And I'm back....

If you remember my last post, I was kinda worn thin on cake decorating. Honestly I think it was more of being worn out in general. I had lots of cakes, which was fantastic, but I also had lots of other things going on. I've got my day job... then I might have also gotten a night job baking... and we might have started a little home renovation in the midst of everything else... After saying that, I'm sure you have no pity for me whatsoever. Because I'm the one who chose to work another job and I'm the one who came up with the idea to renovate our pantry. And I kinda feel like a pitiful person saying all of this because I know there are moms out there doing it all. Working, taking care of one or more children, managing their home, doing their dream job on the side etc etc. So I don't quite know what to say. I'm not hear to whine, but explain what happened and admit I can't do it all. (Hopefully you magically obtain those superhero powers when you give birth. I have a feeling I'll need them later in life.)

Pretty much what was going on was that I was working all of the time; whether at my "real" job or my baking job or my "cake job." With working at night, my schedule was completely turned upside down. I had been going to bed at 9 pm (no, I'm not ashamed :) and getting up at 4:30am (ok, not everyday, but 3 out of 7, but the point is early). All of the sudden, I'm staying up till midnight or later. My body was confused. For at least a month I was exhausted every morning. Even when I had had plenty of rest.

On top of that, I had cakes. So if I got home from work at 11 pm... there was still more to be done. Over the past two months I have stayed up somewhere between 2-6am. The night/morning I stayed up till 6am, I ended up getting to see my hubby off for work (one perk). I slept 2 and a half hours then was up to finish the cake. I understand that happens sometimes, but the fact that I wasn't getting started on things till midnight is not really what I prefer. I don't want to come off sounding that I'm not willing to put in the time to do this because I still do love cake decorating, but I don't think this is the best way to go about it.

The worst part of all: I didn't get to spend my evenings with my husband. We were long distance for 3 and a half years. I only got to see him, maybe, once a month. We've been married almost 3 years now and I still cherish the time we get to spend together. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, but this situation is completely under my control and I can change it. I love baking and decorating cakes, but my husband definitely ranks higher.

Anyway, blah blah blah... we finished our pantry!

before

after

I love it so much. It is amazing! The pictures might not help much, but in the room that you see in the after picture there was this tiny pantry (in the before pic). That was the storage. So we knocked it out and made the whole room storage!! I'm not going to lie, it was a lot more involved than I thought it would be. We ended up redoing sheetrock, painting, ceiling, tile... whew! And my husband did most of the work, seeing as how I was usually otherwise occupied. I helped as much as I could though. I painted! And I did some caulk work (ironically since it was a lot like icing a cake. It's got to be smooth). This weekend I was able to rearrange a lot and I think most of everything has found a home. There will always be readjusting, but I think we're settled for now. 

I finally got a break. We hit the beach last weekend for 3 marvelous days. I hope to move closer to my family one day, but the greatest thing about where we are now: close to the beach :)

Of course, there are always cakes to do also...

Hopefully you can't tell the ones that I was rushed with or that I am not that happy with. Is it bad to admit that I'm not happy with my cake? I just feel I could've done better on some. Sometimes you encounter annoying issues such as lumps of powdered sugar in your buttercream! (I started using Domino's p.s. because it's 10x powdered; therefore no sifting. No problems until recently. No clue what the problem is. I sifted yesterday just to be safe. Annoying but the result is worth it). Or like really sticky fondant... turns out fondant can expire. Who knew? haha... I will say I'm happy with that last cake there. Simple but just how I wanted it. I think I was able to get the icing pretty smooth and a good shape for a square cake :) It's amazing what a difference it makes working without stress. 

I can get discouraged easily. I get really jealous at looking at other's cakes and their just amazing (example: shebakescakes. On her fb she said she started two years ago. She is amazing! I love looking at her cakes - when I don't hate her for how good she is :) But it's important not to compare. What good will it do? I printed out a bunch of pictures (I hadn't printed any cake pictures in over a year).  Looking at them, I can tell I have improved. Maybe not as quickly as others, but oh well. I have work I am proud of and I plan to just get better! So my inspiration is back! Would it be ok to quit my jobs and just decorate cakes at home?? Hmm... maybe one day...