Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Guitar Cake

I finished making a Birthday cake for my friend Joel's 21st today. I decorated the cake to look like his guitar. I didn't have straight wire so I used really thick thread for the strings. The cake is red velvet (so I guess the guitar will bleed when stabbed o.O) with vanilla buttercream. I LOVED making this cake and just HAD to add a cute little dinosaur (inside joke lol). I can't wait to give it to him this afternoon. Happy Birthday Joel! Hope you enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed creating it ^__^
PS I just made business cards so hopefully I will have more cakes to play with!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

BP Oil Clean Up Solution - Save the Beaches!



The Wisconsin-based textile company Monterey Mills has a big heart - they were one of our generous donors at Maker Faire. They've proposed to BP a huge improvement to the booms being used to soak up oil from the water in the Gulf, but their proposal has gotten lost in the tens of thousands of suggestions BP has received, and BP has yet to respond. Check out this amazing demonstration of what wool can do, then spread the word until BP can hear us.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Feeling Creative

There were a ton of cute and very original items being sold this past weekend at Animazement. One of these, which I mentioned in my last post, were sushi pillows. They were very expensive and not very detailed. I decided I would make some instead! I love building and crafting things and, even if the cost of supplies ended up being the same as buying a pillow, I would have that feeling of achievement by doing it myself. So the next day my mom and I went to the fabric store and bought enough for me to make a couple large pillows and then several small. I had never used a sewing machine before so my mom had to help me get started but I got the hang of it pretty quick. I just finished tonight and, even though it's not perfect, I am very happy with it. Not too bad for my first time EVER sewing more than a couple little stitches by hand. I look forward to making more pillows and maybe coming up with my own ideas for crafty, fun toys like at the convention.

Animazing Weekend!

I had an amazing Memorial day weekend! I was able to finish the birthday cake and get ready in time to go to Animazement Saturday. The car cake did not quite turn out like I had wanted it to and in the rush I forgot to take any pictures. I made the car out of chocolate cake layers with vanilla buttercream in between. I carved it into a car, covered it with buttercream, and instead of fondanting it like I should have, I decided to try just using buttercream. I was afraid that if I used fondant that it would cover up the detail work I did when carving the car. I should have know better though since I don't decorating with just buttercream very often. I mounted it on a yellow sheet cake and then decorated it. It looked like a car when I was finish but I didn't feel it was good enough. My client knew it was my first carved cake though and her son loved it so, at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.
Vendors

We headed to Animazement around 3pm which was a LOT later than I had hoped. It wasn't cheap for the all day pass so I wanted to be there as much as possible. We still had a great time though. There were so many amazing costumes and vendors selling their adorable and unique items. There was one lady selling sushi shaped pillows. I thought they were adorable but when I looked at the price I couldn't afford what she was charging. I just can't find reason in blowing that kind of money on a pillow... I did, however, find a stuff Ryo-Ohki for a very low price. I have been looking for that silly thing for at least 6 years now and have only been able to find it for at least $50 or more.
We went to dinner later on and then came back for the Rave. It was my first and it did not disappoint. Hundreds of people cosplaying and dancing around it a lot of fun. People were also dancing with glow sticks which made for some amazing pictures.


I got to go on stage with a group of people and dance! I have never done anything like that before either but I didn't feel nervous at all. It was just a room full of people, having fun, and dancing however the music moved them, there was no judging. We ended up not getting home until around 2am and then watched some Anime until 4am. My feet were killing me since I spent half the night in high healed boots but otherwise I had a great night with my friends. Next year I really want to cosplay. I would have this year but we decided to go the night before so I didn't have time.