Spring Break

Based on the pictures one would guess that we went to a botanical garden during our Spring break, but these lovelies are in Disneyland.  As we waited to go on Peter Pan, I decided to capture the beauty.  
These close ups were taken as dad and son were waiting to go on the Merry-Go-Round.  I can handle Space Mountain, but the spinning rides make me hurl.  I can't even look at them go round and round without feeling nausea, so instead I focused on the scenery.
My little munchkin and I.  This trip was about taking pictures from  less known angles or landmarks.  It was fun finding such spots.
This is the picture that started this idea of mine.  The Mickey head in the entrance was much too busy, but I still wanted the gorgeous florals in the back ground, so we went off to the side.  Colorful, yet not obviously Disney.  The main attractions are beautiful, but 

the non-attractions are equally spectacular.  Oh, the teenagers left us old fogies and went on all the big rides (big, by Disney standards anyway). 

GIVE AWAY

I've been second thinking giving away a Spring Bead Set and am thinking of making a necklace out of one and giving that away instead.  I want to hear from you.  Would you prefer the give away be a bead set or a completed spring necklace?  I want to hear from you. 

Spring Bead Sets

Here are the different Spring Bead Sets that I came up with.

Birds, Egg and Bronze

I Heart Pink Butterflies

Bird in flight

I Heart Lavender Butterflies

One of these will be Given Away to a fortunate reader and the rest will go up on my shop.  I'm still working out the details of the Give Away, but keep a look out for details.

Making Beads

I'm going to the next level in my jewelry making.  So often, I have an idea but just

don't find the right beads to fulfill my mind's creation.  For months now, I've been practicing making my own beads out of different clays.  I have enjoyed the

differences in clay and what each one brings to my learning process.

My little one wants to be included in all the fun.  Who am I to say no

to art.  He is a similar artist as his dad....messy, messy, messy.  The more paint on

his fingers the better.  Me, I'm the cleanest, most organized artist ever...I think:)

I don't like getting paint on my fingers.  I wash my brushes immediately after I'm done with what ever color.  After days of using my cake decorating skills, scrap booking equipment and jewelry making techniques, I came up with this.

I think it welcomes Spring nicely.  

I had mentioned a Give Away, and I've decided that  a set of handmade beads would

be the ticket.  Stay tuned for the details.

New Baby

Last night before midnight, I heard that my new nephew was born after much turmoil.  I am happy to report both mama and baby are doing well, but my bro still hasn't text messaged us how much the baby weighed or long he is.  Doesn't he know that he must give that info. out right after, "It's a boy, and both mama and baby are fine."  Well, I'll cut him some slack since it was a 17+ hour day for them.  

Can't wait to see the baby and take pictures.  If I get their permission, I'll post pixs of the little munchkin.

Free is Good

Free is Good

I have some exciting news for you.  There is a very good Give Away going on that  you might want to check out.  Click on over to The Crafty Crow and sign up to enter.  The peg doll kit give away originally comes from a good friend's blog, Pretty Ditty.  Jamie, CEO of Pretty Ditty has huge creative talent, and an eye for pretty things.  Maybe that's why Pretty is in her business name.  

FYI

If anyone was wondering about my customer's reaction to his Yankee cake, well he never stopped smiling.  He used the word "Sick" and "Tight" over and over.  If I didn't have teenagers of my own, I wouldn't have know that he paid me two high compliments.

RANDOM 

I am very excited to be working on a project that incorporates my scrap booking, cake decorating and jewelry making skills all in one.  Can't wait for the Taa Daa moment and share with y'all.  Hey, when did I become southern?   

Happy Tuesday:)

 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Taaa Daaa!  I finished the custom order cake I mentioned a couple weeks ago when I was working on my daughter's water polo cake.   I am very relieved that I met my deadline and that it incorporates different aspects of baseball.  Hope the dirty base isn't too much.  One of my sister's roommates requested a birthday cake that reflects his love for the New York Yankees.
Hope he thinks I hit it out of the park.  A birthday cake is no time to strike out.

Well, have a happy weekend.  I plan on relaxing, to the best of a mom's ability, that is;)

The Water Polo Banquet was lots of fun, and so many parents participated in making the event special.  My girlie won Most Inspirational Player.  Victor and I were very proud of our little lady.    

After much frustration and some satisfaction, I was able to post the grand finale of the Water Polo Cake.  I'm happy to be able to show you the completed cake.  My daughter decided to give it to her coach as a Thank You gift for all his dedication during the season.  I thought it was a great idea and her coach was appreciative.  Ah, Closure is a beautiful thing.

Filling a Pastry Bag

I have spent several hours again attempting to bring you the short videos that demonstrate how to complete your water polo cake.  Unfortunately, I have not figured out the problem.  What this means is that I will have to refer you to the instructions that come in the cake pan itself.  The directions are good enough to follow, they just don't include the helpful tips I wanted to demonstrate to you.

