Guess what Im doing....

Here's a little hint...

how about this.... do you have an idea?

Does this make it a little clearer?

Im making Burgundy Mushrooms for little party were going to tomorrow night.

I just turned the heat down and got a huge wiff of the burgundy wine.... I.... think.... I'm.... Errr... Intoxicated!

It smells soooooo good in my house right now I wish you all could smell it.

One hour down and only 8 more to go!!

and yea... its worth it

Did you know or Do you care?

We have this radio show on our local radio station. The same disc jockey with the same lines for years and years and years. I prefer not to listen to that station infact, to be honest I shiver when I hear his voice. Its just so over played. He does a little bit called "did you know or do you care" where he shares random facts and then he does a trivia later where the correct caller can win a prize.

Anyway... the point of my post is that The Idea Room is doing a cute linky party about randon facts about yourself.

Well since I havent been baking up some kind of creation and all of my projects have been on hold recently I thought what a cute idea to share with all of you.

Check out the other posts as well. So fun getting to know random facts about your fellow bloggers!

So here goes nothing....

 I actually have curly hair, very curly hair. They used to call me medusa in elementary

Ok I was also a nerd, how do you like those glasses... hehehe

This picture is circa 1995-ish

I eventually lost the glasses but still had the medusa hair. Only now I was dying it blonde (sort of)

I constantly had dark roots, gezzz what was I thinking?

My girls and I.... we can kick your butt.  No really we can, but we wont.

I really enjoy training martial arts, but havent had the time or energy to do so since I got pregnant with my son.

And my big confession, Im adicted to ink

This is what our dinning room looked like for a while. No dinners here just tats!

If tattoos make you squimish or if you descriminate then dont read any further.

Its a work in progress, I plan on doing a lot more. The writing on the left is my middle name and the writing on the right is my grandmothers name. The cherry blossoms in the center have the character for courage and it stands for courage for a new begining.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Holiday Recap

My friend Yvette over at Kahakai formerly known as Napualani's Closet, posted about her Christmas Recap. It was such a sweet post, very real and heartwarming. 

You might remember I blogged about her blog{here} and baked ziti {here}

Reading about her Christmas inspired me to do a little recap of my own.

There was just so much going on and so very little time to sit back enjoy it all, much less share it all with you guys.

Just like Yvette and so many people out there, this year was financially hard for us. My husband came to the decision to finally leave the job that he had worked at for 10 years.
It had gotten to the point where he didnt like going to work anymore and when they cut their pay $4 and then increased their medical premiums the following week, he finally decided it was time.
Luckily he had been working a part time job that had offered him full time.
It was a hard decision for him to make, he had invested 10 years with this company and he was constantly learning new things and latest technology and not to mention having the income from one full time job and one part time job helped us to live without stressing out about making ends meet.

Budget is tight now, but I have my husband at home for dinner and on the weekends. He no longer feels like he's missing out on our little boy growing up, since that happens way too fast already. But most importantly, he's happy. He enjoys his job and comes home happy and for that I am thankful.

Photos courtesy of Kipu Ranch Adventures

(Note: I stole these pix from their website, my hubby isnt in any of the pix :-( buuut.. a pre-baby me is in the waterfall pix)

(another note: my husband is their mechanic and not a tour guide, excuse me he corrected me technician not mechanic)

Since budget was tight, we baked family gifts this year which I posted about some of my baking projects {here}, {here} and {here}

I got some really nice ceramic cookie jars from costco. A set of 3 for $10, great deal and 3 gifts!

I also made the PWs Cinnamon Rolls that I have yet to blog about.

They apparently were a hit because I ran out and still have to make more. I didnt even get my share!

Last year I must have taken a TON of pictures on Christmas day and while my son opened his gifts.

Hard to belive this was just one year ago.

This year I didnt take as much pictures. I'll probably regret it later, but I enjoyed spending time with him and opening gifts with him. He's grown into such a little man.

