198/365 Begins With "S"

"S is for Strawberry"

I waited way to late in the day for this one - after choir rehearsal and a few beers at a local night spot with choir members as we celebrated our last rehearsal before leaving on Monday for our two week tour in England.

197/365 I Spy

"I Spy, You Spy"

I'm not sure whether this picture is I spy a cat in a box or the cat spies me with the #*@$ camera.

196/365 Old and New

"Old and New"

Last night we met some friends for dinner down in the Bishop Arts district in Oak Cliff.  This is a funky neighborhood that has been totally revitalized over the past several years.  It has gone from a run down section of town to a lively hot spot for specialty shops and dining.  For those of you not from Texas, Oak Cliff is home to the Texas Theater, famous for being the location where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy.

Last night there was a huge street fair going on to celebrate Bastille Day.  The streets were lined with weldors selling French cuisine, various beverages, craftsmen and there was also a variety of entertainment - everything from musicians to jugglers.

One of the assignments I am working on this month for my photography class is street photography.  I don't feel very comfortable photographing strangers and I feel even less comfortable asking them if they would mind of they take their picture.  But, I knew this would be a great opportunity to give it a try.  I opted for the paparazzi style of photography - shoot quickly and hope that you get something good without being noticed.  Generally this involves literally "shooting from the hip."

I thought the woman above was interesting for several reasons.  I liked her eyes.  I also liked all the shapes here - the stripes in her hat and shirt with the circles on her umbrella.  The "baby bump" provided a nice contrast of mom as older life and baby as the new.  Because this image was taken on the sly, it is not as sharp as I would like it.  I added the sepia tones in post processing to further play on the old look of a new photo.

The next image right now is the best one I have thus far for the photo assignment for the class.

"Bastille, Bands and Beer"

The expression on this woman's face is much more serious than the situation deserved.  The gentleman is putting a wristband on for her that says that she is of age to buy and consume alcohol so that she doesn't have to continually show her "credentials" each time she purchases a drink.

195/365 Cropped

"Kruisin""

This month's self portrait was to be a cropped photo.  I'm good with that; no pictures of my face!

You get my feet on my Krazy Kruiser.  And when the shot is taken from behind, you can't tell how big my feet really are!  Krazy Kruisers are very cool three-wheeled scooters that are powered by shifting your weight from side to side at the hips.  Since I don't have much hip action to speak of, it took me a little while to get going, but I've got it now.  Kruisin' is fun and I probably get a little bit of exercise too!

I also like this photo in black and white.

Below is today's runner-up.  I like the varied foot positions, but I wish the action wasn't quite so far to the left of the frame.

Thank you Erin for your help with today's pictures!

194/365 Stacked

Rather than today's picture of the day being the first in the series as is usually the case here, today it will be the last one.  You'll have to make it through this series of pictures, imagining some missing parts, to fully appreciate the ending.


Once upon a time there was a panicked bride.  On the Wednesday before the Saturday she was getting married, the source for her wedding cake informed her that she would not be able to make her cake. (Something about just having had a baby.)   With only three days until the wedding, what was the bride to do?

She remembered that she had a colleague with a young, trying to get experience, daughter who had recently graduated from culinary school and moved back to Texas.  She sought out her colleague who in turn phoned said daughter with the bride's dilemma.  In a moment of weakness (and poverty), the young baker said yes to making the cake.

Soon more pounds of butter, flour, and sugar than one normally consumes in a year appeared.  Eggs were cracking.

NOTE: The band-aids have to do with sharp edges on cake pans and plastic wrap boxes.

Soon , the last lonely egg joined the others from its dozen in a scrumptious cake batter.

Being that the bride's dream was a four tier cake that would feed two hundred people, there was A LOT of batter.  A lot of batter means a lot of baking.  Here we go with pan number one.

Fast forward . . . all four tiers, which were each two layers, are done and headed to the freezer.

During the baking process, the gum paste flowers were being made - each one by hand.

Once the layers were done and the first layer of flowers were busy drying (see yesterday's post), it was time to make the butter cream frosting to go between the layers and that would also be used to mask the tiers so that the fondant would stick.

The young baker decided that she would also make all of the fondant from scratch.

Tier three successfully covered.

Tier two successfully covered.

Tiers one and four were also successfully covered.  This cake process was nearly non-stop for three days.  Obviously I missed photographing many steps.

Then came the scary part.  The tiers of cake and all of its parts had to be moved to the reception venue unassembled.  Once there, the tiers were stacked, the fondant trim and finally the flowers would be added.  The transporting of this sugar monster nearly thirty miles was a little crazy making for all of us.  So many things could have gone wrong that would have been disastrous; the biggest thing that we knew we were fighting was the heat - it was  103 degrees.

All of the decorative flowers were packed in the empty egg cartons.  Surely if these masterpieces of cardboard can protect eggs in their travels, they will protect these delicate flowers.

There are zero pictures of the cake assembly process. We were all too busy praying.  Okay, I was praying; the young baker was frantically working to the mantra, "I will never do this again.  I will never do this again. I will never do this again." I tried to be the picture of calm.  That did not work to calm the young baker.  She said that the only reason that I was calm is because I had low standards and therefore did not stress out.  Yeah, whatever.

The young baker worked for an hour and half sticking dowels on the tiers of the cake so that they could be stacked.  She added the trim to each tier and then added the flowers, none of which broke in transit!  The florist came by and offered a few left over rose petals if they could be used to add a final touch.

The young baker added the final touches . . .

 . . .and the cake was done.  It was done in three days, by one young baker who had never made a four tier fondant covered wedding cake before (and may never again).

The young baker has come a long way. from this in 1993 . . .

 . . .to this in 2013.

"Stacked Tiers"

And they all ate happily ever after.  The end.

. . . except for the beer that happened at the Mexican restaurant on the way home.

193/365 Dry

"Drying Gum Paste Flowers"

Consider this a preview . . .stay tuned.

192/365 On the Street

"Past and Present Meet On The Street"

The juxtaposition of the old sign and new sign for this building one on top of the other made me chuckle.