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Too many feelings, cannot brain
Sep. 12th, 2014 03:04 pm1) Any day that I don't have to mix, scoop, and bake 954 tiny cookies (and yes, I counted*) is a good day.
Today was especially good, because I finally got to make that Toothless figure out of fondant. I hate fondant and feel that marzipan is infinitely superior in almost all ways**, but the boss said fondant so I used fondant. There was a bit of a mishap with his wings, wherein I stuck the large ones in the oven for a couple of minutes to try and hasten their hardening and they ended up blowing up like puff pastry, but I was able to use them as a stencil to make new ones, so it all worked out. Aside from that, I effectively finished in my allotted 1.5 hour time limit; I still need to attach his wings and tail fins to his body, which I plan to do the next time I'm at work, as well as pipe a tiny skull-and-crossbones on his prosthetic tail fin, because of course I made that. I don't care that it's going to a two-year-old, I'm keeping that part.
I also got to use marzipan when I was making a second animal ornament for a zoo cake that... it appears I haven't talked about yet. Well! As part of the unofficial "Okay, [Socchan], you're making all of the animals now," addition to my job description, I made a lion out of marzipan for a zoo-themed cake a week or two ago. I thought the cake was due Monday the 5th, but I guess not?
Anyway, Geeky Coworker contacted me yesterday to ask if I was up to making a second animal for the cake in question, and it was up to me what as long as I kept it to the same timeframe requirement (under two hours). She said I could have time to do so today if I thought I could manage and could come up with an animal. I did and I could, so i started off the day making a marzipan croco-gator ♥ (I'm... not actually sure what all the differences are between a crocodile and an alligator.) I finished it in half an hour, too, which is really pretty great time, IMO. I got lots of comments about how adorable it is as well, which is not something one usually hears about a croco-gator ;)
Both the lion and the croco-gator will be going on a cake on Sunday morning; I've already got pics of both of them on my phone, but hope to get pics of the whole thing on Sunday as well.
* Technically, I did the math. "Rows x columns x trays - one column for that one tray + however many cookies on that other tray = 954".
** Hardening may be an exception, though I've yet to test it myself.
2) Classes finally had a significant amount of extra bread today, so I took it to the Crisis Center. Since Jo-Ann's was near by, I swung by there as well, only to find out that this particular branch won't be carrying Caron's party yarn anymore and is thus discounting all of it that they have to half-off the previous purchase price. ...I splurged. I am vulnerable to sparkly yarn at good prices.
3) I really don't know how to feel about this one. Remember this eagle? I got it in the mail to the appropriate address, where it languished for... almost two months now, to the point where I wasn't sure if it was even going to be received. I'd written it off as "lost in the master 'in' pile" when the note showed up today. It was very generic. I'm pretty sure they've got a form letter set up for this sort of thing. "Dear [person's name]; Thank you for [the thing] and enjoying my show. (etc)" There's not even an actual signature on the card. I mean, I get it, he's a busy guy, and he probably gets a lot of presents from fans; I certainly didn't expect a personalized, hand-written letter, or anything. But an actual signature would've been nice, slap-dash or otherwise. Failing that, a less personalized form letter would've felt more like what I expected. I guess I'm slightly disappointed?
Well, whatever. I hope he legitimately likes it, or at least appreciates the effort that went into making it, whether or not he wrote me an actual note.
Today was especially good, because I finally got to make that Toothless figure out of fondant. I hate fondant and feel that marzipan is infinitely superior in almost all ways**, but the boss said fondant so I used fondant. There was a bit of a mishap with his wings, wherein I stuck the large ones in the oven for a couple of minutes to try and hasten their hardening and they ended up blowing up like puff pastry, but I was able to use them as a stencil to make new ones, so it all worked out. Aside from that, I effectively finished in my allotted 1.5 hour time limit; I still need to attach his wings and tail fins to his body, which I plan to do the next time I'm at work, as well as pipe a tiny skull-and-crossbones on his prosthetic tail fin, because of course I made that. I don't care that it's going to a two-year-old, I'm keeping that part.
I also got to use marzipan when I was making a second animal ornament for a zoo cake that... it appears I haven't talked about yet. Well! As part of the unofficial "Okay, [Socchan], you're making all of the animals now," addition to my job description, I made a lion out of marzipan for a zoo-themed cake a week or two ago. I thought the cake was due Monday the 5th, but I guess not?
Anyway, Geeky Coworker contacted me yesterday to ask if I was up to making a second animal for the cake in question, and it was up to me what as long as I kept it to the same timeframe requirement (under two hours). She said I could have time to do so today if I thought I could manage and could come up with an animal. I did and I could, so i started off the day making a marzipan croco-gator ♥ (I'm... not actually sure what all the differences are between a crocodile and an alligator.) I finished it in half an hour, too, which is really pretty great time, IMO. I got lots of comments about how adorable it is as well, which is not something one usually hears about a croco-gator ;)
Both the lion and the croco-gator will be going on a cake on Sunday morning; I've already got pics of both of them on my phone, but hope to get pics of the whole thing on Sunday as well.
* Technically, I did the math. "Rows x columns x trays - one column for that one tray + however many cookies on that other tray = 954".
** Hardening may be an exception, though I've yet to test it myself.
2) Classes finally had a significant amount of extra bread today, so I took it to the Crisis Center. Since Jo-Ann's was near by, I swung by there as well, only to find out that this particular branch won't be carrying Caron's party yarn anymore and is thus discounting all of it that they have to half-off the previous purchase price. ...I splurged. I am vulnerable to sparkly yarn at good prices.
3) I really don't know how to feel about this one. Remember this eagle? I got it in the mail to the appropriate address, where it languished for... almost two months now, to the point where I wasn't sure if it was even going to be received. I'd written it off as "lost in the master 'in' pile" when the note showed up today. It was very generic. I'm pretty sure they've got a form letter set up for this sort of thing. "Dear [person's name]; Thank you for [the thing] and enjoying my show. (etc)" There's not even an actual signature on the card. I mean, I get it, he's a busy guy, and he probably gets a lot of presents from fans; I certainly didn't expect a personalized, hand-written letter, or anything. But an actual signature would've been nice, slap-dash or otherwise. Failing that, a less personalized form letter would've felt more like what I expected. I guess I'm slightly disappointed?
Well, whatever. I hope he legitimately likes it, or at least appreciates the effort that went into making it, whether or not he wrote me an actual note.
