I Saw These Fantastic Cakes!

Sitting here helping direct people to the department they want to help them with their family history gives me some time to surf and blog. I found the most gorgeous cakes to show you. Some are so amazing I couldn't believe they were actually cakes. Here are just some I'll share with you today.

I found this one absolutely stunning. It's the kind I'd like if I ever ordered one.

Can you even believe this is a cake and entirely edible? The whole thing, even the flower!!!

Almost majestic.

Stunningly elegant.

Yep, this is all edible also.

The amount of time and detail in this one must have taken a very long time.

I can't remember what kind of cake this is but I'm thinking pumpkin caramel.

Yeah, it is a pumpkin cake. Darling, huh?! Oh, the pomegranate and cinnamon are just for color. It had nothing to do with the ingredients of the cake. Can we say 'photo shoots'??

There are several more to come later. I don't want to give you too much of a sugar high all at once. ;-)
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Castles, Cottages and Roses for Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Welcome to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday. I like participating but these are not photos of my cottage, a very humble home in Idaho, but filled with love. I'll try and get some vignettes from around my home for next week but I'm redoing the office and that's taking a bit of time at the moment. I just thought I'd show you some people's castles and cottages. Click on the logo below to visit other participants. Enjoy.

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When we went to Ireland in the mid-80s I saw enough castles to last me a lifetime. Ireland is FULL of castles. I love them, but they are very, very cold inside. Ireland is a rather cool country and very rainy. It's a relatively small country with 6 million people. California has about 15,000,000 people alone, so you can imagine how small it is. But it's a very beautiful and friendly country. You would not enjoy living in those castles though.

Isn't this cute? What a clever idea for a party.

Not a castle but a rather delightful home of someone.

"Someone's" castle.

Each woman's and man's home is their castle. Tiny but adorable.

A tropical castle.

Staircase to a castle bedroom? :-) Sure looks majestic to me.

Two of the most gorgeous bottles I've ever seen. I just had to share this with you.

Castle on the water. What a view.
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No one wants advice - only corroboration.
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Coffee Filter Pompoms

Do you ever get caught up in what you should do, what you are expected to do, what you want to do and whirl about until you're just sobbing? That was me the other night.

I'm not sure why; maybe it was just melancholy. Hubs had to go out to a meeting and I was crafting for the first time in a very long time. When crafting I usually think a lot about life, not particularly about the craft I'm doing. So the sobs just hit me...BOOM!

You would think at my age life would be uneventful and easy but it rarely is for anyone actually, at any time. We're all pulled in several different directions at any given time in our lives. I'm the same as you, blogger chicks.

So after painting these little hanging lanterns I decided to put some coffee filters that I had dyed pink—various shades of pink—to some use. I have several hundred of them hanging in the craft room on a string. And it took a LOT of coffee filter! I still have a lot left though so I'll be making a tutorial on the roses I make from them to send to a woman who wants to learn. I'll post it on here at some point so you can make them also. They are easy, trust me.

Here I am just starting to glue them to the lantern.


It doesn't look like I've put many more on in this photo but I have. It's "filter" intensive; believe me.

Looking more like what I'm wanting in this photo.

Here is the completed lantern. Since I dyed these with red food coloring and the filters are very absorbent, there are many different shades of pink. Plus these are the round scalloped filters but when subjected to the dye water they aren't ruffled anymore. Next time I'll use them straight from the package, white and scalloped. It will definitely be a different effect but this is what I had at the moment and it is acceptable to me.

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Birdhouses, Roses and a Very Loving Friend

Well, I had to call this post something and it does have roses and a birdhouse or two in it. ;-)

A friend came over the other day and we talked and got to know each other better, and I learned she had a Down's Syndrome sister. I have another friend who has a Down's Syndrome child and there's a story in that.

Several years ago when she was pregnant with her 4th child, they suspected she was carrying a child with Down's. I'd never seen her so devastated and bleak because she was naturally a very upbeat and happy person. She was a very close friend and when I talked to her that day she just wanted to be left alone to grieve with her family. I also grieved for her. Her husband was totally devastated. But when "K" was born she wasn't Down's. Now, if anyone could have handled it, she could have. She is the most loving mother I have ever encountered in my life. She loves being a wife and mother. She was relieved though.

