A Puppet Show

For scouts, we’re working on our Showman badge right now. We had the boys make puppets out of paper bags, and then put on a show for us. As we were working on the bags, I decided to make a bag for myself. He looked like this:

I think he looks quite distinguished with his tie. Then the boys finished, and this is what their stuff looked like:

Their puppet show for us involved them singing “Gangham Style” while using a Justin Bieber cutout. I nearly died laughing. Then we had them sing a song indoors and outdoors, to see the differences. It took a LOT of coaxing to get them to sing, but finally they did. Next time we’ll finish up the badge with me trying to teach them about William Shakespeare…wish me luck!

Miscellaneous Monday

Over the weekend, I got a pedicure. I know that nails are something I can do myself, but I just love having someone giving me one. I like the massage, the sloughing of the dead skin, and that my feets are awesome after they’re done. And while I love the vast colors they have that I can choose from, I also like the art they do as well.

Yesterday, I watched the Oscars. It was, I’ll admit, a boring affair. One of the bright moments of it, which was also an embarrassment for the star was when the lovely Jennifer Lawrence, who had just won Best Actress, had the unfortunate luck of tripping up the stairs on the way to collect her trophy.

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2013/02/oops.gif

While it’s awful, I loved that after she got up, she got a standing ovation, and then said “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell”, showing me that she’s human like the rest of us, and won’t let little things ruin her day. I loved it.

On my way home from work today, I stopped and trimmed my hair. I realized last Friday that the end of my hair was so gross, split ends, and it was just rough and so awful. Naturally, I waited 3 days to get it cut. I also decided to get my hair shampooed and styled, for reasons such as: if I washed it tonight, I wouldn’t have to wash it for a few days, and really, that kind of time saved is just plain gold in the morning. So as she was washing my hair, I realized how much I LOVE getting my hair washed. I love when they’re scratching my scalp, and running their fingers through my hair, and the whole thing is just such a great experience. I trimmed the least amount of hair possible, which may have been a half an inch, and left feeling pretty good. Now my hair is silky and the ends look good!

Foto Friday

Last night when I got home from work, I decided to give the kitchen a full cleaning. I washed every surface, I cleaned every dish, I cleaned out the fridge, both freezers, and swept. When I was surveying the finished product, I realized I needed something out of the junk drawer, and then I thought, I may as well give that a clean, too. So I took everything out.

The banana didn’t go in there, of course, it was just hanging out. And I don’t know what the black thing is. Anyway, I threw away things I no longer needed, and just put everything in nicer. I know that the definition of junk drawer is that its messy, but that’s not how I roll. The finished product:

And there things will stay for a little while, at least. I felt good about my progress.

Card Makin’

I got finished with my cards for my card club a little early this month, and that’s all right with me! The themes were to make a ‘black and white’ card, and a sympathy card. After scouring my brain (and Pinterest) for ideas, I came up with these.

Ta-daaaa! Now, in case you can’t tell, the sympathy card is blue, not black, so I tried a little to be not the same two cards. I like the way these turned out, I’m pretty pleased. Hopefully, everyone else will be too!

Nutella Brownies

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and most of what drew me to it is that it was the easiest thing in the world. Seriously. Here’s the recipe:

I cup Nutella
10 Tbsp flour
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the 3 ingredients in a bowl. Scoop into a muffin tin that you’ve already placed muffin/cupcake liners in.

I used mini muffin tins, but I think the original recipe called for the regular ones. I like making more though. If you’re feeling fancy, go ahead and top your tins with chopped hazelnuts. I didn’t have any in the house, what am I, a queen? Then bake them for 15 minutes, or until the center is baked through. Done. The end. These are delicious.

