The Tuesday Ten

I used to call my mom with funny little "Tuesday Observations" I haven't done it for quite some time. Since she closed her gift shop she isn't that easy to get ahold of, so I have no one to share my random observations, stupid things I hear etc. with.  So I have decided I will share them with you here on Tuesdays.  Today these are just very random things I am thinking about, they may not be observations or even that funny but I am sharing them anyway.

1. I NEED a Walmart SuperCenter.  I was in one this weekend and now I need one.  Strawberries were .75 a pound, 24pk of Diet Pepsi was $1 cheaper than our Walmart here.  Full on grocery store in a Walmart, prices so much better than Safeway.

2.  Speaking of Safeway, I was just there.  I bagged all of my own groceries because there wasn't anyone there to do it and I didn't want to wait for the cashier to do it after he rang up my groceries.  But the cashier then asks me 4 times if I would like help out to my car.  If there is someone available to help me out to my car why didn't they come and bag my groceries??!

3. I was just at Safeway but we are still going to get Panda Express for dinner.

4. I am not ready for summer to start.  Well summer is fine, it is the kids being home every day that I am not ready for!

5. I could spend all day browsing things on Pinterest.  Damn you Jenny, damn you!

6. I need to come up with some activities that both a 7 year old girl and 11 year old boy would enjoy that doesn't require mom participation.

7. I can't think of 10 things to share today, and since the first 6 are pretty boring I am sure you aren't too disappointed about that!

A few additions:
8. Jaren finally viewed "THE" growth and development video at school.  He said it wasn't the best.

9. Jaren received the official word that he had made the All-Star team for baseball, he was very stressed out about that.

10. Next week is the really big dance show!  Nalani will be hip-hopping her way into everyone's heart!

Brownie Pops

Nalani got to take treats to school today to celebrate her birthday with her classmates.  She told me she didn't want to take cupcakes, "everyone" takes cupcakes she told me, she wanted something unique.  I surfed the internet and asked my Facebook friends what I should make.  Nalani shot down the idea of cake pops when I told her how they were made, "That is GROSS to smoosh up cake with frosting mom!" plus it was made of the same thing as cupcakes!  So it was back to the drawing board.  Finally we settled on brownie pops, as long as it didn't require I smoosh brownies up with frosting!  I had made the same thing for her birthday party last year but I had cut the brownies much larger and they were WAY too big to eat without feeling ill!

I baked a batch of box mix brownies in a 7"x11" pan so they were a little thicker.  Cut them in squares, probably a little larger than 1" I think I got 28 out of the pan.  I put the brownies in the freezer for a little while because the internet tutorials I read told me too. I melted a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave with a little vegetable oil (not sure what the oil does...makes it a little runnier, shiny??  I don't know but again, the internet told me to!)  I then stuck lollipop sticks from Walmart into the brownie squares and dipped them in the chocolate and added a few sprinkles to make them festive.  I then put the dipped brownies back in to the freezer to cool the chocolate.  They turned out pretty cute, anything on a stick and dipped in chocolate has to be better then any old cupcake!  AND they were voted best birthday treat of the year by her class!

My First Link Party!

So I linked up my baseball cupcakes over at House of Hepworth's - it's my first link party!  So exciting!  All kinds of cute ideas over there - go check it out!

Crazy Hair Day

Yesterday was Crazy Hair Day at Nalani's school.  She wanted twisty buns all over her head!  That girl has A LOT of hair!  We got up early and spent over 30 minutes on this creation

And then last night when we took the buns out the hair-do got even crazier!

 

She was very sad when we had to brush it out and have regular hair again!

Let Them Eat Cake

I love to decorate cakes.  They aren't fancy and I don't get involved with fondant or icing flowers but I have made some cute things for birthday parties and baby showers.  This weekend I made a batch of baseball cupcakes for Nalani's team party.  They aren't my best work but all of the kids knew they were baseballs so I thought that was half of the battle!

These were very simple, just frosting and Red Vines licorice cut in strips

Here are a few others I have done:

This was a basketball cake for Jaren's 7th birthday, I can't get the picture to rotate so it is going the wrong direction but the cake looks the same from any angle. 

This was just frosting dyed orange and then black shoelace licorice.  I used my fancy schmancy Betty Crocker domed baking pan so it actually looked like half of a ball on a plate.

I think these two are my favorites by far!  I did them for my sister's baby shower.  They look EXACTLY like the lion & monkey on the plates, napkins etc.

These were both made using a teddy bear face cake pan from Michael's.  For the monkey I cut the ears off and moved them lower on the head since that is where the monkeys ears were on the paper goods.  The lion's mane was an apricot fruit roll-up cut in triangles (his nose too).  Eyes on both are chocolate chips (pointy side down), monkey nose is a large chocolate disk, mouths are licorice shoelaces

This is also a favorite of mine.  Jaren's 8th birthday was at a slotcar racing place so the figure 8 race track was perfect! 

This was two 9" round cakes, frosted in chocolate frosting, crushed chocolate wafer cookies for the racetrack, white Good N' Plenty candies for the dotted white line and I piped red frosting around the edges.  The cars are little cars that he had, smaller and flatter than Hot Wheels.

