Sunday, June 28, 2009

Where I have been...for the past three wednesdays...

Ok, now I am able to spill. I haven't told anyone what I have been doing for the past three weeks on Wednesday nights...simply because, well I didn't want people to ask what my 'final project' looked like. I didn't know if I was going to be good at it, or even if I was going to 'like it'. So here is the big reveal.....

I have been taking a Wilton cake decorating class. I am sure you all thought it was going to be a big reveal...but here it is, my final cake. Made from scratch wilton's own buttercream frosting, hand decorated and colored by yours truly. And yes, I was the ONLY one with orange roses (those are all handmade also).

If you are curious about cake decorating, take this class! I took it at Joann's in Lynnwood, for three weeks/3 hours a sesson, I decorated to my hearts content. The first class was all about frosting! Now I have my little cake 'caddy' with my tools, pipping bags, and tricks of the trade. I will plan on making wilton II, III and fondant, but I would like to practice more before I get ahead of myself. Here are more pics of my final cake (and NO they didn't grade it...thank goodness!)







Yes, that is hand piped roses that I made!

Frosting could have been a bit smoother, but I thought it looked pretty good!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Blogs I read (stalk)...

Be prepared. I apparently have no life what so ever and rather read blogs. For some reason I love that I get to 'peek' into someone else's life for a little bit. Some of these blogs are on my 'ticker' on my yahoo homepage, some are in my favorites, some...sadly I have memorized the url. When it comes to blogs, I am a freak. I really enjoy learning about others, blame it on my interest in sociology (if you don't know already, I was going to major in sociology in college).



I will group them into sections, so then you may understand why I read them.



Friends/Family:

http://www.theofficeladychronicles.blogspot.com/ my mom's blog, that she NEVER updates. I look forward to the day she does.

http://tylermeettaylor.blogspot.com/ my baby brother's blog. He is a talented music writer. Read his stuff, its amazing.

http://noahandolivia.blogspot.com/ Auntie Melissa's blog. Learn about my nephew and niece.

http://hudsonmack.blogspot.com/ My wonderful friend Nette's handsome boy Hudson!

http://www.andkaiyamakesthree.blogspot.com/ Kjerste and Derek Whaley's adorable family. I met Derek at SPU, where we lived in Emerson (different floors of course)

http://dandscarriere.blogspot.com/ Sarah and Dan, very dear friends of ours that have moved to Canada. Dan was Adam's real estate partner 4 years ago.

http://hopesprouts.wordpress.com/ Jen Montzingo's Blog. She is an actress and a fellow Emerson Dorm floormate (College of course!). I love reading all her adventures.

http://paperpassionpixels.blogspot.com/ Noel Culbertson's Blog. She is PROFESSIONAL scrapbooker, no kidding! And an amazing photographer...please check out her amazing pictures of her cute daughters.

http://www.neohippiemama.com/ Lacey's Blog. I graduated with Lacey from Stanwood High ohhh...8 years ago. We walked together (If my memory is correct). She has some great ideas on how to live naturally and with the earth.

http://theharrisblog.blogspot.com/ I also went to Stanwood High with Becca. We took an english class together that...I don't think we EVER learned english.

http://cancersurvivor2006.blogspot.com/ Doreen Schmidt's amazingly touching story of cancer. Her and her husband are both fighting against cancer. Hers is lung cancer although she has never smoked in her life. Please, take the time to learn about her, her family and how cancer has affect her life. There is a link to "lung tube" on her site, to watch a video about her story.

http://kristascheiphotography.blogspot.com/ A friend who is starting her own photography business. Takes amazing candids, especially of children!

http://viewsfromajavahut.blogspot.com/ Lisa's blog, my chatty friend from church and work!!

http://redmansjourney.blogspot.com/ Suzi and her family's journey with adoption (with a second adoption in the process!!)

Sites that will make you want to eat your computer screen (but please don't...):

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ I know I have mentioned this one before, but I seriously get a kick out of it!

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ Home of the "Cake Pops". Great website, great photography, yummy recipes.

http://www.charmcitycakes.com/blog Yes, I love Duff over at Charm City Cakes. Their cakes are amazing!

