Update on life/move

I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything, but things have been so hectic here lately!
  Besides having to worry about moving, I was very sad and busy the week of September 22. My Uncle Osiel went to be with the lord on Monday, September 19. He was a great man with an awesome attitude and will be greatly missed. This was a very hectic week for me. I was trying to do the best I could to be with my family throughout the events planned with the funeral and keep up with school work, study for a midterm the following week, and write up a looong lab report. By the end of the work week, moving and studying was the last thing I wanted to do.

We were set to move into our new house on October 15 because the apartment complex required that we give a 30 day notice before we moved. BUT... That ended up changing at the last minute, on Thursday, September 22 we were told that we could move out on Friday, September 30. I am not really sure why they decided to change our move date, I think it may have had to do with them really wanting to get started on construction for our building. So there we were, with about a week's notice needing to move into our new house asap! We totally weren't ready. We had nothing packed and weren't even sure if the landlord would be OK with us moving a bit sooner that we had originally planned. So that was extremely hectic, trying to get the date of all our services electricity, water, internet changed. Luckily Matt and a few of his wonder Kwik Kar co-workers/friends helped us move most of our stuff after work on Friday night while I had to work. I am very thankful for Matt and his friends! They really helped me out a lot.

Needless to say, we had a very busy weekend trying to get the house ready to move into and packing up all of things. My stress levels were extremely high and I always felt tired no matter how much I slept. Stress makes me very tired, physically and mentally. This was a very hard week for me to get through, but God blessed me with a wonderful husband who really loves me and helped me through this hectic week:)

Mooovinggg!

Our apartment complex was recently bought out by new owners. These new owners have decided to change everything! They are replacing the siding, trim, and roofs on all apartment buildings and they are also remodeling. This sounds like a good thing (which it is), but it does have its drawbacks. They are remodeling each apartment which means that each family is going to have to a.) move into another apartment in the apartment complex, or b.) move out of this apartment complex completely.

This wouldn't be so bad, but they want you to move into your old apartment when it is completely remodeled. The initially stated that this would be 6-8 weeks, but that has turned into 3 months. The worse thing is that the temporary apartment they have available for you is not even remodeled. So you would have to move twice in three months. I don't know about you, but I think that this is completely unfair and very unreasonable. They are not compensating tenants for their time spent moving, transfer of utilities, or helping tenants move. I know that there are many older tenants in our apartment complex and people who have lived here for many years. 

The worse thing is that after they complete all of the remodeling, the rent for a one bedroom apartment (which is what we have) is going to increase by $200! That is really ridiculous! These apartments don't have good floor plans and they aren't in the best neighborhood. They are one of the cheapest apartment complexes in town. I know that many tenants are not going to be happy with this change. 

We received a notice on our door this week that we have to move out of our apartment by September 30. That is in two weeks! I can't believe that they expect us and the rest of our apartment building (16 apartments) to be out in that time. Our lease it up at the end of the month, but that really doesn't give us very much time to look for another place to live, or to give them a 30 day notice that we are moving. Matt and I really don't have a lot of free time to move at will and to find another place to live. Matt works two jobs, one part time and one full time. And I go to school full time and work part time. On top of that, my school work load is pretty full these next few weeks. 

This whole moving thing is extremely stressful and completely took us by surprise. I figured that they would have notified us much further in advance. I was really stressing about it this week. Luckily we found a place to live yesterday afternoon. My aunt is going to let us rent out her house temporarily  for the next 6 months to a year. Hopefully by then I will be graduated from college and have found a good job. God is awesome and I have great faith in him. I know that he always provides for u!. He provided the house we are going to move into soon and provide a good job for me when the time is right:) 

Matt and I are really excited about finally moving into a house (him more so than I). We will finally be out of a tiny one bedroom apartment, have a yard, a garage, and a computer room. We are so cramped in our current apartment and have no where to put anything anymore. Thank you Lord for this opportunity!

Cake Decorating Course 2 Class 2

The second cake decorating course by Wilton is all about designing cakes and learning how to make flowers. For almost all flowers that we will make for this course we will use royal icing. Royal icing is totally different than any normal icing including buttercream. It is very stiff and hard to push out of a pastry bag. The stiff consistency of royal icing allows for the icing to harden quickly leaving beautiful flowers that are edible (like candy) and easily moved.

