Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I started a new job on Monday, part time doing data entry for a company called Braille Works that converts menus and other paperwork into braille for the blind. It is a great company, and it feels like a family. I have missed that so much from being laid off for 2 years. Going to school has helped, and once nursing school starts in the fall I am sure it will be better, more family-like, but I have missed that camaraderie.

Tomorrow is the company's first picnic. I've only been there since Monday, but even my family and I got t-shirts! For the picnic, I signed up to make cupcakes. I love making cupcakes! (I just got a large scoop from Pampered Chef and it works perfectly for dipping cupcake batter!)Since I had some oranges in the house, I decided to make creamsicle cupcakes.

I started with this recipe as inspiration, and went from there. My changes were mostly out of necessity (who runs out of sugar?), but a little out of taste preference. I wanted Really Orange-y cupcakes and Really Vanilla-y frosting.

I didn't have: self rising flour, unsalted butter, sugar, (crap, forgot to add the oj! (**the next morning they were pretty dry, though still edible and tasty. Next time I will definitely add the OJ from the orange I zested.) So... I did this....

I made self-rising flour by taking 2 cups all purpose flour, 2.5 Tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Out of this, I used my 1/5 cups.

cupcakes - Preheat oven to 350*
1.5 C self rising flour
1.25 C all purpose flour
1/2 cup salted sweet cream butter (melty)
1/2 cup margarine (melty)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar (again because I didn't have 2 cups of regular sugar)
1.5 Tbsp orange zest
4 eggs (room temp)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1 orange

frosting
3/4 cup butter flavor Crisco1/2 cup sweet cream butter (soft)6 cups powdered sugar5 Tbsp milk3 Tbsp vanilla extract1 tsp almond extract

To make cupcakes:
In a small bowl, combine the flours. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, adding the sugar and zest, beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add the vanilla.Add the dry ingredients in parts, mixing well and scrapping the batter. Scoop the batter into 24 cupcake papers. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

To make frosting:
In a large bowl, mix together the butter, Crisco, 3 Cups powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, vanilla and almond extracts. Mix until smooth. Gradually add in additional powdered sugar and milk. Add the milk slowly, more or less as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.

Frost and enjoy!! I find they are a little crumbly, (see above note*) maybe the 1 cup of OJ added into the cupcake batter would help that. But they are really good and not too sweet. Perfect with sweet, creamy vanilla frosting!

The Fly Lady, and Booties

I spent a couple hours today creating and printing my Household Notebook/Control Journal. It's pretty and cheerful. My cover has my every morning & night routines, as well as this week/month's focus Zone and habit (according to www.flylady.net). I have weekly to-dos, daily to-dos, and places for inspiration that comes from helpful magazines.

My to-done's today include the cat box, dishes, picking dinner (Sloppy Joe's... whatchu got?), de-cluttering the dining room and polishing the table. (Polishing the table reminded me that I would REALLY like a new table... we got this one when we got married almost 13 years ago!).

In other news... I got a phone call from Gumballs and Overalls saying that 5 pairs of booties have sold, and could I please hurry it up and bring in more!! Okey Dokey!

More pics

I've been working on more booties and Jake's earrings for Gumballs and Overalls. They will soon start offering their items for sale online, which is really exciting!!

Remember, if you would like to order something, let me know.

MIA

I know it's been a while, but I have been really busy with school, family, and crafting.

I have officially applied to nursing school, and now I need to wait until the middle of March to get my acceptance letter! in December, my hubby lost his job so now we are both unemployed. It's scary, but we are hopeful and prayerful that something great will come his way.

I have also started consigning my handmade goodies at a local shop called Gumballs and Overalls (www.gumballsandoveralls.com). The shop is adorable, and they consign high end boutique and handmade items for children 0-8 yrs old. It's been a little less than a month that I"ve had my goodies there, and I've sold a few things. It's not a full time job but it is a great way to keep me busy. My 10 year old has also just started selling his beaded and origami earrings there. Here are a few pics of some of the stuff I've sent to them. A baby blanket, hairbow tutu, angora baby dress, purple slip dress, and Jake's earrings.

