Weekend Update

 Isaac rediscovered our karoake game on the Wii and has been singing Rick Astley's Never Going to Give You Up over and over and over.  He seriously knows every word.  It's sort of cute...

 

 and sort of disturbing...  I put my foot down with the video games and have relegated them to weekends only.  I expected it to be a much bigger problem than it has been.  Not worrying about video games leaves times during our crammed weeknights for a little bit of reading or family togetherness.  I figured Fridays and Saturdays he would revert to zombie status in front of the screen, but he has been actually using it in moderation.  I am so happy.  I hate video games, so this feels like a compromise we all can live with.

 

 

Saturday had us trekking down to Delaware for a soccer game.  Isaac played goalie again and did a great job.  The team had their third win in a row.  It is nice to see all of the hours and hours of practice paying off.  From there we  decided to check out Dorney Park's Halloween Festivities.  I loved these chairs spotted at a rest stop along the way.  I want some keystone chairs for my house.

 

Whenever we decide to go to Dorney Park on a whim, it always seems to pour on us.  Saturday was no exception.   We did get a few rides in before the deluge though.  This was my favorite shot of the weekend taken on Isaac's favorite ride, the Tilt-A-Whirl.

 

I'm not sure what is going on with me this weekend, but I broke three things.  A candle holder in my house, an outrageously expensive Yankee Candle at Target, and (worst of all), Ryan's favorite Phillies glass.  He was so sad.  This comes about a week after I washed (and ruined) his wallet and cracked the corner of his iPad.  I will never be domestic.

 

 

We have been having Ryan's girls over on Fridays.  The past few weeks we have taken them swimming at the YMCA, but this Friday we decided to change it up.  We took the kids to a little petting zoo.  It actually was pretty underwhelming as far as petting zoos go, but it was free and entertained the kids for an hour or so, so it still counts as a success in my book.

 

 

We finished up the night at Friendly's with some icecream. These two are buddies.  They worked together so nicely on the puzzle. 

 

 

Our weekend was fast but fun.  How was yours?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinterest Success!

I finally did something I pinned on Pinterest!  

(Well, not counting this fairly disastrous crockpot meal, which people only ate to be polite....) 

I have been cleaning my closets out and there were several items that were too worn or stained to give away.  It called to mind a bunch of headband tutorials floating around Pinterest so I figured I would give it a try. 

Why not, right? 

 I made this cute T-shirt headband (please excuse my horrible hair.. I was so excited to take a picture of the headband, and I didn't realize how wild the rest of my hair was... oops). 

I followed this tutorial from Sugar Bee Crafts.

Well... Actually... at first I attempted this one (pinned several gazillion times)

so I decided to try to create the five strand head band like this.

Mine... was not *quite* so successful....

I did use a T-shirt but it seemed more ribbed or textured or something than the fabric she used in her tutorial, so when I stretched it, it never formed the "yarn".  Also, I just couldn't seem to get the hang of the braiding.  Some of it looked acceptable, but some was puckery and "off".  I will revisit this one in the future, but in the meantime, I figured I better start with something more basic. 

So I found this pin and decided to give it a shot:

I am not going to lie.  It took me about ten tries before I got the hang of the knot, watching her video over and over.  

THEN, when I finally got the hang of it, I realized I had made some of the strands way too small.  There was no way it could go around my head... AHHHHHH.

Third time was a charm though and I think my headband looks almost exactly like hers.

Then there was the matter of the ends.  None of the tutorials really explained how to attach the strings and cover them nicely.  Mine ended up being kind of a mess...

Overall though, I think it is super cute, and I am excited to bust it out next week at school.

yeah sunglasses tan line...

P.S. You can follow me on Pinterest if you like, but my boards are nothing special. 

Friday Favorites

I haven't done a link up in a while. It's late, but it's still Friday!

