Weekend Edition - June 20, 2026

This week, there were fights between young owls and adult mockingbirds in my yard every evening as dusk approached.   The owls are at least 4 times the size of the mockingbirds, but the little guys run them off, screaming and dive-bombing them in unison until the owl flies away.  There must be baby mockingbirds close by. 

This morning, I found a mockingbird feather in the yard.  The Husband found one yesterday.  I hope the owls haven't won the battle.

On the garden front:

A few weeks ago, I planted crookneck squash seeds in flower beds.  The ones I planted near the stump are healthy and proud and yielded two squash yesterday.  The others are sickly, even some that are in the same flower bed as the healthy ones, not 4 feet away.  I don't get it.

The Husband reported that there are volunteer squash in the "garden" at Nanny's.  I used the quotes because it's not much of a garden - a few tomato plants, a few sickly peppers plants, a row of okra, plus the volunteers.  They are surely butternut squash, as I believe that's the only kind I planted (by accident) last year.

Yesterday, I noticed a few odd plants growing in the compost pile.  They looked vaguely familiar, so I left them.  Early this morning, it came to me; they're potatoes.  If you only knew the agony I've caused myself trying to grow potatoes.  And here they are, volunteering in the compost, healthier-looking than any potato I ever planted.  I'm going to keep throwing stuff on top of them (I mean, don't the experts say to hill up dirt around the stems as they grow?).  We'll see what happens.

I am absolutely riddled with chiggers and mosquito bites, just from walking around the yard.

In the craft room this week, I made some polymer clay pendants and earrings that came out nice.  I wore some of them to the class reunion committee meeting on Thursday, hoping they'd be noticed, but nobody said a word about them. :-(  Booo.  On the bright side, most of the committee were menfolk, so they might not have said anything even if they'd noticed. 

The other pieces are unfinished right now.  Can't decide what to do with them.  

There are a lot of unfinished things in the craft room . . . .

 

Struttin' My Stuff - June 18, 2026

In about 45 minutes, I'm going to a planning committee meeting for the Class of '76 50-year reunion.  (50 years?  WHAT?)  Hopefully, we will nail down a date for the event, which will probably happen in October.

And I am wearing jewelry that I made.  {Nervous expession.}  A polymer clay pendant, matching earrings, and a slinky wire bracelet.

Hoping for unsolicited compliments. :)

Twixt and Tween - June 14, 2026

I have been a powerhouse of ideas this morning.  

Just now, I put some polymer clay earrings and a pendant in the oven.  Earlier I was sketching out some pendant designs that I will scan before I color them.  I also flipped through a few old sketch books, looking for useful things.  There were too many to go through right then, so I'll finish that job tomorrow.  

Last evening, Granddaughters 1 and 2 came over to show us their birthday party attire.  (The party is this afternoon.)  They looked like two hookers.  I said to #2, "You'd best be careful in that dress not to let your toochie show."  She clamped her knees together and cried, "IS IT?"  😂😂😄😄  As they prepared to leave, I told them, "Hurry home [though that would be tough in their hooker shoes], if some dude comes by, you might get propositioned."  Just as they were walking out the door, it started to rain.  The Husband drove them home, thus avoiding a proposition.

While they were here, they saw some earrings I'd baked yesterday but not assembled. One of them said, "Oh, I like those!"  It so happened that they matched the dress she was wearing.  So this morning I attempted to assemble them, and the clay (the Walmart clay) broke when I tried to put a jump ring in a hole.  Granted, the clay was thin, only 1/8".  I remade them with a backing to thicken them.  They're baking now.  Unless I eff them up, I will UV resin them before I assemble them.  That ought to stabilize them, for sure.

We'll be taking the birthday cakes over in a couple of hours.  They're not the most professional-looking cakes, but they'll do.  One has a horse head on it (with pretty feathers in its mane) for the wanna-be cowgirl, and the other has a highland cow (for the wanna be veterinarian).  I hope they get a kick out of them.  

Frosting Day (maybe?) - June 12, 2026

Today is the day I will frost the birthday cakes.  Cream cheese frosting.  The cream cheese and butter are already softening on the counter.

The cake layers are in the freezer.  To thaw or not to thaw, that is the question.

The sides of the layers stuck to the pans a little.  In an effort to reduce the amount of crumbs in the frosting, I patted the crumbly sides to neaten them before freezing the layers.  To my way of thinking, there would be less crumbling if the layers were still frozen when the frosting begins.  But I don't know what I'm doing, so my thinking might be wrong,

* * * * * * * * 

After a bit of research, I decided to thaw the cakes in the refrigerator overnight and frost them tomorrow. 

The cream cheese and butter are back in the refrigerator.

Looks like I just freed up a whole day for craftin'.  :)

Fondant Part 2 - June 11, 2026

The kitchen ran at full capacity Tuesday from about 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.  There was a minor bungle with one of the 4 cake layers.  I must have lost count when pouring the batter into the pans, for one cake turned out thicker than the others, and it took longer to bake, and a crater formed in the middle as it cooled (even though the test stick came out clean).  I will putty the crater with frosting when I assemble the cake.

Everything else went fairly well.  Got the fondant equines wrapped, air tight, I hope.  Got the cakes wrapped and in the freezer.  For kicks, I cut out the letters of one granddaughter's school and set them aside to dry.

The frosting will happen Friday.  Cream cheese and butter and confectioner's sugar and vanilla.  Since this is an orange-flavored cake, I am considering flavoring the frosting with orange jello.  Might be orange overkill.  We'll see.  I have orange extract, but I don't like it.