Finishings...

I finished Mom's 3rd sock of the year, and I have 79 days to finish the other one. I did start it today though!! (no pic since it's her Christmas present!)

I also finished Grandma's afghan for my Mother in Law. She says that she loves it, although it is still folded nicely in the corner of her bedroom, but hopefully when it gets colder she will use it.










I have not finished 2 baby afghans and half the projects on my Pay It Forward list. Whoopsy!

Grandma's Afghan

Last Sunday, the day before school started back for the fall, My Husband's grandmother passed away. Our family was already in the midst of a crazy week, and the whole world was turned upside down for my Mother-in-Law in the span of 3 days.

Last week, my MIL went to Louisiana (where her Mom lived) to help her sister and brothers sort through Grandma's things and decide how to go forward as a family. They got back late Sunday night, and we went over to visit last night. The kids were SO excited!! They had missed their grandparents, and it had been a long week with them gone. They did bring back a few bins of items, things for herself and things for us.

For me, I got a bin of yarn, a navy Vera Bradley purse (!!!), and a BEAUTIFUL new quilt for our bed. I don't think Grandma ever even used it, and it is gorgeous and I can't wait to snuggle under it! I knew that Grandma was a crocheter since we have many items of her handiwork around our home, and I was excited about my project idea - the perfect thing for Grandma's yarn.







The little bin of yarn (I think like 1/20 of my stash would fit in there!)is of many assorted colors and many of them verigated, and none of them even remotely resembling the others. That was a little bit of a problem, but I am good at what I do so I came up with a plan.

I am taking a pound of off-white yarn and the little bin if colorful yarn, and making a granny square blanket for my MIL. The off-white, the base color, came from my own grandmother's stash that I inherited last year, and each square will be the off-white every other round, and one of Grandma's yarn colors in the other rounds, per square. The squares are quick, taking less than 15 minutes, but I am NOT looking forward to weaving in almost 900 ends! Some of the squares are pretty whacky, but I'm sure my MIL will love the tribute to Grandma. I have 13 squares done, I'll show you more when I have more to show!!

School is a time-suck

I have been out of school on Summer "break" for 8 days. I start back on Monday. I have finished up all of the pre-requisites for the Nursing Program at my school, now I have to wait to apply in January, and start next Fall. That is a REALLY long time to wait, especially since I am not the world's most patient of people. In the meantime, I am taking some other classes to finish the degree and keep the Pell Grant money coming in.

I had stopped working on yarn for a while, just due to studying constraints, but I am starting to get back into it now. Since we last talked, I did finish a few projects, though!

This is Baby Andrew showing off his blanket.











That's about it... and only because Mama wanted him out... and we all know that babies don't come until their blankies are done!

I am working on a blue baby blanket made from $.97/ball Pomp-A-Doodle. It doesn't have a baby to go with it yet... but I couldn't pass up a $6 blanket!! I also started working on a pink and green blanket from the book "Interlocking Crochet" by Tannis Galik. I am not very far because it is really confusing to me, but I am sure that I can figure it out with all my 30 years of experience!!

In other news, I had to disconnect the Hook 'N Stick website because I didn't have the money to keep it up, and with school I hadn't had the time to really give it the attention it deserved. We all know I can ignore the heck out of a website, but there I had to pay for it!

I will try very hard not to ignore you so much! Good luck to all the kids (and their parents) going back to school!

Pay it forward

About a month ago, there was a thing going around Facebook where you post a notice to do a Pay It Forward. Basically, you sign up for 1 item from someone participating (or 2 in my case) and you offer 5 spots for people to claim items for you. Since I picked 2 items, I'm doing 10 PIFs.

1 pink twirly scarf was first out the door since it was done and in my craft fair bins already. It is now happily residing in TX with one of my old school-mates. She loves it and has to fight off her 2 girls for it.

