I like Pastels

Thank you awesome blog...

Recent Happenings

In attempt to keep my blog up to date, here are some much needed updates on what has been happening in my life:

My sister had her first baby, and my first niece on February 16th: Jaidyn McKenzie Shandri

She is only a newborn in this photo, but just add about 5 lbs and you'll have an updated picture..

I quit my job in order to get "serious" about finding a real job... Of course I had to take one last "vacation" and went to visit my grandparents in Florida for 10 days....

2nd update to that: I guess I don't need a "real job" yet... I'm going to nanny for a while and hopefully get some more cake jobs

Unfortunately I turned 23 ... So its almost officially time for me to get nervous about having a real career.... We went to the cubs game.. it was freezing..

At least we had the warm heat of the competition on the field..... cubbiieess

I am still dating Michael.

My mom is dating a biker... Just kidding.. kind of? No she has a new boyfriend (Paul) and he is awesome.. great cook, very generous, and loves my mom... what else do you need?

I had another wedding cake job.... hopefully going to star rocket my cake design success soon

... I think I have a graduation and 50th birthday cake for the next two months.. 
 

XOXO

cheers to more purposeful blogs 

2010 Birthday Wish list

Money (easiest gift)..or a job...(those are interchangeable probably)

Polaroid Film... can only buy it online, like ebay.com

Dress Form...not one of the adjustable size ones.. probably a size 6 form

Industrial Sewing machine.. too expensive, but thought I would put it on here for the heck of it

this dress but in blue, size small... urbanoutfitters.com

something from my topshop wishlist (see below)....topshop.com    click link  below

http://us.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SharedWishListView?langId=-1&storeId=13052&catalogId=32051&listId=2761561

cello 

http://desmoines.craigslist.org/msg/1672404680.html

acoustic guitar (check craigslist) 

There are some ideas for you, hope it helped :)

fondant covered heart... caking over my life...

Lots more cakes since then... not really lots... but some

The other day I had a craft crazy party ... by myself... because i clearly can't find anything better to do.... yet another thing found to replace studying and applying for grad school

anyway.. my sister is pregnant and here are some pictures from her baby shower... I told her I would make a cake for it, but I procrastinated so badly that I made it 4 hours before... I didn't really have time to get ready, so I wore what I wore the day before... classy

below are my sisters and I and on the right is Stef with the frame I painted her for Jaidyn (the fetus inside of her)... uh my niece :)

 

I also made her some candies on my craft day... actually pretty easy to do... but almost completely made up of saturated fat ... :) :) wink

the food spread... I only contributed the cake and the chocolates 
 

Bow cake: my first fondant cake... made it in my cake class

applied my skills and made my sisters baby shower cake which is the one on the right
 

First tiered Cake... hand made flowers, attempting to do a wedding cake trial..   coloring fondant is not fun

 

Close up of the flowers and dot detail...

Finally, the whole reason I rushed and got these cake classes in.... I finished my first wedding cake :)

Their wedding was in the Dominican republic so I did a tropicalish cake..   6 cake mixes, 4 things of cream cheese frosting, a lb of frosting, 5 lbs of fondant, and 10 hours later....

Left is a close up of stargazer lily and seashells
  

Another view... hope you all like it because it took me a grand total of 10 hours!

I have to go peel the fondant out of my arteries now

love

mcakenzie     too bad my name doesn't have an a there...

and I will make cakes...

I have started a new hobby.... As of now I have completed cake course number 1 and have started cake course 3 (wedding cakes (tiered cakes) and fondant)... I skipped course 2 because I have to make a wedding cake for someone in december so I kind of need those skills right away.... 

not exactly my taste completely, I like the roses and mixing the shades of the different colors is definitely something I do a lot (see petals) but something is missing.   My first wedding cake will be done by mid december, so look forward to that... I will also post pictures from my class, but those cakes aren't really unique because everyone does the same one (except the graduation cake)

Seen above is my graduation cake from course one, so its kind of special, but not really... I threw it away....

Most serious post ever... Maybe its a new era of sandginas.

sincerely...mckenzie nicole 

Edwin

The fiction for this blog is way past due, but if I want to start writing new blogs I cannot leave this one unfinished... 

First of all meet edwin.. If you have been keeping up with the blog up until now you would know that I worked at Red Robin over the summer. Mostly great people, but terrible terrible job.. Not because it was hard, but because it was just too boring... it may satisfy a 17 year old who still lives at home.. which by the way were half of my co-workers ... anyway long story short, a balloon man came and made balloons for the kids.. I saw someone with one of these and begged him to make me one... He did not look happy about it, but from it came edwin. Who I love and miss deeply.

As it appears, this blog is from my trip to Minnesota. Thanks to Priceline negotiators (in commercial fun tune) I saved a lot of money on a plane ticket and was able to attend Nick and Lindsay's wedding.

This is from the airport.... First of all I rarely have thoughts of mexican jumping beans, but I'm pretty sure the one time they were brought up in any medium of conversation I'm pretty sure I blew them off as if they did not really exist.... Low and behold.. they do... and they do jump. and I do not get it, but I am also not going to pay 5 dollars for them.

This extremely nice car pulled up, waiting to pick someone up. It being LAX I assumed it had to be someone of importance so of course I stood around and waited to see. Luckily for them, I saved their beautiful car from being hit by a luggage cart that they so irresponsibly abandoned after loading the car. .. and it was no one recognizable, but everyone knows how large my vocabulary is when it comes to pop culture.

The wedding was a blast... Minnesota...ahh it was nice to be back in the midwest.. who would have thought I would ever say that. 

Someone stole my camera through-out the night, I'm going to guess and say it was DO but that is completely irrelevant because the only possible people who could be reading this blog would have no idea who he is anyway.  Anyway.  so here is the result... it is clearly a good one.

Moving on... So I went to my first MLB game... $20 later it was very much worth it. And of course I was too cheap to buy a shirt to wear so I made one...Kind of blurry, but everyone was very impressed.. not really

Anaheim Angels Stadium... actually pretty nice

Don't hate me for looking like a grandma....

My roommate, Jeff, has a huge man crush on Orlando Bloom. He just got this new poster, and coincidentally enough it matches his bed sheets quite nicely.

I really don't like typing on old blogs. so sorry that this blog lacked any sort of creativity.... However, it was probably one of the more honest blogs I have written. 

outie belly button

is it love?

I was eating some blueberries today.

realizing that whenever I eat a batch of blueberries, there are probably about 5 that are perfect and the others fall very short of their perfection.

once i find one that tastes exactly the way I want it to and the taste ends, I move onto another one hoping for the same result.

I always go into the search eager, and excited to find another one. But never can you have a container of all perfect blueberries.

once I had a perfect box of blackberries in italy. From then on I was obsessed with blackberries, but I never found another batch quite the same. 

most of the time I will get to the bottom of the container with only the teeny tiny ones remaining, which I know will be very sour just by looking at them. so I throw away the pack. sad. somewhat comparable to the feeling you get when you finish your snack pack.

its usually months before I pick up another thing of blueberries. 

Everytime it is the same.

is it love? 

lesson learned here... if you go looking for something you will only find the sour ones, but if you let them find you then it could be the sweetest one in the batch.