Favorite Sugar Cookies.

Now, I don't always toot my horn on things like this but I must say that I love that I am so prepared for Christmas.  Right now It's only the first week of  December, and most of the things that I need to have completed for recipients ARE completed.  (Squee) - Then I have to ask myself, will THIS be the year that I can slow down and truly enjoy the spirit of Christmas?  I sure hope so!

BUT - in trying to remember things - I almost lost my most favorite sugar cookie recipe.  SO - today I am blogging a lovely little link for all of you - This is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe - and I have not failed in using it yet - so here is the link and I hope that you enjoy.

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/10/my-favorite-sugar-cookies.html

A Few Quick Updates - First off, Halloween...

LOL - I know that it's late, but HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!  This year I wanted to do something simple, something scary - something that wouldn't get body paint all over my desk (and my car, and my house, and everywhere else).  So, online I found this lovely picture with a woman that had a zipper on her face - and I thought to myself "I can do that!" - so I did.

 Kadoodle and her friends were all wanting to be zombies this year - so, with the help of some Liquid Latex and tissue (and costume blood) I turned her into one.  This costume was also not very difficult - we basically took an old pair of jeans and an old shirt and cut it all up.  Did the makeup on her face with the Latex and tissue and blood, teased her hair a little bit.  I did also recommend that she go outside and rub dirt on her jeans and shirt

  - but I think that a little more would have looked better - and finally, I told her to pretend that she was getting up really early to go to school.  Viola! There you have a zombie!

 D-man wanted to do the same zipper face thing as myself.  His makeup was a little bit easier to do since I wasn't working on myself.  Not to mention he wanted the skin to be a little bit more "flappy" around the edges than what I had done on myself earlier in the day.   I can say that the makeup held up really well through the day on me, and with him through the night it was no different.

 Overall I would say that the hardest part of doing the full costume makeup this way was the removal of the Latex.  (Especially if you have been wearing it the entire day).  The most fun that we had with the makeup was the different families and people that stopped us to take a closer look at our creations.  Several times through the night people would get up close to inspect the gruesomeness.

 

  Here's a quick closeup on Kadoodle's makup -done with Vampire blood, some gray and base that was really light, liquid latex, and tissue.

 D-Man's Makeup was vampire blood, a zipper, Liquid latex and tissue.  We added base to the tissue to give it a fleshy look.

 If you are ever interested in doing this, but aren't sure if you can pull it off - there is a great tutorial on YouTube

We hope you all had a great time scaring others this Halloween!

My Super Best Friend

 This is Lori - My Best Friend From Alaska - I've known Lori for 13 years - the Longest friend that I have ever had.  The most trustworthy, kind, smart, amazing woman alive.  Because she lives in Alaska, it's quite hard to have the normal friendship that most get to have - and lots of times we don't really talk for a long time.  I can thank Facebook for making sure that we keep in touch because we both get so busy it's REALLY hard to keep in touch.

 But Last night she had a few hours during a Layover in Salt Lake, and I got to snag her from the Airport and get some precious time with my wonderful friend.  We even got to go to Tiffany's!  (Which I still think that it's so amusing that there is a Tiffany's in Salt Lake - But, Okey Dokey marketing people.)  Look at how AMAZING she looks!  It's like finding a Unicorn!  (Actually, it's all that Yoga that she does).

I am so glad to have her for a Best Friend - she's so awesome!  I know that I said before that she would be moving - and when she does, I might just have to relocate to Oregon just so that way we can keep ourselves out of trouble (or would that be in Trouble?)  Either way?  There will be Trouble...

Oh ! My shoe!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Rolf - The Fish

 So, for My Birthday this year, Kennedy got me this amazing fish - Rolf.  We decided to call him Rolf because we all love the Muppets, and he is our most favorite one - Plus, his bottom lip sticks out and that just seemed to be very Rolf-like.  He was beautiful and Blue and after a few days in his new tank, well, he was dead. I don't mind saying that I was not very good with Fish - After all, Betta's are supposed to be resilient !

That day I went back to the PetsMart and got another Betta - but they didn't have any others that were as lovely as my blue and Purple Rolf.  So, I got the prettiest one that they did have - and named him Rolf-2 - AND, I got him a heater.  Apparently the Betta fish is a tropical fish which requires heat to function in a happy manner.

