O' Fun For... spending more money than I really have

Hello all. My computer has died for now, so I had to figure out how to do all the picture-importing-ness on James' for the time being. I hope the more I use his computer the more he will want to fix mine. After coming home last night to find cheesy Pringles on his keyboard and mouse pad, he explained to me how a person's computer is like their underwear- no one else should use it but the owner. I then told him not to leave his underwear (computer) in the living room if it was off limits...

Back to the topic- I thought I would blog a bit about the happiest place on earth. No, not Disneyland. (How many people actually think that, anyway?) It's...

Gracie Lou's Quilt Shop in Salem!



Yes, it just might be the happiest place on earth. Twenty bonus awesome points each to Lauralee and Shauni for introducing me to it. Here are a few resons why...

It is bursting with so many cute things that your wallet won't know what hit it... and you won't even care. Here are a few of the fabrics:





Those are a small few of the cute fabrics they have. They also have flannel fabric in similar cuteness, ric-rac the likes of which you have never seen before, fringy pom poms, buttons of all shapes and colors, ribbons, patterns, etc.

Also, they have on display throughout the store quilts, aprons, skirts, purses, etc. that make you realize you need to start a few new projects. Then they offer free classes on how to make these. (You pay a $20 deposit to sign up, which is returned as in-store credit to get the fabric for your project.) They have a million of these classes every month. See these cute aprons? Don't you suddenly feel the urgent need to make them?




And if all the cuteness isn't enough, there's the shop dog to distract your kids from wanting to grab everything they see:



They also have a shop Grama who plays with the kids and gives them candy while the moms shop. She wasn't there this time, so I didn't get a picture.

And when you leave, they give you cookies. See there on the counter? Yes. Cookies.



Also, I am not sure if this perk comes along with spending a certain amount, but last time they popped a dinner-menu notepad into my bag with the fabric I bought. I checked on this to make sure I wasn't accidentally shoplifting stuff, but no- it was supposed to be there. Awesome.

I was drooling over the flannel selections today and trying to think of ways to justify the ten to twenty receiving blankets my baby suddenly seems to need...

Here's the address & phone number so you can go visit the happiest place on earth for yourself:

416 North State Road, Salem UT, 84653
(801) 423-1339

After you go, call me and we'll sign up for a few classes together.

O' Fun For... uncooked batter eaters

The intense food cravings are back, and with it all the baking and cooking. Today I made ribs for dinner, complete with my own bbq sauce, an apple pie, and at about 10:00 tonight I decided I needed warm fudgy brownies right away or I might lose it. I am not usually this handy in the kitchen, but the intense food cravings lead me to the kitchen more often than I am used to. I hope my family makes the most of it before the baby comes and we eat off the Wendy's 99 cent menu for a few months...

Here is the recipe I used, minus walnuts. My regular pans seem to have all disappeared, so I used a 9" cake pan. This lead to a bunch of 5 minute checks to see if the brownies were done. You can only do so many of those before you decide the uncooked batter in the middle can be kind of like a sauce, so that makes it okay to take them out right away. I dug right in and dished up a gooey heap, and am burning my tongue on chocolatey, battery goodness at this very moment.

Here is a picture of my fix:



Ahhh. It's all better now. Or it will be after I get a glass of milk, and a few more plates of brownie goo.

*Five awesome points to the first one to name what show the blog title came from and who said it to who. Or whom? I don't know.

O' Fun For... people who like chess and their families

I realized I have never revealed the super-secret present I made for James' Christmas present. Well, the wait is over. Here is a picture of the super-secret present:



Still confused about just what is is? Well, I have a tradition of giving James a chess set each year for Christmas. This year I forgot to get one until after I had spent all the money I had budgeted on his other presents. So, I made a set of chess pieces from our family. I admit, it looked a lot cooler in my head, but there it is. James is the king, I am the queen, Toby is the Bishop, Brady the Knight, Ellie will be the rook just as soon as we get an actual picture of her, and Duke is all of the pawns. It worked well that we had the pictures of us in the Vanguard-themed party hats from James' birthday. I should learn to take more pictures as I make things so I can have better tutorials, but I guess a step-by-step will do for anyone who actually feels the need to have one of these super-cool chess sets of their very own.

