Toenail Cake

I found this photo someone posted when they were forced to bring a dessert to some sort of social event.  I thought it was hilarious so I posted it on Facebook, joking that I was going to make it for my husband's family reunion.  My husband's uncle dared me to make it, to which I happily obliged.

I'm not sure everyone got the humor, but it made me laugh. 

Here's the recipe I used:
Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake via Pioneer Woman
CAKE:
2 c Flour
2 c Sugar
1/4 t Salt
4 T (heaping) Cocoa
2 sticks Butter
1 c Boiling Water
1/2 c Buttermilk (I used buttermilk powder and milk)
2 Beaten Eggs
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Vanilla
toenail (optional)

FROSTING:
1/2 c Finely Chopped Pecans
1-3/4 stick Butter
4 T (heaping) Cocoa
6 T Milk
1 t Vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 C) Powdered Sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir.Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil 30 sec, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mix, and stir lightly to cool. In measuring cup, pour buttermilk and beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mix into butter/chocolate mix. Pour into 18x13" sheet cake pan and bake 350F 20 min. While cake's baking, make icing. Chop pecans. Melt butter in pan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir. Add the pecans and optional toenail, stir, and pour over warm cake.


P.S.  NO ONE FOUND THE TOENAIL!

Goal Accomplished

At the beginning of the year I talked about wanting to run a mile without stopping.  It sounds so incredibly silly, but it's something that I have NEVER been able to do. 

I began "training" once the weather wasn't so horrible.  Heh.  That wound up not being until around May.

It was horrible.  I jogged slower than I could walk.  I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.  I would alternate walking and running 6 times each for the distance of a mile and a half. 

Gradually, I made the walking distances shorter, and the running longer. 

I didn't feel like garbage after I ran.  I could actually catch my breath as I walked.  I was finally able to pick up my running pace too.

Until...

BAM.

Intense pain in my heel, arch and shin.

A trip to the dr revealed that I had Plantar Fasciitis.

Yay.

I'd been doing all the right things.  Gradually building up to increased activities, wearing the right type of shoes, doing the right types of stretches.  I'm just that lucky girl that this sort of thing happens to.

So I bought some special inserts for my shoes, and I stopped running for a month.

When I started back up again, I felt I lost all the progress I'd made.  Plus, my foot hurt something awful afterwards.

Of course I did what any normal person would do in a situation like this, signed myself and Blockette up for a mile race.  Yeah.  I'm nutty like that. 

I had speed walked 3 miles no problem for something for church a few weeks prior with minimal foot pain.  My husband thought I was a bit looney, for signing up, but I'm pretty sure he think's I'm looney all the time!  ;)  I figured if I was in a lot of pain, I'd just walk.

The race was on the 26th of October. 

I ran the WHOLE way!!!

Without stopping once.

Now it took me almost 15 min to run the darn thing, but I ran.

Me.

Non-athletic girl.

I ran.

Even more amazing was I felt I could have run even faster.  I slowed down to a super slow jog because Blockette needed to walk at the halfway point.  I told her that I had 30 years on her, and if I could do it, so could she.

When we knew we were coming up to the finish line I asked her if we should have a strong finish and she hesitated, but then wanted to know if she could try to beat me.  I said of course.  She was 2.2 seconds faster than me. 

It's funny how accomplishing a little goal can make you feel so awesome.  I hung my little ribbon on the fridge so I can see it everyday.

I've set myself a new goal.  I'm going to try to run a 5k a year from now.  Which seems totally crazy.  But then again, so did running a mile a year ago.

Halloween 2014

This year Blockette wanted to be Athena.  I think this was the first year I said, "Yeah, I can do that!"
without hesitation.

 Everything just sort of fell together.  AND I spent less than $10 on supplies.  Over half that cost was because I bought 3 different shades of gold paint in order to get the color I wanted.

The owl was borrowed from my mom.  The tunic was from last year's Medusa costume.  I already had the purple fabric.

                         

 Blockette's armor was a plastic black and silver colored breast plate armor I found at the dollar store.  Medusa's head is also a dollar store find.  I made the medallion out of paper mache.  Barbie and the medallion both got a base coat of matte black spray paint before being dry brushed with several different coats of gold acrylic paint.  Since the breast plate was already black, it saved me the spray paint step.  I gave everything a coat of clear matte spray paint too.

 If you look closely at Medusa, you can see that each of her hair braid snakes have green eyes.  Also, her eyes glow in the dark, courtesy of some blue glow in the dark nail polish.

Then, there is THE HELMET....

