My 101st Post

Yep. #100 was a discombobulated mess.


Here's what really happened Friday:

• It was Fall Festival at the kids' school Friday evening.


• I made a strawberry cake for the 'cake walk' at the Fall Festival.


• My husband still rocked (after 10 years) and surprised me Friday with a trip - including planning the babysitting, the activities, and the clothes necessary.


• I received the camera of my dreams as a gift.

I think it looked and sounded in my blog like my husband rocked so I baked him a cake and it just happened to be Fall Festival which had nothing to do with anything. But in fact, it had everything to do with the cake! NOT the husband (who rocks).


Got it?


And here's the recipe, because it truly is divine! Seriously, a 12 year-old recently told me it was the best dessert he'd ever eaten. You can't beat that! (AND it's easy to make! We ALL like desserts that look dreamy, taste divine, and fall into the 'easy' category, right?)


Again, this recipe comes from Southern Living (love them!)

Ingredients
1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) package strawberry gelatin
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Garnish: whole strawberries
Preparation
Beat the cake mix and next 7 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute. Scrape down the sides, and beat at medium speed 2 more minutes, stopping to scrape down sides, if needed. (Strawberries should be well blended into batter.)
Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch cakepans.
Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
Spread Strawberry Buttercream Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish, if desired. Serve immediately, or chill up to 1 week.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake Mix without pudding.
To make ahead: Place finished cake in the refrigerator, uncovered, and chill for 20 minutes or until the frosting sets. Cover well with wax paper, and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. To freeze, wrap chilled cake with aluminum foil, and freeze up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Southern Living, MARCH 2004


Strawberry Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
2 (16-ounce) packages powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
Preparation
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 20 seconds or until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and chopped strawberries, beating at low speed until creamy. (Add more sugar if frosting is too thin, or add strawberries if too thick.)
Southern Living, MARCH 2004



Here's that picture again (now that I make sense and you understand the reason behind the photo):

My Husband Still Rocks!

After 10 years...

Today's the Fall Festival. I baked this piece of Yum inspired by Melissa at A Little Loveliness! I found the recipe on-line and it hails from Southern Living...



Enjoy!







...I'll post the recipe later...Hubby sprung a surprise trip on me --- plus MY NEW CAMERA!!!



WooHoo!

See ya when we return...from who knows where!

Love, The Tooth Fairy

Have I told you lately that my husband rocks? Here's what he does at 10:30 at night when his oldest daughter lost the tooth that gives her an all expense paid ticket to the ROCK Star concert "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth!"

Keep in mind, he's been teasing her that she needs to be paying him the money the tooth fairy leaves...sorta like taxing her M&Ms...

*********

To: Pookie
From: The Tooth Fairy
Re: Your latest tooth
Date: 10/1/08


Pookie – I got a news flash on the Tooth Fairy News Network (TFNN) tonight telling me that you lost your last big tooth during dinner this evening. I’ve been keeping an eye on that one for a while, and honestly, I was surprised you were able to hold onto it for so long……it’s been hanging by a thread for some time and I’ve been telling Mr. Tooth Fairy that we’d be visiting your house soon.

Well, I was very surprised this evening when I came to pick up your tooth…..when I looked under your pillow, do you know what I found? Nothing! The space under your pillow was empty! I searched your room for a little while and I simply could not find your lost tooth. I finally had to pull out my Automatic Tooth Detector 3000 (it’s the latest model – you can even adjust the settings by tooth type…..grinders, incisors, molars, etc…..it’s great). Well, the Automatic Tooth Detector 3000 found your tooth right away….but you’ll never guess where it was……under your Daddy’s pillow!

Don’t worry – the Tooth Fairy wasn’t born yesterday. I’ve seen that trick lots of times, and I’m not falling for it.

I’ve left you $3 for this tooth. It’s a really nice looking tooth, and it’s pretty clean, so it will make a good addition to my collection.

I’ll see you next tooth, and keep on brushing!


The Tooth Fairy

I could've had a V8

Gee...ya think?

Your Blogging Type is Artistic and Passionate

You see your blog as the ultimate personal expression - and work hard to make it great. One moment you may be working on a new dramatic design for your blog... And the next, you're passionately writing about your pet causes. Your blog is very important - and you're careful about who you share it with.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

My Last Halloween Post

...for now, at least!

I just returned from my second class in two days at For Keeps Sake (I didn't name my favorite paper store on the blog Saturday in the event there might be blogstalkers out there...haha, um hehe, um, ok, not joking...

Regardless, I enjoyed myself tremendously! And I FINALLY found a real life person who blogs and doesn't think I have two heads and a tail growing out my nose...at least, I don't think she thinks so anyway...