For this class we had to make two batches of royal icing. We learned to make the Wilton Rose, cherry blossoms, and a primrose. This class was difficult! These flowers take a lot of time and effort to master. It really doesn't help that royal icing is so stiff either. My hand was cramping and I felt like I could no longer squeeze the pastry bag! My flowers didn't come out so great either. This is definitely something I need to practice.

The Wilton Rose:

The Primrose:

Pumpkin Spice Latte is BACK!!! :)

Fall is my favorite season and I can honestly say that I love absolutely everything that comes along with it. Including Pumpkin Spice Lattes!!! :) Today I had my very first Pumpkin Spice Latte with soymilk from Panera and it was glorious! Even though we are still having 100 degree weather and my stomach doesn't do too well with caffeine (so this was definitely an exception). Other than that I stay away from caffeine. This latte was so good! I definitely will be drinking more of these before they go away again:)

First Cake Decorating Request UPDATE!!

Last week I posted a blog about my first cake request. My sister-in-law Grace and her son William both had a birthday earlier in the week. We celebrated their both birthdays on Saturday and I was asked to make a cake for them. 

William and Grace have totally opposite personalities so I decided to bake them two separate cakes:) Grace is such a hard worker, very girly, and is super sweet. William loves camouflage and is a major history buff. I would consider him an expert on WWI and WWII. He is very smart for his age. I decided to decorate Grace's cake with pink icing and white flowers. William had requested a Halo (the Xbox game) cake. I really didn't know how to make a Halo themed cake. I looked up a few cakes on google to get some ideas, but they were really extravagant and something I didn't have the time to do. So I settled with decorating his cake with a camouflage theme.

Grace's cake was made with a special recipe I found online for a carrot- mandarin orange cake. It was very delicious. I also make cream-cheese icing to go along with the cake which I later dyed pink:) The flowers, dots, and border was made with white buttercream icing. Here are a few pics of her cake:

William asked for a chocolate cake, nothing special. I made buttercream icing and dyed each separate color of icing. Then I drew out and put on each patch of camouflage on the cake separately. Here are a few pics of his cake:

I have such a hard time baking cakes in our oven. The oven is not level and doesn't heat correctly. I always end up with lopsided cakes that are unevenly cooked. Then I have to cut off  a lot of the cake to even it out. I don't think even bake even strips would help out much here:(

1st Class of Cake Decorating Course 2

I loved cake decorating so much that I decided to take the second cake decorating course titled "Cake and Flower Design" with my good friend Veronica! Our first class was last Thursday (I am a little behind on my blogging) and was a lot of fun. We are taking this course with another at another location because our previous instructor was not going to teach classes at nights anymore. Our new instructor is very good, but she goes extremely fast. I was really struggling to keep up with her:( I think that the other students felt the same way because it seemed like the whole class was rushing and trying to get everything done. And I thought that the last instructor went fast! The new instructor is 2-3 times faster. Class also seems to go by so quickly since we are always busy doing something and trying to keep up.

For our first class we learned how to make royal icing. Royal icing hardens, but it still edible. It is used to make flowers and other designs. We have to bring two royal icing recipes to the next class on Wednesday. For this class we learned how to make gum glue and how to make gum paste flowers using some sort of cutter. It was a lot of fun!

Here are a few pics of my flower creations:)

First Cake Request

I just got my first cake request yesterday and I am super excited! This is finally a chance to put my newly learned cake decorating skills to use. I am making a cake for my sister-in-law and her son's birthday party this Saturday. I have some sort of idea of what I am going to make and how I am going to decorate it. I am thinking of making two cakes to give a little variety. One definitely has to be chocolate, but the other, I am not too sure. If anyone has any suggestions, please post. My nephew wants a cake with a Halo theme which is going to be super hard to make. I have done a google search and the Halo themed cakes look like a lot of work. I will probably decorate my sister-in-law's cake with flowers or something girly. Flowers are one thing I can easily make.

I am also thinking about making business cards with my information just in case anyone at the party is impressed by my cake and would like me to make them one:)

If anyone has any suggestions please post them here. Thanks! I will post pictures of the completed cakes here soon.

Fall Like Weather

We finally got some sort of relief from the hottest and most miserable summer I have ever experienced in Houston. Ever since Saturday the temperature has been cooler and there has been a slight breeze. It is hard to believe that it actually feels nice enough to spend some time outside. I am so glad that the horrible heat has finally let up some. I just hope that it doesn't come back anytime soon and that the weather continues to hold until fall rolls around.

