Another Day, Another crunch

    Ok, so today I have a to do list taller than my house.  I might get something done, though I doubt it will be significant.  I did, however, manage to get the living room picked up first thing this morning, though by now, I'm sure it's back into it's catastrophic state.  I have rats to care for, dishes to do, and I have this extreme urge to clean and reorganize the fridge.  I think I will do that first lol.  I'm almost done with baby shower gifts, getting ready to start on wedding gifts. And quilts. And old blankets that still need to be finished.  And holiday stuff like costumes.  Oh jeez.  I think my list just got bigger.

Adventures in Procrastination

I seem to do better under pressure.  Perhaps that is why I procrastinate, and why I do it so well.  I had promised myself that I would make Izzy's birthday cake yesterday and wrap her presents as well.  That way today could be nice and relaxed.  Well, neither happened.  And I slept WAY in this morning.  So we had brunch, Izzy went up for her nap and I've been go go go ever since.  So here's how my afternoon went.

     So, got up at 11-ish (fell asleep on the couch last night, ugh).  Made the girls lunch.  Played around for a bit with them.  Then Izzy had to go up for her nap.  This is when I went into full *mom has too much to do* mode.  I started making the cake.  Then I started making the frosting.  Izzy was very specific about her cake.  Chocolate cake with purple chocolate icing.  Now we all know you can't make brown into purple, so of course, to cater to my baby girl, I got white chocolate.  Here's some pictures:

So yeah.  She's spoiled.  Both of them are.  When it comes to birthdays, we don't have much to give, but since I'm a lowly stay at home mom, I can at least manage the cake of their desires, as you've witnessed before.  Once the frosting was prepared, I set forth in wrapping the gifts.

I swear it looked like more in the store bags lol.






I finally took a breather about 4 hours into it all.  Then we brought down Izzy, showed her all the wonders that she would enjoy after dinner.










Then we had pizza.... again.  This is 4 times now this week, simply because it's Izzy's favorite food, and I allowed her to pick most of the meals for her birthday week.


But before I get too ahead of myself.... I want to make one thing clear.  I have those little gel icing things so you can do writing on a cake.  Recently, I found Ebbie in the kitchen eating from them.  Sneaky little brat.  So I hid them, up high.  Apparently they got really warm and somewhat separated.  I managed to do the best I could with writing on the cake.  And for reference, if you ever make cake from the side of the Hershey's cocoa dark container, don't expect icing to be pretty.  Here's what I mean.

See the pieces of cake that floated up into the icing? It's a very super soft and super moist delicious cake.  It crumbles super easy, so icing is very tricky.  5 years of making this cake and I STILL can't ice it without the crumbles, but who cares? 

No, it doesn't say 31, it says 3!  But like I said, the gel stuff was oozy.  Like.... say.... runny.  Just look.

In the beginning this was a heart.  I swear.  Izzy didn't seem to notice the catastrophes.  She was thoroughly impressed with the whole purple-ness of it all.  That was enough for me.  Her wish was granted. 

Have you ever seen a dirtier, happier birthday girl? I think not.  Mission accomplished :) Regardless of procrastination.  

Feeling the crunch

     Well, with all the frugalities aside, I'm also feeling the cleaning crunch.  I get so caught up in fixing everything else that I forget about the normal day to day things.  In the wake of my crafting frenzy, I've neglected my poor home.  And my girls have done nothing to help.  There are toys EVERYWHERE.  And I mean that.  I found a toy behind the toilet this morning.  How in the world did that get there? I've noticed that everything needs a good deep cleaning.  I think I'll start this friday morning (that would be tomorrow for those that are calendar impaired).  So today, my job is to put away the rest of the laundry and begin making a list of everything in detail that needs to be done.  Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, I'll have most, if not all, checked off.

     Another thing that needs to be done: Cleaning out the girls toys.  With Izzy's birthday party Saturday and Christmas just around the corner, I do believe that the girls need to weed out their toys.  I really would love to spend a whole day just sitting and going through their menagerie. Ebbie has a toy box.  It's filled with stuffed animals.  Yes, a toy box of stuffing.  I'm doing some serious thinking about what I can put up in her room to showcase these fluffy friends without causing more clutter.  The only solution I can see is to get her a bigger book shelf.  Books on the bottom, critters on top. And she seriously needs a big girl desk.  We're looking into getting her the nickelodeon dell laptop either for Christmas or her birthday.  She'll need a big girl desk for that.  Then we move on to poor Izzy.  She has such a small room, I would love to dress it up a little and make the most of the little space she has.  As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to make these my projects (can you see me getting in over my head here?).  I think she needs to be rid of some of the "baby" toys, and move on to the big girl toys.  As a matter of fact, there should be hardly ANY toys downstairs now.  She's big enough that if she wants to play, she can go play in her room, right?  I'm not moving too fast with this am I? I would love for my living room to be just that.  And then I could put the girls desks where the toys are.  Along with a crafting station of some sort.  Pardon me as the thoughts flow lol.

      I disappeared for a couple hours and lost my train of thought. Perhaps that's a sign for me to escape the rest of the day. Or perhaps that just means shut up and get back to knitting cause I only have a few weeks left.  Either way, I guess that's the end of my brain function for the day lol.  Well, that is, until it's time to make dinner. Making one of hubby's favs: pork lo mein ala Mo.  :)

    

Tragically Frugal Times

I have begun a mission. Times are tight for the next 4-6 months. In this time frame, I must purchase birthday gifts, wedding gifts, baby gifts, Christmas gifts, make Halloween costumes, etc. My first major task at hand is the Halloween costumes. And this is why I write today.

