Anyone else into cake decorating?

[Rosalie]

I though I would get back to some hobby stuff - just for something different!
Coming from a large family who celebrated lots of events, cakes were always an exciting part of our lives. Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Mother's day etc,etc., had a cake to share as the centrepiece.

Because of this I suppose, I became very interested in decorating at an early age. But it wasn't until about 13 years ago that I decided to have formal lessons. The local council offered classes rather cheaply, so, I'd drop one at school and the other in the daycare attched to the classroom and had myself a high old time.
Then I became the official "cake maker" of the family. At one stage I decided tha I would make money out of this hobby and was getting a few return clients but the my wrist packed it in and now I just do it for friends and family.
Anyhoo, if you're interested I've put picture up of some of the cakes I've done.
http://community.webshots.com/user/gypsyrose52

Does anyone else do this sort of stuff? I'm always looking for new ideas and often have problems that I could use some help with.

[dg2901]

Well well, we meet again..haha...
I dig those cakes! I especially like the first one posted--its simple and elegant.

Since getting older and more into the food thing, Ive thought about attempting cake decorating , however its looks very tedious and one must have great patience i would think---not me at all...mine would end up as a big heap of crumbs..haha

[Rosalie]

Anyone who slaps a bit of icing of the top of a cake is a cake decorator.They can be as simple or as complicated as you like.

[creatingkarma]

Those cakes are absolutely gorgeous! You are soo talented in many different things! I'm not exaggerating one little bit when I say that I have never seen such beautiful cakes in my life - homemade or bakery! I have made the Barbie one before for my daughter's birthday, but it didn't look anything like the one you made with the lovely flowing dress. Wow!

[Rosalie]

Thank you for the compliments Karma. I am hoping that someone else will put up some photos. I love going to shows to see the work others do, and I love getting to know people on these boards too. I have made some very good friends here.
You know I have gathered a photo board of IC members and you are on it! It sits next to my computer while I'm on the ICN.

[ICNDonna]

I'm very impressed! You do a beautiful job.

Donna

[dancemomof2]

Those are great. I decided this summer that character cakes couldn't be that hard and bought the pans and tried. I decided the bakery really isn't that exspensive after all. I threw in the towel and said forget it. I can't imagine trying some of the ones you did.

[Rosalie]

Leslie, all of these cakes just have a little trick to them. Having someone teach you is the key.
So many times I would have a lightbulb moment and think "is that all that is?" If you still have the tins, have another go and I will help you if you like.
Were you trying to pipe directly onto the cakes or spreading the icing with a knife? There is a little trick to either way.

[karen10300]

Such beautiful cakes Rosalie. I'm so jeaulous. I took a very basic cake decorating course eons ago. I took it before my son's 1st birthday when I thought about how many birthday cakes I would be needing to buy throughout life. My son is now 29 and I also have a daughter, so I use to do their cakes every year. Also did cakes for family members birthdays & for baby showers in the family ect., but nothing near to what you do. Looking at your pictures makes me want to play with the cake decorating thing again. Now if I actually motivate myself to do that is a whole nother story.lol Will you share your secret to what kind of icing you use on your cakes? It's so smooth and flowing. I'm just sitting here shaking my head as to how talented and creative you are.

[Rosalie]

Thank you Karen. I posted a reply a little while ago but am having problems at this end. So if two responses pop up its not necessarily because I'm getting dotty. Hahaa.
If you enjoyed doing the cakes before don't stop now. As the kids get older we have a bit more time for ourselves. I really loved the course I did on making sugar flowers.

And, you know, there may be engagement and wedding cakes to be done in the future. And if you follow that through, you might be called on for cake for the grandchildren! What do you think! Hehehehe!

[karen10300]

Okay Rosalie, you're making me tired. LMAO My daughter got married last year and every time I look at the picture of her cake I get ****** off all over again. Could have done better myself. Well that may be a big over exaggeration.lol She had a big cake with the fountain and the step things and all the layers. Told them I would get the ribbon to match her colors and so they could match the frosting for the roses to the ribbon color. Called to take the ribbon to them 2 weeks before the wedding and they said they didn't need it till the day before the wedding. Well to make a long story short, apparently they had already done all the frosting flowers and had them on the cake and they were so much darker than the ribbon that matched her colors. I could have choked them when I saw the cake when I got to the reception. Of course it was way to late to do anything about it. Another story was the cake my sister had done for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Nothing like it was suppose to be and UGLY.
I'm going to have to check out the sugar flowers. I've never seen them and they sound so pretty. If I start playing with this cake decorating stuff again I'm going to blame you every time I'm cleaning up the mess from it.lol

[creatingkarma]

Just wanted to say thank you, Rosalie. That was sweet.