1 pair of socks went to my Mom on Valentine's day. They started off as Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt. They were my School Socks - the ones I would work on between classes and such. Because I was doing them at school during little snatches of time, I decided to forgo the pattern after 1 repeat so it was like a banded leaves thing. I finished sock 1 during winter break. During the January classes I worked on the 2nd sock, and decided that instead of doing a leaf band, that I would do 2 little intermingled leaves centered on the front of the leg. Fraternal twins, instead of identical. She was happy to get socks, and didn't really care that weren't really "matchy". Good thing!!








My 3rd PIF was a slouchy beret "Rainbow Swirl Slouch" by Jessica Fraser. I did it in Loop & Threads Charisma in Cream and the recipient loved it. I didn't get a pic, but I might make it again, only a little longer. It was cute.

My 4th PIF is another pair of socks, Dublin Bay Socks by Ryan Morrissey. I really love the pattern, easy to remember and cute. I finished the first one and started #2 yesterday.

Of my other PIFs, I have 2 more pairs of socks, a fabric bowl, a cutie apron, and I haven't decided on the others. This is fun, and I can't wait to get my goodies!!

After Hours, part 2.

I've been working out the design of this lbd for quite a while now. I thought I had it pretty good, but I've done a slight re-design that I think will work better. I love the sketches, and the concept living in my head, now to actually get it crocheted!!!

In other news, I started my 2nd semester of college, and so far so good. I managed a 4.0 last semester and I really, REALLY want to keep it!!! I'll be applying to nursing school in the summer, and if I want to get in, I gotta keep my gpa above 3.5, which means no more than 2 B's.

In other, other news, I've got 2 socks on the needles right now. I'm making Cookie A's Twinkle Toes (they were on Knitty Gritty, and really cute!)and the other pair started as Embossed Leaves from "Favorite Socks", but have now turned into my interpretation of them because I am A) lazy, and B) busy. They are not identical twins, more fraternal twins, and I think they are cute. Who said socks needed to match anyway, huh?

And finally, my baby turned 4. On Elvis's birthday (January 8), Sean, or Stinky to his parents, turned the BIG O4. He can't understand why he can't move to K4, since he is no longer 3 and shouldn't be with the "little kids" anymore. He's too cute for words sometimes, but here's 1,000 of them for ya.

The Christmas Sweater

I had originally decided not to make my Mom a sweater this year for Christmas because school was kicking my butt. I figured I didn't have time since it would need to be started at the same time that I was dealing with finals, and I said no way.

I changed my mind when I saw the mag that my Cooling Eye Mask pattern was in (Crochet! January '11 - in stores now!!) I saw a beautiful red sweater that would be perfect for my Mom. It called for sport weight yarn, so I went to Joann's and got 3 skeins of soft brown Sensations Cuddle - baby yarn - and it was perfect for the project. I swatched with the called-for hook. Nope! I went up a hook size, no go. I had to try a bigger yarn. I went to Simply soft - my old standby - in a pretty khaki color called Bone. I sweatched, went up a hook, swatched some more and still not even close, so I went up a size size. My mom is really small, which is why it is so awesome to make her sweaters! Usually I need to go down a yarn/needle/hook size on the small sweater size to make it fit her. In this case, I went to the Medium (from extra small) and it was still so skinny in the center that there was no way it was gonna fit. I decided it was just a funkily written pattern made for funkily built people. Time to move on. It was December 21.

I searched my memory for something that I could make quick that I had the yarn already in hand. I thought about the 2 yarns that I had already bought for the sweater - the brown baby yarn and the khaki simply soft and wondered what I could make with them together. I remembered making the Subway Cable sweater for Stacy from the Yarn Girls - Beyond the Basics book a couple years ago and her comment on why she doesn't wear it more is "It's a REALLY warm sweater!". Perfect!! To get gauge, I had to add another worsted weight yarn, I picked some cream colored Red Heart that I had plenty of, and it blended perfectly.

I cast on the sweater the morning of 12/21 and finished it on Christmas eve at my in-laws, about 8pm. That gave me enough time to bring it home and wrap it, minus it's normal washing, and bring it to her at 10 the next morning. Can someone say skin of my teeth? Yeah.

She opened it up and put it on and it fits pretty perfectly. A tiny tad short, but maybe it will grow a little bit in the wash? As long as she wears an undershirt if she plans to bend over, she will be fine. She likes it, and that is all that
matters, right?