My Celebs that I stalk:

http://dooce.com/ Heather Anderson's personal blog. She suffered postpartum depression also, which she has turned into laughs. Its a breath of fresh air when you are sick of reading the statics.

http://teresastrasser.com/blog/ Popular from a show called "while you were out" where she, Teresa Strasser was the host. However I probably hear/learned more about her when she was Adam Corolla's co-host on their morning radio show. Teresa is about to become a mom and blogs about the journey is traveling. Funny and then sometimes too real.

http://celebrity-babies.com/ I don't know why, but I do. It is fun to see how 'pregnant' the celebs get.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/the_soup/index.html The reason I cry on Friday nights at 10pm. Ok, its because we don't have cable anymore and I can't find episodes of the soup anywhere on the internet. Boy, do I love that Joel Mchale...and he is a local boy! Anyone remember "Almost Live"?

Getting Creative!:

http://tutusandturtles.blogspot.com/ Some really fun, creative ideas! They have an idea for an art 'area' there that I just LOVE!

Oh How I love Seattle:

http://monkeyaroundseattle.blogspot.com/ LOVE this site. First it has monkey in the title. Second its kind of a blog of all the funky happenings in Seattle. All the fun bakery openings to what was playing at the Seattle Flim Fest. I also love Matthew Porter's monkey in the logo.

http://www.merakohblog.com/ Me ra Koh is a local, yet very famous, photographer. She has a amazing story of how photography has healed past wounds. Her photos are breath taking, I am not even kidding. Oohhhh the color! I love her, well kind of motto, 'refuse to say cheese' (I will have to dig up some of my wedding photos, I think we only had like 4 posed. The rest, candids!)

A few more of my favorite sites:
http://www.eonline.com/
http://www.people.com/
http://www.etsy.com/

ok...let me know what your favs are!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Sweet Makena-isms...

Our sweet girl is growing up...and FAST! Every day she does something new, I laugh and then run to the nearest pillow to burry my head to cry. Only because she is growing too fast. I do miss the little 'peanut', but boy am I excited to see what God has in store for this little girl!

So for your enjoyment...Makena-isms...
-She offically has moved up to a big girl bed. Luckily her crib converts in toddler bed, so one weekend we just took off the railing. I am not a big fan of the current bed, but toddler beds are just too expensive (I don't like the bed because its too high). So far she only fell out once.

-She is wearing big girl underwear! Why you might ask? No, no, no she is not potty trained. Its because she figured out how to take her diaper off. The undies are there just as an extra step. For Kena, if there is too many steps involved she won't bother (like her mommy). The other day, she was supposted to be taking a nap. I normally have the montior on to listen to her, this time I guess I didn't have it high enough. I walked back to take a nap, heard Kena, opened her door and found....well Kena with a shirt and...thats about it. She took her diaper off (yes she sleeps in just a diaper...) and then proceeded to trash her room! Yes, q-tips strewn about, clothes taken off the hanger (even a hanger broken), books scattered all over. BUT HERE IS THE KICKER...I asked Kena "what happened???" and her response "I sorry mommy" then covered her face with her hands. How on earth can I get mad at that??? On goes the undies!

-I have horrible seasonal (which feels like ALL the TIME) allergies. This year has been the worst. The only postive, when I sneeze (actually when anyone sneezes) she says "God besss you mommy". Tooooo cute!

-She is figuring out her colors...or at least for now. We were coloring today and she would bring daddy a crayon and daddy would ask "what color is it?" and she would answer...correctly! Either I am doing something right or I own a lot of money to PBS.

-LOVES bubbles. And if you ever want to be 'cool' or on the 'good side' of kena, bring her some bubbles.
There will be many more...

Friday, June 19, 2009

Who do you stalk?

Hello fellow blog readers. I wanted to ask you all a question...Who do you stalk????

Ok...sounds creepy?

Its not meaning to. I am wondering which blogs do you 'stalk/read'. I mean, blogs that you check daily (or more than daily). And why do you stalk/read them. I am going to compile a list of my favorite blogs-and the reason(s) why I am a follower. These blogs are not nessarily on the side of this blog (look to your right). I do need to update that.