The one tip that I will explain is how to fill your pastry bag with frosting.  Follow the directions that come with the mold on how to put your coupler and tip onto the bag first.  Now, get your black (frosting) tootsie and snip off one end of the excess plastic that you had wrapped and tucked down.  The cut side will go into the pastry bag first, leaving the twisted and tucked plastic end near the mouth of the bag.  Gather the mouth of the pastry bag closed with your hand.  Just push the frosting down towards the coupler and tip.  Repeat the process with your yellow (frosting) tootsie roll.  The black tootsie will be matched with your #3 tip and your yellow tootsie will be matched with your #16 tip.  When you run out of yellow simply open the bag and pull out the plastic wrap and toss.  Cut the end of your second yellow tootsie and insert the cut end into the bag and repeat the process. 

Please feel free to ask me any questions now or in the future about this last process.  I do feel bad that I wasn't able to post my videos on the blog for visual reference.  I'll make a quick blog just to show the final product.

Malfunction

Computer support, please report to Gloria.  Her video is not down loading.  

I had planned to show you how to decorate your ball cake into a water polo ball, but for some reason, my video is not loading onto this post.  I hope to figure it out and show you the short videos ASAP.  However, I will explain what the above picture shows.

The frosting tootsie rolls in the back were taken out in the morning along with the cake.  The silver cones are TIPS for decorating (you will need # 3 and #16).  The white thingies next to the tips are COUPLERS.  These will hold the tips on the pastry bags firmly.  The disposable pastry bags are the shinny plastic underneath the tips & couplers.  

The rest really is better explained on video, so I will try again, and if I continue to be unsuccessful, then I'll let you know.

This feels so incomplete, but I gotta go for now.  I'll be back.

Ball Cake, Day 3

Are you ready for your Frosting Arm Workout?  Mixing color paste into your frosting is equivalent to 10 minutes of arm strength training, so roll up your sleeves and feel the burn.  You will need:

3 cups of butter cream frosting (homemade or store bought, up to you)

12 drops of yellow food coloring gel (not that watery stuff at supermarket, go to Michael's or Joanne's, again I use my cake supply store)

15 drops of black food coloring gel

2 glass bowls, 2 silicone spatulas, 2 pieces of plastic wrap

Mix 1/2 cup of frosting with black color in glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Using the silicone spatula will allow you to scrap the bottom of the bowl and get any white frosting left behind. Mix it well. It will look a dark charcoal color, but like paint, it darkens when it dries.  The remaining frosting will be mixed with your yellow.  Cover the glass bowl with plastic wrap.  If any of you ever do try this, tell me your arms don't burn mixing and mixing.  Set these aside.  For this next part, your will need:

pencil and piece of wax paper

tooth pick and scissors

small frosting spatula (your local craft store has them in the baking section)

1 piece of plastic wrap

The mold set came with a volleyball template.  A volleyball and water polo ball have the same lines, so I'm using it.  I placed a piece of wax paper on top of my pattern and traced it with a pencil.  Cut out perimeter when done and set aside. 
Spread a thin coat of yellow butter cream over the entire ball.  Begin at the bottom and work your way up.  This doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, trust me.

Now, take your wax paper cut out and place it on the ball and with a toothpick outline the shape onto your cake.  You'll have to eyeball the inner lines.  You can do it, it's not hard.  Keep going around the ball until you have covered the ball with the pattern.
It is tough to see all the lines on the picture below, but they aren't suppose to be deep, just deep enough for you to see the pattern.  Yes, it is still in the ugly duckling stage.
Take the plastic wrap off the black bowl of frosting and place it flat on counter top 

with clean side down. Scrap all your black into the center of the plastic and make a 

frosting tootsie roll, like below. Do the same with your yellow. Each tootsie is no

more than 1 cup of frosting, so you will need another piece of plastic wrap for a second

yellow tootsie. Tuck the ends in like shown on the tootsie in front. Place in frig.
That's all I had time for yesterday. Today, I will complete the water polo ball.

If you are going to make a volleyball, then you only need to mix your black as the rest

is white.

Ball Cake

Last night, I worked on the water polo cake again:)  With out meaning, this is becoming a several day tutorial on how to make a ball cake.  This project does take several days, don't expect to do it in one.  

I cut off the top of the cake (on the left).  The flat part will serve as the bottom (you'll see).  Next, take about 1/4 cup of frosting and add hot water (1 tsp) and mix well.  Frosting is usually a peanut butter consistency, and you want to add hot water a little at a time until it is the consistency of jelly.  Now, you will put on a thin layer of your thinned out frosting over the cake surface.  This very thin layer of frosting is called a crumb coat.  Think of it as primer.  Most people understand the importance of priming walls before putting on paint color.  Well, priming your cake keeps all the crumbs down and allows the frosting to go on nice and smooth.  

Let it air dry over night (that means do not cover it with plastic wrap or anything else).  This is the ugly duckling stage of the process, but it will become beautiful.

I then prepared my cake board with a pool color foil and smeared a dollop of your regular frosting in the center (FYI: you won't need the thinned out frosting anymore).  The frosting will be the yummy glue that keeps your cake from slipping off your cake board and landing on the ground.  
Because I started this project a little late, I did not wait overnight to begin assembling the ball.  Remember the cake I cut earlier on the left?  I took it and inverted it so the part I cut off was centered on the dollop of frosting (see picture below).  That flat bottom will ensure the ball doesn't roll away.  