Tis the season

I've been diligently working on Mom's Christmas sweater. Well, perhaps diligently isn't quite the word...

Look what I made! A toque for my tree branch!!!










I hope your holiday crafting is going better than mine!

Today's the day!

Crochet! comes out today with my Cooling Eye Mask pattern in it. I'm so excited! I hope everyone likes it. It really helped me when some medications I was on were giving me the worst headaches right behind my eyes! It's so funny how sometimes a flash of brilliance turns into a pattern. I only wish they happened more often!

How are you doing? I know it's been a while, but I'm almost done with my first semester of college. I've got a 4.0 so far (of course, that's only my math grade, the rest won't be there for a couple more weeks), and I'm so proud of myself. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? I did. Busy, but nice.

As far as yarny things go, I finished up a Bacon hat for Jake, I'm working on a train hat for Sean (great chart that I created on that one, I can't wait to get it written into a pattern), and now I'm working on a sweater for my Mom for Christmas. Just today I had to get new yarn, even though I was 3/4 done with back in a different yarn, it just wasn't a fat enough yarn. So now I've moved on to Simply Soft, in bone. It's pretty and I'm sure will match a lot of her law office wardrobe!

That's it for me for now. Have a great week!

So, what's new with you?

I've been a baaaaaad blogger, I know! School has kept me busy, as have the 2 baby blankets that I just finished! I only have photos of the first one, though. This is my baby niece Kenzie's blanket. I love how it turned out, and so did my brother. I am waiting on a pic of her actually on it though!











In other news, on November 30, the January issue of Crochet! will be available with my Cooling Eye Mask in it. Yay!
I'll try to not go another 2 months before I post again, I promise!

Crap....

It's been almost 2 months since my last post. You've been sadly ignore and you have my apologies! It's been a crazy summer here at Chez Whines-A-Lot. Ear infection and swimmer's ear, getting ready for school, 27 lbs of books, Disney trip, visiting friends and family (locally), couponing, (they really need to make that a word), reading, , staying up late and waking up early. I have been knitting on a sock, after an epic fail of a really cute one (too small to fit any human because of the stranding). I do need to frog that one but it is so cute, even if it is not able to be cute on a foot!

I have officially survived my first week and a half of school and have managed only to get lost going to each campus once. Tomorrow the glass guy is coming to fix Travis and I's mysterious windshield cracks, and the tv guy is coming to (hopefully) fix or replace the tv where I think Sean hit it and killed a pixel. Horray for insurance and warranty!

Money saving strategies are going well (go now to walmart with the Gain Dish soap coupon from this past Sunday's paper to get a free little bottle and make $.03) and I am planning to do my own coupon class to some friends that are interested in saving money on their own grocery bill. To get people excited, I brought a bag full of goodies (deodorant, tooth paste and razors) to life group and let everyone pick something out. Only thing I paid for was the $.24 Crest Pro Health, everything else was free. Needless to say I have a lot of people excited about the class. Me... not so much since I am NOT good at talking in front of people, but I think it will be ok since they are all friends.

I promise not to wait so long to post again, but they will be short and sweet since I have lots of school work to do with 4 classes and a lab! Wish me luck.

Nothing to see here

No really, nothing to see! I am not one with the 2nd sock of the blue and white pair, but I'm close. I probably have less than an hour to go on it. However I have been working on sewing a purse! I'll put up some pics in a few days when it's done. Well, assuming I get some decent naptime to work on it! It's really cute though! Perhaps a little bit past my comfort zone.. but it's coming along.

Nothing back from the place I sent After Hours, I am fiddling with the idea of either self publishing it (and praying they say yes for yarn support) or offering it to a different magazine. I'm still giving it some thought.

I am really REALLY looking forward to school starting, only a month and a half left. I am such a dork, I am anxiously stalking the school's website to see when they book lists become available. I want to get mine ASAP so I can start reading and hopefully get ahead of the game. See... dork. But I guess its better to be excited about school than dreading it, right?

