Post Everyday?

   I don't know if Sarah's noticed yet...But I have NOT been posting everyday.  I have just been so busy.  There aren't enough hours in the day.  Course, it would help if I actually remembered.  And felt super motivated.  Well, I'm going on a trip pretty soon.  Since I won't be working, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, being tired, I'll have more free time and will hopefully be writing more.  Wish me luck.  I've got to beat Sarah and write the amount of blog posts I need and more words to my novel than hers!

   This is November Blog Post: 7  Only 23 more to go!

I love my job!

   My job is the best ever.  The only thing that could make it better would be if I got paid for it.  Although I have made up for it with my 50% employe discount.  It makes their super cheap clothes crazy cheap.  I LOVE MY JOB!  And that's not the only part.  I actually love working there.  It's so much fun.  There isn't much of anything I would rather be doing.  There is really only one thing I have to do there that I don't like.  Steaming clothes.  It's like ironing clothes in the air.  The steam gets everywhere.  Other than that part, I love my job!  The other factors make up for the steaming.
   If loving my job (where I work at a clothing store), wanting to do it more, and doing it even though I'm not getting paid isn't assurance that I should get into the fashion industry, then I don't know what is.  I always had fashion design or fashion merchandising as my fallback plan.  I would go through phases where I liked one creative pursuit or another but I always had that at the back of my mind just in case.  Turns out, it's more exciting than I thought.  Yay!  I know what I want to do with my life!  Thank ya, Jesus!

   This is November Blog Post: 6  Only 24 more to go!

My Fashion Style

   I have decided my fashion style is shiny, sparkly, pizazz.  My decision was helped along by this thanksgiving/fall wreath that I got (with Dad's money) at Wally World (otherwise known as Walmart).  Hm, turns out Spellchecker is one of those Walmart haters.  Tell that to my awesome wreath!  Booyah!

    A closer shot of the sparkle and shine:

 

Best Wreath Ever!!

   This is November Blog Post: 5  Only 25 more to go!

Jack O'Lanterns

    We carved Jack O'Lanterns this fall!  Helen wanted to do a Boo ghost from the Mario games but it didn't work out so she changed it into a cat:

First Day of Work and The Mad-Bedazzler

   Just a Warning:  I was really tired when I wrote this.

What Me? Forget?

   Remember that post I wrote about making every day count?  Well it turns out that accounting for every moment of my day isn't very...what's the word?...do-able.  It was fun while it lasted though.  I just needed a job.  That picture up there shows one of the things I did.  I started a water fight.  I forget what we were doing outside in our pajamas but it involved the hose so I kinda...sprayed my sister all over.  She ran in to save her snowcone from the hose water, then filled up two glasses of water.  After locking myself in the bathroom, she said she had set the glasses down.  She had.  In the bathroom I had written a Peace Treaty for us to sign.  I eventually came out and sat down on one side of the glasses.  Then it turns out the reason she wanted me to come out of the bathroom was so she could spray me with water.  So I used what she had left Right There: the glasses of water.  Rookie Mistake.  After spraying me down she agreed to the peace treaty and we both signed it.  So yeah besides starting and ending a water fight I don't really recall anything of importance that I did at that time.  And remembering the water fight, as monumental as it was, was probably made easier by the fact that I have a picture.
   Now that I have a job, my time seems so much more valuable than it was before.  Make Every Day Count?  Check.

   This is November Blog Post: 2  Only 28 more to go!

NaBloPoMo

   National Blog Posting Month!
   It is National Blog Posting Month.  I don't know if it really is official...  My cousin thinks it is.  I do know it is NaNoWriMo.  November is novel writing month.  Ok so maybe that's not official either but I'm not the one who made it up.  So here's what I'm doing:  (Or really what my cousin and I are doing).  We are going to write a blog post every day and we're having a race to see who can write the most words of our novels.  Since she is still in High School and I have a job/internship, we aren't going to try to finish it we're just racing.  The fact that we are both doing it together (and racing) is great motivation.  No more waiting for inspiration.  It's time to go out and grab it!  If you want to check out how Sarah (my cousin) is doing this month, go to sarainelli.wordpress.com.  Remember to keep checking in everyday to see what's new in our daily posts.  No, I'm not using the royal our.  I mean both of our posts, sarah's and mine.

