A little while ago I went on a walk around the Rexburg temple and thought I'd start dabbling in photography. Not really that Amazing but it was fun to do. I actually think these pictures could be spectacular if I knew a little bit about editing. Definitely on my bucket list!

 The Only way I can take picture of kids and have them be making normal faces is to snap shots of little things they are already doing. These two were already playing and laying on the bench so I did a few little tweeks and snapped a picture.

      
   


The hard light was a little hard to work with - afternoon light is the worst but these turned out okay .

Lawn Mower Cupcakes

       Here's the "Lawn Mower" Cakes I attempted to make. I can tell it's going to take me some time to get good at decorating cakes. : / This cupcake on the left turned out the best. I did change up the ingredients a little bit. Instead of using Hershey nuggets I used a variety pack of mini candy bars. The only reason for this was the price. The other thing I did a little differently was the handle. I still used black licorice but I couldn't find them as twizzlers so I simply cut red vines in half. I did however find that using the entire length of the licorice helped it to stand up because I could push them farther into the cupcake.

        One little tip: DO NOT leave them in the car or let them get hot any other way. The body of the mower kept in great shape but as you can see the licorice had issues. Even though they didn't look the best my Dad and family still got a laugh out of them :)



        I did fail complete in regards to making my husband a cake but that was because I didn't give myself enough time. It takes a lot of time to make anything look good, at least it does when I'm learning. Hopefully I can make the baby shower cake with owls happen. I do have 3 kids to care for all week but I will do my absolute best!

Ingredients

• Chocolate-frosted cupcakes (I used simple milk and powdered sugar for frosting)
• Coconut, flaked
• Green food coloring
• Hershey's Nuggets (Mini candy bars of your choice)

• M&M's
• Frosting (plenty leftover from the cupcakes)
• Black licorice laces (Red vines cut in half)

Instructions

1. For each cupcake, mix a handful of flaked coconut with a few drops of green food coloring. Press a chocolate-frosted cupcake into the coconut to cover. (I simply made a bowl full of green coconut to save a little time - the food coloring goes a long way as well if you add a little bit of water to your coconut when you mix it in.)
   
2. The mower is made with a dark chocolate Hershey's Nuggets body, brown M&M's wheels, and a red M&M's engine, held in place with dabs of frosting.
   
3. Shape the handle from a piece of black licorice lace, then insert the ends into the cupcake.

So much COMING!

       Ooo Ooo so here's an update! Father's day is coming and I can't wait! I'm so excited of things to come. I racked my brain to know what to get my hubby for father's day. A grill, a new camera - um that's a big chunk of change. A tie, a book... I want to do something a little more from me. I'm not the huge gift giver type. Well I promised you a Father's day cake right? Before I didn't think to make for a reason but I have a reason now :). I have a design in my head that is going to be fun to do... I would tell you what it is but in risk of my husband reading this before father's day I leave it a surprise for the both of you :) But for those who are interested in cake decorating I have lots coming your way! I'm not so worried about my dad seeing my post before father's day so I can tell you his surprise ;) shhh don't tell him! I'm going to make Mower Cupcakes - Want some "Mower" - I think this will be super cute! The mower will be made out of a treasure candy as the body, M&M's for the wheels and licorice for the handle. Oh and of course you can't forget the grass which will be simple icing, probably with coconut. Ahh SO EXCITED!
       Also my sister in-law is expecting a baby next month so in a couple of weeks we will be holding a baby shower for her and her little girl. My Mom thought it would be fun to do an Owl theme. My initial thoughts - Weird!! I don't view owls as the cutest animal ever, especially for a baby shower. My thoughts now - LOVE THE IDEA!! I am so in the swing with the idea. I just can't stop thinking about it. Best thing about it - It gives me another excuse to make ANOTHER CAKE. It may be a challenge to do owls on a cake but I'm totally up for the challenge!! This cake will come closer to the end of the month.Wish me luck!

