T-Shirt Scarf...

T-shirts are neat, awesome and apparently versatile.  For example did you know that you can make many different varieties of fashion scarves out of t-shirts?  Well I recently learned that fun fact.  I first noticed the t-shirt scarf on this blog which lead me to watch a couple videos featuring many different ways to make t-shirt scarves.  I chose the one that looked easiest.

1-Get a t-shirt.  This is one of my leftover t-shirts from Halloween when I was a pumpkin (purchased from Michaels for probably $2.50 on sale)
2-Get some scissors.
3-Cut off the bottom hem of the shirt and then cut strips from the bottom until you have a handful

4-Stretch the strips so that they curl up on the edges.  The strips will already just go around your neck because of how you cut them from the bottom (you don't have to close the ends or anything to make a loop, they are already a loop).  Cut a little piece of fabric from somewhere else on the t-shirt and use it to tie the strips together so they stay together once they are around your neck.  I feel like this doesn't make sense the way I wrote it so you should probably watch the video.
5-Wrap it around your neck (I doubled mine up) in a fashionable manner (I'm still trying to figure that part out).  Then take a bunch of photos of yourself.

Check out my cool nose bump.

Check out my cool socks.

I thought this was a pretty cute idea that is really cheap and easy.  I'm not 100 percent sure how to wear this.  I'm fashion challenged.  I am also considering adding some kind of flower or button to the side.  It also probably doesn't look that great with the Bayside High T-shirt I'm wearing (although the t-shirt is amazing and magical).  I wore the scarf to trivia last night and got a couple of compliments so we'll see.  I look forward to making more of these in different styles and colors. 

Have you ever made anything out of a t-shirt?  Apparently you can make all sorts of stuff from gloves to headbands.

***Fun Fact-Once you are done cutting the strips for the scarf you have an awesome belly shirt left.****

The Usual Suspects aka Best Movie Night Ever!

One time, several months ago, some of my friends and I were at our weekly trivia meet up when a question came up about the movie, The Usual Suspects.  Approximately 5 of us said "I really need to watch that movie, I heard it was good."  And the other 2-3 people were all, "You have never seen that movie?  What is wrong with you people?"  And that is the night we all decided we'd get together and watch The Usual Suspects. 

Then we forgot about it. 

Then one day Curly T was like, "yeah my apartment complex has this movie theater that I can rent out.  Wasn't there some movie you guys wanted to watch?"  And thus began our quest to find a night that we could all watch the movie and that the movie theater was actually available for rent.  A mere 2 months later we finally nailed down our date.

We decided to all bring food but to not tell anyone what we were bringing.  We ended up with an amazing assortment which included, chicken nuggets, taquitos, lettuce wraps, raspberries, guacamole, spinach dip, bread...

Then there was the candy.  Apparently we all thought we should bring candy.  I brought my personal movie watching favorite, Twizzler Bites (I like them because they are cherry flavored instead of strawberry).  There were also Mini Reeces Cups, Junior Mints, Whoppers, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  Plus of course popcorn in a variety of flavors and styles.

Here is my personal candy bowl and beer.  B decided to bring the 'usual suspects' of beer aka all the beers we normally order when we go to bars.  So there was a nice mix of Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Wildflower (a Greensboro Natty Greene's specialty), some Stouts, etc.

Here is the lovely group picture I forced everyone to take before the movie started.  See it's a real theater!

And here is when the movie screen stopped working for no reason.  Luckily we fixed it (well after awhile).

"Dude, quit posing for pictures and fix it.  I want to know
who Keyser Soze is"

And here's my homemade contribution to the food table....Guacamole with Chipotle Peppers.  Good stuff if I do say so my self.  (Recipe-2 avocados, 2 peppers from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce chopped and a spoon full of the sauce, the juice of 1 lime, sea salt, pepper, a quarter of a red onion chopped, a sprinkle of garlic salt-Mash it all together...Adapted from this recipe).

Reasons this movie night was the best movie night ever....
-I got to bring my own blanket and sit where I wanted to
-The movie screen thing broke in the middle so we had an impromptu dance party while we were waiting for it to cool down (or something).  Well it was more just B demonstrating some commercial for some dancing video game for x-box.
-There was lots of candy and beer that was easily accessible to me (mostly because I sat beside the cooler)
-Some dudes came to the attached cafe area in the middle of the movie and when we went out to use the bathroom we saw 5 dudes with no shoes on, sitting on a blanket together eating figs (or something like that).  Not sure what was going on there.

