Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I know I haven't written in awhile, but I think that is because I have been taking a creative break! I needed a rest after all the Christmas festivities! I had a wonderful holiday. I hosted a Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve party at my house this year. Lots of cooking, cleaning, etc. But what made this Christmas extra special was this little niece of mine...

 

This was on of my projects from Christmas time! A "stick Natalie in a stocking" photo session. She wasn't very happy about it. Get use to it kid... Auntie Em is going to be taking a LOT more pics of you! :)

2010 was a really great year for me. New house, new niece, a fun blog, a new found love of cake decorating. I can't wait to see what 2011 has for me!

I have been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish this year, personal and creative. At first I was kind of lost, and while I am still not sure exactly what I want to do, I have some ideas.

Personal:

• Reading. I decided this year that I would read more. I love to read, but for some reason I just don't do it a lot. It may be because I am never sure what to read. A lot of times, I will pick out a book, start reading it then stop in the middle because it wasn't well written, or I just wasn't interested. But now I have some recommendations from friends, and have already began to read. And... being into gadgets as much as I am... I started research ereaders. I am now the proud owner of a Nook 3G + WiFi. I LOVE it... Well... I only had it two days, but I already love it. :) I think I will read more with it. No excuses. I don't have to go to a book store or order one online and wait for it to come in the mail. I  have instant access to millions of books! I already read one book, Water For Elephants. I reeeeeally enjoyed it. I am now reading the Maze Runner. If anyone has any book suggestions for me, let me know! I like well written fiction. My favorite book of all time is The Lord of the Rings.

• Evernote. Okay, this is completely random, but I came across a website literally about 30 minutes ago, and I already love it. It's called Evernote, and it has an app for your iPhone, Mac, etc. It takes notes. Organized notes. Why am I excited about this? Well, recently my boyfriend and I were trying to figure out where we had a certain Sensation Salad (I need to blog about Sensation Salad one day :) ). Anytime there is a Sensation Salad at a restaurant in Baton Rouge, we get it.... but we are having trouble remembering where the best ones we had are! So I mentioned that I really needed to start keeping notes (with pictures) about the restaurants we go to so I can remember what I had there and if I liked it. It would also be helpful when recommending a restaurant to someone. Evernote will allow me to do this in an organized way! I am so excited. Restaurants reviews aren't the only notes I will start taking. I will like to use it for notes about recipes, books, etc. I am very excited to start using this app!!

 Daydreaming:

•  Baking. I loved my cake decorating classes. I was signed up to take the last of 3 Wilton cake classes, but for the last two months it has been canceled because there weren't enough people signed up. Hopefully in February I can take the last class. But I want to learn more than just a little decorating. I want to know more about the art of baking. I want to nail some awesome cake and icing recipes. I want to have the confidence to be able to actually sale my cakes. But how? How do I do this? Teach myself? Read some books? I went as far as looking into pastry schools  around here... but I don't want to do that. I am not sure where I want to go with my new found love of decorating cakes. I think I am just waiting for an opportunity to arise.

• Photography. I LOVE taking pictures. So so so much. And I am decent at it, but I know there is SO much more to learn, technically, about it. I tried teaching myself, but I just couldn't grasp it. Maybe I didn't try hard enough?  I looked at some photography classes that I may want to take, but if I do, should I upgrade my camera to a SLR, like this one? I just don't if it's worth me paying that much money. So I am trying to decide how involved in photography do I want to be.

I do have some projects coming up that I will be working on... guess what... they're CAKES! I have a couple of birthday cakes in mind. In March, I will have a few projects focused on my niece's Christening: a daffodil photo shoot, an announcement and a cake.  That's all I can think of for now. I need to start painting/drawing again. Drawing is probably my biggest passion, but I never do it, because I never know what I should draw!

I hope everyone is having a great 2011 so far! I hope to bring you many projects this year!

♥ Emily