shady back yard = wet clothes

isn’t home ownership grand?

err, I mean:

and her dog:

and her stick:

these were the outtakes from her Senior photos. (I still can’t believe she will be done High School in less then a month)

She has blossomed into a wonderful human being. I am so proud of her. I know she will do well in the next chapter of her life.

Last week I found this blog post, and thought it’d be a great way to subtly show off our mad craft skillz when we go to the movie. I say “our” this time because it’s a project I can not do alone. I need my husband’s patience to cut out the stencils from the freezer paper. We totally can not take credit for the art as we pulled it directly from the blog. Why mess with something that is already great! Thank you I Am Momma for a wonderful blog post!

We’ve done freezer paper stencils before. We are always amazed at how magical the process is and how they come out looking so close to actual professional silk screening, it’s amazing.

The only down side to this particular project is that I didn’t get very nice photos to share. but here is the finished product and the best geeky family photo in a while:

The process was fun and mostly simple. The hardest part was that we had to make 5 of the same stencils since they can not be re used and we were making a shirt for each family member.

I’m not going to add a tutorial because there are a ton out there on the google.

Here are some close ups of the finished shirts:

and of course an action shot:

Hubby and I were actually the only ones who went to the movie wearing our shirts (nerdy couple alert). The littles obviously have to wait a few more years to see it and the teenager went with her boyfriend separately from us and I guess didn’t want to be all geeky fangirl in front of him.

PS the movie was awesome.

PPS the movie kicked @$$.

PPPS best movie I’ve seen in a long time. I love Joss Whedon.

does it get any cooler then that? He’s a geek. That’s why I love him.

I wanted to make him a nerdy cake for his birthday. His favorite Avenger is Captain America. All the Captain America cakes I have seen on the webz had icky fondant on them. I needed to find a way I could do it without fondant (because fondant is of the devil, and well just plain gross) and also without a crap-ton of food coloring. I was playing around with the idea of using sprinkles, but had basically talked myself out of that deciding that I could never get sprinkles to go to their right spots and not make it look dumb. I wanted it to be as perfect as a fondant one would have looked, only taste a billion times better. My teenager said, “Just do it, Mom! It’ll look fine.” I guess, even if the sprinkles came out dumb, it would still taste ok. I knew Hubby would have loved it no matter what.

To make his cake extra special, I did a fancier chocolate cake. After all you only have 1 birthday a year, so make it super yummy cool. Hubby likes chocolate. He likes raspberry. I made him a Chocolate Ganache Raspberry Capatin America Cake! D.e.c.a.d.e.n.c.e.

I added dark chocolate ganache and raspberry fruit to each layer:

I used parchment paper and cut out the different parts of Captain America’s shield. After frosting with just plain white buttercream frosting I stuck the different rings on the cake to block out where I didn’t want the sprinkles to stick. and voila! a Captain America cake:

(and a ton of sprinkles that didn’t make it on the cake).
The cake took a long time to make, but I had fun doing that for my husband. I can’t make dinner, but I can sure build him a cake!

I decided to just go with the Super Hero/Avenger theme all the way and got him a Captain America t-shirt to wear to the movie. He recently started taking knitting classes, and had been carrying his stuff around in a ziploc bag. I made him a cool (and very manly) project bag to carry his knitting.

I know the yarn isn’t “super Hero” themed, but hey it’s STAR WARS yarn! <-- it doesn't get any cooler than that. I bought him the yarn from HaldeCraft. His first “good” yarn. I’m going to help him make a hat with it. Just to keep the nerdiness well rounded, he also got the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-Ray.

Our super talented teenager comic-book-ified him and drew this great card:

Happy Birthday to my super cool geeky Hubby. I love you.

Today was one of those days where I had a little bit of unexpected time on my hands. I had planned on being at school all morning, but there was a scheduling snafu and I wasn’t needed. I thought I could do a little crafting instead. But, when I got home and walked past my KitchenAid, I decided that making cupcakes was a better idea.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with different ingredients and flavors. I made these without eggs (I hardly ever use eggs in baking), but I did use regular cow’s milk instead of my usual soy or almond. They came out a little fluffier this time, yet still moist. I’ve been wanting to try “hiding” things in the cupcakes and happened to have some perfect candies on hand (it’s amazing how much longer it takes for candy to disappear around here since I’ve lost weight and decreased my appetite). I started with my usual chocolate cake recipe then added either a mini Reese’s cup, a Rolo’s or a Hersey’s kiss in the center before I baked.

I do believe that they came out pretty yummy. I sampled one after I took this picture:

I’m still waiting for the masses to call in with their reviews, but so far I think this recipe may be a keeper. It’s a little fancier and more decadent then the usual cupcakes. Everyone could use a little more decadence in their lives anyway.

Plus, cupcakes make me happy.

goofy kids from before we moved

and of course, my dress. I wish I could wear it every day

I had been wanting to try a recipe for St Patrick’s Day (umm, yeah). Chocolate stout cupcakes with Irish cream frosting. So I started there. The recipe for the cupcakes came from my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. The frosting was just a regular cream cheese powdered sugar recipe adding 3-4 tbs of Bailey’s instead of milk.

I haven’t tried the cupcakes yet, but the batter tasted yummy as did the */hiccup* frosting. I know my friends at social knitting this evening will appreciate these.

I needed to make some for the kids and my gluten free friend. I just went with the traditional vanilla recipe but I gussied them up with some cutesy holiday candy decorations, ya know, for the kids.

I did sort of make up a recipe while I was making these. I made Nutella frosting (I’m sure its not real far off from an actual Nutella frosting recipe). I really just added Nutella to my regular buttercream frosting recipe. After I filled up the first frosting bag with the vanilla frosting, I had a ton of frosting left, so I just tossed in about 1/3 cup of nutella and a little more powdered sugar and whipped it again. Voila! Nutella frosting.

It was great to get back into the kitchen again (and not be making dinner). And as a matter of fact, I did wear my tiara while I baked! My long lost tiara was found when we moved. I am so glad it found its way back to me. I have missed it.

We have a few minor things to fix before we officially move in but we have keys in hand as of today. We will be working on a few upgrades this week and hope to physically move next week. It’s an older house, but for what we spent, we are getting way more space for our dollar. I’m am so lucky to have a handy husband. None of the things we need to do are out of his realm. We even have handy friends (Hi, Tim!) who are going to help us with a sink that hubbs is a tad uncertain about undertaking by himself.

The house is in a great location as well, centrally located. Minutes from everywhere. So different from the 30 minute drive to get anywhere that we’ve had to endure for the past 12 years.

It has a playroom AND a screened/enclosed porch, fire pit, fenced area for the pooch, and wait for it…a full sized work shop for the talented woodworking hubby.

We are all very excited. I will post about our renovations as we progress so stay tuned!

my little nerdletts in their new shirt.woot shirts!

a little dollie I knitted for Operation Comfort Doll. She still needs a face.

and finally…please send us good vibes on Monday that this will be ours for reals.