What movie should we watch next time?  Fortunately Curly T and I both hate horror movies so that's out.  And I'm pretty sure no one is going for my suggestion of Gigli (when you hear that something is the worst movie ever, don't you want to see why?  Plus I heart Ben Affleck).  We need something that is awesome (perhaps classic) and that will be good for a group of people with a variety of interests.  Any ideas?

Friday=Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun and TV Recap

My favorite part of this week's How I Met Your Mother was the montage of Marshall testing everyone.  I loved his soul patch. "Righteous hair tat, brotha".  "We are living with a possum [or is it opossum].  Rex is violent and he hates us."  I heard multiple people say that they don't like John Lithgow as Barney's dad after watching him in Dexter.  Dexter is still on my tv watching to-do list so I don't know.  But fun fact-I was in the same shoe store with John Lithgow once in NY.  So now I'm just 2 degrees away from my alternate-reality husband Jason Segel.



The Event kind of sucks.  But yeah I still watch it.  Anyone else?

OK I think Modern Family was good this week but I am not positive.  There was an insane lightning/hail storm on Wednesday night and the TV kept doing that thing where the sound would stop and beep a few times and say "there is a hurricane warning in these 20 counties" and then it would list all the counties, so I missed a few scenes in Modern Family.  But as always, I love Phil Dunphy as much as he "love(s) Westerns, the bloodier the better, that's my favorite type of movie – that and anything set against the backdrop of competitive cheerleading."  Because who doesn't love 'Bring it On: Fight to the Finish'?

I really liked Pefect Couples this week.  I think it gets better and better each week.  This is sad because I'm pretty sure they are replacing it with a Paul Reiser show in a couple weeks.

But The Office..........OH. MY. GOSH.  The Office was amazing.  I read the description of the episode and it said 'Michael decides to propose to Holly' so I was disappointed that they were giving it away.  But it was awesome.  Pam was awesome ("you've had 2 ideas today and one of them was great" and "holy BLEEP is that real").  Jim and Dwight were awesome (Professor Copperfield's Miracle Legumes).  Michael was awesome ("they say 3 years salary").  Holly was awesome ("your wife becoming, will be I").  Everyone holding their candles was awesome.  I'm going to cry during Steve Carell's last episode in a few week.  But I will strive forward and keep watching.

Parks and Rec was again awesome (sauce).  Just watch it people.

I haven't watched this week's 30 Rock yet because I was behind from last week.  But I did find last week's reality TV themed episode to be delightful.  "Ham."

Also I just found out that Fringe got renewed for next year!  Yay.  Fringe is definitely becoming my favorite drama but usually I forget about what happened the previous Friday by the time my weekly recap rolls around.

Alright.  Now it's Friday and why haven't we talked about this yet?


My husband showed me this last Friday and I was like "uh, what was that"?  But 2 hours later I was singing it.  I'm most impressed by the fact that she 'won' the Internet back from Charlie Sheen.  It was about time someone did.  Plus she got to sit next to Bradley Cooper on Jay Leno and is donating the money (yes, this is actually making money) to Japan and her school.  Ahhh, the things you can find on the Internet these days.  My favorite part is the adult rapper who shows up in the middle.

Fun Fun Fun Fun.

Pay It Forward 2011-Handmade Stuff

I saw this post on Unofficial Mom's blog a few weeks ago and felt that it was right up my alley.  I mean 'making stuff is fun', right?  So now I'm going to pass it on to you.

Here's how it works:
• Be one of the first five people to comment on this post (or the first few to say you want to participate)
• You will receive something handmade from me within the next few months
• Post about Pay it Forward on your blog/social media site of choice (facebook/twitter, non-blog friends?), and send something handmade (perhaps a craft or baked good) to the first five people (or say 2 or 3) who comment on your post before 2011 is over. Keep the craftiness going!
• You can send anything, big or small, it just must be handmade.

