Baking Challenge - Cake Pops

A couple of weeks ago, I baked banana bread for the first time ever. And, like most things that occur in my life, I posted about it on Facebook. Then, for reasons I have yet to understand, I made some off-the-cuff comment wondering if I could bake something new every week for a year. A few of my friends jumped on it and challenged me to do so. And then went on to challenge me to blog about it. So...uh...yeah. That's what I'm gonna do.

Week 1 - Cake Pops!

I first learned about cake pops through Bakerella. Please go check out her site. She is AH-MAZING! If you are gifted, you may be able to duplicate some of her creations. If you are like me and NOT gifted, you still need to try her basic cake pops. They are a tad time-consuming but worth it when you pop one of these babies in your mouth. And don't forget to get the kids involved. This makes for a fun family activity.

First, round up the usual suspects. And, yes, my boy does that in every photo we take of him. Every.single.one.

I'm not going to go over the step-by-step directions for cake pops. Bakerella does that for you on her site. Go check her out! Or, better yet, buy her book! But, do note, it can get a little messy.

Find yourself a cute little girl who is willing to stir and, occasionally, pose for a pic.

Find an adorable little boy who can roll the cake into balls "just like play-doh".

Every.single.picture.

Ready to freeze our balls! Wait....what?!

Once the balls are slightly frozen and firm, the fun part starts!

Decorate with whatever you have on hand. We almost always have colored sprinkles.

They are too cute, aren't they?

We had a great time making them! We finished up the batch a couple days later. You can freeze left-over cake for use later on down the road. A full batch of cake-pops makes 4 dozen! Yikes!!

Oh, and don't forget the best part!!

Window Project

I love projects. I love turning old into new. I see beauty in the old, shabby & rusty. If I had my way, I'd work on projects like this everyday.

I have a friend, her name is Dori and I envy her greatly. She has my dream job. She also has a website. Check out The Junk Refunkery. I will be going to her first sale of the year June 26th and I simply can NOT wait! It'll be my first time going.

I had the pleasure of finding a large pile of old windows on the curbside one morning before trash pick-up. I had no idea what I was going to do with these windows but I could NOT just leave them there to be tossed away, as if they were no longer needed....or beautiful. I stopped my van and loaded them all in. I can't tell you how pleased my husband was when I returned home with them.

I can't tell you because he wasn't exactly pleased. Oh well.

Sadly, however, time & energy were not on my side. Motivation, creativity and space were not on my side either and the pile of windows were left mostly forgotten in our storage unit. Until now...

Now, I have a garage sale coming up and while, yes, I suppose I could easily just dump the pile of windows in the nearest garbage dumpster in town, I just....I just....*sniff*....well, I just CAN'T!

They are beautiful and I'm just sure others coming to my garage sale will see their beauty as well. At least I hope. But hope doesn't sell old, used windows so I needed to do something to give the creativity and inspiration of my garage sale'ers a little push.

This is what I came up with:

I uploaded a few pictures of the kids to Walgreens.com and order four 8 x 10 black & whites. Cost: $11.00. Then, using scrapbooking clear glue dots, I adhered the pictures on the backside of the glass.

I then found a roll of vinyl lettering used for decor treatments on your walls at home. I paid $20.00 for this particular phrase. I was not particularly thrilled with this price but it was immediately available and the size I needed so I went with it.

The stuff was amazingly easy to use and I love how it turned out. Please forgive the shadow of the lettering. I have yet to really figure out how to use my camera without the flash. Someday.

Before I placed the pictures and lettering, however, I top coated the window frame with two coats of decoupage to seal it. I did not sand the window frame or repaint it at all. I love the old, shabby look to it. There's beauty there that didn't need improving.

I love the 'as is' look to the window. I hope my plan works and I sell out of the windows. I have about 12 that I need to sell. I'm hoping to get $10 each for them. We'll see.

The good news is, after all is said and done, I get to keep at least one of them. :)

52 Weeks to Better Health

Week 8 - Drink Green Tea

I love green tea. That is to say I love the Arizona brand diet green tea. Zero calories. Which means it's sweetened with aspartame. I don't love aspartame. In one's quest to get healthier, one should probably leave out consuming large amounts of aspartame. So really, week eight is about drinking green tea without the artificial sweetener. Oh, but wait, I'm supposed to be cutting down on my sugar intake, too! Okay, so during week eight I tried unsweetened green tea.

