An experimental experiment

I've been working on a project for our county 4H program, a project book all about one of my favorite things - baking cookies. This afternoon i tested out an experiment that is part of the project (I figure its a good idea to try it myself before asking a 9 year old to do it).  You can find all kinds of variations on this experiment all over Pinterest, basically, i use different amounts of ingredients, different baking times, and different baking temperatures to show the effect that each variable has on the finished cookie.  my variables, and therefore my results, are fairly over-exaggerated, because I want the effects of each ingredient to be well understood.

1. The first cookie is the control - this cookie has the proper amount of all necessary ingredients, and has baked for the correct time.

2. The second cookie has too much flour. Not only did it not spread out, it is also rock hard.

3. The third cookie has too much shortening, which melted and burned during baking because there was too much for the flour to absorb.

4. The fourth cookie was baked at the correct temperature, but for too long.  It is hard, and burnt all of the way through.

5. The fifth cookie was baked at a temperature that was too warm.  The edges are burnt and crispy, and the middle is dark, but very soft. It did not bake evenly.

6. The sixth cookie was baked at a temperature that was not hot enough.  The cookie is too soft to pick up, and is not cooked all of the way through. 

I'm glad that the experiment worked the way that i wanted it to, but I was really sad to have to ruin 5 cookies in the process, it hurt to throw those in the trash!

Happy distractions

The approach of the Christmas gift giving season makes it very difficult for me to share all of my fun crafty diy projects. Mainly because they are meant for my friends and family who may or may not read my blog. 

This year is going to be a mostly DIY holiday, due to the fact that I am on an extremely fixed income, and also because I have had ample amounts of time to craft. It has worked out really well, and I'm slightly jealous of the adorably cute things that my favorite people will be receiving. I'm also incredibly thankful for the distraction that all of this crafting has provided.

You see, I have a tendency to be a bit of a worrier. You could say that I have a little anxiety problem, but so much of what I have to worry about at the moment is completely out of my control. I have been fighting hard to keep up my faith, and having fun distractions has been a saving grace! 

Of course, I have made some cute stuff for myself, whenever I make a gift I like to make a practice one first, for a couple of reasons. #1: I want the recipient to get a really nice gift, so I try to work out the kinks on a practice project first, and #2: the stuff I make usually ends up being so ridiculously cute that I want one too. So I figure if I make the practice one for myself, everyone wins (please tell me that I'm not the only one who does this!)

So thank goodness for Christmas crafting and hopefully I can get back to work soon!

How I spent Halloween

The weather at my house was perfect for Halloween (maybe not perfect for trick or treating...) it was stormy and really windy. I probably should've watched a scary movie - although Scream is about the worst I can stomach - but I didn't. Instead I spent halloween doing two very un-halloween-ish activities. First I worked out (who works out on halloween?!), and then, I made some Christmas decorations. Yes Christmas decorations. What can I say, I had nothing else to do. 

Here's a photo of the painting that I made to hang in my kitchen this Christmas season. I think it turned out pretty good considering I NEVER paint , at least not since high school art class. Enjoy your candy-induced-day-after-halloween coma, and don't forget about Thanksgiving, which according to the calendar is the next major holiday, even though most department stores beg to differ!

      

                           

Yummy Mummy!

I told you yesterday that I LOVE Halloween. Today for lunch I made a Mummy Pizza, the recipe is from Yummy Healthy Easy and it is definitely very easy, and super quick! Enjoy your Halloween!

A little bit of this... A little bit of that...

I have attempted a number of different blogs in the past year, most have them have been started in order to try and keep my personal blog personal, and my work blogs work related. Let's just say that I have failed miserably. I end up spending more time on one than the other, and let's just be honest, in many ways, work is personal. So here it goes, I'm just going to mash them both together.

Now for some, this wouldn't work so well, but I'm a preschool teacher/child care center owner, so most of what I do at work is what other people do at home.  I feel like my preschool activities and tips will fit right in on my own lifestyle blog, because even though I don't have kids of my own, I tend to relate to moms more often than not because my days are filled with the same things that theirs are.

