Happy Birthday Ebbie!

So today my baby girl turned 5. Well technically she'll be 5 at 5:26 pm. A few weeks ago, I got a cooking magazine in the mail. It has a soul mates sweets section. She found said magazine and promptly found the ONLY cake and said she wanted it for her birthday. OK honey, anything for your birthday. Spoiled, very very spoiled. So this morning, ingredients in hand, I begin the tedious chore of making this cake. This very very special cake. I took pictures to show the process. Observe.


Princess Ebbie getting ready for school. Since she's in a pre-k program instead of actual school pre-k, she can get away with get ups like this. We're enjoying it, it's her last year to freely dress as she chooses for school. Kinda like in Big Daddy, when Frankenstein wore all that crazy stuff lol.

*Note: You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them*




Here's where the fun begins, note the picture of this cake I'm supposed to make. Pretty isn't it? It's a vanilla cake with chocolate icing. All made from scratch. YAY!



While making the batter, I notice the consistency is more like whipped cream instead of cake batter, but that must be how it's supposed to be.




Oops, she wanted PINK cake. Gotta make that happen.




After pinking the cake and putting it in the cake pans to bake, I begin making the other stuff, here's the vanilla syrup, which I'm told by the recipe I will need to baste the cake layers before icing them.




Creamy Chocolate icing. The recipe called for bittersweet baking chocolate, of course I couldn't find any anywhere. So I used semi sweet. What kid doesn't like a super sweet cake?



Finished chocolate icing. When I tasted it the first time, it was still warm and overwhelmingly sweet. After it cooled to room temperature, it tasted like the kind you buy at the grocery store. Pretty cool :)




Of course she picked out the same lettering we used last year, her 2 favorite colors. And what 5 year old's cake isn't complete with a wee bit of leet speak? (note the word five) For those not fluent in leet speak... It's when you combine letters with numbers that LOOK like letters. Like "leet" is actually spelled L337. In this case, Five is instead spelled F1V3. But I put the 3 backwards. I had no choice, they just don't give you enough letters!





Cooked cake pieces. They don't look so pink anymore.





Nope, no pink at all! I'm gonna be in trouble now.



At this point, Izzy comes in the kitchen yelling "CAKE!". Never knew a 19 month old knew the smell of cake lol. My little piggy.




Now the fun begins. The recipe told me to use parchment sheets in the bottoms of the cake pans. Now I'm using silicone pans, they are nonstick, why on earth would I use parchment? I now know I am NOT smarter than the recipe. Also, it called for 9 inch pans, I used 10 inch. Makes for cutting the layers in half a bit more fun. I swear, it was just absolutely delightful. Promise, no sarcasm. *rolls eyes*
Also note, upon further inspection, the INSIDE of the cake is kinda pink. I'm calling it her "Barely Pink" birthday cake lol.




Here's 3 of the layers done. I didn't take pictures of the first 2, well, because they were horribly atrocious. Which is why they were the 2 BOTTOM layers. Of course, I did much better with the top 2 layers. I had to brush each layer with the syrup to moisten it, I allowed 5 minutes for the syrup to soak in before icing. Total time spent on this cake at layer number 3's brushing was about 3 1/2 hours.



I took a picture of the final layer. I had to. It was a perfect layer and perfect for the top. It made me happy.



The final layer is on the cake. Brushed with the syrup and soaking.



After icing the final layer, I put the letters on, how cute! Now let's get a side view.



Wait a minute. Kinda looks like a stack of sloppy chocolate covered pancakes. What? It's not supposed to look like that? Let's take another look at the picture from the magazine.



Hmmm. It looks the same to me :) She's 5. She's not gonna care as long as she can eat it lol. I think I did pretty good.




Next time, if there IS a next time, I will be sure to follow the recipe. I am NOT smarter than the recipe lol. I will also invest in a cake knife. I think that would have made cutting the layers a whole bunch easier :)

Total time spent on cake from beginning prep to end result: 5 hours. Yes. I know. It's just a cake.

New Year, New Me

This year I'm in it for real. I'll be 31 (!!!!!) next month. I need to get a handle on my weight and find a happy place in my heart. I'm going for it full throttle. I want to lose 15 pounds, get career training and have money in savings. I want to either make my marriage better or get out. Alot has to change this year and it's starting with me. I've already managed to quit drinking every day, YAY ME! I'm not an alcoholic after all :) I need to get ahold of my anger, I let it affect too many other people. I need to learn breathing techniques to calm me. I will do chants as often as possible to calm me. I will be new, I will be refreshed and I WILL be HAPPY.