[Annie2]

Rosalie, I really enjoyed seeing your work. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us. Your cakes are absolutely beautiful!!! I, too, enjoy cake decorating and took several courses. We are retired now and travel much of the time, so I don't have the time to do much with decorating right now. For the time being, I only do cakes for special occasions for close friends and relatives. I hope to get back to doing more of this once we move and are more settled. I specialize in decorating with gum paste (sugar dough). For those in the US interested in learning the art of creating sugar dough flowers, many places (cooking schools, cake decorating supply stores and even some craft stores) are now offering classes in this "almost lost art". One of the best-known masters of gum paste creations in the US is woman in NYC, Sylvia Weinstock. If you Google her name, you will find her website. It really isn't terribly difficult to learn and is so much fun! It can be quite lucrative, too, as cakes decorated with handmade sugar dough are very pricey. If you are looking for something to earn a little money while at home and enjoy cake decorating, it might be worth looking into taking a few classes.

[Rosalie]

Karen anytime you make a mess just give me a call and I'll pop over to clean up for you.LOL
It really is worth the mess and do look into some classes if you are interested. Being able to decorate a cake just the way you want it is much better than paying through the nose for something that dissappoints.
Annie, do you have any pictures of your cakes? I would love to see them.
Once, when I was looking for a piece of equipment ,I rang a large art store in the city.
This snobby lady told me "Oh no! we wouldn't carry cake decorating lines, We only deal in ART"
Well, I gave her a piece of my mind!

[karen10300]

Way to go Rosalie, giving that lady a piece of your mind. I can't afford to give to many people a piece of my mind because I don't have much of my mind left.LMAO I'm so glad that you will come and clean up my mess though because I can be awfully messy.lol My kitchen is small so I end up having to drag everything into the dining room to work on it.

[dancemomof2]

LOL sounds like our wedding cake, it looked so wonderful in the book, we got it and the colors were off and the cake was burnt. Kinda hard to replace a cake for 300 people at Wally world, so we had to apologize to people and eat it. I may have to drag the teddy bear pans out and try again, lets just say mny care bear had looked like its eye had went 10 rounds in a boxing match. The plain old teddy bear was a little easier to recognize :biglaugh:

[Rosalie]

Karen,if it means I can come to the US to visit my friends there,..well...I'll clean up your dining room too! LOL.

Your kitchen and dining room sound like mine. I had this conversation with Diane about small kitchens and having to take pictures from the ceiling to get it all in....very funny thread! Anyhoo you can see my kitchen at the web address below. Is it bigger or smaller than yours?

[Annie2]

Not art??? HA!!! Tell that to Donald Trump and all the high profile celebrities who quite literally pay MANY thousands of dollars for these masterpiece creations! And, Rosalie, I would definitely put your creations in that master category. Your pictures show your confectionary delights are of that highest quality!

Unfortunately I cannot post any pictures of mine right now. We are "on the road" spending our winter months in warmer climates (Florida right now) and my pictures are on my home computer and not the laptop I have with me. Remind me and I will post a few when we return to our home base.

I am so glad you started this thread! Hope others who have interest in learning to make their own will be inspired to keep trying. It takes a little practice, but isn't that hard to learn and is so much fun! A class or two can give you the basics and I'm sure you can pick up some helpful tips here, too.

[Rosalie]

Annie, I agree that cake decorating isn't as hard as some think. it really is a matter of being shown a few tricks and I hope more people get onto this thread. And I am as happy as Larry to pass on anything I can.
It is a very satisfying hobby. Everyone loves a cake and so often it is the centrepiece of a party. It's nice to be able to give one to a friend and besides, it can save them loads on money. They are very expensive to buy!

You must be enjoying your touring. Do you have a thread anywhere that we can track your progress? I'd love to hear about your adventures.

[karen10300]

Rosalie, did I mention that my mess also may extend into my living room? lol I'm sure the mess may also follow me upstairs to the bedrooms also. Just thought if you were willing to clean the kitchen and dining room, somehow I could work the whole house into the deal.LMAO I looked at your pictures and I'm thinking I have less counter space in my kitchen than you do. Oh how I would love to have the money to redo my kitchen and actually have some counter space. Of course that would mean tearing down a wall to put like a breakfast bar there, but I guess I can dream. I'm getting off this post and awy from you and Annie because I've been googleing sites on cake decorating now.LOL That could be dangerous for me and you will be needing to make a trip over here to clean up my mess.
Annie, I see you live in Dayton, I live in Akron. That's about 200 miles apart. Rosalie, don't ask me the miles between Ohio and Australia. We just need to know how many hours it will take you to fly here and clean up my mess.LOL

[andcohen]

My goodness Rosalie is there anything you carn't do??? HA HA Just kidding but OMG you seem to be able to have a go at everything & it looks amazing. I would like to have just half of your talent. Thanks for sharing
Andrea :)

[traceann]

I agree with Andrea, is their anything you can't do? Holy moly, you sew beautifully, now cakes, I am feeling really creatively challenged!!! I tried cake decorating once, but I got very frustrated with the pastry bag bit, I have never tried the fondant -- is that what you used mostly? I love the way that stuff looks, it's gorgeous!!!