   This is November Blog Post: 1  Only 29 more to go!

Taco Cake

My grandma on my mom's side has a problem letting go.  I guess that's where I got it from.  I have yet to go through my knick-knacks and things that were on my dresser because I don't want to get rid of the stuff I've had forever.  It all has sentimental value.  And everything else from hats to books I feel like I'm going to use someday.

Homemade Rice Krispies

   WHAT?!  HOMEMADE RICE KRISPIES?  IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

   Yes.  Yes it is.   Here's the link.  Here's what I did:

   That's actually a failed attempt.

   Aaaand so is that...
   Ok so I didn't get it right.  And I tried three times.  Next time I'll follow the recipe.  I think it'll work.  It worked for that chick.  Who actually came up with the recipe.

Make Every Moment Count (for 30 Days)

   I've been graduated for quite some time now and still haven't gotten a job.  With nothing to do I haven't really been DOING anything.  As my first "summer", I guess I think I kind of deserved it.  After all, what is there to do anyway?  Well, visiting my sister Rachel last week shook me from my do nothing craze.  Every day and I mean Evvvery day we were out doing something.  (Helen was there too.)  We helped unpack and turn her place from a storage unit into a stylish and decorated apartment.  When we weren't doing that we were out shopping, out eating, out walking, or working out in her building's gym.  Ok, so we did have some time of relaxing (watching The Bible and her relationship videos)(kind of ironic considering none of us are in a relationship).  But the point is we were doing all of this at my sister's pace.  Have you met my sister?  She has to be doing something allll the time.  Her metabolism is crazy.  Now, I mean this all in the nicest way.  See, that's what I want to be doing.  Accomplishing something every moment.  Or Making Every Moment Count.

Blogging and Job Posts

   I was googling earlier and found this website called stevepavlina.com.  He has some very interesting things to say about blogging and jobs.  So if you're a blogger I would encourage you to read his posts How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) and How to Make Money From Your Blog. And if you have a job then read this one: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.  :)  While I don't agree with everything he says, he definitely has an interesting point of view and I respect his courage to be himself and not stress about insulting people with his opinion.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf?!

   I used Pioneer Woman's recipe from her cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks, An Accidental Country Girl.  She calls for the bacon to cover and tuck underneath the meatloaf.  Like so:

    Then, put the sauce on top.  But it doesn't let the bacon crisp up, which I don't like.  Soggy bacon is sad.  :(  So I thought I'd put the idea out there of either not putting a sauce onto it until it crisped up or putting it underneath the bacon.  I haven't done it yet so I don't know if it'll work but I'd say it's worth a try.  So maybe next time.

Baby Lizard!

   We've seen a lizard around our wood pile and the sides of the house.  He's pretty big.  He'll just sit around waiting for bugs to come by.  He's really cute.  One day I walked outside and saw this little guy.

Little baby!

Sprinkled Oatmeal

   When I was a kid the only way Mom could get us to eat oatmeal was if she got this dinosaur kind.  It had little dinosaur eggs in it.  When you cook the oatmeal and then stir it, the dino eggs would turn into little dinosaurs.  It made eating oatmeal fun.  We wouldn't get it that often.  So whenever we did get it, it was a special treat.
   Well, we were out of cereal one day, so I figured I'd have oatmeal.  Then I thought about the dinosaur oatmeal.  I mean the dinos were basically sprinkles.  Sugary taste and crunchy.

I tried the sequin sprinkles but they weren't right.

Surprise!

   One of my friends is going to college this august.  Her birthday is still some months away (November).  But I figure since she won't be here and we won't be able to celebrate it in person, we might as well take the opportunity to celebrate with her and have a surprise party.  Who would suspect a birthday party four months early?
   We got some party hats, some blower things (I forget what they're called), sparkler candles, a 1 candle and a 8 candle.  And a pinata.  I'm also thinking of getting silly string.  That way I have something I can throw at her.  Easier to clean up than confetti and adds to the surprise.  I'm going to make spice cake cupcakes with vanilla frosting.
   Seeing as how we aren't surprising her for another week, I'm not going to blog this until after, just in case.

