One Part Inspiration...

Early in January, my daughter and I were talking back and forth on our phones.  She told me that she was planning to take a cake decorating course.  I said "Oh fun!" and her next message changed the course of my winter evenings.  "Do you want to take it with me?" I thought about it for a couple of minutes and then spontaneously said yes. It has been a blast.  I have learned a lot.   This particular lesson was how to transfer a shape onto the cake and decorate in the middle of it.  It involves parchment and tracing a shape with gel.  If you look close you will see that I was trying to make a cupcake shape on the cake.  You don't see it?  Don't worry.  It's not there.  I started trying to freehand it and realized that it looked nothing like the transfer would have if I had actually used the gel to trace the cupcake shape.  So I smoothed it all over and practiced using the star tip instead.  Goodbye cupcake. Hello avan...

I started this post a year ago.   And here we are a few days away from the 'spring ahead' time change. What did I want to say about Time Change a year ago?  I have no idea.  But tonight, I have a few things that occur to me. I look forward to the evening light.  It will be nice to come home in the late afternoon and know that I don't have to scurry inside and cozy down for the night, but can hang out and enjoy the sunset or take a longer walk with the dog. I look forward to stretching out my winter muscles. I look forward to bringing out the BBQ.  And putting away the soup tureen. Here's to burgers and fresh salads! I look forward to leaving the long winter nights behind and getting out into the garden and coaxing the bulbs and blooms into action. I am going to enjoy making an appointment to get my toes done.  Nothing says summer like pretty toes. I also will enjoy taking the flowers from the garden and practicing my floral des...