Adventures in Wood Burning

Lately I have been thinking a lot about trying wood burning again.  Last year, around October, a 4th grade teacher at the school where I work was doing an art project of wood burning.  A few of the kids in our class were participating with his kids and so he let me borrow a wood burner and he gave me some wood that I could try on when I asked him more about it.  I found an awesome picture of a tiger and decided that I wanted to try a tiger rather then the chipmunk, covered wagon, or coyote type things he was having his students do, I think he was trying to stick with the Utah history, pioneer type theme for his curriculum. The tiger was much cooler.  It was a lot of fun, and even though there are spots that look a bit weird he turned out pretty great, in my opinion.  I still need to put a glaze over the whole thing from what I've been told but I just haven't quite gotten around to it.

(This isn't the greatest picture of this guy but it was the best I could get)

I had a blast working on this tiger, so much so, that I went out and bought my very own wood burner.  Basically, I got it for free because I had a 50% off coupon for Robert's and was given a $15.00 gift card for my birthday earlier that year.  I only ended up paying about a dollar for the tax. 

When I finished off my tiger I went about looking for more wood to burn.  I decided that a pretty box with a burned peacock would be perfect for my sister Sarah's Christmas present.  I found a great wooden box made of basswood.  But basswood is a very soft wood and it burned way too quickly.  My fancy new wood burner does not have a temperature adjuster and I could barely press the hot blade to the wood before the wood burned all around the blade as well.  I was disgusted, to say the least, and was extremely discouraged by the whole experience.  I didn't get quite half way finished with the peacock before I gave that idea up and I haven't touched the wood burner since.  There were too many fine lines that would have all blurred together if I had kept going.  And honestly it looks really fuzzy and pretty much terrible.

I think that I am about over that disappointment and I am ready to try again.  I will definitely not buy wood at Robert's because all they have is basswood or some other kind that is even softer then the basswood.  It almost feels foamy.  I think I'm going to have to hit up Home Depot and cut up some wood myself.  It will probably be cheaper that way anyway.  Wish me luck in my future wood burning endeavors.

Our Family

Eric and I have recently added a new member to our family of cats.  He is extremely cute and a beast at the same time but we love him.  If you haven't met any of our cats yet, here is your chance.

This is Vree:

We got her just after Thanksgiving of 2008.  She was 5 months old when we bought her from Petsmart.  We couldn't resist how unique looking she is and how clumsy she is.  When we first saw her she was in her glass enclosed cage trying to show off for us on the two story little box in there and she fell off, it was too cute to pass up.  She is such a cute girl.  She loves me but doesn't care much for Eric.  She is usually in the same room as I am throughout the day and talks to me all the time, even though I don't always know what she is saying.

She loves to sit on my lap when I'm on my computer, this is us watching the X-Files.



She has a certain look in her eye that makes her look like she's up to no good.

This is Alys:

We bought Aly from Petsmart as well in the end of January of 2009.  We felt like Vree was lonely and needed a brother or sister.  I wanted a boy cat, I think they have really funny personalities.  I had one all picked out and he looked almost exactly like Alys but Eric's heart was stolen by this little vixen.  He was holding her, she was tiny even though she was 5 months old and she smelled like she was already half dead but she reached up and gave Eric a little kiss on the cheek and he knew he couldn't part with her.  When I held her she did the same thing to me so we bought her and nursed her back to health.  She has been best friends with Eric ever since.  She loves to cuddle with him.

She loves to hang out in windows and anywhere she really shouldn't be.

Vree and Aly have become good friends, although they weren't to begin with. 

It took Vree quite some time to accept a new member of the family but now they are definitely sisters, best friends, cuddle buddies and playmates.

We added a new member to our family last week.  He is such a cute guy and he and Alys have become fast friends but Vree is still struggling with the newest addition to the family.  We haven't completely decided on a name for the little guy yet but we are thinking of calling him Lecter, he is constantly trying to nibble on my ears, lips, chin, eyes, anywhere he can.  He loves to lay on my chest, right next to my neck and purr really loud.  He is definitely cute when he is calm enough to cuddle but a little terrorist when he wants to play.  I'm covered in scratches from his extremely sharp claws that we can't clip yet.

