Moving Box Cake

One of my good friends is leaving me :(. Her husband got a promotion and they are moving to Minneapolis this month. She was one of my first friends here in Norfolk and I will miss her dearly. At work the other day we had a going away luncheon for her to give everyone a chance to visit and say goodbye. So of course as soon as we started planning I went straight to looking up ideas for the cake. I decided I would put some of my new found fondant skills to work and this is what came out...The fun thing about this cake is you can really personalize what is coming out of the box to what the person would take with them when they move. For L I made the dog collars of her her two dogs, a scarf because she is moving somewhere cold, a key chain of her alma mater and a page of her structures homework because she is studying to take her test now.

The cake itself was a chocolate chip devil's food with chocolate cream cheese filling. I think people liked it.

Although the cake came out really well, I realized very quickly that making cakes like this in my house is next to impossible. Maybe I'm a little spoiled working in the bakery, but unless we get a bigger kitchen if you want one of these cakes you may have to come by the bakery to order it.

Decorating cakes at LaChoclatier Bakery

This week's cakes :)...

So I’m sure some of you have been wondering what I have been doing during my long weekends at the bakery….well here’s a little taste. LaChoclatier Bakery is a small bakery located in Chesapeke Va specializing in custom cakes. All the pictures below are from the Facebook page, so you should check it out to see all the other great cakes and treats we are doing!

http://www.facebook.com/lachoc?ref=ts

….and if you like what you see you should vote for us as the Best Wedding/Custom Cake Bakery in Chesapeake by texting CFX to 21333.

These are some of the cakes I was lucky enough to help work on:

I am really learning a lot and loving working there. I don't sell cakes like these on my own so if you are interesting making an order feel free to call or make an online order at the website. http://www.lachoclatier.com/

My sick pup :(

So many of you know I have a dog that is allergic to grass (among other things)…a bit ironic I know. Anyway, as the seasons are changing we both seem to be fighting the allergy battles together. My head feels like it may explode and poor hope is itching all over. About a week ago both dogs were sick and we assumed from the symptoms that they had gotten into something (who knows what, I’m thinking they ate something dead). After nursing them back to health with long nights awake by their sides and a mild diet of chicken and rice we thought we were in the clear. That was until hope got sick again the other night with similar symptoms (I won’t go into detail because they are pretty much disgusting) along with her usual red eyes, rash on her stomach and general pink color. Since she is a dog, and allergic to grass, this “pink” color has become pretty normal for my babe, so I didn’t think too much of it as a symptom.

Friday, after a night of about 2 ½ hours of total sleep I headed to work. All I could do was think of her home in her crate getting sick and there was nothing I could do about it, I had to go to work. So I came home at lunch, let her out and cleaned up the mess. It was really nice outside and I knew M1 would be coming home early so I left her outside. It broke my heart to leave her but I headed back to work then on to the bakery. The entire time I was at work I kept running through horror stories in my head…and not just the bad one’s…but the really bad ones. Like what would I do if I came home to find her dead in her crate, bad ones? So after literally making myself sick to my stomach with worry I called M1 and asked how she was doing. He said he was really worried about her so I did my best to compose myself and ask if it was ok for me to leave the bakery early to take her to the emergency vet. L was really great about it and understood that she is kind of like my kid and told me to go ahead and we could just start an hour earlier the next day to make up for lost time.

The entire vet experience was much better than I had imagined. I called ahead to get their opinion and they said to go ahead and bring her in. I got there at about 10:00pm and started filling out paperwork. Everyone who walked by was excited to see her but worried about how red she was. She had hives all over her back, her lips were red and swollen and her eyes blood shot (most of which had happened since I had last seen her at lunch). The vet was going into surgery but made a point to come check on hope before hand. She decided it was an allergic reaction and took her back to get two injections of steroids, benadryl, and an anti nausea dose. We had to wait 30min so they could check her again so I made friends with some girls who had a sick puppy and had time to call my mom just to check up and see how they had been. After the surgery was over the vet came back out checked her again and gave her one more dose. She was very helpful, and very considerate of my pink pup. The nurse even sat with her so I could go check out without trying to sign out while holding a 55lb pitt bull in the other hand (not an easy feat by the way). We were able to get in, get her treated and get out in under an hour and a half. I had figured we would have been there all night. So although it does cost more to go to the vet in the middle of the night I was very happy with the service and the facility. I will sleep a little better knowing that there is a good emergency vet just a few min down the road.