While at my in laws he just LOVED the train set my mother in law set up around the tree and having a chance to play with his older cousins.

It was a VERY LONG day, but at the same time very nice. Its been  long year for that matter. We are so blessed to have each other through whatever trials and tribulations we face. We are so blessed to have a beautiful healthy son. We are so blessed to have jobs to have a home and to have family and friends.

We are very grateful.

Now getting ready to gear up for 2011... oh what a ride it will be.

I would like to wish all of you a happy and safe new year!

 Im also linking with some of the parties found {here}

Free Printable Calendar from SWITCHEROOm

Hey everyone how about getting ready for the new year with a FREE printable calendar from SWITCHEROOm.

Click {HERE} to download this free calendar or {HERE} to check out the rest of her blog!

Have a great evening ya'll!



Christmas Commercials

Never have I enjoyed Christmas commercials.

The Hershey kisses acting as hand bells and playing we wish you a merry christmas, thank goodness I didnt see that commercial not once this holiday season.

When the songs start playing on the radio I just want to rip the radio out of my dashboard and throw it out the window and run it over.

But this commercial will forever be one of my favs... can you guess which commercial it is?

Did you have the Sillhouette on your wish list???

And didnt get it??

Well just incase here is your chance at still getting one!

Go check out the lovely blog of Room to Inspire to enter to win one of your own.

ps - why is it that as soon as christmas is over im in a better mood??



I survived Christmas

Its been crazy. I dont know why I always do it I wait till the last minute and get all stressed out.

Luckily I had done a lot of shopping throughout the year and had a stash of gifts already purchased.

That probably saved me, literally I would have had a nervous breakdown otherwise.

So here I am just days after Christmas and Im already doing my shopping!

I got this from Crab Apple Kids

for our Harley loving friends who just had a daugher.

Im checking this out from Amazon

(and Im sure the recipient's mother is gonna read this so Im not giving it totally away)

And how cute are these:

Alright just getting started and hope to be done before Christmas this year!

Wish me luck. What are you plans to attack Christmas next year?

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Its been a busy season and I cant wait to get on track again.

Hope you all had a wonderful time and lets get ready to celebrate the end of 2010!

Baking Project #3 Burnt Sugar Almonds

Third project up was this Burnt Sugar Almond recepie I got again from Tasty Kitchen.

Its actually very simple to make, BUT it goes by fast.

You must be sure NOT to get distracted and make sure they have your FULL attention until you leave them to cool.

This from the very start smells oooohhh soooo yummy!!!

Add the raw almonds....

and stir stir stir

 and stir stir some more

after this it goes by VERY quickly... hence the fact that I have no pix after this point.

You add in more sugar and stir for JUST A MOMENT LONGER!!

Dont over stir because TRUST me on this, if you over stir it at this point the clumps of sugar will fall off and all that stirring and carefully watching will be for nothing as the sugar will ALL fall off.

YES, I speak from experience!

So are they as delicious as they smell while cooking.... absolutely!

Go make a batch yourself and find out.

Im linking to the parties found {here}

OLD Sign

I walked up the stairs to my office yesterday morning and didnt even notice this sign hanging on the wall.

It wasnt untill I had to go downstairs a few times did I notice it.

My boss found it at the site they are doing some demolition at.

Look really close and you can see the sign is handpainted!

And that is actual years and years of dirt built up on the sign.

You can see the brush strokes and the little flick of the brush at the end of each letter.

I wonder what kind of stensils they used back when they made this sign, Im pretty sure they didnt have any fancy cricut or sillouette machines back then. LOL

PW Cinnamon Rolls

Attempting the P'Dub's cinnamon rolls for Chrismas gifts.... wish me luck... or should I say the recepients luck? LOL

Got a late start on them tonight, so its now 9:46 pm and I have 15 more mins to go to let the dough rise. Think I'll save the baking part for Thursday... yea I know cutting it close.

