where to begin...

So much to share - so little time. Here's some of the fun we had with cake last week - a really clean design, chic and modern on one table (although there are some weird shadows in my pictures from the dramatic lighting):

With a very cool groom's cake on a side table:

The groom is a collector, and has each pristine Nike model in its original box. I made sure every detail, down to the number of holes in the front, was perfect. Between the fires, the rain, and the UNHEARD of thunder and lightening last weekend, it was nice to know there was at least one thing the bride didn't have to worry about.

The house move is almost complete - I'm surrounded by boxes in various stages of chaos, and have a very unhappy cat on my hands. The water was disconnected for a few days, but the garden is surviving:

And check out the blueberries:

YUM. My aunt Marjorie gave me a wonderful recipe for blueberry slump at my father's birthday party a few years ago - maybe next week I'll have time to make it (and - here's ambitious for you - post the recipe).

In the meantime, if you're a past client (or know a past client - please tell them) and feel so inclined, it would be lovely if you could take a moment to visit this site and give us a "best of the best" plug. Deadline for voting is July 18th - thank you!

If I weren't making cakes...

A lot of people tell me I have the perfect job, but you know who's got a better one? The person who gets to figure out what song snippets to play in between the NPR news stories. They're always so cleverly related - I recently heard about Anheuser-Busch being bought by the Belgians, followed by a little clip of G Love's "Cold Beverage." (And they're always that good.)

Whoever you are, Song Selector, you are very talented. And very lucky.

now you see it...

now you don't.

Just like that, the office and deck are gone. We've officially broken ground. (Which means we've got two weeks to be out of the house... panic sets in if I think about it for more than 30 seconds.) The lovely duplex looming into the yard is fully revealed, which will soon be blocked by our addition. Guess which exterior wall doesn't have a single window designed in it? (The same exterior wall, say, that we might paint a fluorescent chartreuse? Hi, neighbors!)

Someone recently decided that the hose pot makes a perfect hiding place for spying on a nest of baby mockingbirds. May I present to you "Stealth, Personified."

There are no words

to describe how much I loved Young At Heart. If you're lucky enough to find it still playing in your neck of the woods, please please please go see it right now. Today. Heartbreaking and still heartbreakingly funny - an incredibly inspiring group of people.

I remember hearing that one of the bands they cover gave them a hard time about using its song - who would do that?? I can't find any information about it now. The Rolling Stones are practically octogenarians themselves, so they may not have wanted the competition...

(Go.)

sometimes...

happiness is as easy as making every single light on the way home from work.

fire and cake - an unlikely combination.

But a good one, just the same. It was really windy as we were setting up, which was challenging because a) the torch kept going out, and b) the tablecloth kept blowing up into the line of fire. Yikes.

But it all worked out in the end:

A very simple, organic finish. Which was perfect, since each tier included several layers of fresh organic bananas or strawberries, between layers of chocolate/hazelnut and whipped cream/strawberry combinations. Yum.

In other news, our building permits have (FINALLY) been approved and we're breaking ground in a matter of days. Not great timing (when IS a good time to completely disrupt your life, move all your possessions, and rip up what you've known for a decade and a half as home?), but I'm trying to keep my eye on the end result - having an extra bedroom, so that guests can spend the night without someone climbing up through a HOLE in the ceiling (much like Heidi, which was very appealing when I was younger but not so much anymore), and a dreamy, functional kitchen, with a dishwasher.

And we're just a few points shy of a Green Building certification (our solar panels don't count, since we did them long before we thought of building an addition), so now we're trying to find even more eco-friendly things to do! It's a fun challenge, and something to distract me from how p.a.i.n.f.u.l.l.y. s.l.o....w.l.y everything seems to happen in the construction/planning world.

why?

Yesterday, while I was driving on the highway, I passed a vehicle with the license plate "JUNE 7 08". It was not a new purchase - there were "baby on board" type diamonds in the back windows.

I love strange little coincidences like this - what could it mean?