Saturday, February 26, 2011

Brrrrrr....

November 23, 2010 Brrrrr....
So, can I just rant a second about this ridiculous, never ending winter?  Ok great, I think I will... Seriously!  When will it end!  I live in the great northwest, not the midwest!  It doesn't snow here, it rains.  It rains for months and I'm prepared for that.  I have raincoats. I have boots. I do not however, have mukluks and parkas.  For crying out loud bring on the rain!  These 20° mornings with highs that inch their way to 29 are killing me!  Yes, there was a time in my confused youth when I thought that my bright future was leading me to Alaska... And yes, I still love Alaska, but I CHOSE Washington!  Ugh!  We had our first measurable snow in November, and now in February we still have snow in the forecast.
February 26, 2011 Brrrrrr



I remember learning about the seasons in elementary school, it all made perfect sense... four seasons, 12 months in a year... that breaks down to what, 3 months for each season because as we all know, the world works fair like that... Wrong-o! We just hit 4 real months of winter and I'm starting (or continuing) to lose my marbles!  I want to go for a jog without my lungs going on strike!  I want to enjoy a good 45° rainstorm!  I don't want to fall and bust my head on the ice.  I'm done.  Do you hear me mother nature?  I'm done with your shenanigans!  Give me my rain, give me my clouds... but for gods sake, all I really really want is 15 more degrees... Ok... I'm done.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Oh... My... Cake

Winter birthdays, ugh.  My birthday is in February.  I've always thought that having a February birthday sucks.  As a kid I never had the cool parties, the pool parties the BBQ's.  And now my poor second daughter not only doesn't have a summer birthday, she has an early January birthday.  I take full responsibility for this poor birthdate planning, a total oversight on my part... Early January, I must say, is even worse than February.  Everyone (read: mom and dad) is broke, everyone is exhausted, and everyone just saw you two weeks ago at Christmas...  I can only imagine that motivation is scarce for friends and family to venture out in the nastiness to brave a ~gasp~ retail establishment for an obligatory gift, and then to hang out in a crowded house and watch a now three year old spit on a cake.  But... maybe that's just me.

As a parent, trying to muster excitement for birthday festivities while still in the post Christmas funk, was difficult at best.  But I did it.

So, my sweet little chickie wanted herself a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.  In retrospect this could have been done quite simply with a store bought cake. But that's totally not my style.  I don't buy cakes.  I make cakes.  So, I set out to find a SSC cake pan or something that would crossover as SSC cake pan.  I searched... and I searched... and I procrastinated... and I searched.  Eventually I realized that the super cute cake pan that I wanted was completely imposable to find in a timely (read:today) manner.  So, I changed gears...  I started digging into baking sites and I found a brilliant idea.  I have no idea what site it was on so I unfortunately, can't give credit where credit is due.  I will say that it wasn't my idea, but whoever figured it out is a genius.

Here's what you do:

•Print out a picture of whatever you want on the cake
•Set a piece of waxed paper over the picture
•Pipe directly onto the waxed paper exactly as you want it on the cake
•Lay the frosted wax paper flat in the freezer, freeze.
•Once frozen, peel the wax paper off the back of the design and set the design directly onto your prepared frosted cake.

Perfecto!!

I must say that I was pretty sure it was all going to go down in sticky pink flames.  No pictures were taken to document the failure that I anticipated.  I so wish I had some pics of the process... oh well, maybe next time.  In the end it turned out pretty good I think.  Super-T thought it was perfect!

Arts and Crafts


As I've said before, arts and crafts with my kids are both my joy and my dread.  This christmas, my girls were gifted some wonderful crafts in a box.  I'm excited by this new trend in gifts.  They have a complete aisle devoted to it at Target.  DIY lampshades, sock puppets, purses... you name it!  This truly takes all the dread out of crafts.  Love, love, love it!  Thank you kind souls out there for such a wonderful gift!

Post Christmas Detox

I'm always shocked, I'm not sure why, by the absolute exhaustion that is Christmas.  I didn't even host any of the festivities, and yet I'm thoroughly, completely, nose to toes, exhausted.  All that's left is mess.  Mess of treats, mess of wrap, mess of new crap that as of yet has no place, mess of stupid tree dripping needles all over... Why is it that we make such a big deal of this holiday?  And by questioning the 'big deal' I don't intend to downplay the importance of the real meaning of Christmas; which for me is family.  I simply mean, I don't expect myself to take down half of my home decor to plaster hearts or shamrocks all over, the way I expect myself to every December.  Moreover, I not only expect this of myself, I live for it! Every Thanksgiving night I'm chomping at the bit to bust out Christmas, and every December 27th I'm more than ready to pack it all back up... I can't be alone in this?  Nonetheless, I'm super stoked to get my house back and pack away the holiday chaos.