Clip Fun

The other day I sat down with the flowers I bought.  I just put them together.  I haven't put clips on them yet.  I haven't bought the clips yet actually.  I'll post them to my store as soon as I get them.  Tell me what you think.

 Some are fall and some are Halloween. 

What do you think?  Is the mixing of colors a good idea or a bad idea.  I love it but I may be the only one.
I will order the rest of the stuff and get them finished and then post them to my store.

Final Cake decorating class!

The final  cake decorating class was last night.  We had to bring a cake already iced so all we would have to do was decorate it.  So here is the steps that my cake made last night.

 This is the cake after the top was cut off - leveled.

 The side view before being cut in half.

 Here is the wire cutting the cake.

The view before I separated the cake.

Here is the cake cut in half.

 The one on the left has chocolate frosting on it.

 I put them back together - now it is "torted".

I'm not sure if that is grammatically correct...work with me.

Here is the side view.  You can kind of see the frosting.

I didn't know how much frosting to put in the middle.

 First layer of icing.

 Final layer of icing.

I forgot to smooth the icing before class.

 Th lines aren't straight but it is a work in progress.

We learned how to do these roses in class.

 A better look at the roses.

So here is is.  I'm sending it to work so I wrote the company name on the cake.

I signed up for the next class last night.  It starts next Tuesday night.  I am so excited.  I need practice...lots of practice but I can do that.

Fort fun

Do you remember the the cushions that I covered a while back?  Well they make a great fort.  My daughter loves playing on them and in them.  This is the side view of them

This is the entrance.  Today her friend and her were playing in it.  We usually put blankets on both ends and stick a flashlight in there with her.  She loves it.  She also likes to stand them up long ways on the couch and slide down them.

It is a lot of fun and she loves to play with them.  It is a great way to pass the time.

Have a good night.

Sister's Birthday present

Well earlier I had told you I was working on a project for my sister's upcoming birthday.  Well her birthday has passed and she now has her present so I can show you what I made.

I thought that it was a very cute purse.  I think I'll make some more in the future but for right now my goal is to finish some of the other projects I have piling up.

Exercising this week

I have a friend who lives near me.  She has three girls.  Two of which are now in school.  We both would like to be able to exercise every day but with our husband's going to work early and having children it makes it hard.  We talked about it and decided that we could help each other.  Every morning after she drops off her two oldest at school she will then drop her youngest off at my house.  She will then go exercise for 30 minutes and then I'll bring her daughter and my children to her house and then I'll go exercise for 30 minutes. 

We did that this morning and it worked out really well.  Now I don't have to go to bed with the chickens in order to get up before my husband goes to work.  Since I can now exercise on a regular basis again I sat down this morning and wrote out a schedule for this week.  Here it is:

Monday - Run 30 minutes easy run
                Strength train - upper body
Tuesday - Bike 30 minutes
                 Kettle bell workout
Wednesday - Run - 20-30 minutes - interval training
                 Strength train - upper body
Thursday - Bike 30 minutes
                 Kettle bell workout
Friday - Run 35 minutes
             Strength train - upper body
Saturday - Bike ride - 1 hour
Sunday - Rest

That is the plan.  So far so good.  The run went great.  It felt good.   It was definitely an easier run because I'm not sure I could have done much more.  Tonight after the girls are in bed I'll do my upper body strength training.

I challenge you all to find at least a few minutes for yourselves today.  It was nice having a few minutes to run and just think.

Have a wonderful day.  What do you have planned this week?

A birthday party success

Well the party was a success.  We ended up having it at some friends house.  I started the cake on Thursday and finished it this morning at my friends house. 

Yesterday was my husband's flex day so I had to get creative.  I did all the icing after the first layer in my sewing room.  He was told his presents were in there so he wasn't allowed in.  Which his presents are in there so I wasn't lying.

Thursday afternoon I bought a pan for the job and came home and made three cake mixes to fill it to the 2/3rds area.  It took a long time to cook but it did the job.  However,  The butter that I spread everywhere in the pan was not enough.  The middle bottom part was stuck in the pan and the only option was to tear the cake.  I was wanting to tort it...although I wasn't sure how with it being so big.  So I didn't tort it.  I was actually really frustrated.  Well I got it all set up and cut the top of the cake off.

This is what I cut off the top.  A lot!

