Saturday Cake Baking; Why can't things turn out like the picture... and always have a Plan B

So it was another spring weather weekend here in SLC which means anything from sun to snow... and all in between. It was going to be an indoor project weekend since yard work is best left to days when it isn't hailing. I had seen a recipe for a Chiffon cake that look interesting and appealing (translation super yummy looking) in a random newspaper flier insert and decided to give it the good ole college try.

yea... mine DOES NOT look like that 

Spring Has Sprung... and Apparently So Has My Motivation

Spring is Here! The weather has been slowly getting better and better (which, I assume will take a turn for the worse any day now... we're due up for at least one more blizzard) but it means pool season is just around the corner! In preparation for summer there have been some good things going on around here... a few weekends ago we cleaned the house top to bottom, which is such a cliche way to kick spring off but hey... it works. The sun comes out, the layers come off and as we stumble out of our winter hibernation it's nice to just get the dust off everything (and in our case cat and dog hair).  Once done on the inside I moved outside to the project that is our back yard. Having gone all winter without a helping hand and being abused by three dogs the yard was in pretty poor shape, nothing a few choice words for the pine trees and the dogs for both equally littering the yard with their droppings and an hour of steady raking (seriously though, our yard isn't that big) it started to look more like the cute quaint space I fell in love with, than the hazardous waste sight it had become over winter. This last weekend we decided to gate the grass and patio off from the dogs and throw down some grass seed hoping to fill in some of the barren spots. My fingers are crossed that my (plant) killing spree has ended and the little seeds take root. Maybe if I pep talk the yard everyday and lay out my vision for this summer it will rise to the occasion and grow, let's hope I have ambitious grass.

Pine needles everywhere you look