What I've Been Doing (the last 2+ weeks!)

I have really been enjoying doing weekly wrap-ups of What I've Been Doing so I thought I'd keep it up.  Anyway... since I missed two weekends in a row, today I'm going to share What I've Been Doing (the last 2+ weeks!).

Just 2 days after my last "What I've Been Doing Post"...  I dabbled in photography again and took some family pics for my sweet sis-in-law Amy before their new baby came:

I do not claim to be a photographer but I did manage to get a few really great pics (or at least I think their great 😉 )  Okay - now on to cake!

Let's start with two weekends ago... I had one order!   Aren't you proud of me?  I've been doing so much better about limiting my orders and relaxing... yay!!

Granted - it was a big order.  Cake, cake pops  and cookies!  But gaaah, I sure did love it when I was done!  Oooh and let me show you the set up at my client's house... so pretty:

Okay.  So that was it for the weekend.    I relaxed, spent time with my family and enjoyed some down time!

Fast forward to Monday morning, when I found out my best friend Kathy's Dad has passed away.  What a hard, hard morning.  In addition to being my best friend's Dad... he was a friend to our family.

Richy and I were friends with Pat & Elaine before I even met their daughter Kathy, who became my best friend.   The more we got to know them, the more we loved them.  We spent holidays with their family, spent nights at their house, Richy went fishing with Pat - I had girl's nights out with Elaine.   We had all been believing that God would heal Pat here on earth.  He got the ultimate healing, but it wasn't what we all had in mind.  It was heartbreaking to say the least.

So.... last week (and this week so far) has been hard.    I haven't slept as much as I'd have liked - mostly just up praying through my sadness and trying to help Kathy.   There really wasn't anything I could do... except to pray.    As many of you know, my best friend is a missionary... and she lives in Italy.  I asked her how I could help - if there was anything I could do... and the most pressing matter was for her to get home (here, to the states).

I decided immediately to do everything in my power to get her here.  I reached out to family and friends to help raise the funds for their plane tickets... and praying that God would provide.  And I have to give this testimony... God DID provide.  Within just a few days, between the money given from here, and money given to them from friends in Italy - they got more than they needed to get home - over $4000!  It was an amazing blessing!!

But in addition to that most sad thing - there was joy to be had!  My brother TJ & his wife Amy welcomed a new little one to their family on Thursday morning!  She's a precious, beautiful little girl and gosh - I cant get enough of her!   I couldn't hang out long at the hospital Thursday morning because well... Valentine's.

I had 2 cake orders plus a smash cake, one large cupcake order... and in a matter of a few days - I had orders for over 400 chocolate dipped strawberries!  If you haven't figured it out already, Thursday & Friday were beyond busy!  I came home from the hospital, baked around 130 cupcakes and all the cake layers.  Then I started dipping.  Hours and hours later... I had most of them finished!  THIS is what almost 400 strawberries looks like:

(I say almost because I had a few picked up and a few others delivered at a different time... so they weren't all in my truck!)

The first cake was a smaller, slightly different version of last week's cake:

and the smash:

plus this sweet little Valentine's cake:

OH and then there was the baby shower order.   My sweet sweet client Jerry (the same one who ordered the Peppa Pig cake), ordered 8 dozen cupcakes for a baby shower:

I did 3 dozen pale pink roses (as seen above) and then 5 dozen of these tiny pink bow cupcakes...

They took a lot longer than I imagined they would, but I was really happy with the way they came out!  OH - and I used this bow cutter to make the bows... it simplified the process for sure (but didn't seem to speed it up.. haha!).

And that was it... my orders all finished up by Friday evening so I could go see the new baby again, then go out to dinner with my husband on a date 🙂   One precious picture from that night at the hospital was this picture of my oldest son, with the newest baby in the family.  My Mama posted it on Facebook and labeled it "My oldest grandchild with my youngest grandchild".  Precious!!

We also had our church Valentine's banquet on Saturday, then a full day at church on Sunday too  🙂   Monday and Tuesday of this week were mostly uneventful - I have a couple of kids (and myself) battling sinus issues and coughing and I had to take one kiddo to the dentist for a toothache.

Then on Tuesday... this BIG news!!

And now to wrap back around... yesterday was Pat's Memorial service (Kathy and her family arrived on Tuesday from Italy).   It was an incredibly sad day, but there was also joy in remembering Pat's life and getting to love on the family.  Kathy spoke at the service and honored her father in such a special way.  I love this girl to pieces!!  We came home tired after a long day and long drive.

Okay... so now you're all caught up.   The last two weeks or so have been busy, sad, and joy-filled ... all jumbled up together.  Today I started trying to catch up on all the things I let slide over the past couple of weeks but I still have a ways to go, so I'm signing off for now!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the February Who Takes the Cake Contest... the 18 chosen cakes will be revealed and voting will begin!

Happy Caking!

Rose