   It's after!  And it was a success!

Homemade Oreos

   This is a recipe I got from smitten kitchen.  If you are going to do homemade oreos, I'd suggest using theirs.  I was going to do their recipe but then I found out that we were out of cocoa powder.  (It's always something.)  So i looked up a way to substitute nutella.  Turns out you can put in the same amount of cocoa powder and take out the same amount of oil, butter, or shortening you are using.  Or maybe bacon fat, if applicable.
   However...

Not Apple-Applesauce

   It was my turn to cook dinner tonight.  Dad and my sister, Rachel, were out and about getting sesame oil.  So I had some time on my hands.  I was looking for a fruit to prepare.  I saw the mandarin oranges and thought I might be able to make it into an orangesauce (instead of applesauce).  It was in light syrup.  I drained it.  I blended it.  It was just like a juice.  So then I was like well I'll add that can of pineapple and it'll be orange-pineapple juice.  I drained the pineapple first too.  At that point, it was thicker.  So I added cornstarch.
   I thought it was a good idea...My chef sister disagrees.

Random Cake Baking

   A lot of times while having a sleepover we're at a loss for something to do.  So we bake.  There's usually a cake mix or two around.  After baking, there's the frosting, which can get a little...creative.

Like I said...Creative.

Movies Movies Movies

   My family and I were house-sitting for some extended family.  While there we did a lot of tv watching.  Titanic was on tv one night.  I've been wanting to see it.  It was on amc and they changed it to PG for tv.  However, since when they record two television shows at once you have to be at one of them, and since it wasn't my house so I didn't want to not record their shows, I missed two half hours.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I picked up on everything that happened in those times.  I bought the movie, and watched it semi-for-the-first-time with my friend.  Since I had seen it in PG, I knew all the parts to skip and where they were without actually seeing them.  So we easily changed the video of the tv and skipped as needed.

Prepping to paint my room

I took all my things off of my dresser, desk, vanity, and bookshelf and packed them in boxes.  I took out everything else that was on the floor or around or anything.  I took the sheets and blankets and pillows off my bed.  Everything is out.  Here's the last pictures of my bland, white-walled room.

Mixed Berry Pie

   This is a recipe a lot like my Blackberry Pie recipe.  wikiHow's recipe is here.  They're where I got this recipe from.  I decided to follow the instructions this time (sort of).  I used frozen fruit, raspberries, black rasperries (or blackberries), and blueberries.  I didn't rinse them off.  There was ice frozen to them.  I figured since I had to add some water anyway, I might as well add that.
   I put 2-1/2 cups of them in a sauce pan with 2/3 of a cup of sugar and a teenie bit of water.  Put the heat to medium.  Mix 1/4 cup water and 2 TB cornstarch together in a small bowl until dissolved, then add it to the fruit.  Stir.  I took it back up to an almost boil.  Then I took it off the heat.

Blackberry Pie

   We have a really long driveway, like a reeeaaaally long driveway.  All the way at the end we have lots of blackberry bushes.  So, the other day my dad and I went blackberry picking.  (I got covered in bug bites because it was later in the day and I was wearing shorts.)  We got almost two cups worth.  Then we went up to the garage where there are a couple more little plants and got like one more berry.

Dyed outfit

   I have a really cute, old, outfit.  It's a shirt and skirt.  However.  It is a strange color and the armpits have sweat stains.
   So a long time ago I got some stain to dye it with.  And not that long ago I finally got around to dying it.

It looks whiter in this picture than it really is.

Zucchini Bread!

