Ruby is that you laughing?

Okay I feel a little better (but not much). Here are the pictures of the artwork so far. The first two pictures are the rondels and triptych I am basing this mess on. Last night I finished carving the marzipan images, then put the colorflow on. Tonight I need to make hard candy jewels, make more marzipan to cover the cakes and make the marzipan jewels, and paint the artwork with the luster dust. Then I need to pipe the cat images with piping gel.

Making cats laugh since 1971

Last night I cut out the marzipan for the rondels and icons. I need 12 rondels and 1 icon (plus I'd like one extra icon for another project to be discussed after Pennsic). So I cut out 20 rondels and 3 icon shapes. I figure that way if I screw them up I have extras. The cutting process actually wasn't too bad. It was very similar to making sugar cookies. I rolled out the marzipan using powdered sugar instead of flour. Then I used the rondel cutter I had bought and a piece of tupperware for the icon shapes. Cut out, then remove extra marzipan, then put the rondel on a piece of parchment paper which is on a cake board. When I first visited the kitchen where I'm doing all this work I noticed this wonderful greenhouse window with no plants in it. I always thought that was a shame until I started baking there. It turns out that window is an excellent baker's rack.

I took a paint brush, brushed off any extra powdered sugar and put the pattern for each piece of art on top of the marzipan. Using a toothpick and two knives (still looking for the best way to do this) I pricked the design onto the marzipan. Then I played connect the dots with a knife. This was really starting to bug my wrists so after doing 9 of the rondels I decided to do one of the icons so I could play with it. I pricked the icon which didn't work as well because the outlines were not clear enough. I need to get some tracing paper and trace off clear lines from the artwork instead of working directly from the art.

Since the icon and enamels look significantly difficult on the inspiration piece I decided to use two different techniques for the two pieces. For the icon I am just using straight gel food coloring and painting the marzipan. This would work a who lot better if my painting skills were not enough to make a cat laugh. After getting the piece part way done I decided I was done for the night. I'll pick it up where I left off tonight.

Too cool for Words!

I've been house sitting for a friend who had to go to Germany. When she called and asked me what I charge for my house sitting services I said "something really cool from Germany." Last night when I got to her house to pick up some stuff she gave me my prize. A cuckoo clock! It is too cool! It was made by House of Black Forest Clocks. There is a bio of the guy who makes the clocks on the website that says he can trace his family's clock making heritage back to 1780 (cuckoo clocks were invented in 1730).

I took it over to Alan's house and he helped me put the pieces together (it comes in 5 pieces, 2 weights, the clock, the decorative top piece and the pendulum). We set the clock and he giggled with delight every time it rang. I realized at one point that we both wanted to go to bed but it was 5 minutes to midnight and we were both waiting for the clock to ring before we went upstairs. Yes, it's easy to amuse us. :) I need to check every so often to see how it is keeping time. There are directions on how to make it go faster or slower so the time will be acurate. So once again I prove my housesitting fee is the right one. I get the coolest stuff when I trust my friends to bring me back something I would like. I never would have thought to get one on my own but I am doing the happy dance to have one brought to me.

You've got to know when to fold 'em

I got to Mom's house and printed out the pictures she wants me to take to cake class tonight. I packed all the stuff that I needed to take with me in the truck, her color flow piece, the mixer we had borrowed from Alan, and the cake that she had made and then crumb coated so I wouldn't have to bake after driving home from Pennsic (I have the best Mom).

Then I got in the truck, turned out of their complex, drove up to the light and waited for it to change. The light changed, the guy in front of me hit the gas, I hit the gas, the guy in front of me slammed on his breaks and I slammed on mine. Physics dictaed that the cake did not stop as fast as the truck did and I cursed then tried to see how much damage had been done. As I picked up the cake box it flipped open and the cake ended frosting side down (of course) on the carpet of my truck. At that point I came very close to crying. I called Mom and told her that Dad did not have to worry about bringing the flowers he was going to bring me before work today as I wasn't going to need them. I decided that I just couldn't do it. It was 9 pm, I needed to go to my friend's house, pick up my cake supplies, bake a new cake, let it cool, make frostings for class, frostings for the cake, and frosting to replace the flowers that were either ruined or used since we made them. Then I'd have to frost the cake and make the extra flowers I needed. It would be midnight at least before I could go to bed. There was no way I had the energy to do that.

