Clown Cake

Here it is folks!

My clown cake. It's not made from entirely from scratch, (thank you Duncan Hines), but the icing is. I used about 6 different icing tips, and just went with it. My hand was pretty shaky from the espresso I had just before class. I used primary colors, and while I was mixing, I was thankful for my color theory class that I took in college. I just never thought I would use it to mix icing... or maybe I did?

Here's Marianne's clown menagerie:

How many clowns do you see?

The answer is five.

This project reminded me of my paint by numbers clown that I finished back in September. I don't think I ever showed the finished project, but here it is:

I'm happy to report that I started a new one. It only has the red color in it, because red = 1. Plus, red is my favorite color.Can you tell what it is?

so long skirts...

My two's painted with feathers today...




One also painted with Hot Wheels.


Awww...


We're the cute shoe crew.


It was nice to wear skirts the past few days. I really miss it. We had parent conferences at school the past couple of days, but the kids come back today, and skirts are just not practical with little ones. (Sigh.) It was nice while it lasted.

Off to decorate my cake!

Skirt 34

These flowers had caught my eye this morning on my way to work.

Especially this red one...

A field of dreams on such a dreary day

This sunflower had a surprise when I got closer to it. Tons of tiny yellow ladybug looking bugs were crawling all over it, like they belong there as part of the flower.

How amazing and colorful nature is!


My friend is in Rio de Janeiro, and sent this photo from the botanical gardens.

It's a gift from Mexico to Brasil.
The Botanical Gardens is 200 years old this year. It looks like an amazing place.

Skirt 34 is for Oscar who celebrated a birthday yesterday too. Incidentally, I think 34 may be the high in Chicago today, or is it 43?

Skirt 25

It's Kylie's birthday today, and I wore Skirt 25 in her honor. I think it's ironic that this is the skirt that I bought because she told me not to. She was in favor of something a bit more conservative. We had a good day today. We went to the Dallas Museum of Art for the exhibition Take your time: Olafur Eliasson. It was amazing and so great to experience great art. I will be going back again and again. Learn more.


Skirt 25 and my pink tights in Room for one colour. "Welcome to the world of black and white movies."


360° Bright lights = Technicolor.


moss ~ my new wallpaper

Moss wall
1994

Knit like a lady, but sit like one too.


my life. my experience. my city.


Some interesting titles by Keri Smith I perused at Borders this evening:


Today was also Oscar's birthday. I wore the mini today, maybe I'll wear Skirt 34 tomorrow...

Party Time!

Cakes and Skirts. Pretty much sums up life these days.
Sweet!

My mom had her retirement party after 40 years of teaching. (I didn't make this cake, but I couldn't help but notice it.)

I bought this skirt in Austin a couple of weeks ago at a thrift store. It was a little bit longer than I liked, but for the price was right ~ $4. Its 100% silk and a nice pattern for all seasons. I need to fix the hem, but it looks great with my booties.

I went from Dallas, to Allen, to Grapevine, to Dallas today. I thought a car shot was appropriate.

Purple Polka Dot Skirt

It's new, but I bought it on clearance. It's from Talbots and I love it. I love the bright purple buttons and the polka dots are so cute!


I had parent conferences today, so I took this opportunity to dress up a little. It felt nice to don a skirt, especially such a cute one! It's 100% wool and great for winter. I'm glad I bought it, I'll get lots of use out of it.


I also bought some shoes on-line, and they arrived today, just in time for tomorrow's parties! Hoo-ray! I never thought I'd wear ankle boooties, but these were cute and too good of a deal to pass up. I went ahead and wore them tonight to the open studios at CentralTrak.

In Thera Hillenaar's studio. Check out this video of her work.

Whew, it's been quite a week. My oldest brother came in town and we all had dinner as a family for my other older brother's birthday. (Are you with me? I'm the baby sister.) I can't believe we are related, we are all SO different. Life is strange like that sometimes, I'm glad they are in my life, we had such a good time together the other night. A view of our birthday dinner:

Choppin' broccoli!

The Winds of Change

It's a breezy morning here in Dallas, but that's not all that's different...

I was inspired for an art project yesterday as I saw the leaves falling off the tree.

I traced their arms and had them tear and glue the paper down. It's good for their little finger muscles and dexterity, and they are so cute!

I also went to IKEA to return some stuff, but these signs caught my eye...



wine for you, wine for me!

And finally, cake decorating class!

I was beaming the entire time. We learned how to frost and fill a cake, the correct way to slice and serve a cake and a delicious recipe for cake and buttercream frosting.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

A new month, a new day, a new president?

I had a fabulous weekend, and I hope everyone else had the same. My second Halloween costume was a hit! I was even asked to be in a costume contest!

My costume looked like it came from Alice (remember that TV show?), but I was more influenced by the cover of Supertramp's album, Breakfast in America, a cover I've written about before. Anyway, it was fun to wear, and more fun to get so many compliments.
Kiss my grits!

Other inspiration included Phoebe Damrosch's book that I'm reading, Service Included.

It's pretty good... Four stars! Read the New York Times review here.

Well, election day is finally here! Today is the day history will be made. It's also the day I start my cake decorating classes; I'm so excited! This pic was from Daily Candy Dallas this morning. But I have to tell you, one of these cakes will leave a bad taste in my mouth...

Go out and vote today!

Happy Halloween

Here are the pics of the finished products as promised.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute. I sewed 18 Trick or Treat bags total, but that's not all; I also sewed my costume. It's a little bit bigger than I wanted, but it was fun to wear. :-)
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all...


ME!

Someday my prince will come...

Here are some of my tater tots all dressed up and adorable.


I'm getting ready to go hand out Halloween candy and go to a big kids party, and Snow White just will not do... I'm not anything sexy, but I am really scared of my costume. Inspired by some of the toys in my classroom, here is a prop I threw together. Any guesses?


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Eeeeek! A waitress!


I sewed so much this week, I even bought another sewing machine. But it will totally be worth it... Sew stay tuned.

Happy Halloween everyone!
Be safe!

Orange

I've been getting ready for Halloween with much fanfare. Last night I watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as I sewed Trick or Treat bags for my little Tater Tots (that's what I call my students).
Is this a metaphor for my life?

Over and over, Charlie Brown trusts Lucy, only to be duped again as she pulls the ball away in delight... Hmmm... sounds familiar.

Sew, back to my project. Yesterday was a huge day, I finally bought my embosser! I sewed little drawstring bags and then stamped their names on them with the letter set of stamps from this post. Then my two's stamped spiders, kitties, ghosts and pumpkins to their heart's content. They look pretty cute! I'll have to post a pic of the completed project later today.




Check out the stamps to the right. This is a great way to recycle old marker tops. One of the teachers hot glued the tops right on the foam stamps, making them easier to use for little fingers. What a great idea!


I voted yesterday. Have you?

Feeling proud of myself, I felt I deserved a treat. Baskin Robbins has $1 scoop of the day and today was Oreo cookies and Cream.

Yum!

I also treated myself to this book, which I've had my eye on for quite sometime.

Hello, cake decorating classes!