4 year old cha cha slide baby!

Kids are SO awesome these days. I have great pride :)

And let the Countdown Begin!

So here we have just over a month till Christmas, a little over a week till Thanksgiving. I think it's time to set aside my crafting and move on to HOLIDAY BAKING! Now, I just need some bread flour, cake flour and lots of yeast lol. I plan to start making my own bread soon and I just ordered my first fluted pan :) I see cookie production on the rise as well. This means I really must get my kitchen cleaned up and actually, I MUST clean off my junk counter to start storing up my baking supplies for the holidays. I will also need that space to sit all the goodies LOL. I will have to take LOTS of pictures and do LOTS of fun stuff with flour. I promise to be colorful and to never ever ever ever EVER attempt to make a fruit cake.

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Unintentionally took a couple days off lol. Tonight we're having lemon chicken in a white wine sauce. Smells tasty, lets hope it IS tasty. While dinner was marinating, I had an urge to make some sort of dessert. We had 2 older apples in the fridge and I decided to make apple tarts. I made some nice sweet pie crust and made some apple filling. I used a variation of a recipe I found for standard apple pie and then adjusted ingredients to fit the holiday season. The filling came out OUTSTANDING. The pie crust is just sweet enough to make me happy lol. They are currently in the fridge waiting to be baked while we eat dinner. I plan to brush them lightly with milk and sprinkle more sugar on top. I will post the finished pictures. Did I mention how proud I am of this? LMAO.


Pie Filling Yummy!


Pie crust... pre made :)


Ready and waiting to go in the oven :)


Finished product! I couldn't wait to try it till after I took the picture so one is missing a bite LMAO.

I Swear I'm not MIA

I know I know, where the hell have I been, right?

Insert slide show of 40+ pictures here.......

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v179/Ebbie/Projects/?action=view¤t=4a96a36d.pbw

I suppose a link will have to suffice since it's rejecting my photobucket. Evil Evil Evil blogger.....

well now you know :) More in depth update in a couple days after I get through and survive my weekend :)

Recycle any way you know how!

Wow, I'm slacking on my posts! I sometimes wonder who I'm really writing to besides myself lol. So I'm the queen of freecycle. I'm the queen of recycling my own goods as well. I have found a great amount of stuff these last couple weeks.


I've been wanting to decorate, but on our budget it's just not possible. So I freecycle. I get clothes for me and the girls, I get toys, I give away my junk as well. I will be posting a bunch of stuff today I'm pretty sure. I have managed to snag myself a bunch of little country style decor. Wooden heart shelves, wall baskets, door hangers, etc. I also got a HUGE framed pastel painting that barely fit in my car to hang over my "new" couch (bulk trash find). My neighbor is about to give me all her old crafting paints so I can decorate the shelves to my liking. This couch was put on the curb by my new neighbor. Our old couch was just that, old, and CHEAP. Just a note, if you buy furniture from Big Lots, you get what you pay for, seriously. I loved that couch, don't get me wrong. Our love seat is still fantastic, but the couch had been jumped on one too many times and the center of the frame was busted. You would literally sink 8 inches into a hole if you sat even CLOSE to the middle. We had a regular queen size bed pillow in the hole to prevent injury to Ebbie. So out that went when I saw this couch down the street. I walked down there, checked it out. It was a little stained up. But the cushions didn't even have butt dents in them. There was marker on the back cushions. I took them off, looked at the foam inside, no stains. All stains were exterior. I lifted the bottom and checked out under the springs, everything seemed to be in working order, nothing had been lost in the bottom either. There was one cracker under the cushions. I took my vacuum to get any crumbs out, cleaned under the arms where it gives way to the bottom. Took some laundry detergent and scrubbed at the few stains, most of them at least got a lot lighter. I then febreezed the whole thing and let it sit. I went to the store, got a burgundy king size flat sheet and made myself a sofa throw. New couch. It's actually quite comfy! Then I got this great idea. The throw pillows that matched the new couch were kinda tired, like kids had used them to beat each other for way too long. Besides, they didn't match or even coordinate with my other furniture (at this point, nothing matches lol). So I go outside and notice that the fabric on our old couch is still in good condition. Clean, unstained. I gutted the old couch. Took the fabric panels from the sides and back, cut open the cushions and took the stuffing. I will be making my own throw pillows today :)

As I said, you can recycle ANYTHING lol.
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So we got a kitten. His name is Khadgar. He is lovable, great to the girls, and he's helping balance out the hormones in this house. He's been here for 2 days now and I think he's quite settled in. Poor thing lived in a barn before here. He's 4 months old, never been bathed, no shots, nothing. At least he's litter trained.