1. Date nights!  Ryan has been working a hectic schedule of very long overnight shifts which has not been any fun for any of us.  After working seven straight days he finally got a night off and we went to see Carolina Liar, Kelly Clarkson and The Fray.  Sadly, due to my inability to both driveaggressivly and follow a GPS, we ended up driving through the city.  As a result we stopped at no less than 1902298239823 stoplights and we ended up missing most of Carolina Liar, which is a shame because I really enjoy their music. 

I had been leaning towards getting lawn tickets, but Ryan found us a great deal on Stub Hub on seats in the center of the arena. He totally made the right call. We ended up being in the perfect placebecause both Kelly Clarkson and Isaac Slade of The Fray came out and performed a few songs from a small stage in the audience right in front of us.  The pictures are terrible quality, but the first one is Kelly Clarkson and the others are Isaac Slade. 

Kelly Clarkson put on a great show.  She really does have an incredible voice.  She covered  her bases singing most of her big hits (Since U Been Gone, Miss Independent, Breakaway, Because of You, etc, etc) which, let's be honest, is what people want to hear when they go to a concert.  She was very cute and bubbly, even if she does say "y'all" about every other word (personal pet peeve, plus isn't she from OHIO?). 

The Fray also put on a great show.  I like Kelly Clarkson and The Fray equally but I thought they were a bit of an odd pairing.  Kelly Clarkson is pretty much cheesey ballads and rockish pop.  The Fray is very serious and angsty.  I thought they had a reasonlyy upbeat and fun show, considering most of their music is fairly melancholy and piano based, but it seemed that most of the people were only there to see KC, because once she was done, quite a few people went home.

2. These fun printables that I am incorporating into my classroom!  I've already printed the flipped supply signs.  I will be printing the posters when I get a new color ink cartridge.

3.  Tackling something that has been hanging around on your to-do list FOREVER.  In the spring my brother Joe and Ryan put a ceiling fan up in my bedroom (which has been so so so lovely all summer).  Joe converted the single light switch into this double one.  Joe left me with the task of getting a new switch plate to put up.  And for the past four months or so this is how I left it.....

Well, with the new school year charging towards me like an out of control locomotive, I have renewed motivation to tackle those tasks.  It usually takes me until about November to get my head above water and until then I only do the true necessities in terms of housework.  Anyways,

Ta-DA!!!!

I know this is nothing to brag about really, but I am still going to allow myself to revel in the small burst of ecstasy when you finally get to cross off a nagging task, even if it is a small one. 

This...

was dinner and lunch this week... (minus the olives).  Recipe and photo from The Sister's Cafe.  So yummy and so easy!!  I think I see that becoming a staple meal around here.

Hey look!

I baked something and it actually turned out delicious! I've tried a few things from The Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook and been pretty successful. I was supposed to take a dessert along to a little BBQ this past weekend, so I figured I would give this recipe a try.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Rounds

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup of peanut butter*

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts**

* I used all natural organic peanut butter

** I realized once I started that I didn't have any of these on hand, so I just substituted 1 cup of chocolate chips, because, you can't make anything worse by adding chocolate chips, right?

1. Mix butter and peanut butter with a mixer on high for 30 secs or until combined. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats and peanuts (or chocolate chips!).

2. Drop rolled dough 2 inches apart on un greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 degree oven about ten minutes.

They were really yummy. I definitely plan on trying them again with the cocktail peanuts too.

weekend update

I forgot to take out our (very few) St. Patrick's decorations thisyear. I did get out our (very few) spring decorations up this weekend. There were a few nods to our Irish side around though. Isaac made this cute little leprauchan at school. And we made these cookies from a recipe I found in a magazine my mom left here. They turned out cute I thought (not bad for a first attempt,) but the recipe was a little dry. Or I overcooked them. Could definitely be that too. A few seconds in the microwave before helped a lot. I had a lovely weekend. Friday I did a little shopping at the outlets. GAP/Banana frequently sends the teachers in my school 40% off coupons, so I couldn't resist. I didn't go crazy but I did pick up a few things including a 6 dollar pencil skirt from Banana that was originally 60 bucks. I love high quality clothes that are 90% off!

