Moving

I've been silent. And I am not positive that anyone noticed. But as a place marker, I just wanted to say that we are moving and I have not had time to update or craft. As I was packing up the things in our living room this week, I put my needlework supplies in a box. I would MUCH rather be embroidering than packing, but such is life.

So soon I will be using my crafty abilities (or lack thereof) to decorate and organize our new home. We are moving from a two bedroom loft apartment to a five bedroom home with a yard. Believe it or not, the new house does not have as much storage as our current apartment. I'm going to be buying armoires, pantries and shelves for months. And I will see you all after the great move of '09 is over!

Friday Favorites!

This week has gone by pretty quickly. I'm very excited about this weekend, even though we're going to get more rain! But for the time being, the sun is shining and I'm feeling good. On to my favorites.

1. My favorite surprise: Pedicure! Corey picked me up from work yesterday afternoon and drove me to the mall. We looked around at video games and watched everyone in line for the Tennessee Titans meet-n-greet. Then he said that I should go pamper myself. Of course I'm not going to disagree! I sat down and got pampered for an hour or so while Corey shopped for sports stuff. My toes are a great shade of red and my feet are silky smooth. Corey said, "Now your toe nails won't scratch me when we cuddle." His true intentions revealed!

2. My favorite song to get stuck in my head: Pinball Wizard by The Who. My boss uses it on our radio show for intros, and I get it in my head all the time. It's a great song and it energizes me first thing in the morning!

3. My favorite purchase: We did a lot of shopping this week. I am going to go ahead and say I'm most excited about my recent purchase from Victoria's Secret. I got some dresses and a tank top for the summer season. My goal is to wear a dress or skirt every day this summer!

4. My favorite bonding time: Last weekend my mom rented a cabin for us to spend the weekend in. The weather leading up to the weekend was terrible and some vacation homes near the park where we stayed were destroyed by a tornado. We were spared, however. I spent Easter with my family and had a great time catching up with my cousins. Sunday morning, instead of going to church, Mom and I sat outside and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and scenery. It was a great getaway and I want to do it again this summer.

5. My favorite "get out of a funk" movie: Again, I have several. This week it was Clerks 2. I had a long, bad day earlier in the week and Corey and I just sat on the couch and laughed. My favorite one of all time is probably Empire Records. It always reminds me of my friends and I watching it in high school and memorizing the best Lucas quotes.

Mother's Day Contest

I entered my mom to win the Best Mom contest from Victoria's Secret. Will you please click the "vote" link below so I can take my mom to NYC? We've been talking about going for a while so we can see Spring Awakening (squeeeeee) on Broadway. This would just get us there faster and cheaper! Thanks in advance, guys!

"Love You Mom!" Sponsored by Victoria's Secret

Non-traditional Easter Basket

Instead of an Easter basket, I received a pink toile bag with a needlework reference book. This gift reminded me of how much I love toile. When I worked at a fancy pants cafe in high school, the tablecloths and chair fabric were covered in blue toile. That is when I fell in love with the pattern. It represents sophistication to me. I can understand why a lot of people would hate it, but I love it so intensely. If I have a little girl, I'm going to decorate her room in pink toile.

The needlework book is very old and grandmother probably got it from an antique store. It's a great gift and I was surprised to find some great notes in the margins and some bookmarks in pages that I found very useful. I'll be trying out some new stitches soon. I have a lot of projects on my plate, but I've gotten lazy. I'm fired up about stitching again after reading the book, so I think I'll get to crafting again soon.

Alice Giveaway: Win a Roomba!

Alice is at it again. They're giving readers a chance to win a Roomba. I've been lusting over these little robots for a few years now but haven't talked Corey into spending a large amount of money on such a small appliance. I'm not extremely lucky most of the time, but I thought I'd try it out anyway. Try your hand at it, too! Just tell them your best vacuuming story. Here's mine.

