DIY Lamps

Well, this was a project a while in the making. We have, like, a ba-zillion clear lamps that were dingy, not good looking at all and really dragged down the apartments they were in at work.

So, after browsing some home improvement stores, Pinterest and watching probably a bit too much HGTV, I decided we could DIY paint them and help spruce them up a bit.

So, we loaded them all up and headed down to the paint shop for a little paint shop party...

The end result was actually, fantastic. I'm super pleased with how they came out and now that they are in their respective apartments, they are starting to help the rooms come together!

I will say...we did leave quite a mess. BUT it was a beautiful and colorful mess...

I can live with that. :-)

O'Hartford 5K

Max's O'Hartford 5K was the end of my 5K training group this season. It was something I was building up for...and not all at the same time.

I didn't put everything I had into training for this race. There ended up being so much happening in my life at the time, both good and bad, that I didn't really do what I wanted and needed to do to make this race amazing.

But, that being said, you better believe I was happy that I did it. I was happy that Stacie trained with me and proud of her for finishing. She ended up finishing only about 10 seconds behind me. Not bad!

I also know that if it weren't for our coaches (Liz and Allison) that we both wouldn't have done as well as we did. Allison ran with me (picture below) and Liz with Stacie. I can't thank them enough for their support.

I've got the Amica Ironhorse Half Marathon that I'm training for next and I'm pumped! If you would like to check on my progress during my training, check out my running blog, 365 Days To Become A Marathon Runner. There is also another post about this particular race here.

I'll post that race here as well, but I'm sure there will be trials and tribulations, successes and failures in the next 3 months! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

This St. Patrick's Day I decided to try a new recipe for me. And since I wasn't drinking alcohol (a choice due to training for my 5k) I would have my alchi in a different way:

IRISH CAR BOMB CUPCAKES!

They ended up deliciously! It was a chocolate Guinness cupcake, with Jameson chocolate ganache inside and a Bailey's buttercream frosting on top.

It was actually very easy to make, but rather time consuming. I took the recipe from the blog Une-deux senses (http://une-deuxsenses.blogspot.com/2009/11/irish-car-bomb-cupcakes.html) and it was very easy to accomplish.

When I got to the ganache, I had the choice of using Baileys or the Irish whiskey. I felt that with the Baileys in the frosting, the Jameson would give it a nice contract. It was a good choice.

I will be doing these again as the were just sinful...and a perfect treat to bring into the office on the Friday before St. Patty's Day!

May the luck of the Irish be with you!!

The Word Oreo IS a Word!

I'm sorry...but this is just unfortunate!

How can the word OREO not be an acceptable word?!

I was playing Words With Friends, with a friend of mine...of course, and I got this message.

And of all days, I got it today: March 6, 2012...which just happens to be the 100th birthday of Oreo, America's best selling cookie!

So tell me again...how is OREO not an acceptable word?!?!

Ice Cream Cake for Andy

Well, it was my friend, Andy's, birthday earlier this week, so in honor of that, I decided to make his favorite kind of cake: ice cream cake.

Let me preface this in saying I have never made an ice cream cake before...but overall it worked and I feel I could easily do it again. It's just time consuming.

I asked, very sneaky-like, what kind of cake he would want, what was his favorite ice cream, etc. Never at the same time, never really mentioning his birthday cake, etc. It took a lot of planning. :-)

Also, I had to think of size...I knew that since I was going to make an ice cream cake, I had to really think. If I made it too big, what would people do with the leftovers? You couldn't really take it home, and leaving it out for others to eat when they wanted was going to be out of the question. Also, a typical round cake was probably not going to work either. If you thought it was difficult cutting 30 slices of cake out of a round cake without it falling apart on you, try it with an ice cream cake. So, I didn't want to do that. That meant either a rectangle or square. A 9x9 square pan won out because I thought the 9x13 pan would be too big.

First, I made the cake. He chose chocolate, so I made the chocolate cake.




While the cake cooled, I prepped the ice cream. Using my handy dandy Cuisinart 2-Quart Ice Cream Maker, I put together a simple vanilla ice cream. It only took about 15-20 minutes.




But I didn't stop there. I discovered in my sleuthing that Andy preferred cookies 'n cream ice cream, so I needed to add cookies to the creamy ice cream. So, I chopped up America's favorite cookie: oreos!

I placed Saran wrap in the cake pan, followed by the finished ice cream (consistency of frozen yogurt...a little soupy) and topped off by the cake. Then I wrapped the cake up in the remaining Saran wrap and into the freezer for at least 2 hours. (I let it set overnight).

The next day, I took it into work (in the cake pan still to keep it super frozen) and left it in the freezer there again, for a couple of hours. Then, it came time to decorate! First, I needed to pull the cake out of the pan and removing the plastic wrap.

Next, I frosted the cake with icing...yum.

...and surrounded the cake with oreo halves...to emphasize the cookies 'n cream ice cream inside!

And then...decoration...in the shape of the Green Lantern symbol...Andy's favorite super hero...

February was definitely birthday month for me, with Robyn and Andy each getting a customized cake from me....don't really know how I'll top them next year...or how I'll top upcoming birthdays for other friends! Yipes...better get thinking!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Everyone likes conversation hearts, right? So, for Valentine's Day I decided to have a little bit of fun with the classic candy idea by making conversation cake hearts.

So I started with the making the hearts by baking the cake and then crumbling the cake once it was cooled. I mixed in some frosting and then started molding the cake balls.




Once I molded the soon to be hearts, I placed them on a cookie sheet to make sure I had enough.

Then I had to mold each of the hearts by hand...

After placing the hearts in the freezer, I colored the candy coating to make the specific colors from the original conversation hearts. I coated each heart individually and placed them back on the cookie sheet to re-freeze (and harden the candy).

Then to make them 'conversation hearts' they needed the conversation sayings on them...so I made the traditional happy and loving ones...

As well as hearts for those more against Valentine's Day...aka, more negative sayings :-)

They were a hit...because they were all gone at the end of the day. Hooray!!

Happy Birthday Robyn

Robyn's birthday requires a special cake, especially if this might be the last birthday I get to spend with her for a bit :-( so I had to pull out all of the stops.

So, with my darling former-roomie being a Stage Manager, I wanted to make a prompt book for her. For those who don't know what a prompt book is, it's basically the production bible that the Stage Manager keeps and puts together. It holds everything from the contact sheet, script, blocking notes, etc.

Since Robyn LOVES pink, I knew I needed a pink 'binder' for her book. I had to label it, so I picked a title that suited Robyn herself (no, its not a real play title).




Then...for the tabs (which would normally say 'Contact Sheet', etc) I decided to make it things from Robyn's life, which included:

• Family
• Maggie (her dog)
• St. Michael's (her college)
• Roomie (me!!)
• New London Barn (summer stock)
• HSC
• Mark (her boy)

...to name a few...

I had been pumping this cake up for days/weeks even, and I don't think she was disappointed...and neither was I.

Lord help me the next time I'm around for her birthday....ah!! I'll have to top this.