I also got this cute cardigan. It is such a pretty spring color. Saturday was a leisurely day spent with friends that I don't see too often. Sunday I went to my old singles ward in the city and then went to my brother's house for dinner. His girlfriend Kami was there and my parents came out too. It was a really fun time. We played Monopoly Junior (actually not too tedious for a kid's game) and The Game of Things which was quite fun. We took the dog out to play for a bit before we headed home.

It was a lovely weekend, and probably my last totally free one for a while because spring soccer starts up shortly. That keeps us busy for a while.

In other news, my computer apparently has some kind of virus that is causing my old Hotmail account to spam my contacts repeatedly. I'm sorry about that-- please don't click on any links in the e-mails. I've tried a few different things but hopefully tomorrow I can get the tech guys at my work to get it back in working order. I am using my work computer exclusively while I am waiting for a new power cord for my home laptop to arrive, so I don't want this one out of commission too. At any rate, feel free to add that e-mail to your block list. I will just use my g-mail one from here on out.

Anyways, I need to keep working on a few odds and ends for work and then get to bed. Hope your weekend was lovely and THINK SPRING!

not exactly pristine...

I've noticed a disturbing trend on some blogs lately. It seems that many mommies in blog lands mysteriously have kitchens that look like this:

Source

Or this....

Source

Not even a dirty mug and some bagel crumbs on the counter, let alone stray underwear, crayons, rollerskates, briefcase, school projects, unopened mail that are magnetically drawn to all surfaces in my kitchen.

If you only saw kitchens like the ones above all day, you might start to feel pretty bad about yourself.

Let me lift your self esteem...

And let me introduce you to my floor...

Bad to worse...

I was home from school today.

Did some cooking and baking for the week.

And I made a big mess.

I wish I was not the kind of person who struggles with things like getting up early, tidying up after myself, staying on top of things...

I'm trying though, to be better.

Everything but the kitchen sink

Thanksgiving was lowkey and relaxing. Isaac and I went to my parents and my one brother joined us. I got two random "Happy Thanksgiving!" texts from phone numbers I didn't recognize. Wasn't sure what to do with that. Isaac had his heart set on playing football but it was very cold and rainy so we had to settle for indoor activities. Dinner was delicious. We played some gin rummy and then we sacked out on the couch for a while wasting away in front of the TV. My dad and I watched the Zumba infomercial for like 20 minutes. I think he secretly wants to do it. Which he totally should. It's so fun!We drove home around eight and Isaac was snoring within minutes of pulling away. He woke up when he got home long enough to ask for some dessert and to declare "I wish we could live at Grandma's forever!"

Black Friday I went out in the city with some girlfriends, which was supposed to be a late birthday celebration for me. (Oh yeah, my birthday was the 17th, but I have been celebrating for pretty much the whole month of November. 29 is great so far). We went to Tria and I had my favorite thing on their menu (after dinner, of course): Nutella Panini. If I had to only choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Nutella Panini. I was about halfway done with it when the waitress came over, and stuck a candle in the remnant of my sandwich, which was cute.

Most of the talk that evening centered around my one girlfriend who has recently gotten very serious with the guy she is dating. They are talking marriage and she is about to buy a house and officially move in with him (she's not LDS, fyi).... AND his twin ten year olds. Although she adores the two kids (a boy and a girl) she shared some of the issues they are encountering as she essentially takes on the role of step mom in a household where the kids are pretty much running the show. I mostly sided with her (ten year olds with ten thirty bedtimes? I don't think so). I found myself biting my lip on some topics though. There are some things about having kids that you just don't understand if you don't have kids yourself (example-- she was repulsed by the fact that he let his son sleep in his bed all day when he was home from school sick. It made total sense to me. Isaac often sleeps in my bed when he is not feeling well too. I think it's comfort thing).

