The Cake Chick Matriculates ~ The Year In Cake

Last September I needed something...

just something...

for me.

I work full time, I am very involved in my kids activities

along with just being the

mom of two boys. Boy #1, 13 years old and Boy #2 9 years old. 

I was feeling a bit lost. 

Lost in work stress & all of the other stress with trying to be that

mom who does it all and never lets anyone see her sweat. 

I couldn't do it anymore.  I stopped doing it all.

I have to work so I couldn't check that off the list. 

I cut back on doing it all. 

In my town, it seems that the same parents who are den leaders in cub scouts are the same people volunteering for Sunday School, coaching

teams and the list goes on. 

We decided to spend more time doing things together as a family

and let other people step up to the plate to take things over.  

It really has been a great year.  We don't sit around and

sing Kum Bi Ya every day, we are still just us...

but I do remember to enjoy that lazy Sunday with my boys

just a little more or whatever we are doing.

In the midst of it all, I found a cake decorating class.

My friend and I signed up and at some point, I became the cake chick...

Here is the year in cake (the good, the bad, the ugly and the oh so yummy)...

My first cake...

Next came Halloween...

Then came the Fall Cornucopia (not one of my finer moments)...
 


There was a clown cake that I made that was so bad I didn't even take a picture of it.

Then came the rose cake and final cake for the first part of the year, one of the cakes I am still most proud of...
 

On the Christmas break I made this yummy one for New Years Eve...
 

It was back to class in February and time to learn carnations...
 

 
Then came St. Patrick's Day...
 

I really went crazy in March and made 3 birthday cakes.  One for my uncle, one for my cousin's daughter and one for my Boy #2(all for the same party)

 



Then is was time for the Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet and of course I volunteered to make the cake to feed the 215 people we had attending...
 

Then it was my mother in law's birthday(I know I call her my "outlaw" but she had a really rough year and I wanted to make her a special cake)



My first paying gig!



I had left over flowers so made cupcakes and I brought them to my friend's Bunco...

Then came Easter...

and my pathetic attempt at Pussy Willows and Lilly of the Valley flowers...

Last class... constructing a tiered cake.  I wish I had a little more time to decorate it.

and that is my year in cake. 

Any questions as to why after my year in cake I had to start the Dukan diet?



Dukan Update ~

The past week I have been battling allergies and bad! This month is just a bad month for me with all of the trees blooming here in MA.  Feeling so bad, sometimes a girl just wants a little comfort food and not protein and vegetables.  In the past week I have been keeping it light and watching what I have been eating and ya know what?  I keep loosing weight and not craving sugar.  I think the 2 weeks of no sugar kind of detoxed me.  I am just trying to eat 'clean' and it seems to be working without too much work on my part.  I am down 14.5 lbs!!!!  My plan at this point is to stay off the sugar and processed food.  I will keep this up for as long as it works.  Once I plateau, I will hit the Dukan Diet again. 

Day 5...

Day 5 of the Dukan Diet and here is how I see it...

- 5.5 lbs lost (too many to go to say)
- I can walk past all of the freaking Easter Candy my kids still have and not eat any of it!
- Walked every day with Ginger and can actually visualize beginning to jog on our walks(that is pretty major for me).

It has been baby steps but considering the out of control sugar spiral I was on, this IS progress.

Tomorrow I have a birthday party to go to...

I plan to chew lots of gun and nothing else.  My plan is to get in and get out as quickly as possible and no one will get hurt.