In GRATITUDE of Cakewrecks

In case I don't get around to a Thanksgiving-ish post, I threw "gratitude" in there for good measure. Of course anyone who knows me, knows that it's heartfelt & sincere. [insert eye-roll from Mum] I ADORE Cakewrecks. It's my favourite blog, calendar & go-to birthday gift.

So last month, Jen & John of Cakewrecks came to my new town, Richmond to promote their new book, Wreck the Halls. WOO-HOO!  As if I didn't love these guys enough already, look at who is gracing the laptop:

<3 Hobbes. Brother Atlasta's 3 girls, 5-10 all LOVE Calvin & Hobbes. Youngest Marlene IS Calvin.  ;-)  "Daddy, when you were my age, was Calvin & Hobbes YOUR favourite book, too?"  "No, sweetie. It didn't come out until Daddy was in college."  "WHAT????!!!!"  She was suitably outraged. 

And this wasn't done intentionally, but look what they did on the cover of the new book:

*snort* PrEfessional!  This presentation was AWESOME. They need to put it on YouTube!

Shot of Glutonium (non-GF) cake with many homages to wrecks. 

Cupcake contest! Fans are invited to recreate their favourite wrecks:

V. appropriate for this T-day season. For originals, click HERE. 

Camo-wedding cake. I think this was the winner.

C-section cake. Ew. There was a little boy here who kept asking his mother what this was. She said THAT was going to make for an interesting convo in the car ride home! 

Ah, belly cakes!  See her matching finger nails to the one on the cupcake? 

This gal drove all the way from NC! 

john & Jen Yate. He took her name when they got married. And spells john with no capital because she's the head honcho of the Cakewrecks operation. These guy ROCK!

John & Jen stayed til the v. end. I was the penultimate fan (YES! Finally getting to use that 8th grade vocabulary word)!  right in front of Belly Cupcake Gal. So I asked Jen a few questions--now I wish I'd done something more official. While I was waiting in line, I called John Morgan and he asked me, "What are you going to ask her when she signs your book?"  I hadn't really thought about it. As a professional interviewer, he was the guy to give me some guidance. I asked him what he would ask. He said that one of the questions he asked any of the celebrities he spoke with was, "What was the first thing you bought after you made a lot of money?"

So I did a variation of that question and asked, "How did you know that this was bigger than just a blog that you did for fun?" Jen said the first time was when they'd been getting 200 hits a day and there was a review somewhere and the next day they had 50,000 hits. The second time was when they were on their first book tour where John landed in a Texas ICU with the plague. Kidding. It was pneumonia and the flu. They had just left the hospital and went to a laundry mat to do laundry because they were out of clean underwear. Cockroaches every where. John is still hacking up his lungs. And Jen's cell phone rings and it's her publisher calling to tell her that Cakewrecks is on the NY Times best seller's list. Cockroaches everywhere!  "It was the most surreal moment, standing there in a laundry mat, cockroaches everywhere and we're on the NY Times best sellers list."

I also asked about a calendar (no 2012, no time due to new book). I told Jen that I make cards out of Cakewrecks. This is my most recent one for my nephew, a die hard Cakewrecks fan:

So in this season of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for Cakewrecks. :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

For me, Memorial Day weekend has always been the official start of summer; warm weather and whatnot. For others, it's a time of sales for everything from lawn thingies to mattresses. For most people it means a cook-out and perhaps a Cakewreck for dessert:

Nothing says "Remember" like a gloppy, geometry-defying flag.

And then last year I saw Andy Rooney talking about Memorial Day:





And it got me thinking. Memorial Day is a day to give thanks for our freedom that we take for granted. It's a day to honour those boys who fought in World War II and never came home to be grandfathers today. They are the reason we're not all speaking Germanese. So in honour of picnics and family and American freedom:

Spring

Spring is springing. So in celebration of the sunshine, I'm giving you a cake, a la Cakewrecks:

Is that a border, or a green sea of goo the sun is sinking into?

With its Medusa-like rays and skin-disorder sprinkles, here's a cake that says, "Goodbye Winter!"

And for some total randomness:

Is this what you gals are driving these days? Wee ha and pass me a gluten-free brewski. Back tomorrow. :-)

Happy Monday

I am actually writing this on Friday and scheduling this to post on Monday. I'm planning on being too busy-and-important on Monday. Hahahhaha So in that spirit, I thought I'd share something a bit fun. Jen from Cakewrecks tweeted the The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator. It's like a Mad Lib for bloggers. If you're ever at a loss for blog content, check it out. Here's my post for today:

OMG! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since Hawke was Prime Minister... You would not believe how tidy my house now is. Stupid Global Warming!
I am hopped up on caffeine with finding Jesus (after someone told me he was lost), watching the grass grow, just generally being a Darling to society in general, my day seems to involve the authorities from the light through yonder window breaks til I feel like going to bed. I am plotting and planning; can't they see I am blogging. I hope you are having a good life and I will send a missive out on the wire, post-haste. No, really! This is for my ever faithful, devoted public.

Back tomorrow with weekend adventures! :-) H.