Please...tell me...who do you stalk?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

One of the blogs I check daily, ok twice daily is Cakewrecks. Just some light hearted humor. But you HAVE to click on the following link and watch the video on the post "KILL IT WITH FIRE". Seriously...the ladies should have handed in their aprons after the "sketch". I am sorry, the only one would should mess with fire is Duff over at Charm City Cakes.

Anyhoo, here is the link: KILL IT WITH FIRE. -Oh Crap! Is it really on fire- I think my favorite part is when the baker goes "do we really have to do it?".

Monday, June 15, 2009

Random Sippy Cup Showdown...

I have a few favorite blogs. Ok, let me be honest...I have a LOT of favorite blogs. I have a 'ticker' on my yahoo page that constantly updates when the blogger updates their blog. One of my fav's is Z Recommends. Its updated by a stay at home father (actually I think they were recently mentioned in "Parents" magazine as a cool dad..or something like that) and focus on products for your children and family. He is 'green' and shows that in his posts. His recent post is called "2009 BPA Free Sippy Cup Showdown". I am not only worried about BPA, but down right afraid. I don't think all the research has come out yet and I think its going to be worse than we first thought. Its band in places...like Canada. Once the news started talking about BPA, I was one of 'those' who reached into their cupboards and threw (or tried to return) the bottles with BPA.

Jeremiah took the time, which we really don't have, to try out all the BPA free sippy cups and then ranked them. Check out his site, it will make your life waaay easier the next time you are at target or babiesus.

Q-Gifts.com

Some of you might know, that my hubby is heading up our high school youth group's Water X (which is the youth's summer get-away). He is in charge of all details up to and including the ordering of the t-shirts.

Ohhh, high schoolers! You gotta love them, but they are picky!! In comes Q-Gifts Custom T-shirts( q-gifts.com) and their custom made t-shirts. My brother made an awesome 'water x' logo, which some custom t-shirt makers had a hard time with. However the folks over at q-gifts custom t-shirts made it so easy to do work with them. And about the high schoolers being picky...they have AMERICAN APPAREL t-shirts. If you don't know what american apparel is, its a super trendy/fair trade t-shirt company. Q-gifts custom t-shirts has a nice selection of colors and fitted sizes of t-shirts.

So if you are looking to buy t-shirts in bulk (all you church folks that have VBS this summer...or summer camps...or just want a bunch of t-shirts.) go ahead and check out Q-Gifts Custom t-Shirts! (we recieved a 10% discount for blogging about them...YAY!!!)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Looking for a Photographer?

Are you looking for an awesome Photographer to take some awesome pictures of your family?? Can you tell that I love the word AWESOME?

Well, I wanted to give my friend a shout out in the blogging world. If you are looking for some cool new family shots take a look at Krista Schei Photography. Krista's way of capturing beautiful candid moments are amazing. I love the way she uses lights and different lenses to tell the story of each family/child. Check out her photography blog, you will of course see her adorable children-Katie, Will and Ben. We will having photos done sometime this summer or now that I think of it...FALL, since it is my favorite time of the year!!

Please check out her blog and remember...support local!

Clips anyone?

Now, Kena has some really adorable clips. I bought them off etsy.com before Kena had hair (which wasn't too long ago). Beautiful hand cut leather flowers on colorful ribbon...just too yummy. Yet, this is what she always chooses. One day I got super lucky and she wore two clips...Elmo and Big Bird. Some battles are just not worth fighting....



And yes she might be pissed. I think she is getting sick of mommy always taking pictures of her.

Happy Birthday Hudson!!!

Um...about 6 months old



1st Birthday Party



Happy 1st Birthday Hudson!

Happy Birthday Noah!








We can't believe you are 4 Noah! We are so proud of you!!! We love you!!
-Auntie Sara, Uncle Adam and Kena Ranae!

Yes it really did get into the upper 80's!

Do you guys remember that 'freak' week we had when temps climbed into the upper 80's? Ok I will be the first to tell you...I HATED it! Full on, miserable, hot allergy me HATED the weather. I am sorry, it just was too hot. So we found alteratives to the heat...WATER! Luckily Kena loves anything to do with water!