Since Introducing Rolf-2 to his new tank with the heater he has been a super happy and active fish.  We love watching him swim all over the place.  He's quite aggressive and mean to his rocks, but at the same time at least he is swimming around and not dead.  We will miss Rolf-1, but we are happy to have Rolf-2, my awesome birthday present from DD.

Survival Candles Tried Out - (Pinterest)

So, once again everyone knows that my most favorite place to visit in the Online-o-sphere is Pinterest.  I can't tell you how many things that I have done, how many ideas that I have had, how many ways Pinterest has made me be  more creative than I would usually be.  I love it,  Love it,  LOVE IT!! This weekends Pinterest idea was the "Survival Candle" - Complete instructions and pictures can be found  by clicking right HERE

We are always looking for ways to "Be Prepared".  We get ourselves started with our 72 hour kits and food storage and all kinds of stuff.  Those things are great - but what about those other times when you don't need to pack up everything and head for the hills? (Actually, we have never needed to pack up everything and head for the hills, usually it's something internal that goes wrong - like a power outage).  Which is why this project was so appealing to me.  Usually I am fine with no light - (Typically my flashlights are all dead anyway).  Who needs light for anything? Oh Wait, that has also never really happened to me - but the momentary darkness and fear of, "Did I remember to change the batteries in the flashlight?", that has happened to me before.

When I was a child I heard Spencer W. Kimball say something along the lines about your home being in order in such a way that if it were pitch black you should still be able to find your way around and be able to get to the things that you need.  Since then my home has not always been this way, but I have tried  to make sure that I am prepared for whatever lies ahead.  Around my home I have always had candles - but later in life when I married the Misses I found out that he was sensitive to smells and things.  He will still let me light the Scentsy bars, but after a while it really starts to bother him - so I chilled out on buying Salt City and Scentsy and stuff.

Then, I saw this idea on Pinterest!  Oh, sure, it can be scented with a few drops of your favorite essential oils, but that's not where my brain went.  It went to, "WOW - that looks really easy!", followed up with, "It's not even that expensive and I could burn them in an emergency and not waste my GOOD candles, and the Misses won't be bothered by the smells!" - Win, Win, Win, Win!

So, I did what the site said to do -
I found my Wiks and Tabs on Ebay. (They were about 3$ total)
I found my Wax in a 10lb bag on Amazon HERE (More economical to buy bigger - with the shipping)
I used Jars from around the house that I had - Just normal Kerr and Ball Jars
I used my double Boiler and a Ladle
And, I got started - Here's my progress:




First - I put Wicks in the Jars and I got the Double Boiler started with the Soy Wax flakes.

The wax started to heat up and melt down - and this part of the process actually happened very quick with the double boiler.  I figured that it would take some time, but it really didn't.

After the wax melted I ladled it into each of the Jars. I had not melted enough wax for all of my jars, so I Just repeated the process melting a little at a time until all of the jars were full.

 The other site says that you will adjust the wicks after you pour, and it also does not mention what you see here.  I could not get my wicks to stand up straight - so I used another technique that I had seen on another Candle Making Pin - I used Popsicle sticks to get everything straight and propped up the right way.  I had also tried to stick the wicks down with some of the melted wax before pouring into the Jar - that didn't really work because when the new hot wax is poured in, the previous wax melts down too and the Wick unsticks from the bottom.  Also, Superglue did not hold after the wax was poured in.

And here are the jars in various stages of cooling.  I think that this was the neatest part because of the way that they get cloudy and such.  I am sure that I could have adjusted the wicks now, but the Popsicle stick method ensured that I would not have to hang around my kitchen while these babies made it to their various stages of cooling.  I didn't get this picture until I was almost done with typing up the blob - so we can see how long it takes for them to really start getting cooled down.  I didn't want to wait - too many productive minutes get lost!


Also, I just wanted to point out that Clean Up was super easy.  If you wash your pots and Ladle (Or if you use the Pyrex measuring cup to pour instead) when they are still hot - use a little dawn and hot water and the excess wax comes right off without any fuss at all.  Don't let it sit and hang out, just clean up right away and you won't have any trouble at all.

Good Luck with being prepared and Happy October everyone!