The end of the year is definitely my most favorite time of the year. Fall is my absolute favorite season of all. I love the was the foliage changes colors, the cool change in weather, and the breeze that comes along with it all. I love how the air feels so cool and crisp and I love all of the fall scents (cinnamon, pumpkin, apple, etc) I also love the change in wardrobe that comes along with the cool weather. Fall also brings Halloween, Thanksgiving, then in turn makes way for Christmas and the New Year. Fall seems like such a relief after living through the heat and mugginess of the summer.

I am so excited that fall seems to finally be here. I am so ready to decorate my apartment and light up so fall scented candles :)

New Beach Painting

One of my most favorite places has to be the beach. Unfortunately Surfside and Bryan beaches are not very pleasant on the eyes. I recently painted a beach scene that I am very proud of. My beach painting is totally not Surfside or Bryan beach. It would be more from the East or West coast versus the Gulf coast.

I think that this is my best painting yet. It was very challenging to to paint the waves and the sand with a texture similar to that one would find in nature. I had a hard time getting the water to be the color I wanted and to mimic sea foam and waves. 

Here is a picture of my latest painting.

I really enjoy painting. I find it very relaxing and soothing. I wish I would have picked up the hobby much earlier in life.

Final Course 1 Cake Class

Last Thursday was my final Wilton Course 1 cake decorating basics class. I have to admit I was a bit excited yet sad at the same time. For this class we had to bring a pre-iced cake to class. Icing cakes is not one of my best skills. I had so much trouble icing this cake! I kept getting crumbs in the icing and I had to re-ice the whole cake about 5 times! I was so frustrated by the end that I was just ready to give up. I decided to ice my cake with a mint-greenish color and my final cake ended up looking like mint chocolate chip flavored cake due to the chocolate crumbs in the icing. How frustrating!

This class was also one of the most frustrating classes also. We learned how to make roses. Let me tell you it is not easy! I spent about an hour trying to perfect my rose after the instructor showed us how to make them. For some reason the rose petals were not coming out straight. They kept coming out curvy and pleated looking. I kept all of the roses I liked and placed them on my cake. I was also running short on time and was in a rush to get everything done. I made little swirly dots on the top of my cake, but I don't really like how they came out. I got tired of making them after a while and they final ones didn't look too good.

Here are a few pictures of my final cake. It is chocolate flavored.

Decorating Cupcakes is So Fun!

Last night was my third class in the first course of cake decorating by Wilton. The theme for this class was learning how to fill cupcakes with filling, how to ice cupcakes, and how to make a few flowers. We used many new tips and colors of icing. The two hour class passes by so quickly! No matter how well prepared I think I am for class it is just never enough. I always feel like I am rushing to catch up or to finish something.  Let me tell you, cake decorating cakes is hard business! No wonder homemade decorated baked goods are so expensive! I really enjoy baking and decorating goodies. I would one day really like to open my own bakery or business selling decorated cakes, cupcakes, muffins, etc.

For this class I baked red velvet cupcakes and filled them with vanilla pudding. Yumm...!!! I decorated 6 cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing dyed using gel food coloring. Here are a few pictures of the cupcakes I decorated.

This flower design is called a pompom.

This flower design is called a shaggy mum.

This flower design is just a daisy or something with an elongated dot. Sorry about the blurry pictures.

This flower design is called rosette. I made three rosettes and a few leaves. Sorry about the blurry pictures.

Here is a picture of the daisy flower cupcake and the rosettes side by side.

I am going to start selling decorated cakes and cupcakes also! Please e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing something. I can bake any flavor of cake and use any color(s) icing.

Acrylics

Learning how to paint is something I have always wanted to do since I was a child. One of my first experiences with painting was watching Bob Ross on PBS during the summer. I was so amazed at how he could create such beautiful images with just a few brushes, oil paints, and a palette knife. Since I didn't take summer courses and pretty much worked all summer I had time to finally try painting out. My media of choice is acrylics due to their versatility. Acrylics are easy to work with and their consistency can be varied with water. The paint can be diluted to mimic water colors if more water is added or mimic oil paints if the acrylic paint is very thick.

I have painted canvases so far: two abstract, one floral, and one landscape. 


This is my first painting. It is three sunflowers on a background and a sun.

These are my abstract paintings. They both have names and are more than just a lot of unorganized colors. They are both pictures of something.

This one is called "Broken Dancer." It is supposed to represent a tired and worn out dancer wearing a full skirt (like a ballerina). The yellow circle on the top left is the dancer's head. The green on top of the yellow circle is her hair. Her arms the magenta and green lines below her head are detached, and her skirt the pink/white triangle like shape below is her skirt.

