Taa Daaa!!

I've finished my first cake decorating endeavor! And it's really not that bad! And I learned a whole lot that will make the second one easier and better.

Here's some basics of things I learned that were not written down anywhere I could find. The icing tips you need for icing you make yourself are sold at Hobby Lobby, not the regular grocery stores. If using your own bags for the icing, use small freezer bags and refill them when they get low. If you use a thinner bag, the squeezing pressure will make the bag spring a leak that you can't fix. When outlining, use a small, non-star type tip. Make sure your outlining is at least a slightly different color than the stars you are going to fill with. To clean out the tips, put them in a dishwasher basket and shoot extremely hot water at them with the sprayer from the sink. Keep rattling them around and shooting them until you can't see any icing.

At work today, while showing off my cake, a friend told me that Wilton has a whole website of cake decorating ideas, products and even offers classes! She's had two of the classes in the past. It's hard to advertise that you need crafting information when you don't know who knows what. I'm so thankful I had a friend in Texas who could help me over the phone! Thanks Tina!

An update on firsts for little Quint. Here are his first words in order of occurrance: Mama, Papa, Dada, cracker, outside, cat. Also, Quint seems to be cutting a 7th tooth - an upper molar. He also is weening himself. He seems to only be interested in me for nursing late at night or in the middle of the night. I don't know if I've written it here yet or not, but this weekend, Quint made it all the way up our second story stairs! The first time with his Papa making sure he didn't fall back down and the second time with me spotting him. He's only been able to climb a step for a week or so. Quite the dubious accomplishment. Now we have to keep the bruise inducing baby gate at the bottom of the stairs AT ALL TIMES!!