The next step will be to get hope into the regular vet to start some allergy tests, but until then we will both be dosing on some benadryl and trying to make it through the spring. But how can your heart not melt for that face?!

Reliving some old memories

This is a time lapse of us building our thesis project. The quality is pretty bad to get it small enough for you-tube, but it still makes me smile.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Yesterday on my way to structures seminar I snuck out of work a little early to make two stops along the way. The first stop was to pick up my newest Charley Harper print I had gotten framed and a pair of climbing shoes. So tonight I got a chance to break them in, and after a great night of climbing I'm still pretty excited about them!

and my newest print! it's called Birch Bark and Birds, and I kind of love it! thanks grandma!

So many of you may know that I have a slight obsession with Charley Harper. My grandparents started collecting his work back in the 70's and even had a couple of his shows at my grandfather's real estate office. I love his work and my grandmother has been giving me most of her collection piece by piece every year for Christmas and my birthday. I couldn't be more excited. I think I'm up to 15 prints and one collectors edition book of all his works. These are just a few I have been wanting...I guess I'm a true collector at heart :)
this woodpecker is one I have been watching for about a year, i just love it, but because it is not an open edition, I may have to wait a couple years before I get a copy of my own.




and in case you are still interested

http://charleyharperartstudio.com/

Decorating cakes at LaChoclatier Bakery

This week's cakes :)...

So I’m sure some of you have been wondering what I have been doing during my long weekends at the bakery….well here’s a little taste. LaChoclatier Bakery is a small bakery located in Chesapeke Va specializing in custom cakes. All the pictures below are from the Facebook page, so you should check it out to see all the other great cakes and treats we are doing!

http://www.facebook.com/lachoc?ref=ts

….and if you like what you see you should vote for us as the Best Wedding/Custom Cake Bakery in Chesapeake by texting CFX to 21333.

These are some of the cakes I was lucky enough to help work on:

I am really learning a lot and loving working there. I don't sell cakes like these on my own so if you are interesting making an order feel free to call or make an online order at the website. http://www.lachoclatier.com/

I want...but I need

I want:
New Rock Climbing shoes $90
New Harness $$
New Chalk bag $
Climbing membership $$
Iphone $199
Photo Scanner $199
Hair cut $50
Summer Clothes $$$


I need:
go to the dentist $$$
order contacts $$$
new heart guard / flea for hope and baby cat $$$
Hotel in Alexandria for ELA $$


Usual needs:
Car insurance
parking
savings
food
car payment
credit card payments
cell phone payment
rent
charities

...but I guess the balancing is always the hard part. I think I'm going to go ahead and get the rock climbing shoes this paycheck and maybe wait until next month for the phone and dentist.

Decorating cakes at LaChoclatier

So I’m sure some of you have been wondering what I have been doing during my long weekends at the bakery….well here’s a little taste. LaChoclatier Bakery is a small bakery located in Chesapeke Va specializing in custom cakes. All the pictures below are from the Facebook page, so you should check it out to see all the other great cakes and treats we are doing!

http://www.facebook.com/lachoc?ref=ts

….and if you like what you see you should vote for us as the Best Wedding/Custom Cake Bakery in Chesapeake by texting CFX to 21333.

These are some of the cakes I was lucky enough to help work on:

I am really learning a lot and loving working there. I don't sell cakes like these on my own so if you are interesting making an order feel free to call or make an online order at the website.


http://www.lachoclatier.com/

New Look!

What do you think?

blaaaah

So much work...so little life