I'm so proud of this thing.  It's made of cardboard, paper mache, brown paper bags and paper towels.  oh yeah...and the bristles of a broom.  The pictures do NOT do it justice.  It looks WAY cooler in person.  I followed these tutorials from Constructables and Instructables, for the construction of the helmet.  Then, because I hadn't done papermache for nearly 30 years, I followed these instructions from DLTK.

The helmet took about 3 weeks, including researching and planning.  It was a lot of hurry up and wait because I'd cut something out and then have to wait because my model was in school, or because I was waiting for the layers of paper mache or coats of paint to dry.

A fun side note: the circular medallion like objects on the helmet are cut from paper towels!  They gave the perfect amount of texture when dry brushed with gold paint.

The bristles on top of the helmet are from a broom.  I thought about painting them red, but was afraid it might not turn out right, so I left them black.  I think the contrast looks very striking.

Finally, I used the handle from the broom for the spear.  The tip of the spear is cut from a sheet of glittery craft foam that had a sticker backing.

Blockette wanted to wear sandals trick or treating.  I told her that her toes would freeze and fall off.  Instead we decided that it would be ok for her to wear her tennis shoes.  After all, they were Nike. Nike was the goddess of victory, and Blockette thought the pun was really cool!

Back to Blogging

Now that the crazy pumpkin nonsense is gone, I'm going to get back to blogging on a semi regular basis. 

I'm so glad that I took a break from blogging over the summer.  It was our busiest summer yet.  Blockette went to two different summer camps, and I chaperoned at one of them. (I think I'm still recovering from the excessive singing of the Frozen soundtrack.)  We also had summer dollar movies, vacation bible school, a trip to visit my mom, and Blockette was in a musical.  It felt like we were go go go all the time.

 

Once school started back up, I didn't much feel like blogging either.  

Mid August, one of our cats, Basil, began to get very sick.  

Two days before school started we found out he had colon cancer, and we had to put him to sleep. 

I always thought Basil was more of Mrblocko's cat, than mine. 

 I didn't realize how much of a role he played in my day to day life at home until he was gone. 

 It's taken me a few months to just stop looking for him when I pass his usual hiding spots. 

 That silly little furball left a pretty big hole in my heart.  

In order to keep my mind off missing the little guy, I decided to take on some big projects.  The first one being re-doing our spare/computer room.

Here's a bit of a before picture:

The room was this horrible green that was somewhere between lime and pea soup.  Why I chose that color, I have no idea.  It gave everything in the room this yellow hue.  BLECK!

And lets not get started on the computer hutch.  It was about 12 years old.  You know, from the days when monitors were so huge two cats could sit on top of it with no problem.  The hutch took up nearly half that room. 

Blockette had also outgrown her small little brown table.  While she has a desk in her own room, there are times where she wants to work next to me while I'm on the computer.

Finally, the biggest reason for redoing this room was for my mom.  When she would come to visit she'd have to sleep on a air mattress on the floor.  We actually WANT her to come see us so I thought it was high time she had an actual bed.

And here are the afters:

I picked out a purple for the walls that has a bit of grey in it.  Then I painted all the trim and the closet doors white so the grey in the paint wouldn't overwhelm the room.  The closet doors were essentially the same color as the door to the room and the floor. 

The desks, shelves and chairs were from IKEA.  I put the desks together all by my onsies.  Mrblocko helped with the shelves though.

Then I went through my stack of unframed cross stitches, bought some inexpensive frames, and hung them up on the wall.  The framing isn't the best job ever, but it's much more satisfying having the cross stitches up on the wall than lamenting in a drawer. The walls still look a little bit bare.  I have every confidence that I'll find more things to hang up as time goes on.

I also had some fun with spray paint.  That crate, in the picture above, next to the bed...it used to be bright spring green.  I sprayed it with a gray paint that's supposed to give it a hammered look.  Eventually, I want to get a piece of plywood cut to fit the top so it functions more like a nightstand.

Also, if you look at the first picture, there's a mirror.  We had it hanging up at our previous house, and I hadn't been able to find a home for it since we moved into this one 8 years ago.  I spray painted it black and dry brushed white paint once the black paint had dried.  It has this mottled gray look that ALMOST looks like stone...if you squint.  It also makes me happy to see it hanging on the wall.

The room looks so much bigger, and brighter too!  While it's not magazine perfect, it works so much better for our family's needs.  I can't help but pat myself on the back for the results of my hard work!

Fauxberry Pie

I tried to be sneaky and make this Fauxberry Pie, from Spoonful for April Fools Day.  Blockette knows better now to pay attention when I'm making dinner and caught on to what I was doing. 

Although, I did have her going that fauxberries were a real thing. 

For about a minute.