Sean is moving backwards on the potty training, he's managed to go #2 one time in the potty, and that was about 2 or 3 weeks ago. He starts school same time as I do, so I am seriously running out of time! Suggestions?

Learning Curve

I know that sometimes it is more important than others to do the second sock immediatly. Mainly when you do something different than the pattern and make no notes that are worth anything.

My blue socks, started in October '07 (!) and finished in January of '08. Well, that was one sock. I followed the pattern for the Arrow Lace Socks but decided to try out a short row heel. And instead of noting ANYWHERE how I did that or where I got the tutorial, I just wrote "I've decided to try out a short row heel." Yeah, helpful.

So last week when I decided to finish up some WIPs, I kind of dreaded this one because I'd have to fake the heel. Luckily for me it's not really hard and I'm at the halfway point on the heel. I think these are going to be mine, but I'm not sure. It could just be a REALLY early Christmas present. I think that will depend on how it turns out! :)

Only a month and a half until school starts and I'm really excited about it. I hope that I do well. I just got a copy of my HS transcripts, boy was I a crappy student. I have higher hopes for college.

That's it for now, have a great 4th weekend. Stay safe.

A finished project. Really!

The other day I let Mom try on her birthday sweater (her birthday is tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure it fit before I finished the 2nd sleeve and the 2 fronts). It didn't fit so I stopped working on it. That led to 2 things. First, what do I give my Mom for her birthday, and second, what do I start working on next?

The answer to #1: the Zoom Zoom socks that I made earlier in the year and will be a second pair of "warm socks" for her. She will be appreciative. Yay.

The answer to #2: well, that's a little harder. It started with me looking at my stash of sock yarn and petting, vigorously the alpaca that I got in January. That led me to scouring my sock patterns in print, print-out and Ravelry for the perfect pattern to go with my perfect, creamy white yarn. No luck. I found some great patterns that would look great with the yarn but either the yarn was too thin for the pattern or I didn't have enough of it. Pity, but I will try again with that yarn in the future. That made me have a look at the WIPs I had and found 2 pairs of socks in that category. The closest to done was the Ladybug socks that I started in August and got through all but the toe plus 2 rounds. So I decided to finish it.










I haven't touched it in MONTHS! I finished it in less than 3 hours. Now I have adorable new socks! Yay.

Next up, I will do the 2nd sock to this "Pair". I did this sock in August of '08 on a trip to New York and it has since languished in the WIP pile. Today I brought it back out and cast on. I've done a few rounds but that's it. I am a little worried about the heel though since I think I did a different heel than the pattern called for. Guess I'll have to fake it and hope for the best! More soon.

Ribbons and Summer

I have been sadly slacking in the blog department. I've been a stay at home mom for what - 4 months? And it is seriously kicking my butt. And NOW I get to add the big one to the mix! Trying to keep them both occupied and not in front of the tv all day WITHOUT getting 2nd degree burns from being outside for 17 seconds is difficult. Very. Difficult.

Tomorrow is $1 movie day at AMC and we're heading to watch Shrek the 3rd. Yay for organized events! I hope that we'll find plenty more as the summer goes on.

I know that it's technically not summer for like 2 more weeks but already we're hitting 99 degrees daily. It has led to a distinct lack of yarn play. This is bad news considering that my Mom's birthday is on the 25th (11 days away) and her sweater has only almost 1 sleeve. And the fronts are LONG since it's a wrap around sweater. tick tock.

In other news, I have put the Ribbons hat with the testers so that I can release the pattern on here through Ravelry. Very soon, for the low low price of $3 (proceeds go to my Making Strides walk for Breast Cancer research), you too can have the pattern to the lovely Ribbons to make for yourself! But Wait... there's more!! It comes with a "cottage license" so that you can sell the hats you make to raise money for your own cause. I am hoping to have it available in the next week.