I'm sweating covering of the unicorn cake with fondant (per the granddaughter's request).   I tried fondant for the first time last year and didn't do such a great job with it.  I rolled out a circle for the top and a long strip to wrap around the sides.  The seams were ugly.  I disguised them with wonky flowers.  Need to watch some videos and do some experiments before I tackle this cake.

* * * * * * * * 

When shopping for groceries, I could not prevent myself from buzzing the craft aisles.  Found some new-to-me clay, cheaper than most other brands.  I bought the primary colors and white and black.  "Art Elements" is the brand.  Online video reviews say it's stiff.  One person called it unusable, another said it was so-so.  After I cleaned up the cake mess, I tried it.  It is stiff.  The dark blue color I tried first could be crumbled right out of the package.  I did not try to condition it.  Instead, I completely crumbled it, squirted it with liquid clay, gave it a shot or two of black alcohol ink, and smushed it into a ball.  Took a lot of smushing to get the ball to stick together, and when I cut the ball open, there were a lot of air holes inside, which gave a texture to the cut side.  I rolled some slabs out, would've had to roll them pretty thin - thinner than I wanted - to get rid of the texture.  So I just coated it with liquid clay and baked it.

The black clay was a little softer.  It crumbled the first time I ran it through my pasta machine, but I smushed it back together and rolled it a few more times.  Got a nice, even sheet after a few trips through the machine.

Fondant experiments - June 10, 2026

Ive got two birthday cakes to make for this weekend.  The birthday girls chose the flavor; they both want an orange crush cake.  No big deal, I've made this cake for years.  Decorating them is the problem.

Cake-decorating has never been one of my talents.  I'm not very good with a piping bag.  I'm not sure what the consistency of the frosting should be, or what happens to it under varying conditions.  One granddaughter (the gymnast) wants "a fondant cake."  I'm not very good with fondant, either.  

Yes, I just could frost the cakes with cream cheese frosting and be done.  But I won't.  

Yesterday, I decided to try painting a fondant horse and a fondant unicorn with gel food coloring.  It worked.  Kinda.

I rolled out some fondant to about 1/4" thick, maybe thinner, on a silicone mat dusted with baking powder.  I drew a horse on a piece of paper and used it as a pattern to cut out a horse head shape from the fondant, and started painting.  

Painting on fondant is kind of like painting on glass; it's hard (impossible in my experience) to get even coverage.  The gel moistens the fondant a little and changes the texture.  You can stir a mud-hole in it if you're not careful.  Light strokes and repeated coats (with drying time between coats) seem to be the keys.

I had trouble getting a good pink out of the red gel food coloring. 

In any case, there's a fondant horse head (with feathers in its mane) and a colorful, sparkly unicorn head drying on the craft room table as we speak.  They were supposed to be practice pieces, but I'm calling them good enough.  (Despite my measuring, the horse's ears and the unicorn's horn are going to stick off the edge of the cake.  Oh, well.)  However, the party is not until Sunday, and I don't know how to store them.  Should I freeze them, refrigerate them, or leave them out?  Will they dry up if left out?  What will happen to the fondant if frozen then thawed?   

The search engine says to store them at room temperature in an air-tight container.  These are good-sized horse heads, almost covering a 10" cake.  (I wish I'd made them smaller, as adding names is going to be a challenge.  Oh, well.)  I don't own an air-tight container big enough to hold them.  Plastic wrap will have to do.  

Cross your fingers that I don't wreck them while trying to store them!

* * * * * * * * 

Last night, about 10 p.m., I was sitting on the back porch, playing my bedtime game, when I heard the most god-awful SCREECH/squawk/growl I ever heard.  And in the distance, something screeched back.  Just about raised the hair on my neck.  Had Sasquatch returned?

I stuck my head in the house and summoned The Husband.  "Is it the groundhog?" I asked when he came out and heard it.  He thought it might be a bird, and he went inside and got my phone and the big flashlight.  The phone said, instantly, it's a barred owl.  The Husband spotted them with the flashlight.  There were TWO of them, sitting on the big grapevine that hangs like a trapeze in our back yard, and at least one more calling from a distance.  We figure it was a parent and some babies.

We "know" these parent owls from regularly hearing their "hoots."  But this squawking/screeching were calls I'd never heard from the old regulars.  

Kinda cool.  :)

Regrouping - June 9, 2026

Over the next few weeks, two granddaughters, a son, and a BFF will celebrate their birthdays.  I haven't bought any presents, and I've two birthday cakes to make by the weekend.  A few minutes ago, I removed half a garbage bag of petrified stuff from the big freezer to make room for the cake layers. A trip to the grocery store is imminent.  Tomorrow the baking begins.  

I am stressing over cake-decorating ideas.  One birthday girl is a gymnast, but last year's birthday cake used that theme.  She loves horses, but I don''t have the skills to model one from fondant, and I refuse to just plunk a plastic one on top.  Wonder if I could paint one (with food coloring) on white fondant?  Maybe I'll give it a shot before the baking begins....

Yesterday, I spent a good bit of time tying up loose ends in the craft room.  The table is littered with baked polymer clay jewelry components in various stages of usability.  Some were ready to assemble, some needed sanding, or holes drilled, or a touch-up coating of resin.  I got busy doing those things and ended up finishing several pairs of earrings and three or four pendants.  Go me.  

I want to make BFF's birthday present.  I have an idea, but it'll have to wait until the cakes are done and the remaining ready-to-assemble jewelry components turn into actual jewelry.  Her birthday present might be a tad late this year.  ;)