   Nom Nom Nom!  Zucchini bread is the bestest!  I remember making this at my friend's house.  There's a whole lot of kids in their house.  So that meant a whole lot of zucchinis to grate.  It took foreeeever...  We recently got zucchini and summer squash from a local farmer's market.  We waited too long for one of the zucchini.  It had already become tough.  So, zucchini bread was really my only choice, but that's ok with me.  I got out a grater which I've had back in my cupboard.  It has a clamp and spin the grater wheel design.  It made grating the zucchini so fast!  Way faster than I remembered it being as a kid.  And it keeps the grater away from my hand, which I greatly appreciate.  Using graters make me nervous.  :\  Sewing machines used to, too.  What's that called, GratoSewophobia?

Best extended weekend I've had in a long time!

   This week, our friends, Amanda and Josiah, came over for a visit.  We hung out...played mario kart, played risk, watched Monsters University, and made a crazy movie.  It was so much fun.  :D
   Helen won basically every single mario kart so we made her wait at the start line for 40 seconds before starting and she still won half the time.
   Risk was fun like usual.  Helen started out with a really lame set up.  (It was randomized.)  But she ended up winning anyway.  Siiiigh...

Sewing Machine

   I have a sewing machine.  I haven't used it in a while, but I do have a project that I'm working on.  When trying to think of what sewing machine to get, I texted my friend who has a sewing machine.  I asked her what brand of sewing machine she had...If she liked it...If she knew if this other brand was good...That kind of thing.  I also went to consumersearch.com and looked at what they thought the best ones were.  I chose the one that was mechanical, aka not computerized.  I don't want to pay the extra money.  So, I bought Brother XL-2600i.  It's very easy to use.  It came with instructions with a lot of pictures so I even figured it out myself.  However, I then had to wait for my friend to come over and interpret the sewingese in the pattern I bought from Wallyworld (otherwise known as Walmart).  But that's neither here nor there.

Love Cake

   Once again I got the urge to bake.  I was looking on my ds recipes game/thing (if you want to get it, which you should cuz it's cool, it's called America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking.  By Nintendo) for something to make.  I was thinking of doing bread or lemon bars, but I ended up doing emergency cake.  If you'll recall from my post Purple Goop Cake it calls for mayo.  (My sister Rachel is a chef and she said that isn't so weird.  It gives it creamyness.)  But I didn't feel like putting it in this time.  So I didn't.  I substituted milk instead of water and added a very big egg.  (Are you supposed to add milk to cakes and stuff?  I thought so but now I'm thinking that might not be right.  And mayo is made of eggs right?  So the milk will add creamyness and the egg will help it be thicker and stay together.)  Also we're out of cocoa powder, which it calls for as well.  So this is what I did instead:  (Oh and I used a bundt pan instead of a square one.  I couldn't resist messing up the baking time too apparently.)

Boots

I thought I'd put on some more of my boots, because I love them so much.  And to talk about boots in general.

   I saw these boots in one of the many boot stores in Gatlenburg while we were on vacation.  I absolutely fell in love with them.  They are gorgeous and Ariat's, which is a really good brand.  So I know the leather is quality leather.  If you care about the leather quality of your boots, basically a good thick leather and lots of give to it is what you are looking for.  Compare the thickness to other boots in the store, and press your finger on the leather and rub it to the side.  It should move.  It shouldn't be stiff.  It should have give, basically.  It's kind of hard to explain.

Chocolate Cake

   Today, I decided to make a cake.  I have these really cool silicone (or something) molds.  They're shaped like oreos.  So I looked for a devil's food cake recipe.  Here's what I came up with:
David Lebovitz' Devil's Food Cake Recipe

It made a really tasty cake.
   I did change something in it though.  I didn't have cake flour.  (Who ever does?)  So I looked up how to change all-purpose into cake flour:
Joy the Baker-How To Make Cake Flour
It's actually really simple.  Just so you know, all-purpose is not self-rising.  Which I had to look up too, because I didn't know.

Carrot Substituting

   I asked Mom to buy apples for a recipe that I wanted to do.  Time passed...But when I eventually wanted to do it, she said there weren't enough anymore.  Siiigh...  So I'm like "Well, carrots and apples are good with basically the same stuff."
   I peeled some carrots and chopped them up to big apple slice size and just put them in instead.  In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really into following the rules when I don't want to.  Following the rules would mean no apple crisp!  The show must go on!

