Viggle

Hi guys! Have u guys tried the app Viggle? Ok I know I'm not normally one for promoting apps but basically you get points for watching tv and listening to songs. I would recommend it so much because then u can chose prizes with the points! And yes, this is a pathetic excuse for a Saturday blog post. 

Love you guys! 

~Blondie~ 

College packing

Hi guys! Sorry, this week is going to be a short post but I have been buying and packing for college these last two days and I have managed to create a large stash of college stuff in my room. I have everything I need, and possibly more than I need. So, I have a question for you. If you could take one thing with you if you were moving somewhere for a long time, what would you bring? That would be a really hard decision for me since I have already been overpacking. 

Also, and this is a more relevant question, would you guys like me to make a Facebook page for my blog? Thanks y'all! 

~Blondie~ 

Teddies, Teddies everywhere.

  Hello everyone! Wow, okay I guess I'm being formal. Maybe I should change it. Sup y'all? Nope, now I'm nuts. Hmmm. Okay well I think I'll just skip the greeting part. Anyway, we've been back from vacation for a few days now and my back is not killing me as much, which is fabulous because I want to tell you all about my collection!
All right, so I am 18 years old. At this age, most people my age don't really like stuffed animals. Sure, they may have a few, but I am not like any of those people. I collect teddy bears, and I have collected them since I realized I had accidentally started a collection that I wanted to continue. I was probably 13 when I figured this out, but it does not stop there.
Currently, my grand total of teddy bears is 81. Should I be proud? Probably not, but the thing is every bear I have has a story. And every teddy bear has a special spot in my room. Each is unique in every way. I have brown bears, white, pink, blue, green, even rainbow colored. They each are soft or hard, and I even have a paper one (weird, I know, but it's from part of Disney world and it was free so totally work it).
I'm pretty sure I am coming off as a rich, spoiled girl right now, am I right? The thing is, though, no one person got these bears for me. My friends know I collect them, so for birthdays or Christmas they give them to me as gifts. A few are souvenirs from places my friends have been. A bunch are ones I have saved up for and spent my own money on. I always save a little money if I'm going on a trip, and I buy souvenir teddy bears from different places we go (If you have a gift shop and no souvenir teddy bears then you automatically get a frowny face from me. You would be surprised how many places don't have souvenir teddy bears.). Some are even bears that I received as a hand-me-down that people no longer cared about. I once found a perfectly good teddy bear that someone had ripped up and one of the arms was missing.I took it home and sewed it up, no arm and all. Now he sits like a prince on one of my bear shelves.
Okay, so now it is your turn! What do you collect? Is it small? Big? I'm curious, so comment!
See you Wednesday!
~Blondie~

(Some quick pics of my bears. I wasn't kidding when I said I have a lot) 

Vacation to Valentine, Nebraska

Hi guys! Happy Wednesday! Yesterday we got back from a VERY enjoyable vacation, and I'm so excited to share it all with you! 

We started out with a 5 hour drive headed to our destination; Valentine, Nebraska. For lunch we stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Norfolk, and as we ate we watched a wall of clouds move in. We decided to leave as it started sprinkling, but we hardly made it a mile before the sky opened up and we were forced to turn around and camp our suburban in a Walmart parking lot for a little while. Colleen and my mom dared to run in and buy a few things but were soaked for their efforts. 

We made it to Valentine safely, and for a while we parked ourselves in our room, debating what to do for dinner. Around 7 we decided to divide and conquer. My parents and Colleen went to a restaurant to have steak and burgers while Laura, Scott and I ordered in pizza and stayed in the room watching TV. Sure, mine was the lazy response but it was nice. After the family was back together we bought ice cream at a little place in Valentine called Frosty's. If you ever go to Valentine I would highly recommend this place for a frozen treat, as I enjoyed the ice cream. 

The next morning was Sunday and we ate a complimentary breakfast at our hotel before packing up and heading out. We drove down to -/////? Lake and had the pleasure of wading in the water and writing in the sand. The sand was soft like silk, and we loved putting our toes in it. When we finished, we brushed off the sand and headed to get some groceries for the cabin we stayed in for two nights. 