This isn't really a hilarious vacuum story, but it's my most memorable. We had a fire in our laundry room this year and it freaked me out more than anything could have. Since I was little, I've had nightmares about my house catching on fire. Luckily we were all safe, but everything in our laundry room was ruined. After it was all cleaned up a few days later, my roommate and I set out to replace our vacuum among other appliances. We picked out something that had attachments to clean the fans and blinds since soot landed on every surface in our apartment. When we got home, we cleaned the whole apartment with the neat attachments and sang while we worked. After everything was sparkling, we sighed with relief and smiled to ourselves. Such an insignificant purchase had lifted my spirits so much, it was unbelievable.

Monster by Mail

I love birthdays! Even if they aren't mine. Will, my roommate had a birthday Saturday and we celebrated with cake and a party. I wanted to share this present Corey and I got Will because it is way cool and crafty, too!

Will shared a link to MonsterbyMail.com a few weeks back and I decided that I would name a monster in his honor and give him the art work for his birthday. This website is very addicting. I watched almost every video on his Youtube channel. I highly recommend getting this as a gift for anyone you know who loves zombies, ogres, or any other monsters.

Without further ado, I present Billy the Broken!


You can also get a video link to your drawing in progress. Here's Billy's.

Friday Favorites!

I haven't done one of these in nearly a month! I've been so busy with various projects. Not to mention that Fridays are my busiest work days, so even on my lunch break I'm not doing any personal Internet stuff. But I just figured out that you can write a post and then choose when you want it published. Yeah, who's the smart one, now? Ok, on to my favorite things.

1. My favorite time consumer this week: March Madness! I have never followed basketball and I especially never filled out a bracket for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. That all changed this year. I look forward to going out to watch some games and eat some chicken wings. Mmm... wings.

2. My favorite ring tone: I know this is a little sad, but I just realized my blackberry plays mp3's so there's no need for me to buy ringtones anymore. I downloaded several, but my current favorite is "It's Business Time" from The Flight of the Conchords.

3. My favorite stuffed animal. Again, I have lots of good ones. I love my Chubbles that Lonnie bought me for my birthday and a few older ones I've had since I was a kid. But the most fun was making a build a bear in Chicago last year. We were waiting on our friend to meet us at Navy Pier and we decided a good time (and money) waster would be making a stuffed animal. I made a bunny dressed as a fairy (naturally) and Lonnie made a turtle dressed as a pirate. We took a picture to commemorate the event.

4. My favorite job I've had besides my current job: When I was a reporter at APR. I loved meeting people and conducting interviews. Being on the radio is fun because it feels like you're only talking to yourself but in reality you're talking to a pretty large audience. I've always liked radio more than TV anyway, so it was a lot of fun doing the news for the station.

5. My favorite April Fool's joke: It's a little early for April Fool's, but it's on my mind, so why not? One year I tied a white rubber band around the sprayer on our sink. It blended in with the white plastic, so it wasn't noticeable. When someone turned on the sink, they would get sprayed because the handle was already pressed on the sprayer. Very simple, yet effective.

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

Two days later... I know, I know. Tuesday night I made corned beef and cabbage for the St. Pat's celebration. And then I decided that we needed something sweet, too. I made some chocolate cupcakes with a buttercream frosting for dessert. This was a new chocolate cupcake recipe and boy was I pleased with it. The cakes were so moist and delicious, I thought I would melt eating them. Instead, I just gained a few pounds. No big, right? Anyway, here is the recipe.

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing.

And here are my friends Lonnie and Reggie enjoying their cupcakes.

Ipod Shuffle giveaway

Alice is having a contest and the prize is an Ipod Shuffle!

Here is how you can enter the contest:

Option 1 - counts as one (1) entry

1. Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter (if you aren’t already).

AND

2. Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite song to clean to. Include the link to your tweet with your comment.

Option 2 - counts as two (2) entries

1. Write a blog post about the giveaway and link to us in your post.

AND

2. Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite song to clean to. Include the link to your blog post with your comment.

An Irish Blessing

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For years I've found John O'Donohue's words to have a calming and inspiring effect. I was stunned to find out that he passed away suddenly in January of 2008. He was a guest on our show nearly every St. Patrick's Day and we miss his wisdom. I wanted to share with you one of his blessings that I like a lot.

