And here are the Ornaments

Here was my attempt at making my own painted Christmas ornaments.


I think they turned out pretty cool! They take days and days to dry though and because of that, the paint on the inside changes depending on how the ornament is sitting. Maybe I'll add a few more photos once they're hanging on a tree. They've changed a lot and the colors have blended since I took these pictures.

Christmas ornaments

So i had the idea recently to decorate my own Christmas tree ornaments. I have seen so many cute things online and am now pretty sure about what I am going to do. I'll show some inspiring photos. Unfortunately they're not my own but they will give you an idea of what I want to do. It looks like SO much fun!

These are all beautiful ideas and I can't wait to try it.

Food, Inc.

Has anyone seen the documentary called Food, Inc? Taylor and I just watched it this morning for the first time and it was fascinating. It went into detail about the Food Industry and the "veil" that is pulled over our eyes to keep us from knowing what really goes on to bring food to the grocery stores, fast food chains, etc. All I can say is GROSS. Please find it and watch it, I think it is so important that we know what bad things we are putting into our bodies without even knowing it. If you have Netflix you can watch it online. It's some serious stuff.

Happy Meal?

So a little while ago I posted about the experiment we were going to do with Happy Meals. We started it a few weeks late but it seems to be producing the same results as others have gotten. Nothing's happening to it, it's just drying out and getting stale-looking. I've come up with a few thoughts on it though. The problem with leaving it out where air can get to it is that it just dries it out. And isn't moisture the key to producing mold, etc? Well at some point we're going to try this test again but put it in a sealed container and see what happens with the highly processed food, compared to say a home-made hamburger. We'll try to keep you posted.

Getting on the ball!

Back in high school I found this exercise video at the Provo Library after getting my own exercise ball. After using it for a few weeks I felt GREAT and noticed good results. Two years later when Taylor and I were engaged I found it on Amazon.com and purchased it. Since then I've used it whenever I've felt like my body needs some extra strengthening. I should probably use it a lot more than I do but I am thankful for it whenever I actually get myself to use it. I'm about to go do it right now and that's what sparked my desire to blog about it. It's just a good way to strengthen your muscles and get yourself to feel good. Thanks for listening. :)

Not-so-Happy Meals

This is for everyone out there who eats, see's others eat and/or who's heard of McDonald's. So, basically everyone. Taylor found this on Yahoo news and he called me and had me read it. It is fascinating. Now I don't want to sound like a hypocrite, I eat fast food every once in a while and may even enjoy the occasional hamburger from one of the main fast food chains but in the end do I ever feel well after? I won't feel like going for a three mile run, that's for sure. And even if I don't feel too bad physically I don't feel like giving myself a pat on the back. Most of us already know what fast food does to our bodies and this article gives a perfect example of why the stuff really should be avoided. Sally Davies conducted an experiment by leaving out a Happy Meal to see how long it would hold up before molding, decomposing, etc. Here are two photos taken, one back in April when she first laid out the food, and the second 6 months later.
I don't know if I would have been able to identify which is which.

Here is a link for the whole article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101012/bs_yblog_upshot/mcdonalds-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-for-six-months

Taylor and I will be conducting our own Happy Meal test beginning today so if you want updates just check out this blog.

If you want any more motivation to stay away from fast food, try watching Super Size Me. It's a documentary written and directed by Morgan Spurlock who takes on the challenge to eat only McDonald's food for one whole month. It made me never want a fast food meal ever again.

I feel quite passionate about this topic and I think it is because I feel so strongly that the happiness and peace of Americans are crumbling because of such bad health. I could go into so much more BUT I will spare whoever is reading this. If you do feel like listening to more of my thoughts on this topic, I'm sure there will be more in future posts. I hope you find the info as fascinating and motivating as I did. :)

Let them eat cake!

I've always always wanted to make actual fancy cakes with the fondant, different tiers, etc. but never had the guts to give it a try. Well after watching lots of cake shows on T.V. over time and then watching tutorials online and reading over recipes I decided to give it a try and make a cake for my sister-in-law Hannah for her 20th birthday.



Her birthday was yesterday (Sunday) and so last Monday I went shopping and got all the ingredients and supplies I needed. Tuesday I made the fondant and then stored that away. Friday I went on to make the chocolate buttercream frosting to go beneath the fondant and in between the cake layers. Saturday morning I began the baking. I baked the cakes and then frosted the layers and then chilled them.

In the afternoon when Taylor was home to watch the baby I went to work kneading and coloring and rolling out the fondant. This picture above is the lower tier just after covering it with fondant.

The bottom tier covered and the top tier before being covered with fondant.

Now covering the top tier.

I trimmed the excess off the edges.

Here is the cake before getting decorated.

Next I rolled more fondant and started with the stripes on the bottom.

Here I added fondant balls.

Then with chocolate frosting I pipped squiggley designs on the top tier.

After adding edible glitter, more fondant balls on the top, and some ribbon it was almost done.

Ta-da! Here is the finished product. (Notice the glossy look? It's not supposed to have that but it happened nontheless because of being covered and stored in the fridge over night). I had a BLAST and learned a lot and I will definitely do more in the future. Thanks for listening!

Green apple and Mozarella Crepes

Alright guys this is something I made a month ago and I'm finally getting the chance to post it. It was DELICIOUS. If you like the flavor of mozarella cheese with sweet and tangy, this is just for you. Let's see if I can remember the basics... I don't think I wrote it down! I first saute'd some white onion and green apple in butter and brown sugar. I might have added some cream as well.

The green apple began to cook too fast so I removed them and let the onions get a little more transluscent before I added the apples back into the pan.

I sliced some Mozarella cheese.

I then whipped together some crepe batter and added some cinnamon and grated soaked almonds.

I added the apples back into the pan to begin to carmelize.

After the crepes were made and I removed the pan from the stove, I put some slices of mozarella cheeze, the carmelized green apple and onion and maybe even a little more brown sugar onto a crepe and folded it over.

Here is the finished product. It was SO yummy it could probably qualify as a dessert. I highly recommend it. Again, I didn't write anything down while I was making it and didn't take any measurements so you'd have to wing it. If you ever decide to try it, good luck!

Slacker!

Okay everyone or anyone who might be reading this, I'm so sorry that I haven't blogged in over 3 weeks. Things have gotten a little more crazy now that my baby's attention span has gotten a lot shorter at the computer. Hopefully I'll find a chance soon to blog while she's napping, that is after I've finished cleaning and showering, etc. I'm just dropping this note to say I'll be back to blogging better hopefully soon!

New Motivation

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and my hubby and his family surprised me with gifts to boost my motivation to exercise. I'd been wanting running stuff for who knows how long but it's just one of those things where I have a hard time spending the money for. Finally I have actual RUNNING clothes and will no longer have to run in holey scrubs and other old things. They're the activewear brand Lucy and super nice.

I also got a really nice ipod holder that goes on my arm, AND the Nike+ SportBand, which is the chip that goes in the shoe and the watch/band that goes on the wrist. It'll track how far I've gone, how many calories I've burned, etc. I've wanted that for a long time too.

And on top of that my amazing husband bought me brand new really awesome Nike running shoes, which are so much better than I had. The Nike LunarElite+. Happiness.

What a fun surprise it was! I was always mentioning to Taylor how bad I needed real running clothes. He and the family sure went the extra mile! Thank you Taylor, Mom (and Dad, Morg, and Slade), Tammy, Galen, Jonathan, Adam, Hannah, Thomas and Mercedes! I love you guys! And I can't wait to work out!