baking & sewing

i woke up yesterday morning and immediately got started on making a birthday cake for R and his staff to enjoy. i had decided to make a chocolate trifle - why i wanted to do so much work, i don't really know, when i could have just made something simple like chocolate cupcakes.

i decided to make the cake part in a stoneware 9x13 that i received as a gift years ago but never used. i always thought that it felt so rough - wouldn't everything just stick on? and it's so heavy. as i pulled it out of the box, i thought i had better wash it before it's first use, like i usually would. as it was drying on the counter i decided to check online to see how i'm supposed to use and care for this thing. over and over i kept reading "Never use soap on stoneware as the dish will absorb the soap and it will seep into your food causing your food to taste like soap". OOOPS! i quickly went and repeatedly rinsed out my dish, hoping to, I don't know, get the soap before the dish did. okay, and i'm supposed to cook a bunch of greasy dishes in it first, to "cure" it. oops again. but i figured that using it for a trifle would be a good trial because if it didn't come out quite right, i needed to crumble the cake anyway and no one would notice.
surprising, the cake turned out perfectly, it didn't stick, it didn't taste like soap and there's a little bit leftover. :) i brought the dessert to R's school at lunch to surprise him and i think i made his birthday a little happier and i know that the staff appreciated it too.

before R and i went out for dinner, i gave him a few presents. i was so SOOO pumped about one of his gifts. i sewed him a messenger bag and it looks so good! i'm quite proud of myself, as it feels like the majority of my little sewing projects only make it 3/4 done and then i just get too frustrated with my mistakes and give up. this is definitely the nicest thing that i have ever sewed from start to finish. he's been looking for a bag like this for probably a year now, so finally i decided to finally just make one.

the handsome birthday boy and his very attractive bag.


adjustable straps


and a plaid lining.