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.