Being a Photographer

   I was reading an article about calling yourself a photographer, even if you aren't making millions of dollars. One person commented on Facebook about being a pro and how anyone with a camera can call themselves "a photographer," and this "dilutes the term photographer."

  I am not a professional. I've never charged for my service. Once I was given a gift card as a thank you gift. I have shot a baby session, a senior session, and a wedding.  I shoot landscapes, nature, and of course, everyday life. I never answer "What do you do?" with "I am a photographer."

  But guess what. I am a photographer.

  I am inspired by and have a passion for shooting amazing images.  I study photography and photographers. I strive to learn and get better each time I shoot.

I AM  A PHOTOGRAPHER.

Floral Cake

A year ago I took Course 1 and Course 2 of Wilton's cake decorating classes. I just finished Course 3. For the final cake, I made this floral cake with gum paste and fondant flowers and lace.

Should I tell you honestly how it went? Of course. I started making the flowers the week prior. Then I went camping over the weekend, so I finished them Sunday night. I borrowed eggs from my friend Kim and sugar from my neighbor Erica on Monday. Can you believe I ran out of sugar?  Me either! So Monday afternoon I baked a 3 layer german chocolate cake, as requested by hubby.

Side note. Did you know that this cake does not have origins in Germany?  Me either. Turns out some guy named Samuel German who developed a sweet chocolate that was used in the original recipe.  Hmmm. Learn something new all the time

 Okay, back to the cake. It turned out FABULOUS!  Light and flaky. Yummy filling with pecans and coconut. Hubby will be proud.

But light and flaky doesn't work well with buttercream. So Tuesday morning, the day of my final class, I started to put on my crumb coat. I made crumbs. I made more crumbs. The filling started to spill out. Then a chunk of the middle layer fell off.  That's about when I gave up.

I texted Ana, my cake instructor and friend, and told her what happened.  She said that German Chocolate cake is not a good candidate for these decorating techniques. Woops.

Luckily I had a single layer carrot cake in the freezer. It had been in there 1 1/2 years.  Ana said I could use it.

This is what I ended up with.

And a very happy husband, who is half finished with a large German Chocolate cake. :)

Layout: The Sea

Supplies:
paper: Color Play 09 - By the Sea Papers kit by Cilenia Curtis
stamps: Color Play 09 - By the Sea Elements kit by Cilenia Curtis
Shells overlay: Color Play 09- By the Sea Transfers kit by Green Eyed Lady
All three can be found HERE.
 Fonts: Bangla MN, and my handmade font

I love the Color Play series at Scrap Art Studio. If you go to the link I supplied, you'll see 18 coordinating kits to choose from. You mix and match the items that you love by whichever designer you want, and they are guaranteed to match in color and theme.  Isn't that awesome?  No $10 kits full of things you don't love. :) 

I haven't been to the beach in a while, so I don't have recent pictures to scrap with this kit, but I have spent many weekends as a child on a little campground in Northern California and it brings back so many wonderful memories. Both of my children have camped there now. My husband hasn't yet, but I'll get him there someday. I am lucky that my Dad took thousands of slides of us growing up (as much as we hated it back then because he'd make us stand there and smile just a little bit too long) and he had his slides scanned a couple of years ago.  So the top two photos in this layout are from those slides. The first is my Mom holding me, probably one of the first times they took me to "our" campground, and the second was a couple of years later. Thanks for taking those pictures, Dad. As I looked through the photos on my hard drive, I started remembering little snippets of stories from those times, growing up camping at the beach. I really enjoyed re-living that as I wrote them out on my layout.

Now to get away from this desert and back to the beach where I belong!!! 

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 6th anniversary of this blog.  I can't believe it's been that long. I started this blog Saturday, March 31, 2007. I was apparently behind the bandwagon and decided to start a blog because other people on a stamping blog were doing it.  lol Some things never change- I'm still behind the bandwagon. ;)

I was just reading some of my first posts back then. I was tagged to write 7 things about myself- and this was number 7:

I love to scrapbook about today- what my kids said today that was so funny, the conversation my dh told me about that he and his airplane mechanic friends had, how hard it was to take the dog on a walk because he's not really leash trained, and he pulled so hard he choked himself, there was moose poop in my yard once, that's in my scrapbook. One day I drove to the grocery store and saw 26 bald eagles and 3 moose! What we had for dinner and why. What we watched on TV. Why I have THOSE few cookbooks convenient, but 30 more cookbooks in a baby-proofed cabinet. What I love about my Mom and Nana (and all our other relatives). That amazing smile on Austin. Those things are what I want to remember when I'm old and gray.

 Yeah. That hasn't changed, either. I'm glad to see that although styles and fads change, that I've stuck to my guns and kept the same ideals in my scrapbooking.

And because I have nothing new to share today, I'll share some of my recent Instagram photos.

And Happy Easter!

Cookies: The Embroidered Look

I have some gorgeous cookies to share today!

(Has anyone else noticed that I have a lot fewer layouts and a lot more baked goods in the past few months?)

Pinewood Derby Cake

I am so proud of my son. He was supposed to make a cake for his Blue and Gold silent auction, so he and I came up with an idea, and we worked through what the cake would look like. When we came across an issue, we worked through it. He did most of the work. And it looks fabulous!

Measuring and mixing.

 Pouring and baking.