A year already...

My beautiful niece and nephew celebrated their 1st birthday on July 11th. I can't believe its been a year already! Which also means, its been a year since I've seen my mom - she was here the day Layla and Luke were born.
I have yet to meet the babies - isn't that sad?? Airfare is so damned expensive from Winnipeg. Its ridiculous. I would drive down, but my car isn't running well either, it hasn't been for awhile. Again, $$$ to fix.
I'm frustrated about money right now. I want to quit and get a different job so I can go to school, but money is always a factor. I hate how much we pay in rent each month, but love where we live.
grrr
I miss my family, some days are harder than others.

On the other hand, excitement about Jeff's birthday coming up! I'm doing a Super Secret cake for him that I hope he loves! It will be chocolate cake w/ chocolate buttercream frosting. It will also have filling - 1/2 butter pecan mousse and the other half Chocolate Fudge w/strawberries.

Im keeping the cake design a secret tho until his birthday. ;)

But, i've started prepping already. I've got 3/4 of the fondant done - its wrapped and ready to be coloured. The lettering for the cake is setting up - I did them in royal icing, they turned out ok. Just going to wait for them to dry then paint them with lustre dust.

I'm hoping to bake, fill and frost the cake on the wed before his birthday, then Ill be taking off work on Thursday to do the decorating. Then to keep it hidden until Saturday! Hopefully all goes well - so far so good, my homemade fondant and icing letters turned out much better than I had hoped after doing both for the first time ever. (usually i buy fondant and pipe letters w/buttercream)
My lettering is usually atrocious when i pipe w/buttercream, so I figured this would be a better way to go.

Anyway, photos will come after Aug 1st.
Thats about it right now. I'm hoping my brother can send me all of my cake decorating supplies that are stored in his shed. I have quite a bit of money already invested - I've been hesitating buying anything until I can get my stuff up here. I had sold some of it before i moved - but don't remember all of what I still have. Hopefully he can get this stuff up to me soon - and maybe I can get a business started. Jeff designed my business card, almost exactly to my specs. I love it! I'll post it soon.

Oh, since this is also a knitting blog - I should update that as well...
I'm working on a few things right now - I've joined a KAL for the lace leaf top in the last issue of knit.1. I'm also working on a top for Layla (which after seeing her 1 yr pics, i think it will be too small! FROG!) I'm about to start on a cabled vest for Luke. Also, mom has been working on baby blankets for the twins. She just about finished the first one, but needed some help on the border. So, I received a box in the mail the other day. it included jewelry and a couple buttons from Alaska, and a 98% completed baby blanket! I've finished the border on the third side and picked up stitches last night for the last side of the border. It should go quickly, its just seed stitch for 10 rows. Then wash and block and send it off! i'm sure mom will be glad when blanket number one is finally finished! She's started blanket two, I think, while she was working at the B&B for the last week.