Currently...

listening: audio book SAVAGES and the new Bon Jovi channel on XM radio


eating: lots of junk food

drinking: more coffee than I've consumed in my life

wearing: grey trousers, soft t-shirt in black, with a red silky long sleeved blouse, open like a jacket

feeling: tired and physically out of sorts, but with not one specific symptom that makes sense. just icky and blah

weather: blue skies but all that snow is on the ground, yet melting so it's nice and muddy! And it's cold, cold, cold...

wanting: a new job and new black penny loafers

needing: a nice long break from work

thinking: how hard it's going to be to be in grad school again but so worth it

enjoying: new hobbies like mail art and smah booking

wondering: why I don't feel like working when I do like my job

Been busy with art club

Raise your hand if you knew that March was Nation Craft Month? Ha, I didn't think so! Hell, I didn't know either until I read it on Twitter (an aside: I have become a total twitter freak in the last few months and I tweet all the time!!!!). Keeping that in mind and because I have been a total slacker with the art club, I decided to make a project a week during the month of March.

I've been slacking because the art club stipend was cut in half from last year. So I've been working with kids one on one and in small groups, on library time, so I didn't have to invest so much of my own time for such little money. But in honor of Nation Craft Month, I've really stepped up to the crafting/ art club plate.

So far this month we made a banner for students to hang in their rooms since they live on the campus. It's cool because it has a paper floret. But if you decide to make them, I have 3 words for you: Hot Glue Gun. Hot glue gun the entire thing together.

We also made duct tape wallets, by favorite standby art project. Easy to do and all the kids- guys and girls- like them. And duct tape now comes in so many fun patterns and colors, it's hard to resist!

Yesterday we made 3-D flowers to hang in their rooms, sort of an Easter/ spring thing.  Actually, I totally cheated because I found, on Pinterest of course, directions to make 3D snowflakes. I just had the kids use pastel papers and rung with pink ribbons and added a green stem and viola, it became a flower instead!

Imagine this in pastel. Looks like  a flower, eh????

 Next week I'll get totally crazy and make chalk/ magnetic boards. I spray painted the cookie sheets with chalk board paint and then the kids will decorate those and also make a few magnets. (they aren't allowed push pins for obvious reasons in a school I've endearingly nicknamed Alcatraz).

The magnets

The chalk board cookie sheets

 


Go get your Craft on while there's still March left!

Maggie

My concert wants

I really wanted this to be the year of the concert. I have a few people I would almost kill to see:

• Michael Buble'
• Mumford and Sons
• Matchbox 20
• Maroon 5
• Jason Mraz
• John Mayer

I'm really into these guys right now. I'd love to see them all live. However, my concert viewing is not getting off to an auspicious start. I was told I was going to be given a ticket to see matchbox 20 as a Valentine's Day gift. They were playing a small, extremely awesome venue just 45 minutes from my house. That didn't happen because the purchaser in question waited to long and the tickets were sold out. I tried winning on the radio and such to no avail.

I need to start checking concert tours and see who is going to be near me, if anyone. And start saving money. Tickets are sooooo expensive.

I'd also love to see Billy Joel if he were to head this way on a concert tour ever again, with or without Elton John but I think I would have to sell my body to science and get an advancement on that to pay for a ticket to see those guys.

Mac and I make a tradition to see Green Day but that probably won't happen because Mac and I were both completely disappointed with the 3 albums: Uno, Dos, Tre', that were released last. I also know Bon Jovi is on tour and I've seen them 3 times in concert but that might be enough for me. I can't decide if I want to see them as old rockers.

But it's just March so anything can happen this year and I might just get an earful of good music!

Who would you like to see in concert?

Maggie

Stupid New Year Resolutions- I suck

Here the New Year Resolutions I made:

• Use my new camera to photograph something every single day
• Go back on my diet (which I strayed from during the holidays) and continue to lose weight
• Exercise
• Make something on my Pinterest each month (or more), whether it's a craft or food or DYI home stuff or quilting or sewing
• Find a full time job with health insurance (then use said insurance to go to the doctor for a check up!)
• Make more time for me to do fun and relaxing things (maybe this will happen when I have one full time job and not have to keep doing about 5 part time ones...)
• Read more
• Keep loving my new dog!!!

Now let me see how well I'm doing...

