10 Wonderful Years!

Yesterday was my 10th Wedding Anniversary. I don't feel that old. Some days it doesn't feel like that much time has passed. Much of the time it feels like I have known my husband all my life and that we have always been together. It's just how it is supposed to be.


My life has not gone the way I thought it would. If you had asked the girl in that picture where she thought she would be in 10 years, she'd probably told you living in the Northwest a block away from one of Jason's brothers, with four kids, the white picket fence, the 9-5 job, blissfully happy.



I may not be where I thought I would be, or have the things I thought I would by now, but I don't think I could be happier with my marriage or family. I didn't realize then that I would be able to love my husband more than I did that day. How could it possibly grow any bigger or deeper? I still feel that thrill of excitement when he walks through the door. I still have not tired of staring into his eyes, holding his hand, just being by him. He still makes me laugh. He still makes me feel cherished. I know my happiness means more to him than anything. What more could anyone possibly want?



We have two beautiful daughters. They have brought so much love and richness to our lives. I will never forget watching Jason hold them for the first time. I will never forget just laughing with joy the day our first daughter was born and the indescribable feeling of completeness the day our second daughter was born.



Where do I see myself in 5 more or 10 more years? I really don't know, but as long as I have Jason and my girls, I don't really care.

Happy Anniversary Ja!

Two posts in one day, the world has gone mad!

I guess it's not technically the same day since it's 12:12 as I type. I just had to share the exciting news! I'm doing a wedding cake next month!! Yeah!

People keep asking me for business cards and web addresses etc, and I think I'm really going to take the plunge. This may actually be a worthwhile business for me, and I need your help. I cannot think of business name. Julia wants me to be "Queen of Cakes" I wanted "Sweet Nothings" but it's taken, Jason suggested "Ivey Icings." Really people, I NEED HELP!!! Please leave any and all suggestions. And please excuse my overuse of exclamation points. If I were a superhero, that would be my fatal flaw. And the fact that I can no longer run even a mile... woe is me!

Cake Madness!!!

I honestly don't know how this has happened, but I have been making cakes like a madwoman lately. My house and children are complete disasters because of it. Don't get me wrong, I love making all these cakes, but it's really beginning to take it's toll. I am definitely feeling the need to get this business up and running as well. People keep asking for business cards and web address and all I can say is, "I thought this was a hobby..."

On to the cakes! First up is the "Luau Theme Cake." This one was such a learning experience for me. Aren't they all though? :) I had never made gumpaste flowers before, and had ordered a book and cutters from Nicholas Lodge to help teach me what to do. Unfortunately for me, they were closed over the 3rd & 4th of July, so my order did not make it in time. Wouldn't you know it arrived the day after I made my flowers.


What I ended up doing was using a 6 petal cutter I already own, and cut out the extra petal and then just shaped it the best I could. They are not perfect or anatomically correct, but it was for a 5-yr-old's birthday, not the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show.


The purple flowers are supposed to be a hibiscus. I think they look nice, but they are not "correct."


The pink and white and the yellow flowers are plumerias. These are the flowers you often see in hawaiian jewelry (I have a ring myself) and in leis. I LOVE them!


The hula dancer is a chocolate figure of course. It was trickier working with a darker skin tone. I was not expecting that. I also had never done a standing figure. All I can say is I'm glad she's wearing a grass skirt!


I tried to make the fondant on the cake look like the ocean. It's also how they do the "marbled" look if you've seen that before. It was actually fairly simple to do. You just squirt dots of color on the fondant and knead a couple of times, then roll it out. I think I'll be doing more marbled cakes. I like the effect and it hides many flaws! :)


The sand is graham cracker crumbs. I thought I was being wise by waiting until I delivered it to put it on, but it made a huge mess and it didn't stick to the side of the "island" so I had to use royal icing and then get the crumbs on and well I'm sure I looked pretty amusing to the people who bought the cake! The cake is Triple Chocolate Fudge with Fresh Strawberry Filling and Vanilla Icing. Yummy combo!


I was very excited to use my edible image printer to do the writing for me, I don't really enjoy doing that.

This second cake was also due the same day as the Luau cake. I don't think I'll be doing that again, that was a bit more than I could handle right now! This was for my niece, Ally's, friend.


I really like this one. I like the color combination and I think I may actually be getting the hang on scroll work! This chocolate icing was much easier to work with than the royal icing on Sleeping Beauty's cake. This is a Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with caramel filling and chocolate icing covered in fondant with a gumpaste bow.

I asked a friend of mine if I could use her glue gun to put the ribbon around the edge of the Hula cake, and when she brought it over and saw what I was doing she asked if I'd make one for her big extended family birthday party on Monday. At that point I hadn't assembled either cake and thought I'd have left over flowers and bow loops so it wouldn't be a big deal to slap something together for her. I was wrong wrong wrong wrong. I used all but one flower and every last bow loop. Somehow I managed to get this one together in time for her though! I really really like this one!


She is the one that ordered the lady bug cake. And she absolutely loves my cheesecake filling, so this is a white cake with strawberry cheesecake filling and the most diving vanilla icing I have ever worked with! and covered in fondant with chocolate icing dots and border and gumpaste bow and flowers.