Um...yeah, that didn't go over so well. Unsweetened green tea....well....it kinda reminded me of grass. Not that I have ever eaten grass but should I one day find myself trying grass, I can imagine what it will taste like.

So week eight was kind of a bust but I have not given up. I'm going to continue to try green tea in a variety of forms until I fall upon a taste combo I enjoy. Currently I'm loving the Arnold Palmer. This is a drink made up of half iced-tea and half lemonade. It is a DREAM!

Yes, I know, lemonade requires sugar and I need to cut back on my sugar. I'm getting there. I am. What I would like to do, but probably won't until I'm home in Arizona, is brew my own green tea and make my own home-made lemonade. That way, I'll have more control over the amount of sugar in my drink while enjoying the fact that I've made something fresh and natural, from scratch, in my own home.

You'll have to come over and we'll enjoy a glass or two by the pool. I just need to get a pool first.

Week 9 - Exercise

Well, let's just say that week 9 was a bust. I purchased two Jillian Michael's workout videos and fully intended on starting my new workout regime in week nine but that just flat-out didn't happen. Can I get a do-over? I can? Good! Here we go with week 10!

Week 10 - Start my Jillian Michael's Workouts!

It's Friday and I have yet to crack those babies open. LOL! Yeah, I know! I know! But, hey, the week's not over so I'm still good to go. My hubby even said he'd do them with me. Oh, I don't think it's a show of support, really. No, I think it's more of the fact that I spent 20 bucks and he doesn't want them just collecting dust.

So, with that, I'll be getting off the computer now and popping one of those dvds into the system and get this butt moving!

Just let me finish this Arnold Palmer first.

52 Weeks to Better Health - Playing Catch Up!

Okaaaay - let's just get this out of the way. It would appear that someone (whom shall remain nameless) has a bit of difficulty getting to her blog on a weekly basis. Someone has a tad bit of trouble staying focused on goals. Someone, apparently, can't keep track of time week to week. I don't know exactly who this someone is but I'm going to give her a break mainly because she's really sweet, friendly, has a great sense of humor and makes really good fudge.

Fudge, not having anything to do with good health, but, hey....

So I...ahem...SHE would greatly appreciate it, I'm sure, if you would give her a break, too.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's catch up!

In the last three weeks, I've done (am doing today) three things that are VERY important to one's health and I HIGHLY recommend that you do these three things as well.


Week 5 - Yearly Medical Examination

It is recommended that we get a check-up with the doctor on a yearly basis. I am not very good at this. I'm in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" department and, generally, feel that as long as I feel good, everything must be okay, right? Well, if that isn't just down-right stupid. Many illnesses and diseases can be warded off or fully cured if caught early enough and many illnesses and diseases don't fully show themselves to you until you are feeling like complete poop. So, into the doc's office I went.

I've always been in good health having never had any surgeries, major illnesses or taken any long-term medication. She gave me the usual once-over including drawing blood for some baseline blood work. Everything came back normal with the exception of my bilirubin being slightly elevated. I need to go back in a couple of weeks to have that re-checked. I'll update when that is done.



Week 6 - Dental Examination

It is also recommended that we get our teeth examined and cleaned every six months. I'm not even going to go into detail about when my last visit to the dentist was. Let's just say I was due.

My dental visit was not nearly as painful as I expected. My hygienist was a sweetheart though a little goofy. She reminded me of Teri Garr's character in Friends where she played Phoebe's mom. Darling, nonetheless and gentle with her instruments. The doctor was awesome though I'm pretty sure he completely forgot my lower teeth. I'm not joking. I vividly remember him examining my upper teeth but it wasn't until my drive home when I was reliving the whole experience that, for the life of me, I don't recall him checking my lower teeth. That IS part of a normal exam, isn't it?

Well, I shall ask about it when I return on the 31st to get a couple cavities taken care of. Otherwise, everything else looked good. On my upper teeth, anyway.


Week 7 - Mammogram!!

Since I have reached the 'over 40' crowd....wait, make that the 'Over 40 But Can Pass for 35' crowd, thank you very much, it's time for me to have a complete stranger fondle my boobs and take explicit pictures of them and not just for fun like usual.

My appointment is today and words cannot express how excited I am. No, really. Words cannot express because there are no words. I'm NOT looking forward to this! Are there people who look forward to this? Probably. Weirdos.

Anyhoo, I'll report back every fun-filled detail next week when I post what I'm doing week eight.

Yeah, like that's going to happen! *snort*