Horses, Waterfalls, Mountains. Oh my!

While on vacation in Tennessee, we decided to go driving one day.  Kind of like hiking, except sitting on your butt with cheetos in your hand.  In my case it was a camera in my hand.  At least at first.
There were some horses we came up to.

Ripley's Aquarium

Here are some more pictures of the aquarium:

Vacation!

This past ten days we've been on vacation in Tennessee!  We did a little shopping...a little hiking...and a lot of having fun.
   Here's a pic of the Smoky Mountains:

Nancy Drew

   This movie is about Nancy Drew, played by Emma Roberts, solving a mystery about Dehlia Draycott, a actress found dead in her pool many years ago.  It is a humorous story, and a new twist on the old books what with Nancy being a teenager in high school.   After a hostage situation, her dad tells her to stop sleuthing while they're in California for his job.  But with the house she already picked out having a mystery, she just can't stay away from cracking the case.

Cream Puffs=Weapon of Mass Destruction?

   I baked something truly nasty.  It all started when I was playing a cooking game on the wii, Cooking Mama.  It's a fun game and it mentions the ingredients as you play.  So I figured "Hey!  If I could just figure out the amounts, I could make all the recipes!"  I asked Helen to play a few levels and I wrote down the ingredients and instructions.  Now, we didn't have any meat or anything lying around for me to play with but we always have flour and sugar.  So I decided on cream puffs.  Something I remembered after I cooked all this was that with meat and stuff it's hard to go wrong as long as you check the temperature.  Spices are fairly easy to do whatever you want and not use a recipe.  But with baked goods, you really kind of need a recipe or at least a knowledge of the ratios.  I tried to recruit Helen but she said it was a bad idea.
   I guessed all the amounts, did all the instructions, and...

Henna Tattoos

Helen and I got Henna Tattoos.  Here's Helen's:

It's a griffen with the sun behind it.  Here it's black because the stuff hadn't come off yet.  Basically
somebody draws a design on you.

Popsicle Stick Picnic Basket

   One sleepover, my friends and I dug out the box of popsicle sticks and searched the internet for something to make.  We decided on a picnic basket.  Here's a pic:

   Things you'll need:

How to fix worn black shoes

   I have a pair of shoes that are old hand-me-downs.  They'd been worn down at the tips and heels.  Here's what one of them looked like on the heel:

   So I got out a sharpie marker and touched up the areas where the black exterior had come off.

Flats

   I would say a good pair of flats are one of the most important things in any gal's wardrobe.  The right pair can add that extra oomph to your outfit.  (I can't believe spellchecker doesn't mind the word oomph)  I currently have three different pairs:

    These are ballet flats, in other words super comfortable.  I like to have a black pair of flats that goes with anything but still has a little something extra, in this case fabric flowers.  Just because it's

My Gardens

   Well it's the end of April and we finally planted a garden.  The flower garden was covered in leaves, ivy stuff, and an old abandoned anthill.  So after clearing all that out and planting the flower seeds, this is what it looks like:

   I know it doesn't look like much, but I'm just proud to have a flower garden.  I've had a vegetable garden before but never a flower garden.  Please grow.  Please grow.

   For the vegetable garden we put up weed blocker, which is basically cheater tarp.  Now I only have

Painting Sleepover

   It turns out that a painting sleepover is even funner than it sounds.  We all went to the store and everyone got to pick out their own canvas size.  Then we split the cost on paint and brushes.

The black on the bottom of this one and the top of the other is just from the photo i took.  It's not part of the painting.

Purple Goop Cake

Yes, you read the title correctly.  Sadly it tastes as bad as it sounds and looks...

I started with a chocolate cake recipe that I got off a cookbook on my dsi.  It's an emergency chocolate cake.  In other words, it only uses ingredients that are usually in your pantry.  The weird thing is that it calls for mayo.  Once it's cooked you can't taste the mayo it's just to give it creaminess.  So that's actually not the thing that makes it taste bad.  However, I didn't have flour...