It was interesting to imagine being in that situation though. I would certainly want my partner to feel comfortable dealing with (minor-type) discipline issues and I recognize how important that would be in a blended family or step parent situation. But if I had to be totally honest, I think I think a little part of me would balk a little bit. Even now I feel defensive if one of my brothers disciplines Isaac. It would be a hard thing. I am interested to see how it all plays out for her.

Anyways, before dinner we also oogled clothes and household items we can't really afford went shopping at Anthropologie. My friend briefly contemplated an 18 dollar hot pad. I told her I could make her one FOR FREE and she agreed. I went home and made these in about an hour with some scraps I had from other fall projects. If you remember, I have LOTS of heat resistant batting from another potholder project, so everything was ready to roll.

I also decided to make a matching hot mitt. I didn't take a picture of it, but it turned out pretty cute. The potholders I just sort of did myself but the oven mitt I followed this tutorial.

It was very clear and should have been easy to follow, but it my eagerness to finish, I would forge ahead after only skimming and then discover I had made a mistake and then would have to go back and start over. Totally reminded me of that saying "haste makes waste". I gave them to her today and she could not believe I made them myself. I think she really liked them. Maybe there is a hope for this undomestic goddess after all. Saturday my friends (a girl I work with and her husband) invited me over for dinner and a game night. Backstory: In October they had taken me and another friend to a Halloween party where I briefly met another one of their friends. I will refer to him as FOF (Friend of a Friend). Afterwards apparently FOF got in touch with my coworker and asked about me. So anyways, when she invited me over Saturday she said she was having some people over and that FOF would be there. Okay, whatever. Of course, I show up and it is just FOF. No other people. HELLO awkward setup. We drove to Chile's and there was this moment of hesitation as we approached the booth. She even joked about should I sit with her or with FOF? I ended up sitting with FOF. And he ordered the exact same thing as me: chicken club tacos without the bacon. He was a nice enough guy, he really was. And our evening was enjoyable. Dinner was good and we played all kinds of fun games. However, to my friends' dismay, FOF is not the guy for me. I hope this doesn't sound snotty, but I will explain why.

• Strike one: over dinner passionately talked about his love of black metal music for about 20 minutes and various experiences seeing bands with names like Dying Fetus in concert.
• Strike two: at some point it came out that although he is no longer collecting unemployment while working at Gamestop, he still lives in his grandmother's attic. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I don't want to sound like it's all about money or anything like that, but by mid thirties you had better be in your own place paying the bills.
• Strike three: Okay, this is the one that I feel really mean revealing. But here goes: We were playing Scattergories and he hardly ever came up with anything for any category, any round. I mean, "name something in the room that starts with c"? "name a four letter word that starts with a"? Nothing... It was a little alarming. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then we moved onto Uno. He had no frame of reference for the game Uno, which I just found to be frankly, odd. After we explained the game and started playing he still couldn't get the concept and was just throwing out cards randomly. We would have to stop and explain it to him again. I mean, really, the premise of the game is just matching colors and numbers. I will let you draw your own conclusions to avoid spelling out what I feel is too mean to outright say.

So anyways, it was an enjoyable night, but I don't see much of a future with FOF. It has been quite a while since I was blindsided with an unexpected set up though, so I give them props for that.

We've started decorating the house for Christmas. I dug out the huge two tubs of Christmas stuff but I haven't unloaded them all the way yet. One is pretty much all Christmas ornaments and I'm still not sure what to do about a Christmas tree. Last year my brother loaned me a tiny fake one. It was supposed to be three feet tall but it was actually more like eighteen inches. The cats had a field day with it, knocking it over and batting the ornaments all over the house. I want a real one this year, but only if the cats can behave. Anyone have any tips for cat-proofing the tree? My brother is supposed to make an appearance this week to help us put some lights up outside, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow is back to school officially, although I was in for several hours today. I felt unprepared to start the week, and it was a good thing I went in. The more I started to do, the more I discovered needed to be done. (Hello IEP meeting after school tomorrow. Didn't remember you were there!) I have been feeling a ton of anxiety about the month of December. It's such a crazy time at school, with so many things that need to be crammed in before break. There is also so much going on outside of work: parties, get togethers, plays, family commitments, stores, crowds, things to be bought, wrapped, mailed and of course money stretched thin. All of it good stuff but it is a little overwhelming to coordinate it all.

