Progress and Excitement

Just have to add the 3D dots to give it some depth

and then I can mail it to my nephew, in time for his birthday.

I'll actually be on time FOR ONCE!

And, guess what came in the mail today...

 Yep. That's right. My rock-awesome shoes.

 I was so excited, it was ridiculous.

I want to wear them to bed...

But I won't.

Maybe.

{:

Web Wed

I love Halloween. And not in a small, looking-forward-to-candy way. I mean in a I-already-have-our-costumes-planned-and-am-working-on-decorations way. Yep. You read right. I know what we're all going to be on the big night. And it's only the end of July. Looking around, I found a blog that has tons of great ideas for cheap decorating ideas. He even says, "Feel free to borrow [this label] if you like... If anyone actually uses my label, send me a picture. I'd love to see it." I love bloggers like that. They know they have a great thing, and they share it. Just fabulous. Here are just a few things he's made that I fully plan on re-creating myself this All Hallows Eve:

Flameless candle from a small pumpkin tea light, toilet paper tube, hot glue gun, and paint.

The hand of Captain James Hook

 A dripping severed head. A little gory, but still so cool!

Ectoplasm

Mummy Dust-this is just a picture he took of window displays at Disneyland, but it would be fairly easy to recreate something similar.

 How to give a newer book an old look and feel.

 Spider Cage

Tomb Stone Polish

(He shows you how to make the plaques on the bottles for both this one and the Ectoplasm.)

Fun, right? So, here it is:

Dave Lowe Design: The Blog!

He's also an amazing sketch artist, and he has the cutest niece that makes appearances in his blog from time to time. He has designed sets on tv shows, designed landscapes for HGTV, he's even been known to knit. Alone. In the dark.

Really, this guy does it all.

Don't just read the most recent blog posts. Go back and look through most of his stuff if you can. I've spent the past few days going through his entire blog (yes, from 2011 all the way back to 2005) and really enjoyed it. If I didn't have to pump and feed a 4 month-old every few hours, I wouldn't have had the chance, I'm sure. So thanks to my baby V for letting me feed him. {:

And thank heavens for Dave and his awesome blog, tuts, and fun inexpensive ideas.

Cake, Cake, and Cake. Oh, and did I mention cake?

Today, I will be making cake. Two in fact. I have a Relief Society bbq tonight and I'm in charge of dessert, which makes me really happy. I LOVE making desserts. Almost any kind. And while I'm a little ashamed to say these won't be made from scratch, (big shoutout to Pillsbury) they still taste great. I've been told a couple times that I when I make a cake from a box, I do a great job of making it taste homemade. So, I'm hoping these turn out that way today.

The first cake I'll be making is called Better Than Sex cake, but since this is a church function, I've been calling it Procreating. G-rated for the sisters, of course.

Here's the gist:

• 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix (any chocolate will do)
• ingredients called for on boxes (usually eggs, oil, and water)
• Large mixing bowl, preferably with cup measurements
• spatula
• 11x17 (or 12x16) cookie sheet (with raised edges)
• hand mixer or wire whisk
• 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 bag of Heath pieces or 4 Skor bars crushed to pieces
• 1 tub of Cool Whip (I'm using the 16 oz for both cakes, so an 8 oz if you're only making one
• butter knife

Preheat the oven to 350degF. Spray your pan with Pam, or coat it with shortening and flour. Mix both boxes of cake mix and their ingredients together. You'll end up with about 10 cups of batter, but you won't be using all of it. Pour about 7 1/2 cups in. That's 1 1/2 cakes if you think about it.
Bake it for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
After it has cooled, cut jagged lines just on the top of the entire cake and drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the cuts so that it can soak through the cake. You don't need much, but this cake is not about what you need. It's about what you want. And because we're talking about chocolate cake, you might as well make it the way you want and pour it on, right?
Sprinkle the candy bar pieces over the entire cake. Serve immediately with Cool Whip or refrigerate until serving. 

I'm not entirely sure how this cake's name came about, but I think it has something to do with the sounds people emit while eating it. Just a guess though.


Now, onto the Sinful Strawberry cake.

