The Nashville Flood. May 2, 2010.

As I sit and try to come up with the right words to even describe the flood that just recently swallowed Nashville, the only word that comes to mind is: devastating. People lost homes, treasured belongings & memories, cars, jobs, pets, and even family and friends.

I was fortunate enough only to have to evacuate my apartment with the 'possibility' that the water may continue to rise and enter my home. So, yesterday, along with hundreds of my neighbors, we moved all of our belongings to high grounds and waited. We watched as our parking lot turn into a swimming pool of cars. I am one of the lucky ones.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those not so fortunate. So, I'm going to make the most of this blog and tell people to volunteer and for those that aren't close, please donate.

An easy way to donate is to text 'REDCROSS' 90999.

For other ways to donate or volunteer for Nashville: http://nashvillest.com/2010/05/03/so-nashville-is-flooded-how-can-i-help/

Take a moment to watch the video and take a glimpse in just a little of the damage that the flood water has caused.

Abby

Hello Jimbo.

As many of you know, I have a slight obsession with cupcakes. I'm not positive where it stemmed from but I think there is something so cute about a mini cake, an individual piece of heaven that you don't have to share with anyone.

My best friend, Carolyn, had a birthday last July and I wanted to do something special for her birthday. Because I loooooove birthdays. After some thought I remembered the book I received last Christmas called Hello Cupcake. They have a darling little section with lots of different styles of dogs. Lucky me...they had a pugcake!

Meet Jim. Carolyn's pride and joy.

I'm sure my roommates thought I was crazy. I was always taking over our kitchen table with my projects.

Here you can see that I used mini m&m's for the eyes & nose and piped black icing for the mouth.

I can't even tell you how many times I laughed out loud while making these.

The ears are tootsie rolls that I rolled out and cut in half and shaped to make the ears. The tongue is a pink starburst that I cut into thirds and made the cute little happy tongue. Then piped white teeth under the starburst. Little Jimbo's came to life!

I can almost hear him panting!

I don't know about you - but I find this picture really funny.

One little, two little, three little pugcakes...four little, five little, six little pugcakes... I think they are all saying that they are, "ready for their close-up."

All in all, I used Funfetti for the base (you can't go wrong with Funfetti). I tinted the base a light tan color, used black piping for the mouth area then used a tad bit of white icing for the teeth. A whole tootsie roll for 2 ears (divided in half) and one pink starburst made three tongues. Lastly, in the book they suggested using black jelly beans for the nose - but at the beginning of July...jelly beans aren't exactly a hot item. So, I settled for brown mini m&m's and turned them a different way. 

Pugalicious.

Happy Sunday! Abby