Lecter: (tentative name)

This was my vain attempt at taking picture of him as he played, do you see the size of his claws?!


I was barely able to get a picture of him as he dashed around the living room chasing imaginary creatures around.

He is such a cute guy and I'm so glad we added him into our mix. 

Dangerously Delicious

Eric's mom has this great recipe for peanut butter brownies that Eric absolutely loves.  I'd never made them or even eaten them up until two days ago.  I've asked him to get the recipe for me a few times and he finally did when he couldn't live without the taste of them one day longer.  So I sent him to the store to pick up the few ingredients I didn't have and then I whipped up the batter.  They were very simple to prepare and only take 10 minutes in the oven.  The hard part was waiting for them to cool enough for us to layer on some more peanut butter.  

 Once they were slathered with enough peanut butter to satisfy me I attempted to make the frosting.  I added too much milk at first and not enough powdered sugar and I was getting frustrated. I'm not very good at frostings.  We had company come over and I welcomed the distraction as I was about to call it quits on the frosting and just figure something else out but Eric wouldn't give up.  "The frosting is what makes the brownies good" he told me and he set to work trying to make the frosting thicken up.  When he ran out of powdered sugar and we realized there was no thickening the frosting without it we ran to the store to pick some more up.  It was 10:30 at night by this time and I was very ready for the brownie fiasco to be over.  We came home, added a lot more powdered sugar and the frosting turned out wonderfully, even though we have enough of it to make about four more batches. 

We frosted the brownies, let them set in the freezer for about one minute, (we couldn't wait any longer) cut them up and each had a large bar, with the required milk to wash it all down with, of course.  They were great! I couldn't believe that I hadn't ever had them before and that I'd waited so long to make them.

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Brownies

• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. shortening
• 1/3 c. smooth and creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

 Cream the sugars and the shortening.  Add the remaining ingredients into the mix and stir until combined.  Add in 1 c. flour and 1 c. oats.  Pour into a lightly greased pan. (I used a 9x9 inch pan and they turned out soft and chey, if you want a thinner browning you can use a bigger pan but the brownies may turn out harder).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Let cool completely.  Spread as much peanut butter over the cool brownies as you want, just make sure they are completely cool or the peanut butter will melt into them.  Then spread the frosting over the peanut butter.  Eric's mom's frosting recipe doesn't have exact measurements so you just have to experiment until you get it right.  You will need:

• evaporated milk
• melted butter
• powdered sugar
• cocoa powder

I hope they turn out well for you and that your kitchen doesn't turn out to be as big of a disaster area as mine did.

Quick Projects

After reading my sister's blog about her homemade bonsai tree a few months back, my mom and I decided to try our hand at it.  Rachael put a tutorial on her blog so we could follow her steps because I could not fathom how to turn a shrub into a tree when she tried to explain it to me over the phone. 

We ran to Home Depot to find the exact kind of tree she used because hers turned out so well and I wanted mine to be just as cute.  We searched through all of their little shrubs, getting poked and scratched all along the way, but were unable to find the kind she used.  We finally settled on some type of Cyprus shrubs.

I took mine home and attempted to follow her instructions.  I don't know that mine turned out quite as cute as hers did but I love it and it has survived; which, quite honestly, surprises me.

Here is a picture of the final product,
I never took a picture of what I started out with.

And here is a view from the side:

The bonsai turned out a lot better then I had expected and the tree itself only cost me 6 dollars.  The pot was 10.  So I would say I saved a whole lot of money, considering that bonsais start around $20 and often go up to more than $100.  It was a fun project and now I'll never have to worry about buying another overpriced tree again, unless I want the real thing, of course.

Around the time that I made my bonsai tree I also made a few clocks and again I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  I bought a clock kit from Roberts, some black paint, and some fabric and matching ribbon.  I painted the numbers and clock hands, glued the fabric around the clock face and attached the numbers and ribbon.  I love the simplicity of it and how easy it is to personalize each one.  I've made six clocks so far and each one looks unique from the others but of course I didn't take any pictures of those.

