christmas mess #3.

When St. Nick came to visit this year (St. Nick Legend for those of you who don't celebrate), he gave me a whoppie pie kit. What is a whoppie pie? Well, here is the picture from the box:

The looked delicious and seemed fairly simple to make. I was hoping since my first 2 cookie experiences were bad, maybe this would be the charmer. 

I followed the simple directions on the box and was feeling optimistic. I put the batter on the pan, let it cook for the allotted amount of time and this is what I got....

Crap.

I can even explain what happened. They were about as flat as 15 pieces of computer paper. Even though they looked like poo, I tried to complete them by filling them (with the recipe provided) and candy cane them up.

This is what I was expecting them to look like:

BUT...

This is what I ended up with:

I guess they didn't taste horrible, but I couldn't get past the looks. I guess I learned this year that maybe Christmas cookies aren't my thing and maybe I should stay with the pre-cut Gordon cookies like my mom did....ha. But at least I tried?

christmas cookies #2

Ok...so here is the story of my second batch of cookies. 

I also saw this recipe on Picky Palate (which is one of my favorite websites for tasty recipes). These were the cookies that I was most excited for (and ultimately most disappointed in). The picture really enticed me and made my belly grumble.

Picture from Picky Palate

The recipe seemed fairly simple, that even I should be able to do it with no major complications. Well, I was mistaken (even the encouragement from the readers comments on her blog were wrong...ha). All you do is make brownie box mix, dip oreos, and put in a cupcake pan. Let's just say, that even with the amount of spray I put in the cupcake pan did not help. Almost each and everyone of them stuck. The next problem was it was hard to tell when they were finished, making them a little dry because I left them in way too long...ha. The center portion by the oreo never looked finished. 

So, with the combination of being dry and sticking to the pan, they weren't the best cookies ever. Here's my embarrassing final product....

They look better in this picture than they did in real life.

Let's just say these ended up in the garbage disposal...better luck next year...lol.

christmas wreaths.

If you know my family, you know that I am the only one who is crafty. My mom is kinda crafty, but she is good at crafts that need patterns and structure. We have done craft days in the past, but it always ends up in disaster. Over Thanksgiving break, I saw a post on the blog Apartment Therapy (one of my favorite blogs that I follow) and found a craft that my mom and sister would be able to do without difficulty (or so I thought). 

Here's the link with the original idea:

Felt Ball Wreath

I liked how the wreath looked; not too Christmasy. I looked into getting felted balls, but they are a little expensive. I decided that it would look just as cool with regular pom pons from the craft store. I loaded up on pom pons, glue sticks, and styrofoam wreath forms. 

The project was pretty easy, but of course my mom and sister would find some way to make it hard. My mom could find the right color balls and my sister had glue gun drama (which was freakin' hilarious!). Overall, they turned out great! Here are some pictures of our wreaths (I don't have one of my sister's. Her is pink, teal, and black pom pons.)

Mine on my apartment door.

One on the bedroom door (I think it's the one my mom made).

One on the bathroom door.

christmas cookies #1

Every year, I have this idea of my family making Christmas cookies together with smiles on our faces. The cookies turn out perfect and everyone lives happily ever after. 

Well...

That never happens. My mom and I make several different cookies by ourselves. I try new ones that we have never done before and my mom does the standard (which turned out to be frozen pre-cut sugar cookies from Gordon's this year...ha). 

The first cookies I decided to try are Kiss Pies from Picky Palate. They looked fairly simple and sounded amazing. 

Picture from Picky Palate.

I tired real hard when making these. They were actually really easy to make, but I think that I rolled the dough a little thin and they didn't turn out perfect. They ended up being a little dry. Now that's its several days (almost a week) after they were made, they finally taste better. ha.

Here's a picture of my final product (not as pretty as the originals).

Don't make your bed!

Like most parents, my parents continued to lecture me on the importance of making my bed (and the importance is? ha). I've always hated making my bed, even to this day. I rarely make my bed. I occasionally do when I go to bed, but most of the time, I throw my sheets on as I go to bed. 

I've heard that it's actually better to not make your bed, to leave it unmade so it is able to 'air out'. So, that's been my excuse. But after I actually made my bed yesterday, I decided that I was going to do some research about making your bed. I found this article on BBC: Bedmaking and Dust Mites. So pretty much, don't make your bed so all the dust mites run away. 

See, my intuition has been right. Don't make your bed.

With all this...Here's a picture of my made up bed, so if my parents ever read this they can see I actually do make my bed on occasion...ha (which I got lectured about like a week ago [Yes, I am almost 25 years old]). 

portrait of amelia.

I've had many unsuccessful attempts to paint a living thing. In art class in high school, we had to do a self portrait. After that, my teacher told me not to paint anything living ever again (maybe only plant-life). After that I never tried again (ok. maybe I tried a few more times, but the only result was a pile of hot mess). 

I recently found a picture of a boxer on Etsy. It was simple but detailed at the same time and I convinced myself that I could recreate this in my own little way. 

So after a few screw ups, I finally finished my Amelia portrait and if I do say so myself, it's pretty awesome! Amelia thinks so too! ha

 So you can see the side detail! (Sorry for the glue poop!)

merry grinchmas.

Lately, it's been hard to get into the Christmas mood. I don't know if it's all the work that the professors and I save for the last minute or the fact that I generally don't like holidays.

I feel like the Grinch, little heart 2 sizes too small. 

However, I have been trying to get myself out of this Grinch-like slump and forcing myself to decorate. I've hung up snowflakes in the windows, put up my trees (no motivation for ornaments this year, and I made stockings.

If you all know me, I can't sew and freak out with the thought. But I decided after looking everywhere, I was going to make my own stocking this year. I bought some felt and found simple patterns online. After trial and error, I finally was able to get everything together. I decorated them with some ric-rac and ruffles and well, not to toot my own horn, but they're pretty awesome.

My Stocking.

Amelia's Stocking.

The extent of my living room decorations. 

first post: always the most awkward.

So after taking a million years and 5 days, I have officially settled on a blog name. Don't know if I like it but it'll have to do. Hopefully, I'll be keeping you up to date on my current projects or crazy thoughts. I'll stop here to make it a little less awkward.