Party!

I hosted the annual celebration of my mom and Mindy's birthdays tonight. I needed a party! I spent the day baking and creating and decorating, and I'm wiped out. But it's what I love to do, so it's a good feeling.
I made a German chocolate cake for my mamacita - it's her favorite. And Emma and I created an eggless chocolate cake that I could eat. She has been bugging me for months about a jelly-filled cake recipe that was in her head, so I let her have the chance to shine in the kitchen. She took to it quite nicely and spread that red raspberry jam in the middle of the cake with my offset spatula like a pro! Everyone complimented her on her cake and she took it all in stride, lifting her hands up and making a face that said, "well, what did you expect?"












And here's me with my first piece of cake in, like, more than a year. I'm very excited, even if the cake is positioned just so that I bear a frightening resemblance to Charlie Chaplin. So much for dignity. But the cake was worth the sacrifice of dignity. Yes. It. Was.

I also have found some great new music. Now, I'm by no means a music expert. There is no accounting for taste with me, as I'm a big fan of Herb Alpert, but I like it finding new stuff to listen to, and I presume you probably do too. So, here's what I found. Do with it what you will.
Ingrid Michaelson - she had a song on an Old Navy commercial this Christmas (if you are chilly, here take my sweater) and I caught myself singing "I-i-i- lo-o-ove the way you call me baby" and decided I'd better find that song. It's super-cute and quirky.
Ray LaMontagne (Till the Sun Turns Black)- Oh. Weak-in-the-knees good. Thank you to my super-cool sister-in-law for telling me about him. Really, all the cool music I find comes to me through no fault of my own, as I lost all my cool points in junior high school. But this album threatens to dunk me into the pool of melancholy I've been circling around for a few weeks. And not in a bad way - I like to indulge my melancholy side now and again. I just have to decide whether I have time to really sink in and enjoy it before I listen to this album too much more.