Something Cool!!

Hey guys,
I have been playing with photography for a little while now and by entering some contests have found some really awesome vendors and ideas for photography.

One of the neat things I have stumbled across is this:



This is an e-book full of information and tips to improve your photography skills (for newbies like me) or to improve your business, if that's what you're looking for.

Just wanted to share with my friends because I think its a great deal....

Check out the link....I'm hoping to get mine for Valentines Day :)  
And OH if you do decide to purchase and go through my link here, I get a little bonus......no pressure though :)

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Bronwyn

Newest Creation

A co-worker of mine asked me to make her a cake a baby shower.

The mom prefers a color scheme of light blue, cream and gold so we incorporated those colors into the cake.  The design for the cake was inspired by a baby shower cake made by Melody Brandon at www.mysweetandsaucy.com

The top layer is chocolate mud cake covered with dark chocolate ganache and then decorated with marshmallow fondant (cream color for top.....it looks a little yellow on the picture.)  The "yellow" accents were painted with edible gold dust but the picture doesn't show it well.

And the bottom layer is pound cake with white chocolate ganache decorated with a light blue marshmallow fondant.  The feet were drawn on with edible marker.

I learned some things making this cake....still not as sharp as I'd like but I was pleased with the overall outcome.

Thanks for looking!!!
Love
 Bronwyn

Snow Day!!

I am loving the snow....wish we had gotten more than we did but oh well...

I am loving the snow because I wasn't scheduled to work!

I am loving the snow because my first day (of my last semester) of school was cancelled today!

I love the snow because my children get so excited to play outside even though its cold!

I love the snow because I have a sunroom and I can stay warm while watching the kids play in the cold snow!

Hope you loved your day too...whether it snowed or not!

Love,
 Bronwyn

Free Valentines Card Follow-up

A few days ago I posted a link to Florabella's free valentines day card templates for Photoshop....

Here's the link to that post if you missed it.
http://cakeskidsetc.blogspot.com/2011/01/free-valentines-card-templates-for.html

I was playing around with my templates and wanted to share what I've done (keep in mind please that I am still learning to navigate my way through photoshop and am in NO way an expert)

So the first one is of my niece Olivia.....I call her Livi-lou....

Don't let the cute face fool ya....she is a trip!!  Full of personality!

This is my Morgan at Christmas....she is growing so fast!

And here is Gabe (another personality plus person) 

Well, I was so excited to figure out how to merge the picture with the frame that I just had to share!  Thanks for looking and witnessing my learning process!!

Love,
Bronwyn

Cupcake Love

I made these babies just because.....

(The kids were very happy!!)

I just used a box mix for the cupcakes
And made buttercream icing with some cream cheese added....(yummo!!)

While the cupcakes cooled, I melted some red candy melts

I put the melted chocolate into a piping bag and used a #3 (Wilton) tip to draw some hearts on a sheet of wax paper (I did mine freehand but you can print or draw some hearts onto paper, then trace onto wax paper with the chocolate melts....)

The hearts needed time to harden so I painted Jake and Gabes face.....

Gabe wanted a spider

Jake wanted to look like Sonic......

When the cupcakes were cool and the hearts hardened, I made the icing.....
I tinted the icing pink and piped the icing onto the cupcakes

Then I peeled the hearts off of the wax paper and placed them onto the top of the cupcakes.
And Voila!  Pretty little cupcakes in no time!!

Gabe even got one with his name on it....

Hope this inspires you to spread some cupcake Love....



Icing Recipe
1 stick butter
1 pound confectionser sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavor
1 (8oz) block cream cheese
milk (added slowly to achieve desired consistency)

Mix it all together until creamy!


Love,
Bronwyn
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Buzz and Woody...Flat Stanley Style

While I was looking at pics yesterday of summer vacation I had realized that Buzz and Woody had some awesome opportunities last summer.

They got to ride on a horse at Stockyard Station (this was on yesterdays post also but to document their adventures properly I had to place it here too...)

They were able to go to the Rangers vs. Orioles game in Texas where they got their butts signed (yep, you read that right...) by Orioles Brad Bergesen.....

And they finished their adventures at Dallas Stadium.....
Here they are on the tour, listening intently to the tour guide (Actually, I think they are napping)

Here they view the field in awe....Buzz thought it looked like a space ship and woody thought maybe they could have a rodeo here.....(I have the inside scoop)

They even got to run on the football field....it was an amazing thing to witness let me tell you!

Woody finished the tour by posing in front of the Dallas Cowboy Star.....would call him a defector as we cheer for other teams but he is a cowboy after all.....

Well, thanks for looking at the Silly Adventures of Buzz and Woody! Ya'll come back now ya hear :)

Love,
Bronwyn

Summertime

Since it is so terribly cold outside (and I'm inside looking at pics) I thought maybe I would share part of our summer 2010 vacation...

We had the privilege to visit Texas this past summer and, aside from getting lost on the highway system there, I had a wonderful time.

Casey had to work in the evenings (he was producing the radio broadcast of the Oriole's games) so we took some little trips and even went to Six Flags over Texas while we were there. 
One of the tourism brochures in the hotel had information about Stockyard Station in Fort Worth Texas and it wasn't too far from where we were staying. 
One particular advertisement said "Come see the Cattle Drive!!!"....well I'm a city girl, born and bred and I have never seen a cattle drive.....and I really wanted to see this cattle drive.... (the kids teased me relentlessly)
So my mother in-law (she drove over from Louisiana) drove us to Stockyard Station!!!

We got there JUST in time to see the cattle drive (yes, we got lost.....again)

I was amazed.....there were cowboys who drove the cattle from one end of Stockyard Station to the other....this particular cowboy let Buzz and Woody pose on his horse (they were almost like flat Stanly...)

You might think..."wow...big deal" but really I had chills...maybe even a tear or two!
See I love the Lonesome Dove book and movie and could very easily imagine going back in time to the era where the land was unsettled and these cattle were driven across states.....well, you get the picture.
I was in awe!!

These steer were beautiful.....

Their horns majestic....

I loved every minute!

After seeing the cattle drive we walked around....there were lots of shops and places to eat...
And lots of fun things to see....we found this old cowpoke in an outhouse inside a store....
He actually talked.....said funny things like "Howdy....kinda hard to do my business here while you're staring at me.....shut the dang gum door"...stuff like that....

and yes, that's a swimsuit magazine in his lap!
This was a Texas flag hung from a wooden flag pole.....very neat!

There were a lot of historical markers such as the one below commemorating the Old Chisolm Trail

The kids had to have cowboy hats to look like authentic cowboys......

Gabe

Jake got to ride little Bessie here......

And later her Big Brother Bert (I don't know...he kinda looks like a Bert to me)

Morgan had to get in onthe action......

And then we saw some dangerous criminals......

This one here was Morgan the Meanie......she's the gang leader

Then there was Cordell the Calm (don't let the name fool ya)

This character here is Dangerous Drew

Giggling Gabe......he always gives away the gang with his laughter.....

I saved the craziest one for last....

This here is Jake the Joker.....

Well, that's all....

Thanks for letting me share some summertime memories with you....kept me busy and warm for a while!

Love,

Bronwyn