I gave him a bath using dish soap last night because I read that the "grease cutters" in dish soap kill fleas. Yes, he had fleas. I think he might still have a couple, but not nearly as many. He didn't really like the idea of the bath, but he didn't fight too much. Then again, I mastered a LONG time ago the art of cat bathing. He did, however, let his feelings be known when I was scrubbing around his no no spot where there were a lot of biters. I have a nice gash across the back of my hand. Thank you for your mark of love Khadgar. But he's good otherwise. He loves to play, he doesn't cry all night. He loves to chase things across the computer screen. He actually listens when we tell him no (then waits till we turn our heads). All in all, he's great. I can't wait to find my kitty scissors so I can clip his damn talons. :)

Baby Weaning 101

Rule number 1: If you have the goods, don't be the one to put the baby to bed!

Doug and I have discussed this since he got home. It's time to wean Izzy. Ebbie was different, she was a bird type eater, she wasn't getting enough nutrition, she wasn't drinking enough fluids, and she was just THIN. So I let her wean herself... at 18 months. Izzy, however, has been eating fistfuls of table food since 10 months and has mastered the sippy cup and could win a gold medal. She only nurses when she's tired and then she goes to sleep. I've been having issues the last week or so at bedtime getting her to sleep because, well, I'm not really producing much milk since she's not really eating from me anymore. She arches her back and screams. It's been a struggle. Since Doug has come home, I've been having him test the waters with putting her to bed randomly without boob action (since he's without the goods) and she goes right to sleep for him. I had him put her to bed last night. She fought at first, didn't want to sleep. He let her cry for about 5 minutes, then went back upstairs, rocked her for a couple minutes and she was out. Here's the big kicker. She slept ALL NIGHT!!! When I put her to bed, she wakes up several times wanting more boob. Or she sleeps fitfully. I am now confident that should something happen to me, she will not starve, dehydrate, or die lol. The kids are now big enough that they don't NEED me and I feel better. The fun part is going to be seeing what his schedule is going to be like and when I have to put her to bed. I'm going to have to deal with the fighting for boob she will give me. I'm going to have to struggle against her screams and arching until she settles in from exhaustion and finally crashes out. I need someone here all day every day (or at least sleepy times) to take her to bed for me for a week till she is used to not having boob. That's not going to happen so I guess I will just have to make due. Either way, Doug is very proud of himself (as am I) that his daddy's girl will go to bed for him and not me. Ebbie is my mama's girl, he's got Izzy. We are content now. No more kids for us :) Who needs a boy in the mix to terrorize our girls? They do that to each other enough lol.

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So the wonderful knitted blanket is finally done. Well, almost. I'm finishing up the boarder stitches as we speak. I'll take pictures shortly. It came out very very nice and little miss Emma will be able to use this thing till she's 4 or 5, yay! It's nice and warm and pretty. Not overly girly, so I'm not pushing her to be princess-y. But she will be warm and snuggly and hopefully, this blanket will be her snuggly just as Ebbie's is hers. Ebbie won't go overnight ANYWHERE without her blanket that my godmother made her years ago. That poor thing has seen better days, but still she insists on having it on her bed on top of the sheets and comforter. It's a tie blanket and she holds on to one of the ties all night while she sleeps. Once I tested her and took it in the middle of the night, less than a half hour later she was screaming because she lost her snuggly. I think my next step will be making Izzy a snuggly. Right now she's still using a baby blanket, it's not too small. Yet. But it won't be long. So I think I'm going to get decorative and make her a toddler afghan to sleep with. I've been working on Ebbie's afghan for about 2 years now, if not more. But since she already has a snuggly, I've seen no rush for it. I guess to be fair, I'll have to make her a matching pillow just as I did for Ebbie lol. Pictures of those will follow as well :)