So what do you guys think?  Anyone want me to send you something and then you pay it forward by sending stuff to other people?  No one said it has to be good handmade stuff.  Anyone can make a card or something, right?

For example here is some wonderful/not so wonderful stuff I've made....

Ok, well let me know!

Making Stuff Is Hard-Volume uh 8 maybe-Shrimp Tacos

Let me paint a picture for you...
Literally...


***There are no real pictures due to the intensity of the situation.


I am making dinner in my kitchen.  I am about to cook some shrimp for some shrimp tacos I'm making.  I decide the shrimp will taste better if I put a little butter in the pan.  So I take my new pan and put some butter in it.  Then I decide I need to look something up on the Internet so I start iPadding it up until my husband casually says "uh I think the kitchen's on fire."  Uh, crap.  I look up.  There is a lot of smoke.  I try to remember what I was actually cooking and if I'd put the shrimp in the pan or not.  Luckily I did not or they would have been insanely burned.  So I run to the stove and grab the pan and run over to the sink.  And I hear "uh, you might not want to cook your iPad."  Uh, crap no I don't.  So I run back to the stove to remove my iPad from the stove top (not actually on the burner, but still).  Finally I get a "um, do you need some help?"  Yes, please.  The kitchen is now filled with smoke which is not good for a person recovering from a cold (well or people/dogs in general).  B opens the windows for me and washes the black burn marks off my new pan the best he can as I finish making dinner.  In a new pan.  Hobie just runs outside.  Lazy.

Things like this seem to happen to me more frequently recently and I'm always accidentally leaving the fridge door open for very extended periods of time when I'm cooking.  Is this what it means to be 30?  I was kind of expecting that stuff to happen a little later on.  I am going to go ahead and blame it on my strong need to always be multi-tasking and my addiction to the Internet. 

The tacos were good though.

Any dinner disasters you want to tell me about?

The Best Dessert I've Made in a Long Time aka the Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich....

OK I'm back.  I have mostly recovered from my debilitating illness.  I kid, it wasn't debilitating, but I just do not handle colds very well.  On Friday when I got off work at 11 am (yeah it's awesome) I spent my afternoon baking cookies for the basketball team my husband coaches.  They had an ice cream social on Saturday to celebrate the end of the season.  We had a few cookies leftover but I was tired of eating just the cookies.  Plus it was really nice outside this weekend for the first time.  So we bought this...

This ice cream is good on it's own.  The cookies are good on their own.  But then I came up with a better idea...

Delightful...

These cookies are chocolate chip oatmeal.  I got the recipe from "What's Gaby Cooking."  This is a great site for recipes, especially if you like guacamole.

So what did you do this weekend?

What's your favorite summertimes dessert?

Stuff That Other People Made aka Things I Buy On Etsy...

I'm still trying to fully get rid of my cold so I'm not making a whole lot of stuff right now.  But here is something that someone made and that I bought.  That's almost the same, right?

These are now in my kitchen....

My messy kitchen...

This photo actually inspired me to clean up the top of
my fridge last night.

I really like these.  I got them from Vol25's Etsy shop.  She prints these out on textured canvas which makes them extra special.  I framed them in the white frames.  I bought my sister one with a quote on it from her shop for Christmas too so these were my second purchases.

That is all.  Happy Wednesday! 

Anyone have or know of any interesting Etsy shops for me to check out?

Sick Day...

Making Stuff is Fun is taking a sick day since I didn't make anything this weekend.   All I did was drink my favorite "cold killing" concoction of 7UP and OJ....

I also blew my nose a lot, ate a bunch of cough drops, and tried to lysol my stuff so Hobie and B wouldn't get sick....

I also napped...

And watched some DVDs....

We will be back with our regularly scheduled program later on in the week...I hope!

My New Pan!!!

Look how happy I am....

It's all because of my new pan.  A few weeks ago I was contacted by CSN stores to do another product review.  This time I chose this pan.  I have mostly non-stick pans and have been wanting more stainless steel pans.  This one seemed like a good size for an everyday pan and the price was very close to my $45 allotment.  It's the Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Steel 10 inch pan.

Isn't it neat?

I decided to try out the new Philadelphia Cooking Creme that I keep seeing on tv and in coupon ads.  I actually got 2 containers of it for $.75 each with my new found passion for couponing (they are originally $2.99 each so not bad).