Colleen had written a list and we followed it as we went through a very western general store. When we had finished, we headed to the ranch our cabin was on. 

That afternoon we unpacked, then I kept reading my book, trying desperately to finish it. (I never did that day, at 10:30 my dad cut me off and the end of the chapter I was on). For dinner we had spaghetti and for dessert we had banana s'mores (bananas cut down the curved 

side as deep as possible without cutting through filled with chocolate marshmallows and graham crackers) and it was all so amazing. For a while we played on the swings and with the tether ball they had on the grounds near us. Then we headed to bed. 

In the morning we woke early in order to get ready for our big day on the river. Our ride from the ranch was supposed to pick us up at 9 (ended up being about 9:15). On the way to the river we had a crazy group of 8 girls with us also. It turned out to be a bachelorette party, and the bride was very nice. 

Our tubes were tied in a circle around our cooler, and the tubes were shaped like circular jelly-filled donuts. Before we left, we hiked to Smith Falls and took pictures, then we hiked back, got comfortable on our separate tubes, then pushed off into the Niobrara River. 

The ride was supposed to be 6 hours. We ran over rocks and avoided trees as we floated to our destination. There were various stops along the way, but we only stopped for a bathroom break once. Our trip ended up being 5 1/2 hours, and we even ate lunch as we rode. Everyone in our group ended up very sunburned, but it was worth every second. A definite recommendation, but I wouldn't recommend going any longer than the 6 hour. 

That evening we ate hamburgers, then we played charades and Truth or Dare before falling asleep. 

On our last day there, we packed up quickly and were ready to leave by 9. Unfortunately, I had to make a souvineer stop, so we left around 9:45. When we finally made it home yesterday evening, we were exhausted and happy. 

This vacation was so worth it! I hope you guys have had a great summer! See you on Saturday, 

~Blondie~ 

What's your Vay-cay?

Hi guys! So this weekend I just wanted to talk about summer. How many of you have taken a vacation this summer? I myself am leaving on one this morning that will prove to be a bunch of fun, but my only other "vacation" of sorts was a miniature camping trip with my friend Katie, and let me put it this way; rain is not a camper's best friend. On the other hand, it did make for some good memories. 

In the past I've went on numerous family vacations with my family. There are six of us, so it takes a suburban to make six people with long legs comfortable. I remember going to the Grand Canyon, to Mount Rushmore, to Estes Park (Colorado), Yellowstone, even to Disney World (twice, technically three times). Sure, I don't remember everything about every trip, but I do remember a few key things from each trip. 

When we went to the Grand Canyon, I remember looking over the edge into that great big hole and wondering if I could nine climb all the way down to the barely visible Colorado river. The view was breathtaking and I would recommend going there if you haven't before. I hope someday to take my own family there when I'm married with kids. 

When I went to Mount Rushmore we stayed at a KOA campground, and that was where I met my very own penpal. She lives in Minnesota, I live in Nebraska. At a time in my life where texting took forever due to my phone being a flip phone, I reveled in the idea of sending letters back and forth (I still have all of our letters, but nowadays she doesn't really reply and I don't really have time to completely attack her with letters, although maybe I should.). When we actually saw Mount Rushmore on this trip, my favorite part was watching the side of George Washington's head as we drove to the area we could see the whole thing. For a while, that's all I could see and my siblings and I joked about how big his nose was. Truth be told, I preferred the side of George's face to the whole thing. It's more unique. This vacation is definitely a bucket list must-do if you haven't done it, and if you have kids, the KOA campground near the monument is definitely worth staying at. 

(The above photo is my favorite from Mount Rushmore. It perfectly describes my siblings and I.) 

In Estes Park, Colorado, I went to a family reunion. I remember camping, and even remember going horseback riding. I was so disappointed when they tied us all together for horseback riding, I just wanted to let my horse run free. I loved Estes Park, and the area was gorgeous but I wouldn't recommend this for a kid dominated group. For us we had mostly grown ups, but I think with a lot of kids they would get bored easily. 

