Randomly...

Oh my. It's been a while and I've been busy, busy, busy. 

The Robin's Nest sock is coming along. I had a short burst of SSS (Second-Sock-Syndrome) where I actually didn't pick up needles for almost 2 weeks. It was staring at me, guilting me into picking it back up so it could be worn. I know it was. Socks do that. 

I did buy yarn for the Lettuce Lace scarf; I know - I don't need another scarf. And it's not for me. It's for my yoga teacher. I have to take a picture of it and get it on the Ravelry list. 

Hubby is off helping out his mom. Of course, that leads to all kinds of fun. So here's what happened. Tippi had a lump on her back right foot. We had it biopsied because she was worrying it. The biopsy showed "abnormal cells" and the initial pathology report said either "basal cell or melanoma" with a strong lean toward melanoma. Yikes!!

So she was scheduled for surgery. The day before he left. Of course. The DAY he left, Quinn decides that the 2 cysts on her back must burst. Now, you all know I'm a total wimp. I don't do blood, bodily fluids or the like. I'm a community barfer. You barf, I'm right there next to you. Not necessarily for support, but because I'll be barfing right next to you. 

Hubby cleaned Quinn up and suggested a visit to the vet. 

Then we had rain, hail, frogs and locusts. In about 10 minutes. The power was out from 6 p.m. Sunday night till 3 a.m. Monday morning. I had a migraine. Our neighbor across the street got his power back on in about 10 minutes after the microburst, derecho, or whatever they're calling it. 

I'm calling it a "Big Honkin' Storm." Luckily, I was a worry-wart and I'd removed all the birdfeeders, gazing balls, etc. and stowed them along with the patio furniture. "Patio furniture" being those molded plastic chairs we spray-painted along with 2 side tables. Not necessarily "good" furniture, but then we're not really "patio" people. It's just a place where I put my herb pots!

Oh, and the Super Moon.... (See how random this is? My mind is all over the place...) Oh, and I have a temporary crown that did NOT make me happy.

OK. Focus.

Crown: My former dentist (who shall remain nameless, but at whom I am EXTREMELY mad) somehow missed a fractured tooth. Actually, TWO fractured teeth. Molars. So my new dentist told me that at "some point" I would need crowns on both of them. Conveniently, one's on the left and one's on the right. So I did the left side first. That was the week before Hubby left. It hurt. Yes, I was numbed up, but it still hurt. The temporary is in and next month I get the permanent one. I'm going to try to put off the right side till September or so. Just to give myself a breather. 

Super Moon: The Super Moon coincided with what would have been my Granny's 100th birthday! We were able to see it Saturday, but by Sunday, the clouds came in. Granny taught me to knit and crochet, so in her honor, I spent a lot of the day Saturday knitting on the sock.  In between...

Shower cake

Cakes: Baked a shower cake on Friday for delivery Saturday. Baked a retirement cake Saturday for Sunday delivery. Seriously LOVE my Windows phone. Seriously HATE the camera, but again: we knew it had a crappy camera. So sorry about the quality of the pics, but you get the general idea. Here they are. The shower cake was for 30 people. Buttercream frosting, yellow cake, chocolate buttercream filling. Cornelli lace, which (amazingly) happened to match the napkins. Wilton didn't make a lime green tint, so this is Leaf Green with a touch of Lemon Yellow. 

And Hobby Lobby (auuuuuuuuughhh!!!) is getting away from Wilton product for some off-brand. Thanks, guys... Anyway, I felt sorry for the gal hosting the shower. She had planned a back yard shower, but the skies were already spitting and it didn't look good. So she was able to put it in her basement.

Which of course begs the question of my own basement, also known as The Pit of Despair. Crikey, we'd have a hard time sheltering from a tornado...but I digress and I need to focus. Anyway, she ended up hosting it there, and she said that the bride loved the cake. I was happy. 

Retirement cake

The retirement cake was for my fellow alto Sandy, as she retires from the education field. She had a big bash, and this was for 80 people. Chocolate fudge cake with raspberry filling. Now, you have to notice the crown. She told me she wanted pink as a color and that her theme was "Retire like a Queen." That was all the direction she gave me, aside from cake flavor and filling. 

The pans I managed to find at Hobby Lobby. They were the LAST Wilton pans; the new stuff is all the off-brand... (yes, I'm still stewing about that). The pan is called "Paisley" and they showed it with fondant, of course. I don't do fondant. 

I had to send The Kid out for an emergency purchase of disposable frosting bags. My plastic ones are really worn and I need to get restocked. 

I put edible glitter on the cake and headed to the Party Store for a crown. We had the party Sunday, and I couldn't stay long. Aside from that being the day of the Big Honkin' Storm, Tippi was still on pain meds, and I needed to keep an eye on her. Of course, while at the Party Store, I picked up a couple more headbands for Tippi - she has to look good for her therapy gigs!

Sandy's Party

So I get there to set it up, Sandy takes one look at it and squeals. She hollers at her hubby to "show [me] the decorations!!" and her hubby drags me into the dining room to see Sandy's decorations... Now remember, we didn't consult on this... And again, pardon the crappy picture... Yes. Crowns. Lots of them. People didn't believe we hadn't coordinated that. But Scout's Honor - nope. 

We were all sitting on her deck having a lovely conversation as the clouds rolled in. Those of us with smart phones were checking radar and one lady said, "Oh, look, blue sky; it'll blow over without a problem."

Well, then thunder...then PELTING rain!! Ended up with about 50 of us in her house. I drove home and noted areas that had flooded because the rain came down so fast and in such quantity. 

