Where to start?

Last week was so much fun. So much emotions in seeing my sisters. It seems unfair that they live so far away and we are so close in our relationship with each other, and many families who live very close to each other don't seem to talk or see each other or care to.... Even if my sisters could live 4 to 6 hours away but with one in the middle then we would only have a three hour road trip to meet in the middle. But Sista V, who lives 7 hours away, lives across a stretch of road that has no town in between, just a random series of truck stops and wind farms. Of course Big Sista K lives 4 hours away, by PLANE! There are plenty of wonderful towns we could meet at in the middle, after a full day and some of driving, and spending as much in gas and frustration equal to the airplane ticket itself. But alas, it is probably the degree of separation that keeps our relationship so close.
Big Sista K flew into DIA to travel with me and mine to see Sista V, who just had Baby #2! So the adventures began. We had a great trip. My girls are the best road trippers, watching movies, playing with barbies, leapster video games, leapster laptops and generally wanting what the other was playing with. Taking an hour stop for lunch at a McD's playland, and making good time to get there.
We had lot of fun, with lots of pictures, still on my phone and more to come from a professional.
But back to the where to start problem. Yesterday was the realization of a 3 week mark to the cake competition. And the excitement or nervousness, or pure 'I must be out of my mind'-ness kicked in. So I decide I need to practice the icing technique that I wanted to try on this cake, but only saw on TV. I pulled out the blender and made my butter cream. Then I pulled out a foam block to ice.
This block is a dry foam block for flowers, but had been collecting dust, so I will put it to use... of sorts.

I am not using fondant for this cake, not because I think butter cream is so much better, but for my lack of ability to cover a cake in fondant without a major mess up that I would have to find a way to cover up. So back to this crazy technique I want to try. It is a double coat of two different colors of the butter cream icing, then using a paintbrush to 'rough' up the surface and pull the dark color into the gaps. Of course in my practice I realize I don't have a dark color green, so I added a little black to get the idea. It worked for the practice, but I don't like that color! The lighter color is about perfect.

So if I forgot to mention it, the cake I want to make is a Christmas tree cake. So in the picture it is difficult to see the dark color, probably because the dark color I used wasn't enough of a contrast, tis the reason for practicing.

Can you see it better here? This is where I need feedback. Does it look 'rough' enough. For the record, this small block of foam took a single batch of butter cream... My cake is going to take a lot of icing! Maybe I should go to sam's club for the amount of powdered sugar needed!

Thanks to the best husband in the world, my idea for this cake is coming to life. Yesterday while I was playing with icing, he was making my stand. I think this cake will be between 12 and 15 inches tall. I did use the last of my homemade fondant to make the presents that will sit by the tree. I will let you see those after they are decorated! So thanks to my wonderful, incredibly supportive husband for making this come to life! I am getting pretty excited now!
After I get picture downloaded off my phone, I will start sharing stories from last week!