When flowers attack...coming soon to a station near you!

I should have known that this cake was going to be disastrous to begin with. I put a great amount of time into the gumpaste flowers, I should have known the finished cake was bound to be a less than stellar achievment for my unseasoned hands.
I had problems with the flowers. It was my first time creating a lot of them and the roses were a new technique. But I figured I'd make some leaves, and some ladybugs and call it "Garden Party". Well, this is not going to be called that. I'll reserve the name for the cake I make that actually turns out as I intend it to. This one is titled "when good ideas turn into bad cakes". It looks like someone threw up flowers all over it. Better yet, it looks like the cheap bundles you can get at the grocery store. Even my mom had nothing to say except "oh honey, that looks good!" She usually has much better praise for my cakes! She was impressed with the lily, probably the least problematic part of this entire thing. I also made the yellow cake recipe that I wasn't sure I liked last time and added some strawberry extract for flavor; but I still wasn't impressed.
I think for a beginner I do a decent job of smoothing the frosting. I can point out all of my errors and bulges, but I can't complain, as it's only the second time I've tried to smooth seriously. Smoothing buttercream is truly an artform. I think I'm going to buy stock in Viva papertowels (Kleenex); for that is one of the best kept secrets to cake decorating there is. The jury is still out on Fondant, I think I will try a marshmallow version of the recipe soon. Apparently it's much better than traditional. I will also not use almond extract. I think that's one of the reasons I was so turned off by my initial efforts. I don't like almond tastes in my cakes (unless it contains REAL almonds).
Next weeks cake will contain ZERO flowers and for that I am relieved. I am challenging myself with flowers because I percieve them to be one of the hardest things to perfect, but I am looking forward to the desert themed cake I need to make for my office opening anniversary/boss's birthday for Monday. However, it will be my first attempt at more than one tier so that might be a disaster waiting to happen!

P.S. The red things are ladybugs, can't really tell in the pic because it is too small. Wanted to make my posts uniform though.