Weekend of shopping

Taking advantage of a free weekend,  Tripp and I spent all day on a Saturday going to furniture stores looking for a new kitchen table and chairs. We were ready for a table that we picked out together but without knowing what we liked, furniture shopping here we came!

We went to store after store trying to figure out what we liked. Did we like regular height? counter height? fabric covered chairs? wooden chairs? light wood? dark wood? traditional? modern? We saw a lot and it was hard to keep all of the different designs straight in my head! We left finding out the types of tables and chairs that we are drawn to and an amount to start budgeting for!

We spent the rest of the weekend preparing for our upcoming Italy trip. We made a few stops to gather necessary items such as travel sized toiletries, jackets, gloves, etc.

Houston visitor!!

Just a few hours after my car accident, my dear friend Nicole came to visit from Dallas. I was upset that I was not feeling my best and that we may have to change some of our plans, but it was a great weekend!

Friday, we enjoyed a yummy dinner of veggie lasagna, salad, bread topped off with homemade pumpkin ice cream.  We stayed up chatting before getting to bed.

Saturday, we treated ourselves to a pedicure, ate lunch, and talked. It was so nice to catch up in person! That night, Nicole, Tripp, and I had dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Escalantes,  and went to see the movie Catfish. The movie was not quite what we expected, but it was a fun evening.

Sunday, Nicole and I went to mass and returned home for a cooked-at-home brunch of breakfast tacos, hashbrowns, and fruit salad before Nicole headed back to Dallas. It was a super fun visit. I hope to plan a Dallas visit in the coming months!

I was just minding my own business.....

when..... on my way home from work on October 15th, I was rear-ended! I was at a stop yielding to turn onto the frontage road of I-10 when a small Dodge Neon came crashing into me. I was shocked and even more shocked to see that my car just suffered some small scratches. I pretty much immediately began feeling pain in my neck. Well, to make a long story short the girl that hit me does NOT have insurance which makes it super fun! Fortunatley, my uncle who is a wonderful personal injury attorney is helping me handle the mess. I saw a chiroprator for about five weeks and am feeling back to normal. 

Blogger Slacker!!!

Man, I have really slacked at blogging these days!! I have gone to sit down to blog several times, but something always takes precedence over it. Well, today I am making time to write about all of the happenings in the last two months!!!

Weekend in New Orleans

Tripp and I spent last weekend in New Orleans! We drove in Friday night after work, so we did not arrive until close to 11:30. We chatted with my parents and then headed to bed. Saturday morning, I got a great haircut from my very talented sister Claire. My mom, sister, and I met my dad and Tripp at Parkway Bakery for lunch. We enjoyed awesome ham, shrimp, and roast beef po-boys. I then ran errands with my mom.

After getting back to my parents' house, we got ready for the Light the Night Walk at a nearby park. Just in case you did not read an earlier post about the walk, it is a walk raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A team was formed in honor of my dad for the walk. When we arrived at the park, we were surprised to see the amount of tents, tables, and food. Soon after we arrived, a group of my dad's co-workers, my mom's co-workers, family friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents began arriving. We visited, enjoyed the food, and the live music.

Just before the actual walk began, we were treated to some entertainment from the 610 Stompers. What a way to get the crowds pumped up!! Then the walk began with each of us carrying a lighted balloon.  What a fun and successful night with over $180,000 raised to help find a cure for blood cancers!!!

Claire with her favorite brother-in-law!

Cousins

Tripp and I

Me and my dad

Dad's co-workers

610 Stompers

On the walk

Final Class!

 My cake class came to a close this morning. Our assignment was to design a cake, make the cake, make the icing, frost the cake, make flowers, dry the flowers, and bring it to class to decorate. Since I had a lot to prepare, I worked on little bits throughout the week. I made and tinnted icing on Tuesday, made flowers on Wednesday, make my cake on Thursday, and frosted the cake and gathered all of the materials on Friday. I cam up with a design consisting of a white buttercream frosted cake with orage colored ribbon roses, coral colored swirl drop flowers, coral colored rosette border, and orange colored dots scattrered on the cake. I had a few hiccups during the week, but I was ready to go for today! Here are some pictures of the preparation for today:

With all of my materials in hand, we got a lesson on writing with icing, a few other tips, some houseskeeping items handled, some help on ribbon roses, and we were off to decorate. Here is my final cake and my certificate from the class. I am roud of myself for completing the course and learning so many new things! Here's to baking!!!

Cake Class #3

So the lesson for cake class #3 was about cupcakes!! I was excited to learn how bakeries make their cupcakes look so pretty. We also learned how to make leaves and a few different flowers: drop flowers, swirl drop flowers, shaggy mum,  pompom flower, and a ribbon rose. Wow, flowers are not easy! The ribbon rose looks beautiful, but it not the easiest. I will never complain again about how much a bakery charges for cakes with flowers on them. It takes a lot of time and effort to make those cakes look that beautiful. Here are a few of my attempts!