Mama Drama : January 2012

Thursday, January 12, 2012

iHelp: gumpaste roses

In iHelp= I will help you. :) I am kind of one of those people who learn as they go along. Most of this kind of stuff I learned from the internet before winging it, and this is one of those times..... Behold~ Gumpaste Roses

You can make gumpaste yourself from scratch, but there are a few chemical key ingredients you will need in order to pull this off. I did not make it from scratch, but instead went to Michael's craft store & bought a 16 oz canister; all you add is water & confectioner's sugar. After you follow the directions, you're ready to add in whatever food coloring you prefer.

Roll your gumpaste out until smooth & appropriate thickness

Using a smallish round cutter, cut out several circles

(See circles) :)

Grasp one of the circles between your thumb and index finger and squeeze

You want to squeeze around the edges to form the thin, rose petal type edges

Begin from one side of your petal, and curl it inward toward the center

With the other circles, cut them in half

Take the halves and use the same thumb-squeezing technique to make smaller petals

Then later the petals, wrapping around the center bud.

Continue the petal layering process. You may like to alternate positions of petals to create the type of rose look you want. You can also fan out the edges a little bit to make them look like the rose is opening.

The end product :) You can snip off the excess gum paste on the bottom of the rose and let the rose sit out to harden.

Friday, January 6, 2012

t w o t h o u s a n d t w e l v e

What did you do on New Years Eve? Danny & I have never been big celebrators of the New Years. We know that when we go to sleep that night, it will be the next year when we wake up in the morning and that has just never really excited us to the point of celebration. However, this year, we used a Christmas coupon from my grandma to keep our boys over night. We decided to go to Daytona Beach because they would be setting off fireworks at midnight off of a ship on the coast. We stopped (again) at Krispy Kreme and got some hot chocolate (Danny got ice coffee) and some "HOT NOW" donuts... those things are rediculous! (We consumed a dozen of them in 24 hours; that can't be good. I'm going to have to kick it into high gear up at the gym this year!)

When we got to the beach, we rode on the ferris wheel that is right off of the beach. I underestimated how it feels to ride one of those babies. Danny sat nex to me in ours and our thing tilted a little, making me feel a lil' nervous. Good thing I wore my depends!

We didn't stay until midnight because I got tired & also didn't want to share the road with the drunkards that were stumbling around the beach. -_-

My prayer for this year is to just draw closer to God and His word and to see Him move in my life and the lives of others. I hope to spend more of my time helping & loving people in need, and less time focusing on the drama that seems to be such a distraction from doing the things God really wants me focusing on.