May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.

Wreck This Journal update

It's difficult to carry my journal with me everywhere, but I've been trying. It's become a fun project that I like to work on whenever I get a chance. I've finished a hand full of pages and here are three I chose to share with you.



This one is my favorite. "Write one word over and over." Lonnie and I used to write notes like this to each other in high school. It actually took several hours to complete, but it was satisfying in the end.



I covered this page with office supplies from my desk. I'll probably add some more later on.



Lonnie did this page for me. I think she had fun messing up a page of my journal.

I also threw it, kicked it, and broke the spine. That was the most difficult task I've completed so far. I might burn a page tonight. I have a lighter nearby.

First Friday cupcake sale

So First Friday came and went and I'm kind of glad that it was so fast. I got a pretty good response from people who stopped by the booth and I sold roughly half of what I made. I ended up giving A LOT of boxes away, but I didn't mind. Mainly I hope to get people to commission me to make cupcakes for parties, etc. I don't know if I'll be doing this again, but I have to get rid of the 14 pounds of butter I have in the fridge and the 70 cupcake boxes I have left over.

Let me also say that the icing tool I bought from Pampered Chef really helped. It's the Easy Accent Decorator I got from Dayna. If you bake or decorate at all, I highly recommend this tool. I normally use pastry bags, and by the time I ice the last cupcake, my wrists are aching. This thing has a trigger that is easy to press down, making icing come out smooth and even. I'm going to another Pampered Chef party this weekend and I plan on buying some more stuff. Too bad they don't offer something that automatically cleans your kitchen after an all-week baking binge.

Cooling off

In preparation for First Friday, I made 300 cupcakes tonight. Dayna and Will helped out with the baking and recipe alterations. I will be icing these on Thursday and Friday before the event. We only made vanilla and chocolate and I'll be using vanilla and chocolate icing. I'll take more pictures when we decorate them.

Overwhelmed with a new project

I'm starting a new cupcake project. A few events have led my roommate Will and I to think about opening a cupcake shop. To test the waters, we got a booth at our town's First Fridays where we will tempt people into consuming tasty baked morsels. We're going to bake about 25 dozen cupcakes and hope that people buy enough to at least cover our costs. That means I have to sell each 1/2 dozen for about $4. I just don't know if people will do it.

I'm already really overwhelmed at how many baking supplies we will have to buy and how long it will take us to make 300 cupcakes. I'm starting out small so I don't waste a lot of time and money on a project that might just fizzle out. I'm buying the boxes tomorrow and starting baking on Sunday. I'm only going to make chocolate and vanilla cupcakes to start with to keep the cost low.

Last weekend I bought a new mini cupcake tin and an icing tool at Dana's Pampered Chef Party. Click that link to buy some stuff of your own. It's fantastic stuff if you cook or bake at all! Dana is also going to bring over a few things to help me out. I really think I can do this and I know it will be fun to meet a lot of people in the festival-like atmosphere. Most of all, I get to lick the bowl at least 25 times! What calories?! I'll let you all know how it goes if I'm still sane enough to form sentences when it's all over.

Friday Favorites!

This week has been an unusually long one and I'm ready for it to end! This weekend is going to be busy, but I get to spend it with a lot of fun and lovely people, including my mom. We're also looking at a house that maybe we could move into. I hate the prospect of moving, but we need a bigger place. Enough of the whining, onto my favorite things.

1. My favorite lip gloss: I like that stuff from Bath and Body Works, CO Bigelow's lip shine. It's not too sticky and it give my lips a nice, refreshing minty shine. I have at least four tubes floating around because I don't ever want to be without.

2. My favorite office supplies: I use paperclips the most, probably. But I LOVE sticky notes. Today while I was going through my office supplies for a page in my Wreck This Journal, I found a plethora of sticky notes I forgot I had. Some are flower shapes and some have sayings on them. I even have a cute little daisy covered sticky note dispenser. Yeah, it's extremely girly, but hey, what else did you expect from me? I really do love office supplies and it thrills me that I'm in charge of ordering and shopping for new ones at work.

