March showers, trees with flowers

     I'm never one to take my camera and get snap happy...actually, I don't even own a camera...but today I felt like getting out and exploring, so I grabbed Dad's cool photographer-y camera and went out to see what I could find. Sidenote - only minor trespassing was committed in acquiring these pics, but in Thaxton that's simple to solve. 'Hey, can I take a picture of your tree? Thank you much.'
     Not much is blooming in my yard. We just moved in last spring, so we only have one quick summer's worth of landscaping to show off. Our biggest accomplishment was the grass :) and a few bushes in the flowerbeds. But our laurel petlams have pinked up really nice. They actually showed up bright in contrast to the overcast day today.

That's my front porch. See the little cherub fountain hiding out in all the pink?

Tree by our mailbox, with our house in the background.

These are the Bradford pear trees at the entrance to our subdivision. I had to snap quick because it started raining on me and I had to run to the car before the camera died!

Background focus

Same pic, foreground focus

Closeup...see the pink in there? Love it.

This was on the side of the road. I did a sort of double-take in my car once I saw it because it was so pretty! Again, legality isn't an issure. U-turns in people's driveways are perfectly acceptable here haha.

Same roadside, just a few yards over, was a big spread of daffodils.

I love how they're all kind of mixed in with the tall dry grass, all rustic like.

They were all kind of drooping from the rain. I'll have to go back Thursday when it's sunny and catch them when they're standing up pretty.

Another roadside (where I live, it's perfectly fine to pull off on the side of a one lane country road just to take a picture of flowers...chances are nobody's going to drive by anyway)

I love how the white is growing right up through the old leaves.

The way the white tree leans, it kind of looks like the old brown one is chasing it :)

I moseyed along the same country road and stopped by one of my uncle's pastures to take a few shots.

This is one of my favorites of the day, with the pink, white, and yellow-green all growing in layers.

 The pink was growing around this old barbed-wire fence, kinda made for an interesting shot.

I don't know how I did it, but I love how I focused on the white in the background instead of the pink in the foreground.

These are the old fashioned kind of daffodils, white separated petals and yellow centers.

I love how the raindrops showed up so good on the stems.

I also had a little friend watching me...he wasn't quite sure what I was up to. I probably should have brought something to make friends with...like the apples in my fridge nobody has eaten.

Then I drove down another one of our many one lane country roads for some more stuff.

I drove past this field, and it wasn't particularly springy looking, but it was pretty all grassed over orange.

Went by Cane Creek. It's the kind that's graveled over and has no rails, but is still reasonably safe, so long as you aim straight when you drive over it.

This looks like something from the mountains...except it's in a creek bottom in Thaxton, MS :)

I love how this sign kind of got taken over by the vines.

Last but not least, I found one patch of the cane the creek got its name from :)

I hope Thursday turns out as sunny as the weather channel promises. I have some more yards I want to sneak into and take pics in haha. Don't worry, it's all okay if you're in a small town!

Anti-diet food anyone?

     If anyone out there likes sugary goodness, welcome to The Cakery! My menu and pricing can be found here, but I'm never opposed to trying out any requests you have! Everything I make is homemade. I'm all about doing things the old fashioned way as far as ingredients and baking - I make it however it tastes best, using real butter, cream, etc. Yes, that makes it all fattening, but it makes it all tasty too. I make them as close to your order date as possible, not doing things ahead of time and freezing them until I need them. If there's fruit involved, it comes from Sam's or Pontotoc Market Basket, because those two places get choice pick of the fruit market. If you ever want to know what's in anything, I'll be happy to tell you.
     As of right now, I'm not doing this to keep a store running or pay off student loans; I'm just doing it because I enjoy being covered in cake batter and trying out new design ideas. I don't have any formal training in this either; I just started making desserts and kept going.
     PS I want to give a shoutout to www.sweetapolita.com. She's a big help as far as method goes. Everything she does looks like it tastes amazing. I think I want to try making everything this lady has blogged about.
   
     Here are some of my more popular, and most favorite, things I do.

 

Birthday Cakes - This one was for my friend Lauren Patton. Two layers, cuts to around 20 slices. Cake, icing layer, and fondant design. Colors, designs, and patters are unending! I don't do a lot of character cakes though, as I found out I'm reeeeally awful at imitating Dora or whoever's face out of icing.

Layer cakes - 2 or 3 layers, pretty much endless combinations of cake, filling, and icing. These two are Cookies & Cream: chocolate cake, vanilla filling, Oreo icing; and Chocolate Covered Strawberry: vanilla cake, strawberry filling, chocolate fudge icing, and strawberries on top.

Cookies - These two are my favorites to make: 

Jam Cutout Cookies - Any kind of jam or jelly you like can be made into a cookie.

Iced Butter Cookies - These can be iced plainly, or decorated. I actually am eating some right now.

Cupcakes -  About as much fun as cakes, except in mini! If you love love love icing, cupcakes are for you.

Beignets - Oh my, beignets. If you've never tasted these, I'm almost willing to come to your house and make them hot for you for breakfast, just so you can have that life experience.

Chocolate Truffle Strawberries - I love getting creative with strawberries. They can be made to match any occasion, like holidays or weddings.

Wedding Cakes

This is something relatively new to me, but it's been so so fun to play around with. If I get bored, I look up pics of wedding cakes online. Bad habit, because now I want to get a hundred weddings scheduled so I can make all these cake designs! Until then, I guess I'll be making lots of styro cakes :)

These are some of my favorites.

This is so fun! It could even be a cute Valentine's cake or Anniversary cake.

I'd almost have this cake at my wedding. I love that color purple, and this cake looks really elegant while still being simple, and most importantly cost friendly and do-able even for so big a cake.

A mini version of this would be so cute for a little girl birthday cake! But it's also adorable for a fun, girly, whimsical wedding.

I love, love, love this cake design. I almost want to make my wedding cake similar to it. It's so unique! And it satisfies all my wants: pop of color (except mine would be purple), traditional, simple, elegant.

This would be so great for an outdoor wedding and reception. It's so natural. And it's got a great modern flair while staying elegant and wedding-y.

 

I love grooms cakes like this. It looks like it'd be so much fun to just pour chocolate all over a cake!

So tailored and simple, but so pretty. The mod black and white wedding theme is huge right now. Even if a bride wanted to add in a splash of color, it'd be really easy, either with the flowers or ribbon.

 

You know, I've never seen someone use this color combination, and yet it's so pretty for a summer or outdoor country wedding. What makes this cake so cool? Those blue flowers are stenciled directly onto the cake.

This might be the cutest, most fun cake ever. Can't you just see this as some great couple's wedding? And all their wedding party going 'I call the J!' 'Well I call the M!' haha

    If you have a secret obsession with all things sugary, send me pics of your favorites! If I make any of them, you'll get a big shoutout, and I'll get to have big fun!