Yellowstone has some goofy memories accompanied with it. I don't remember much about anything before the actual park, but I do remember my brother and uncle walking past the pools (like pools of sulfer I think, but I don't really remember what the science behind the beauty is) and pinching their noses closed. (It really did smell terrible but when you get past that it's super pretty.). I remember being so excited about Old Faithful but I hardly remember watching it, I think I was taking pictures or something. This part of that vacation (I think there was more but I have a terrible memory) was definitely pretty cool, and a lot of fun for kids. 

My first trip to Disney World was a total surprise. No, I don't have the faintest idea how old I was. All I know was I was still old enough to take the schedule as it came because I knew my parents would get me where I needed to be. That morning my mom made pancakes, and she made them shaped like Mickey Mouse heads. Logically that should tip us off, but I was 13, my sisters were 9 and my brother was 7 so we were just happy to have these cool pancakes made for us. Then my dad went upstairs, and we were confused when my mom suddenly said we should go upstairs so we could see something. When we got upstairs my dad had HUGE suitcases with him (along with something else but I don't really recall what it was. Five years is an easy amount of time to forget things) and he told us we were going to Disney World, our flight left the next morning, and we'd better get packing. So, we left the next morning on the first flight we had ever been on. I had this crazy haircut at the time and let's just say it was an in-between hairstyle, so don't laugh to hard at the picture. When we were in Disney we rode rides, ate good food, and generally had fun in the most magical place on earth. I mean, I'm 18 and I still love Disney, so it really is a family place. 

(Yep, and there's my hair at such an awkward stage of growth. It's cute, but in an I'm-growing-it-out kind of way.) 

Our second expedition to Disney World was right after I turned 15. This time, though, we drove all the way there. I remember sleeping (if you can call short little naps sleeping) all the way there, but anout 30 minutes away from our hotel, we pulled into a parking lot and snoozed for a couple of hours. My parents were so amazing to drive us there. We stayed in a super fancy hotel because my parents bought a Disney share after our first trip. All I can say about that trip other than the hotel was I remember watching the fireworks vividly, and if you are to ever go it is always worth it to stay up for the fireworks. 

The only other vacation I can remember is a cruise. It was only last year, in fact. We went on a cruise for a few days (yep, only a year and I don't remember how many days). It was a Disney cruise, and it really was magical. There were kids and teen rooms that you had to have your card to get into, and there were pools and an extremely long slide. All in all it was beautiful and a lot of fun. A definite recommendation for anyone young or old. 

All right, so now it's your turn and this time I'm actually hoping for a comment or two. What was your favorite vacation that you want to recommend to the world? Write it in the comments and see who agrees or disagrees. 

I'm headed off to Valentine, Nebraska this morning and I will update you all on the trip in my Wednesday posting. 

Until then! Ciao! 

~Blondie~  

Update days

In order to hopefully create a larger following, I have decided to regulate my posting days, so here it goes. I will be posting every Wednesday and Saturday, and I will even do short posts if I get really busy. Hopefully this schedule won't change when I go into college, but if it does I will be sure to update all of you. I hope you are all having a great summer and look for an update on Saturday! :)
~Blondie~

The Creme Puff Experiment

So my sisters and I found a recipe for Creme puffs and we just HAD to try. So we made it an experiment for this morning before lunch.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-Puffs-395454

So the above is the recipe that we used but we totally didn't follow the end of it, you can though! :) 

All right so this recipe calls for...

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces

1 teaspoon and 2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup flour

6 large eggs

2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Powdered sugar for dusting 

2 pastry bags, 1/2" star-type tip and 1 injector tip 

Start by lining 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. (You may need more but start with two). To line the baking sheets spray the baking sheets with butter spray, then lay the parchment over the top. This will allow the sheet to stick to the baking sheet. 

Start with a medium saucepan and on medium heat bring the milk, butter, salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a 1/2 cup of water to a boil. Mix occasionally until it's boiling. 

 

 

 

The last picture above should be what boiling looks like. 

When it is boiling, take the full cup of flour and pour it in, then stir it in until it's fully combined. There should be a thin film on the bottom of the pot. When you see this, transfer it to a bowl. 

Then, add the eggs in but only add 5. There's a trick though; you need to add them one by one. So you add an egg then mix it fully in before you add the next egg. 