Miscellaneous Monday

On Saturday, I took my car to get inspected. It is again the magical time of year, February, where I need to make sure everything is ok with it, and then pay the state to let me keep driving. Sometimes I hate that we have to do this every year, but it’s probably a good idea. So, I took mine in, and told them that in addition to the inspection/emissions, I needed an oil change, a tire rotation, and an alignment – my car has been pulling to the right so hard, I feel like its trying to kill me. So I left my card, and home I came. I was home for just a bit, then I got the dreaded call from the car place, telling me what I failed on. I was hoping I’d get through it scot-free, but alas, that’s not my luck. I needed new brakes, 2 new tires and a…shoot I’ve forgotten the last. I think maybe some kind of filter? I’ve forgotten. But of course, I need my car, so I told them to make the necessary improvements, and work on it.I got the call about an hour later that it was done, and in I went. They told me everything looks good now, and I passed, and then I had them register it for me, I love that they can do that for you. He hands me the bill for all of it, and … 680 DOLLARS! My heart nearly stopped. Thankfully, I had been rejoicing this past month that my credit card was almost paid off and now…not so much. But the car drives much smoother, which is nice.

Also on Saturday, PJ and I were at the gym, when she happened to knock her phone off the treadmill. Instead of doing the normal thing, where it just shoots off the back of the treadmill, only causing mild embarrassment, this time, her phone got caught in the treadmill belt, where it looped around the treadmill about twice, and we could hear it cracking, and saw tiny pieces shooting out. Immediately, she stopped the treadmill, and we flagged over some employees, who proceeded to take the treadmill apart. First we located the case, which was flattened, and after about a half hour, we finally got the phone out.

Needless to say, the phone is toast. Now, I’m all nervous to put my phone on the treadmill, lest the same thing happen to me!

Today is President’s Day, so I luckily, have a day off. It’s not like I have anything really to do today, so I’ve just been doing errandy-type things. I’ve gone to the gym, I did some random cleaning, I made a treat, I did some laundry. Basically, it’s just been a free day off, which is kind of nice. And now, off I am, to do more things on my to-do list. Enjoy the day, everyone!

Foto Friday

For scouts this week, one of the boys had to finish his Artist badge, so we just played with clay. I’m not very artistic, so usually, my clay work involves rolling things into balls, and it works well. For example, here is my project:

Yup, grapes, I made tiny grapes. I should have put something next to those so you can really see how small they are. Oh well.

One of the boys in my group is pretty artistic. After much working, he finally showed us his project which was:

In case you can’t tell, that’s a wave with a tiny surfer in there on a surfboard, and a shark fin lurking. Holy cow, I never would have been able to do that! But kudos to him, and now we’ll move onto our next badge!

Valentine’s Day

For weeks, Husband has been telling me that I will be so psyched to get his present for valentine’s day. I never have any context of what his gifts are, because they’re always so all over the map, so I had no idea what to expect. I had scouts on valentines day (Because, as I was told by my leader, valentine’s isn’t really a family holiday, so there’s no reason that we should cancel scouts.) I had about 5 minutes between getting home from work and having to be at scouts, and I needed to change out of my skirt into some jeans. As I came into the house that evening, I was like, ok what is that smell? It smelled like, plastic or something, but I couldn’t quite place it. So I go upstairs to my room to get my pants, and when I get in there, I noticed something is different in the bathroom. It takes a second, and I realized, the mirrors! They’re different! And there was my valentine’s present – Husband had installed 2 mirrors in the bathroom, instead of the one. Here’s the pic, and I’ll explain:

Always growing up, I had the tri-fold mirror, and I really got used to having them. I could always turn them to see the back of my head, and do my hair just a little better/quicker. Then I got hitched, and neither our apartment, nor this place, had the tri-fold mirror, so I had to learn to deal without it. Of course, whenever I get frustrated by my hair, I blame it on the mirror, not anything about myself, naturally. My gift was a practical gift, but I am really glad to finally have this kind of mirror. And a plus, it’ll finally clean the counter of all of the stuff on there!

