red velvet cake + a crafting woe.

my dad requested a red velvet cake for his birthday after having a red velvet cupcake from claim jumper the other day. so last night i went on a mission to find a mix. i had to go to 4 stores. ha. i was going to make it from scratch, but i wanted it to turn out since i wouldn't have time to re-do it if it didn't. i don't have a good cake recipe, so i went with a box. unfortunately even though i greased and floured both pans, neither of my 9 inch round cakes would come out today when i wanted to assemble and ice the cake. grr. i think it's time for new cake pans. i eventually got them out with some help from my mom. :]

i think the cake turned out ok. i'm definitely not a pro... there were some crumbs in the icing, which always happens to me, but it felt good to make the cake for my dad. it's been a while since he had a proper birthday cake. plus, now i have a small case of baking fever. and maybe i sort of kind of want to open my own bakery and become a pro cake decorator and have my own tv show. ha. ok... not true about the tv show, but i think it would be fun to learn how to decorate cakes. especially with fondant so i don't have to worry about crumbs showing through in the icing. :]

tonight i tried to make my sister's birthday present, but didn't have much luck. she just bought a house, which gave me an excuse to make the placemats and napkins from this book that i bought this weekend. why not give her a little birthday gift in the form of a housewarming present? works for me.

well problem numero uno is that my large self healing craft mat is being held hostage under the coffee table glass in hopes that it will flatten out. i accidentally left it in the back of my car a few months ago... and by accidentally, i mean i didn't know it would hurt it to leave it in there for a couple days. well it did. turns out that it warped like crazy and refuses to flatten back out. this little situation is not very conducive to cutting things, especially fabric. [it's also not very fun to try to paint or scrapbook on in its bent up state, rendering it basically useless.]
no craft mat to use my rotary trimmer with? fine. the book says to use a yardstick and a chalk pencil and cut the pieces out by hand with scissors anyway. i have all of those things. yes i do. except that at some point during mission: make myself a studio i have misplaced my chalk pencil. wonderful. let me add at this point, that i decided to make a practice placemat since i am still far from good at using my sewing machine. i got out some of the scrap fabric my mom passed on to me and chose a nice black/white combo for practicing. it's rather hard to make a mark on black fabric with no chalk pencil. oh but i do have this new white sharpie paint pen. perhaps i could use that? NO. BAD IDEA. messy messy messy and no help whatsoever. so i eyeballed it. after all, it's was my practice round.
finally, while i was sewing the practice placemat, i noticed that clearly something is wrong with my thread tension. i do believe it's a problem with the bobbin tension, which has happened before. but that's all i know. i have no clue how to fix it. so i finished the practice placemat with some too tight and some too loose stitches, and i gave up for the night.

i guess it doesn't look too bad from afar... and i have to admit... i kind of enjoy the fabric combo going on there. oh and yes, that's the craft mat under the glass. ha.

tomorrow:
1. buy a new craft mat. [i wish i could find a cute one. and by cute i mean fun colors.]
2. buy one of those rulers to use with the craft mat and rotary trimmer.
3. take my sewing machine to the store, and tell them i want to throw it out the window. i mean... tell them something is wrong with it, and i would like it fixed pronto.

yes indeed. one of these days i will be able to sew properly!
goodnight. i'm off to clean. :]