As much as I love this blog, it really has fallen by the wayside, and I am picking up and blogging up a storm at my other blog:

Frankly My Dearest

So please if you don't already go follow me there and you can hear all about my life in Utah, see things that I make, and get recommendations and more non-review reviews from myself.

I better see you over there!

Love, Becca

Cake Crazed

This last week was a crazy week. It all began during the weekend when I had triple booked myself on both Friday and Saturday nights. I was supposed to celebrate a friend's bday and bring a treat to the party, I really wanted to make cake pops so I set off to bake a cake. I turned on the oven and had it heat to the proper temperature. Then put my cake in to bake and set the timer, about 5 minutes before the timer was to go off I checked the cake with the tried and true "toothpick method" it came out dripping with batter, I thought to myself, "oh dear, this can't be good" but I tried to let it cook for the last 5 minutes thinking it would possibly make a difference. It didn't. Apparently our oven had been giving us some issues for the last week or so and I hadn't used it to realize. But it was DEAD AS A DOORNAIL! So of course at that moment I realized that this next week was a busy week of cake baking/decorating for me, as I had committed to make cupcakes for a friend's bridal shower AS WELL AS a Very Hungry Caterpillar first birthday cake for my baby cousin. I began to panic. During the week none of my family members had time to have a repairman come so the oven would not be repaired in time for me to bake either of these treats.

I did what I normally do when I'm struck with great stress, I forget about what I have to deal with until I have time to deal with it. (That's what I did with my speeding ticket... still haven't called to see how much I owe on that one) Wednesday rolled around and I realized that people were counting on me, so I needed to harass ask my friends if I could come borrow their oven. They were more than accommodating and even offered to feed me dinner. I got the cupcakes made for Friday evening's bridal shower without a problem, but the big stress eating at me was the cake I had to make for the birthday which was on Saturday afternoon. 

Oh did I mention that the party was in Mississippi? So yeah I had to make it from my house to there at some point and this is what my schedule looked like from Wednesday to Saturday

Wednesday-

8 am: wake up and get ready for work

10 am - 7 pm: work

7 pm til: stuff at home and go to bed

Thursday-

8 am: wake up get ready for work

9 am - 6 pm: work

6 - 6:30 pm: mix up cupcakes

6:30 pm: bake cupcakes at great friend's house

7 pm: home and dinner and sleep and stuff

Friday-

8 am: wake up and get ready for work

9 am - 6 pm: work [during lunch break ice cupcakes for bridal shower and have panic attack about how/where/when I am going to make the looming birthday cake]

6 pm: to Hobby Lobby for an extra 8 in cake round pan

6:15 pm: home to get cupcakes and drive to friend's house for bridal shower

6:35 pm: arrive at bridal shower with cupcakes, set up and wait for the guest of honor to show up.

8:30 pm: back home to pack up stuff to drive to Mississippi where I was going to bake cake at Grammy's

9:00 pm: on the interstate where we got stuck in traffic TWICE due to construction and made it in to Grammy's house at about 12:30 am.

Saturday-

12:30 - 2 am: baking cakes

2 - 8 am: sleep

8-11:30 am: build and finish baking cakes and decorate cake

11:30-12:30: shower and get ready for birthday party

1:30 - 2:30 pm: run to BAM for Very Hungry Caterpillar plush and cardboard book for birthday gifts. Then food at Chick Fil A. Oh, and Grammy has coupons for free Krispy Kreme that are expiring in a few days? better use those.

3 pm: to the party, set up cake, help finish getting stuff out for party

5 pm: The party was over, and then we went to Grammy's got our stuff and we all headed back home with Grammy and Gramps in tow, since they were coming to speak at church the next morning.

Doesn't that look like a blast?! No? Yeah I didn't think so. But in the following pictures you can see some of my creative process and see how great the cake actually turned out.