Mrblocko and I tease her so much that she catches on quickly these days.

Joke or no joke, this dinner pie turned out amazing.

I used a half recipe of Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust, from Tasty Kitchen as the base. I'm not a big fan of this crust in desserts, but in a savory dish like this, it really works.  This crust is super flaky.  So much so that Mrblocko thought it was store bought.  Blockette loved the crust as well.  She wanted me to make her a sheet of crust to slice up and put in her lunch.  I said no, because I have a reputation of a mean mom to live up to.

Since this dish is essentially a meatloaf baked in a pie crust, I was a bit worried that it was going to make the crust soggy or be really oily and greasy.  To counter this, I dabbed the meat with paper towels as it was cooking.  I think I did this 2 or 3 times before I put the potato topping on.  I didn't think the pie was soggy or greasy.

I'm thinking this pie needs to be an April 1st tradition from now on!

Fauxberry Pie adapted from Spoonfull
1 pie shell, uncooked (your own or store bought)

"CHOCOLATE" MEAT LOAF FILLING
1/3 c barbecue sauce
1/4 c milk
1 T molasses
1 t cocoa
1/2 t chili powder
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T veg oil
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2/3 c bread crumbs
1 lb gr beef
1 egg, lightly beaten

"STRAWBERRY" POTATO TOPPING
2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (I weighed my potatoes after they had been peeled and had slightly more than 2 lbs)
1/2 c canned sliced beets (not pickled)
1/4 c  milk
4 T butter, cut into pieces

Place pie crust in pie pan and chill in the freezer.  Heat oven to 350º. In sm pan, sautee onions in oil.  Cook 7 min until translucent. Add BBQ sauce, milk, molasses, cocoa, and chili powder. Cook until lukewarm and cocoa dissolved.  In lg bowl, mix all ingredients with hands. Remove the pie shell from the freezer.  Transfer meat to shell, spreading evenly with spoon. Bake about 60 min, until meat is cooked through.

While pie's baking, prepare potato topping. Place potatoes in a large pot.  Add enough water to completely cover spuds and bring to boil. Reduce heat  and at a low boil until tender, about 12 min. While potatoes cook, puree beets and 1/4 c milk in a blender until smooth. Set aside. Drain potatoes and place back into pot.   Add butter and pureed beets.  Whip with hand mixer until smooth and fluffy, adding more milk as needed. Spread whipped potatoes over top of cooked meat pie with an offset spatula. Slice and serve pie while potatoes are still hot. Makes 8-10 servings.  To reheat leftovers cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 min.

Bird seed ornaments

Way back over Christmas break, Blockette and I made these Birdseed ornaments.  I made them with the intention that the squirrels would eat them. 

You see, we had a bird feeder in our backyard growing up.  Those darn squirrels ate every last drop of seed from the feeder.  And when they ate all the birdseed?  Do you know what those little devils did? 

They ate the feeder.

Yes.

The squirrels gnawed off the plastic top of the feeder.

Thus ended the feeding of the birds and/or squirrels.  The squirrels are such ruiners.

So I hung these birdseed ornaments off these weird hooks on what used to be the inside of our 3 season room, now covered patio.

Yeah...I know this picture is horrible, but it was cold out and my camera hates taking pictures through the screen.  I also hate being in the cold and was too lazy to put on my coat.

I made the ornaments in a mini bundt pan.  The pan has 6 mini bundts and this recipe from saltwater- kids filled the entire pan up perfectly.  The little bundts just lent themselves to being hung as ornaments.

So far, the squirrels have only figured out how to get one of the birdseed dealies down.  Everytime we get a new layer of snow I can see all these squirrel tracks all around the post they are hanging near.

Could it be that I have finally outsmarted the squirrels?

We'll have to let the rest of the winter progress to find out.

Squirrel (or not) Birdseed feeder ornaments from Saltwater-Kids
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3 tbsp. corn syrup
4 cups birdseed
molds (muffin tin, cookie cutters, etc.) 
straw
yarn or twine

Combine flour, water, gelatin and corn syrup in large mixing bowl. Stir until well-combined. Add birdseed, stir until well coated. Spray mold(s) with cooking spray, and spoon birdseed mixture into each mold. Use bottom of measuring cup to pack it down, and make the top smooth. If needed, poke a hole through top of each birdseed mold using a drinking straw, making sure it goes all the way through. Leave birdseed mixture in molds for 2-3hrs. Then, remove straws and lay out a sheet of waxed paper. Gently remove hardened ornaments from mold, and place on wax paper upside down. Allow to dry overnight.Thread those bad boys and hang them up outside where you can watch the animal antics.

