Thursday Random Thoughts...

~ First of all... I watched Dancing With the Stars this week just so I could see Chaz Bono's performance.  I never watch and I give my mom crap all of the time because she loves this show.   I am pretty open minded and have zero issues with him performing on the show as a man.  I don't have to understand it or like it, but I believe it's his right.  Although we do not have any transgender family members... I have gay family members...and I was never brought up thinking it was weird, wrong, or strange...because it isn't...and I don't.  Madison has been around my gay family members has gone to school for years with families that were "different"... with two moms or two dads or just a mom or just a dad... so it isn't weird to her either.  I guess if you don't like the show now because he's on there... then don't watch it.... but I am not sure why others let it affect them so much.

~ Being a stay at home mom/housewife has always been my dream.   Except now I stay home and my kid is in 7th grade... so while it was fun at first... I am starting to get a little bored.  I am starting to miss my daily adult interaction that I had when I worked as a teacher.  It doesn't really help that I have met like zero people here and have no friends here, so that makes it even more isolating.   Any suggestions on friend making?

~ Being a stay at home mom/housewife and living on one income because now I pretty much make zero ... although I will take this time to shamelessly plug my two current business ventures, Betty Ray's Bakery - great items... but seriously the brownies... amazing and I started to sell Scentsy products.   I am going to be offering a giveaway for each of those businesses in October on my blog... or if you have a blog and are interested in hosting a giveaway for one of those two businesses... let me know!

Anyways... since being on one income I have become frugal... which kind of makes me wish I had been more frugal when we had two full-time incomes.  I have been grocery shopping all of the time to make dinners at home for my family.  Since I have no friends... I eat lunch at home now every.single.day.  I shop sales... and put back things that we do not need. Well on Tuesday I needed paint at Michaels.  The shelf said it was on sale for $1.99, after I paid, I realized I had been charged $3.99.  The old "living on two incomes Melissa" would probably just have not worried about it.  Well the new "we have one income and I am going to make every dollar stretch Melissa", got back in line after checking the price for a refund... that was less than $2.00... and now that I sit here and type this... I may need to go back, because I don't think that girl did it right... I think Michaels owes me more money.

The Details of my First Baking Job w/ Lots of Photos

Back in late June I was a little surprised/flattered when I received a text from my friend Amy asking me if I would be willing to do her cupcakes for her July 16th wedding.  Amy and I were roommates our sophomore/junior years in college and have kept in touch ever since.  She actually attended my wedding last summer with her then fiance.

Amy and I planned a time in early July to meet for a taste test.  She really enjoyed the samples and she decided on 3 flavors for the cupcakes and for her cut cake.

My mom's kitchen table set up for the taste test.

I then set out to get everything together.  I had to shop for all of the ingredients, purchase the cupcake liners, purchase ribbon to decorate the cupcake display boxes, and order boxes to transport the cupcakes.  See... I currently live about 3.5 hours from the wedding site.

I baked all day Thursday.  I ended up making 2 batches of pineapple carrot cupcakes (which later would be covered with cream cheese frosting), 1 batch of almond coconut cupcakes (which later would be covered with butter cream and coconut) and 3 batches of chocolate buttermilk cupcakes and a 3 layer 6 inch wedding cake (to later be covered with cream cheese frosting).

Madison was a great help and was in charge of the cupcake liners and assembling the boxes I ordered from Bake a Box.  Let me just say... I totally forget where I heard about this NC based company, but their customer service was top-notch, the boxes were so high quality, and the shipping was super fast.  I will definitely be ordering again.

My little helper... who incidently had on a cupcake shirt.

Friday we loaded up the car with 150 cupcakes and the cake to travel to my mom's where I would make the frosting and frost and decorate everything.  The ride was supposed to take 3.5-4 hours.  It took 6.  The highway shut down at one point after we had been sitting there for 2 hours.  I wanted to scream.

My car packed and ready to go.

We got to my mom's.  After I rested for a bit I dove into frosting and decorating.

I opened up a tutorial on frosting a layer cake that I had pinned on Pinterest to follow.

The chocolate buttermilk cupcakes packed up for delivery.

One of the chocolate buttermilk cupcakes

Saturday afternoon my husband and I delivered everything to the country club the wedding was being held at and started to set up.  We were lucky in that we got to return a few hours later to attend the wedding.

The three of us about to leave for the wedding.

I made this sign to let the guests know the different flavor choices

A close up of the coconut cupcakes.

The bride and groom about to cut the cake.

The cake after the cut a little piece to feed to one another.

It was an amazing success.  The bride and the groom loved the display and the taste of their cake and the cupcakes.  It was nice to see other guests reactions to the display and to see how much the enjoyed the cupcakes.  I am so thankful for the opportunity Amy and Scotty gave me to do this.  I wish them a lifetime of happiness.







