Succulents and sweets

I was lucky enough to have this weekend off. Other than the regular errands of grocery shopping, laundry and whatnot, I had no plans. I spent this weekend relaxing at home and working on a couple of projects.

This is the first weekend we have had of real spring weather. I like spring, but I lament the coming Summer, because it means nothing but misery in this neck of the woods. I was anxious to get some stuff planted while the weather is still agreeable. There were two things in the way. The first being a serious lack of funds, and the second being an uncertainty of where I will be living in the immediate future. It would be a shame to spend all that engery planting a lovely garden and then having to leave it behind.

I made do by using two cheap, old planters I had lying around the patio. I planted two different typed of tomatoes. Hopefully they will do better this year, than last Our patio doesn't get much sun, so the plants tend to suffer. By being in containers I can move them around to take full advantage of the small bit of sun we do get, and I can also take them with me when I move.

A lovely shot that includes our spool table and a rail road spike I found.

I was at my Mom's house a few weeks ago, and was going through a lot of old stuff. There was a lot of the standard baby stuff. Also, random things that I had thrown away but my mom salvaged, thinking I might want it some day. There was also a small amount of stuff that I had asked her to keep when I moved out back in 2004. This was very exciting. One of my best finds was a turtle planter. This planter lived in the yard at the house I grew up in. One day I brought it into my bedroom and declared it mine. When my Mom saw the planter she said "It is hardly crazed!" I learned that night that crazed has another meaning that I did not know about. But it was funny thinking that she was amazed that the turtle had kept its sanity all this time.
I decided to plant some succulents. I am terrible at keeping plants alive, and succulents seem to be very forgiving. I have also been becoming fond of them lately and was excited to have an excuse to buy some.

Looks pretty sane to me.

I was overly ambitious when buying succulents and I bought more than could be crammed into this tiny shell. I was left with one left over succulent and no place to put it. Luckily I had a plethora of left over mason jars from last year's canning.

Not the best shot, but you get the idea.

After having a lovely time greening up my space, I knew I had actual work to do, and I was dreading it. I had to practice making a 5 inch wedding cake. It has been going only so-so thus far, and I was beginning to get nervous. I am happy to say that today was a great success. I made a lemon cake and slapped on some cream cheese frosting I had in the freezer. It looks beautiful. One of the cakes broke in half, the cream cheese frosting was a runny, weird consistency from being frozen and I left the cake at weird angle in the fridge last night, causing it to be all slopey and uneven. With all those things stacked against me, it still turned out super cute.

I know. So darling. And my little $6 cake plate- best purchase ever.

If it is this cute now, imagine how fantastic it will turn out when I am making it up to my usual baking perfectionist standards.


Since I have no excuse to eat an entire top tier of a wedding cake by myself, I will be making a second attempt at cake balls tonight. I will be so happy after this wedding is done. I am burnt out on baking. It is just getting too warm. I do think my newest obsession will be popsicles. I already make a mean limber de coco. I do think it is time to expand my repertoire.