Post #28 - Update.

So I've had two cups of Hot Cocoa this past week. I blogged about it, remember?  (Maybe you should pour a cup of Cocoa for yourself. I'll wait.)

Anyway, I thought I'd update you on how it's going with the memory thing.  Here is a snip-it of a conversation I had yesterday with Hubs while I was fixing supper.

Me:  How's that saying go? ...*something* 'cause it's hot?
Hubs: I don't know.
Me: What could it be?
Hubs: I don't know.
Me:  No, it's *something* LIKE it's hot!
Hubs: {blank stare}
Me: Oh! It's DROP it like it's hot!
Hubs just rolls his eyes.

So there you have it!  I can remember things...it just takes a while.

Post # 27 - Keepin' busy

I like to keep busy and I like to craft.  Sometimes these two conflict in a way that prevents me from doing my chores.  

Like feeding my family. :-/

So I'm working on trying to find a balance.  

Meanwhile, here are the fruits of my labors:

A couple of weeks ago I poked around on the internet and found a free pattern for making egg bunnies.  

How cute does that sound?  

My first attempt didn't come out very cute. 

In fact, they were tiny and ugly. The fabric choice was wrong.

But I enlarged the pattern, used plain fabric and they came out better. More on the cute side. In a creepy sort of way, I guess. 

I need to work on getting the mouth right. The pink one looks like Snagglepuss.

It's been a long time since I've embroidered. Obviously I need more practice.

 I moved on to hand sewing and made these three little birds.  I'm still working on a blue one and a dark grey one. This is a great project to take with me when I go somewhere and have to wait.  I sewed two of them while waiting for the oil to be changed in my car earlier this week.

Hubs calls these "Angry Birds".
I want to look for more hand sewing felt projects.  I really enjoyed making these.

I have also sown eggs.  The upright (pink) one was the first attempt from another free pattern. Hubs said it looked more like a hacky sack. So I altered the pattern and tried again with the white one. I will probably make a few more and put them in a basket before Easter gets here.

 The chick changes to an egg by flipping him inside out.

 

It is from a Simplicity pattern I purchased last weekend.  It ranks very high on the cute scale.

 So there you have it.  The product of staying home on cold winter days seems to be Easter decorations.  At least this year it was.

What are you doing to keep busy until Spring?

Post #26 - Getting my memory back.

In the Feb/Mar 2014 issue of Taste of Home magazine there is an article that claims that drinking Hot Cocoa will boost your memory.

{sigh}  You gotta do what 'cha gotta do.

I'm feeling smarter already.
Perhaps it is because my cup is smiling at me.

Post #25 - What are those roll-up things called?

The first pie of the new year was.....dramatic drum roll.....Peach!

Here it is while baking in the oven.  There are spots on the glass because I cleaned it with baking soda after the Great Pizza Upset and never paid attention. There are no "after" pictures of the pie because I forgot about it in the oven until the top was nearly burnt. It was not pretty.
Anyway...
We like pies. Better than cake.  We don't have pie very often. Why do you think this is?  They are both equally easy/difficult to make.

Anyway, when I roll out a pie crust I usually make it too big and have to cut off the scraps.  My mom always made a cinnamon roll-up thingy with the leftovers.  We never knew what to call them.

 You just smoosh all the scraps together, then roll them out:

 melt some butter and pour it on, spread it out,

 then sprinkle cinnamon sugar over it.

 BTW, you all have this little shaker in your house with cinnamon sugar in it, right?

 So then you roll it up,

 cut it,

 put it on a pan and toss it in the oven with your pie.

 I never remember how long to leave it in there, so I wing it.

10 minutes seems about right.

 The kids eat these up pretty quick.

So what does your family call these roll up thingies?  Or what do you do with the scraps?

Post #24 - Cold weather update

We're having a heat wave. A tropical heat wave....

Not really, but bonus points to anyone who can name the old movie that song's from.
And  kudos to anyone who even know that was a song and it was from a movie.
Double kudos if you sang it as you read it. :-)

With record low temps, I decided to do a couple experiments.  Cuz, you know, I'm a science geek. And even though we complain about the weather a lot, we really don't get a lot of below zero temps here, so you gotta strike while the iron's hot. Or frozen. Whatever.

First off, I tried the frozen bubbles:
http://distractify.com/culture/arts/frozen-bubbles-in-wintertime/

It didn't work with store-bought bubbles when I tried it last night.  So this morning I made a bubble solution with boiling water, corn syrup and Dawn.   And if we hadn't had winds, it *might* have worked out better.  But most of the time the bubbles burst right away or they burst upon landing. These little fellas survived, though. And yes, they did freeze.

 ...and then collapsed.

Some bubble solution recipes call for glycerin. I have some glycerin so I think I will try it. I'll fiddle with the recipe for a while, maybe add more Dawn. If I get good results, I'll share them.

Moving along, I put boiling water in a cup, instructed Timothy to toss it in the air and this is what happened.

It froze. Instantly.

A.maz.ing.

And since I had dumped a hot pizza in my oven last night. Upside down. On the hot oven door. Can we say "baked on mess"?  Anyway, no baking will be done until that is thoroughly cleaned, so I put oats in the crockpot last night before I went to bed. Bingo!  A nice, warm breakfast to start the day.  I had thawed out some bananas to make banana bread after the pizza was done. Since that wasn't happening, I tossed them in the crockpot. It smelled WONDERFUL this morning. Almost like banana bread.  It tasted wonderful, too.

Stay warm, my friends.  It will warm up soon.