3. My favorite mythical creature: Hands down, fairies. I've been obsessed with them for as long as I can remember. I have fairy books, note cards, post cards, jewelry, journals, lighters, you name it. In recent years my obsession with cupcakes has overshadowed my love for fairies, but it's still there. I even got a Tinkerbell (yeah, I know she's a pixie, but it's similar!) Valentine from my boss' grand son.

4. My favorite reality Television: American Idol. I used to hate it. It started when I watched the auditions just to make fun of the fanatics crying over their dismissal. But then I got invested in the series and now I watch it every week. Now I'm not a freaky fan who buys all things AI. I don't even like the music the winners put out, with the exception of one song I won't admit to here. I just watch it and sometimes I vote. My contestant always loses, though.

5. My favorite classic book: I have three that are my favorites for different reasons. The Great Gatsby, The Bell Jar and Catcher In the Rye. The Great Gatsby is my absolute favorite, though.

Wreck This Journal

Valentine's Day was so fantastic this year, I can't even begin to describe it. Basically Corey and I just got to chill and relax without interruption. We only left the apartment to browse the bookstore hand in hand, eat and grocery shop. We also exchanged gifts, something that we previously said we wouldn't do. I bought him a man-bag on Etsy since he previously carried his work folders and notebooks in his hands. He bought me Wreck This Journal, a journal/art project I've been coveting for a while. I started it today, only completing three pages so far.

It reminds me of The Writer's Block some of my literary inclined friends used to have. When you can't think of anything to write about, consult the block (a small, block shaped book with 365 pages) and find an assignment. It's so much fun and forces you to be creative.

If you like to write in paper journals, but can't think of anything to write about, this is a great book to buy. If you are an artist with a creative block, get this book. If you just like to burn, rip, or generally destroy things, buy this book. I can't wait to spill coffee on some pages, rip up some pieces of the journal and rip off the cover. It will be somewhat scary for me since I like my books in pristine condition, but it will also be somewhat liberating.

Friday Favorites!

I am a week older... and wiser, hopefully! My dad came to visit us Thursday night and we wasted two hours at the worst restaurant in town with the worst wait staff. At least we got to watch the World Cup qualifying game between Mexico and USA. USA! USA! USA! We won, so off to more games we go. We also had a craft night, and that actually turned into a lazy TV night. We're still not feeling crafty, but we have some new projects in the works that we'll get started on soon enough. Now on to my 5 favorites list.

1. My favorite lotion: Currently I use Victoria's Secret Super Model lotion. It smells divine and contains glitter! I'm a sucker for all things sparkly. When I get out of the tanning bed, however, I like to use Total Immersion for extra hydration. It doesn't smell as lovely, though.

2. My favorite breakfast food: Recently I ate Nutella crepes for the first time. This is, by far, the best breakfast food I've ever eaten. Anything that contains Nutella is OK in my book. The addition of bananas and strawberries with whipped cream only makes it more delicious. I'm going to try to recreate this meal soon.

3. My favorite post card: I get quite a few post cards from various family and friends. I think Girl Kris, who recently moved away, sends me the best ones, though. She'll send me cute cards just for the fun of it sometimes, too. But the best one she sent me was from Hungary.

4. My favorite time-waster: When I'm sitting still for too long or am waiting on my car to get fixed, I like to play Kaglom on my blackberry. It's kind of like Tetris, only a little more difficult. I run my battery down every other day because I play this game way too much. My friends actually make fun of me for it.

5. My favorite vacation spot: Sadly, I haven't vacationed anywhere exotic or even outside of the US. But my two favorite places to vacation are St. Augustine, FL and Colorado Springs. The beaches in and around St. Augustine are clean and pretty and they have a lot of fun bars and restaurants to go to. In Colorado, I love the weather ans shops and the outdoor activities.

Friday Favorites!