• 2 boxes of white cake mix
• ingredients called for on box (eggs, oil, water, etc.)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can strawberry pie filling
• Cool Whip
• large bowl
• spatula
• hand mixer
• 11x17 (or 12x16) cookie sheet (raised edges, of course)
• butter knife

Preheat oven to 350degF.
Yet again, mix the boxes of cake mix with the oil, eggs, and water.
Add the pie filling, but don't use a whisk or hand mixer. I like to fold it in with a spatula so that there are still big chunks of strawberries in the cake. If you don't like chunks, use the hand mixer.
Pour onto your greased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until you poke it with a toothpick, etc. This one is more moist so it needs extra time. After it has cooled, do the same thing, cutting lines and pouring on the sweetened condensed milk.
You can add fresh cut strawberries thrown with a bit of sugar on top if you want, but I don't have them. Nor do I have the time to go get them, so it's just sugary goodness for us. No pretties. {:
Like with the chocolate version, serve immediately or refrigerate until serving with a dollop of Cool Whip.

With this cake, it was too moist for me. I probably could have added a bit of flour to it and it would have turned out a little better. But at least I know for next time.

Now, for the leftover batter, I'd been dying to try out my new giant cupcake pan (that I got with my free $25 gift card from Steamy Kitchen, remember that?) So, I put the chocolate in the bottom and the strawberry batter in the top. No bueno. I should have switched because even though I sprayed the pan the strawberries still got stuck in the top and it did not come out well. But the girls ate it while I finished getting ready, so no pictures of my screw up. I have one picture of the Procreating cake, but it's not loading very fast so I may upload it later.

After the bbq:

The chocolate cake was a hit. I came home with just 4 pieces left. The ones that tried the strawberry said it was great, but I have tons leftover. However, many of the ladies are chocoholics like unto myself, so that's understandable.
Let me know if you make either of these cakes! You can e-mail me pictures at:
NSisifo (at) yahoo dot com

I'm Back!

Alright, I'm back in the land of the blogging. My internet is fixed, and let me tell you, it was perfect timing. Not even kidding.

See, I'm a member of the site MySurvey.com. As you can probably guess, I take surveys and get rewarded points, anywhere from 5-500, depending on the length of the survey. I've been saving up my points for something big. I hadn't found anything amazing yet, but I wanted it to be really good. And I mean REALLY GOOD.

You're going to think I'm crazy, but I've had my eyes on these for a while. We're on a REALLY tight budget right now, so they haven't been an option until we're much more stable. But when it comes to footwear, I am in either flip-flops or nothing at all. So these are great for when I need a tiny bit more coverage. (Like when I'm chasing Tornado and Hurricane around. A.k.a. my two oldest kids.)

Anyway, on this MySurvey site, I can redeem my points for Amazon Gift Cards ($10, $15, or $25 increments per so many points) and guess what Amazon

*JUST STARTED CARRYING...

You got it!

My Vibram FiveFinger Classics.

And guess what else...

They had ONE left in my size!

So, guess what I will be getting in the mail in a couple of weeks...

Ask me if I'm stoked. Go ahead, just ask. {:

But I'll get back to regular posts next week. I promise.

*I dare you to look at the related searches and not laugh.

Web Wed (early)

My internet is having fits this week, so I'm posting Web Wednesday early, just in case.

Right now, I'm in love with papercuts. Not the little devils you get from handling paper. No, no, no. I'm talking about this and this. What are they you ask? They are HANDCUT first of all, used for cards, decor, whatever. This woman is amazing. Her blog is Scherenschnitte and she is a papercutter. I just discovered her a couple of days ago, and I spent an hour just looking at ALL of her blog posts. Her talent is insane, her designs are extremely intricate, and let me just tell you, I no longer feel deprived not having a Cricut.

This is a design I am working on right now for my nephew for his birthday next month: Dino Ride. He's into dinosaurs, and even has a huge mural on his wall of a t-rex breaking through, so I thought he'd love this one. I'll post a picture when I'm finished. It's so fun, and while I can only work on it when my girls are asleep, I'm really excited about it!