The Fledge

I am the queen of misheard lyrics.  When I first heard LMFAO's  "Party Rock Anthem," I swear it sounded like they were singing, "Polly Pocket's in the house tonight.  Everybody just have a good time."

via

Now I know they are singing "party rock is," not "Polly Pocket," but it totally sounds like Polly Pocket.  I even intentionally sing the song that way to make Blockette crack up.  Works every time.

Anyhow, flash back to when I was a wee kindergartener.  I was a pretty skilled reader, which back in the 70's was fairly rare for a kindergartener.  When we learned the Pledge of Allegiance it wasn't written down anywhere.  I guess they figured they didn't need it written anywhere if they thought we couldn't read it.  We just had to pick it up by listening to what the teacher was saying. 

I came home from school asking my mom why we had to talk about witches every day.  Naturally she inquired further, to which I replied, "Yeah you know.  When we say the Fledge of Allegiance?  Four witches stand.  Who are these witches?  Why are they standing? etc...."

Oh yes.  Much hilarity ensued.  I'm pushing 40 and I will never live that one down.  So, to embrace and celebrate my dorkiness, I created this cross stitch.

I adapted it from a pattern called "Wicked? or Wise?" by The Stitcherhood. 

Notice the witch on the far left is holding a flag.  (You can't say "The Fledge" without a flag, Amirite?)  The witch on the far right is sporting ruby slippers, in red metallic thread, of course.  You can't tell from this photo, but the two witches in the middle are fist bumping each other.  Yeah.  It's a pretty hip bunch of witches.

The design is 53x93 stitches.

The threads I used are as follows (2 strands of each unless specified):
Dresses and hats: GAST Black crow
Skin: GAST Spring Grass
Lettering: WDW Mulberry
Cauldron Whisps: one strand each -Whisper W79 and DMC5272
Stars and Moon: WDW curry
Ruby Slippers: on strand Kreinik #4 braid 061
Red on flag:814
Blue on flag: 336
White on flag: 00
Flag pole: 3784
Cauldron: Crescent Colours Black Coffee
Cat: Rainbow Gallery Splendor 5801

The design is stitched on some sort of 28 count light tan linen.  My guess is that it is DMC brand.

Last Day of Second Grade

We're So Picky!

I hate my bathroom.  It's sooo UGLY.  Although, it is an improvement from when we moved in 7 years ago.  It had fake plastic tile sheeting on all the walls.  Like the stuff you might line a shower with.  Over all the walls. 

And when we took that down...Pepto Bismal pink walls.

Did I mention the cabinet and floor were green?

Yeah.

We repainted the walls but the cabinets and floors were a project that got moved to the bottom of the list.  They are still at the bottom of the list.  And I still hate them.

Blockette didn't quite understand how I could not like the bathroom when my favorite color is green.  I like green, just not that shade of green, and not in my bathroom.

Now when I say the cabinets are green, I mean they are mostly green.  Whoever painted them, just took the cabinets that were there for God knows how long and painted them.  They did not sand them first.  How do I know this?  The paint is peeling off the cabinets.

I got sick of looking at the peeling paint and in 15 min Blockette and I did this:

Here's a close up:

And of the other side:

We did this with our fingers.  The paint came off in great big sheets.  There is something so satisfying about peeling off great big sheets of ugly paint.  Sort of like peeling a sunburn, without the pain of getting burned in the sun!

Blockette is hooked on paint peeling.  Every time we are in there at the same time she asks when we can do it again.  I think a few more steamy showers and we'll have another go at a peel-o-rama.  I figure by the end of the summer we'll have the entire cabinet stripped of all it's paint!

Garden Spring 2013

This year I tripled the size of my garden.  Originally the plan was to plant the two 4'x4' gardens in the back yard.  I mean we cut down our huge diseased tree in the backyard so we should have a ton of sun there.  Right? 

Now that the neighbor's trees all have leaves, I discovered that the ONLY place we have full sun is the area directly over Blockette's swing set.  The rest of the yard gets only morning sun and afternoon shade.  Not the best for growing sun loving veggies.  So we are weirdos and have our veggie garden in the front yard where we get early morning shade.

Here's what we planted this year:

 I just want to say that it was my family that picked out all these veggies.  Well, I picked out the sweet pepper and strawberries.  Blockette was the one who said we had to get peas, beans, cucumber and summer squash.  Mrblocko wanted the spaghetti squash and the jalapeno.

 Luckily the food pantry near us excepts surplus garden harvests, so when we have more squash than we can eat it will go to good use.

Happy Mother's Day!