Here is the clock I have hanging in my living room.

Both of these projects cost less than 20 dollars and took only about an hour each to complete.  I love quick projects that aren't too overwhelming when you realize too late what you've gotten yourself into.

My Attempt at Organization

I have never been a very organized person.  Just ask my mom.  Even going through elementary school my desk was always the one with papers stuffed in it and finished but not turned in homework filling every part of it.  It just seems like too much work to organize something that is just going to get messy again.  But as I have gotten older I have found that it is much easier in the long run to have things organized.

I love to cook, collect new cookbooks, and find new recipes.  I have a whole cupboard full of cookbooks and recipe cards but up until I finally finished my project of cooking organization all of my cards and recipes were a mess.  I had little recipes everywhere and I could not keep them straight.  It was such a mess that it was easier to just go out to eat or cook something very easy with little effort.  I hated dinner time and I began to really hate cooking. 

Around Christmas this last year Lindsey Karr and I decided that our new year's resolution would be to cook dinner a lot more often than we were because she was having similar problems.  So we came up with an idea for a meal calendar.  I painted a wooden framed magnetic board, applied ribbon daily separators, and sewed little envelopes to hold the extra monthly labels and meals that we may not be using at that time. The magnets are great so I can change the meals around however we want.  It took me about four months but I finally finished the project.  It took me a long time to go through my recipes and pick the ones that I knew Eric and I liked to eat.  We have experiment days about once a week and those are usually my favorite days along with nights we spend with our parents and out to eat nights. 

 (sorry about the big bright spot from the flash right there in the middle)

This calender helped me become more organized than I was before but all of my recipe cards remained out of order and it was still causing me to shrug off the strict meal plan listed on the calendar.  I tried putting them in boxes or folders but I still just hated to search through each and every card for whatever recipe I wanted to find.  My sister Sarah gave me the idea of gluing the edge of each card into a journal so that the recipes would be organized in a book.  I thought that was a wonderful idea so I set to work getting them into a journal.  Luckily I didn't glue at first because I filled up that journal very quickly with many cards left over and no room to grow.  At that point I was about to just give up the whole thing when I stumbled across the composition notebooks at Walmart for 75 cents each.  I bought eight of them and some fabric to cover them.  After I covered them I embroidered titles and attached them to the covers and then glued in the recipes. 

I now have eight new cookbooks that are custom made by me.  All of that work has paid off because I now only have to plan meals once a month and I can always find my recipes within a minute or two. 

My cupboard with my cookbooks in it is about full but it's looking pretty good, in my opinion.  All of my handmade cookbooks are on the bottom right.  It's been nice getting that project out of the way.  Cooking isn't such a chore any more and I love having just a little bit more organization in my chaotic life. 

Florida

Well, I finally made it back from Florida.  I was there for my cousin's wedding on Anna Maria Island.  It was beautiful and I took a lot of pictures.  My mom did a few posts on the wedding and you can see them here.

I took a bunch of pictures from the plane.  I don't know what is so intriguing to me about seeing the clouds, mountains, and rivers from above.  We even flew over a rainbow.  I could see the entire bow.  It was pretty amazing, unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of that.

This is a picture of the Mississippi River:

 

These clouds reminded me of popcorn and stretched as far as I could see:

And these are the Rocky Mountains.  They don't look quite as huge flying above them:

I also took about fifty pictures of birds.  I chased a heron along a pier trying to get good pictures of him but he yelled at me and flew to a post in the water.  He was pretty amazing. 

<--- Here he is walking away from me as calmly as he could given someone was walking up to him trying to take pictures.

At this point he freaked out, screamed at me and flew a few feet away as quickly as he could --->

Here he is trying to smooth his ruffled feathers.  He is beautiful.

The egret and pelican don't have any stories to go along with their pictures.  They were just minding their own business far from me so the most I could interfere was by taking their pictures.

We saw a ton of lizards running all over the sidewalks.  They were pretty cute and I'm not one for reptiles.

It was beautiful there and I had a lot of fun but I am sure glad to be back home.