Valentine Day Blondies

Now, I found this recipe a month or so before Valentine’s Day, and I just couldn’t wait for the week to get here so I could make them at the appropriate time. So finally, this week gets here, and I make the recipe. It was pretty easy to make, thank goodness. The recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 cup to 1 1/3 cup Valentine M&M’s

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Melt the butter. Add the brown sugar, and mix well. Cool slightly. (I cooled for like, two minutes) Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add flour mixture, little bit at a time, mixing well. Add 2/3 cup M&M’s. Spread in 9x9x2 pan. Sprinkle 1/3-2/3 cup M&M’s (your discretion) on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

The recipe was easy enough, but when I pulled it out of the oven, it was still jiggly and the toothpick I inserted didn’t come out clean, so I baked for a bit longer, like 4 minutes. Then when I checked again, it still jiggled, but the toothpick was clean, so I took it out. And as soon as I took it out, I noticed that it had a really strong vanilla scent. That’s when I realized that the amount of vanilla the recipe calls for is the most I’ve ever seen added to anything. I waited for it to cool down completely, and then when I cut into the bars, they were so gooey it barely cut. I was disappointed in that. They were delicious though, but there was definitely a strong vanilla after taste. So maybe the original gal I got this from meant to write teaspoon, but it came out as tablespoon? I’ll never know. I forgot to snap a pic of them after I got them after the oven, so you’ll have to be pleased with this pic of them going in:

Stuffed French Bread

In a twist - I didn't get this recipe from Pinterest! Chelle emailed it to me the other day, and finally, I made it yesterday. It is delicious, and oh-so-easy to make. The recipe is thus:

1 loaf French Bread

1 pound hamburger

1- 10 3/4 oz can Fiesta Nacho Cheese soup

1 cup milk

Grated Cheese - I used cheddar
1 Green Pepper, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the loaf of French bread down the middle, lengthwise, and pull out all the middle bread, leaving a shell of bread. After removing the bread, break it into bitesize pieces. Brown hamburger, drain fat. Add soup and milk to cooked hamburger, and heat to boiling. Add in the bread pieces, stir until just mixed together. Divide the mixture into 2 shells, sprinkle the top with cheese and put the peppers on top. Note: I didn't have a green pepper, only red, so mine is red.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut into slices, serve.

This is delicious, I really recommend it to everyone. The bread gets nice and crispy, and the inside is yummy. Make this, everyone, its easy!

Resourceful!

Last night was my scout pack meeting, when all the boys of all ages get together. This month, the theme is Resourcefulness, so our activity was that we had a whole bunch of recyclable things, and we gave them to the boys with some tape, and told them to build something. As I was helping one of my scouts build a robot, Husband got to work on something behind me. When I turned to him, I saw what he was making:

A mini soccer field, made out of a box lid, some wirey things, two water bottles, and a ball made of duct tape. I laughed when I saw it, and we played a few rounds. Husband was proud of his creation.

After we’d been playing for a bit, we found some more wire things, and made little players to use instead of the water bottles:

If you can tell, the long things, with a curl at the end are the kickers, and the little people-looking things are the goalies. So now you can employ both hands, and have a full team. We showed off the field that we (Husband) had made, and felt pretty good about it. And all the scouts made awesome things, they are creative individuals. Good work, boys.

Cake Batter Cookies

I feel like this blog should be changed from my everyday adventures to just my Pinterest fails. It seems like, more often than not, lately when I make something that I found on Pinterest, it’s awful, or making it is just ridiculous, and I hate it before it’s even done. Sometimes, the finished product sort of makes up for it, but still, it’s just a lot of work for nothing. Anyway, I made a new recipe this week, Cake Batter cookies, and I’m going to be honest with you, this recipe read really well, then the actual making of it was like hell. I’M SORRY FOR THE SWEARS MOM. But I feel like that’s an appropriate word for it.

So the recipe is thus:

1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup yellow or white boxed cake mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a blend of white and chocolate chips)
1/2 cup sprinkles

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed.  Mix in the egg and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.  Do not OVERMIX the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 days.  This step is mandatory. The dough is fairly sticky, so chilling the dough is required in order to avoid the cookie from spreading too much.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Shape your cookie dough balls to be “taller” than they are wide, as pictured above.  Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned. The centers will still appear very soft, but the cookies will set as they cool.