One of my favorite resources is teachers pay teachers, and I have made it my mission to try and build their collection of preschool resources. Here is one of the activities on my site that is great for young children who are getting ready for school, and school aged children who might need a review (one pack includes numbers 1-10, another has 11-20) . There are also a large number of free items available for download across the site, and some really great clip art too!

What I've been up to

I mentioned in my last post that I've had a lot of down time, which has been the silver lining to this whole insane process.  I've spent the vast majority of it doing fun crafty projects.  I was lucky enough to score a great deal on a new sewing machine, which i am obsessed with! I wanted to share my latest projects with you - much of what I have been working on will eventually become Christmas gifts, so unfortunately I can't share those yet, but here are my recent favorites:

1. I taught myself how to knit, actually Kristin from Good Knit Kisses taught me how to knit, her videos are amazingly easy to follow.  I've wanted to learn how to knit for a while, and while I have a grasp on the basics, I am definitely in need of some more practice.  I keep starting the same scarf over again, but it has given me something to do!

2. I have started making hexagons and hand piecing them. It is my dream to make a giant quilt with all of my itty bitty hexagons (you know I have it all laid out in my head), but for now i'm happy to have a project that i can do little bits at a time.  I swear I have the attention span of a two year old! I have been following Mollie at Wild Olive for a couple of years, and her hexagon projects are so cute that I kept saying I would sit down and give it a shot, if it is something that you want to try she has a great tutorial.

3. I made myself a new wallet.  Well, technically I made myself two new wallets.  Since I took the leap and bought my nice new sewing machine, I promised myself that I would really learn how to use it. My first attempt was typical; I really wanted to do the project, even though I knew that I didn't have all of the supplies, I wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it now. It turned out ok, and I was proud of myself for attempting, and successfully inserting two zippered pockets, but after using it for a couple of weeks there was one major design flaw that was driving me NUTS.  See, I'm not really a pattern person, I don't have the patience to cut out all of the pieces and read the instructions, so I made up the pattern for this first wallet as I sewed.  The result was a wallet that had credit card slots that were just too big.  Every time I opened my wallet my cards fell out.  After a couple of panic attacks from thinking I had lost my driver's license or credit card (they were in the bottom of my purse), I decided it was time to ditch my very cute, yet highly un-functional wallet.

I decided to try again, but this time I found a tutorial (thank you That*Darn*Kat!) which gave me some measurements to follow, and some great techniques for creating card slots.  But I also personalized it a bit, including extra spots for coupons.  I had originally intended to create a tutorial for you, but to be honest, my favorite thing about making this wallet was that I could use some basic measurements and customize the rest to work for me, I think that is what DIY is really all about, not copying exactly what someone else has done, but taking a few ideas from a few different people and creating something totally new.  THese are photos of my second attempt, which worked beautifully. I am so in love with this wallet!

I'm sure to be busy attempting to finish these little projects. Hopefully they will help me stay sane while I continue to wait!

Thank goodness for great quotes

I've been busy busy busy since my last post, how's this for a quick update, I'm starting my very own child care center! I knew that this would be a huge undertaking, and I did not expect it to be easy, but I also didn't expect it to take this long.

I feel like I've hit a brick wall, you know the one, where you begin to doubt everything that you know to be true.  At this point I'm doing a lot of sitting and waiting, which tends to be the case when your become dependent on a state agency (I'm currently waiting approval for a day care license)' and we all know that waiting breeds the worst kind of anxiety.

Ironically, the thing that has kept me going (bedsides my amazing husband, who I swear believes in me more than I believe in myself) is the same thing that I turned to constantly when I found out that I had lost my job, which is what started this whole journey in the first place: quotes on Pinterest.

Some people just know how to say exactly what I need to hear, thank goodness! Here are the two that are sticking with me tonight. Maybe I'll make them my mantra :