What's been going on???

Not much has been happening here in the Bidwell household. I know we are kinda boring.It has rained nonstop here which puts me in a blah mood. I don't want to do anything when it is bad weather out. I usually clean house or do laundry.... Boring! Other than the bad weather we have had I am been sick. I tried fighting cold/allergies thing for a week before I couldn't take it anymore. I was getting worse everyday. Deric and I both had it at first but he seemed to get better. I went to the doctor and was told I had strep throat, sinus infection and laryngitis!! So needless to say I was not feeling good at all. Ya'll know how much I LOVE to talk and it was painfully to speak. My throat was so raw and dry, it was horrible.After 2 shots, 2 scrips and Zyrtec at night the doctor said I should start to feel better. It has been a week today from the appointment and I do feel so much better. I still have bit of a cough but that is it!!
Before I got sick I did make two really cute cakes. The first one I did was yet another "Cars" Cake. I did this one for a client who's little boy Aiden was turning 3 years old. I love Mr. Aiden every time he comes in for a haircut he yells "M. J where are you??? MOMMA I found hers!!" He is such a sweet little man. His birthday was the Sunday we started not feeling good.... so I started his cake the Saturday before and finished it right before his party. The cake turned out super cute. I liked it more than the first "Cars" cake I did.



Also I showed you the cake I did for Donetta at the salon for her 40th birthday. Well I had another co-worker turn 40 the next week. She has been talking nonstop about getting her lips plumped up. She has always wanted it done but her doctor can't do it until August. Donetta and I were talking about what type of cake I should do for Corinna and she said "LIPS big red lips" Now I have never done anything like this at all. Nor did I really know how to even start the shape!! I thought about it for a day and this is what I came up with. It was way cuter in person. The cake was small but it was the perfect size for everyone at work. How did I do it?? Well, I backed 2 round cakes, put them together with big red frosting in the middle. Then I took my huge bread knife and cut the shape of lips. I pipped it first with red but it didn't give it enough shape so I went back with a thin line of black. That made it look so much better!


Also since I blogged the last time our salon signed up for a website. I say signed up because it through a company. It is call 360Rogers.com We pay them to keep it up.Anyhow I thought it would be a good time to take pictures of the salon because it was repainted about a month ago and I never posted about it! So here are a few pics!





My station.... the wall looks white but it is a soft grey, the colors are super pretty in person!! Hope you enjoyed it!!!

Salon Fun

Yesterday was my co-worker's 40th birthday. She kept saying she wasn't going to celebrate this years, but we all know women. I am a woman, so that meant we HAD to do something. When it comes to birthdays I am getting my oven preheated and whipping up some frosting. I didn't want to do your usual "Over the Hill" theme, because she had been getting a lot of crap from turning 40.
So instead I came up with the blower dryer theme. It made a great cake for celebrating at the salon. It was a big hit. The cake was lemon with butter cream frosting, and a bit of fondant.
I made two round cakes, I frosted the first one and cut out the pieces of the 2nd round cake to form my blow dryer. I covered the blow dryer in sugar fondant and piped it all with butter cream. I used black gel for the fan part of the dryer.
For my first time doing anything like this I thought it was awesome! I loved it and so did the Birthday Girl!

Happy Mother's Day

We all have mom's and like most people I don't tell them how much they are appreciated. Not being a mommy yet I can only imagine what love for a child is. I can only see from example from the mom's I have in my life. I just want to take some time out today and express how much my Mom, Janice and my Mother-in-Law , Linda mean to me.
My mom has always put my sister,Jen, and I first no question. She would and still will do without so we can have. Even now that Jen and I are grown, married and far away from home she still puts us first. I guess that equals a mother's unconditional love. I can remember as a little girl, all the trouble I got into and at the time I just knew mom would hate me! Here are few examples......


1) I just started Kindergarten, I took a bright green crayon and wrote "I love Bobby" all over the walls of our play room. This is of course after mom just spent day painting the walls a perfect color yellow.
2)At the ripe age of 7 or 8 I must have already knew what I was going to do as a grown up. I took all the barbies/dolls with long hair even my sisters, and chopped all the hair off to the scalp. Btw my sister did not appreciate this at all.
3) Around the same time I convinced Jen, who is 14months older, to ride our Pokey Pony down the stair well. Now you need to know that it was enclosed and a little hall at the end of the stairs where a bathroom was to the left of the stairs and a wall right at the end of them. So yes, Jen rode the pony down the stairs in full speed and slammed into the wall with full force. Don't worry Jen recovered.
4) I was about 10 years old and once again I put my sister in a dangerous situation. I thought it would be a good idea to have her wrap herself in my jump rope so I could pull the other end of the rope and send her off like a top! This really worked (I was a strong child)this sent her flying across the room the only thing that stopped her was the fact that her front teeth hit the wall. Indeed it knock out half of her front tooth!
5) Jen, my friend Ashley, and I were home with a baby sister one summer day and she loved to fall asleep on the job. So we went outside in the backyard to have a bonfire. Jen being the smart sister put a "fire ring" around the pit. I am pretty sure this is what saved the house from going up in flames.... don't worry no one was hurt.

