Bird feeding, Stuga style

So last year at Thanksgiving I asked my brother-in-law, Jimmy, if he could build a birdfeeder pole that would keep the raccoons off of the feeders. He says to draw him a picture. I draw (pathetically) a vertical pole with a 5-pound coffee can around it and an X on the top to hold 4 bird feeders. As the night went on (and the tasty beverages flowed), the plans got grander and it ended with, "Wouldn't it be great if it looked like a palm tree? hahahahaha!" Well, yesterday this oilfield pipe and car panel sculpture showed up! I now have the coolest birdfeeder pole EVER!

Final cake of Cake Decorating 101

After failing miserably two weeks in a row just making the rose BASE, it turned out I wasn't too bad at making the actual roses. This is a butter pecan cake with caramel filling and frosting, topped by my first bouquet of frosting roses. Cake Decorating 102 starts in May.

Flowers and clowns with bad posture

The azaleas were pretty for the last weekend of the Azalea Trail this year. I'd never actually driven the official route before, so I was really impressed. No yard of mine will ever look this nice!






Class 3 of Cake Decorating 101 had us creating "a cute and festive clown cake that kids will love". Hasn't anyone at Wilton read It? Everyone knows clowns are pure evil. Why would I traumatize innocent children this way?

I'll just have a salad.

First harvest of 2007! Here we have red leaf lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, curly endive and broccoli. After tasting the arugula, I just left it there in the dirt.