The Land of the Free

It all began when I read a magazine article about a woman who visited make up counters in various department stores to try to pick up free samples. She ended up receiving enough foundation, powder, lipstick, mascara, eyeshadow and blush to last her an entire month.... and we aren't talking Cover Girl or Maybelline.... we are talking classy make up like Clinique, Estee Lauder and Lacome. All my life I have avoided making eye contact with the make up counter girls .... and now I was heading right into the thick of it. I guess those girls can smell a mooooocher a mile away because they didn't take my bait. I guess I need to look the part of a serious buyer .... maybe it was my holey jeans or my dishevled hair ... or the fact that I wasn't even wearing makeup.......... oh well. So I decided to take a different route in order to get free stuff. Slickdeals.net.

-8 oz Juicy Juice water bottle
-Nutrish dog food
- one roll of extra soft Scott bathroom tissue
- one Oxy face cleansing cloth
- Fiber One granola
- 3 Tampax tampons
- Jergens shimmering body wash
- Boss perfurme
- package of Scott wet wipes
- one stayfree sanitary napkin

Total cost ....... $0.00

That's right boys and girls. FREE.

The Cake Line-Up

“….see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged.”

I was excited every time i got a new submission to the cake contest. All of you did a wonderful job at being creative with the theme and i love all the decorations. I wish i had some great prizes to give out, but alas, i do not. Maybe next time. If anyone wants to make comments on which cake they thought was the funniest, or most creative with the theme, or most creative with the decorations, or best decorated or any other category…. please fill up the comment section.

Since everyone who didn’t participate is a LOSER, it makes all of you cake builders out there WINNERS!

Thanks for making this fun for us, i hope all of you had fun too. And it looks like many of you discovered a talent you never knew you had. Send your friends and see if they can guess which one is yours.

Swimming Pool Cake

“The cake is a swimming pool because people go swimming on labor day.”

America Works Cake

The Gears that keep America working!

Trailer Park Cake

“Our labors went into buying this trailer, making the monthly payments, doing constant repairs for the four years we lived there, and then most recently into selling it and officially becoming DEBT FREE.”

Manuel Labor Cake

“These diligent laborers, whose hands bring us delicate produce such as these blueberries, often cannot join a Labor Union and enjoy the protection of labor laws and labor holidays such as this one. For migrant workers migrate to follow the produce seasons, and many are not exactly on good terms with the INS. But they too are laborers, and on this Labor Day, I honor them by eating the fruit of their labors.”

McCake

Would you like fries with that?

Workaholic Cake

"After a long day of labor, there's nothing I like more than my bed!"

Water Broke Cake

"Uh honey, I think I'm in labor. Crap, I don't have time to finish the cake, this will have to do."

Picnic Cake

"Kissing a man with a beard is a lot like going to a Labor Day picnic. You don't mind going through a little bush to get there!"

Spa Mom Cake

"I don’t know anyone who puts in more selfless time and effort to serving others than my mom. And on this Labors day she deserves a break and a little special treatment."

The Cake is White, Already to Harvest

"If it so be that you should labor, all of your days, and bring but one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of our Father."

Life Isn't Fair

Fields of colorful cotton candy, clowns on stilts, fire breathers, contortionists, magicians, ring toss, whack-a-mole, guess my weight booth, 20 foot long snakes, tutus, puppets, fortune tellers, live music, monkeys, animals wearing clothes, pie eating contests, belly dancers, bearded women, and free rides. This was the fair of our dreams. I'm sad to say the Utah State Fair was not this fair. I really wish I could say that the fair was amazing .... but I would be lying. However, we did not let the disappointment dampen our spirits.

700 lbs of dancing butta' cows = 2, 268,000 calories

A couple of sour apples

He thought he would give the prize chicken a run for his money ....

Best of Show

sheep suit

Riding off into the sunset

The fairgrounds in all her glory

double dating it up

The fair skyline

Fairground food is made for the rich and famous so we opted for the value menu at Taco Bell ... and I must add, that my Mom and Dad's last meal at Taco Bell was while they were dating at BYU ... that's ≈ 30 yrs ago. We were proud to reunite them with this celestial food.

The Joy of Fatherhood

Erin and I were quite proud of the cake we made, it was almost like being parents. We put so much thought and care into making it and we were so proud to see the way it turned out. It seems like only yesterday we were taking it out of the oven, they get decorated so fast.

Then we became even more proud of all you proud cake builders out there. There were some real big surprises. If any of you missed the official CakeOff challenge check it out here. As per the rules I established you still have time to make a cake and submit it to me by Sunday the 13th. And then you can partake in the joy that is cake father/mother hood.

If you need help with ideas Erin and I have a ton of creative ones that we didn't end up using. And if you don't bake a cake please come back and at least place your votes. Thanks.

And "Natster" i am officially calling you out. You have not yet submitted a cake and your comment you left August 15, 2009 at 10:16 AM made it seem like it would be a done deal. If I don't see a cake from you I will be extremely disappointed.

If you don't make a cake you're going to have to deal with her.

Schizophrenic

How to spread the H1N1 virus

• not washing hands
• touch your eyes, nose and mouth
• hang out with sick people
• try on masks at a public store

If Wharf from Star Trek and the Geico Caveman were to have a baby .......

+

=

There is a Jack for every Jill

I would hate to be behind this guy going through airport security

A Lot of Hot Air

Hot air balloons are officially on my uncool list as of yesterday. Yesterday marked our second attempt (within a month time frame) at attending a hot air balloon festival .... the first one was canceled due mother nature.

This one happened to be on Antelooooooope Island

Balloons began growing before our eyes and magical indeed it was

(Mitchell, my friend Seara, and her boyfriend Keith watching in awe)

Fill er' up

The balloons appeared to be up and ready ... then they slowly began to melt and shrink. They were taking them down! Someone sneezed and due to the wind that was produced, the festival was canceled. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little, but seriously I swear there might have been a 1 m.p.h wind....my hair wasn't even moving. So temperamental.

Hot air balloons ... psh. So overrated.

Attention! Achtung! ¡Atención! Assistenza! заботливость ملاحظة

Just a friendly reminder, get your creative juices flowin'
Labor Day is nigh , get your cakes ready for the showin'
Talent has assembled from all across the nation
With cakes so crazy, you'll think its a hallucination.
If you don't got skills, don't worry one bit
Because this is all for the fun of it.
- Anonymous

Click here for Cake Off rules and regulations

I whipped up this cake the other day in my spare time, its a shame it doesn't fit the Labor Day theme.

But seriously .... who has that much time to make a cake of such epic portions?
Not us.