Ok well after it that I made the frosting and thinned it out like I was taught and I put the first layer of frosting on.  I originally planned on turning it green but forgot so it was white.

After it was safe in my sewing room I decided to start on the trees so they could set up over night as well.

I used sugar cones for the tops and big pretzels for the trunk.  The white stuff is the icing.

While I was letting the first layer set up I made another recipe of icing for the second layer.  I knew that once my husband was home I wouldn't be able to make it for later that night.  So I made it and moved all my utensils into my sewing room so later I could ice the cake a second time...this time in blue.  I figured it would be an island.

I did this while Josh was mowing the yard.  Then I let it sit over night to set up completely.  Then Thursday while Josh was working in the garage I told him that he couldn't come in the house because I needed the table to lay out something I was working on.  The table in my sewing room wasn't big enough.

I used the glittery gel stuff to draw in my river.  Then I went to work on the grass.

 It took a while.  My arm kept getting tired and I would take a few seconds to brake.

I put grass along the bottom to continue the effect.

Then this morning I used the blue sparkle gel to write on the river.

I was going to make icing and do it.  I was going to make it brown but honestly I got lazy.  This was quick and easy.  I'm glad I did because I would have run out of time.

Another friend who works with Josh went tool shopping with Josh at 10 and then at noon then went to the shooting range.  I waited 20 minutes to make sure they weren't coming back and then I started getting everything ready to go.  I had to thaw the hamburger patties, grab the buns, condiments, cheese, tomatoes, plates, cups, napkins, cake, icing, trees, swim suits, towels, pop, ice cream and utensils.  I took them all over to our friends house.  While there I finished the trees and put them in the cake.  She helped me figure out the placing which was great because I wasn't sure where to put them.  I also bought to little deer to place on the cake and some numbered candles.

Those are three of the five trees on the cake.  They were fun.  They took a little bit of time to do and getting them to stand up straight was a bit hard so most of them were leaning which was fine because trees lean.

Making the cake was so much fun.  It turned out great.  After it was all set up I brought the girls home so Yana could nap for a few.  I forgot to mention that earlier in the day our friends had called my husband if he could come over around 2 to help move a piano.  He said later that he thought I was planning something but when he came home to drop off the guns (I told him I was going to the store).  The house was the same so he figured I wasn't up to anything. 

He had called and told me he was on his way - earlier than I expected - so I told him I was already on the way out the door to the store so I would see him after he moved the piano.  So I called my other friends and they piled into their car and followed me over there.  We parked a block away and they climbed into my car and we drove to our friends and into their garage so Josh wouldn't see our car.  Everyone arrived earlier than I had planned which turned out great.  We had been at the house for just a few minutes when Josh got there.  They brought him in the front door while we were all standing in the kitchen by the cake waiting for him.  It took him a second to realize what was going on but it was awesome.  He loved it.  He liked the cake, the wonderful company and the fun.

It was a lot of fun.  We ate our hamburgers, baked beans, chips and salad and then went swimming with the kids for a bit.  Then we came in and cut up the cake.  It has been a busy day.

My girls are bathed and ready for bed and my husband is at the Priesthood meeting.  I hope that you all had a wonderful day.  See ya on Monday.

Operation "Birthday cake" a go!

The main reason for taking these cake decorating classes is so I can make prettier cakes for my family.  My husband's birthday is this weekend and he wants a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Is he getting a plain cake....of course not.  So I am making a yellow cake but not with chocolate frosting.  I got a good idea off the Internet for a cake.  It has a river going across it with the words "happy birthday" on it and then grass every where else.  There are trees made out of pretzels and sugar cones and then some animals on it.  So that is what I'm doing.

His flex day is tomorrow and the party (which he doesn't know about) is Saturday.  So I made the cake which didn't like me.  It wouldn't come out of the pan so it was a bit frustrating.  Got it put back together and cut the top off so it was flat and then put the first layer of thin icing on before he got home.  I made the second batch of frosting and turned it blue and put it, the cake, the trees, and the spatula in my sewing room. 

After the girls went to bed I put the second layer of icing on the cake.  So tomorrow I am going to have to find some time to work on it.  I still have the grass, putting the stars on the trees to make them look like trees, and writing his name and info on the cake.  A friend is going to take him tool shopping Saturday to get him out of the house.  We are having the party at a friends house where there is a pool and the owner who is a good friend will call my husband and tell him he needs some help with something to get him there after we (family and a couple friends) have gotten to their house.

