Hello Kitty

I made a cake for a very special friend recently and  I thought I would share it here. I hope you all like it. It’s pretty simple, but she absolutely loves Hello Kitty and I wanted to do something special for her.  🙂

Let me know what you think or if you’d like to see something specific in the future! 🙂

We live in Hawaii now….BAAM – WHAT??!

A beautiful beach in Kailua 🙂

A little over a year ago we arrived in Hawaii.  Well, Oahu, to be exact. Our new home. FOR 2 more years!  This will be the longest we have ever lived anywhere since we were married in 2000. 🙂  This is our first time in this beautiful place.  And it IS beautiful.  Let me assure you.  Every day I see things that are so gorgeous, they seem like CGI.  (This is also how I felt the first time I saw Mt.Ranier in Washington…so pretty, it looked fake—also my first time ever seeing a real mountain…but I digress). The water here is Blue.  Seriously blue.  Everywhere.  I had never seen blue water in person before we arrived here.  It is mesmerizing!  I am from the South (Louisiana) and the water in the Gulf of Mexico is NOT blue.  It is brown..murky, warm and muddy looking.  I have also been to the beach in Savannah, GA…also not blue.  The water on the Washington shore is more greyish…and so very cold!  So this blue stuff is very much a novelty to me!  I don’t think I will ever get used to it.  I could stand there and stare at it all day, not to mention listen to the waves crashing.  It has always been a favorite of mine, especially since we lived in Monterey, CA.  I did mention that we move, A LOT, right? 😉

Before we got here, I was very anxious about moving and going somewhere new (which happens every time we have to move -about every 2 1/2 years).  But once I got here, holy cow.  The people have been exceptionally friendly, the food here is pretty yummy and the weather is very pleasant. Even during the summer the weather was mildish. We got lucky to get a house with air conditioning but even in houses without it, it isn’t horrible. When it says 90 put it feels more like upper 70s. Very different from the South! In Louisiana with the severe humidity, 90 would give you a heat stroke! Our two kids are loving this area!  Beaches, sand, trees they have never seen before, new animals (birds mostly – our daughter is obsessed with animals) and beautiful plant life.  I have posted a few pics on my Instagram (@knottedkitchen). We are very excited to be stepping into this new chapter in our lives.  I always love getting some where new and learning the culture and nuances of the area.  It takes time but is extremely interesting.  I am hoping that we will be able to move to Germany after this.  Germany is our end-all dream assignment.  We want to travel Europe in the worst way. 🙂

Does anyone have any tidbits about Hawaii to share?  Places to go or not to go? Things to do with the kids unique to the area?  Please feel free to share with me!  🙂  I would love to hear from ya’ll.

Beautiful sunset near Dillingham Airfield.

Adventurous Crafter

Single Layer

I decided early in the year to make as many Christmas presents as I could.  There are many reasons for this decision.

1.  We are broke….often. 😉

2.  I am still unable to drive, so shopping around for good deals isn’t really an option for me.  I have gotten a few things online but I have a hard time finding the right thing online…I’m a weirdo.

3.  I am pretty crafty.  I am stuck at home pretty much every day (all the freaking time…ugh. I never would have thought that going to Target for an hour would be the highlight of my week) so it gives me something else to do besides cleaning house, cooking, washing dishes, laundry, and trying to teach my children not to be… insufferable a holes …um..I mean…unkind, when they get older.

4.  People seem to sincerely enjoy the things that I create.  This in turn makes me feel good.

I am a baker.  I create pretty yummy things that are *mostly* nice to look at. 😉  I also crochet, draw, paint and sew.  So I will post things along these tracks in the future.  For today, I would like to post a scarf that I made for my daughter’s teacher for Christmas.  I decided to make a ruffle scarf for her.  I have seen her in the past wear some of these and I hadn’t ever made one.  (This is something that I do…make impulsive decisions to attempt to undertake projects of which I have never tried before….AND ALWAYS under a time limit.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  I mean, um, I am an adventurous crafter.  Yup.  That’s what I meant.

I guess I work better under pressure.  Who knows?  All I know is that if I put a time limit on myself and tell people that I am going to make it, I will actually make it.  If I don’t do this, my intentions go out the window.  That’s me.  Great intentions, poor execution (unless I am on a time limit or someone is paying me for it (i.e. cake orders or cookie orders).  SO, if there is ever anything you gorgeous people would like to see me attempt or completely crash and burn at, give me a holler.  🙂

After deciding to make this scarf, I went to JoAnn’s craft store with my blogger friend and purchased the ruffle yarn.  THEN I decided to research how to make it.  Cause I am smart that way.  #notsomuch.   The problem with this plan is that I haven’t really learned how to read patterns yet.  I try, but I always screw them up and have to start over.  (I have a hat that I have tried to make 9 times.  NOT exaggerating. I have had to undo the stupid hat 9 FREAKING TIMES.  BUT I will not give up.  I will make that stupid friggen hat if it kills me.

My friend and I went to JoAnn’s again two days after Thanksgiving to take advantage of the awesome sales.  Holy crap the lines were intense! BUT, we ended up with savings of about 50% each, which is kind of worth waiting in line for three hours to get fabric cut…(Still love ya, T).  While standing in line for the fabric, we met a nice lady.  She also had the ruffle yarn and on impulse I asked her if she knew how to make the scarves.  She proceeded to explain it to me and how easy it was.  I’M A FREAKING LUCKY GIRL.  I got home and promptly started on it.  And FINISHED it a few days later.  I have gotten lots of compliments on it and a few requests. 🙂  If you would like me to explain how to do it, I can.  Just let me know.  For now, I will just post pics of it. 😉

I hope that everyone has a great day!