I haven't been updating and I feel like I should do that more frequently. I came up with the idea of posting every Friday and talking about a few of my favorite things. We'll call this Friday Favorites! Very original and crafty, huh? Since I haven't been crafting as much, this is a good way for you to get to know me better. Assuming you want to, that is. So, without further ado, here is a list for you.

1. My favorite cuddle position: Spooning. I like to be the little spoon. It's a very comfortable way to sleep, too.

2. My favorite snack: Cheetos! I always forget how much I love them until I have a bag in the house. They don't last long. My favorite healthy snack is probably cucumbers or pineapple.

3. My favorite video game: I think it will always be Tetris. I never get tired of it and I even play it in my head sometimes. Right now I'm partial to Animal Crossing, though.

4. My favorite book series: This one is a little difficult because I like three a lot. Harry Potter, Twilight (I know, I know), and the Sookie Stackhouse series. Twilight is my least favorite because I know it sucks. The writing is terrible and it's a dumb story with a stupid protagonist. Harry Potter will always be completely awesome, no matter what anyone says. And there's vampire sex in the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I really like the way they're written, too. Charlaine Harris makes up words that I know a few Southerners actually use.

5. My favorite comedian: is probably.... Eddie Izzard. I could watch his stand-up over and over again. I also really enjoy Mitch Hedberg, even though his posthumous album was a little less than fulfilling. I got to see him live a few months before he died and I'm really thankful for that.

Bookmark for Mom

My mom's birthday is next month, so I thought I would make her something little for it. She loves traditional and religious things, making it very easy to find patterns to make for her. I picked out a bookmark with a Bible verse on it. She will absolutely love it and she can use it in her Bible. The best thing is, it only took me a few hours to make it. I like the satisfaction of finishing a piece, something I haven't felt lately. I need to pick some more simple things for a while. I feel like I will never finish Lonnie's wine trivet. when I do, it'll be awesome, though.



I also tried some new recipes using my wok I got for Christmas. The sesame chicken turned out so tasty and the lo mein was pretty good. I need to perfect that a bit. The Chinese market across the street has some fresh vegetables that go great in the veggie lo mein. I can't wait to try it again.





I also bought an Irish blessing to make for Corey's mom. Here's to hoping she likes crafty things. It's got a beautiful green and purple border that is a little daunting. I'll start that one at craft night probably. Tonight Lonnie came over to eat some pasta that I made and we're going to watch Tropic Thunder. Back to work tomorrow!

We made pupcakes!

I finally tried one of the things I found in the book "Hello Cupcake" I got for my birthday. Dayna picked out some dachshund cupcakes for me to make on her birthday and I tried it out. They are simply vanilla cupcakes made to look like puppies. Lonnie helped me and kept me sane. She is the best baking assistant ever! I used chocolate and caramel frosting, mini M&M's, Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, white frosting and chocolate covered peanuts. If I practiced more, I'm sure I would get better. But they did actually taste pretty good, too!

New Year, more crafting

Happy New Year everyone! I am very optimistic about the new year, even if it is filled with uncertainty. It will undoubtedly be filled with challenges, but I'm prepared to meet them head-on.

The only resolution I'm going to make is to stitch more. I really want to work on my projects more than once a week. Craft nights were such a wonderful idea because some weeks I just don't have any extra time to sit down and stitch. My girls are so motivating, too. They are so talented and fun. They are the perfect company, really. Our last craft night was at Dayna's house so she wouldn't have to be away from her new PS3 for too long. Admittedly, I am spending a large amount of time with my new video games. I got three... two for the Wii and one for my DS. Anyway, back to craft night. I actually finished the wine bottle on the wine trivet I'm making. I still have the border of grapes, wine glasses, apples and table cloth to complete. No pressure, right? I took a photo of what it looked like at the beginning of craft night.




Here's Dayna working on her cherry blossom bag. She is so creative and her projects are adorable. You should check out her esty store.



We're going to get together this weekend and again at the beginning of next week. Should be good motivation to get me through this project.