It is going to be so much fun.  I am taking pictures of the cake as it progresses to show you all.  No one tell my husband about the party please.  I told him he couldn't go into the sewing room because I'm working on something for his birthday and since it is in there he will never suspect.

Well better finish before the yard is all mowed.  Have a good night and wonderful weekend.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Class # 3 - Cupcakes

CUPCAKES

Today was my third class and it was a lot of fun.  Today was so busy at the same time.

I was making the last batch of frosting as I was walking the kids out the door.  I made a batch of cupcakes and while they were cooling I started making the frosting.  Then I ordered pizza. lol.

I had to separate the icing and make 4 different colors.  One was thin and the rest medium consistency.

In class we learned how to use several more tips and how to make several more flowers.

I decorated 7 in class and then ate one so the other 6 would fit back into the pan.  :)

At home I set up shop on the floor and decorated the rest of them.  There are a few more not shown here but I didn't want to get everything back out again.

I have so much frosting in my fridge that I'm going to have to make something else just to use it up before it goes bad.

 The one on the right and the one on the left are shaggy mums.

I had so much fun.  I am planning to take the second class next month and possible the tall cakes class in October.  I'm so glad that I found this class.

I hope that you are all having a great start to your day.

A good day..progress!!!

Well I just finished the birthday present and it is so cute.  I'll tell you what it is and show you pictures as soon as she has it in her possession.  I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Well my youngest who is 8 months has been dubbed "swiper" by my 3 year old.  She likes to watch Dora the Explorer and if you have seen it then you know who "swiper" is.  Every time Yana crawls in Sarah's direction she says "Swiper, no swiping!"  It is cute but at the same time I wish she wouldn't.

She is constantly hiding things worried that "swiper" from the movie is going to find and take her stuff. 

While I was sewing today she was pretending to make a sword to fight off monsters with.  She was so excited to give it to Grandma.  Apparently, Grandma has a lot of monsters in her neighbor that I didn't know about.

Having a three year old is definitely entertaining.

Have a great day.  I'm off to make cupcakes and icing for my cake decorating class tonight.

Sewing again

Well I don't know about you but when things get busy my sewing time tends to suffer.  I haven't been sewing a whole lot since we got home from Idaho a month ago.  I've had a lot going on.  Well my goal for this week was to get a few projects done. 

My sister's birthday was Sunday and sadly I didn't have her present done.  I should have it finished today and in the mail tomorrow morning.  That is my goal. 

Tomorrow, if not today, I would like to get the free motion stitching done on a quilt I am being paid to finish.  Then I will just need to bind the two quilts and get them in the mail.  I want them mailed off by the 30th at the latest but sooner if possible.

Once those are done than I want to start on my Halloween projects and then move to fall.  I am also planning on making several hair clips to sell on my store.  They are so much fun and enjoyable to make.  I can make them at night when my kids are in bed.

I am also crocheting wash clothes to sell on my store.  So hopefully there will be several new things being posted on my store soon...within the next two weeks hopefully.

Well Yana is napping and and Sarah is watching her afternoon movie so it is off to the sewing room.  Yay.

Another good weekend

This weekend was really good and went way too fast.  Friday night we found a babysitter and saw "Cowboys and Aliens".  I believe I already shared my opinion of not combining Cowboys and aliens.

Saturday morning I went for a jog...the longest one in a while.  That is time wise.  It wasn't that fast but it was 33 minutes long. Then we went to the church and helped set up for New Beginnings later that night. 

After setting up we went for a drive to find a shooting range.  We found one north of where we live where we could take both of our rifles and our pistol.  So then I found a babysitter and we went to the shooting range.  It was awesome.  The range master was a Marine and likes to help people get better and more accurate.  He gave us a lot of helpful tips and our pistol shooting got better and better.

I hadn't shot my 7mm in probably about 3 years due to living out of state and being pregnant every hunting season.  It was so nice to shoot it.  I missed it.

New beginnings started at 6:30.  Sorry I didn't take my camera.  It was wonderful.  We all started out together and then we split up to man our stations.  My station was the plank crossing.  They were to imagine that they were treasure hunters who had taken a short cut and gotten lost.  They had come to a fast flowing river full of alligators.  They needed to get to the other side - where camp was.  They had two logs and several rocks(cinder blocks) to get across.  It was interesting how many different ways were used.  They only had 10 minutes at each station which made it hard to get everyone across.  They all were on their way but some ran out of time.