My First Wedding {Baking} Job = Success

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to make the wedding cake and cupcakes for my friend Amy's wedding.  It was my first major paid baking job to help launch my baking business and it was a huge success.  I will be sharing more about the process...the recipes...and the fabulous comments I overheard (because we were also guests).  But here is a sneak peek of what I created -

A Baking Frenzy

Today I am a crazy baking lady.

I am doing a wedding this weekend.

Yesterday I picked up of these jumbo sizes baking items at BJ's.

I still had to go to the regular grocery store for some other items I needed in small quantities.  On Tuesday, Kara, from Happy Go Lucky, came over and helped me re-decorate the cupcake tower I am going to display them on.

I am baking 48 Chocolate Buttermilk cupcakes, 48 Carrot Pineapple cupcakes, and 24 Coconut Almond cupcakes, as well as a 6 inch Chocolate Buttermilk cut cake for the bride and the groom.  I am also going to do a seperate 6-pack of cupcakes for the bride and groom to enjoy when they leave the wedding or the next day since they are not leaving for a week for their honeymoon. 

I am honored they selected me to do the baking for their wedding.  I am also fortunate enough to attend the wedding.  My former college roommate, Amy, is getting married.  I hope I hear only positive remarks from the other guests about my cupcakes...

Sunday Ramblings...

First of all, I have a great giveaway going on here... check it out.  It is for Print Candee digital clip art/papers.

I booked my very first real life baking job on Friday night.  I am going to be doing wedding cupcakes for my college roommate.  I am honored to be working on this job.  I have been busy browsing Pinterest for ideas and checked out some things today at A.C. Moore.  I cannot wait to share what I come up with.  It will be a great starting point for my baking business.

I have been doing some small jobs for the photographer who shot my wedding in exhange for photos she took for me the other week.  On Saturday I assisted her with a boudoir photo shoot.  She booked a fabulous hotel room.  She shot three different ladies.  It was a lot of fun.  I cannot wait to see how the photos turned out for these ladies...as well as to see my photos which will be finished this week.  Here is the living room in the suite we had as well as the food set up I did {photos using the Instagram feature on my IPhone}.

I DID IT - Starting My Business

I have been wanting to start a bakery business for quite some time.  Recently I created an etsy shop and a Facebook fan page but that is as far as I got.

Last week I had two small baking orders for guys at my husband's job.  This Friday he came home with four orders.

Today my local Groupon was $12 for $25 of baked goods for a local in home bakery.  I checked out their web page.  I was not impressed.  I immediately thought I CAN SO DO THIS!

So I registered a domain name for my bakery.  I selected the name a bit ago. It is named after my grandmother, Betty Ray.

I obviously have a lot to learn.  I have a lot to do.  My main goal is to one day SOON be making enough money doing this where I will not need a job working for someone else. 

Tonight I worked on a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies (one of my orders for Monday). 

Does anyone have any advice as far as web design goes? I know what I want...I just need to know how to do it or have someone do it.

December Plans and Goals -

I wanted to set some December goals for myself and my family and thought I would share them here.  I have been MIA for a few days mainly because my husband and I just purchased this -

Our 'new' v6 Toyota Highlander

I LOVE IT!! This is the first time I have ever went to a dealership...selected...and purchased a car.  It has low mileage,its roomy, and FABULOUS!!

Now on to my December plans and goals -

1. Wedding Photos - I want to finish ordering and framing my wedding photos and canvases.  I had no idea this would be such a time consuming and confusing process.
2. Get this House in Order - mainly my master bedroom closet and our closet both which pretty much looks like an episode of Hoarders.
3. Cook and Eat at Home - I like to cook.  I don't like going places in the winter when its dark and cold when I get home from work.  With a 2nd car payment...we need to watch out money f0r a bit. 
4. Read More.  I read blogs...and magazines all of the time.  I have two books which I need to read.  I would like finish both of them before the end of the month.  My books to finish are Thirteen Reasons Why which Madison and my friend Kara both read an enjoyed and Nanny Returns which my husband bought for me last Christmas and I have yet to read.
5. BLOG every day. This one is pretty self explanatory.
6. Save Money - I want to be more active with clipping coupons, using coupons, shopping sales, and saving money.
7. Start my Business - I am working on opening a bakery business...online first...through etsy...with a long term goal of having an actual small bakery/cafe.  So far I have set up etsy shop - Betty Ray's Bakery and a Facebook fan page (link to like it is to the right). The fabulous Miranda at Little Sailor Designs created my banner, reserved listing avatar, shop avatar, and label for my business. She also created my fabulous blog as well..so check her out if you are looking for some design work.  So in addition to working on the business aspects of it...I need to work on my bakery menu and perfecting my recipes.

What are some of your December plans and goals?