Memorial Day Weekend Fun!

Our Memorial Day weekend started on Friday with Field

Day,

 

a half day

and a super giant park play date!

Yay!

Then Saturday it was time for the big Memorial Day parade in my small town!  I marched with my Girl Scouts!

Then off to the birthday party for my little lovey Jakob!

Oh yeah.. and here are his cupcakes.. complete with toppers that Carolyn and I stayed up until Midnight making!

Super cute right?  And of course perfect for the barnyard theme!

Sunday we had lots of family fishing fun!
And Some more!

And a little more!

Then on Monday I had my infamous 10K!  Hooray! 
Time: 51:01

Then what would Memorial Day be without a good parade?

Hope you had fun too!

Love,

Pinkapotamus

2am Crafting Session

I think that I may need an intervention!  It's 2 am and when everyone else in my house is sleeping I am sitting at the kitchen table working on my latest creation.  I nursed 3 children for atleast 1 year each and have never fully recovered my good sleeping patterns.  I figure that the only way I can get anything done is when then house is quiet and no one is asking me for ANYTHING!
But I digress.. so this has been on my mind for quite awhile.  I love the look of the owl pictures but can't bring myself to buy one.  So I did what any crafty woman would do.. I decided to make one using one of my favoirtie media the 12" x 12" wood square.  So here is my very first tutorial for my 2 loyal fans! (Thanks Linda and Carolyn!)

The first thing that I do is start to paint the wood box.. because there is so much space this can take awhile. 

While the paint is drying between layers I cut out the shape of the images I am going to use, in this case, tree, flowers and owl.  (And of course while waiting for the paint to dry I am also folding laundry and emptying the dishwasher!) 

I paint the sky and then the grass so that the grass literally meets the sky. 

Once those elements are dry it is time to decoupage!  I glue the back of the cutouts and smooth them so that there are no wrinkles.  Then I decoupage over the top with Mod Podge and allow to dry.   Repeat this step several times. 

Then it is time to add a little dimension.  I love buttons and ribbon so I add both!  Put it all together and what have you got a really cute wall hanging or picture to stand on a table or shelf!  Hope my first tutorial was fun and helpful!

Love
Pinkapotamus

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I LOVE Cake!!

When my husband and I first met 11 years ago I swear that i was totally unprepared for REAL life. I had no cooking or cleaning abilities. I truly believed that soup came from a can and cake came from a box. After many years and many miserably failed attempts at cooking (mostly in the first 4 years of our relationship) things have changed dramatically.

Our daughter was born when I was 23 and I decided that if I was going to be a stay at home mom.. I was going to be a rock star at it! I got many cooking lessons on the weekends (from my awesome hubby) and slowly but surely my skills improved.. now I feel like an expert.. people ask ME for recipes!

One of our favorite recipes is yellow cake from scratch! No hydrogenated oils or corn syrup here! Here is the recipe along with some variations to really mix it up!

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 3 small round pans, two large round pans or one 1/4 sheet pan

2. Cream together softened butter and sugar. Incorporate eggs one at a time (I like to leave mine on the counter to get to room temperature before I use them.. makes the cake moister)

3. Add in vanilla (even if you forget the vanilla it is still super yummy!)

4. In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt until combined

5. Mix in flour and milk into the wet ingredients starting and ending with flour

6. Pour into greased pans

7. Bake for 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean. This varies depending on the amount of cake pans used and your oven

We love to take this cake and eat it right out of the pans.. but we have also made some slamming cakes with it too! Here are some examples:

1. Make chocolate icing (from scratch of coure) and top with sprinkles

2. Make vanilla pudding to put between the layers. Add strawberries. Top with homemade whipped cream and blueberries for a light cake

3. This is my rock star cake.. very impressive! Make whipped cream into the consistency of butter. Put aside. Then make chocolate ganache out of chocolate chips and half and half. Let the ganache cool. Layer the cake with the whipped cream in the middle and on top. The take the cooled ganache and pour over the top. It will look like a boston cream pie but tastes like it came from the bakery!

Love
Pinkapotamus