Yep, thanks for sharing!!! :)

[Rosalie]

Thanks Andrea, you bettya! theres more things I CAN'T do then I can. I have always messed around with arty things. I even started a fine art degree at RMIT but found boys and lost interest! Argh!!!! Wish I could go back!
I have a friend who does beautiful embroidery of all kinds. I'd wet my pants if I tried that stuff! And my house is a mess - but don't tell Karen cause I'm trying to get over there!) What grows in the garden is tough enough to grow after a nuke blast! etc etc.

Tracy, have you used the fondant before? Its pretty cool stuff and you can colour it to whatever you want. The darker colours are a pain but I usually get my local cake decorating supplies shop to do that for me.

[traceann]

Nope haven't tried it, is it easy to mess with??? I don't have a local cake shop, lol, so would have to color myself....ugh.

[Rosalie]

It is quite easy to use and its only a pain when colouring with dark colours like balck or dark purple etc.

[traceann]

Do you just drape over the cake, as is, or does the cake underneath have to be prepped somehow? Do you make your own flowers out of it too? I want to get the Wilton tools for making those kinds of things, sounds fun....tedious, but fun.

[Rosalie]

I usually use the fondant on a rich fruit cake. Often there are small holes where some of the fruit has collapsed(or just the sloppy way I have put it into the tin). You fill any holes or blemishes with the fondant so you have a reasonable base to work from. Also its best to use the bottom of the cake as the top, as its usually flatter. If the top of the cake is rounded you can either slice it off (depending on the depth you want for the finished cake) or roll some fondant into a long roll and pack the top before turning the cake over.
Brush the cake with - sugar dissolved in water over heat and allowed to cool- This acts like a glue .
Knead the fondant until it is smooth ( sort of plasticy) The kneading stage is where you add colour. Roll it out (sprinkle icing sugar on board to stop it from sticking) to approx 1/8'' to 1/4" thick and large enough to cover the cake and a bit extra to work with.
Lift the fondant by hand or roll it loosely around a rolling pin onto the cake. Smooth it all around the cake (careful not to get airbubbles underneath the icing) and then trim off extra. Once you get used to it, you can flip the cake and smooth the bottom edges and then turn it onto whatever type of board or plate you are using.
While the fonant is still soft you can crimp any patterns into the surface. Its then best to let it dry out for a few days before piping any fancy work on. This reduces the risk of marking the surface.

You can cover soft cakes with fondant as well, but you don't have extra time to work on the cake. Obviously the softer cakes go stale quicker. The rich fruit cakes only get better with age. If I'm doing a wedding or christmas cake I make them at least 2 - 3 months before.
There are wonderful "softer" icings you can use on sponges etc. like ganaches and butter creams.

Now there are probably people on the boards who know more about this stuff than me, so please correct me if I get anything wrong. We here to help and support each other on any subject.

Oh and the sugar flowers are make from moulding paste which is quite different to the fondant. This paste can be rolled very thinly (as thin as 1mm Ithink thats about1/16") and will set hard within hours.

[karen10300]

LOL Okay Rosalie, I'm onto you. I don't care if your house is a mess as long as you clean mine. It's ready to be cleaned any time you can get here.LOL just got home from work and am dead tired so even thinking about trying cake decorating again is out of the question tonight. I work at an Assisted Living home and we have a big party and dinner for the residents and their family's every month. So I spent the day trying to make the place look like a winter wonderland. My creative thoughts are about frozen now. Winter-Frozen, get it.lol It looks like something now but not sure like a winter wonderland. I'm sure I'll walk in there tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking today and start all over. oh welll, tomorrow's a new day.

[Rosalie]

I can't help you out on the winter wonderland theme but I'm happy to come and clean your place but I might limit it to downstairs!
When's the dinner party? Sunday? You see its 12.39pm Sunday already here! I get a bit lost with the time change especially as there are so many of you all over the US and you have a few different timezones of your own.

[karen10300]

The dinner party is Tuesday at 7:00pm my time. I'll be looking for you.lol You can have a cocktail or two, dinner, dessert, enjoy the entetainment and then come clean my house. I'm thinking I'm going to try the cocktails I'm making that night. They are called Snow Bears. Consists of Ameretto, vanilla, vanilla ice cream and crushed ice. I'll soon find out if they flare my IC or not. It's after 9:30 pm Saturday here. I get confused with the time zones here in the states let alone further away.

