barkis leaves, Goldie will come rushing to the front of the tank and either hit it, or very noisily start picking up and dropping pieces of his gravel.  So, not only do I have weird cats, we also have a rather odd fish.

Could it be, a late Christmas Present?

Yes, it really could be!  Finally I have some photos from the holidays.  It took a while as I had to transfer photos off of my computer for printing and to disc, so that I could delete OVER 5000 from my hard drive.  It would appear I was suffering from a severe space shortage.  I have finally completed that long and painful process, and thanks to Dad and Mom’s surprise present on my VISA I can not only print 300 of the photos and buy photo albums to store them in, but I can also print the photobooks I have created for my last two big trips – Costa Rica and Australia!  I can’t wait to have those, I put hours into creating them, and only now am I getting them.  Oh just to help hold me over until they are printed here is a one of my favorite photos from the land down under.

Darling Harbour at night

Alright, I suppose I should be getting back to the point of this whole post.  Now, just as a heads up, not all the holiday photos are great.  Don’t forget, I’ve only been playing with my DSLR since the end of November, and I didn’t start playing with my new point and shoot (P&S) until December 25th when we opened the presents (granted, I also didn’t bother to wrap it in pretty paper, the box was beautiful enough as it was!).  I did my best though, and hopefully I’ll be able to get far better shots with both camera’s next year.  Okay, here is goes!

 

The monster Christmas Tree we came home with.  You might have noticed that the top of tree didn’t come to a point, and this is because it was too tall for the apartment otherwise!  Additionally, we had almost half, yes I did just say half, of the tree hidden behind the wall unit.  This tree was HUGE!  Seventeen candles on the exposed side huge.

My favorite of my ornaments.  Not only is this mouse super cute, she is also made from nuts.  Her body is a walnut and I believe her head is made from a hazel nut!

The tree on Christmas Eve, all light up.

A fuzzy close up of one of the candles with the tin tinsel reflecting the light.

M in her new PJ’s in front of the tree Christmas morning.  She’s not smiling because she was to focused on blowing bubbles with her gum!

Barkis LOVED the tree this year.  He didn’t try to climb it, he did however, spend hours underneath the tree and dunking his toys in the water.

My second favorite ornament.  I picked this pewter snowflake up on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton several years ago.  I also love the way this photo turned out.

 

Holidays!

I know I’m a little late here, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Mine was really nice, other than the 5:30 wake up by one overly excited nine-year old.  I wish I’d caught a picture of M’s face when she came running up to tell me that Santa had brought me my stocking from my parents house.  I think that just about made her morning, that and the insane amount of stuff under the tree for her.  Once all the presents had been passed around, and everything opened, the three of us settled in for a nice relaxing day.  We all made bead creations (those ones you put on a form and then melt with an iron), C and M made a gingerbread house, with a little help from me, I read my book, M did questions in her math book from Santa, C took several naps, and we all watched “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” while I also prepared supper.

I hope everyone else had as great of a day as we did.  I now need the next several days to recover from the excitement of it all.  I’m hoping to get photos of the tree up at some point.  I didn’t get any of unwrapping the presents because my brain was not functioning enough at that hour to remember to take pictures.  Maybe next time (if we have Maddie again then).

Finally, more video’s

After a very busy and crazy last month, I am finally tacking on the two missing video’s I promised before my Ontario Trip.  I will also post the few pictures that Bit sent me of baby R and I.  Hopefully that won’t take but a day or two.

First up is this quick little video of M and Oliver playing out front of our building with a whole bunch of leaves.  I love that Oliver seems to think he is actually hunting, and he’s really not very good at it!

Secondly, a little video of M playing in the leaves and doing cartwheels.  

Oops!

It’s been almost a month since the last time I posed something.  I swear that was NOT my intention.  I guess once again time is getting away from me.  Is it true that the older you get the faster it goes?  Because wow, I must be getting old!  Actually, I know I am, the music I was listening to in Middle School, is now playing on the “Classic Rock” station.  This makes me sad, very sad.

Anyway, at this time I can’t think of anything fun and or eventful to fill you in on, and my Ontario trip to meet baby R is just a few days away.  There will posting after that I’m sure!  As a result, I thought I would add a few video’s that I finally transferred off of my camera, and let you enjoy those. 

Let’s start with a cute little video of Oliver and Barkis having an impromptu tussle, they had been snuggling, but seem to have become embarrassed by this when they realized all three of us (Charlene, M and myself) we standing over them going “awwwww.”

**EDIT: since WordPress is not co-operating right now, there will only be one video, and the other two will follow in later posts.  Sorry.**

Vermont

Apparently time needs to stop getting away from me.  I thought this problem wasn’t supposed to show up until I was getting old, oh well, guess it just means I’m nice and busy.  However, it also means that it took me almost a month to get something posted about my trip to the cottage.  And what a nice trip it was.  