Baking project #2 Ruldolph Noses

So baking project #2 are Ruldolph Noses.

I tried to come up with something clever to name them but I wastnt feeling all that creative I guess so Ruldolph Noses was the best I could come up with.

I've seen variations of this goodie all over the place and I decided to make mine with crushed candy cane pieces.

Disclaimer: I cannot stand the smell and taste of candy canes. I think I was traumatized sometime as

a child. I know there were ants involved and thats as far as I'll go with that story.

I dont have a roller (note to self put that on shopping list) and I was lazy to bust out a ziplock bag for this part so I basically pounded them out with my meat tenderizer.

Not recommended!

The pieces were pulverized and stuck in one huge lump in between the teeth of the tenderizer.

When I learned this I went more gently.

I had some big pieces and some small

Then I melted my almond bark. I used almond bark because I couldnt find white candy melts, things like that are hard to come by around here.

I dont have a double boiler so a pot and bowl worked just fine.

Go slowly so that it doesnt burn, nothing taste worse than burnt almond bark, trust me.

Then I dipped my marshmallows in the almond bark.

Then I dipped them in the candy cane pieces. The candy cane pieces were all stuck together so I had to play with them a little bit and use a spoon to get them to stick easier.

Then I put them aside to dry.

Just look at all those marshmallows!

I hope they taste as good as they look because between marshmallows and candy canes I was NOT going to sample them.

I forgot to mention I also have an adversion to marshmallows as well. (hehe)

I'm linking to the parties {here}

Its blog hop time with Santa's Gift Shoppe

Baking Project #1 Oreo Brownies

I was a very busy in the kitchen this Sunday.
I started my Christmas baking with Oreo Brownies.
Ive posted previouslly about a similar baking project here.
This one is slightly different and perfect for gift giving.

You start of with the same ingredients.

Make your brownie mix according to the directions. I used the cake like option so that the batter wouldnt be too thick and it would be easier to coat the cookies.

Then, instead of layering them in the pan I dipped them into the batter.

I used the store brand because for $2.21 as compared to $4.59 and it tastes the same I couldnt go wrong. Sorry Oreo, I still love your cookies.

Take out the oreos and put them into very well greased cup cake pan.

Some of them will have your finger print on them where you hold the cookie.

No problem, just add more brownie mix and spread it around with your finger.

Put them in the oven and bake for about 12 mins.
A lots less than you normally would but remember they are just oreos coated with the brownie mix.

Michelle over at Polka Dots and Pizza spend some time doing the same as well!

Lucky for me, she took after pix and I didnt.

So go check out her post about these delish Brownie Covered Oreos for the after pix as well.
I CAN however tell you they are oh so delish especially when they're still warm out of the oven!

Im linking to the parties here

Christmas Wreath

This weekend I was a working machine! I guess the pressure of Christmas sneaking up right around the corner is getting me in gear.

While hanging out with some friends the subject of a wreath came up. I think we were talking about crafts since she does them with the kids in her daycare.

They dont have a wreath.

I dont care if you dont have a tree, but you gotta have a wreath so I set out to attempt to make one for them.

I found this tree topper ribbon at Kmart for 40% off.

And this pack of shatterproof mini ornaments for 40% off as well.

Thats what you get for waiting till the last minuite to get Christmas decorations.

I normally buy mine about a week or so after Christmas when they're 75% off.

I found this grapevine wreath at Walmart for $3!

Thats a great deal for a wreath around these parts!

First I tied the ribbon to the wreat.

Then I glued the balls in random places in bunches of 3

I used a lot of hot glue to make sure they stuck.

The ribbon wasnt long enough to wrap around the whole wreath so I made do with what I had and glued some balls where I ran out of ribbon to hide the ends.

And here it is all done!

Im thinking not perfect but also not bad.

Its a gift I made from my heart and I'll be delivering it today.

Hope they like it.

I'll be linking to the parties {here}