***Oh and don't forget to vote for the hobby that interests you most. I'm curious to know what others do most often.***

 

Start in Photography

Photography is something I ALWAYS wanted to get into but never wanted to spend the money to get the equipment I needed to be "good". LIGHTBULB! To start out you only need a device that takes pictures... I realized the real stumbling block was a way to edit my photos once they were taken. My brother shared a sight with me that is absolutely amazing http://www.teriloublog.com/ this photographer only uses her cell phone to take her pictures.
I have a simple digital camera - I'm going to run with it.



I have enrolled in an online photography class given by Jim Harmer and Dustin  through improvephotography.com. WONDERFUL class! Though much of it I can't do because I don't have a DSLR camera but the class gives me a PDF at the end of the class with all the lessons put together so I can always have them and I can use them for later use. -- Which is DEFINITELY on my bucket list.

My First Dive - Cake Decorating

      I've recently had this feddish with wedding. It could be because I just got married :) and it's all around but I decided to try CAKE DECORATING! And......decorating is harder then they make it sound. But get your hopes up, I had a lot of fun.  I first got myself excited for the task. I looked at cake, after cake after BEAUTIFUL cakes (If you go to my pinterest page, Hailey Anderson, you can see all my findings as well as the best tutorial I found.) then I did some learning. I spent an entire day looking at tutorials on how to decorate a cake. The best one I found was done by Sandy Shepperd from monkeysee.com. I learned so much from it!

I immediately went out to Walmart and bought the necessities.
- Simple cake tips Cake Decorating Set-25 Pieces.

- Round cake pans with flat edges and a cake carrier
 Mainstays Cake Pans with Cake Carrier, Set of 2 

I could have bought a fancy spreading knife and a turntable to make things easier but I'm on a budget and thought since it was a first go around I'd hold off. I did fine without them.

I used a simple WHITE CAKE recipe from allrecipies.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING is the best for decorating. I tried to make normal icing with only powdered sugar and milk but it was much to runny and I couldn't for the life of me get it to the right consistency. I also ran out of frosting to keep decorating so letters on the top of the cake were out of regular frosting (and NO it did not really turn out very well) it was barely legible because of it all running together.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency

THE BEST nugget of knowledge: Instead of spraying a pan with spray, flouring it with oil and flour or spreading shortening on the pan, Sandy Sheppard uses a concoction of all 3. IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM! I have used it more than just with special cakes it works for everything great. No more scraping out breads of cake they just fall out. LOVE IT!!!

NON STICK PANS

1C flour
1C Crisco
1/2 Oil

spread it on with a brush and it is good to go.

Now I know I didn't post a picture of my first attempt, not because it was THAT bad but because I forgot to take one. I promise I will next time. I think I'll try to do another cake for Father's Day (June 17th) look for me then and I'll show you a picture :)

MY Hunt for a Hobby

     I just got married a month ago and am slowly realizing my life is drastically changing. I went from school and heavy work everyday to a stay at home wife looking for things to fill her ample time while her husband is at work. I have never really had a true hobby. Yes I've done things here and there such as making jewelry, public speaking, dance, piano, tennis... I've been all over the board but I never had something I could call "MY HOBBY".

                                                             Well here goes 
                                                                      MY 
                                                     HUNT FOR A HOBBY!!

     I am looking for something that defines ME, makes ME happy, and something that I won't have to completely drop when I'M a mom. To ME that whole thing sounds selfish - it's all about ME but I'VE learned that some things need to be about ME. My husband reminded me the other day, "if momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy." Doing something for ME and making ME happy allows ME to be a better wife and someday mother.
I made a list of things I would like to try. This list may grow but for now this is it. If you are interested in starting any of these - keep in touch, I'll do them with you.

- Photography
- Family History - Share your story blogging
- Gardening
- Reading - Book Club
- Volleyball
- Gymnastics
- Dance
- Piano
- Cooking -- Blog it
- Scrap booking
- Web Design
- Health - Excercise, nutrition
- Jewelry Making
-  Painting
- Cake Decorating
- Astronomy
- Journaling
- Plays/Acting