As the many mistakes and crazy things we did as children Mom would get mad for awhile but always let us know she loved us. Never did I feel like my mom didn't love me. As I got older I realize how much she had done for me and our family. Thank You MOM! I love you more than you know.

When I started dating my wonderful husband, Deric. I knew right away I was going to love his mom, Linda. She is so sweet and easy to talk to. She made me feel right at home when I was at their house. Which is hard to do when she was working with a teen. I loved the way she always made sure she included me into their family events. Even when Deric left to go off to college, I could go over to just hang out at her house and it wasn't "weird". I think I am most thankful for Linda because she raised such a great son. Now that I am married to Deric I can really see the morals and habits that she has instilled in him. Here are some memories I have with Linda.
1) Deric was trying to teach me how to swing a golf club and of course it turned into a fight. I was getting so mad at Deric I was yelling "Let me do it my way" Linda peeked her head out the back door to tell us to just calm down because we were going to say hateful words and regret them.
2) It was Valentines day and Deric was off at college. I was so bummed out because I wasn't going to see him. Deric's isn't the type of guy to send me roses just because "that is what you are supposed to do for v-day". Linda knowing her son very well went out and bought me flowers and left them at my house. Now Deric might have told her to do this, but what a awesome thing for her to do for me. It made me feel so special.
3) When Deric got in his car accident while visiting a college roommate in Ohio, Linda made sure to comfort me. Deric and I had been "broken up" for a while but the whole family made it a point to come to my house and let me know what had happened. When I got to the hospital Linda gave me a warm hug,started to tell me that everything was going to be okay, and wanted to know if I wanted to see Deric. Now when I think back at this moment. It should have been me comforting her, but her mothering instincts kicked in and she was there for me. This was her own child in ICU and she stayed strong for the rest of the family.
4) While I was shopping for a wedding dress I had picked out the dress the weekend before with my mom and sister, but I couldn't get it until Linda saw it. First of all Linda gave me a coupon for the bridal store,(Linda always has her coupons ready!) The moment I put on my dress I remember asking her "Do you think Deric will like it" She replied "You look beautiful in that dress, he will love it." I loved hearing this from her. This moment might seem like no big deal to anyone, but it was just good to know that she was accepting me as a daughter.

Now that I am married into the family she never makes me feel like I just a daughter-in-law. I know she truly thinks of me as another daughter and loves me. I am so thankful that I don't have any "mother-in-law issues" that so many people do.

I just hope when I become a mommy one day and I am half the Mom they are. They are such great role models to look up I am so proud and thankful to call them Mom.

Come in Ya'll

I am jumping in on the home tours! A fellow blogger Kelly started this deal, every Friday people post pictures of their homes. I know I have posted pics before but I am going to do it again! Thanks for stopping by.



~ Funny story about our furniture. This past January my neighbor and I decided that we were stick and tired of our furniture and wanted to get new but didn't want to go out and spend much money because our stuff was fairly new to us. So we came up with the best idea... We traded! I am sure our other neighbors watching us exchange furniture, thought that we were crazy but it worked out.Believe it or not, but this sectional fits so much better than our other couches did!
Last Friday was kitchens so I thought I would throw a few pictures of the kitchen in too!

My new hobbies

Well most of you know I have found a new love of baking. It is almost therapeutic for me..... I get in the zone I guess! I have been doing it for fun with my friend Val. But lately I have been talking to my clients about this new discovery and a few have asked me to bake cakes for birthdays. This past weekend I made my first "Cars" cake. Now I was pretty nervous about how I was going to pull it off and spend weeks looking up ideas on line and reading blogs! (I am turning into Deric... have to research for weeks before I decide!)
At first I decided that I was going to do a practice run the weekend before just so I could get the shape of the car down. I didn't do all the frosting and details because well it takes forever!!! So now I can write this down in the record book... Littlest Pet Shoppe, Batman, and now Cars cakes down!
Here are a few pictures of the "Cars" cake and I threw in a few of the other cakes too, but I think most of you have seen the others! Enjoy!
(p.s they are as good as they look! )





I made this cake for a co-workers little girls bday

These next two where when I helped Val bake a cake for a bday......


Spencer (val's hubby) threw sugar on her,she was yelling at him for something!


this was the Batman cake I made for my nephew's bday!

Tag I'm It

Ashley tagged me on this. These survey things are kinda fun to fill out to see what everyone says. I don't know if I have 8 people to tag but oh well!