1. Find pictures of all the people/animals that will be used. You need to see their whole face. Crop them in photoshop so you have just the faces, each about 1-1.5" wide.

2. Still in photoshop, cut and paste each face onto a letter-paper-sized blank background. If you are having trouble getting the images to stay the right size after pasting, make sure the resolution is the same for both the original image and the background you are pasting onto. You will need to paste the faces multiple times so you get the right amount of images for all the pieces. Make: 2 of the king's face, 2 of the queen's face, 4 of the bishop's face, 4 of the knight's face, 4 of the rook's face, and 16 of the pawn's face.

3. Copy each sheet of faces you made, and then flip the images horizontally, so you have the mirror-images of each sheet. This will give you a front and a back for each piece.

4. Print the sheets of faces you made, and cut them out.

5. Using fimo (polymer) clay, shape the bases for the pieces. I rolled the clay into balls about 3/4-1" wide, and then smooshed down from the top all around so they had flat bottoms. If you want marbley pieces, fold two colors together before you roll it into a ball. Use whatever colors and designs you want to designate which piece is which. (crowns, horseshoes, castle towers, etc.) Make a hole in the top-center of each piece with the wire you plan on using to hold the heads on. Bake the clay according to package directions.

6. Use wire-cutters to cut pieces of thick, sturdy wire for the posts of your pieces. Mine were about 2.5-3" long. You can make them taller or shorter for different pieces.

7. Cut a piece of packing tape or clear contact paper the size of your head-pieces. Lay one cut-out head face down onto the sticky side.

8. Put a thin row on hot glue onto the top of one of your wire posts. Lay it onto the back of the head piece you have taped. Use the mirror-image cutout of the same head to sandwich the gluey-wire. cover with another pice of tape. Now you have a sandwich- tape, head, wire, head, tape.

9. Cut away the excess tape- now it should just cover the head-piece with a bit extra around it.

10. Put a tiny bit of glue onto the end of the wire with no head. Shove it into the hole on the fimo-clay base.

TA-DA!! See? No? Well, I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do without pictures.

Next time I'll take pictures so you have some idea of what the heck I am talking about. Tutorials work better with images.

O' Fun For... finalizing vasectomy plans

It's a GIRL!!!

Yayyyyyyyyyy!

Last Monday was the ultrasound, and Dr. Anderson says he's 99% sure it's a girl. He never says 100% about girls in case the kid was just really good at hiding something from the ultrasound camera, but he gave us the 99% instead of his usual 98% since the view we got left very little possibilities of where a boy could be hiding things from us.

Here is a picture of Ellie: (yes, that's probably going to be her name. James is very attached to it, and I like it, too. I think the majority of her Terrorist days are behind her, although the name may come up again during her teenage years...)



This confirmation gave me the green light to start making a bunch of little girl stuff. However, making anything while pregnant adds complications. The kinds of complications that could be avoided if my brain was still processing and sending information like it should. (Although, I'm not sure it ever works entirely, the absent-mindedness lingers long past pregnancy. It's just nice to have an excuse for a few months.)

I made what should have been a simple sundress. It was still relatively simple, a one-afternoon project, but the lack of functioning brain cells created significant setbacks. See the brown ribbon around the bottom? I was planning on using it all along, but it ended up serving an extra purpose when I used it to hide the seam created after I sewed the ruffle on the bottom wrong-sides together, so the seam ended up on the right side of the dress. I decided the ribbon would hide the seam, since if I picked it all apart and tried again there was a pretty good chance I would sew it the wrong way yet again. Seriously.

