Kris and Chris Take On Exercise

So Chris has recently been bugging me to get on some healthy living kick. Ugh. He's been wanting to go for walks (and according to him at some point I'll be expected to actually go running...right, I'll believe that one when it happens).

The other day I actually got home early enough and with enough motivation to actually be willing to lace up my shoelaces and go. We started walking and as we turned out the driveway I mentioned how we should've brought umbrellas since it looked like it was going to rain. Well, about a block later it started to rain. Chris told me to chase the blue sky and I just followed, grumbling all the while. We hadn't even gone a block and a half from out house when it started POURING.

I think God is on my side and even He doesn't want me to exercise ;P

TWO WET WALKERS

Chris has recently been excited about something called Parkour. He was even excited enough to CALL ME on my cell phone to tell me about it. (a) He never calls me and b) He's really trying this exercise thing. He misses wrestling.) I don't really understand it, but Wikipedia has this to say:

"Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) is a utilitarian discipline based upon the direct, successful, swift traversing of one's surrounding environment via the practical application of techniques, based around the concept of self-preservation. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas."

So...when I heard he wanted to jump off things and scale walls, I was completely not supportive. Anyone who know him knows that if anyone is going to find a way to fall/get hurt/have a freak accident happen to them...it's Chris. He kept telling me he hoped by doing Parkour it would train his body to be less accident prone. (Do I even need to comment on how skeptical I was when I heard that???) But then I realized I was being a jerk and decided to just let him pursue it. And by this I mean - I am not mentioning it at ALL to him and knowing him, he'll forget all about it...sometimes his forgetfulness is REALLY USEFUL ;P

New Cake Technique

This weekend was really busy. I was asked to make a cake for a baby luau for Saturday and a cake for a 5th grader at my school for Sunday. The baby luau cake was supposed to be a Hello Kitty cake, but nothing went well for me - my frosting didn't cooperate, I had a headache and I just plain didn't want to do it. Needless to say, it didn't come out so well. It was cute, but not something I want to brag about.

But I was totally inspired for the second cake. Ironically, this child is one that I met the family when they requested that I test her for special education eligibility. She loves Scooby Doo and boxing. I've heard of this pattern transfer technique awhile back and wanted to test it out. It requires that you trace the image using a clear or white frosting and then you transfer it to the cake. I didn't have the right frosting for the transfer, but decided to try it anyways. I first tried my hand at Scooby. He didn't come out so well and I'm not posting pictures of that attempt. I had to use toothpicks to manually scrap off all the black icing I had used to try the outline. What a colossal pain!

I decided to give the boxing gloves a try since there wasn't as much detail. Here's the final result:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MT!

I happen to TOTALLY love it :) Of course, they didn't seem that impressed, which really bummed me out. Chris thinks that people just don't realize how much work cake decorating takes. This cake took me about 3 hours, not including the baking (Although my hands are out of practice, so I had to rest them a few times).

I made a fun little cake a month ago...nothing special. A teacher requested I make a class cake for their achievements on the second round of the Hawai'i State Assessment. Peeps had just come out in the stores, so I call this my "Peeps" cake. (Although really, I think Peeps are just gross)

WAY TO GO...PEEPS CAKE

My mother and sister spent this past weekend in DC checking out the cherry blossoms and grad schools for her. I forgot to post these cards, but since I remembered:

(L) OWL CARD; (R) SAKURA or "CHERRY BLOSSOM" CARD

I took a card making class using sakura punches and Distress Ink stamping (amazing). The teacher was a retired gentleman who apparently loved to make cards! He did have a distractingly long nose hair that totally bugged me the entire class though...awkward.

And just because I'm obsessed...my fancy-schmancy peppermint Cricut Expression that I got for a steal on eBay :)

THE CRICUT PACKAGE