A picture is worth a thousand words.

The views on my drive to bring Jake to the groomer. 

Yeah, my sewing room remodeling is in progress.

This was Aaron and Jorge starting the wall, and when they finished.

Aaron, a young man who works with Kaski Homes, the company that built our house, is doing the initial remodeling on our basement, starting with my sewing room and the extra guest bedroom.  This guest bedroom will become our workout room after the wedding, but for now it will remain an extra room where we can sleep people around the wedding.  This is an odd way to do things, as you will walk into the unfinished part of the basement first, but since I am down there sewing alot, it makes sense. 

I wanted to post some before pictures, so everyone can see what the room was like.  Aaron and Jorge did all the framing except for the wall you see in the last picture, that was up.  Dad is learning more than he cares to know about framing and remodeling, but will be able to do some of the skills.

The bonus in this is Aarons wife who Jorge knows as she is a pharmacist at the VA, came over with his lunch, and brought their two mixed breed dogs along.  She stayed and visited for several hours while Jake and Jojo, the older of the two dogs, played and played and played.  Herky, the pup, just barked at them to calm down and made us all laugh.  Jake has been sleeping ever since they left and as always, gets very lonesome after his company leaves.

"Let Them Eat Cake."

Here is a practice 9" cake of the upcoming wedding cake.  It is the "Golden Dream Wedding Cake" from my new Roses Heavenly Cake book.  The height of each layer was 1.75" when finished baking, so this cake was 4" tall when frosted and stacked.  It took me two days to eat one piece, as 4" high is a lot of cake.  It tasted yummy, and was extremely moist.  I will add lemon curd as the filling on the cake I bring for Chick and Steve to taste when I visit in February.  My other cakes I will bring are: either a Chocolate Passion Cake, an all chocolate cake - or Grand Marnier Cake, a yellow chocolate chip cake with a Grand Marnier syrup and a Chocolate Grand Marnier frosting;  plus a Yellow Cake with Grand Marnier Mousseline Buttercream and a raspberry filling.  This is a white frosting, and very, very light.  It is a merengue with the butter whipped in and then the Grand Marnier (or liqour of your choice) put in at the end. You do not taste the liqour, it just adds a nice hint of flavor you can barely distinquish. 

In this lemon cake I used cake flour instead of the bleached flour Rose calls for, and she says cake flour will cause the cake to be very tender. This proved to be true, so I will use the bleach flour in the future cakes as much as I like a tender cake, for cutting puposes, a little more stable is better. 
I promise to practice my decorating skills.  The flower at the center looks like bird poop.

So much to catch up on, but I'll start here.

I had a wonderful birthday, and appreciate all my well wishes and my gifts.  Dad surprised me with the micro handles I have been dreaming of for my quilter.  It allows me to work on more detailed designs on my quilting.  Here is a photo of the handles and of some of the work as seen from the back of the quilt. I'll post pictures of this very laborous quilt.  It was a difficult top to piece, and is very slow going as I am trying to finish it with our remodeling now in progress, and my quilter in the way.

The best things in life are homemade.

Dad has been baking breads from The Bread Bible, and here is his first bread he made.  I made "Karmel Cake" from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, and it was sooo yummy, no frosting needed.  It's moisture is from butter and you make a carmel sauce. The cupcakes I made today for my birthday, they are a yellow cupcake from RHC and the frosting is from her 'Cake Bible'.  It is sooo yummy, a butter cream made with merengue and butter, and then you add Grand Marnier.  Not the kind you let the kids lick the beaters.

The snow mountains

Our neighbor came and removed the snow from around the back and side of the house with his little plow, but he didn't account for drainage.  So Dad has been spending all his free time digging trenches through he piles of snow.  Jake thinks it is a playland just for him, as he runs up and down the piles, and then dashes through the trench, all the while he has a big old grin on his face.

Homecoming

We were so happy to see that the town of Piedmont didn't have hardly any snow compared to Spearfish and Sheridan, but then we opened our back door, and there it all was, hiding.

The view from the passenger window.

While Jorge drove home, I took pictures.  The top pictures are in Montana, these last two were in South Dakota.

A frosty Montana morning.

These are views of the scene driving to Bozeman, it was around -4, but a beautiful drive.

It's all about the food

The pork roast Dad made for Christmas, prior to it being cooked.  And the Apple upside down cake from my new cook book: Roses Heavenly Cakes.  Yum.