[Rosalie]

I think I'd better clean BEFORE the cocktails or anything could happen!
Those snow bears sound very enticing yumm!

[traceann]

Thank you soooo much Rosalie!! I hope you don't mind, but I copied and pasted your instructions into a Word document for my future reference! You make it sound so darn simple, I have to try it. Maybe I will make something pretty for Valentines Day for my mom and my hubby, and it's opportunity to use my new mixer!!! LOL

Am going to need supplies...thank goodness I have at least a month!! LMAO!! You are way too cool and sweet and special! You and Martha always manage to make my day!!! :)

Love,
T

[karen10300]

Let me drink a couple of the Snow Bears and heck, house? what house?? I won't care if my house is clean or not.lol Where is my house???lol

[Rosalie]

Sounds better all the time! But hey! don't lose the house!...thats where the makings for the Snow Bears are. We'd better tether ourselves to the porch. Got some loooooooooong rope?

[karen10300]

OOOHHH Traceann, I think Rosalie may be leading us astray. Would you do that Rosalie? Traceann, I'm thinking this is not as easy as Rosalie is making it sound.lol She says, oh, you just do this, this and this. No one has ever seen me do this, this and this and it goes according to how it is suppose to.LMAO I'm looking for my running shoes and running away from here before I'm brainwashed and I try this cake decorating again. Run? Me Run??? Like that's really going to happen is this lifetime.lol Will you believe a slow crawl?lol

[karen10300]

The Snow Bears are going to be where I work. Heck there are empty apartments there right now, so we can each find an apartment and sleep it off after we are done partying. May not have a job after that, but heck, who wants to work anyways?LMAO

[Rosalie]

What the heck Karen, if I'm over at your place, it means I'm on holidays and I don't care about the job! Where abouts in the US am I flying to anyway. I probably let the clan know where I am.....that's so they can ring me to find out where their clean socks are!...Seems I'm the only one in the house with eyes!

[traceann]

Oh yes, that Rosalie is a tricky one...before you know it we'll be knee-deep in cake batter and wondering just what the heck went wrong...I didn't know fondant could stick to the ceiling like that.....

Hey! I am all for losing the house!! I love the tether idea, maybe even the harness....Oh, where's Diana when we need her, she's a great bartender!! We'd better tie her up to the porch with us, we can't lose her....

[Rosalie]

What a pack of reprobates we make!
The universe surely would not have had us making contact, if it didn't mean for us to one day be together...sipping Snow Bears while tethered in our harnesses hanging over someone or elses kitchen while munching on one- eyed trouser snake sausage rolls? Hmmmm... ya think!

[traceann]

LMAO!! Ok Rosalie, my sip of hot tea I just took almost ended up sprayed all over the keyboard and the screen!! LOL Oh you just crack me up...Could you see us all?? Drunk and tethered, we'd be the talk of whatever town we were in...

Oh you are the only one with eyes in your home too?? Nice to know I am not alone in that area!

[karen10300]

Check out Rosalie's picture. She started partying without us. I guess we'll just have to drink fast and catch up with her. Tracey, where about in Michigan do you live? I live in Akron, Ohio which is about 45 minutes south of Cleveland. We could meet Rosalie's plane together. Of course I will have to put a thermos jug full of Snow Bears in my purse for us to share. Guess I better be buying a great BIG purse so I wil have enough . Wouldn't want to run out.lol Rosalie, you better hope your plane lands on time or else Tracey and I will have to keep ourselves really hydrated while we are waiting for you. i can see us all drunk and tethered. LMAO Might have to leave bail money for us all with someone we can trust who would come and bail us out of jail.lol

[dancemomof2]

I also save the instructions, but waiting to see how Tracey turns out.

[karen10300]

I'm with you Stasny,I'm going to wait until Tracey tries it and see if it is as easy as Rosalie makes it sound. I can do the older regular kind of cake decorating that I learned 30 years ago but haven't tried any of the new things. Maybe I will try it with cupcakes first. Kind of like the saying, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again and with cupcakes I would have alot to keep trying on. Either that or I will end up eating the cupcakes plain.lol

[traceann]

LMAO!!! Ok ladies, firstly, if it went horribly wrong - do you think I would tell? No way, misery loves company, LMAO!! :evilsmile It's funny, but I too thought about trying cupcakes as well, lots to practice on...