AND she's super talented! See what I made at Missy's classes??

Sunday:

Monday:

And just one last Halloween decoration photo. Two of my favorite decorations! I saw these hat boxes last year at a candy shop in St. Charles but left them behind. When I returned to buy them, they were gone!! I've since thought of them and dreamt I'd bought them and thought of them again. (I don't think I'm obsessive. Do you?) I saw them in a magazine - everything else was for sale in the magazine, but not the boxes! So, the first chance I had to look at the candy store again this year, I did. And I'm glad!

Halloween

My mom is not a fan of Halloween. So, I don't have many Halloween memories as a child. I sort of remember some plastic Barbie get-up (I mean costume) one time, complete with plastic mask with the squinty little holes for eyes. No photos of that darling gear, however. The most memorable Halloween, of course, was the year I dressed up as Laura Ingalls (gee, I'm a fan!) and made my mom drive me to my teacher's house, and then home. That was it. I trick-or-treated to one house and I went home. That's all I wanted, anyway. I still have the wig my mom made - a pink bonnet with brown yarn braids. I sooooo wanted long hair as a kid (you know - like Laura!). And I never had the patience to grow it long. I loved that pink bonnet with the pretend long locks!!!

I paid no attention to Halloween as a teenager or as a young adult. I think I dressed as a 'tree' one year when I worked at WalMart in college - brown legwarmer knit pants, a sweater, and a leaf pin. Can you say: Creative! Maybe I started to care about Halloween a little more when My Man and I moved to our house, and I piled straw bales on the front porch with corn stalks flanking the sides. My husband LOVED disposing of those after the cold weather came. (HE ROCKS, btw.) Or, more likely, once I had kids I became more interested. My mom changed a little too (OK, a LOT) since the grandkids arrived. One year, she so closely resembled a (good) witch in her costume that when the twins returned to our front door from their candy expedition, they wouldn't come inside! (oops!)

(Last year she read the Kindergarteners the FABulous book Big Pumpkin while in her garb. Baby S has changed a lot, eh?)

Here's the deal: Halloween can be cute, fun, and creative. But it has a dark side that I just don't like. And that's where I draw the line. I keep my sweet black (striped) kitty inside during the month of October. I'm serious. And I keep my Halloween cute, fun, and creative. Wanna see what Baby S will be for Halloween this year??

Is that cute or what?! Yeah, we've got Queen Amidala, Luke Skywalker (VIth episode, People - if you know StarWars, you know what I mean...and if you don't, like me, actually, you'll have to ask why T will be wearing his black Karate uniform, like I did...), and Darth Vader, of course. That's as spooky as we'll be getting around here. And you all know Darth Vader turns away from The Dark Side in movie VI and stands alongside Yoda and Obi-Wan in their live forever after-life form. You all know that, right? Right? Tap-tap Is this thing on??

I *Heart* My Mantel

I don't think I have a knack for decorating. Kind of like I don't have a knack for being originally 'creative' in general. My friends, I believe, would argue with me. But I pour over magazines and websites and walk through shops. And I copy. I subscribe to the CASE philosophy from my days of stamping - Copy And Share Everything!

With that in mind, I started into my magazine stacks of Country Living, Martha Stewart, etc. etc., looking for something unique, catchy, striking, yada yada, for my mantel to change up the barn star look. After weeks of pouring and pondering and being too lazy to cut and scrap and be dissatisfied, I returned to the shops and bought vs. make; and here's what I came up with :

I am particularly fond of the silhouettes - each of my little sweeties, captured in time (I did make these!!!). Perhaps the best part? Spray painted frames from Dollar Tree = $1 + change! Yay!

Tomorrow I am attending a papercrafting class at my favorite scrap store - my first time to take a class for myself in three years! WooHoo! It's a witch's hat --- and Monday I return to make a haunted house! I am thrilled! I'll show pictures when I return and add them to those little blank spots along the fireplace (I have a VERY oddly shaped mantel - if only The Nester could help me!)

In the meantime, if you decide to try silhouettes, let me assure you - you do not want to have your kids sit in front of a blank sheet of paper and a bright light while you try to draw an accurate pencil line around their chiseled shadowy noses. No, no, no. No. Instead, stand them in front of your garage door facing the wall, photograph your subject's profile, print the picture, then shrink and copy it on your printer in black and white. TaDa! I cut that image out, traced it on black cardstock and cut it out again. I know there are other instructions on-line. This worked for me. WAAAaay better than the giant, glaring, HOT shop light I aimed towards their heads while they fidgeted and cringed and eventually wailed, kicked, and melted down in the heat of the moment. Wait a minute. I was talking about them. Not me. (oops.)

For a little diversity, next year, I am SO gonna silhouette this one of Baby S!