So Ebbie wants to be a witch. Nice, simple. Great! However, Izzy wants to be "Alice". Not so nice, not so simple. Ugh. So here is where my dilemma begins. The big "Halloween fabric" sale is going on this week. And I can't go. Period, end of. Not happening. However, luckily, I have a roll of 12 yards of hideous fabric in my closet. It's a brown/maroon paisley monstrosity that I purchased on clearance when I decided it would have to do for my living room curtains. Needless to say said curtains never got made. Now, I can't seem to see any kind of issue in dying this fabric black continuously until the print no longer shows. But dying it blue? Or getting it white? I've been doing some research and have seen the Rit dye color remover, but will this work on this fabric? And will I, then, be able to dye it a nice light blue? Or leave it white for the apron? This is my major dilemma. Any assistance? Is anyone even reading this? PLEASE HELP! (lol)

Hopefully, I will be able to craft up something special for a baby shower and wedding gift. And hopefully, I will be able to do that with a little discount yarn. And hopefully, Santa will be extremely generous this year and I won't have to pay a cent out of pocket (but somehow I don't see that happening). Perhaps, this is all a valuable life lesson so that I can learn to be more thrifty and actually have money in savings. Now there's a noble thought.

My very first task, even though I'm technically working on the costume situation, is Izzy's birthday party this weekend. And looking into the face of good ol' hurricane Earl, this could get interesting. I'm making her a dark chocolate layer cake with white chocolate icing. But the icing will be purple, per her request. She'll have a few gifts to open, and a ton of ice cream to make a mess with. And as long as Earl stays at bay, or at least allows us to keep our power on, these plans are full steam ahead. Once this weekend is conquered, I'll be moving on to the more tedious tasks. And as the days go by, I have a feeling I may be blogging A LOT more, simply to vent, or to at least get my thoughts out into cyber space in hopes that someone will have pity on me and explain all this to me in a way that a 5 year old would fully understand.

So keep your eyes open, cause something tells me there's going to be a lot of blogging going on soon.

Ever have the overwhelmed head spinning thing....

While you're actually sitting down? That's how I feel right about now. It's all good. I do this to myself every day. I look at my house and think of all the things that need to be done and while thinking of this as a whole is overwhelming, I know that if I make a list and pick a day to do certain things that it will eventually all get done. However, this IS America, and we DO love instant gratification don't we? Suddenly I want to cast a spell and have a whirlwind come through my house throwing everything back in place and taking all the dirt with it lol. Wouldn't that be GREAT?!

Nothing is more motivating to clean a certain room than, well, bugs. Bugs are great.... outdoors.... and away from me. In my house, there should be NO bugs. But there are. We have the super ladybug population here, so every time the weather gets warm, these little buggers find a way in. I don't know if they eat through the walls or what, but they find a way in. And then they die. Everywhere. Yay for Dyson and it's cyclone technology and telescopic handly that allows me to suck them up from a distance because for some reason, I'm utterly sickened by the sound of dead lady bug carcasses crunching and clacking as they get sucked up. We also now have ants. Not a lot, just a few.... at a time. They like my window over my sink in the kitchen. I do believe they may be living in it. They appear to be carpenter ants, which I'm used to and know how to ward off, but even rainy days don't stop the little buggers. They come out in groups of 3 and 4, explore, and then run back to tell their friends. I've spent the last 3 days wiping down their pathway with vinegar in hopes of confusing them and causing them to just go away. It's not working. I'm seriously thinking of lining all the windows, doors and corners of my house with double sided tape. They might find a way in, but once they walk across the tape.... they are here to stay lol. Or not. I could definately imagine hearing Ebbie or Izzy or both screaming "MOMMY! I'm stuck to the window!" Hmmm, now that I think about it.....

So I'm in spring cleaning mode. Mentally. Physically, notsomuch. I have such a long list of things I want to get done, but my first priority is cleaning and decluttering. First and formost, my kitchen needs rearranging. I'm not feeling my yin and yang getting along too much in there. I'm taking care of that today. I hope. I need to weed through the catastrophe of the living room and get rid of a BUNCH of toys. I really really think my kids have too many toys. I never could have imagined having this many toys as a child. It's ridiculous. Really. I need to organize my office. Everything else is just normal cleaning and can wait since it's all upstairs and who cares what my upstairs looks like anyway? LOL!

In the midst of all this, I have to go on a statewide hunt for strawberry flavored Kool-Aid powder. I've looked in at least 4 stores now and no one carries it. I think there is a strawberry Kool-Aid nazi here. Seriously. No strawberry Kool-Aid vor joo! 2 weeks!

Wow, it's been a year already?

So I have the tendency to forget I have a blog lol. It's ok, no one reads it anyway, right? Right?? So, Ebbie's birthday (number six!) is coming up soon. Very, very soon. And this year, she has requested yet another decadent cake. This year, she wants a really chocolately cake with strawberry cream cheese icing. Keep in mind that this child does not really like REAL strawberries, she likes candy strawberry flavor. So we will be flavoring her icing with Kool Aid. Yes, you read that right. I'll be posting another picture diary of the making of this. I'm hoping to make it look really super awesome and colorful. Let's see how well I can fail this one LOL!

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.