8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1) Starting a family
2) baking more cakes
3)seeing our family
4)going on vacation
5)laying around all day
6)summer cookouts
7)seeing my business grow more
8)watching my flowers grow and bloom



8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1) worked half a day
2) went to wal-mart
3) talked to my sister
4) baked two cakes for a birthday
5) went to dinner with the Fairbanks
6) decorated both cakes
7) watched the boys play PS3
8) laughed a lot

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1) take a vacation to an all-inclusive beach resort
2) open a bakery/salon
3) send my parents and in-laws here to visit when ever I wanted
4) snap my fingers and be anywhere I wanted to be
5) get a lifetime supply of free manicures and pedicures (stole from Ashley..good uh)
6) never have to fold laundry again
7) get a specail invite to Ace Of Cakes.... please Duff!
8) have a endless supply of shoes!

8 Shows I Watch:
1) Today Show
2) Rachael Ray morning show
3) Chuck
4) Greys
5) Castle
6) Desperate Housewives
7) Brothers and Sisters
8) HGTV

8 people i want to tag:
1) Lindsey
2) Candance Z
3) Candance M
4) David
5) Spencer
6) Kaite
7) Deric
8) Angie

Maryland

So I am finally back blogging... I really need to get better at sitting down and posting something. But I have the same feeling as my wonderful husband.... is my life that wonderful to blog about and do people really want to read about it? But for you suckers that are out there that sit down and think your are going to read something wonderful on our little blog here it goes!
For Easter I heading east to Maryland to visit my sister and her husband, Blake. Blake moved about to Maryland about 2 years ago and when they got married last July she made the move. I have missed her so much so it was so nice being able to get out to see her. Jennifer is a 5th grade teacher for a private school and she was on spring break the week of Easter so it was the ideal time to head out there. If you are a follower of our little blog, you may say well "I thought her brother was at her house". Yes you are right my brother and his family left Wednesday morning and Thursday morning I was at the airport at 5 a.m.
When I landed in Baltimore Jen picked me up and we went to lunch then shopping for the rest of the afternoon. We got back to the house and Blake got home then we just hung around waiting for Blake's brother Brian and his wife to come. Brian and Katelyn were driving down from Canada. We ate dinner in which was soooo good! By the way Jen, I need that recipe.

Friday morning we headed to D.C. for the day. I was pretty excited to see the city again. It was nice that we just wandered around and went in the museums that we wanted to. We went to a Mexican restaurant call Laurel Plaza, it was so delicious.

(us at Laurel Plaza)
It was a sweet place on a corner that had outside seating although we didn't get seated outside it was still a wonderful place to eat. We were going to hit some other museums before we headed home. Us girls went to the Natural History Museum and the boys headed to the Air and Space Museum. As we were walking towards the car we noticed that it wasn't there. At first I thought we went to the wrong building but NO! We got all the way down where we parked the car and sure enough we parked in a no parking time zone!! So this was a first for me... I never had to deal with a car being towed. We were handling this well but Jen. Her knee was so swollen you couldn't even see her knee cap. No she didn't fall down as she usually does. We think it was caused by all the walking. So instead of walking to the impound we haled a cab. All five us cramped into this cab and the cabby acted like he didn't know the address. But we were in his hands so we all sat in completed silence. As we got closer to the impound I was quite as mouse... which is SO UNCOMMON... I was praying to the good Lord that we wouldn't get shot at. I was kinda thankful that I was sitting down low in the cab because I didn't want to catch a bullet! We were in the GHETTO so to say. The cab driver dropped us off and took off. We were standing outside this building and to the looks of it no one was there. We were all standing between the little gate and the window with bars on it. I stayed close to the building and low... I watch crime shows! I wasn't taking any chances! Soon enough we saw a car come around the building and the driver pointed us in the right direction. We picked up the car and we all decided it was time to go home!
Saturday Jen stayed home due to her knee and the rest of us headed out to Mt. Airy for a day of wine tasting. I am not much of a wine drinker but it is always fun going on tours. Well it was rainy so we skipped the tour and went straight for the wine! The first place we got to taste 28 wines because we got a cheese tray. They gave us these crackers also and I thought they were "The best crackers I have ever had" (right Blake) so I had to buy them. The next place was really neat and for $20 you got 5 glasses of wine and chocolates paired with it. Katelyn and I were all for the chocolate, so we sat down and so enough we were feeling fine!

After a stumbling walk to the restroom we headed home. On the trip home I begged Blake to stop anywhere, I just needed a bathroom yet again and some food. So we ended up at Burger King. I can't believe I am going to telling you this! I went to the counter to order after Katelyn placed the BK crown on my head. I was so proud that I was the new announced queen, I didn't take that crown off till we got up the apartment!


Well Easter morning Blake, Jen and I went to church then we got back to the apartment to eat breakfast then we were off to Annapolis for the day. I loved Annapolis, the weather was a bit chilly at first especially by the water. The first thing we did was take a boat tour, it was so neat to see the Navy Academy right by the water. By the time we got off the boat it was warming up and we just walked the streets and shopped. Annapolis is just a charming town and I would defiantly go again. For lunch we ate at this Pub... I forgot the name of it! It was super good, I had fish and chips. I have to say I have some of the best food on this trip! But isn't that what you are supposed to do... eat a lot of great food????? Well I am going to stay YES!