Austin, TX

Once again I need to apologize for the inconsistency of my posts. 451 Press has been doing server upgrades over the past few weeks. Those upgrades have led to unexpected down time. Until these issues are resolved my entries are likely to be sporadic.

Although I have not been posting, I have not been idle. Last weekend a friend got married and I had the pleasure of making her wedding cake. This was no ordinary wedding cake. No, this was a Batmobile wedding cake with Wonder Woman as bride and Batman as the groom. This cake just about kicked my butt. In the end it came out fantastic, though. The Bride & Groom loved it!

Here is a look at the cake:

and the back:

For those of you interested in construction, here is a look at the cake in crumb coat stage:

The cake itself was chocolate with cookies and cream filling and chocolate fondant. I chose chocolate fondant because the car needed to be black and it’s easier to achieve black if you start with chocolate. Since the cake was chocolate it made for a nice match. The chocolate fondant tastes a bit like tootsie rolls.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to, how about you?

cake, decorating, batmobile, batman, wonder woman, super, hero

I’m the first to admit that I’m spoiled rotten. My sweeties gave me flowers and chocolates and a shiny new 8Gb pink iPod nano as well as a brand new iDog amp’d with two little winter outfits for my multitude of other iDogs. Yes, I’m a grown woman who collects iDogs. I have almost every color and I have American ones and Japanese ones. Red ones, blue ones, pink ones, spotted ones and tattooed ones. Hey, I’m a geek girl, we likes our toys!

I didn’t get dinner out tonight because I had a beading class. I’m still sort of surprised they didn’t arrange the class around Valentine’s Day but I enjoy the class and my sweetie didn’t mind. The weekend is ahead and the restaurants really do gouge you on Valentine’s Day, don’t they?

I take my beading classes at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin. If you’ve ever wanted to take a beadmaking class, I’d highly recommend Blue Moon. Not only are they simply the nicest, friendliest and most helpful people on the planet but they also have a great workspace, they aren’t stingy with their supplies and offer excellent classes. My current class is with instructor, Ann Ricketts, who is a published beader who is well rounded and able to teach many different techniques.

My partner teases me that I only take the classes so I can play with the torch, to which I say, “Your point?” Well, duh, of course I like playing with the torch. The torch is cool!

They also teach classes in stained glass and glass fusion. The local “Fireflies” beadmaking club meets there once a month and quite often guest instructors give a demonstration. I’ve seen demonstrations by some incredible beaders. The kind of beaders whose classes I can’t begin to afford!

Tonight, being Valentine’s Day, we learned to make hollow heart beads. They are so cool and I hope the two I made turn out good. We learned to make regular hollow beads as well. I made two and I hope they came out as well as I think they did.

I can’t wait to see what we learn next week!

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day.

Blue Moon, Glassworks, Beading, Ann Ricketts, hollow heart bead, Austin, TX, beads, classes, Fireflies

Is it really only Tuesday? I’ve been so busy lately I expect my head to start spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. All that and I have a cold. I really hate being sick. I’m not one of those people who gets sick and wastes away to nothing. Oh no, I’m one of those people who eats everything in sight.

I’ve been a cake making fool this past two weeks. First off I made an adorable Pikachu cake for my friend Nicole’s son, Zack. I completely forgot to take a picture so I’m waiting to get one back from her. Next I did a cake for a woman who was the catalyst for getting me back into cake decorating. I was a professional cake decorator many years ago. I quit about 15 years ago. I was sick of cake. Sick of the smell of cake. Sick of the taste of cake. Instead I concentrated on my IT career which was a wise choice as it netted me a much higher income and a lot less dishes.

Getting back to the cake, it was a just over a year ago that my friend, Gloria was assigned the task of organizing her bosses baby shower. Gloria was having a tough month. It was fiscal year end and she deals with procurement for a large computer manufacturer here in Austin. Her plate was full and she was tearing her hair out. I offered to help by taking the cake off her hands. She told me her boss was doing the baby room in soft green and bumblebees and I came up with this cake:

They loved the cake, of course. Who wouldn’t? That picture makes it look yellowish but it was a pastel green. I was thrilled when the recipient emailed me last week to ask if I’d do her daughters 1st birthday cake! They named the baby Olivia and she wanted a chocolate cake to match the napkins and plates for the birthday party. This is what I came up with:

I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and she was very happy with it, too. In addition, I made an individual cake for Olivia. Nothing special, just a little butterfly so she could make a mess out of it as all kids should!