That reminds me of a funny story, well, it was funny at the time, lol. About 3 years ago for Valentine's Day, I made these little mini-cupcakes (used tart tins) and decided to make homemade icing - the works. Then I made these little piped-out-of-chocolate hearts, to peel off the wax paper when dried and poke into the top of the frosted cakes. For all the work, they turned out beautiful. Well, the plan was to take them for me, my best friend and her boyfriend, and my guy to share - our men are brothers (how I met my sweetie). We all used to stay at their family cabin up here in the north every weekend when they came up. That Friday (which was the actual Valentine's Day) her and I were doing our usual out-for-karaoke night, killing time til they arrived. It was getting later and later and she was getting madder and madder, I wasn't thrilled - but not mad yet, lol. They finally show up well after midnight and quite grumpy too (later we found out the hold-up was frozen pipes). All we did was ask where they'd been, and they turned right around and left! OK, now we were mad. So, she decides the thing to do is head over there to have it out, lol. All I did was walk in and grab my overnight bag and walk back out the door, (her and I would go over on Friday afternoon and start the woodstove and drop off our stuff). Next thing I know I hear quite a row of yelling, etc. and she comes trucking out with her stuff and the cupcakes! For all that happened between them, she had the presence of mind to grab them as in her words "she wasn't going to leave them there for them to enjoy!" All I could do was laugh, here she is in a big fight with her boyfriend, and she comes out the door with the cupcakes....

Anyway, lol, I live in the northern part of MI, on the "Sunrise Side" as they call it, lol. Up by Alpena, about 30 min south of it. My inlaws live in Royal Oak, so yeah, we could meet her plane. And yep, if it's late, we have to survive somehow, so the cocktails may be all gone..... :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:

[karen10300]

I love that story Tracey! LMAO What a smart friend you have. Sounds like something I would have hoped I had thought to do. Take those cupcakes away from those bad men.lol I can't believe you wouldn't tell us if the cake decorating went horribly wrong! I thought you would be a friend and say I did this but ut didn't work so don't try it that way. Man, I thought we were here to support one another.LMAO
I guess maybe we might need to take a sign with us to the airport with Rosalie's name on it, so she will know who we are. I hope she can read her name upside down or sideways, because you know how it is when you are in survival mode, things aren't always as they should be.lol

[Rosalie]

Hey! what happened to my post?????
I wrote one yesterday and look at it.....its not there!
Oh well, I suggest you make some decorated cupcakes to bring to the airport when you pick me up. I thought I'd bring Martha with me if thats ok.
Don't bother about my name on that sign , 'Snow Bears' will do.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.....maybe not cupcakes after all. Tracey might snatch them back if the plane's late :biglaugh:

[karen10300]

You're right Rosalie, tracey might snatch those cupcakes back. I guess the only thing you can hope for is that she will drop them one at a time and leave a trail as to where we went. Now if we are sipping those Snow Bears, waiting for you, that trail might not be straight. in fact it might be quite croocked.LMAO Of course it will probably lead to the potty room and back out several times if you are too late.

[Rosalie]

I thought Tracey might defend herself here..but shes probably out peeking in windows looking for freshly baked and decorated cupcakes to pinch! I can just see tomorrows headlines:

" Cake Burglar Strikes Again!"
Residents in the Michigan area are asked to be on the alert for the infamous "Cupcake Thief" who has been spotted in the area. Countless innocent cupcakes have dissappeared in the last week.
One distraught chef was overheard: "One minute they were cooling and then...sob...sob!...GONE"
Anyone sighting this villian is warned not to approach as she is armed with an icing bag, spatula and is dangerous!

[dancemomof2]

:biglaugh:

[karen10300]

Oh too funny Rosalie. Tracey's been gone for quite awhile. I bet she got busted stealing all those cupcakes. Headlines tomorrow:
" CAKE BUGULAR CAUGHT "
On a tip from a citizen, Michigan State Troopers, catch the infamous Cupcake Thief. Following a trail of cupcakes, officers apprehended The Cupcake Thief. The thief gave no resistance. She was not armed with her icing bag or spatula at the time because she was just coming out of the bathroom when officers entered her home. The thief was heard repeatingly saying, "It's not as easy as Rosalie led me to believe." On the next page are pictures of the trail of cupcakes leading officers to the house of the Cupcake Thief and of the trunk of her car where officers say there there were so many cupcakes that the trunk lid would not close. Citizens who have been robbed of their cupcakes may come to the police station and claim their cupcakes.

[traceann]

I'mmmmmmmmmmmmm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!! Ha ha ha!! I almost got away with it too! Darn those damn police dogs! Can sniff out a cupcake a mile away! Oh well, I'll just be smarter next time....LOL....

No no no, wasn't me!! I didn't take them back, she did!! LOL Although, I wished I had rememberd them, it was classic! LOL So, yes, I think like Karen said, we can leave a trail of them... and yep, again, they might not be the straightest trail, into the potty, out again, back to the bar, into the potty, back to the bar -- I think you get the idea!!