Not related to yarn but still cool

Since I got laid off in March I have been trying to figure out ways to strech a buck and for the most part I think I've been doing a pretty good job. A friend of mine introduced me to the wonderful world of Couponing. Please understand, I have always used coupons but there is a big difference between "using coupons" and "Couponing" - much like the difference between knitting and Knitting!
I borrowed a book from the library called "Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half" by Stephanie Nelson. This has really opened my eyes to the things you can do and the stuff that stores GIVE you when you are smart about combing sales and coupons together! The highlights of what I have learned:

~ a BOGO sale from the store means you can use 2 manufacturer coupons for the 2 items you are getting.
~ usually you can use BOTH a manufacturer coupon AND a store coupon for the SAME item!
~ Free stuff is COOL and a great way to give to those less fortunate than ourselves.
~ Get a baseball card binder to organize your coupons either alphabetically by brand (which I had originally had) or by aisle of the supermarket (which I just switched to). It is much easier to see what you have to work with than with the old accordian type I used to use.
~ if you have a UPromise account (or other stores not in my area like Kroger) you can do "electronic coupons" where you go to their website and add coupons to your Rewards Cards. For Upromise, the amount doesnt come off my bill but goes directly into the boys' college accounts.

Today before Church I went through my favorite ads - CVS and Walgreens - and wrote down all the cool things I found that would be cheap/free when I combined them with coupons that I already have. Then after Church we went to Walgreens to pick up a few of the deals - for me and to give.

As an aside, my lifegroup is working on a project next week that will have us stuffing 60 (the goal) gallon size zipper bags with travel size essentials for the folks that eat at a local place called "I Am Hope Cafe". It provides hot meals 4 nights a week to whoever needs them, and it is "manned" by volunteers from a different local Church each night. We have Tuesdays. So... I am trying to stock up on essentials that I can donate to this cause but because I am unemployed, it has to be REALLY cheap or Free! Onward.

I purchased 2 Reach toothbrushes, 2 packages of Reach floss, a 10 pk of OxiClean Max Force Stain Releaser and a 60 ct Walgreens brand A-Z vitamins. The total before savings was $18.13 for those 6 items. Advertised sales saved me $8.69 (Reach items for $.99 each, OxiClean for $2.99 and vitamins for $2), I had coupons worth $7 ($3 off 3 Reach items, $1 off 1 reach item, $2 off Oxi Clean Max Force, and $1 off my order from last week's certificate), so I paid $2.44. I got a $2 certificate for my next purchase which made it like paying $.44. For $18.13 of items.

This. Rocks.

Melodie (the gal that checked me out) said "You guys always amaze me with that!"

Yes Melodie, sometimes I amaze even myself.

Whoopsy!

So I've been pretty riddled with family emergencies and being sick and cranky and stuff and all, and I've been ignoring you. I'm sorry. Unfortunatly there's not really anything to update yarn-wise. Lets see...

I mailed off my eye mask to the mag today (with 5 days to spare thankyouverymuch)(procrastinate much?)(See above.) and I am glad it's out of my house. I hope that it gets some good project numbers, it really is cute and quick and easy and cheap to make since it takes so little yarn.

I have not heard anything about the little black dress, but I hope I do. I really want to get the yarn support in so I can finish making it. I have gotten thisfar in knitting it (the proposal was crocheted) because I just haven't had any desire to work on it with everything else going on.

On the upside, I am all signed up for school and I am SO looking forward to it. I am excited about my classes, but nervous since I've never been... and not been inside a classroom in 17 years! I'm watching lectures online and reading library books on things like algebra and anatomy!

Also, I've been working on my Mom's birthday sweater. It's a lacy tie around cardi that is coming out pretty cute, and I'm making it from on-sale sock yarn so that's always a plus.

And I have been learning the ropes of "couponing" from a friend's wife. It's SO cool when stores pay you to take stuff! Of course, I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do with 3 men's razor systems but they were free or less than free (if it's on sale for $4.50 plus I have a coupon for $3 and they give you $4.50 in register rewards to use next time I made $3 on the deal!)

And finally I am (in theory if I can get my arse off the couch!) going to get the house into shape before I start school so that maintaining is easy instead of a pain and can be done by the whole family. That way when I'm studying and unavailable then everyone can pitch in and it won't be embarassing when my 8 yr old has a little friend come over to play a video game.

That's it for me for now, I promise to not let it go so long next time.