BodyBugg

Well I took Mia's advice and ordered myself a bodybugg. It's on sale for $144 and I'll have enough cash to pay for it after next weeks babysitting. I loathe babysitting, but it does come in handy when I want to buy something that we otherwise could not afford. I babysit through June at the very latest and then I'll be donating plasma twice a week. I can earn up to $265 a month doing that, plus it helps out so many people. It's a win/win. Anyhoo back to the bodybugg. Apparently you wear it on your upper left arm and it calculates how many calories you burn throughout the day. You also log all the food you eat into it and it shows you what you need to eat and how much to get the weight off. Since hubby wants to start working out and really toning up, I thought this was a perfect tool for me. I'm sooo excited for my treadmill to get here and now my bodybugg! I'm anxious to learn how much exercise I need to do and how much and what I need to eat to get lean. I seriously have no clue. I guess it even breaks it down and tells you how many carbs, fiber, fat etc you need to eat. It's exactly what I always wanted!

Today I played with buttercream. I practiced making buttercream roses, boarders, and doing the basketweave. I feel like I'm growing everyday in my knowledge and passion towards cakes. When I worked at a bakery/coffee shop years ago I was blown away at how careless they were with the look of their baked goods. They tasted amazing but visually they were awful. I think so much of enjoying food is not only the taste but the visual as well. I want my food to taste as good as it looks. Have you ever seen something at the grocery store or a bakery that looked delicious and yet when you took a bite you were shocked at how gross it was? I have, many times. I want my baked goods to blow people away in taste and appearance. For instance the sugar cookie recipe I used for my father took me 15+ years to find. I like my sugar cookies soft. Every soft sugar cookie recipe I'd ever used always "swelled" so much while baking that whatever shape I'd used to cut it out now looked swollen and mishapen. This recipe doesn't do that. It's a SUPER sturdy cookie that holds it's shape wonderfully and yet has a wonderful soft texture. The flavor is also fantastic. I can't imagine finding a recipe that would top this one. This thrills me to no end. It's like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have such a huge passion for baking. I get immense joy watching people's eyes light up when they look at my goodies and then again when they take their 1st bite.

I was looking into taking some Wilton cake decorating classes at my local craft store and saw that the gal who teaches these classes is the same one who teaches at our local community college. She also will come to your home and teach you one-on-one for $30/hr. She'll teach me whatever I want her to. If I want to learn how to do topsy turvy cakes (oh so cute) she will. Literally anything I want she'll teach and I wouldn't have to take a class that would go over things I already know how to do. Anyway I was super excited to learn I could hire her to personally teach me caking decorating.

Here are some pictures of some cookies I made for my grandmother last year. I inserted wooden skewers right after the cookies came out of the oven. I used them to make a valentine cookie bouquet. ♥