Wired Sea Glass

I've been practicing with different methods of wrapping the sea glass with wire. I am starting to get the hang of it. This is what I have so far.

I need some more sea glass. More wire would be nice too. OOOO! Maybe different colors! The possibilities are endless. This is fun. :D

Well... Until next time,

Laina

SCULPEY!

Ha! Sculpey. That would be the name of the brand of polymer clay that I bought today. I made this really sweet turtle. 

I got the idea from here. She has some really superb tutorials and ideas. She made her turtle with gum paste, but I didn't have any gum paste or any cakes to put it on, so I made mine with polymer clay. I also put one of those little loops on it so I can use it as a pendant. It's not perfect, but i really like it.

I wanted to get a little better at sculpting things so I could make better cakes, but I didn't want to have to make new cakes just to try out my sculpting skills. Plus I haven't yet mastered the art of making gum paste, fondant, or modeling chocolate, but I'm practicing. Hobby Lobby and Michael's both have cake decorating classes that I've been looking into. Wish me luck with that.

On another note, I also made some sea glass pendants. For a while I've had some sea glass that I haven't done anything with. I had thought about making pendants, but I had no clue what I was doing so I didn't even try. However, I was super bored today so I decided... What the heck... Why not. :D This is what I made.

They aren't the best, but they were a first try. They definitely won't be the last. 

Thanks for reading!

Laina

I forgot to post pictures of my birthday! :O

So my birthday was May 12 and I just realized that I forgot to post pictures. At least one of the cake that I made because it was awesome. So I shall do that now.

Rissa and Andy! My awesome sistah and her awesome husband. I love these guys!

This was the cake I made. It was six layers of funtastical yumness!

Cherith and Andy

Anne Marie

Jennifer and the lovely little Mia! BTW... That baby is my favorite baby ever! She's my lovely little niece! :D

Jennifer and Katie

Anne Marie!

These are the earrings that my daddy bought for me. It was funny... He said I saw them and thought they were cute. I've never heard him say anything like that. It was hilarious.

This is the makeup palette that I got. Thank you Katie! You know me so well! I freaking love this! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

And that concludes my Birthday pictures. I should have more but I kind of got a little sidetracked by the baby. But who wouldn't? It was an awesome birthday. The only thing I would have changed is having my mom and my older sister and my brother there, but they couldn't be there. However, when I see them next I will for sure make another cake and make them eat it. Plus I love making cakes. :D

That's all for now.

Laina

Hello, Kitty!

Last week I made a cake for a girl next door and she wanted a Hello Kitty cake. I happen to think that Hello Kitty is creepy, but I gave her one anyway. It was my first cake on which I used fondant and it didn't look half bad. I was super excited about it. Here are some pictures!

So that's my rendition of the ever creepy Hello Kitty. I hope the birthday girl liked it and had an awesome birthday. 

Bye for now! 

Laina

My Day!

Hey Peeps!

My birthday is coming up. It's on the 12th. I'm pretty excited. It will be my 19th birthday. I know that's not really a special number, but I'm excited because I get to make lots of yummy food. I'm going to make some cake, and some finger sandwiches, and some bean dip, among other things. I am going to get some pictures of all the food I make and I will post them along with the recipes for those that want them. It's been a while since I've had an actual birthday party. That's another reason I'm kind of excited. So that's my update for now. I will try to post something actually interesting as soon as possible.

See Ya!
Laina

Yum Yum FOOD!

Hey guys!

I wanted to share the most amazing chocolate cupcake recipe I have ever had, and the best buttercream frosting that goes amazingly with it. I can't remember where I got the chocolate cake recipe so I'm sorry. I got the frosting recipe from here. This is a pretty stinking awesome blog too. Check her out. Here are Le Recipes!

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 1/2c Flour
• 1c Granulated Sugar
• 1tsp Baking Soda
• 1tsp Salt
• 2/3c Cocoa Powder
• 1/2c Oil
• 1c Water
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1Tbsp Vinegar

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together until moist and well blended.
2. Put in cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
3. Frost with your favorite icing. (The following icing does wonders. Or maybe a nice peanut butter frosting. YUM!)
4. To make a layer cake, double the recipes and put in 2 round cake pans.
5. Increase baking time to about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 3 Egg Whites
• 2/3c Sugar
• 10Tbsp Butter, cubed and at room temp.
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• 4oz. Cream Cheese, cubed and at room temp.