Now you can see why I was flipping out about having time, I HAD to do the rainbow cake or else the cake would suck. At least I think it would. Thankfully, since Sunday my life has slowed down quite a bit. Well for the most part - I do have a Tupperware party at my house tomorrow night, a farewell party to go to and make a treat for on Friday, charity walk and then a relaxing hair appointment on Saturday.

I think this is quite enough for one post.
Until next time!

-FranklyBecca

p.s. I used tips on how to do this from a blog I found by googling located HERE. It is the VERY BEST rainbow layer cake tutorial I have come across.

My Rockin' Momma

This post is reposted from my other blog (Frankly My Dearest)

See that fabulous woman in green work out gear? That is my mommy, I am the one next to her wearing sunglasses atop my Nike cap. This is our most recent picture together, and though we are a sweaty hot mess I think we look great!

Mother's day is fast approaching and I have her entered in a giveaway to win a photo shoot from a fabulous photographer from Mississippi where much of our extended family lives. Suzanne Carey is her name and you should go check out her blog to see what's up.

So I mentioned my mom is entered to win her giveaway... That is where you, all my loyal readers come in.

Over the past year and a half my mother has worked hard to lose weight and get fit. She has lost over 130 lbs. and counting! And you see how great she looks? She has totally done it right. It hasn't been 100% easy sailing though. August of last year she was having a fun time and took a ride on my cousin's Vespa and took a turn going too fast and ended up in a ditch, with her leg twisted beneath her and a Vespa laying on top her. To make matters worse, she landed smack dab in poison ivy, which she is highly allergic to. She was rushed to the ER where they did x-rays and the like and told her it looked like an ACL injury, but it was too swollen to really tell, so she had to wait for the swelling to go down and get an MRI. Long story short, her ortho doctor said she had chronic ACL tears and that she would need a knee replacement, and she had a surgery to repair her MCL which was a long recovery. She now wears a knee brace all the time, but she did not let that brace or her knee problems slow her down during her journey to get healthy! She continued to push on and has been doing aquatic workouts to build up her strength to achieve her ultimate goal of completing the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans, which we did! Next on the list of super achievements is to do the Susan G Komen walk for the cure in Atlanta, a 60 mile course done in 3 days. I'll be right along side her for that one.

Isn't she an inspiration??

Now how do you vote for her to get the rock star treatment she deserves?

First you have to go on Facebook and "Like" Suzanne Carey Photography
Next click this LINK and vote for "Beth Abel" <-- that's my Momma!

Come on peeps! Let's make her win!!!

Love,
FranklyBecca

The Photo Challenge

Well friends, I regret to say that I have fallen off the wagon with keeping up with the photo challenge, I just got busy with life and it was the last thing on my mind, and then once you fall behind by like 5 days then it's hard to pick it back up. But, perhaps I can marathon it up and catch up before the month is up. I have some unexpected free time coming up this weekend and can use it to catch up on my pics.

Just wanted to keep ya'll up with what's been going on with me.

:)

coming soon - a post about Pottermore!

Day 3 Photo Challenge

The prompt for today's picture was mail. Here is my attempt to capture mail.

This package actually arrived last night. I had checked my tracking and it was out for delivery yesterday morning at 7:00 am so all day I was stalking my mail, well as much as I could stalk it while working a full work day. My father and I have been addicted to watching Downton Abbey and were anxiously anticipating this package to come in so we could start watching season 2 on blu-ray (which I must say was worth the extra $5). I am never ceased to be amazed by blu-ray video and sound quality.

The book I added to my amazon order because I wanted it, it was on my wishlist and apparently I needed to spend an extra $0.01 to get the free shipping with a $25 order, so what do I do? That's right, I order a $12.99 book to make up that penny. Anyway I hadn't really looked at the book and I made the comment about since it was by the creator of Toms, a one for one company, that I wondered if me purchasing this book would give a book to a child in need.... and of course it does!

as always check out Leesa and Tim's blogs for their photo-a-day posts!

by the way friends, I posted an entry on Frankly My Dearest about iPhone-ography.