Oh, and here's my weapon of choice, not the gray one, (which is an average sized spatula, aka normal size) the purple one is the one they caught me red-handed with....

http://static.flickr.com/26/88054574_c63a41df74_m.jpg

[Rosalie]

That spatula looks like a "lethal weapon!" You could scrape out the insides of a cement mixer with the likes of that!
Nice try blaming the whole sordid affair on someone eles.....Shame on you! How do you explain the car bootfull of cupcakes then?

[andcohen]

:biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
OMG you guy's are too funny. Thanks for the laugh yet again, we really seam to have quiet a comical ( sp?) bunch on these boards.
Anyway just wanted to let you know Rosalie that you better not leave for the states without me by your side, I will be very very sad not to get a chance to meet our IC buddies. :( HA HA you will have to wait till I sell my house though I'm a bit broke at the moment.
Anyway Rosalie I just wanted to let you know that hopefully at this stage I am going to be in Melbourne on March the 16th ( I think? will have to check the date again) I have an app. with a DR. there, & I was hopping that was when the support group meeting was, I meant to check the Chris Murray but with all that has been going on I didn't get around to it. The DR's I am going to is in Brunswick st Fitzroy, do you know of any places around there to stay? I'm guessing it's a bit away from the city? I'm not sure how long I will be there but it would be great to be able to catch up with you again.
Anyway I better be off, have to go & pick up Cohen now.
Thanks again all for the laughs.
Andrea :grouphug:

[traceann]

Ok, ok ok ok, I mean it was me, I admit that...but the reposessing of the cupcakes, that wasn't me.... I steal them, I don't give then steal...LMAO!!!

Oh yes, my spatula was a Christmas gift from mom-in-law, I think it was intended to keep her son in line...LOL!!!!!

Off to bed for me ladies!! Nighty night!!!!

;)

[Rosalie]

Andrea, Brunswick St Fitzroy is only just out of the city so you could stay in town and still be withing walking distance or just a tramride away. I can look into some for you if you like. Will you be bringing Cohen with you? We most certainly will catch up.
And don't worry, my plans to visit all the American crazies definately includes you. Won't we all have just the best time....now all I need is to win that blasted tattslotto!
I'll check with the Mercy and see if I can find out when the next support meeting is. It should be around that time.

[traceann]

Oh yes, the visiting would be so fun!! Mental instability is a must-have bring along item, lol. Oh and good booze.

[andcohen]

Thanks Rosalie,
At this stage I am just about to cancel the appoitment & not worry :headbang: THe Dr's office is being very :loco: about the app. because they are moving offices or something a rather & not sure when or where they are going to be. I don't know I just don't seam to be able to make any sence out of her. I said well carn't I just go to where the new offices are? OH but their over the other side of town, I told her it dosen't worry me where I go I am travelling over 7hrs to get there anyway, but I just carn't make sence of her. I suggested makeing the app. for later on in the year but she won't tell me where their moving too. :hmm: It was all going to be easy with Justin around as we could have driven but now he isn't I have no idea what to do???? There is no way I could drive that far or anywhere around the city. I could go by bus or train but that makes it hard with Cohen even if Mum come with me to help he is such a grummpy butt it would be sooo stressfull I would end up in a flare & boy what fun that would be. Mum said she will come but then I have no one that Cohen could stay with as my dad will be working & I know he would just be upset anywhere else. So the only other option is to go by myself but I would have no idea of where to go or what to do I would get in a major panic & once again be in a flare . :toilet: So because they carn't yet 100% confirm that the app. will still be ok at that time I just feel like :cussing: :cussing: Have no idea what to do.???? I think I said that before I think I am rambeling now so I better go.
Andrea :bonk: :bonk:

P.S Rosalie do you see DR Helen Connell & are you happy with her & her knowledge of IC? Maybey I will have to change DR's & try & get in with her, but I really wanted to DR Rosamilia........ I think I will just put it in the too hard basket for the moment.

Sorry to everyone else who had to read through all this garbage I had meant to send it as a pm to Rosalie but typed it in the reply to post & didn't now how to change it without deleating the whole thing & starting again.

[Rosalie]

Andrea, don't worry I will come and get you from where ever you are staying and take you to the doctors. That would not be a problem. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere for you to sleep here. But being your chauffeur would be my pleasure.
I see Dr Anita Ckarke and am happy with her so far. Don't know if anyone else here sees Dr Connell.
Where are the offices moving to?
If you fly down I will pick you up from the airport or from the station if you came down by train.
Anyway, the offer is there for you if that makes it any easier. Try not to stress over it. Perhaps ring the office one more time to see if you can sort things out.

