The Seaside Boardwalk Fire

Around 2:30 this afternoon a small fire started on the boardwalk in Seaside Park.  

To say it escalated quickly, is an understatement. 

It quickly grew to a 5 alarm fire, then reaching 10 alarm status in the blink of an eye.

Photo Courtesy of Jersey Shore Hurricane News

Sandy was bad, Sandy was horrible,

but we didn't watch Sandy destroy the boardwalk.

Watching this happen in basically real time is like watching your childhood home burn to the ground.

My heart is very heavy tonight.

And my thoughts go out to everyone on the scene responding to putting out this fire,

the volunteers bringing the supplies

the families of both

and the business owners.

Never forget.

I love wind chimes

So I made a set!

You can get them here.

A Day at the Jersey Shore

I seriously just crack myself up sometimes

The beach angel

I took this picture in June of 2011

I loved this statue.

I thought of her as a guardian angel, watching over me, especially when I was on the beach alone for sunrise. 

After Sandy destroyed something like 80% of the homes in  Mantoloking, I hoped they had brought her in.  

When I saw the house amazingly survived, my hopes skyrocketed that my guardian angel had survived.

I'm not a very ballsy person. 

Back when I was 11, we had a house fire & I remember how upset my mother was by the "circus" in front of our house.  Because of that I never got into shooting peoples misery.  I took a few shots of businesses that had been destroyed, but that even bothered me, I wasn't going to take pictures of people homes.

But I put a 5x7 of this photo in my glove box with the intent on giving it to the owners if I ever saw them outside.

I haven't set foot on the beach in Mantoloking since October 26th or 27th, but every time I drive by this house I look to see if anyone is outside.

Today there was a guy outside and I figured what the heck, and I stopped.

I was sad to learn that the angel did not survive. 

I was even more saddened to learn that the spot were the angel lived was where the ashes of their son & daughter were buried.

I gave him the copy of the picture and my condolences.  

It's the stories like this that make Sandy suck even more all over again. 

Please vote for me!

One of my goals is to make more steady income from my business.  I'm not looking to immediately get rich, but that would be nice LOL.

Anyway, besides the marketing I do, I've also entered in the Martha Stewart American Made contest.  

Please go vote for me.  You can vote up to 6 times every day!

Thank you!

The Dragon Clef

The Dragon Clef is the symbol of the Brick Marching Dragons.  Today was their end of band camp pool party and I wanted to make them something special, so I made a Dragon Clef cake.

First, the icing.  This is just the Viva paper towel buttercream icing.

Then I took the 2 round cakes & made this shape. 

Iced it with the buttercream and here is where the Viva paper towel comes into the picture.  The icing is the kind you can smooth to look like fondant.  It's very easy to make and loved by everyone but me.  I will eat a little bit of it, but it's too sweet for me, I like whipped cream.  But I can't do this with whipped cream! 

Once it's set & smoothed, I take a tooth pick & drew the Dragon Clef in the icing.  This is one of those tips that when I read it I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner.  It works well from drawing designs like this or just writing Happy Birthday so it all fits!

Then I filled in the drawing.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!