New Hobby in the Making?

Thanks to Pinterest, I have a new obsession...ok really I have a million new obsessions, things I want to try, learn to do, make....I could go on and on.  I have pinned tons of things on this site, but I have only actually done a few of them.  1) The homemade laundry soap; 2) Cinnamon sticky roll things; and...ummmm...that was it.  Until today!  I have decided I want to learn how to decorate cupcakes.  I love them!  They are yummy and I love watching all of the cupcake and cake baking shows on TV.  But since I'm trying to eat healthy I knew having those things in my house would just be setting myself up for failure.  But then...I remembered that Caiden has a pack meeting tomorrow night, which means he has to take snacks.  PERFECT!  So I looked up the buttercream recipe on Pinterest, got out my mixer and got to work.

For this last minute project, I decided to use a cake mix for the cupcakes to save on time and money since I don't have all of the needed ingredients on hand.  Looks pretty yummy if I do say so myself =)

Then I got out the decorating kit my lovely hubby picked up for me while he was out shopping...read the instructions, picked out the tip I wanted to try out, and loaded the bag.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the mess I made by the time I was done!  I'm such a messy baker anyway...this was worse than most days! If I decide to do this on a more regular basis, I'm gonna need a better mixer!

I didn't do anything too fancy, but it still took some practice to get some decent looking ones.  I figured the boys in scouts won't really care what they look like, as long as they taste good (and they do...I always have to taste things before I serve them to others!! 

I think they turned out ok.  Not bad for a first time!  Had lots of frosting left over, so after consulting google, I put it in the freezer.  We'll see if it really tastes as good after being frozen.

New Design

I decided it was time for a face lift for my blog.  Even though I don't really post too much on here, it was getting old, boring and needed a new look for the new year.  I've gotten rid of a few things on my side bars, I may get rid of more in the future.  It depends on where this blog goes.

Hopefully I'll be better at blogging about my life as a busy mom of two this year.  My first priority is going to be my other blog, Road to Hot Mommy, because this is going to be the year I actually go down this road and stay on it for the whole year, until I arrive at Hot Mommy!  So feel free to check out what's going on there too :)

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've found some awesome ideas on the Pinterest website, and have lots of stuff on my boards, but haven't actually done many of them.  Until today!  I decided as a money saver I was going to try making homemade laundry soap.  I used this recipe (for lack of a better word) from Being Creative.  I found all of the ingredients in the laundry isle at my local Wal-Mart and my total cost for everything was $15.57.

I can't wait to finish up with my current laundry soap so I can try this out. 

Another tip I got from a good friend is to use vinegar in your fabric softener ball.  It doesn't make your clothes smell, and works great, according to her.  I don't know if you can put it in the fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine though.  Does anyone else do this?

Photographer in the Making?

For Mother's Day, hubby took me to the local electronics store and let me pick out a new camera.  I've been wanting one for a while, but finally took the plunge and bought a digital SLR camera.  (I have no idea what that means, so don't ask!)  Now that I have a fancy camera, I figured I better learn how to use it.  So I found a link to Two Peas in a Bucket, which offers a FREE 12 week Photography class online, with reading materials and "homework" each week.  Here is a link to the classes if you are interested.

So far I have learned about aperture and ISO and Shutter Speed. Adjusting the aperture adjusts the amount of the picture that is in focus.My pictures didn't turn out very well because I didn't have good lighting.  But here are the pictures I took for homework: 

Low Aperture = Small area of focus



Large Aperture = Large area of focus


Can you see the difference? The first picture the only thing in focus is little leaves.  The picture on the right has the leaves in focus, as well as the branches all around the leaves.

But the more fun pictures are the ones I took today.  Today the lesson was on shutter speed and ISO.  ISO has to do with lighting...higher ISO for darker areas (think indoors) and lower ISO for brighter areas (sunny day outdoors).  And then there is shutter speed...the higher the number, the faster the shutter closes.  High numbers help freeze and capture action.  So the homework was to take a picture of water from the kitchen sink falling onto something.  Again because of bad lighting, my homework didn't turn out the best, but I ended up with a really cool picture anyway!  I had my ISO set really high since I didn't have any natural light.


Low Shutter Speed

 


Fast Shutter Speed


I had to do some lightening in Photoshop for the high speed picture, but hopefully you can spot the difference.

 But the true work of art came when I decided to use the flash to try to get more light. 



Thoughts on Weight Loss

Lately I have been paying a little more attention to any weight loss products I might hear about or see about on TV.  I've never really been into the weight loss supplements (o.k. I did try Slim Fast before my wedding, but that's the extent of it for me) because I truly believe that it is too good to be true.  There is no magic pill, formula, or anything else that is going to help you to lose weight.  If it were that simple, everyone would be skinny, right? 

So what made me stand up an pay attention? The success of a friend .  She is taking a certain type of supplements and she has lost a good amount of weight and inches...and she looks great!!  So I started looking into what she was taking, but a month supply of some of that stuff was going to cost over $100.  And that made me think again...you can't take this stuff forever....what happens when you stop taking it?  Isn't this why almost all diets fail, no matter what they are? You can't buy the supplements, special food or whatever else you are doing forever.  What then?  Not to mention the possible side effects of this stuff (remember the pill that was killing people??)

So, even though my friend looks awesome, I'm gonna pass and stick with the tried and true method.  Healthy diet and regular exercise.  This is not a diet to me, it is a lifestyle change. I have the exercise down pretty well, so it is now time to concentrate more on the food I am eating.  So far, I have lost about 10 pounds, and even more exciting...I am down two pant sizes!!!

Reusable Bags - Part 2

Not long ago, I  blogged about how people give you all kinds of looks when you use reusable bags at the store. Today, my husband did the shopping and took the hated bags with him. I was actually surprised that he took them, but I was glad he wasn't going to be bringing the plastic bags home with him.  I'm pretty sure he will never no that again. The check out person apparently thought that since he brought his own bags, he should fill them too.  She make him bag his own groceries!!! Can you believe it??

Woo Hoo! My class is over!

I'm done with school until June and then I get to go to school all throughout the summer.  Aren't you excited for me? To top it off, the topics are so much fun, Micro and Macro economics.  But every class is one step closer to my Bachelor's degree, right?

In the next 3 or 4 weeks before I have to start doing homework again, I'm hoping to get both of my boys' rooms painted and decorated.  Caiden wants a brown and green room.  Bennett is getting a monkey themed room, but I'm not sure what color to paint his room.  But I have lots of cute vinyl wall art from Etsy.com to put on the walls.  

I these two from got from Smileywalls

and this one I got from Is Handmade Creations

I can't wait to get their rooms done!!