[andcohen]

Thanks Rosalie you are a true angel. I will talk about a bit more over the weekend with mum & see what I can come up with. At this stage I don't know about Cohen? It would be much easier without him because of having to make it such a quick trip & not having our own car.
As I said I will throw the ideas around abit agian. But thank you so so much for the offer of being a taxi service I might take you up on that one ( of course I will give you some money of fuel) I would love to spend some time with you & do some sight seeing if you have any spare time? What part of Melbourne are you in, mabey I could stay close to you somwhere so then you wouldn't have to travel so far. Just a thought. Are you going to the support group?? It would be great to catch up with Kirsten too.
Again thankyou, you are a real sweetie :kissing:
Actulay if you were able to be my taxi lady I would come by myself because mum could have Cohen & that would solve that problem. And with all my dramas I would love a couple of days away on my own :woohoo:
Talk to you soon...... sorry I seem to having taken over the topic of cake decorating oops :tsk:
Andrea :grouphug:

[traceann]

LOL, Andrea, most of our craft threads end up way off topic, but that's just part of the fun, so don't worry about it!!! :)

HUGS!

[karen10300]

I'm glad it is off topic. This way that bright thought that I once had about trying cake decorating again is fading into the distant past. LMAO They say stress is bad for IC and I'm sure me trying the newer things with cake decorating would have caused me extreme stress. Look, Tracey got arrested because of it LOL. Now if that isn't stressful I don't know what is.lol

[traceann]

You're right, honestly who knew something that's so innocent could cause so may problems??? Frightening really......So, what's next? LOL

[dancemomof2]

I want that "weapon" to scare my children with. It looks more threatening that the wooden spoon tactic. :biglaugh: You would think that all the worthless thing MIL come up with mine would have found that for me by now. How dare you torture those poor cipcakes like this.

[traceann]

I know it's not nice, but it's fun scaring them right out of their little liners!! LOL

Yeah, shoot, my mom used the wooden spoon tactic on me...only took one time then all she had to do was say she was getting the spoon.... Even funnier, we were staying with a family friend one weekend and her daughter and I were close in age. Her and I were playing hide and seek, and I hid in the back of her mom's closet...where I discovered every single wooden spoon in the house...her daughter had hidden them all....LMAO!!!!!

[karen10300]

I use to use that same tactic years ago when my kids where little.LMAO. Also use to have a ruler in the drawer of the coffee table. I would just have to reach and act like I was going to open the drawer and suddenly there were angels in the room. To this day my daughter and son laugh about it. My daughter told my son-in-law shortly after they got married and were at my house visiting and everyone was messing around and joking, "You better behave or mom will get the ruler." LMAO

[Rosalie]

This is my latest. It was made for a joint 70th, 50th and 40th birthday celebration. My friend Duncans mother, brother and his family were visiting from England. As these important birthdays are all this year he used them as an excuse for a party for all to meet his relatives. Duncan was adopted in England 48years ago. A few years back he found his biologocal mother and brothers and sisters he never knew.
The cake is chocolate mud with white ganache on the top and milk chocolate on the side to hold the white and milk chocolate shapes. The leaves are made from chocolate leather in the shapes of the Australian Gum leaf and the
English Oak. And ,I must say it was Yum!!!!!!!!! Going on a new diet today!
http://static.flickr.com/41/98902885_b0a286f890.jpg

[traceann]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!! And yummy looking too....so much for my watching calories, must go find some chocolate now....

;)

[dg2901]

Tracey, what kind of chocolate did you hunt down and eat? We bought 4, yeah thats right 4, bags of M&M's last night; if you want one or two M's just let me know--they'll be in the mail (just like your cookie dough!!!!!)... :biglaugh: :biglaugh:

[Rosalie]

D, I wouldn't trust your postie with those M & Ms! None of the stuff you post ever gets to its destination. And the reverse is the same. That's the only reason I won't be sending you any mudcake. I just can't be sure it would arrive.

[dg2901]

Theres always UPS...even so it probably still wouldnt arrive at its final destination.

[Rosalie]

:biglaugh: I just read your post and for the life of me I couldn't work out what you were talking about "ups".?..I'm thinking ups and downs kind of 'ups"
Then I realized it must be some postal service... :biglaugh:

[traceann]

LOL, sounds like our house with the M&M thing, lol. Jer found 4lb bags at Walmart and they ended up in the cart.... 4 pounds of plain, and 4 pounds of peanut, and they were gone in a week!! I have been trying to avoid them like the plague... But, my mom got us some really neat chocolate for Valentine's Day so I tried some...oh my, yum-o! My fave is the coffee and cream flavor...positively sinful!!!