Here is the finished dress on a blue hanger, since this whole pink thing is still pretty new to us:



I have also started on these stuffed blocks from the tutorial on the London Mummy blog. I am putting the letters of Ellie's name on them so James feels secure about the fact that we will be using that name. When I showed him the dress, he suggested using some white thread to embroider "Ellie" across the front. I decided against labeling our baby. I know my brain has functioning issues, but I am pretty sure I can remember her name. At the very worst, I'll call her "Tobraellie" as I stumble through all our kids' names to find the right one. Although, I think the clothes-labels might have helped at church. Think about it: someone goes to leave, picks up a baby from the Relief Society room floor thinking it is theirs, and then notices the name stitched across her dress. She then sets Ellie back down, picks up another baby, hopefully the right one this time, and heads home. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to label her after all.

O' Fun For... Uncle Aaron and Uncle Brian

...but you can't tell them. It's their Christmas presents.

I had Toby draw 3 designs for me: one for a hooded sweatshirt for his Uncle Aaron, and two for t-shirts for his Uncle Brian. I then turned them into stencils and sprayed them. I think Toby's designs all turn out pretty dang awesome, if I do say so myself.

Here is how the hoodie for Aaron turned out:



The colors in the pictures were hard to get with the metallic paint, but it is a slate-blue hoodie with copper eyeballs on the back. Very cool.

Here are the two shirts for Brian:





The first, according to Toby's description, is of a bunch of different shaped lightning bolts all hitting the same place. It is in the copper paint. The second is an airplane getting hit by lightning. Kind of morbid, but oh-well, I guess that works well for grown-up-boy shirts.

Fun times! Now I only have one pair of pajamas and James' super-secret present left to make. And a few cheeseballs. Mmmmm..... cream cheesey goodness......

O' Fun For... people with very vivid imaginations

...because I didn't take any pictures of what we made to go with this post.
Sorry.
We were just lucky to get everything completed and come out alive, let alone take any pictures of the finished products. I can, however, offer links or recipes.

All week I have been printing these gift tags (from Amy Karol last year on the angrychicken blog) out on cardstock, hole-punching them, grommeting them, enveloping them, and finally delivering them for neighbor gifts this year. So much for my simple idea! Somehow I thought the lack of baking and not having to purchase a bunch of supplies I didn't have would speed this one along. Oh-well, it's done now, and my grommet-er is thanking me for the break. Plus, the gift tags are so freaking awesome, I had to share them.

Monday night we went to Grampa T's (my Grampa, the kids' Great Grampa) to make graham cracker houses. I withheld and did not make my own this year. That may be the first time in my life I have passed up that opportunity. I tend to get a bit... ummmm.. involved.. in making my house, and perhaps neglect my kids' frosting-placing needs as I decorate my own house. This year I decided to be strictly a frosting-squeezer for my kids. Sigh. It was still fun, though. This year's trends were adding peppermint wheels to the houses to make them mobile homes and using spare crackers to create garages. You have to enjoy the house building, because the eating part never happens. The origins of Grampa's candy are unknown, but we recognized most of it from several years past. Nothing like vintage candy for some teeth-breaking fun!

Also, we made sugar cookies o' yumminess to decorate last night. Man! That is quite the project with kids! I made the dough in the morning and put it in the fridge. That was the easy part. Then, after dinner, I took a deep breath, washed everyone's hands, and dove on in to the cookie-making adventure. James was very nice and joined the chaos in the kitchen as well. About an hour or more later every surface in the kitchen, as well as every part of us, was covered in flour, dough, cookies, sprinkles, and frosting, but we had enough done to deliver to teachers and home teach-ees, so I sent James off with the kids and the cookies and tackled the mess while they were gone.

Ahhhhhhhh. I remember now why we only do that once a year.

Here is the recipe for the best sugar cookies ever. They are like the pink cookies we would eat instead of lunch in high school. Mmmmm...strange eating disorders.....

Pink Cookies o’ Yumminess

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. sour cream
5 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
4 t. baking powder
2 t. vanilla

Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and sour cream together in a huge bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Chill overnight. The dough should be sticky. Roll out ¼” to ½” thick. Bake for 12-14 min. at 350. (If I preheat my stoneware pan, it takes 12 min.) You know they are done when the top feels like a wet sponge when you push on it lightly. (They don’t taste like a sponge, don’t worry.) If they are getting browned, they have cooked too long.

