My First Tutorial

I like reading other blogs and seeing the crafty cutesy things that others can do. I by no means feel that I am crafty or cutesy,  but I tried out a new cake technique and it turned out pretty awesome, so I thought I'd share my secret.

Shayla's zebra cake. Pretty simple, really.

For the zebra effect, take small rolled out snakes of black fondant and lay out a pattern over an unrolled slab of white fondant. (make sure you put in little "y's" because zebras don't have perfect stripes.)

Carefully roll out the fondant and the black wormy parts will moosh in with the white. If it doesn't stick it's because you have too much powdered sugar in between them. Just wipe it lightly with a wet paper towel to get it to glue together then roll it a little more.

To make the bow just cut out strips of fondant about an inch wide and 5 or 6 inches long. Curl them over and "glue" the ends with water. Pinch them off a little so they are tapered.  Let them dry out a little overnight and then use melted white chocolate as a glue to put your bow together.

Vio-la!

Snow Day

Let's get this out in the open first. I loath winter. Especially now that I have a 45 minute commute across wind swept farm land and blows snow around creating treacherous conditions.

But today- today was awesome. It was snowing snowballs. I mean it- the flakes were all stuck together and it was coming down in preformed snowballs. My sister brought her kids over to hang out while she helped my mom. Dallin wanted to play in the snow... I thought for the first time in *years* that I wanted to too! I put on my snow boots and a sweatshirt (my coat is still in a box somewhere).  Sadie even got in on the action and came up with some snow gear. I haven't had that much fun playing in the snow in forever.

We built a snowman and made snow angels.  I dragged Dallin around on the sled and he *tried* to drag me. I knew he wouldn't be able to- but he insisted so I let him try. It was hilarious.  We even had a good old fashioned snowball fight.  (Sadie can only hit about one in ten- but she always makes that one count.  She got me in the head almost every time she hit me.) 

Then it was inside for homemade soup and hot homemade bread!  Not a bad beginning to winter.

It got worse. I sang Christmas songs all day and even popped in the Grinch for the kids (right, the kids- not me.) Our tree is up but not decorated. If I'm not careful I may start getting in the Holiday mood before Thanksgiving this year.

Good News Bad News

I always like to do the bad news first. I don't know why.  I guess I'd rather end on a slightly higher note than the one I began with.  A few days ago I was rummaging around barefoot in my room and *sloshed* my foot in a puddle.  That's never good.  We found that there is a long crack in the foundation of the house.  The smell of the old wet carpet pad would make your toes curl.  I have subsequently moved out of my bedroom- hopefully temporarily.  I'm sort of half in the room next door and half living at my sisters.  One sister is out of town for work so I'll sleep in her comfy bed while she's gone.  We'll see what happens when she gets back. There are plenty of spare beds at my parents house. But I've been spoiled with how awesome- and how big- my bed is. I forgot what it's like to sleep with my feet hanging off the end of the bed because I'm too tall for it.

You ready for the good news?

All this means that the wall has to get torn out and *that* means

NO MORE CREEPY WALL PAPER!!!

That's right! The killer corn husk dolls are going to be but a memory... or recurring nightmare.

Pulling down the panelling on the wall also revealed the former occupant's taste (my big brother had the room originally) so for your viewing pleasure, and as a respectful farewell to the decorating taste of siblings past:

I think I prefer the sports wallpaper.

.0003 Seconds of Fame

Dear Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,

Hi, I don't know if you remember me, but I was one of the zillions of Pocatello-ans standing in a crowded, sun-stroked group of screaming idiots on your visit to my hometown (area).  If you don't remember me by name, then perhaps you can re-watch tonight's episode. About 45 minutes into the show, just after the family pulls up to the house in the limo, you scanned the crowd.  I'm the gigantic fuzzy blob of white that's waving (but not looking at the camera because I was forbidden and threatened that if I did, I would not be on the show).

I would like to thank you for my first Hollywood exposure tonight (as well as a possible exposure to skin cancer).  I waited long and terrible hours for that split second of TV time.

That's a Nice Story, Grandma: Halloween Edition

My dad. This would be my first Halloween. I am a little less than a month old. Awww...

I have always loved Halloween. It's not like it was when I was a kid though.  I loved going to school and anticipating all day that when lunch time came, mom would be there to pick me up and take me home to eat and change into my costume.  Then back to school and the rest of the day would be a party.  Chubbuck Elementary knows how to do Halloween right (and from what I understand they are the *only* elementary in the district that still allows Halloween parties. Sad).  We would have individual classroom parties with things like cookie decorating or bobbing for apples. I think one year we carved pumpkins and I'm pretty sure that's where I memorized the movie "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

My sister Valeri is the clown. I'm the poor gingerbread man.

Throughout the day the grades would take turns parading through the school around to all the other classrooms to show off costumes.  I loved watching what costumes other people came up with. I always thought the kids who wore plastic store bought costumes were cheating. Mine were all homemade (hand-me-downs yes, but still homemade) For the longest time I was always a witch. My mom made a black nightgown-y costume for my oldest sister and it got passed down through all the girls and finally to me. I wore it at least three or four times. There was also a clown costume that got passed around the family and the little kids wore a gingerbread man suit.  In fourth grade I dressed up like a Cabbage Patch doll. My mom made me a yarn wig and a dress to match my homemade Cabbage Patch baby.  One year the sixth graders turned their "team" classroom into a haunted house.  They had different booths where you would put your hand in and feel something gross. One thing was like, peeled grapes and they called them eyeballs- or cooked spaghetti noodles and said it was brains. Eeeew.... The next year I was in sixth grade and we did it again. My job was to jump out and scare kids.

After school we'd get home to the house smelling of awful homemade chili (sorry mom).  It was tradition in our house to eat chili on Halloween and we could not go trick or treating until we ate some.  To this day I am not a fan of Chili (but I ate some today- canned- just for tradition sake).

Dressed appropriatly, no?

It was/is usually cold this time of year in Idaho- so more often than not we had to wear a coat while trick or treating.  *Had* to. The choice was "wear a coat, or don't go." No one wanted to cover their costume, so we'd wear our coats under our costumes. I was always a skinny kid- but on Halloween night I turned into a very fat little witch.

We would take pillowcases and head out with Dad to do the neighborhood rounds.  None of this Trunk or Treat, or trick or treating at the mall crap- Halloween was an actual community event. If the porch light wasn't on- then we knew not to go to that house. But everyone else was fair game.  It was awesome when the Fosters moved into town because they gave away full size candy bars. SCORE! When our Pillowcases were about... oh... half full (these are standard size pillowcases, people, not those lame little pumpkins they use these days) we'd go home.  We'd pick a corner and spread our loot out on the floor. Mom got first dibs at the Bit o Honeys (which was no loss in my book), those gross peanut butter nougat-y thingies that are wrapped in black and orange paper (do they still make those? bleh)  and the Tootsie Rolls (we had to negotiate those ones).  Then we would barter amongst ourselves. "I'll give you two Pixie Stix for a Kit Kat."  Then we'd put our stuff in a bowl and usually mine would end up "hidden" under my bed where it would stay till Christmas then get pulled out to share with everyone else.

Dad always took us trick or treating. I remember the first year he couldn't. He was sick.  We came home at the end of the night and he was sitting on the porch with a bowl of candy and a headband of bobbly stars on his head looking more forlorn than I've ever seen. It was sad. Honestly.

Move over, Elphaba. Here I come!

I have many more Halloween memories, but I should have started recounting them earlier. I'm weird about celebrating holidays that are past. Now it's time to start thinking of Thanksgiving stories.