Sunday Spotlight - Cake Designer: Karen Portaleo

It seems like you can't remotely turn on the tv nowadays without seeing a show about cakes! Between Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, Cupcake Wars, etc, the hype is huge! (*My disclaimer: I'm fairly certain that I DVR every single one of them. Yes, I buy into it. And it is AWESOME!) 

Here is a snippet about Karen from her Flickr profile:

My name is Karen Portaleo, and I am the cake decorator at Highland Bakery in Atlanta, Georgia. I have been decorating cakes since October of 2005 when , by chance, I stopped in to my friend's bakery to have brunch. I noticed there weren't any decorative items, and asked if I could maybe do some cookies ( having up until that point only decorated cookies a handful of times!). My background is in clay sculpture, but these days cake has taken over! I am self taught and always learning. 

You can check out her website by clicking HERE or you can visit her FLICKR Photostream.

















And the "Mac Daddy" of them all:

I didn't find Karen on my own. Someone left a link to the octopus cake above in my FormSpring early last week and I was blown away. Since we're only 5 months and 25 days away from my 23rd birthday (whoa!), I am requesting that Karen make me an epic Great White Shark cake. Please and thank you! ;) 

Thanks for passing her along to me! I hope you all love her stuff too! The way she captures textures really just astounds me. Okay, enough fan-girling for one day! But really, give this woman a tv show already! 

Do you watch those silly cake shows on tv? (and if you watch Ace of Cakes, do you solely watch it for Geoff? C'mon, you can admit it! He may or may not be a teensy (read: big) reason why I do! Haha)

Most Epic Ebay Buys!

Yesterday a blogger that I just recently started to follow wrote an entry about this AMAZING bag she saw in a photo and later found on eBay... I had one of those "Ah Ha!" moments where I was instantly in love. There was no denying the fact that I needed that bag in my life, and I needed it PRONTO! What was the solution? 9am Ebay bidding, of course! Luckily it had a Buy It Now! option so of course I took the easy way out. Now it's on its way from the lovely UK and I cannot wait for its arrival! What bag am I talking about, might you ask? This bad boy! Ch-Ch-Check it outttt! Owwww! (BEE-TEE-DUBZ: I bought the tote version (as shown in the last picture), not the Louis-Vuitton-Speedy-esque one!)

No hard feelings, right? I mean, I'm pretty sure there were a handful of them on there so I hope I didn't snag up the only one! I just couldn't live without it!

Also, while I was at work on Monday, it was a bit slow so I took the opportunity to snag up these fantastic finds, too! Who wants to come bake some epic sugar cookies while I boast this baby on my fridge?! (It's a cookie cutter [99 cents! woot!] and a magnet, duhz!)

Cool! What are some of the most amazing things you've ever bought on eBay?! Eh? Eh? Tell a girl!

xoxo

NEW FAVORITE ITEM EVER!

This deserves it's own post because it is full of EPIC WIN! I bought this bad boy on Ebay tonight! EEEEEP! I AM SO EXCITED TO GET IT! I AM GOING TO WEAR IT EVERY SINGLE DAY AND IT WILL LOOK AWESOME!

$60 of heavenly glory!

I FEEL LIKE A 7 YEAR OLD ON CHRISTMAS!

Yes, it IS a backpack! and YES, YOU DO GET TO REACH INSIDE OF ITS MOUTH! ahhhh!

OKAY! done! eep!