Yes, I am afraid my UPS driver would eat the stuff before it got to me.... ;)

[dg2901]

hahahhahaha..Ro' UPS stands for United Parcel Service. They are mostly used for packages, not regular mail...sorry, i should have explained. I sometimes forget youre 1456871124485786121475432115746756 million miles away.

Tracey, you can never trust any of the parcel carriers!

[Rosalie]

That would make the sun closer than Oz!
You know we are just a short trip accross the Pacific.... be careful not to bump into all those little islands in the South Pacific, down through the Tasman Sea and then slip into Bass Strait, hang a rightie at the Heads up into Port Phillip Bay...watch out coming through the heads as the rip is fierce, keep heading north and voila...station pier!
Now if you choose to come directly from your side of the US D..it's accross the Atlantic, down to the South Atlantic Ocean...watch out for the Horn of Africa..Hmmm....can get pretty nasty seas, chuck a leftie, skirt the Southern Ocean till you hit the West Aussie coast( give Perth a miss) keep going east young man, once you hit Bass Strait chuck a leftie again into Port Phillip Bay.

Eazy peazy!

10165 miles (16359 km) (8833 nautical miles) as the crow flies from Melbourne to Williamsburg

[dg2901]

LMAO!...i love your directions! Now I need you to go back and find directions from Norfolk because I'd have to travel 45 minutes to get to Williamsburg just to have to head back this way to get to you..hahaha..would be like going around my arse to get to my elbow.. :biglaugh:
When I get my boat i'm going to drop it into the Atlantic (at Rudee Inlet,Va.Beach,VA, to be specific) and head your way! I'll let you know when I make that purchase so you can get to baking me a cake.

And back to U.P.S--that is indeed a global carrier..have you not seen them in your neck of the woods?..haha.. How about DHL or FedEX?

[Rosalie]

I've heard of FedEx in the film Castaway with Tom hanks but thats about it. Our main carrier is Australia Post but there are lots of private companies.
If you are travelling here by boat don't do a Tom Hanks will you?

[traceann]

Rosalie does give great directions, doesn't she Diana?? LOL I got to giggling when I read them! It'd take me forever in a boat...first I gotta find my way out of the Great Lakes....lmao!

[dg2901]

FedEx, UPS, DHL, Australia Post-its all good!..haha

I can see Tracey going in circles around the Great Lakes trying to break free..

[Rosalie]

Perhaps Tracey should come by plane, might save her getting lost.
Tracey when I was in my final year at high school, one of my elected subjects was geography and the main topic was the New England States. The Great Lakes always captured my interest. We don't have the equivalent here...they are enormous!

[traceann]

LOL, I could see myself just going from lake to lake in one big circle too Diana!! LMAO!!

I think a plane would definitely be the best way for me to go, otherwise I'd end up on an island like Tom Hanks...WILSON!!!!!! lol

I have lived on Lake Huron the majority of my life, and it wasn't until Jeremy that I had ever been out on it in a boat!! LMAO! I was a little inland lake girl.....

[dg2901]

Lived on the water for how many years and never got your feet wet...lol

[traceann]

LOL, the most I did was swim, and that was about until age 14 -- that was when I discovered that mom was right...it really was COLD!!!! LMAO!!!

[dg2901]

Does the water ever really get warm in Michigan?
I would think with such brutal long winters there wouldnt be enough time or warm water circulating to warm up the lakes, rivers, etc...

[traceann]

Lake Huron gets "warm" by like August, lol. But that's in shore, further out -the colder it gets. The inland lakes, can get quite nice, but most of them have yucky bottoms so I am not a big fan of swimming in them, lol. I avoid at all costs..... LOL!

[Rosalie]

Its been quiet here on the cake thread. Hasn't anyone catered a party for a while?
My little girl, Hilary, turned 18 on 17th Oct and all she wanted was the same cake that she had for her 6th birthday! She is still a huge Care Bears fan.
http://static.flickr.com/104/291279017_3ccba66b3c.jpg

My friends daughter Erin turned 18 in Sept and this is the cake I made for her party
http://static.flickr.com/107/250471155_c6127d4d34.jpg
And my son's 21st birthday cake in July. He is a model train buff and the little train ran around the cake all night!
http://static.flickr.com/69/195137095_581a416d32.jpg
At the moment I am working on a most unusual wedding cake.It is orange and burgandy. I will post some pics when it is done.

[Rosalie]

On the weekend I went to a friends daughters 30th birthday bash. She is a mad Elmo fan. Her cake of course.....

http://static.flickr.com/116/295851546_807337ffb2.jpg

I told her that it must have been a 'Tickle me Elmo' cause he giggled when I was icing his feet! hahahahaha