Next put the mix into the pastry bag with the star tip. Then create circles of the mix on the parchment. 

 

Your circles should look something like this picture above. You can make them bigger if you like but not any smaller. 

When you have that, whisk the remaining egg with two teaspoons of water, then brush on top of the circles. 

The racks of the oven should be placed in the upper and middle thirds of the oven, then preheat to 450°. Once the oven is preheated, turn off the oven and place the two trays inside for 10 minutes. Once the ten minutes is up, turn the oven on to 350° and allow the puffs to bake for another 10 minutes. At 10 minutes trade the pans quickly from top to bottom or vica versa. This needs to be done quickly so the puffs don't deflate. This second baking period for our first batch we tried 10 minutes and they deflated, but the second batch we did 15 minutes and they turned out better. I'll give this advice: golden brown is not brown enough, it needs to be more of a dark brown. Not burnt, obviously, but it helps to have them dark brown so they don't deflate. 

A 

B

Can you tell which is better? For us, the baking process took forever so we had to entertain ourselves. 

 

My entertainment was taking pictures of these two. When you pull them out of the oven you need to let them cool on the pans for a few minutes, then pull them off and place them on cooling racks. In order for them to be filled they must be completely cool inside and out. Make your best judgement. 

Now for the filling the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream. My sisters and I were geniuses and only got half a pint. Next time we will get more but it did work out perfectly fine the way we did it. For the filling, pour the heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar into your mixer. Start out slow, then gradually speed up until you have whipped cream. Your pastry bag with your injecting tip should be easily filled with this mixture. Quick thing: if you don't have an injecting tip you are definitely missing out. With even a sandwich bag and this tip you can fill anything; cupcakes, cakes, pastries, pick one thing and try it. 

Anyway, once your bag is loaded just carefully put the tip through the first layer of your puff. This should make sure you don't put a hole through the bottom. Then just squeeze a little filling in. Tip: do not put more than two scoops in the bag at a time or you will end up with the kind of mess my sisters and I had when it came out of the back instead of the front. 

When they are filled, feel free to box them up and sprinkle some powdered sugar on the tops. This is how a few of ours turned out. 

Have fun, be inventive, and like usual, ENJOY! 

~Blondie~ 

Freedom

Hi guys! I am currently laying on the couch in my living room with my feet in a blanket and headphones over my ears, but I really wanted to talk about the fourth of July.
So, as a newly ordained checker at Hyvee, I was working there today as tons of people had the sudden realization that they didn't have nearly enough food for their Independence Day parties. This actually got me thinking, I mean this holiday used to celebrate freedom. Freedom for all of America from being treated like we weren't worth it (we showed them, right?). Yet there they all were, more desperate to pay for some hot dogs and beer than to donate a few cents to the fund for the troops that Hyvee had running. Shouldn't this holiday be a celebration of the freedom our country fought so hard for? Sure, the fireworks are cool and it all inspires a little pride for our country but then there's the fact that people will spend hundreds of dollars on the fireworks and suddenly it's not about freedom it's about who has the better fireworks.
So your turn to weigh in. Is the Fourth of July really a good source of pride for our country or is it just a marketing strategy? Also, did you do something fun for the holiday?
I love you guys and would love to hear your opinion!
~Blondie~