Double Layer

Hello again.

I am sitting here thinking and debating on what I should blog about next. I have talked to one of my best friends, who also blogs, about this in detail. I have also picked a few people’s brains with regards to this problem.  I live with anxiety and sometimes depression and it causes me to FREAK out about silly things.  I worry about whether or not I will be boring or be thought of as ridiculous for the things I post.  But I had an epiphany earlier…isn’t this place for me too?  I think that I should just chill the freak out and just post what I want to post. 🙂  Any thoughts?  

The other reason for my sabbatical was illness.  I have dealt with something since Oct/Nov of 2012.  I have been given three different diagnoses from three different doctors.  No one really knows why I am still suffering with it and no one really knows what it is exactly.  SO, I am just trying to keep pushing myself and try to get over it. Some doctors say that I have Labrynthitis, some say peripheral Vertigo, some say Vestibular neuritis.  I will not bore ya’ll with details but suffice it to say that I am walking on my own and I am slowly recovering.  It kind of sucks but it is sooo much better than it was last year.  

I signed up for this blog in August of 2012 and got sick right afterwards.  So, since I am feeling better and I am more lucid than I was, I am going to try to start blogging on a regular basis.  I don’t have any followers yet, but I am ok with that.  Maybe this will serve as a therapeutic release for me. 🙂  

If anyone does decide to read my posts, thank you and feel free to email or comment. 🙂  

Here is a website to give ya’ll an idea about what Labrynthitis is.

http://vestibular.org/labyrinthitis-and-vestibular-neuritis

The Beginning!

I wanted to start as far back as I could to show my beginnings.  So that if anyone out there was discouraged and thinking (Like I used to…and to be truthful, still do sometimes) that the works of others that have been decorating for years are intimidating and overwhelming….well, I just wanted to say that YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE!

I have tried to always make my kids’ birthday cakes.  Sometimes it came out great, sometimes not so great.  These pics are of my kids’ birthday party in 2009.  I had made cakes before but they were nothing like these.  I didnt even realize that I could create stuff like this at home! Why on earth did I ever buy cake from the store?? My friend Christine introduced me to Wilton gel food colorings. I had seen them at the store but never looked twice at them.  I came up with the design and even back then, I drew out my design so I had something to look at for reference when I was panicking about the cake during the decorating process.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…listen closely!   Every single time I am in the middle of decorating, I panic.

*What if I mess up?
*What if they hate it?
*What if one of their guests is allergic to what I made?
*What if someone (me—clumsiest person I know) drops the cake before it gets there?
*What if when Im not looking, my kids take a chunk out of the cake?
*What if the colors are off?
*What if they take one look at it and say, OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS?? IS THIS WHAT YOU BROUGHT ME? 😦
*What if they say, “that’s not what I ordered!”
*Or I get the dreaded, “oh….its….cute. thanks.” (lower case to emphasis the horrible disappointed sound of their voice)

Those are just a few of the terrifying scenarios that run through my head any given day I am decorating! BUT, I havent ever recieved any of those comments from a client (Thank goodness….and uh, KNOCK ON WOOD-just for good measure).  Most of the time people are just happy that they didnt have to make the cake themselves and are happy to have the detailed little accents on the cake. 🙂

On this occasion, the clients were my children and they were exstatic to recieve cakes with their favorite things on them.

Ok, so I am not a great writer and I am not terribly witty, but I hope you enjoyed listening

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So, for my first time, I think I did pretty well.  I didnt know anything about crumb coating or smoothing icing or buttercream.  I used the store-bought stuff for these.  (GASP!!!–unheard of in this house now!!)  Spongebob’s feet, arms and legs are made out of swiss rolls. 🙂

 

I could really tear this one apart listing its flaws but my baby loved it, so it was perfect!! 🙂

My first blogging post ever!

I have had this site for about 2 weeks and it has sat here blank. The pressure of writing a first entry was heavy. I wanted it to be witty and interesting! Sadly, wittiness is not my strong suit and I figured if I just sucked it up and posted something, I would get over the *1st time* nervousness.

So, here goes. 🙂

Hi all! My name is Jamie! I am a mother of 2 quirky children who keep me busy! But in my spare time (what spare time??) I love to decorate cookies and cakes, do any kinds of crafts I can get my hands on, paint, draw and learn as much as I can about everything. Lol! I use *lol* and smiley faces all the time when Texting. I talk *a lot*. I love to help any of my friends any way I can. We move quite often and to tell you the truth, I kinda like it. I love to hang out with my family whenever I can. I love to workout (new found love….I have had 30 years of loving to eat to make up for! Lol) I *love* to cook and bake and I try to make new things all of the time. It works sometimes and sometimes it is a horrible failure. Ha! I have my friends and family mostly to thank for teaching me how to cook. When I got married, I could make Kraft macaroni and cheese and fish sticks. Lol! I’m sure my husband is thankful too!

Enough about me, if you would like to share with me things about you, I would love to hear. I welcome ideas, recipes and any help I can get!