This one is called "Man's Best Friend." It is a person and his dog walking in the park. There are hills, trees, a pond, and mountains in the background. The reddish-orange shape on the bottom left is a person and the magenta shape just to the right of that is the dog. There is a tree on the bottom right along with a pond. There are many other features I could point out to you, but the picture is a little too small to appreciate the detail.
 


This painting is similar to Monet's style called Impression. It incorporates elements of an abstract painting. This one is of wildflowers growing up a hill. I put a lot of time and detail into painting the flowers. It took such a long time to paint all of them. It is my personal favorite

Baking Fun!

Summer of 2011 was the first summer since I started college in August of 2007 that I didn't take any summer classes. Each summer I would typically take 1-3 classes to try and get ahead to lessen my course load for the following fall semester. Most summer classes offered at UH are freshman or sophomore level courses, so they don't offer anything I need to take anymore. With that being said, it freed up a lot of my time allowing me to do things that I actually want to do. I picked up a few hobbies this summer particularly cake decorating. I am taking the first cake decorating course, Cake Decorating Basics, at Michaels in Webster. This class is held once a week every Thursday for about four weeks. I am taking this class with two friends Veronica and Jaclyn. Veronica is a friend that I met late last year and Jaclyn is a new friend that I met through Veronica.

Today is our third class and I am so excited! We are going to learn how to decorate cupcakes and how to make flowers. I will make sure to post pictures of my end products. The classes are very informative and easy to understand for someone just starting out. The instructor Holly is also very sweet and patient. I definitely want to continue on and take courses two and three.

For our first class we decorated plain flat cookies with stars. You can make all kinds of shapes and designs just using a star tip. I decorated more than just two cookies, but these were the ones I decorated for my husband Matt and the only ones I took a picture of. By the way these were peanut butter cookies with homemade buttercream icing.

For our second class we decorated a cake with homemade icing and a design. I  baked a strawberry cake and decorated the cake with vanilla icing which I colored myself. I chose to decorate a cake with a fish because my husband loves his pet fish! We have two aquariums with various types of fish.

First we practiced pipetting  our design on the practice board until we were able to get it right.

Then we iced our cake. I chose blue to represent water. Icing a cake is not as easy at it looks. This was a strawberry cake with dyed buttercream icing.

Finally the finished product!

First Week of My Last Year of College

Today completes my first week of my last year of college. Well, that is for my undergraduate career. I finish off this week with mixed feelings. I feel very happy that I am nearing the end of a stressful life filled with studying, homework, exams, and commuting. In a way it feels very surreal. College life like it will go on forever, but when I look back at it, it all went by so quickly. This is my fifth year of college (not by choice), but it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in freshman orientation. UH has been a huge part of my life and in a way I feel a bit sad that this lifestyle is going to end soon. I am so used to going to class and having to spend my free time preparing and studying for classes.

Soon I will have to step out into the real world, with a real degree, and have to find a real job. Not one of these in between jobs I have had since I was in high school. For some reason that scares me. Above all I am worried about not being able to find a job, and not being qualified enough for the position I apply for. Not only is the economy bad, but it is not like Biomedical Engineering jobs are posted in the Houston Chronicle. You kinda have to know somebody who knows somebody that knows of a biomedical company. Truthfully, I don't really think I know anyone with that type of connection. The Biomedical Engineering industry is also so diverse that companies are usually only looking for employees that are extremely specialized in one area. This mean that they are not usually looking for someone with a bachelor's degree, but for someone with a graduate degree. When I think about all of this and try to put it into perspective, I feel a bit hopeless.

I would love to go to grad school one day, but continuing on to grad school once I graduate in May is not an option for me. My family can't afford to pay for 2-5 more years of education. I would also like to be able to relieve the financial burden on my husband so that he may have the chance to go to college soon. We both feel that a life spent working out in the chemical plants is not the best thing for him. He is also capable of achieving so much more in this life than he gives himself credit for. I am very proud of him for considering college and getting some sort of education.

This year is going to be tough. I can just imagine how difficult my courses are going to be. I am taking all engineering classes this semester and I have a feeling that I am in for a lot of late study nights. I have to remember to keep my eyes on the end result, the light at the end of the tunnel, graduating with both of my degrees in May! I can't believe that this is just 9 months away :D

 

Cullen College of Engineering. One of the engineering buildings at UH.