So I've decided that I'm going to go to class, take the pictures of the cakes that Mom and I did for her insanity project, listen to what Betty has to say about basketweave on cakes, pick up our certificates, and then go to dinner with Dad. Since my wrist is hurting and I need to work on cakes all week anyway, taking a day off from the class is actually a good thing. I'm also not going to sign up for the Wilton 3 class tonight. I would like to take it but I'll be at Pennsic for the first class and the 2nd class is the day after I get back from Pennsic. All I will want to do at that point is sleep. I think Mom and I need at least a couple of weeks break before we tackle the 3rd set of classes and Mom has said she's not sure she wants to take them anyway. I'll have to wait and see what she says when I pick an actual set of classes to take.

Driving to Pennsic

I cleaned out the back of my truck and then took another bath, this time shaving and washing my hair. Then I watched a movie, moved downstairs so I wouldn't miss Roxanne at the front door, watched another movie, watched it storm...took a 15 minute nap while watching the beginning of another move...finally she showed at 6:30. She said that "Washington traffic started in Norfolk." I wouldn't let her sit for very long before we loaded the truck. Then Roxanne took a shower while I went up to the computer and checked the directions to Pennsic and then looked up some information that she was looking for on fly fishing.
Finally at 8:30 we left. I had enough gas to make it to Fredrick, then we had to stop and get some. We also stopped at Breezewood for dinner rather then doing the dashboard diner thing. Once we left Breezewood Roxanne drove the rest of the way (I got to sleep for a couple of hours) and we only made one more stop, at Walmart, to take advantage of flushies one last time and pick up a few small items.

We pulled onto site about 4 am. Troll was very easy to get through as we were the only ones there. As we were leaving someone else drove up, so at least we weren't the last people to get there that night. Then drove down to camp where, of course, everyone was asleep. After we put up my tent, I helped Roxanne put up hers. That's when we realized that we had left her ridge pole at my house, DOH! No matter, Roxanne said that she has seen really big bell wedges put up without ridge poles. All I had to do really was stand in the middle of her tent and hold up the poles while she put in the stakes. That was good since I actually caught myself falling alseep and my knees buckeled at one point.

Finally as the sun was coming up, I got to go to bed. I left Roxanne working driving in more stakes since I left as soon as she said she didn't need me any more. I lay down and was out like a light. About 2 hours later the combination of heat, light, and the sound of people talking outside my tent woke me up. I looked at my watch and it was 8:30. So much for sleep.

I got up and Bambi fed me cereal. Then after everything had been unloaded from my truck I labeled the bottles of Sakanjabin and, with Bambi, headed for Royal to drop them off. Bambi and I did a fruitless search around town to see if we could find a Shell, Texaco or Chevron station. Then we headed back to meet people at the storage area. Once I dropped Bambi off I went back to the Wench's camp to see if I could catch MacGregor. She left about 10 am so I just headed out. As I hit the turnpike Jaine called and asked me to bring her a few things from home when I come back.

I ended up stopping at the first rest stop to take a small nap and lunch, then the 2nd to get gas, then a while later for another 15 minutes of sleep. I stopped one last time in Breezewood for ice cream and then drove the rest of the way. By the time I hit 270 I was calling people on my cell phone to keep awake. I made it home, maxed out my credit card to get a few dollars more in gas, picked up a couple of things I had forgotten and then headed out again to Mom and Dad's house.

Now where did I put that...

I went home and started the frantic packing dance. Since I basically tore my entire room apart looking for some of the garb that I haven't been able to find I decided to put up the shelving unit that I got around Christmas time. Mom and Dad gave me a DVD player for Christmas but it wouldn't run because it was not level enough stacked on top of the cable box, tv and vcr. So I had gotten great IKEA shelving unit. Since I'm never actually home I had not gotten around to putting it up. Now everything works (Yay!).

Finally I crashed about 3 am and slept until 7:30. I kept waking up though so who know's how much sleep I actually got. At 8:45 I called figuring that Roxanne would have certainly left by then. She was supposed to leave by 7 am but she was still there. I told her to call me when she was walking out the door since I knew that it would take her 4 hours to get to my place. Then I went and took a bath. Then I spent some more time packing and managed (after looking everywhere I could think of) to find my red and black leather bodice. So now I'm only missing two of my leather bodices, my wool bodice and all my leather skirts. At 11:15 Roxanne called and said she was leaving! So much for her getting to my place by noon.

Bad Aunt!

Friday was Ashley's (my niece) 13th birthday. I'm such a horrible aunt that I didn't remember that until Mom told me Friday morning. If I hadn't been such an idiot I would have remembered to put the present that I've had for her (for MONTHS) in the car that morning. As it was, once Mom had done all the work to change everyone's plans so I could go to the birthday dinner I had to show up sans gift. Oh well, she'll get it once I'm back from Pennsic and she's back from her vacation.

Dinner was supposed to be at 7:30, but everyone else showed up closer to 8:30. We had a really nice dinner but by the time I got out of there it was after 10 pm.