Congradulations*

For the past week, -Ex-XM Radio Guy has had a kidney stone. Last Monday in the midst of excruciating pain, he drove himself to the hospital--not the one closest to him, but the good hospital half an hour away. Immediately. After he dropped off his dog. After diagnosis and drugs, he drove himself back home. After picking up the dog. Since then, he has languished waiting to pass the stone. I've been in hysterics about this kidney stone. Laughing, that is. His description of his experiences has been classic. I told him he should tweet it, but he argued it wasn't tweet-worthy. So yesterday he sent an email which I spiffed up with some graphics:


Urethra Franklin. Hahahahaha! Mum's going to be laughing at that one. HAPPY FALKER SATHERHOOD!**

*Yes, I know it's misspelled. It's an homage to Cakewrecks. [Insert eye-roll from Mum]

**Whaaaaa??? Another homage to Cakewrecks, go see.

Cowgirl Birthday

Mum asked me to help with a birthday cake; carrot cake, gluten free. YUM. The recipient is 30 and her sister told Mum she wanted "Dirty 30" on it. I added the "Ye ha!" I call it my Picasso Cowgirl:

Mum wanted the lasso to go around a moon. I drew a crescent and she said, "Perhaps you could fill it in." So I did. "It looks like she's lassoing a banana," she says. I hope this doesn't end up on Cakewrecks.

HAPPY Mother's Day

She's British and a nurse. We grew up with Stiff Upper Lip Syndrome in doubley. Her answer to all-things-bleeding was the butterfly stitch (band-aids with little triangle shapes cut out). I wore a box of band-aids on my chin when I landed on a cinder block with my chin when I was 12. One time she had to do actual stitches on Brother D. She gave him a washcloth to bite on and when he said it hurt, she told him to "just think of England." That's our family joke, now. So, this is the card I got for Mum.




BNO? Mum calls us all her Blessings, & I'm Blessing Number One.

And here's a Cakewrecks-inspired cake I saw in Walmart in honour of M-Day:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to anyone who is a mother or has ever had one. :-) H.

What we need

That's right, a little healing:


I have a new-to-me blog to read: The Fail Blog. Real examples of paradox, misspellings, & grammEr mistakes. Hysterical. I found it from my current fave Cakewrecks. Humour is everywhere if you're looking for it, and this is the everyday kind of humour I appreciate. Have a FUNny day. :-)

I got nothin'

Happy Prezzie's Day. For some entertainment, I refer you to Cakewrecks.

Back tomorrow.

Marlene's Birthday

Last weekend, we celebrated Niece Marlene's 3rd birthday. I LOVE this girl. She's so smart and funny. A familiar refrain is, Marlene! What are you doing? She replies, Plotting and scheming. Thanks to my brother.

On the famous YouTube stairs.

SIL was v. wise to get ONE balloon colour. Noooooo! I want the red ballooooooon! All avoided. It was a smallish affair with just the extended fam of aunties & grandparents. SIL picked up a cake. As a fan of Cakewrecks, I was hoping for something with a bit more wreckiness, but we got this:

You call yourself a Cakewreck?

Cakewreck worthy? Well no. But I do appreciate the migrating border in all its ploppiness. And the squiggly writing. And the brown leaves around the Crisco roses; v. appropriate for the winter season. Cue music: All the leaves are brown . . .all-the-leaves-are-brown . . . and the sky is grey . . . and-the-sky-is-grey . . . . If only it said "Happe Brithday" or we'd had a few misplaced quote marks. Alas.

That night at dinner after the rest of the extended fam left, we were at dinner. Mum asked Marlene how she liked her birthday. It was incredible, she replied. That's right, she's 3.

To the "brithday" gril:

May you're thrid year be

as good as to.

Underneat that write

Yay U in blue

Holidaze

This post was inspired by The 12 Daze of Christmas. Go see, I'll wait.

It's almost a cliche, this hustle-bustle of the holidays. I look around at the mad-dash of people securing STUFF. Ex-XM Radio Guy has always said that he doesn't like the mandate of gift giving. His family got rid of it years ago. Nobody needs anything, and if they do, they can buy it themselves. We just get together and eat. I always liked Thanksgiving, not just for the yummy yams, but because it was a fun family gathering without the gift pressure. Every family has traditions and rules. Here are some rules I've observed for the Holidaze:

1. Matriarchs who insist her entire set of children, grandchildren, etc. MUST be at their homes ON Christmas Day. Followed by:
2. Nothing starts until the entire family is there. Just eat the chips on the side board & watch TV for 3 hours until Sister-brother-so-and-so can get there.
3. Mandatory Gift Giving for everyone in the family.
4. Assigned seating for gift-opening. (I am not making this up).
5. Opening one gift at a time with 50 people wedged into a room. Sweater in the wrong size & colour that I won't wear? Returnable. 3 hours of my life: priceless.
6. Co-workers who insist you eat the shortening-icing store bought cake because "it's Christmas." [side note here: for some hilarious cake mistakes, check out Cakewrecks]
7. Anyone who uses the excuse Because it's Christmas.
8. More stuff = more love
9. Expensive gift = more love

In my family, Christmas has evolved. These days we keep it pretty simple. We all do something homemade. We go for funny or smart or delicious. We have Christmas the weekend before or after Christmas. That way all the nieces and nephews can spend Christmas morning in their own home in their jammies. When my stepsons were growing up, we had the 3 Gifts Rule. That's how many Jesus got, so that's how many they got. They still got lots of other stuff from all the rellies.

Here's the beauty of being an adult: we get to choose how we want to celebrate. Just because "that's the way we've always done it" doesn't mean you have to continue that way. You can turn the holidaze back into happy holidays. Or in the case of our family, from Hollidaze to Hollidays.