Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween Party 2011

Last night we went to my friend Christina's Halloween party. Tonight the dogs are doing an online doggie party.

Jerry as a Greek man turned to stone.


Me, as Medusa.


Daisey as a pirate's winch.


Eddie as a tiger. He went completely crazy with excitement when i put the costume on him and it was everything I could do to keep it on him much less get a decend photo.


Woody as a spider and unhappy about it. He did get better once I got it off his eyes.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Odd Sightings

Mom & I saw some interesting sights while traveling between our accomodations in Inverness and my aunt's house in Beverly Hills. First was this giant pink elephant - not sure what that has to do with auto sales & repair.


Next, was a forrest of bottle trees. I've seen A bottle tree on another blog but never a forrest of them.











I was lucky to get these photos because the lot next to this yard was covered in ant hills and i could see the little critters crawling all over the ground - I felt like I was navigating a mine field trying to avoid stepping on them.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Inverness Florida

Mom and I spent the weekend in Inverness. We went to visit my Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry in nearby Beverly Hill which, incidentially, makes them the Beverly Hillbillies!
I stopped and took some photos at City Park and the nearby old-town historic district. The sun was so bright that some are not worth sharing. The first is the City Park and Cooter Pond mascot. I was reading a sign that says next week is their local Cooter festival. For those that don't know, a Cooter is a turtle.

The trees were covered in Spanish moss. Normally it looks cool to me (as in temp) because it sways in the breeze but with Halloween decorations out, it looks kinda spooky.

Here's a close up of some that fell out of a tree. I didn't touch it because someone once told me it has these little red bugs in it, similar to fleas. I don't know if that's true but I want nothing to do with biting bugs thank you.

There is a gazebo, board walk, and what I would call a small lake but it is a pond.

Photo taken from the gazebo - you tell me, pond or lake?

You don't have to tell me twice!

Looking up at the gazebo construction.

The trail is measured and marked.





Next we headed a block or two away to the old town. It has a courthouse that is on the registry of historic places. This is where the sun was glaring so I couldn't even see what I was shooting. This is the best of the worst.



Ending with a lovel oak covered in Spanish moss.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Happy Birthday Dad

I decided to make a birthday cake for day last night to take to work today - Oct 14th is his birthday and he loved sweets. I'm calling this cake "Murphy" because anything that could go wrong in making this cake, did go wrong.




It was supposed to be a flag cake but I was hesitant with using too much food dye that the layers ended up more like pink and aqua. The layers wouldn't come out of the pans so they were broken in the process which is probably a major contributor to it falling apart.

For some odd reason, the middle layer ended up wider than the other two layers (the undyed layer of white cake). I didn't know until I layered it and it hung over the lower level. Tried to fill in the gap with frosting but the frosting had it's own issues.

Made a whip crema frosting but when I folded in the whipped cream it curdled from the key lime juice in the buttercream mixture. I've made this before with those green limes without this problem but the key limes were a problem.

No sooner had I assembled the cake and it began to fall apart in the fridge.

My dad would have grinned, taken a bite, and said it tastes good to him!



Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Cupcake Giveaway

A Ratbone friend of mine, who is an excellent cake decorator, is holding a cupcake giveaway. Even if you are not interested in receiving her newsletter you might want to visit her site and see the fabulous work she does. She donated awesome cupcakes to Ratbone for a drawing in February to raise funds for doggie dentals.

http://s168152964.onlinehome.us/decadentdiva/halloweencupcakes.html

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Flossie Manning Bailey

4/19/17 - 9/28/11


Mom and I are going to Arcadia tomorrow afternoon to attend the funeral of my Aunt Flossie. She passed away Wednesday afternoon. She was 94 years old but fell victim to pnumonia and other side effects after breaking a hip recently. She was a great lady and will be missed. It's doubly sad to realize that she was the last of my dad's siblings so the whole family is gone now.