Floating Pizza

Hi guys! Yes, reread the title. That's what it says. One more time. Yes, floating pizza. Okay, now that that's cleared up, let me explain.
So Friday night I worked at 4. Fun, right? The only thing that made me not want to work that night was the heat. It was humid and muggy outside, and the heat translated directly into the room we work in. Hot or not, I was working and I was ready with a icy cold water bottle.
Work started out normal. We worked, a few people left, a few deliveries left and all was well. Then around 7:30 the sky started to get dark. The three people who were working only inside; Joe, Katie, and I, watched outside as a wall cloud approached us. We kept working though, used to the storms that have become normal this summer. I don't even remember what time it was when the sky opened up with a ton of rain.
For some reason, when it has rained this summer, that translates to the world that they need to buy pizza. I'm not complaining, it's just crazy. Around 8:30, though, we had slowed down enough that Joe asked me to clock out even if I didn't leave. So, I clocked out and Katie (oh the greatness of having a friend to work with. :)) made sure I sat down and didn't help with anything. It took about five minutes (I Facebooked then stared quietly at them as they work) for me to give up on sitting down and start to help.
I was really glad I started helping because for the next 3 hours and 15 minutes we were all three running around like chickens with our heads cut off. The drivers walked in, grabbed their deliveries, and left again. I received flyby training actually topping the pizzas and bread, and we somehow managed to make it through the night by the skin of our teeth.
By the time Katie and I clocked out, I had decided to spend the night at her house in order to avoid driving in the flash flood my phone notified me about. One of our drivers lost his car in the water around ten o'clock, so that freaked me out a little bit, and I decided to stay as put as I could.
I was so glad to have a place to sleep that I didn't have to swim to. So yes, I say floating pizza because it's logical word choice with flash flooding and making pizzas. :)
So... now it's your turn! Do you have any funny (or not so funny) stories about bad weather? Rain, snow, hail, whatever it is I wanna hear it!
I'll write later!
~Blondie~

My writing

All right, so I figured that today would be the day I introduced you to the book I wrote in November 2012. I have yet to get it published, mostly because it needs editing and I need a lot of time at once in order to edit.
So, here goes nothing.

This is what I'm hoping my cover page will look like when it finally gets published. Notice that I say when not if because I am so determined to fix it until it is publishable.

This is almost what I visualize as my main character. Her name is Juliette when we first meet her. Later we figure out that her true name is Isabella. She is raised in an adoptive family. The only thing about her adoptive family that makes Juliette stand out is that they are all Asian.

                                                    Truly her hair is blonde with streaks of pink and blue,and it's normally slicked back in a bun, but I am not an artist and neglected to find something more fitting. You get the idea though.)
So Juliette finds out that she is a princess from the crazy lady: Carmen.

There are a lot of struggles though before she can truly settle down in her new life.
Interested in reading it? Comment and I would be more than willing to send it to you, especially if you would want to edit a little. :D
Does it sound interesting? I hope so, because I want to make it interesting to the whole world.
Til later!
~Blondie~

I just want a job I like.

Yes, I know. You just read the title of this blog and some of you went 'wait, so do I!' Others may have rolled your eyes, while maybe some of you shook your head because you are fortunate enough to love or at least like your job. Those who like or love your jobs are lucky. But I'm rambling so let me start on a path that makes at least partial sense.
For the past two summers I have been a nanny to three sweet, lovable kids. It was a full time job, but even with the lower-than-average pay I loved it. So much that I was extremely disappointed to hear that this summer the kids would be old enough to be on their own. With that fact in mind, I set off to find a job this past December. I applied and applied and applied but I didn't get anywhere until March, when I landed a job at Dominos. Sure, it was fast food in a sense but I worked at Runza in 2012 and I knew there was nothing that could be worse than that.
Let me backtrack. Before I get any further I would like to point out that I am not bad mouthing these companies. It had nothing to do with the companies with why I dislike working at them, it just deals with me.
So now I work at Dominos, but I am absolutely burnt out from working with food. I end up getting home every night smelling gross and my feet and legs constantly hurt. So, I will reiterate my title. I just want a job that I like. A job that I could walk in every day and believe in everything I do. But, until I graduate college, I guess I'll stick with food and possibly retail in order to pay for life.
Well, you've heard my obsessing, so now it's your turn! What job do you have or have you had that just drove you nuts? Were you on your feet a lot? Did you have to talk on the phone a lot? Was it really confusing? Whatever it is, just write about it in the comments! I won't judge! :)
~Blondie~

