Picassos and Pirates

It's a good day today in Florida. I'm jinxing myself, probably, but it's been nice! The weather is sunshine and 60 degrees - we rarely ever get cool and sunny, so I'm soaking it up!

Kev had a playdate at a friend's house this morning and Amiya and I picked up a bit for the cleaning lady who is here now doing a deep clean. It's an occasional splurge that makes me smile! Expensive salon highlights, nope not on our budget. Cleaning lady every few months - heck yeah!

The kids played on the lanai for a while, each one painting on one side of the easel.

Amiya is (finally) getting to a stage where she will take her time with an art project. Before it used to be all mishmash with no plan, no goal. Now she is starting to color/paint/draw objects that look like what she had intended. It's been a real struggle to get her to color within the lines or to care about how certain things look. Her homework, for example, she colors a whole page red - solid red - sky, Abraham Lincoln, horse, train, you name it. All red. It used to make me crazy because I wanted her to color neatly, but I bit my tongue and let her do her own thing - it's her project, not mine. But, we've been drawing the line at homework. That has to be done according to the directions. So, it seems that we've hit on a good set of parameters for Amiya. She knows she's free to do what she wants when it's her own thing, but when it is destined to turned in, she had best do it well!

This cake (and cupcakes below) are for a little boy's second birthday tomorrow. The cake is Italian Cream with Italian Meringue Buttercream flavored with cream cheese. It's supposed to be rough iced so it was especially nice to not have to get it smoooooooooooth. The topper is made of polymer clay, hence the layer of saran between the cake and the topper. Once the cake reaches its' destination, the Mom will sprinkle "sand" on the saran to hide it and pop a couple of shark fins into the water surrounding the island.

The cupcakes were butter cake with caramel Italian Meringue and toffee bits. I got the inspiration from cupcakes at Cake Central, so I take no credit for the design. The faces are fondant. I love them - I think they look just like a little kid would draw a pirate. But I never. ever. ever. want to do them again. Ever.

Ever.

Ever.