Creating again...

....and it feels so good....

I've been inspired by the various blogs I've been checking out to get back to that which makes me happy on the inside - creating. The trick is to feed that part of me while using the tools I've learned in this half a life to keep up with the rest. Goal-oriented people aren't the best at moderation - tending to want the entire thing done to perfection RIGHT THEN. 2011 will be the year I wage the war to achieve victory - the ability to do things IN MODERATION. :-)

The past few weeks the creating has been with food, who knows what it will be next. The Bear turned 10 this year but chose to receive a kayak in the spring for her gift instead of a party with her friends. To me, that didn't mean she should not have a great cake...so I hunted around and decided that I could make a Topsy Turvy Cake for her. Nothing like jumping back in on a technically and artistically difficult project. I used Google Images for my inspiration and made her cake (out of 3 boxed cake mixes - this thing was HEAVY). Purple and orange because they are her favorite colors, lime green because she wants a lime green kayak. It came out pretty well and she was THRILLED. We had a snow day....25 inches of snow will do that...so she was shooed from the kitchen most of the day, but she had a good time watching her new Nancy Drew movie, playing outside in the snow with the neighbors, and reading Chasing Vermeer (Dan Brown for kids). Someday I'm going to learn how to take a good indoor photo!

I didn't have time to make homemade fondant, so I used the big wedding cake box of premade stuff that you buy at the craft store. I kneaded in a few drops of clear vanilla extract, and then divided it into 60% purple, 20% orange and 20% green, using Americolor gel colors. Tutorials for the engineering of the cake (and it is, indeed, engineering) from Janellscakes and Cakecentral.com.

Success and Exhaustion :-)

PIRATE NIGHT WAS A SUCCESS!!!

Over 600 people attended. We were expecting between 400 and 500 so we were blown away. We had 50 cakes for the Cakewalk and had to shut that down an hour before the end because we ran out of cakes, we had 450 pirate hats to decorate for the kids - THEY were out by 7. The games went well, the book fair made a ton of money, fundraisers were mostly picked up, and all of the comments we received from kids/parents/teaching staff were positive. The basket raffle brought in over $700, so instead of spending the $1000 that we were supposed to, we actually ended up only spending $200. The traffic cop never showed up and that was supposed to be a $400 expense, so that certainly helped the budget!

I forgot my camera - I wish I had it. The decorating committee for the social was headed by 2 professional artist/designers and it really showed. They made a ship out of cardboard boxes that looked JUST like a pirate ship - complete with raggedy sails. There were 'portholes' in the ship that were strong enough to let a child go through them - the games looked so professional that the Principal asked to keep them in the supply room for future games at the school. Yay parents - they really came through.

The cakewalk was fun - I had never been to one before. My friend Cheryl had told me that it wasn't the tasty cakes that were picked first, it was the fancy cakes that were 'eye candy' to the kids. So. I used fondant on cakes for the first time. Wow - it was fun - like working with polymer clay! The next time I will flavor the fondant a bit more, I think it was 'too' neutral, but the cakes were #1 and #2 gone so I consider that a success :-) Here are Barbie and the soccer field - and they were really so simple that they were both decorated in about 45 minutes...

The work continued on Friday as I made phone calls to the 19 winners of baskets in the basket raffle that hadn't picked up their winnings - so my first 'breathing' day was Monday - but that's okay. The best part of the process was working with the women on the committee - their energy, their ideas, their enthusiasm was contagious and really helped. So, until the spring (when I'm responsible for another social) I can relax a bit.

The fall view above is from my front door. It's supposed to be windy and we're to have rain later, so I'm not sure how much longer the spectacular fall leaf show will be around - but I'm enjoying every minute of it. I'm taking the long way to places and driving through the beautiful New England countryside that I'm part of and loving it.....It's all good.