Then a few years later when she was pregnant with her 5th child, a girl, she was told that that child was definitely Down's. I think the Lord prepared her for it with the 4th child. "J" is Down's but not severely and can function well and goes to school. But she has blessed that family significantly. I know my friend would never have aborted that child or any child for that matter. We don't believe in abortion in our Church.

Before I joined the Church and became a Christian I believed everyone should make the choice for themselves but I don't know what I would have done if I had been presented with that situation. I still don't know what I would have done then, but I know that now there is no way I could abort a child. I have a family member who did make the decision and she told me at the time,"Don't ever believe it doesn't hurt." I never criticized her decision. I just know I could not kill a baby. But when I see the joy and blessings "J" has brought to my friend's family it tugs at my heart knowing there are people like that—loving, kind and faithful that in the next life the child will be without Down's. Just remembering the story makes me blubber like a...well, like a child, to actually know someone with that much love in their heart. To know this woman is to actually see Christ-like love in action. It is a privilege to call her a good friend.
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These little metal red and white polka items just make me smile, especially with some red roses and pink flowers tucked in the coffee pot.

I am still hoping to have a porch swing someday.

I've never seen a turquoise roof and wonder where this might be.

Hubby and I were at Albertsons store the other night to pick up a prescription and when we walked into the store it smelled of hyacinths, lilacs and roses. I was tempted to buy one of their pots of hyacinths but I didn't. I just may go back and buy some.

Just another beautiful spot to relax and dream.

Sigh...

See, there is another birdhouse in the background here.

French, oh yeah, definitely French!

And 2 more birdhouses here. ;-)

We are all gifted; that is our inheritance.
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Pink Saturday 3/3/2012 and Getting Back to Crafting

Welcome to Beverly's Pink Saturday, my favorite linky party. Go to her blog and visit with all the participants.

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Today is a very windy, cold day with snow forecast but it doesn't look like snow clouds up there to me. Love Bunny went to a model train meeting/show and I'm home alone. I finally am getting my craft room set back up. Here's what it looked like a year ago. I won't even show you what it looks like at the moment, but it's coming along today. I plan on going in there and working while hubs is gone. I want to get some crafting done because I miss it and have a few giveaways planned in the near future. You really don't want to miss my giveaways. Really!!!

This is what the craft room has looked like for about 9 months now. Actually, worse than this. I'd just started to clean it up a bit and thought I'd better run get a camera to shoot what it looked like before I get around to making it liveable/workable again.

Actually, this is where I am at the moment—my office. That's my chair and the wall to my back as I type. It's a comfortable room for me because it's on the front and I can look out and see if anyone is coming up the walk and look at the neighbors walking. I love this room actually. But it's time to redo it a bit. I'll work on that next week perhaps. Hubs' office is next door down the hallway and then the guest bathroom and then further down the craft room is at the back of the house.

Isn't this sofa adorable. I should love having one just like it.

Of course having these little darling chairs wouldn't upset me either!

Another charming sofa I like.

Don't you just love these broad pink stripes? They remind me of a circus but yet these are elegant.

Take a breather and walk through this allèe. (And this reminds me of something to tell you all. It's always good form when posting a word of another language—and we're talking mostly Spanish and French here, the most common languages we use after English when writing blogs—to put the accents where they should be. On a Mac it's very easy but it can be done on a Windows machine. Just look it up on Google and they'll help you. I think putting in foreign accents on words would be a good place to start. And it proves how much more clever you are. Smile!)

Don't throw away your old rake, re-purpose it! Cute idea, huh?

Oh, be still my beating heart!!!

Another darling idea...

Followed by another creative idea.

You are the queen or king of your own home, as I am the queen of this house.

Now let's look at some more cakes. Remember: $17 to $200 a slice for these cakes! But aren't they just beautiful? And supposedly, everything on the cake is edible. Incredible.










What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.
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