I have a pretty little obsession

Hi guys! How's life? I just spent the day doing nearly nothing. Okay fine, I woke up, ate toast for breakfast, watched my sisters' soccer game, came home, ate lunch, applied for a second job, ate dinner and... Oh! There is that one thing I did...
So when I first heard about the show Pretty Little Liars all I could think was 'This is ridiculous. Crazy, scary, nothing I would ever watch.' Then I watched a Halloween episode and I was hooked. Once I mentally got the four main characters straight (Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily) I could follow along to the new episodes. Nowadays, though, there is only a day until the new episode and I desperately want to get through the previous seasons before the new episode comes out because sometimes I get a little...lost.
So, for those of you that don't know anything about the show, here's the gist: the main characters mentioned above were at a sleepover with their friend Alison on the night she went missing. Later she is found to be 'dead' but they get these texts from the mysterious A as weird and creepy, even life-threatening things keep happening. The thing is, this new episode supposedly tells us who A is (yeah so catch up before you watch brand-new or the series will be ruined for you. I hope.) and I'm watching through these 45 minute episodes trying to find my own clues as to who it could be. So yes, as the title says, I have a Pretty Little obsession.
Whelp, now that you've heard me obsess over MY favorite show, tell me what yours is! Just comment your favorite show and I will pick one or two to right about in my next blog post!
Good night! ~Blondie~

Sock bears

http://pinterest.com/pin/90283167506259817/

And now for our last project. We used the last socks from the four pack we bought to make little teddy bears. It seems silly, I know, and our bears would tend to agree, but they actually turned out adorably.

You need 3+ buttons and 1 sock. Your supplies should include some thread, a needle, and a permanent marker. 

Above, you can see a rough sketch for the sock pattern. The toe part should look like the outline of ears. The butt should be the heel of the sock. Cut out the lines in the rough sketch, but add your own flair in any way you want. 

Make sure that the pieces have the wrong sides out then stitch along all sides except half of one side on every piece. Once you have that done, inside it out without tying off the thread. Then stuff the piece, fold in the fabric then press them together with your fingers as you stitch up the side. Then tie it and cut it off. 

The one piece that is odd is the body. Stitch the legs inside out the whole time, then cut the thread off, right side it out and stuff it. 

At the top of the body put stitches in it that makes a circle, then tighten it up to close the hole. The tail of the thread can then be tied to the end of the thread, then cut it off. This will create the body and when you have the head and arms stuffed you can move into putting it all together.

The arms should be simple to sew on in the area that arms go, as is above. For the head, take the stub at the top of the body and stitch the back of the head to the stub. The ending look should be something like above. 

Next pick out your buttons and sew on a nose and eyes. If you want, accessorize you bear in any other way you like. 

These are our bears: 

So we didn't go precisely by the instructions but they turned out adorably! Enjoy! 

~Blondie~ 

It's raining, I'm not snoring...

Last night this very interesting storm came through my little town. I dislike storms more than you could believe, and as the wind whipped the chairs on our deck, and the lightening was echoed with thunder, my imagination started to go crazy with ideas of what could happen. Broken windows, fallen trees... Sure it wasn't even a storm worth caring about, but my imagination is powerful. Do any of you ever do this? Next time it rains, snows, or there is any inclement weather let your imagination run free. Though it's scary, it also brings a little bit of fun to the storm.
I'll finish my last craft post soon!
~Blondie~

Sock gloves

http://interestings.org/diy-mittens-gloves/

Yep, you read the title right... Sock gloves. I know it sounds silly, but they are actually completely adorable. We didn't exactly follow the directions to the T on this one, but this project has a lot of room for the crafter's choice. 

First, start out with a pair of long socks. Short socks would probably work but you'd want the part without the feet to be at least half as long as these. 

Cut off the feet of the socks. Most people would just throw away the feet, but my sisters took the feet from ours and found they were comfy as around-the-house socks. 

Next you want to put the socks on your arms. The top of the sock should be by your elbow. Adjust the sock until you know where you want your thumb to bed, then mark it out with a small line half the size of you thumb at the base. Then take each off and cut where you marked it out. 

You should have something that looks relatively like this. From there you can decorate it and make it yours. 

Sabrina's looked like this. She plans on drawing on them to make them her own. 

So that's the gloves we made! Pretty simple, right? The fun part about this is how you can make it anyway you like. I hope you have fun making it your own! ~Blondie~ 

The end of the thing we've been working for for 15 years

The last two weeks have been constant thoughts about graduating, school ending, keeping the memories, and so many emotions that go swirling through everything it's so hard to believe that this is it. This is the end. 