Turns out the cottage is even more beautiful than I realized in the Fall month.  The leaves were beginning to change, and the island has a totally different feeling to it.  It’s even more laid back and relaxed, which I didn’t know what possible.  Of course the days are shorter, the night’s colder, and the air far crisper, but you know, all of that made the place seem magical to me again.  As much as I love the cottage and North Hero, it normally doesn’t hold the same kind of magic and wonder it held for me as a child.  Going in the Fall brought it back.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d still rather be there in the Summer when I can spend every day outside warm, and in the lake, but I quite like going in the fall too.  That and hiking is much better in slightly cool temperatures than in the scorching heat of summer.

Auntie Carol, Uncle Norm and I decided to tackle a hike or two and as a result got to see some beautiful views.  The hike we took ended up being far more challenging than we expected and Aunt Carol was not able to finish it.  However Uncle Norm and I were both very stubborn and did conclude it.  When we made it to the top, we were hiking to a pinnacle, we were able to look out and see nothing but beautiful rolling mountains, a small lake, and quaint villages.  The entire hike took us about three hours, and two of those were went going up-hill.  Honestly, I found coming back down to be more challenging simply because my bad knee didn’t like it one little bit.  Oh, that was kind of painful.  On the plus, it was a lot of fun, and a great way to spend some time with Uncle Norm.

One thing that I was very happy to get to do was spend some time with Lindsay, as last year she was just so busy with work that we not really able to.  Not only did we spend a good portion of a day at the cottage chatting, walking around the point and taking photos, I also went into town to spend and evening with her.  I was able to have a nice tour of her condo, and check out some of her favorite haunts around town.  Of course she had to head back to work the next morning, but I took it as an opportunity to get up early and head into Winooski and Burlington to take some photos.  I spent a wonderful few hours limping (a couple of days after hiking) around town burning through memory cards.  Not every shot turned out, but enough to make me happy and satisfied with the morning.

I was also lucky enough to spend time with Bob and Micheline, and with Craig and Debbie.  On the first Saturday evening Bob and Micheline had the three of us over for pre-dinner drinks and snacks.  It was so nice to visit with them and to catch up.  Micheline and I got into a discussion of food, and she provided me with a couple of her favorite recipes, which I’m looking forward to attempting one day when I feel like my French is up to snuff – both are en Francais.  I really enjoyed the fact that I am now no longer one of the children, but instead am now one of the adults with the rest of them.  Sadly they were only in town for the night to try and close up, so I wasn’t able to spend much more time with them.  

Craig and Debbie I was able to spend more time with, even though for part of my week they were away in Maine.  We had wo separate nights all together in which we all chatted, laughed and enjoyed lots of great food.  On the Sunday night we headed over to Craig and Debbie’s for a great feast of kebabs and fresh corn on the cob.  At that time Craig and Debbie also gave me a key to their place so that I could come in and take care of Al and Dylan for them while they were in Maine.  For three days I went in twice a day to feed the boys and spend some time giving them love and attention.  I’m very glad that I was able to spend that time with them, as they day after I made it back to Halifax, age caught up to Al and he passed away.  On my second to last night we had Craig and Debbie over for supper.  It was another great evening, and Debbie brought a little card and present from the cats for my love and care while Mom and Dad went away to play.  

All in all, it was a fantastic week, with lots of time spent with family and friends.  I must admit, I was very happy to come home and be able to snuggle right in with my two boys, both of whom were very happy to see me again.

Second U-pick trip

On Monday, Labour Day, M, C and I headed down the Valley and our favorite U-pick for another fun-filled afternoon of picking fresh goodies.  As you might remember that we went for a visit just a couple of months ago and came away with quite the large haul of treats.

Being as we were heading out on a holiday the farm was far more crowded than any other time I have made a trip out there.  However we didn’t realize just how much busier it would be!  As we pulled up we made the startling discovery that parking was three rows deep onto the grass!  Normally there is only one row of cars on the gravel drive.  Considering that we had just finished a 1.5 hours drive to get there, we decided not to be daunted by all the people, piled out of the car and headed up to the main house.

C had heard something on the radio about a scavenger hunt at Dempsey Corner, and the lady working there was glad to fill us in and tell us what was available to pick.  Turns out there were five scarecrows hidden throughout the farm and for everyone that the kids found – and remembered to take the corresponding ticket – the adults got 5% off of their order.  M was determined to find all the scarecrows for two very good reasons.  One: it was a fun challenge that she just couldn’t pass up, and two: she wanted to save as much money as possible.  Luckily for us, she found all of them, and we saved 25% off of everything we picked.

By the time we left, M was all exercised out, we’d saved money, and we’d picked apples, grapes, plums, beets and corn.  The grapes totally reminded me of the grapes in Mom and Dad’s backyard, just a little bit sweeter (which really isn’t saying much), and the skin was a little less thick and tough.  All in all, I feel that it was another successful trip into the Valley for some fun, food and fresh air.