Storm(s): So Hubby's not home. The lights go out just as The Kid is making dinner - he was very proud of making dinner and very annoyed that we lost power for so long. Luckily, I have a candle addiction. We were trying to find a flashlight. Well, there was one. But no batteries. And mysteriously, the mag light happened to disappear. But we were relatively good sports about it. Power came on at 3 a.m. and I was fidgety all night. 

So how do you prevent future storms? You go the next day to Menard's and buy 2 lanterns and 2 flashlights, plus a whack of batteries. There were no storms Tuesday. See? 

Tippi: The doc removed the large lump. She's shaved up her leg, and was on a pain patch for the week. They did a pathology report and came back with NO CANCER!!! Yay!!! The vet did say that it was a good thing we removed it because it was "abnormal cells" and it could've gone either way. He said it could have been an old injury which got irritated, much like a pearl is created from a bit of grit in an oyster. She's gimping around a bit, but is getting back to herself, having pooped and now eating like a longshoreman. 

Other Knitting Blogs: I'm going to have to take a cue from other bloggers and link to blogs that I read. I have a list of new ones to check out. As soon as I figure out how to link them on this new version of Blogspot, I'll get them up there. I see The Panopticon, and Franklin is knitting a pair of bathing shorts. Man, if I hadn't used up all my vacation, I'd go on that cruise just to meet him and see the results. He sounds like a hoot, and his work is phenomenal. I do have his listed, and the Yarn Harlot. Just have to update it a bit.

Sadly, Mary Lynn Quilts and Knits is no longer. Our dear Knitwit friend Mary Lynn died from lymphoma in May. I wonder if she knew more than she'd say...she was, up till 2 weeks before she died, knitting furiously. 

OK, I think that's all. Whew. Yes, I have to get back to this. We haven't even touched on SCOTUS and all that stuff. But then, I deliberately went into a "news hole" on TV. I'm reading the Trib and skimming HuffPo, but I really, really don't want to dive into the cesspool. 

I'll get back to it. Just not now. 

New Laptop & New Cake...

No, they're not necessarily connected, but I figured it was easier to do one post. I'm doing my (ta-da) very first post on my lew Lenovo ThinkPad T520.

This replaces my eight year old (yes, EIGHT), and still functioning IBM ThinkPad. Hubby got a great deal, so we got Kid #2 a laptop for his graduation and a second one for me. Hubby is repurposing my IBM ThinkPad for his work, and that's cool. The machine runs well, even after surviving the "Elkhound Puppy Drop Test" and my replacing a keyboard.

The cake? Well, I did a wedding cake this past weekend. It was a small one, for about 120 people, for a garden wedding. This is the sister to someone whose cake I did 5 years ago.

Here's a picture of the cake:

Flower basket wedding cake.

And here's what it is. It's actually 5 layers of cake to serve, with the top layer reserved for the wedding party. The bride wanted different flavors (like her sister had), but she wanted the top to be chocolate.

The entire cake was filled with my home-made chocolate buttercream - guaranteed to melt you at the knees.

The layer in the middle is yellow cake; the bottom layer is fudge marble, and the 3 small satellite cakes are devil's food. That way, everyone gets what they want, within reason. All cakes have the chocolate filling. If you click on the picture, you can see the "basketweave" pattern on several of the cakes. I also added their names to the bottom cake, and their date at the top.

Silk pansies, ivy and baby's breath topped the cake. I used a "floating" cake stand that I had used for an earlier wedding, but as you can see, I put the ivy around the arms of the stand.  The cake took me a total of 8 hours to decorate, including the hour we spent on-site putting on the borders.

Satellite cakes

Here's a close-up of the smaller cakes; you can see the basketweave more clearly here. Hubby had the idea to have the ivy vines touching, kind of "encircling" the satellites. The top of each cake has a rope border, to match the idea of a "basket" in buttercream.

The bride was absolutely thrilled with the cake. In actuality, the cake served 128 people, and by the end of the evening (at least when we left), I had 25 pieces left. We figured those would be "wrapped and go" pieces.

I got lots of good comments, and I set out a bunch of my business cards, directing people to the website. Even the wedding photographer took a picture of ME with my cake! Half the time, nobody bothers. Lots of people commented on the personalization. Hubby thought it was "corny" but I think it was ok.

Formal wedding cake

The bride originally wanted a cake just like her sister's. Here:  Now, I liked this cake. It was very plain; the florist did the flowers, and it was simple. It was also bigger by about 50 people!

I think that each bride and groom needs their own cake. I knew that they wouldn't mind if I took a little liberty. So I came up with the design above, got mirrors at the Hobby Lobby for the smaller cakes, and we had a lovely, memorable cake for the couple.

My system is to tell people that wedding cake "has no calories" - it's a celebration! As long as, in this case, everyone had a lovely dinner, enjoyed the cake, danced and didn't fall into the pool, the evening was a success.

With every wedding, you learn something. Here's what I learned from this occasion:

1.  Put something on the cutting area; it was kind of a mess when I got done!
2. Bring your own knife! I brought one, but it should always be a slim serrated knife.
3. Always bring gloves. Even if you ARE neat, it looks better.
4. Make sure you have someone there to help you set it up. Without Hubby, I'd have been able to do it, but it's easier with an extra pair of hands!
5. Always bring your turntable. Makes putting on the last-minute borders easy.

And as you know: it should be fun. Delicious, too. But fun, always. This is my hobby, not my job. And yes, I do get paid for it. But if I had to do it for a living, I don't think I could. I do just enough to make a little yarn money, and keep me happy.