Cases and Cakes

After dropping my old flip phone only about 6 inches onto concrete and breaking the speaker, I replaced it with this slider phone, which isn't very well-protected while in my purse. So, what you see here is a padded cell phone case in the making. It will probably have a wrist strap in case I want to take it along on my walks. The fabrics are from my carefully protected stash of Hoffman batiks. No embellishment here - it needs to be easy to wash.

Now, a cake decorating update. On the day of my class I went to Mobile to use Mama's oven, since mine was permanently out of service. My nieces, Erin and Tara, who live next door, kindly baked the cake for me. Erin, almost 13, might be a pastry chef if she doesn't become a big cat trainer or a book reviewer. Tara, 11, had planned on being a teacher, but now she might be a culinary artist. So I left them at my parents, happily baking brownies in muffin tins, and went home to make my icing. About 30 seconds into the buttercream icing, my heavy-duty Kitchenaid mixer stopped working. So I went to plan B - the hand mixer. While reaching into the drawer to get the beaters, I cut my left thumb - yes, I'm lefthanded - on an extremely sharp knife made out of a saw blade. I bought it from a Texas gentleman at the Peter Anderson Festival, and I love it because it's made for lefties and it cuts bread beautifully. Now I've learned my lesson about knife storage.

I made it to class in spite of everything, and will admit that cake decorating can be challenging, but I think that with practice I can master it. I still have 3 more weeks of class to decide. Funny, but my mixer started working again, so maybe I can make my icing without another mishap.

My new range arrived today and I will try out the oven tomorrow.