Non Choking Hooded Sweatshirt

My mom went to Spain early this spring and bought me this cool hooded sweatshirt.  I've been hemming and hawing over what to do.  The sweatshirt fits perfectly, except the neck is too tight. Boa Constrictor tight.

You see, I'm one of those people who can't stand anything around their neck.  (We'll for some reason scarves are ok.  Probably because I wear them over my mouth mostly, or loosly around my neck.) I feel like I'm choking to death.  I hate turtlenecks so much that Blockette has never ever worn one.  Even seeing one can bring on a panic that I can't breathe.

So, I was faced with a dilemma:  I could alter the sweatshirt somehow and possibly risk ruining it, or leave it alone and never wear it.  I really like the hoodie, but was so afraid I'd ruin it.  So It just sat there.  And sat there.  Not getting worn.  I finally decided that I should just get over it and try to make the sweatshirt into something I could wear.

Ah.

That's so much better.

Yeah yeah yeah.  I know.  I forgot to take a before picture.

The neckline looked sort of like this:

via

See, very close and chokey. Look how the hood sits on the neck of the manikin.  I'm clawing at my neck just looking at the photo.

Of course my sweatshirt is much better than the ones in the above photo. Mine is turquoise and the logo is way more awesome.   It's especially awesomer as I can now wear it without passing out from hyperventilating.

If you have chokey hooded sweatshirts why not hack them up to make them super comfy!

Fear not!  If I can do it, so can you.

I followed this video from Khayotikk on you tube.

As you can see, I made the "V" in my hoodie much more shallow that the lady in the video did.  I didn't want to cut into the logo on my shirt. 

Before watching the video I had no idea how to cut a hoodie like this.  It was super helpful, and made me much less scared to take the scissors to the fabric. Hooray for You tube!

Proof: I love my BOOTS

When I was a punk kid I hated to wear shoes, even in the winter.  I'd run around barefoot if I could get away with it.  And boots?  Forget about it.  If I had to shovel. I'd snag a pair of my mom's.  Boots were just so totally uncool.  Like for sure.  Gag me with a pitchfork.

My uncle use to tease me mercilessly about this.  That's what uncles do.  At least the crazy ones.

What my uncle doesn't realize was that was a LOOOONG time ago.  And I have seen the light.

Look! Seee?????

THREE PAIRS of BOOTS!

And because that isn't enough for my uncle, here they are on my feet:

 These winter boots have kept me warmer than any other pair of winter boots I've ever had.  I love how they have that plastic "rain boot/duck shoe" foot.  They are awesome for cold slushy days. They are also great for "boot shoveling" when people don't shovel their sidewalk by the cross walk.

I'm convinced these are the best fashion boots ever.  They are slouchy and scuffy and don't make my feet look enormous!  I love this color brown so much I want to eat it.  But of course I won't cause my feet were in these boots and that is nasty.

And finally, my newest boot acquisition:  Rain boots a la Walmart clearance.  I bought these because it's too warm for my winter boots and apparently it's monsoon season.  They are so comfy, it's like they were made for me! Plus they have that bright orange on them. Anything that makes me less likely to get run over is always a bonus.

I'm sure that STILL isn't enough for my doubting uncle.  

He'll say that I hired a stunt double.  

I don't think I could pay a stunt double enough money to wear my nasty yoga pants and robe.

I love my boots.

And that's what I have to say about that.

Kite Flying Weather

I love that we have this park so close to our house.  It's perfect for kite flying. 

You can't really tell in the photo, but Blockette's kite is a butterfly!

Here's a close up:

It was so windy on Sunday that it almost looked like the wings were flapping.  I think if it had been just a bit windier the kite might have broken.

Best Wishes for 2013!

Herbology 101

Glad we cleared that up.

Kitten Pile!

Maybe we need a bigger kitty bed? 

All three of them are sad the kitty bed has been moved out of the sunny spot to make room for the Christmas Tree.  

Although, I'm not sure which one of them likes the tree the best.

Probably Boo, cause he keeps trying to eat it...and it's plastic.  

Dumb kitty.  

It's the same tree we've had forever.  

You CANNOT eat it.

Thankful Thurs #47 Thanksgiving Edition!

This Thankful Thursday I thought I'd switch up a bit for Thanksgiving.  Instead of writing a list of things I'm thankful for, I thought I'd share with you some of the more interesting things Blockette has thanked God for in the past few weeks.

source

1. Aliens

2. Portals

3. Other Dimensions

4. Mummies

5. Computer Games

6. Electronics

7.The continent

8. The planet

9. The galaxy

10. The universe

Viva La Farcical Aquatic Ceremony!

Now get out there and Vote!

Ni!

BOO!