A little olive oil, chicken, mushrooms, spinach and sun dried tomatoes...

Then I added in a little more than half the container of cooking creme...

Fin!

I mixed this with pasta.  I thought it was pretty good and my husband loved it.  I think my pasta would have been good even if I hadn't added in the creme.  I thought it was a little overpowering (and cream cheesey tasting).  I might have added too much since it was just 2 of us and the container is 4 servings.  Still this made for a fairly easy week night meal and I'll try it again.  Plus they have a lot of recipes on their site.  (And no I'm in no way affiliated with Philadelphia Cooking Creme, I just thought it looked fun to try.)

And now on to the pan.  I pretty much love this pan.  It's a great size especially for cooking meals for 2.  I like the side handles as opposed to one long handle (although those are good in some instances too).  The chicken cooked nicely in this pan with some oil.  It didn't get stuck to the bottom but did make those nice browned bits I like.  It is dishwasher safe although it recommends hand washing (I think they do that with most pans).  I haven't fully washed it but when I sat it in the sink to soak a little it didn't appear that things were coated on too hard to it.  Seems like it will be pretty easy to hand wash (although I'll probably wash it in the dishwasher at times as well-I just like having that option).  So far this pan is basically perfect for me to make 2 person dinners and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff.  I think it will get a lot of use.

So yeah, that was dinner last night.

What are some easy meals you make?

Do you like non-stick pans or stainless steel?

Have you every tried the Philly Cooking Creme?

Cake Balls-Part 2: The Successes

And now, the riveting conclusion to Cake Balls-Part 1.............

So the cake ball pops were not a complete failure.  There were just a few bumps a long the way.  We actually ended up with many wonderful and semi-wonderful looking cake pops. 

How we made our cake pops:
2 boxes of cake mix
2 containers of icing
A bunch of Candy Melts from Michael's (we had 5 bags but only used about 3 bags)
Sprinkles
Cake Pop sticks (from Michael's)

1-Bake the cakes according to package (very important)
2-Let the cakes cool
3-Crumble the cake into a bowl and add about 3/4 of a can of icing
4-Mix the icing into the cake to form a dough (add more icing if you need it)
5-Roll the dough into little balls and then refrigerate or freeze them so that they are more firm (makes it easier to dip in the melted chocolate)
6-Melt the Candy Melts (or you can use real chocolate, I think Candy Melts (CM) are easier because they harden faster but real chocolate might taste better)
7-Dip a stick in melted CM then dip the stick in a ball and dip the ball back into the CM until it's coated.  Quickly add sprinkles before the CM hardens.  You can also let it harden and then write on it with more melted CM or draw designs on it with melted CM
8-Stick it in styrofoam to fully dry

T constructed a cake stand for us out of styrofoam and ribbon.  We started with the sprinkles and then B5 did an excellent job of writing letters (and drawing creatures) on some of the balls.  Basically the ones that T and B5 made are much prettier than the ones I made.  I also tended to shriek or yell when my cake balls did not turn out as planned.  It got pretty tense up in there (for me, not for other people).

Our biggest success by far was figuring out how to transport the cake ball pop cake from T's apartment (3rd floor by the way) to the bar later that night.  We sat in contemplation for a few minutes when we realized we would need something to put the cake in, in order to move it.  Then T decided to take action and after searching through her storage closest for a few minutes, T pulled out this drawer which ended up being the perfect thing to transport the cake.  (We cleaned and disinfected it before putting the cake in there by the way.)

So I took the cake to my house and then later was in charge of transporting it to the bar.  I was very freaked out the whole way to the bar and sat in the back seat with the cake to make sure it stayed safe.  I also yelled at B for going over speed bumps.

However, we made it and the cake was a success!

I'm not really sure what she was blowing out here as this cake ball
cake had no candles.  However, M seems to think it's hilarious.



