More Birthdays

I had my 30th birthday on October 11th. Rick took me out for dinner the night before. We went to Outback. I got to try Crab legs. Mmmmm! Were they ever good! We walked around in the Mall for a little bit after eating.

Rick gave me my big birthday gift, while we were waiting for our table at Outback. It was in a gift box. I opened it and it was a gift certificate to a day spa. I got up early just to spend about 4 hours at Salon Vivace. I got a facial, a full body massage, a manicure, a pedicure and a hair-washing and drying. It was very relaxing.

When I got home, I ate lunch and went to the Mall to spend my gift card. I got a cardigan at Christopher & Banks.

When I got home, we had a birthday party(mostly for the kids sake)with cake(Rick insisted on 30 candles)and presents. I got a fuzzy throw and a memory foam pillow. Nice for those long winter naps. Anyway, I had a great birthday.

I can't find where Rick put the pictures right now. I will post some soon. I know you'd like to see that cake with 30 candles on it.

Independence Day Cake

I used the holiday as an excuse to make a cake. I just love to make cakes and decorate them! Rick doesn't like cake that much, so I usually only bake one for special occasions. I made half of the batter into cupcakes and the other half, I made into an 8"x"8 cake.

To me, a cake is like an empty slate. You can create any design you want in any color that you want. I knew I wanted a flag on my cake, but didn't have time to mix up all of those colors. Then, I remembered my red sugar sprinkles. Could I make them into stripes without making too big of a mess? I did it! I used little candy hearts for the stars. I had so much fun!

My cakes are not perfect. I just started decorating a couple years ago. I'm learning new things all the time. Here is a picture of my latest creation.

Cakes

Last Saturday, I made a marble cake and decorated it. This is only the second one I've really decorated. It was a "Happy Spring" cake. I just bought a decorators bag and tips and wanted to try them out. I used shortening icing to decorate with. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here's what it looked like.