On top of those cakes I also did a going away cake for Gloria’s current boss (she sure is going through them!). They ordered my famous Chai cake and Gloria told me that her favourite colour is peach so I spent an inordinate amount of time making gumpaste roses which came out quite lovely.

As if that weren’t enough, I also made 100 mini cupcakes for my friend Nicole’s birthday. She had a joint birthday party with two co-workers. The party was a blast but man am I exhausted!

So that’s my week so far, what have you been up to?

And by the way, if you enjoy cake decorating and sugar artistry, you should consider joining our local cake club! We have a big cake decorating and sugar art competition and show coming up in February and we’ve already started planning. I’m on the vendor committee. Because y’know, I don’t have enough to do. Heh.

cakes, cake decorating, gumpaste, roses, austin, capital confectioners, club, sugar art, show, competition, chai

Give me your tired, your stained, your ripped, your retched refuse, yearning to be recovered.

Are you tired of looking at that nasty chair hiding in your corner with a blanket draped over it? You know the one I mean. The chair that’s gone past broken-in and well-loved and has moved into the category of broken down and gross but you can’t afford to buy new?

Then gather up your furniture and get enrolled in an upholstery class at Austin Community College.

Classes are small, with a limit of 5-6 people per class, intimate and a ton of fun. You supply the fabric, foam and furniture and they supply most of the rest. You will need to purchase a few tools like scissors and a staple puller. You’ll learn how to strip your furniture down to its frame and how to get it back to its original beauty.

I’ve been taking classes at ACC for a few years now (some people never learn) and I’ve reupholstered 4 chairs, several ottomans and a couch. Here is a picture of the couch, a recent project:

This piece was once furniture roadkill. Seriously. A couple of my friends were driving down MoPac one day and saw an old sofa that had evidently fallen from someone’s truck. As more of a joke than anything, they called me and asked if I wanted a roadkill sofa. I asked them what it looked like and when they told me it was a camel back I was sold! They loaded it up in their truck and brought it to me. It was beat up and the fabric was beyond repair. It also needed some structural repair as it hadn’t been constructed all that well. I stripped it, did some frame repair (thanks to the help of my instructor) and then it sat in my guest room for nearly two years. Best laid plans, y’know? About that time my best friend got his first apartment and I offered to upholster it for him. I did and the above is the result of that effort.

As a funny aside, my friend Adam has a dog named Charlie. When we went looking for fabric we took a few swatches and I told him to rub them against the dog and we’d go with the one that showed the dog hair the least. The fabric we went with is a tawny chenille and we used leather for the contrasting welt cord. Adam’s brother laughingly said that the sofa matches the dog so well it’s like Charlie camouflage.

I’m currently working on a very cool three piece retro sectional which I bought off ebay for a mere $50. When I saw it I immediately thought of my brother, Kevin, who lives out on Miami Beach. Once adorned in baby blue vinyl it’s now turning into a red and black leather set that resembles classic caddy seats. At least three people have wandered through the class and pronounced “wow, that looks just like a caddy seat” which makes me very happy as that was my goal. I’ve just finished the middle piece of the sectional. Two more to go. Here is a picture of the project in process:

For comparison sake, here it is in it’s original form:

The class instructors (teasingly referred to as DEstructors), Mike Guitierrez and Paulette Defoe are top-notch. They are patient, thorough, and extremely knowledgeable. Although there are occasionally other instructors teaching upholstery classes for ACC, I would highly recommend that you take your classes with Mike or Paulette! Fear is not in their vocabulary and they will help you every step of the way to ensure you leave with a beautiful piece of furniture that will be sure to please you.

If you’ve come to this page looking for a good source for upholstery foam, I’d highly recommend Capital City Upholstery.

Upholstery, Austin, ACC, Austin Community College, DIY, Foam, Capital City Upholstery