Anyways, I should go. Feel free to leave comments and have a lovely week!

Not Me Monday, burnt potholder edition...

• I do NOT root through the dirty laundry for socks, work pants and pajamas and wash only those rather than tackling the huge pile of laundry that is barricading my walk in closet door shut. I always do a load several times a week and stay on top of my laundry.
• I am NOT already fantasizing about snow days.
• I did NOT recently send an e-mail at work that contained the word "hear" when I meant to use the word "here". As a teacher, I always spell things correctly and would never make an obvious mistake confusing words.
• I did NOT recently say something insulting to someone resulting in feelings of awkwardness on my part that caused me to avoid that person for several days. I did NOT finally work up the nerve to say sorry only to realize they had no clue what I was talking about. Evidently, what I was so concerned about and had worried over hadn't even phased them. Sheesh.
• This is NOT what happened when I was making macaroni today. I did NOT start a small fire in my kitchen by leaving a potholder next to my burner. I'm ridiculous. Or rather, I'm NOT ridiculous.

What have you been busy NOT doing?

"but just as summer's hold was fleeting"

So getting back to the roots of this blog-- my failed attempts at being domestic... I don't think I have blogged about this yet, but starting over the summer I decided to make a concerted effort to cut the amount of meat I eat. I started reflecting on it and was sort of grossed out by the amount of meat I consume each day. Also, there are so many benefits (financially, environmentally, to your health) to not consuming meat. Starting in about July, I cut out red meat completely, which wasn't hard at all. Anyways, I'm on a quest to find more meat free meals that are easy to make. Here's a tasty one I ate tonight. It's from a cookbook my sister left at my parents house which I inherited. It's a really great cookbook because the recipes are all really easy to prepare and don't call for any crazy ingredients. Also, they only make 2-3 servings which is really all I need. Here's one I tried tonight:

Nacho Bean Soup

1 (14.5 oz) can ready-to-serve vegetable broth 1 cup of milk 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 1 (15.5 oz) can pinto beans, drained, rinsed 2 cups (8 oz) shredded taco flavored cheese blend 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I didn't have any, so I just used dried) 1 cup broken tortilla or corn chips

1. In large saucepan, combine broth, milk and flour; blend well. Cooke and stire over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil.

2. Stir in beans, chiles, cheese and cilantro. Cook 5 mins or until thoroughly heated and cheese melted, stirring constantly. Sprinkle individual servings with tortilla chips.

Makes 3 (1.5 cup) servings.

While it doesn't exactly fall into the "healthy" category (590 calories!) it definitely was easy and delicious. Another good one from the same cookbook:

Fiesta Quesadillas

1 (11 oz) corn with red and green peppers, drained

1 (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles

1 cup fat-free refried beans

8 (8 to 10 inch) fat-free tortillas

1 cup (4 oz) shredded colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend

1. Mix up corn, chiles and refried beans. Spread 1/4 of the mixture on a tortilla. Top with another tortillas

2. So the book tells you to put these on the grill, but I don't have one. It also suggests the broiler. I usually just put it in a frying pan with a little Pam on low heat for about 3-5 mins. I turn it over with a pancake turner and do the other side for about 3 minutes, making sure all the cheese is melted.

3. Cut into wedges and eat. I had mine with tomato soup. I'm a big soup person.

Makes 4 quesadillas (450 calories each).

It was a pretty great weekend. Isaac was with his dad. Friday I went over to one of my coworker's house with a few friends. She is really into stamping and cardmaking. I have always enjoyed scrapbooking but I have never gotten into stamping. She had everything you could ever want for Halloween cardmaking and I am totally hooked (although the last thing I need is another hobby that requires purchasing tons of materials).