See, looks pretty easy? Well, it is but it isn’t. So I got started, and after I put in my softened butter (took a few hours, of course) and added my sugars, and creamed those babies right up, and added my egg, I realized, as soon as I cracked my egg into there, that I added too much butter. I was supposed to add 1 ½ sticks of butter, and I added 2 full sticks. GAH. So, I throw out the batter (Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how to make a recipe work, adding more of this, etc, so I started over) I had to wait for my butter to be softened, and then I got to work. After I made the dough, I noticed it was very piecey, but I thought, oh well, must be this recipe, I covered it up and put it in the fridge overnight, PER HER INSTRUCTIONS.

The next night, I pulled out my dough, and got to work. And by that, I mean, I really got to work. Trying to work cold cookie dough is hard. The pieces wouldn’t get together, I had to hold them in my hands, and really work them over to even become balls to put on the sheets. It took forever.

Then, I baked them. I put them in for 10 minutes, and they were still pretty ball-shaped, so I added more time. Then I pulled them out, and waited for them to cool down, to give them a try.

They were a little crispier than I would have liked, but what could I do? They were done, no way to un-bake them, so alas, here I am. The cookies themselves are pretty good, but not worth the hassle. I think that if I made them again, I would just bake them straight after making the dough, none of this refrigeration nonsense. But at least I tried a new way of baking cookies, and I know that I’ll never do it again.

Miscellaneous Monday

A momentous sporting event was yesterday. Don’t be coy, I know you watched it, or wanted to, and didn’t get a chance. I’m speaking, of course of the Puppy Bowl 2013. It was a great event, I was glad I watched, of course. Naturally, there were oodles of cute puppies, and it really made me want to go get a puppy. There weren’t very many touchdowns this year, which was a disappointment, but there were many fights, and that makes it worth it. The winner of the game was no one, really, as is always the case, but the MVP of the game was Marta, a spunky Schnauzer/Beagle mix that really tore it up.  

A few of my favorite were Fitz (who fell into the water bowl) and Sally, a spunky wiener dog that scored a touchdown but then ran off the field with the ball.

Yesterday, as I was coming home from church, I noticed a few police cars were right in front of my house. As I watched, I noticed that they were talking to the neighbor that lives across from me. They were there for quite a while, but I couldn’t figure out why. Later in the day, I was in the kitchen making cookie dough, and they screeched in once again. And again, the neighbor came out and talked to them, they talked amongst themselves, talked to the neighbor again, and then left. I honestly don’t know why they were there so many times, and I wish I knew! I can’t figure out, is the neighbor shady? Is there something bad going on in there? WHAT’S HAPPENING?!

This weekend, whilst I was at Target, buying my new sunglasses, we were near the watches, as the sunglasses and watches are in the same section. I was lamenting over my watch, which, while it’s a very good watch, it started out as a white watch is now just sort of gray-ish and ugly. So, I decided to buy a new one. After looking through all the watches, and making many hard decisions, finally, I chose a black watch. And of course, I have included a pic for your viewing pleasure:

Fancy, eh? And it glows in the dark, which is such a nice feature, for all the times I need to know the time in a darkened room. (All right, it’s pretty helpful in the movie theater) And because the watchband is black, I no longer have to worry about getting it dirty, which is just a nice bonus.

A Replacement

Last Saturday, PJ sat on my sunglasses. I don’t remember the circumstances. In fact, I vaguely even remembered this happening, until yesterday, she told me, on the way into Target, that she needed to buy me new ones to replace them. I just went along with it, because I remember it happening, but I can’t remember how. Were they on the couch? Probably, but I just don’t remember. That’s ok, because I do enjoy a new pair of sunglasses.

So finally, we went to the sunglasses section, and began to look around. I kept pitting sunglasses against each other. “Do these look better, or these"?” And then, “Or these?” It was almost like being at the eye doctor, when they ask if 1 or 2 is better, then throw in 3 for good measure. So finally, I narrowed it down to four, then we couldn’t decided, so we did what anyone would do. We took a pic of me wearing each pair, and then compared them all in a grid.

Now, I know they’re all similar, but that’s only because I like a certain kind of glasses, for my face type. Finally, I made my choice (I chose the top right) and my new glasses were mine. Hopefully, no one will break these – especially me!