After all the stations then we met back up in one location and awarded the Personal Progress awards to the three girls who had finished and the one leader who had finished.  Then there were deserts and clean up.  It was a really good day.

Sunday we went to church.  All of us.  It was the first time in a month due to people being sick.  After church we hung out in the house for a while and then just went for a drive looking at houses.

I love time spent with my family on the weekend.

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Yay the weekend is here again!!!

Well I am writing this Friday night.  My husband and I just got back from "Cowboys and Aliens".  Honestly, we didn't really care for it.  You just don't mix cowboys and aliens.  Anywho, we are now relaxing at home and I have been thinking about the many things that I have planned for this weekend.

Tomorrow morning I will be going for a jog.  At 10 o'clock I will be joining other women with whom I serve in Young Women's and we will be setting up several rooms in the church building.  At some point I am hoping we can find a babysitter so we can go to the shooting range.  Then at 6:30 we will be having New Beginnings for our Young Women.  We have some awesome stuff planned.  We have such wonderful young women here.  I love my calling.

Sunday, since we are all feeling much better we will all be going to church Sunday.

I will not be posting any blogs tomorrow or Sunday because I will be spending the time with my family.  I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend.

I have expensive hobbies

I told my husband the other day that I needed to stop learning new things.  He of course asked why.  I told him that it is because I choose expensive hobbies.  Sewing isn't cheap.  Cake decorating isn't going to be cheap.  I have to get set up with all the tools.  I learned how to crotchet wash clothes on my vacation and I think that is the one hobby that isn't too expensive.

I just picked up another hobby this morning that was really fun.  I have a good friend named Sarah who is very talented.  I have learned many things from her.  She has three cute little girls and she is always getting creative over there.

A while ago she said she would teach me how to make hair clips with flowers.  She had shown me how to buy flowers before our vacations.  Those flowers have just sat in my sewing room waiting to be used.  So today, since my husband took my keys to work we both decided to get together.  Her oldest two kids started school yesterday so she brought her youngest who is 2 over.

She showed me how to take the flowers apart and how to mix and match different flowers to get the look I want.  Then she showed me how to put them together.  Then she showed me the different clips she has that can be attached to the clip.  It was so easy and a lot of fun.  Here are my flowers.

I started out with 4 flowers.  Two different white ones, a reddish one and a cream one.  I made 5 clips and still had leftovers.  It was a lot of fun.  I might get into making them in the evenings to sell at my store.  Let me know what you think.  Do you buy or would you buy clips like this for your children or for gifts?

Grounded...

So I was right in the middle of thinking about things to do today, places to go.  I hear my phone making noises in the other room signaling me that I have received a few texts.  After a minute or two I go check my phone and see this text from my husband:

"bad news", "I have both sets of car keys. Just found your keys in my back pocket."

So now I have to rethink today's plans.  I just thought it was funny.  We went grocery shopping yesterday so we are all set for a fun day at home.

Yesterday in "school" we traced letters and numbers, read books, watched "Your Baby Can Read", and even made a paper sack cow puppet.  It was a lot of fun watching her.  She is so smart.

Have a wonderful day.

Swag Bucks

I have seen so much about Swag Bucks that I have decided to try it out.  I have added two things to my blog for all to see.  If you are interested in swag bucks please feel free to click on the links or just go to www.swagbucks.com.  I'm still learning about it but it seems like a pretty cool things.  I'll let you know more as I go.  Have a good evening.

Hyla continued...

Ok just to let you know how disgusting my carpet is I showed you pictures yesterday of the first use of our new Hyla.  So later in the afternoon I decided to vacuum again.  I vacuumed for about another 30 minutes just going over and over our carpet in the living room and my daughters' bedroom and the water was just as disgusting as the first use earlier that day.

I am so glad I was let in on how dirty our carpet was.  Hopefully we wont get sick so often with the help of the Hyla.

Oh ya - The Biggest Loser

Sorry.  I completely forgot to keep you posted on the families Biggest Loser contest.  We were originally going to end on the 1st of August but we decided to wait til the next week so we would all be home from vacation, have a couple days at home with our own scales, and so it would be on a Wednesday.  Then we got sick and things came up so we didn't end up ending it until a week ago.

