Actually, I think it just means I have a blog. Whatevs. I have a blog. I HAVE A BLOG! Yip-frickin-skippeeeee! I've been wanting to start one for a while, pretty much ever since it became completely uncool to be ON myspace, much less blog on it. So, yeah...a WHILE.
I decided to start this blog because I'm sure that the people on my facebook are getting sick of me posting pictures of my baking when I never have enough to share with them all (too bad I'll still be posting...too bad for them *evil grin*). Plus, I'm such a novice and I'm learning as I go, so I figured...why not document the process and maybe help someone who might be learning too? Maybe someone out there can toss me some knowledge back. See? This works out for everyone!
I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Melisa. *waves* Hiyeeeee! I have 2 parents, 3 sisters, 2 brothers-in-law and 1 nephew, who happens to be the most awesome nephew in the universe. Oh, you think yours is? Well, think again. Mine rocks. He's 7 and he's the coolest kid ever, and smart to boot. So. Nani-nani-boo-boo. Stick your head in doo-doo. :oP
I have been cooking and baking all my life, but in the last year-ish, I have really gotten into it. It's been a pretty eventful year(ish) and it's opened up a lot of free time for me to just focus on me and things I enjoy. Let's see if I can list just a few of the big happenings:
- Lost a bit of weight...yep, just did it the old fashioned way - watching what I eat and working out 3-5 days a week. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (it runs in my family) in May of 2010 and I got on medication. Went from 240 to 180 (on my way to 160). My family members and boyfriend have been SO awesome. It's nice to have your own cheering section.
- Quit smoking...after smoking since I was 17 (over 15 years), I just decided to stop. No medication, no patch, no gum. Just stopped. And ya know, it really wasn't as hard as I expected it to be. I smoked my last cigarette on September 2, 2010 right before midnight and I haven't touched one since.
- Shed some dead weight...I know what you're thinking. "Wait, she already said that." No, I mean weight that was dragging me down - emotionally, psychologically - I dropped people that were in my life for no reason other than the fact that they had been there for a while. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I realized that my time, my friendship, my love is precious and I shouldn't waste it or give it freely without getting the same in return. There were too many people that were just wasting my time and adding nothing to my life except drama. Too many people taking and not giving. This included some pretty important (non-family) people in my life, but it had to be done. I have to say that I'm better for it...and you know, they might be better for it too.
So, those are the highlights. Needless to say, just those three things I mentioned had a HUGE impact on my life. Losing the weight and getting in the gym gave me more energy to want to not sit on my ass all day and night watching TV, being depressed about being fat. Quitting smoking made me feel better about myself and I couldn't believe the extra money I had when I stopped spending it on cigarettes. I could hang out with my sisters without having them lecture me in a disappointed voice with that look, asking me how I could smoke after Dad had several cardiac episodes and had to have 5-bypass surgery while in his 40s from smoking. I could hug my nephew without him telling me I stunk. Parting ways with people that weren't good for me freed up so much time to do things I wanted to do, instead of doing what they wanted or being too busy dealing with their drama to have time for anything else. I never realized how exhausting it was to be friends with some people.
So with all the extra time, I started spending it with my family and just a few friends (basically my boyfriend's family). My sister Melinda and I decided that we wanted to make Mom's birthday cake ourselves. Just on a whim. I already loved to cook and bake so I was super excited. Melinda was super excited too, since, according to her, "I'm an awesome cake decorator...in my head." I had been making treats around Christmas-time for years for my coworkers, baking cakes when I felt like it, cooking dinner on my days off for co-workers who were also friends and they would come over and eat. So we did it. We decided to try to actually use fondant and get "fancy" and while I think it was a disaster, everyone else (including Mom) loved it. What I loved though, was making and decorating the cake. I had missed it. A LOT.
So here we are. Just over a year later and I have baked a number of things. Cakes and cupcakes galore. I'll post pictures from the last year of baking before I really get into things. It's crazy to see how far I've come from box mixes and premade frosting to scratch baking and actual decorating. I will definitely post recipes as I go along and if I have/remember them for the previous stuff, I'll post those too. I get a lot of recipes online and end up tweaking them for my preferences/style, so I definitely want to pass along what I have learned through trial and error.
So thanks for sticking with me this long, I mean it IS an introduction, but still. I'll leave you with Mom's birthday cake from last year. The one that "re-ignited the passion". Ha! Cheesy.
It's such crap. I laugh. Haha.
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