Gum-paste and fondant decorations can be stunning, even on the simplest of cup cakes but they take a lot of time to make.  I feel that they are worth the effort for the beauty of the cake.  I still remember the hours I spent making hand made daises for my sister in law’s bridal shower cake.

And now I found the most amazing cake decorating tool EVER!  The Circut Cake is a new product (by Circut) that utilizes the precision die cut of the Circut machines that you may know from scrap booking and beautiful cake decorations that are almost fool proof.  Over at their site there is a great video that shows how easy it is to make and apply the decorations.

I have always loved the Circut machines even thought I am not a scrapbooker (but I wish I was).  Die cut paper makes me drool and custom die cut paper is amazing.  Because I am not a scrap booker, I have never seen the point in getting one of these machines.

Now that they have them for cake decorates, I so want one.  The only two things keeping me from running out and getting one right now is 1) It’s not out yet and 2) the price tag of $399.99 MSRP.  The good thing is, it uses both the Circut Cake cartridges AND the regular Circut cartridges.

Note:  I do not represent or have any relationship with Circut.  If they want to send me one for a testimonial, I will be more than happy to help them out. (Bats eyes and says “pretty please”).

Circut – Circut Cake

I found “Lightsaber” and it is so fun (and free too – woot).  You choose a character, like Darth Vader our one of the characters from Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and you get their lightsaber.  When you turn on the lightsaber, there is the familiar “hum” that comes from the speaker.  When you move the iPhone around, it sounds like you are having a lightsaber fight.  The best part is, there is a button that can add a soundtrack to your fight just like in the movies and video games!  How awesome is that?!?

For those who want to create their own character that is also possible.  My oldest thinks that is just so cool and is dying to create one on my phone.

If you are a fan of Star Wars and looking for a cool app for your iPhone than this is one for you.

You can also watch a local weather report, see maps and check on severe weather alerts.

This is another free app that is well worth the effort to install.

All you have to do is hold you iPhone near the music…it has to be loud enough. It takes a few seconds, but your phone buzzes when it is done, and shazam…up comes the title and the artist. This is fun!

Being a skeptic, thinking it would work only for popular music, I used a CD that was a compilation of generic classical music. Shazam was accurate in naming the piece. Pretty good.

This is another free app…well worth the price!!!

Personally, I love the creativity that is highlighted at Instructables.  I have found directions on how to make a “kid wash” out of PVC pipe and some nozzles and to make my own bound books.  There are tons of costumes that have rather detailed directions on making your own.

Not all instuctables are the greatest but if you read over the steps and make sure that they make sense to you, I’m sure you’ll have an awesome rock climbing wall for your garage or figure out how to ship a tiger to Canada.

I don’t know about other areas, but we have A LOT of restaurants around here but still wind up going to the same places all the time.  This helps to add variety to the options when your partner says “where do you want to go for dinner?”

They also have a feature where you can report places that are no longer open – it looks like they are trying to keep the info current.

So, for the price, it is well worth it.

Another free app, you get a single, resonating gong strike….just in case you need to sound a gong. You never know when that could come in handy

The guys and gals at Think Geek have great T-shirts, toys, odd gadgets, books and a vast selection of caffeinated products to name some of their offerings.  They offer both an on-line catalog and a paper catalog (that the family fights over when it arrives in the mail).  I’ve gotten Star Wars Themed Mr. Potato Heads, the caffeine candy sampler pack and the Utili-Key 6-in-1 Tool (Hubby loves it) to name a few items.

The folks at Think Geek are offering free Fed Ex Ground shipping (for the lower 48 states0 for orders over $40 until 10 December 2008.  I for one am not planning on paying for any shipping this year and will be placing my order for geeky goodies soon.

All you do is identify the languages you are translating from and to, type in the words you want to translate, and voila, translation!

I have not tested it beyond basic words and phrases, but so far it is very useful.

The only down side is that the data base is not contained on the iPhone…the phone has to access it through the 3G, Edge or WiFi. This was a problem on a recent trip to Europe. I was not going to pay a  lot of money to access the info unless it was an emergency. But it was good to know it was there in case I got into a situation more complex than my own language skills. Around home, it is great. I have not been tempted to use the $4.99 upgrade, but my use is casual. I don’t know how useful it is for someone who is actually trying to function in another language.

If you like to play with other languages, this could be fun for you. If you are a student or a scholar, check it out (it is free after all), but it may not be robust enough.

Beyond the practical ones like a dictionary or the weather channel, an app I go to often is Koi Pond. It is well worth the $.99! Perhaps I’m easily amused, but It’s kinda fun to make ripples in the water and feed the fish. It is curiously calming…or at least distracting.

The people at Blimp Pilot (love the name) who make Koi Pond have added a fun update for Christmas. Holly, lights, reindeer noses and antlers…and just wait until you feed them!