I went from 198 to 191.  It took two months and although I am happy to have lost the weight I am not happy with how week my will  power was.  After Sarah I was losing 8 pounds a month and it took me two months to lose 7 pounds.  I did tone a lot.  190 was a wall that I really struggled to overcome.  My goal this week was to get past that wall.  I woke up this morning at 189.6 which was awesome.  So I have tried to be good today so I don't go back up past 190.

Anyways I didn't win the Biggest Loser contest.  I came in second actually.  My sister in law lost 6.?% and I lost something like 3.3%.  I am happy that I lost the weight and I will keep going.

My new goal is to lose two pounds a week and if I can do that then I will be to 170 by the end of October...right before we hit the holidays.  It is easy to maintain than to lose during the holidays so that is my goal.

My family is thinking about starting another round of The Biggest Loser sometimes early next year after the holidays.  I look forward to it.  I am hoping that I am already to my goal weight so then any weight I lose on top of that would be nice.  I'd probably work on toning more.

For all of you who are trying to lose weight...just keep working at it.  Don't give up.  I tell myself to give up every time the scale gives me a number I'm not happy with and that lasts for all of about 30 seconds and then I'm back trying to figure out what the problem is. 

Here are a few weight loss tips that have helped me in the past and are helping me now:

Get enough sleep - that is very important actually.
Drink lots of water
Exercise - going for a walk is exercise.  We all have to start somewhere.
Have fun.  It isn't work doing if it isn't fun.  Just because we are trying to lose weight doesn't mean we have to give up living to do so.  Find fun activities that help keep you active.  Sometimes I just dance around the house with my girls and it is surprising how quickly I get tired.

Have a good day...go out and do something good for yourself!

Cake #2

Well here is the square cake.  I just finished decorating it.  It was a lot of fun.

I had fun.  Have a good evening.

Hyla

Saturday or Sunday this guy knocks on our door and takes a survey.  He asked about our allergies and if anyone had asthma.  Josh has really bad allergies and since being to Oklahoma I have had to start taking allergy medicine.  So he took his survey and then left.  He left us a little card saying he would enter us into a drawing and if we won they would call.

Our names never get drawn so we figured that was the end of that.  Well Monday night we get this call saying that we are names had been drawn in a drawing for cutlery.  They wanted to know when a good time to come drop it off would be.  They also asked if we would mind hearing their little spiel on their product that they sell.  It had to do with a way to help relieve allergies and asthma.  Since we struggle with allergies we said sure.  So they came back yesterday at the scheduled time.

They introduced to us the Hyla.  It is a German product that filters the air through water.  It also helps your house maintain a certain humidity.  We were shown a lot of dust in the air and how it is worse the closer to the floor you get.

The Hyla system also has hookups to vacuum with while putting out clean and fresh air.  They spent like 5 minutes vacuuming in one spot and it was disgusting to see what came out of our carpet and it still wasn't clean.  Yana crawls on that floor every day.  I was disgusted.

You can put oils in it to spread fragrances through your house.  You can also put an air disinfectant in the water and it will help disinfect the air.  It should help us get feeling better when we are sick and hopefully we wont get sick so often anyways.  Yana has been sick with something pretty much since birth.  She has had a cold or worse most of the time.  We are thinking that it has something to do with the dust in the air and how filthy our floor is.  It can be used on hard wood and tile floors.

This morning I vacuumed for about 30 minutes.  Before that I had let it just filter in my daughters room for about 30 minutes.  Here are some pictures.

 This is it all set up.  Usually when you are just cleaning your air you don't have the hose and vacuum attached.

 This is the water after 30 minutes of air filtering and about thirty seconds on our floor.  It started out clean this morning.

This is after about 30 minutes of good vacuuming done mainly in my living room.



I felt much better about putting my children on the floor.  I will be cleaning the blinds and fan blades this afternoon and then the floor again.  I love this product.  I used to vacuum 3-5 days a week.  I aimed for every day but the weekends were hard because we were always playing...not cleaning.  With this after I get the house clean...I don't have to all in one shot.  Each time I use it, it cleans more and more until eventually the air is cleaner and the carpet as well.

It was nice also to deal with a person who didn't pressure us into buying it.

Well that is my new cleaner that should help us be healthier and I shouldn't have to clean as often.