Would you believe I still have another cake to make this month?? I'll post about that in another week or so. We have company coming so I'll warn you right now I'm going to drop off the face of the earth for a week and a half. Hope you all have a great time!

Had to join in the fun!

I saw this on Jessica's blog, and had to give it a try.

You Are Dr. Pepper

You're very unique and funky, yet you still have a bit of traditionalism to you. People who like you think they have great taste... and they usually do. Your best soda match: Root Beer Stay away from: 7 Up

What Kind of Soda Are You?

Looks like we can't be friends Jessica! :) Back to the cakes...

Happy Birthday Big Sis!

Today is my sister, Kristie's birthday. For those of you who have not been to her blog, she is an amazingly talented knitter. You really should go look at some of the socks she has done recently, and the gorgeous lace work she is doing. She is also so generous about her knitting. She is constantly knitting things for other people and donating tons to various charities. I just can't say enough good things about her!

She sent me pictures of the cake, or rather cupcakes, she wants and I just had to share the link because they are too cute! http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/#comment-1984

This week I am making 2 cakes for complete and total strangers and wishing I could have figured out some way to send one to my sister. I did attempt sending a royal icing tiara I made to my niece in Pittsburgh. We'll see how that goes! I really need to get back to those cakes, can you tell I'm trying to avoid the endless amount of work still to go???

Where I've Been Part 2

The following pictures are not something that kept me from blogging necessarily, they are just really cute pictures of my girls and I had to share!

Playing dress up! My older sister, Debi, was telling me how her daughter, Sophie, loves to treat her younger sister, Eva, like a doll. She dresses her up and puts make up on her and does her hair and carts her around basically torturing the poor thing, but Eva does not seem to mind. I mentioned this to Julia, not the torture part, and suddenly playing with Sydni is no longer such a bad thing.



They went through several looks, starting with Tinkerbell. You can't tell from the photo, but she actually has her hair up just like Tinks. Very cute!


Next they both dressed up like Belle and Belle must have a rose. I know they aren't red or magical, but it's still a rose.


One last dress up picture of Sydni. She does this little smile every time you tell her you are going to take her picture. Also not a great shot of the hair, but it was hilarious. She even put a bell in her hair. It was kind of nice, she couldn't sneak up on me like she loves to do!


Now we get to what really kept me from blogging. The Sleeping Beauty Birthday Cake. I made this cake for a lady who works at my dentist's office little girl, Paizley. I brought part of my Tinkerbell cake to the office since I practically live there and I had to get the cake out of my house! She loved it and I got a job!
I love love love Sleeping Beauty so this one was especially fun for me. Here's a close up of Beauty. Once again she is made of modeling chocolate and the dress is gumpaste. It's all edible! And I posted her on Cake Central and I am shamelessly bragging here- I was "Popular Cake Photo Added Today" again!! :)

Where I've Been... Part 1

I really did not intend to totally drop off the face of the earth like that, I promise! Things just got crazy around here with visitors and cake making. I have so many things to share, I'm not sure where to begin...
First of all we had unexpected by very welcome visitors, my hubby's brother, wife and kids. They used to live by us and we have kids close in age, so it was so wonderful to see them. I really miss hanging out with them, but alas they have been sucked into the Albuquerque hole (no offense Shay) with the rest of my husband's family and since moving there just isn't really an option for us, seeing them on holidays will have to do.


Here's all the kids being their true selves- absolutely nuts! Starting from the top and going left to right we have baby Brooke (1), Danica (7), my Sydni (2), Bridger (3), Morgan (5) and my Julia (8). I really wish they could live two doors down from me and the kids could hang out every day, they had sooooo much fun! I miss them.

Here's another shot of the girls before we went to the mall, Laura (my SIL) and I are kind of a bad combo in that when we get together we like to shop. She is very stylish and I don't feel like such a moron going into stores I used to shop in when I was younger but usually feel like too much of a Mom to go into now.


The next round of visitors was my sister Angie, her hubby Ken and their kids Kati and Michael. They were on their way back from Vegas and it was Michael's birthday so he just had to have a cake! I got to use my printer!!! He wanted a Star Wars cake, and I thought doing the lava and the big fight at the end of the 3rd one would be fun. My niece got to stay at our house for a few days after that. We had a lot of fun, but I didn't take pictures. I so suck... I also got to see a couple of friends from high school while my niece was here. We went to my friend Aaron and his wife's home in West Jordan and my other friend Julie and her hubby came. We hung out and played Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. Now that was funny. Once again, no camera. It was so great to see them again, and to see all their adoreable little children. Both of them have a set of twins. Too cute!! Here's the cake though:


After that, my parents came to visit for my daughter Julia's dance recital. Sydni FINALLY warmed up to my parents and even loved Grandpa to tickle her. The older girls were running away from Grandpa so he couldn't tickle them, but she kept running up to him and holding out her little foot so he could tickle her. Very cute!



Here's a picture of Julia and her friend Bailey before they danced. The ballet this year was "Over the Rainbow" based on "Wizard of Oz." That's all for now!