I remember preschool. I mean, not well, but I spent two years in the same classroom playing house, coloring, thinking that that was how school was for everyone in every grade. I remember using sugar cubes to make tea for my teachers, and I remember loving the markers that were stuck in a block of work so we wouldn't lose the marker tops. Then those two years ended and I no longer had my little orange flower symbol by my name so I knew it was my name.

Kindergarden I remember writing things by copying from a projector, and I remember writing my name for the first time. Nap time was mandatory for us, and I couldn't stand it. Nowadays that's all I hope for. In first grade I remember sitting at tables in a little classroom, and I felt so grown up. I learned to read in second or third grade, and it took me a little longer to learn to read, if I remember correctly, than other kids in my class. After I learned to read, though, I couldn't stop. 

Fourth grade we were on a different floor of the school, and in the fall of that year we changed to a new house. My mom would drive my sisters, brother, and I to school every school day that whole year, and I remember bouncing over the gravel road as we went back and forth. When that year ended, though, we changed to a new school, and I said goodbye to my best friend. 

Fifth grade I got braces along with a new friend. Our moms became friends, and we would spend time through sixth grade just having fun together. Sixth grade I became the crazy gerbil girl, and I loved my little pets so much. 

Seventh grade was a whole new ball game. People from my old school and my new school combined in order to form my junior high. I became friends again with my friend from my old school, and we moved through the next two years as great friends. Eighth grade year we were the top of the junior high, and the "sevies" had nothing on us. We felt like we could take on the whole world. 

When I became a freshman, we were all taken down a few notches. We were the bottom of the pile, and that meant we needed to learn our place. I marched long and hard in band, and put my heart into golfing. "Freshman hell day" left me with a great friend as a senior who fluffed my hair up and put some wash out color in it. She made me a shirt and bought me breakfast, and we've been friends since then. 

Sophomore year was a hard year. I dealt with girls on my golf team who treated me unfairly, and I would sometimes just feel like giving up. I helped out with our fall play with the new director, Mrs. Morgenson, dictating that I was the animal tamer. I became a better person that year, because I learned that I was stronger than I thought I was. 

Junior year started the worrying about college. Every day I would receive a piece if mail from a different college. At some point I filled a full-sized trash bag with all the college mail I had collected. I felt sure I knew where I was going, and I wasn't about to let the brochures influence me. I dated a guy for three months who dumped me on Facebook, and I realized I had to be careful who or what I invested my heart in. 

Senior year I started applying for scholarships on August 1st. I wanted to earn every scholarship possible. School started up, and I had fun with my friends at homecoming, then I applied for only two schools. I knew that I was a good enough student to get into at least one of the two schools. Fall play I played a handful of supporting roles with a lot of lines. I was proud of myself, and even managed to overcome my stage fright for the duration of the performances. After I received my acceptance letter for both colleges I knew I was in the school I had wanted since my freshman year. 

November brought me someone I never thought I would meet, and his name is Alex. Since the 7th of November we've been attached by the hip. When January came, and I was 18 everything became so real I wasn't quite sure what to do. In March I decided against my dream college and instead decided on a school much for fitting to what I wanted; Hastings College. Graduation came all too fast with senior festivities and tons of family and friends. Now here I am. I've been a graduate for a week and two days, and I'm throwing away all that remains of these last weeks. It's cheesy, I know, but here those flowers lay, dead and put in the trash. Everything is just memories, and suddenly the excitement is gone. Onto another part of life.  

Ribbon flowers

http://ribbonflowers.blogspot.com/

Our third project were these adorable little flowers. We actually hardly followed about half of these instructions due to the fact we did not have the wood burning tool, and the washers we had were not large enough for our ribbon. Instead, we started by cutting five small pieces of ribbon that were all the same size. Then we rounded the ends of them. 

As you can see they all are basically the same size. Next we took some thread and a needle, then sewed through the bottoms of each, attaching them together so the same sides faced the same way. 

They should look like the above picture. If you would like a tighter flower, use a short amount of thread. Sabrina did this and her petals looked like this: 

When you have sewn through them all, tighten the bunch and tie the thread before the note and the thread near the needle together very tight. 