I do have one picture for today. Santa stopped by our house while we were mid-cookie-ing! It was about the most festive moment possible: snowy night, baking Christmas cookies, Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack a-playing, and Santa dropping by for a visit. It would have made the Grinch scream out in horror. Here is a picture of the flour-y kids sitting on Santa's lap:



I am now almost done with Christmas projects. Woo-hoo! I only have to make pajama pants, and something for James that I will not mention on the off chance that he reads this and I spoil the present. Oh- and also some shirt-stenciling for my brother and James' brother. I can't seem to get away without making anything at all, but I did much better this year than I did last year. I am actually getting sleep this year.

O' Fun For... computer nerds and their families

No, it's not some new memory or a shiny new video card. It's... cookies and hot chocolate mix! (ooooo!)

I got going with the holiday treat-making today. I started with the work-gifts for James to hand out. Halfway through I remembered that his whole department is part of a company-wide body fat losing contest until March. Well, their wives and kids can eat the cookies. Maybe I'll send a bag of baby carrots along with the treats...

I got some homemade hot chocolate mix last year and thought I'd be adventurous and give it a try this year. I found a recipe off allrecipes.com, but altered it enough that it will just be easier to write the version I used here:

Dana's Re-Vamped Amaretto Hot Chocolate Mix O' Steamy Goodness

*6 1/2 cups powdered milk (or maybe Morning Moo's Low Fat Dry Milk Alternative if that is what you bought on sale at Macey's food storage sale this year... it claims to have delicious milk flavor...)
*1 (5 oz.) package non-instant chocolate pudding mix
*1 1/2 cups -or a bit more- Great Value brand chocolate milk mix (I'm sorry but that is the only brand that will work. If you try anything else your hot chocolate will all be ruined. Ruined I tell you! Okay, maybe not, I've never tried...)
*1/2 cup powdered amaretto creamer (what? You want another flavor? Fine. Be that way.)
*1 or maybe 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
*3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

Mix it all up in a big bowl with a whisk. Maybe break up the cocoa powder lumps with a fork before you add it. To make the hot chocolate add 1/3 c. mix to 1 cup really hot water. If the water isn't boiling or close, it may taste powdery. I warned you, so now you have no-one but yourself to blame if that happens. If everything goes right, you'll have a nice cup of creamy, thick, amaretto-y hot chocolate. Mmmmmm. It almost makes me not hate the snow. Almost.

I filled 5 big wide-mouth mason jars (are those quart-sized jars maybe?) just over halfway with the hot chocolate mix.
Then I made these cookies. The only change I made was to add about 1 1/2 T. of the amaretto creamer to the dough right after I added the vanilla. I was getting a little carried away with the amaretto goodness. These cookies are my favorite, but they make over 100 cookies, so I don't bust the recipe out too often. Somehow it never occurs to me to half the recipe...

After the cookies cooled I added a layer of plastic wrap over the hot chocolate mix in the jars, and then jammed the rest of the jar full of cookies.

Then we ate a ton of the leftover cookies so we could close the lid on our cookie jar:



In-between baking one million batches of cookies, I made labels and glued them to the jar-lids:



Here are the tagged and ready final products:



I started out with the intention of writing "From: James and those needy people who call him all day", but changed my mind after I had already written "From: James and those..." so I ended with "...other Haymore folks" instead. As I get older, something odd is happening. I am getting inhibitions and possibly small helpings of tact. I know, it frightens me, too. I changed my mind because I thought it might not be a good plan to bring the attention of James' boss to the fact that I call him once... or twice... or so a day while he is at work. See? Thinking ahead. What the heck? What is happening to me? Before you know it I'll be too hesitant to write "flamingo stylist" under "occupation" on forms or to sing to the Spice Girls with my car windows rolled down. Getting older sucks a little!

On another subject, I've noticed that the more past midnight it is, the more commas, (parentheses), -dashes, and... dot dot dots I use while posting. It gets annoying, I know, but that's just how it is!