Monday, May 12, 2014

Crazy how time flies by....

It has been awhile since I posted and I truly apologize for that! Family obligations and the holidays always seem to take a ton of time to recover from, lol. That, and the fact that it is kind of overwhelming to take care of all the social media involved with putting out new designs, answering questions, helping kids make things that don't understand how to make something. And I definitely haven't been able to record as much as I have wanted to lately, but I will be putting out some things tonight, after I play a little catch up that is. I think I also hit a little not so much creativity block, but more an "I wonder if people will still like what I put out if it's not the extravagant bracelets I have done in the past" or "is this just a rip off of my own design, is it not new enough to entice people to want to watch it?" I guess that I'm just doubting my creativity and ability lately.


Anyways, what has been new with me. I made 100 cupcakes for my son's boy scout troop which they then sold to raise money for all the activites that they do. I wasn't super impressed with my job, (I set some pretty high standards for myself which isn't always a good thing! lol) but I'll share them anyways. I think that I spent too much time putting some of the elements together that I got either bored or just rushed to get them done.


 This is kind of the overview of what each box held. I told you they weren't very fancy, lol.
 This was the bunny. The ears are chocolate dipped pretzel spoons, the eyes were from Wilton, nose is an M&M, whiskers are Twizzler pull-n-peel and the smile was just piped on frosting. I had high hopes for them, but they weren't as polished as I hoped. I think my carpel tunnel played a part in that too...squeezing piping bags for hours with chocolate and frosting is not fun for the wrist/hand.
 I made these butterflies with Wilton's stand up butterfly molds. However, either I didn't wait long enough or they just suck...and pretty much all the stand up parts broke off so I had to improve the body with the Twizzlers and eyes. Most look goofy, lol.
 These were supposed to be Easter eggs, but what a pain, lol. I took some plastic Easter eggs, broke them in half, coated them with a bit of shortening on the outside and then just drizzled or dotted different colors of melted chocolate over them until they were firm enough to withstand me removing them from the egg shell. They were cute and they tasted good, but they just seemed too messy in appearance. I loaded the inside of the hollow shells with M&M's for a little surprise. I had originally bought edible Easter grass to put around the outside to make a kind of nest, but it just wouldn't stay put. The little bunnies are from the Easter grass package. They are like a thin ice cream cone in texture and they didn't have a lot of taste to them, but they weren't horrible.



These last ones were the result of running out of the bunny ears and eggs to make the other cupcakes. I didn't want to make more of the butterflies so I just melted some chocolate into this other scroll/ shape mold from Wilton. They were alright, but kind of an odd ball in the mix.












So, yey! Cupcakes!


I also was busy with helping out a company that provides role players for the military to use in training exercises. I had done it several years back and they called out of the blue as they were in a pinch and needed help. It's actually a pretty neat process for those involved. Role players are given crappy clothes to wear, they have professional make up artists apply make up to match the scenario being trained for. This last one involved pretending that there was an explosion and the release of a toxic gas. So the role players get make up resembling broken bones, gashes, blisters, burns, things that could really happen. Then they are instructed to play out their roles in a real manner...broken leg? don't move it, act out the pain, be hysterical, be helpful to others, be in shock....it's fun. The military then responds and has to treat you as if you have the injuries you show. I'm usually behind the scenes, but this time I ran through a few times. I love getting the make up on, lol. And it's actually kind of fun to be carried and carted around on a stretcher while you pretend to be unconscious. I do not however like the decontamination process where we strip (or they cut off your clothes if you're unconscious) down to bathing suits (real life you'd be naked!) and then get doused with cold water...no fun at all, lol.


Other than that, it's just the crazy busy world of a mom with 4 kids and a hubby to boot, lol.






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