Here's a few blurry cellphone shots of a few I made (if you are lucky, you might get one in the mail!):

She is going to have us over again in a few weeks to make more cards and I can't wait.

Saturday I cleaned my whole house from top to bottom which was extremely satisfying. Then my friends Becca and Jamie came over and went shopping at the outlets. I got a fabulous new pair of boots and a Columbia jacket (marked down to 75 bucks!). We had a dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (which, incidently, has almost no vegetarian options. They are both vegetarians). Then we decided to check out the haunted house at Pennhurst. a former state asylum which is literally about five minutes down the road from me. When got our tickets and got in line and waited and waited and waited... It turned out the line was THREE HOURS LONG, which is definitely the longest line I have ever waited in. The attraction was cool, but after that long almost anything would have felt like a let down.

And now here it is, Sunday night, sitting on verge of another 5 days of work.

How was your weekend?

whippin out the sewing machine

The directions for blogger's mobile photo uploader thing are kind of confusing. I haven't had too much luck with it yet. I can be really slow with that kind of stuff though. Anyways, here are some crappy cellphone pictures of my latest crafting adventures. I'm on a banners kick lately. It started off with this cheerful happy birthday one. My house is the most centrally located and has the biggest kitchen, we tend to have celebratory birthday dinners here. Occasionally, I try to be domestic and decorate. Last year I made a really cute paper happy birthday banner for my brother's birthday. It didn't store well though and got kind of crumped and I thought it would make more sense to have a fabric one handy. I just followed the tutorial I found here. I didn't bother using the tiny iron to press open the seams though. I don't have a tiny iron and I find ironing seams open to be extremely tedious. Anyways, there are also cute tutorials for other variations found here and here.

I don't think my poor quality pictures do justice to their utter adorableness, if I do say so myself and they are wicked easy to make.

I just picked up some fun fat quarters for the little pennants, some bias tape, some wunder under. The letters I cut from an old pair of jeans.

I decided I was so happy with the way that came out, I bought some fallish fat quarters and made one for fall. Then I made two more for gifts.

I don't even have a mantle. My brother helped me put up this shelf which serves as sort of a makeshift mantle between two of my windows.

Hopefully next time I am out in Lancaster I can pick up some little pumpkins or something to beef up the mantle a little.

"I kill people and I eat hands... that's two things"

I've been very busy lately. With what? I'm still not sure. But anyhow, I'm catching up on my 30 Days of Me. Whatever Tickles My Fancy: This video. It is sort of twisted but Isaac and I have watched this video probably 75 times today. Everytime there is a quiet moment Isaac will quietly say "Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarl!" A Talent Pounding out IEPs at the last minute in a single sitting. A Hobby Yoga. My favorite new hobby/obsession. =)

A Recipe

This was Becky Moulder's Fabulous Raisin Swirl bread that we made one of our "get domestic" tutorials.

Perfect Swirl Raisin Bread 5 ½ -6 cups bread flour 1 packet (1 tablespoon) dry active yeast 2 ¼ cups milk ¼ cup Crisco/shortening (butter flavor or regular) 1/3 sugar 2 teaspoons salt 2 cups raisins 2 tablespoons cinnamon ½ cup sugar 4 cups powdered sugar (6x or 10x is fine) ¼ cup milk ½ teaspoon vanilla Combine 2 ½ cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl. In a 1-quart glass measuring bowl or microwave-safe bowl, stir together the milk, sugar, shortening, and salt and heat in microwave for about 3 minutes on HIGH until shortening is melted. The milk mixture should be about 100-110°F (bath temp). Let it cool for a few minutes if it is too hot. Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast and stir well. Mix in the raisins and enough flour (generally another 2-2 ½ cups) to form a slightly sticky dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes, adding more flour as needed. You usually won’t need all 6 cups. The dough should feel smooth and elastic at this stage, like a baby’s bottom.

Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and allow it to rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it in half. Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle measuring about 16” x 10”. Sprinkle each rectangle with a teaspoon of water and spread it evenly with your fingers (this helps the sugar and cinnamon to stick). Sprinkle each rectangle evenly with 1 tablespoon cinnamon and ¼ cup of sugar, making sure to spread both to all edges. Be liberal with the cinnamon; that’s where the elusive perfect swirl comes from! Carefully roll up each rectangle lengthwise, starting with one of the longer sides. Tuck the ends underneath the roll to form a long loaf and ensure that the seam is on the bottom so that the bread doesn’t unroll while baking. Transfer both loaves to a lightly greased baking or cookie sheet. You can also place the loaves on a lightly greased sheet of parchment paper before putting them on the baking sheet to save some cleanup time and make sure they don’t stick to the pan.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Allow the loaves to rise again in a warm area until doubled in size, this time about 30 minutes. Bake the loaves in the center of the oven for 30 minutes or until nicely browned. The bottoms should also be slightly brown and the bread should sound hollow when tapped. Allow bread to cool. In a bowl or large plastic Ziploc bag, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix or squeeze well to make a thick, but still pourable icing. Add more milk or powdered sugar as needed to get this consistency. Spread the icing over the cooled loaves using a spatula or cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and drizzle the icing over the loaves. Enjoy! You’ve earned it! A Website This cute tutorial for crayons letters...

That should catch me up for now. I'll post a life update soon.

Dress make over.

So I have been cleaning out me and Isaac's closets as I do periodically. I got stumped when I got to this black and white dress. It's very cute, especially with this little short sleeved black cardigan. It fits me pretty well. But I don't think it is particularly flattering. I am short and chubby and anyhing that hits me lower than the bottom of my knee caps makes me look like a tree stump. The dress was about to be tossed into the "give away" pile when I decided to see if I could salvage it.

Here is the before picture (please excuse my workout clothes which I was in too big a rush to change out of). Also, I had to rope Isaac into snapping the pics for me, so excuse the wiggly photography. I think you get the idea though. Tea length hem = not doing much for me. However, Regina Spektor pounding in my ears is always a good thing.

I figured out about where I wanted the skirt to hit me and marked it with a marker. Then I attempted to pin everything below that point up. I ran into some trouble here, because the skirt is flarey, not straight (like a pencil skirt) and there was too much at the bottom when I went to pin it up. Also, I noticed the skirt material had some stretch to it and wasn't sure if I should stretch the fabric as I was sewing or let it fall flat.

So I called up my childhood best friend and seamstress extraordinaire Kathleen. She gave me a lot of advice and also offered to come over this weekend to walk me through it.

Let the record state that I ignored nearly all of her advice and forged on myself to do the project here and now when I was on a roll with it.

And, I think it turned out okay.

Not as flawless as if she would have done it, of course

But it is definitely acceptable.

At any rate. Here's how a non-sewer like me managed to finish this project. I took a ruler and using my original marks measured more marks all around the skirt that were 5.5 inches from the bottom like the mark I made. I just drew them right on with permanent marker. I'm sure you are supposed to use, like, chalk or some kind of sewing crayon. Then I just took my fabric shears and connected all the lines. It wasn't too hard because the flowers sort of formed little rows and I just had to cut across the top of one row.

Then I decided to hem it on the sewing machine. (Note: Kathleen recommended handsewing first.) I just flipped it over so the raw edge was lined up with the left side of the presser foot and the right side was lined up with the folded edge threw a few pins on and got started. I really did line it up better than the picture shows. It's hard to juggle everything plus the camera.

After I sewed the whole way around I tried it on again and I think it is much cuter now that I've lost 5.5 inches from the bottom. Don't you agree?

Don't worry, when I wear the dress for real I will actually

a)zip it up

b) brush my hair

Despite doing things the cheater's way, I'm chalking this one up as a success!