A Hoot of a Time and Rainbow Cake

Hello everyone, sorry I have not posted anything the last few weeks. It was pretty busy with some events at work plus getting costumes together and rehearsing for our annual Bellydance Show this friday. I have been crafting up a storm though and I probably have about 15 projects on the go with not a single one completed. I am currently on vacation so hopefully I can finish some of these up to share with you. 

Status update on my plants; the spider mites will just not give up their ground. Now in addition to the mites and the fruit flies that were already pestering my tomatoes and herbs, I have recently discovered white fly. I have noticed that all of these pests become worse every time I feed the plants with the nutrient solution. The tea/soap spray has not been very effective yet. I have heard many suggestions of Neem oil but I am also wary to spray that on the herbs as it has toxic effects if ingested. Also the whole plant absorbs it and brings the oil into its system so that worries me even if I spray the tomato plants. I have also heard that this oil can fry your plants if they are in a pretty sunny spot. Any other suggestions anyone? I have gotten a few tomatoes but definitely not the yield expected since they have been fighting these bugs. 

On another note we hosted an event for our teens at work a week or so ago. This event went over fantastically and all the girls and our volunteers seemed to have a great time. To thank my volunteers I made them some little owl trinkets out of wood and paint from this inspiring pin on Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/pin/254383078923111986/ We then attached pins to the backs so that they can be used as broaches. My Executive Director enjoyed them so much that we are going to make another 80-100 of them for table gifts for guests at an upcoming event. I better get my mother to bring in some more logs from her house in the country!

Cutest little owl broaches ever! 

Also at this same time I made a nyan cat for my younger sister's birthday party. The cake was vanilla cake with each layer a different colour of the rainbow. When we cut into it it looked like a rainbow of deliciousness. Also I made up a light cream cheese whipped cream frosting for the outside. The frosting was a medium blue colour, not true to real nyan cat's night-time background, but since we didn't want our guests to have blue mouth rot going out to the bar it thus became daytime nyan cat. Unfortunately since I avoided a fondant covering for this cake since my sister doesn't like the taste, I had a few issues of the fondant rainbow reacting with the icing later on and thus "melting." A lesson for the future for me. Heavily pigmented fondant  does not react well with whipped cream icing.  

Naked Cake

Nyan cat in the making

Pop tart body with sprinkles and black edging additions

Nyan Cat on the cake

You can see the top of the second nyan cat (there was one on each side)

Mmm Cake...

Original Nyan Cat meme

Rainbow inside