• I have NOT used my camera every single day. I don't want to take it out in bad weather has been the biggest reason. The other big reason is because it's so big and bulky. I need to put it in my purse and just deal. I just haven't. I do take pictures, almost daily, with my mobile phone, however. Does that count? Feh, didn't think so.
• I'm NOT dieting right now. It's hard to diet in the winter. ITSam and I loved to eat and the Capital had so many awesome places to eat and we went out lots. So I'm a dismal failure here.
• Exercise. Uh.... that would also be a NOT.
• I have made something from Pinterest each month. Sometimes, even more than one thing a month. In February I made peanutbutter brownies, in January I made a paper snowflake, and in March I've made 4 crafts for art club, as I mentioned yesterday.
• I found a full time job with insurance that I turned down because the pay was crappy and I couldn't support myself and would've had to rely on ITSam; the turning down of the job then caused us to break up. So I guess I did do it, the way I wrote it. I did FIND a full time job with insurance, I just rejected said job.
• I am doing fun and relaxing things. I will show you pictures soon, of my mail art projects and my Project Life Smash Book
• I'm reading at least a book a week so that's on track for a goal
• And I do love love love my dog. OMG, do I love that dog!

Guess it's not as bad as I thought it would be, for almost the end of March... maybe it will get better as summer approaches....

How are you all doing with your resolutions?

Mags

The whoopie pie mess

I decided to make homemade whoopie pies. I just love them from the store and I found a recipe on Pinterest and thought this couldn't be too hard. Well, was I wrong. I feel like it was one cooking disaster after another with that experience.

The recipe called for a cake mix and then add flour and some other ingredients. I did. And I mixed everything in the Kitchen Aid just like the directions said. I used parchment paper and did all the right things. Then I dropped the thick batter my teaspoon fulls onto the paper, set the timer (our oven in accurate) and baked them.

And had HUGE mountainous pillows of lemon cake. Not a round semi-flat circle but a huge mountain of cake. What the hell??? How did that happen? Okay, I thought to myself, don't use a teaspoon just use a half so I did the second batch. And again pillowy, fluffy, HUGE mounds of cake.

Now, there are not going to be made into whoopie pies. Just one piece was about 3-4 inches in height. I have no idea what I did. I re-read the recipe, and I even went online to read comments from other people who made them. No one else commented about having giant cake pieces.

Okay, I figured maybe I could cut them in half, long ways and go ahead and frost them and see what happened. I then used a marshmallow frosting recipe. It actually called for Crisco. Now, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I wanted to make it from scratch and the recipe was easy and popular, right from Betty Crocker but I can't remember the last time I used Crisco. With all I know about food and health I wasn't sure I could bear to do it. But after reasoning that my great grandparents ate biscuits made from lard every day of their lives, that using a little bit of Crisco in a frosting recipe probably wouldn't kill me. Probably.

So I made it. I cut one of the huge cookies in half, frosted it, took one bite, chewed twice and spit the whole mouthful into the sink. The Giant Lemon Cookie was fine but the frosting was terrible. I seriously thought I was going to have to gargle with Dawn Dishsoap to cut the greasy feeling on my tongue and teeth. Oh it was so very nasty and gross and just repulsive. I threw up just a little.

Maybe it really tasted like a  hunk of sweet grease or maybe it was psychological but either way there was no way I was going to eat it or share it with anyone else, either. Dow the disposal it went.

So I just used my friend Lori's lemon frosting and it was like eating a little slice of lemon cake, in a cookie shape.

Oh, and what you might be wondering ever happened that caused such a huge cookie? Well, folks, I am here to say it's very important to read labels and not use SELF RISING flour when it doesn't call for such. That my friends, is how some pouffy whoopie pies are made.

But I ended up with some super moist, yummy cookies!

Mags

And now presenting...

Big T!

My new nephew is here, and is 18 days old. He weighed 8 lbs and 3 oz and was 20 inches long! I'm now a three time auntie!

Welcome to the world!

In this photo, he's 36 hours old!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Flowers in Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland

Oscar Wilde, Irish Writer, statue located in Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland

Merrion Square, Dublin Ireland

ChrisChurch Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland

Irish Sea as seen from Howth, Ireland

Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin, Ireland

In 2009 I was lucky enough to spend St. Patrick's Day in Ireland! Wish I was there today...