The top picture is mine, and the bottom is Sabrina's. When the thread is tied, just cut off the needle and any stray thread and you're done. If you want you could decorate with these, even make a hair clip out of one of these. They can come in all shapes and sizes just as long as you get thicker ribbon. Thanks for reading and have fun! ~Blondie~ 

A fluffier box cake and decorating it

This next recipe we found to make the cake fluffier, and after we made it fluffier we decorated it fabulously. We started with separating the egg yolks from the whites. Our two boxes of mix each called for 3 eggs, so we ended up separating six eggs. The whites we poured into a seperate bowl. 

It said to whip the egg whites until they were stiff, but Sabrina and I had an interesting time with that. We hand whipped them for about seven minutes until we gave up. They came out more like foam with whites. I would recommend using some sort of electric mixer if you're going to do this correctly, as we did not do it correctly, but we did it almost as accurately as it should have been. When you have the egg white done, set them to the side. 

  

  

So the next step is to sift all of the cake mix into your mixing bowl. Word of warning: be sure you have a working sifter before you attempt to do this. Above are the results of having to do two boxes of cake mix with a broken sifter. We sifted through about half a cup of it with the help of a spoon, and the bottom picture shows how light and fluffy the mix looks. The grisly bits left in the sifter when you have completed this task you throw away. 

  

Here you can see we tried to sift it with a tuna strainer, and you can also see the grisly bit left over in the strainer. The strainer worked a little better than the broken sifter, but I would recommend a real sifter. We finally just gave up and dumped the rest in, then gave it a good whisking with the electric mixer until it looked nearly as good as the sifted part had. 

Next we added in flour. For one box of cake mix it's 3 tablespoons, but we doubled it for our two boxes and had six. Then we added in all the rest that was called for on the boxes, but instead of the whole eggs you need to only add the leftover yolks. 

If you can't tell the yolks look really gross. 

We mixed everything together then, and the batter looks like basic, stereotypical cake batter. Nothing special. 

Then we carefully folded in the egg whites, making sure to fold it and not just hit it with the electric mixer, or else whipping the whites would be pointless. 

Next we seperated the batter little by little and dyed it different colors. For ours we did different colors of purple...

Then we left the leftover purple inside and made a grey color. When we had finished mixing the colors we layered them into the pans as follows: 

Be sure you butter the pans really well with butter spray, even on the edges. If you would like, use some  parchment paper and put a circle in the bottom of each pan. This works really well to help get the cake out of the pan later, but without it and with a ton of butter works just as well. On our cake we went without the parchment. Even though the grey looks really dark it actually baked into more of a purple grey than we thought it would be. 

After that we baked them. The two smaller pans took 27 minutes to bake, then the largest pan took 34 minutes. The minute they were done we pulled them out and put them in the freezer. They sat in the freezer for a little over an hour before they were cooled down and a little more firm to flip out of the pans. 

To flip them out of the pans I used a small metal spatula like the above one. I used this to cute along the edges, then we carefully pried under it to shake it loose before we flipped it onto the pan. 

The first tier was easy to flip because as long as it made it onto the spinning platter it didn't really matter where it was. We used a large spatula to cover it in our choice of colored frosting. When doing the edges, be sure your spatula is vertical and work with the cake or you will end up with extensive crumbs. 

 

The second tier we placed on by flipping it onto the fingertips of our hands before carefully lowering it into the middle. I spotted and Sabrina placed it. As you can see in the above picture, the purple coloring in the frosting worked very well. 

The last tier went on very well too, although I would recommend leveling off the top of the cakes in order to prevent the cracking you can see in the middle tier in the above picture. When attaching the cakes together we put a blob of frosting to act as glue. This helped hold it together better. 

When we had completed the cake, we debated on design ideas. Sabrina had brought along hard pearl candies that looked like this: 

We finally agreed on placing these on the edges about an inch apart all around the cake. 

We contrasted our colors on the first two tiers, then on the top we switched between the colors. It ended up looking very professional. 

On the top we put an S for our names. Since Sabrina is an artist, the S turned out amazing. When we were done it was definitely worth it due to how amazing it looked and tasted. For how amazing it turned out it didn't truly take a lot of work. I hope you'll try it! Have a good weekend! ~Blondie~