Directions:

In the base of a double boiler, bring water to a simmer. In the top bowl (or just a bowl to place over a pan of simmering water) combine the egg whites and sugar and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch (160F on a candy thermometer if you want to be completely accurate), about five minutes depending on the original temperature of the eggs. When the mixture has warmed sufficiently, pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer and whip on high speed until the bottom of the bowl is room temperature, ten to fifteen minutes. When the bowl is no longer warm, turn the mixer to medium-low and begin adding the butter piece by piece. Let each chunk incorporate completely before adding the next and don't rush the process!

After all of the butter has been added, add the vanilla and turn the speed back to high. Whip for about 3 minutes or until the buttercream comes together. Turn the speed down to low and add the cream cheese, then mix on medium to fully incorporate.

AND VOILA!

You now have two of my favorite recipes. Enjoy them and remember... WITH GREAT RECIPES COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY! That would be the responsibility to make delicious goodies for everyone you love. Heck! Make them for people you don't love and rub in their faces what a great baker you are. HeeHee! Oh! Sorry I don't have pictures for you. I forgot to take pictures when I made them. So make your own and you will have a good idea of what they look like. 

Until next time,

Laina! :D

Cakes and Pictures!!! :D

Hey Peeps!

Sorry for the no posts. I don't get Internet very often so I can't post everyday. However I can post today and so I will! Haleluyer! So anyway... I got to make a birthday cake for a kid next door. He wanted an F.C. Barcelona cake so this is what I gave him.

I also wanted to post a few more of my pictures that I took recently. I love taking pictures. So here they are...

So that's it for the post. I also want to post a few of the recipes I love. I made chocolate cupcakes and they were HEAVEN! I also like this really really delicious frosting that I found. I will post it in my next post because this one is kind of long with pictures. SO.... Till next time! 

Laina O.O

I'm Back!

Okay, so I know I have been away for a while, but I plan to have a few posts up pretty soon. My bad! I haven't been taking very many pictures because I don't have my good camera anymore. However I have been making a bunch of cakes. I made a shoe cake for a friend's birthday. Then the people next door liked it so they paid me to make an F.C. Barcelona cake for one of the kids. It came out really good. (If I do say so myself.) I also made some really yummy chocolate cupcakes because I had some leftover frosting. OHMYGOSH... Let me just tell you that the recipe I used was BY FAR my absolute favorite. It went so well with the frosting which was a Swiss Meringue Cream Cheese Buttercream. It was so delicious. I will put a post with the recipes and as soon as I can connect my laptop to the internet I will put pictures. So that's what I've been up to. That and trying to find a job. I dropped my college classes. They were utterly boring and I really wasn't interested in suffering through them. Call me crazy, but I don't like the idea of spending so much time learning pointless things. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think you need to know calculus to have a future. I don't think any of my career goals include anything higher than algebra 2. And that's that. Thanks for reading. Hopefully I will have access to wifi soon. Check back.

Alaina

Finally Spring Break Photos

I had a lot of fun on spring break with my family. I got some good pictures too. The beach was so foggy and you could barely see very far away. It was awesome. I wish it had been a little warmer for swimming, but I swam anyway. (with my phone) :) oops. Anyway... Here are some pictures.

One of my mom's dogs. :)

My super awesome cousin.

My awesome Mommy.

Dottie sticking her head out of the window. I called her name and she looked back right as I snapped the picture. :)

This is KK and Boo. They went to the beach with us. They are super cute and pretty fun.

Both of my mom's dogs.

The beach. It was so foggy and when you watch people walk away, you see them disappear into the fog. :)

That's the end. Thanks for checking out my pictures. See you later. 

Baby Bumps!

A few weeks ago I got to do one of my best friend's maternity pictures. We went to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and we had some fun. I think they turned out pretty cool. I'm going to put a few of them on here so everyone can check them out. Enjoy!

There are more but these were my favorites. Thanks for reading. :)

Alaina