I am pretty fond of these too!  These were for my nephew's 1st birthday.  Cookie Monster's cookie cupcakes were his "smash" cake.

These all started out as 9" round cakes.  Elmo and Cookie Monster were trimmed so their head shape were correct.  Their eyes are both cupcakes with Junior Mints for their pupils.  Mouths are crushed chocolate wafer cookies.  Elmo's nose is just an orange circle cut from paper because I couldn't find anything edible to use.  Cookie cupcakes are just frosted in a light tan color and chocolate chips are....chocolate chips!  Big Bird's beak is a sugar cone frosted with yellow frosting, eyes are marshmallows, pupils are chocolate chips and I found the perfect sour candy belts in the bulk candy section for his pink & blue eye lids, his top knot feathers are feathers from the craft store.

These aren't anything special but I thought I would go ahead and show you a little "snowscape" I did for a class winter party.

Snowmen are a jumbo cupcake, regular cupcake and a mini.  Scarves are sour candy belts, arms are brown pipe cleaners, buttons and eyes are chocolate chips, noses are cut up orange slices candy, the mouths are little chocolate jimmies/sprinkles painstakingly lined up.  Snowflakes were just candy cake decorations

Hopefully I have inspired you to make a cake of your own!

Coach Thank You Cards

I had to wait until after Nalani's team party to post these, just in case Coach Todd stalks my blog I didn't want to give away the surprise! I made a few thank you cards for my daughter's baseball coaches for the end of the season.  I got the idea here, then I just grabbed some scraps and used what I had on hand.  I think they turned out pretty cute!  I am sure the men were really impressed!!

Deal of the Day

Finally made it to Rite Aid to use my Up+ Rewards that expire tomorrow. Ups+ are pretty much money that Rite Aid gives back to you for shopping, I just keep using and earning Ups+ and hardly ever pay cash.

So today I got Purex laundry soap, 8pk of Dial soap, both of which we needed, some gum and sunflower seeds that Jaren claims he needed and then 2 toothbrushes, 1 toothpaste and a pack of flosser picks that we probably won't need for a really long time.  The can of Arizona Arnold Palmer was to get me to $16 so I could use my Ups+.

So all of that cost me $1.74 out of my pocket, which was pretty much just tax.

It was $17.74 after coupons, I used my $16 in Ups+ and then they gave me $9 in Ups+ to use next time!  So I just keep using Rite Aid's money over and over again!

Have I Got a Deal For You

I am by no means a candidate for Extreme Couponing but I do get a good deal now and then.  I plan to share my deals with you because well.............because Husband is no longer impressed with my free toothbrushes and deoderant!  I won't be telling you how to get the deals, there are plenty of other blogs out there that do that, like here, and message boards like here or here that tell you all of the sales and match coupons up to them for you.  I use all of these sites and have been able to get A LOT of health and beauty aids for free, haven't been so successful with groceries but I try my best.  I started couponing in November 2010 and here is my "stockpile" as the extreme couponers like to call it:

Yes, the shelves are full from front to back with body wash, shampoo, pain relievers, toothbrushes/paste, face wash etc. This doesn't include a crap-load of mens deoderant that Husband has in his medicine cabinet or all of the baby wash I have under the sink. No, I don't have a baby but Nalani loves it and just in case I have a baby shower to go to I am set!   It also doesn't include any of the things I have used over the course of the last 7 months, because if I didn't use it I would be a prime candidate for this.

Vinegar.....the cure all

I use vinegar for all kinds of things;

1. Use it in the water to mop the floor
2. Use it in the laundry to get that nasty smell out when you forget to switch the laundry and the wet clothes have been in the washer a tad too long
3. Soak other stinky clothes in it before washing - it kills the bacteria causing the stench AND it keeps colors bright
4. and of course to dye easter eggs! 

Well, the other day I read another use for vinegar.  I may have read it online or maybe in a magazine at the orthodontist office or at hip-hop dance class, I can't remember!  But it said to pour it on weeds that come up in cracks in the sidewalk or in your landscaping rocks.  I am going to give it a try because from the looks of it I can use any help I can get! 

I am wondering if they meant weeds to quite this degree or just a few here and there.....I will report back on how it works! 

**UPDATE** - Yes, vinegar kills weeds.  I didn't pour it on the jungle pictured above though.  I thought I would start small and I put it on the weeds that were growing in the cracks in my driveway.  They are now dead, I am a tad disappointed that it doesn't just disolve them, but it kills them and makes it easier to pull.  And in case you are concerned, all of the weeds in my landscaping rocks are gone also, I pulled them all by myself after it rained recently when the ground was damp which made pulling them easy!  So if you have weeds in your rocks or in cracks in a sidewalk go ahead and douse them in vinegar.

Mother's Day Bouquet Lives On

This year my boys surprised me with flowers, a gift and even dessert on Mother's Day.  When Nalani & I got home from the coast it was all waiting for me.  Usually the day goes by unnoticed, so I was delighted that a little effort was made (but now I guess I will have to do something for Father's Day!)
It is a week later and the flowers were in a need of a little consolidation - I pulled out the ones that were still looking good and re-arranged them in little vases.  They still brighten my kitchen and make me happy every time I walk by!

Coming Soon.....