I don't have a picture for the next step, but hopefully it will make sense.  Spread frosting or fruit filling on the top of this half of the cake.  I strongly recommend you use frosting if it is your first time stacking a cake.  I'll create a separate tutorial on stacking a fruit filled cake some other time.  There is a must do trick to keep the filling from oozing out of the cake.
Now, simply place the other half on top to form the ball.  Then use frosting to fill in the gaps where the two hemispheres come in contact.  You want a seamless ball.  

A rotating cake stand is helpful in cake decorating.  If you have a lazy Suzanne, that will work also.  Instead of you going around your cake, the cake rotates for you.  
I let it dry over night, and today I will work on it some more.  I'll blog about it tomorrow.  Feel free to ask me any questions about this process.

Cake Anyone?

Baking, baking, baking.  I'm very excited to try out some new cake molds.  I decided to go with a marble cake.  

These are the molds below.  What are they?  Yes, they seem very simple & strange, but genius for a cake maker who has a family involved in sports.  You put them together and make a ball.  This will become a water polo ball to be specific. It will serve as a eatable decoration for my daughter's team banquet tomorrow.  If you look closely (or double clicked on the picture to enlarge it) you will see yellow stuff coating the pans.  This is quick release pan coating from my local cake supply store, but Wilton carries one also.  Now, I haven't used the Wilton brand so I can't give my opinion on it, but I know they have one.  Wilton products can be found at Michael's or Joanne Stores.  No more shortening and flour for me, this stuff just lets the cake slip out.  
Here's the water polo ball after having the billowy tops shaved off with a sharp bread slicer.  I will use filling on these faces then put them together to complete the sphere.  I will post the next steps as I do them.  I see soccer cakes in my future.
All of this is great practice since I received a custom cake order that will require me to use one half of this spherical pan.  I'll give ya more on that as it draws closer.  Gonna go make some frosting.

Goya Designs is open for business again.  I took it off vacation mode.  I plan to do a giveaway in several weeks, so stay posted and tell a friend.

Zone Cleaning & More

Back as promised to explain Zone cleaning.  Although being that no one commented on the last blog, cleaning and clutter might only be my problem.  Anyhow, the idea of dividing your home into zones is to help minimize your daily work and effectively tackle every room of your home by the end of the month.  Yup, every room by the end of the month.  Every week is a zone, and every zone focuses on cleaning certain parts of your home.  Technically, the first week of the month is Zone 1=entrance, porch & dinning room.  I use a dry erase calendar and given that Feb. was a short month, I just added March to the end of my calendar,soooo, I'm in Zone 5.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the calendar explain what I mean.  

Please forgive my crappy 2nd picture, but I think it still works for my purposes.

Since I just continue the next month below I'm on Zone 5.  For me Zone 5= laundry room and family room.  I don't stick to flylady's zones anymore, since I found a division of labor that works for me, but her concept is still there.  I label each Sunday according to its zone.  Z1 (zone 1 for the 1st week on my dry erase calendar), Z2 (zone 2 for the 2nd week on my dry erase calendar) and so on.  Again, not the best picture, but it gets the idea across.  The letters after the Z1 are reminders as to what I will be deep cleaning that week (no more than 1 hr. a day).  For me E=entrance, D=dinning room, & o=office (which is not an office at all, but a desk in the living room).
If you want to try flylady's methods, stick to her plan for several months until you got it down.  Then, you can customize it to fit your life style.   If I get any feed back on this cleaning stuff, then I'll blog about it some more.  Alrighty then, enough of that.

My son got his braces removed today.  I haven't seen him smile in a picture since... ...well...since...Uh...maybe 3rd grade.  He had the bulldog look prior to Dr. Carter's fabulous work.  We were told that his jaw protruded so much that he would need surgery to reconstruct his jaw, but Dr. Carter said "No, I'm good.  I will fix it."  He sure did deliver.   

Party Over! Zone5 Begins

The jewelry party was FUN!  It was a great time of sharing my gemstone knowledge and jewelry care tips with the attendees.  They really liked the information on silver care, no worries about missing out.  My readers already know it from my jewelry care 100s series.  Several jewelry pieces found new homes and ladies to show them off.  But, alas others came back here until someone else adopts them.  I'll post them back on my etsy shop in a couple of days.  I have some house cleaning to catch up on before returning to GoyaDesigns.  My home was neglected as I prepared for the party.

Speaking of cleaning.  Have any of you ladies or men heard of flylady?  She has revolutionized how I think & feel about cleaning and how I plan my routine.  If any of you feel overwhelmed with the amount of clutter, dust, dishes, beds, closets, etc. etc. that scream for your attention, please do yourself a favor and check out flaylady.  "Baby Steps" will result into "Gigormous" results and peace of mind.  Well, I'm off to bless my home in Zone 5.  Do you want to know what Zone 5 is?  I'll be back to tell ya more or just check out flylady's website.