Cake Balls-Part 1: The Failures

How it all started..........
Secret email chain between Me, Curly T, and Beezus5 in regards to Shanzie's Birthday party......
ME: should we make/buy cupakes or a cake or something for saturday night for shanzies bday partay?  what does she like?  will the bar allow that?
T: hey...sorry, for the delay in response...I didn't have to work today.  Yes...I think she would definitely appreciate that....and I would think that the bar would be fine with it since we are bringing like 20 people into their business (but B5 might know the establishment better).
B5:  The Bar would be fine with that. #1 i'm in with the waitresses, #2 i had some cake balls there a few nights ago for another dude's bday.
ME:  ooh maybe we can make cake balls.  i have wanted to try them
T:  my co-worker brought in cake balls for Valentine's day and they were delicious!!!
ME:  yeah i see them on food blogs all the time.  lets do it.  I THINK IT'S PRETTY EASY.  you just bake a box cake and crumble it up and mix it with icing and dip it in something.  we can add some sprinkles to make it birthdayish.  i'll look it up.

Of course I was the one who had to say "i think it's pretty easy."  In my head I should have known it wasn't going to work out as I planned (just like those Martha Stewart glasses).  So after a few more email chains we decided that B5 and I would pre-bake some cakes and take them over to T's house on Saturday morning.  She would get the stuff to decorate them and then we would make something amazingly beautiful, just like these.......

Picture from cakepops.com (much prettier pops than ours)

So anyways, my first big fail happened when I was making the cake.  The directions on the box said to add 1/3 cup of oil.  Apparently I thought it said to add 1 and 1/3 cups of oil.  Ooops.  I didn't realize this until the cake had been baking for like 45 minutes and it was still liquidy.  It finally baked and I decided since we were crumbling it up it would be fine. 

No, not really.   I should have known.  I mean the balls were pretty soggy even after I froze them.  The first one I tried to make ended up like this.....as did the next few. 

We finally got a few of them to stay on the sticks but an hour later we realized that they were actually leaking oil (yeah there was that much oil in them).  GROSS.  So we threw away all the pink cake.  Fortunately I did make a chocolate cake with the correct amount of oil and B5 made a yellow cake to use

Our next big mishap occurred when B5 threw one of the recently coated melted chocolate balls under T's kitchen table.  Ok she didn't really throw it.  She just dropped it.  I just stood there frozen and yelling while T and B5 actually figured out how to get the (hardening) chocolate off the carpet.  (I also took pictures. I'm sooo helpful in a crisis.)  Good times.

by the way, they got the chocolate up with clorex wipes, I think

So in conclusion, when you make cake balls don't add 4 times the amount of oil the cake recipe calls for and try not to drop the balls on the ground.  See what we had to go through, Shanzie.

Did we end up with any successful cake balls?  You will find out tomorrow in the riveting conclusion, 'Cake Balls-Part 2'. 

Happy Friday........

I was going to write an awesome post about one or more of the following things.......
-how I'm torn about wanting Barney Stinson to be in a serious relationship and how I'm also torn about whether or not I want him to be with Robin
-how ridiculous and predictable (right Shanzie?) One Tree Hill was this week, especially the toaster strudel song
-how awesome Phil Dunphy is and how I really want to read 'Two Monkeys and a Panda'
-how I feel weird for feeling super sad that this is Steve Carell's last week filming new Office episodes
-how cool it is to win blog giveaways
-how making cake balls can be really hard especially when you accidentally triple the amount of oil called for in the cake recipe

Instead, I have decided to save those for another time and instead make you guys this wonderful Happy Friday picture in Microsoft Paint.  You.  Are.  Welcome.......

Wordless-ish Wednesday...

Some of my favorite photos from the Scavenger Hunt....

picture of male team member with mannequin at a famous underwear chain=5 points

team Mo-Tif-Ated with costumes=praised for creativity but 0 points

taking a ride on happy harry=5 points

team member in front of PF Chang Horse=5 points,
 no bonus for accidental self inflicted injury

fake santa wave in front of Friendly Center=5 points

ipad on makingstuffisfun.blogspot.com=5 points,
also my personal favorite scavenger hunt item

having the bartender write a note that says the stripper pole I was supposed
to photograph is actual in storage right now=priceless, well or 5 points for effort



all team members in the same picture=5 points,
all the other teams had nice posed pictures except this one,
who got back to the bar at the very last second

the winners!

my favorite team!



the bday girl!

Good times.  And yes, apparently I'm a terrible speed photo take because my team had really blurry photos for pretty much all our answers.