What have I been up to?

So I start this new blog and then don't post in it! I'm 50 kinds of lazy and only 25 kinds of forgetful. Here's hoping I can make this some sort of weekly thing to update. But here's what's been going on for the past, holy cow, two months:

We adopted a dog through the Texas Shiba Inu Rescue (sort of). I say sort of, since he didn't technically go through rescue, but we were contacted by rescue volunteers on this owner surrender. Koji is about a year and a half old, neutered, and unfortunately is already showing early signs for luxating patellas. He's been with us for about two months and is an absolute sweetheart and everything we expected him to be, if not just a little easy for a Shiba. No total horror stories as of yet, save my favorite sandals being killed by my own fault of leaving both him and them out together late at night.

Next, hubby and I celebrated our first year of marriage with old cake and leftover champagne.

The cake was alright, if not just a tiny bit dry, and the almond flavoring was becoming overpowering after a few days, but not bad. Champagne was still excellent. We gave each other old magazines from WWII (paper anniversary, afterall) and Jeff bought me new computer speakers while I promised I'd get his old Royal typewriter fixed in working condition.

Texas State Fair!

Went to the "Fried Food Capital of Texas" and had a great time. Tried Fried Butter, had my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffle Ball, sat in a few cars, tried a new beer, and witnessed history in the making when we had the fine people at Flecher's Corny Dogs deep fry a cheeseburger. It was damn tasty (and the people there rocked our socks off!). Truly a great day which ended with taco soup at the in-laws.

Made a Halloween exchange box for some friends on the Dogster Shiba Inu forum with homemade treats inside.

Also made a bed, a decorated treat jar, and a toy for the Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue's Halloween auction. Should go up on eBay on the 25th.

Tried going to Barktoberfest, but ended up getting rained out, so Koji and Dug had fun messing around at a nearby dog park (thanks to Nicole!). Ended up going to a last minute meetup that benefitted a local no-kill shelter here Carrollton/Addison way called Operation Kindess. Won an XXL shirt from a raffle, ate food at an English pub, got some awesome free water bottles and showed off Koji's costume:

The back actually has Zero's likeness from Nightmare Before Christmas ala original Ghostbusters logo. We didn't win, but had lots of positive comments about it. Yuki-san and Jiro (shiba buddies) were also there as Bolt and a fire dog, respectively. They looked pretty amazing, too.

Now that we're up to speed, it's time to get cracking on more things. Making an Other Mother Coraline doll for my oldest niece for Halloween, going to try and make something special (Tinkerbell?) for second oldest niece, clean, make an awesome Katamari for a contest, and wait for Koji's custom leash and collar to get finished. Been keeping busy, but it's nice to just slow down and enjoy a great clear day like today in Dallas, low 70s, cool breeze, warm sun. Mmm, just like California.

Royal Rainbow!

So a good friend of mine just had her birthday last week, and about two months ago, I demanded to do her cake. I really love to bake and figured I could use this opportunity to better my technique, show off some things I learned in my Wilton classes, and maybe enter into that Threadcakes competition. Well, didn't end up doing the Threadcakes, but I did end up with something pretty amazing.

A hint to what it might be?

It was pretty fun getting into the whole long involved baking thing. I haven't really done that for a while (save the Wilton classes) since it's been so busy so far this year. I followed this recipe by Smitten Kitchen. Super delicious and I'd suggest anyone to give it a try.


Here you can see some more fine Wilton methods, though for the edge I got lazy and just used a cut piping bag. Made a quick and dirty border, but the chocolate ganache was absolutely amazing with this cake.

If you don't recognize the face in the middle, well SHAME ON YOU! No, seriously, that's the King of All Cosmos from one of my favorite game series Katamari Damacy. If you have a PS2, a 360 or a PSP, definitely pick up one of the four games in the series, though the best are probably the first two. Anyway, a trademark move of the King (besides speaking in the royal we) would be his ability the Royal Rainbow, in which he'll call back his son (The Prince) and his completed Katamari to be judged. I had a few comments on how I should have added rainbow candy or something similar since I clearly advertised a rainbow but there was just nothing there!

It's almost like a toy surprise inside, isn't it?

I had honestly planned on making her birthday cake because my husband and I were poor as dirt at the time, but since landing my job, we were able to get her a few other little gifts as well, such as a playable Boggle keychain and a gift certificate to our local Korean market. Though, I must say, if this was going to be our only present to her, I think she still would have appreciated the colorful wonders inside.

I also have to say that this is not my own brainchild, but something I heard about from a food subforum and knew I just HAD to try. I didn't realize it would be the perfect opportunity to use it for the party until I was at the store (and good thing, too!)

Oh yeah. I'll do it again.