Ice Cream Pinata

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!!

When you usually feel old on your birthday, what's better than a pinata to make you feel like a kid again?!?! I made this one for Nancy who had a big birthday this past Sunday. We decorated her cube at work and this was the main attraction. We had some doubts about whether the hanger would hold until she got there, but it DID!

I found the idea and tutorial over at Simply Modern Mom! It was very helpful as this was my first ever paper mache project...I know, I know I was a deprived child...ha ha...just kidding.

The best part about this whole ordeal was breaking it yesterday! It was one tough pinata!!

Has anyone else ever made a pinata?

Thursday Night Softball

Pretty much every Thursday you will find me out at the softball fields cheering B onto victory...well that is when I'm not distracted by new apps or good stories from the rest of the wonderful ladies I "cheer" with...ha ha

My Kind of Apron

So with all the baking I'm doing these days I need a cute apron right?!?! Well sadly this wasn't for me...boo.

I made this apron for the bride to be/now wife to go along with her kitchen shower at my house. I left the top blank so all the ladies could write on it.

Don't be mad, but I forgot to take pictures of making the apron and then after everyone signed it...next time I'll be better I promise.

So to make this I just bought a plain apron, the trim and the flower buttons from Hobby Lobby. The zebra fabric I already had from when I re-covered my vanity chair. I traced the out line of the bottom of the apron onto the zebra fabric and cut it out then I glued it on...didn't know and still kind of iffy on how to use the sewing machine. To keep it looking clean, I also cut slits at the pocket seems and tucked/glued the fabric in.

The trim and buttons I sewed by HAND!! Like I said...no sewing machine skills. Luckily I had thread that matched perfectly. And that's all! Now she has a cute apron to wear with lots of sweet messages on it. Hopefully it won't get dirty...don't know how well my sewing job will hold...ha ha

Blackberry Crisp

YUM!

My mom had ordered some gorgeous organic blackberries from our neighbor's friend and when I went to pick them up I mentioned that I wish I had a recipe to make using some of these. And wouldn't you know she had a recipe for me to try! My favorite part is the crumble on top...mmmm.

Blackberry Crisp
from the kitchen of the lovely Ms. Carmel

The Fruit:
4 cups blackberries
1 T flour
3 T light brown sugar
1 tsp orange rind

The Topping:
1/2 cup flour
6 T light brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
4 T unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375F

Toss fruit with 1 T of flour, 3 T of light brown sugar and 1 tsp orange rind. Put in 8" glass pie plate. Combine dry ingredients, cream in butter. Put mixture over berries and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until the top is light brown and the juices rise

SYTYCD Season 8: Top 12

This week all the couples performed 2 routines and there were only a couple of dances that I really liked...a lot looked kind of sloppy, but nevertheless they all can out perform me ha ha.

Favorite Dance: Performed by Jordan and Tadd, Choreographed by Travis Wall (I love the darker performances...so edgy)

Favorite Girl: Melanie (her trick at the end of the tango...WOW and her contemporary equaled amazing)

Favorite Guy: Tadd and Marko (it's a tie at this point...what can I say...oh and Jess also surprised me last night)

Next week the couples split up and the All-stars are back! I love watching Allison and Twitch, but sadly no Neal this year...boo.

What I see from 7 to 5...

Look at all that stuff! And that's my desk clean!! You can't tell in the pic, but I realized today that I have 7 calendars around me at work. You would think I would always know what's going on, but sadly I still forget stuff.

This would be the picture for July on the calendar I like to look at the most and where I would like to be at this very moment! Hopefully one day soon I'll have my "toes in the water, ass in the sand"

This is just because I discovered Instagram for the iPhone yesterday and had nothing else to take pics of...ha ha...this app is so awesome and it's FREE!

Shirley Temple Cookies

Who loves Shirley Temples? ME!! When I saw this recipe for Shirley Temple Cookies, I just knew I had to make some!

These are some tasty cookies!! They are very soft and not as sweet as you might think.

Learned some interesting stuff while making these...

1. The cherries will stain your fingers if you cut them up by hand, but don’t worry it fades rather quickly

2. The dough gets really thick, so if you are using an old school mixer get ready for it to start smoking (mixing by hand seemed much easier)

3. Parchment paper is a must! (unless you want deformed cookies like mine because they will stick)

4. When it says keep dough cool in between batches…do it! Makes the dough so much easier to handle and I think it also helped the cookies stay puffy (my last batch was warmer dough and ended up making a giant cookie)

5. A regular cookie scoop is a little too big…unless you like bigger cookies then its fine…ha ha

Shirley Temple Cookies
June 19, 2010
Bakesewsing.com

1 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 Cup Superfine Sugar (I used Vanilla Sugar. See "Pure Vanilla Cake" in June archives)
1/4 Cup Packed Light Brown Sugar (dark brown is fine in a pinch)
1 Egg (room temperature)
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
3 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Cream of Tartar
1/4 Cup Maraschino Cherry Juice (most of the juice from the average-sized jar)
4 1/2 Tsp Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Chopped Maraschino Cherries (the entire jar's worth)

More superfine sugar for rolling

Place butter and sugars in your mixer bowl and 'Beat Until Fluffy.' Beat in egg and vanilla until 'fluff' returns. Sift dry ingredients together over another bowl, add to batter and mix well. Beat in cherry and lemon juices. Beat in cherries. Cool dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until you can handle it fairly easily. Heat your oven to 375 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop dough by rounded teaspoon full, roll into a ball, roll ball in a small bowl of superfine sugar and place on cookie sheet. (Store the dough in the fridge while batches are baking.) Bake for 8 minutes. Cool cookies on wire rack. Depending on how big you make them you'll get anywhere from 4 - 6 dozen cookies out of this recipe.