Sunday, May 31, 2009

Nick and Melanie


Okay, I don't really have too many pictures from the big gathering yesterday. If you haven't read my D.C. post...I lost my camera. So I'm using my backup camera that doesn't work all that great in low lighting. Heather and Jori, PLEASE send me copies of your pictures. 

Half of you reading this right now were at the party, but for those of you who weren't, it was quite lovely. My cousin Nick got married and had a baby and so we hosted a reception/baby shower at my place. It was SO great to get everyone together. I don't even remember the last time I had seen Nick. And I had a chance to meet his wife, Melanie, and their son, Mason. He's such a good, cute baby. Wouldn't it be great if I could post a picture of their adorable son? Ya...talk to the camera. 

Anyways, I digress. I'm sure you're all on pins and needles, wondering how the cake turned out since I posted my practice cake last week. It was touch and go for awhile, but overall it turned out all right. I don't know about any of you, but I've noticed that when I try something out for the first time, it often turns out quite nicely. So when I go to do it a second time, I think I've got it under control and it somehow ends up not as great as the first. This was no exception. I had quite a bit of anxiety about the cake and wanted it to turn out beautifully. After all, this was their wedding cake. The fondant cooperated very nicely when I did the cake last week. So I figured it would be the same for this week. WRONG. I think I rolled that thing out a bazillion times. I couldn't get the creases and air pockets to go away. After about an hour or more I decided that I just needed to get it done and couldn't be a perfectionist (that's a very difficult concept for me). So I rolled it out and placed it on and it wasn't perfect, but it also wasn't as bad as the last bazillion rolls. After spending two hours just rolling and placing on the cake and beading up the pearls at the bottom, I still had to figure out what to do for the top of the cake. So after half an hour of playing around and giving up (and everyone starting to arrive), my mom took over and cut out the VR (last name is Van Rij). Then I painted it silver and the beads silver (though you can't tell too well on those). All in all it was pretty good, especially at my first attempt at a wedding cake. It also tasted pretty good, better than the one last week. So that was a bonus. I've decided to cancel my plans of opening up a bakery, though. Sorry for those of you who wanted a Richins original. 




Gregory got a hold of my camera and figured out how to turn it on and take pictures. He SO loves his picture being taken. So after my brother discovered him taking pictures with my camera, he took this snapshot of Gregory. It's totally crazy and not in focus, but I love it. It totally captures his energy.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tiffany's Birthday

This coming weekend I am making a wedding cake. For the first time. Ever. My cousin got married a few months ago and his wife just had their baby and so we're throwing them a reception/baby shower to celebrate. I love decorating cakes, so I offered to make their wedding cake. Hello?! As if I know anything about wedding cakes. Anyways, I wanted to practice different recipes and I thought I'd even try fondant (what a complete mess that is). So this past week I baked a couple of cakes and for my friend's birthday I figured I'd put the cakes together and put fondant over it...just to practice. Hours later and brown food coloring that wouldn't get darker than a caramel color I had myself a pretty cute cake. Not bad for my first attempt. Hopefully the wedding cake goes even better on Saturday. Wish me luck!

The birthday girl and me.


I called this the pink and poo brown star cake!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Lake Mead

Last weekend we went to Lake Mead to celebrate Jalee and Tosha's birthdays. It was the first lake trip for me this year and it was wonderful. The water's still cold, but with it being over 100 degrees, it felt nice.

Kayson and Jordyn playing on our tube.



Mason playing in the sand. How cute is his little grin with a missing tooth?


Shaun catching some air wake boarding.


Caden was conquering the little 4 inch sand ledge he found. He eventually made it up all by himself.


The sun was getting ready to set as we were leaving and it was gorgeous.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Dinner at Valley of Fire

For Mother's Day Rhett and I met up with the rest of his family at Valley of Fire and had a great dutch oven dinner. Before dinner we hiked around the area and climbed around the rocks. I found out that some of my nieces and nephews are part mountain goat. They had no problems picking out the tallest rocks around and figuring out a way to get up there.




This is Allison, my 4 year old niece. She was fearless when it came to climbing.



Me and my babe.




I had to post this because of the brilliancy of the rock color. This has not been enhanced...that's how it actually looks.




This is my newest nephew, Josh. He spent the entire time we were eating with his foot in his mouth. It was so cute. I wish I were that flexible.




This is my mother-in-law, Welene and my niece Elaina. The picture just turned out so cute of the two of them.

Bedskirt

So I FINALLY got the bedskirt completed last week. This was the project that just didn't want to get completed. I tried so many times to get it done and something would always get in the way. I ended up taking it to my mother-in-laws house and she sewed the last part of it because my machine just wasn't having any of it. It's not exactly the look I was going for, but it's something and it's done, so it's staying.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cake Pop


I've seen these cake pops all over the internet and finally made a few of my own this past weekend. For starters, they're not as easy as they look. They were so soft that by the end of the evening the balls had slid down the sticks and many ended up on the table. But they're cute and fun and I brought them to a family dinner and the kids LOVED them. I even had my niece and nephew over to help me decorate a few...who doesn't love dipping things in sprinkles?