Cakalicious

My daughter had her 16th birthday yesterday.

Rather than say "Sweet 16 and never been kissed", we woke her up with a shower of Hershey's Kisses. Not a bad start, eh?

Her Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake was a group effort, and the recipe can be found here, at Taste of Home .

Daughter #3 was in charge of the Hoho cutting and did a fab job. We lined a glass bowl with saran wrap, then placed the sliced Hohos cut side down in the bowl, courtesy of Daughter #2, who fought for the privilege. We popped it in the freezer to firm up a bit.

Next we added the ice cream. One box Vanilla Chocolate Swirl. While I usually beat softened ice cream to make something like this, this time I cut it in slices (economy bargain box brand) and placed the slices in a complete layer using my hands. I'm not going to show a picture because it looks messy. Fun though. Just saying.

Freeze again and repeat with the second ice cream. We used plain old chocolate. Again we cut it in slices and pressed it into place. The advantage with cutting is that the consistency of the ice cream doesn't change with too much melting and refreezing. Also, it can be ready to eat faster. And yes, I was being lazy.

Cover with saran wrap and freeze.

When frozen and ready to go, peel off the saran wrap and invert it onto a plate.

We call this picture "The Unveiling".

Anxious for a slice....

 Not the prettiest shot. Found out that the ice cream was soft because the outside freezer had been unplugged all day. We had fired some beads that morning and only one plug fits at a time in that outlet. Probably a good thing we had this treat or who knows when we would have checked on the freezer again. Uggg.

Overall, it was a success. Only three plates? Someone must have put theirs in the dishwasher!

Pretty sweet with all the Hohos. I think I'd rather just go with straight ice cream, but it was definitely good and looked pretty nifty up close. If you give this a shot, I'd recommend placing the Hohos (actually, we used Little Debbie's Swiss Rolls) closer together than we did. Don't squish 'em, but no gap-age.

 This is what happens when you leave the camera on the table when you're done. =]

Organize Your Favorite Finds on Pinterest

I fell in love with Pinterest. Head over heels. Completely. It's become an obsession. My house is a neglected mess, but I have soooo many new project ideas now that I pretend it's worth it.

Pinterest is basically an online bulletin board for your favorite internet pictures and the pictures you collect create links to the sites where they're found. You make up your own categories, for instance "Dessert Recipes", "Quilt Ideas", "DIY Projects", then when you come across something wonderful on a site, you click "pin it" and you catalog the picture you like for easy reference.

The fun part comes in when you "follow" other friends and super cool Pinterest people.You see what they've found, then copy what you want of their great finds to your boards. I'm smiling here because I LOVE the copy part. I never knew there were so many awesome things are out there, and I never would have stumbled across them without this site..

Some of my favorite finds so far...

A recipe for Nutella Truffles. You can find it here . So, my head keeps going to these with a hazlenut inside and dipped in melted chocolate with the hazlenuts sprinkled on top. Kind of a makeshift Ferrer Rocher.

These were just beautiful. Sigh. Key Lime Cupcakes with Blackberry Filling and Blackberry Frosting...

And sandwiches? The recipe for Mozzarella Grilled Cheese (with tomatoes and pesto) is here. I'm hungry. Can you tell?

This one makes me want to go garage sale shopping for a chair to paint. I'm doing this project just as soon as I find a cheapie chair. Sadly, the linky thing on Pinterest isn't working this time and I can't find the source of this picture. That happens sometimes. Darn it. 

Because I want others to share in my happy addiction, and because I want to see what cool things everyone else finds, go check out this site and sign up!. The link goes to one of my recipe pages. Yeah, I'm still hungry. Clicky here.You'll love it. =]

To find all my boards me on Pinterest, Clicky here!

Bodacious Beads!

We made beads today! Whoo Hoo!

Started with a bead holder made out of a piece of scrap wood from the garden. You work with what you have, you know?

Marked the board in 1" increments and drilled holes to hold wooden skewers used to dry the beads.

 I was so excited to try out the board that I pulled some dry beads out and let them sit there...you know...so I could check out the look.

 Next step was to glaze the bisqued beads and stack them in the kiln. The booger of the whole situation is that no bead can touch another. They have a tendency to stick together and get ruined and that would be a bummer.

  

So...a little stress here as we waited to see if our set-up would work. Had a fear that the metal support wires would droop and leave the beads in a pile of melted mess. Guess what??? It worked!!!

Finished beads. Yeah, they're a little wild and miss-matched, but you have to play a little, you know? My daughter had a blast painting. Most of these are hers.

Colors are a little off, but here's a sample. In person, the red is a real red and the little beads in between are a bright green.

And yep, I know these pictures are katty-whompus, but for the life of me, I don't know how to fix them.

***Edit*** I fixed the pics. I feel so accomplished today! =]

Playing with anchor text

Hand made ceramic buttons.Can I do More Than One???