Diaper Cake

If you've never heard of a diaper cake before, it may not be what you're thinking. It most certainly is not edible, for one thing.

My sister and I went to the LA area this weekend to meet with our other sister from Arizona. Her oldest daughter is about 8 months pregnant with her second child (a boy). The occasion, of course, was a baby shower.

Carli made the diaper cake as our gift for my niece. I bought all the stuff and she put it all together.

A diaper cake is basically a tiered "cake" made up of diapers. For our diaper cake we used different sized disposable diapers. They are tightly rolled up and placed around the center core, made up of bottles of lotions, powder, shampoo, etc. Every so often an item of clothing or wash cloth is also rolled up and placed around the cake. Each tier is held together with a big ribbon. The tiers are supposed to be held in place with dowels, similar to an edible tiered cake. We also used sippy cups to adorn our cake.

We got lucky because we bought all the stuff before my niece registered for her gifts. Turns out the theme was safari or jungle animals or something like that. Notice the lion at the bottom of our cake!

My nephew-in-law (?) is a recent graduate of cooking school and he made all the fabulous food for the shower, including the cake! I can't even tell you how good it all was. There was salmon with spinach or chard wrapped in a phyllo dough crust, potatoes, cheese, fruit and yogurt, tiny bread and croissants, olive tapenade and garlic and artichoke tapinade, and my favorite, blueberry blintzes. I may have forgotten something, I'm sure. There was lemonade and the fixings for mimosas. The cake was a sponge cake with whipped cream frosting and decorated with strawberries and kiwis. Not only was it beautiful it was delicious!

The next day we met the family and had a leisurely breakfast. We sure had a good time. The last time we were all together was almost exactly a year ago for my last birthday.

It was really nice getting to see everyone again!

I'm not even going to mention the crazy driver who wasn't paying attention on the way home because she was yakking with her sister so she had to shoot across about six lanes (that's what it seemed like) of the 605 to make the west bound offramp of 210 (it tee'ed and you could only go east or west). Fortunately the traffic was very light and that curb the car dropped off of was only about 3 inches high.

My car is fine, thank you.

I Can't Help Being A Little Worried

It's Thursday afternoon and the eggs are due to hatch on Tuesday, in about five days. I can't help but be a little worried that this will work. My little banty hen went broody about one day before I bought the supposedly fertilized eggs off of e-bay and since I got them in the mail I tucked them underneath her and kept a close eye on her.

In her defense she has been staying in the box most of the day, just coming out every so often to dust herself and eat and drink. The other hens usually take advantage of that time to sit in her nest box and lay their eggs, even though there is another nest box they could be using. Except for the brown hen. She has been loafing for several weeks now. The two white leghorns have been pretty regular. Every afternoon I carefully lift the banty up and pull out the one or two white eggs. When she does leave the box I keep an eagle eye on her to make sure she returns to setting within a decent amount of time (from what I've read it usually should be within thirty minutes).

I started with eight eggs and just a few days ago all of a sudden I noticed there were only five dark brown eggs in the nest box. I don't have a clue as to what happened to the other eggs. I can only guess that maybe with the other hens getting in and out of the box they may have broken the eggs and then eaten them. I've moved the nest box to the floor of the house so in case when they hatch they won't fall off the shelf and die.

If just one of these eggs hatches it will be a $50 chicken!In other news I made a couple of hypertufa bowls and started mosaicing the inside of the first one. Unfortunately I ran out of the little flat glass marbles that I was using. When I started I really thought I had more than enough.

Today I went to two Michael's stores, a Tuesday Morning, Target, Petsmart (fish dept.), Walmart, and even a Hallmark store trying to find the same colors. I couldn't find the same mixture (it's a very pale blue and green mixture) but I did find a green that is the same. I found a blue but it turned out to be a hair darker than what I had. I can't even find these colors on-line and I can't help being a little worried that I've screwed up and I'll have to somehow start over.

As you can see I still have a fair bit to do. I'm going all the way to the rim. Now what!?!
I also can't help being a little worried about my moringa seeds. I got a packet of ten seeds and planted five of them in peat pots. I've kept them moist and nothing's been happening. I took three of the peat pots and planted them in a potting mixture and they aren't doing anything either. So far the only thing growing there is a mimosa that somehow must have blown in. About a week ago I took the remaining five moringa seeds and followed directions on a website that recommended soaking for 24 hours then placing the soaked seeds in a plastic bag. The bag is then put in a dark drawer and they are supposed to start sprouting in three to fourteen days. It's been about 7 days now and so far I haven't seen any sprouting.

Another seed I bought recently was from a plant called the "shoo fly" plant. As the name implies they are supposed to help get rid of flies. The tiny seeds I planted in the little peat pots about a week ago still show no signs of sprouting. I can't help being a little worried that they won't. I'm not sure what's going on but even though I increased my order over last year the fly predators I've been getting every month don't seem to be working.

At least my tomatoes are going crazy.

Squash Hat Society

I'll bet you've never heard of the Squash Hat Society. It's a super secret club with only a few select members. Carli and Wil joined back in 1994 I believe... They were the charter members. Until recently the only members.

This past weeked the baby became the newest member.

The club has come a long way since the original founders created it. Now there are certificates available.
You too can join the Secret Order of the Squash Hat Society! It's so easy to join. Simply grow any type of squash until it's big enough to carve out and place on a person's head. Although the feather decoration is not required it is highly encouraged (click on the top picture to see the feather better!). Squash hands are for fun only!

If you'd like to have an inductee's photo on my blog attach a jpeg photo to an email along with their pertinant information and I'll post it here. If you'd also like a certificate (suitable for framing) include a virtual $5.00 and it will be sent right out by me, the chairman of the Squash Hat Inductee Team.

You know what they say... the Squash Hat Inductee Team happens!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all dads!