The Busy Broad

MoMo Monday Week #5

2013-05-20T21:12:00.001-07:00

Last Tuesday was MoMo's birthday.

Ok.....so technically I have no idea when her actual birthday is. I didn't have her mom as pet or adopt her from a friend whose cat had kittens or anything like that (actually...she adopted me. Another story for another Monday) but she needed a birthday. I took the month that I got her in and gave her the same birth date as me....so I deemed her birthday May 14th

Each year she gets a special dinner of salmon...this year was no different

I even let her eat it out of a fancy dish like one of those stuck up Fancy Feast cats. Why they're on TV and MoMo isn't I'll never understand

She was a trooper with her party hat. She wasn't a huge fan of it but the trick is to put it on her and then set her down right in front of her birthday dinner.....she forgets all about the hat

And of course....what's a birthday without cake???

MoMo got salmon and cake waaaasted!!!!!

Then she proceeded to curl up on the rug and fall into a deep birthday induced coma. I think she had a good time

And here are the pictures I posted on Instagram that night

Come follow me. TheBusyBroad

Happy Birthday little Mo! Here's to many more years of a purrrrrrfect friendship. (I couldn't resist a good cat pun)

DIY Custom Shirts Using Freezer Paper

2013-05-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

I have been DYING to start making my own shirts. My head is stuffed full of cool sayings and designs.....but I've been unsure of the best way to go about executing them

I really love all the cool shirts people make using iron on vinyl....but since I don't have a Silhouette Cameo or any other kind of cutting machine for that matter (This busy broad is also a poor broad) I haven't really felt like I should bother breaking into the world of vinyl. Pretty much too depressing for me without a machine haha

So I decided to finally give the freezer paper technique of making shirts for an idea I had for my niece Elsa's birthday

If you follow me at all, you might remember that she had a camping themed party....so sticking with the theme I decided to make a "Happy Camper" shirt

First off I decided to use up some pink flower iron on letters I had left over from making the little girls flower girl shirts for the rehearsal

Then came the camper portion

I found an imagine online and printed it out. Then I traced it with sharpie onto the freezer paper

I marked with an X what was to be cut out.

CAREFULLY cut the entire image with an exacto knife as well as the X out areas....but be sure to keep the pieces..you're going to need those

Take the piece of freezer paper and iron it onto the shirt shiny side down. It's the shiny stuff that makes it stick

Then position those little pieces you saved and iron those on too

Take your fabric paint and cover the whole area using a foam brush. I did about 3 coats to get it even

Peel off the outside

And then the little pieces

Not perfect...but not terrible for a first attempt at a new technique. You can see spots where I didn't have the paper ironed down good enough so paint seeped under. Next time I will do a better job of checking that. But once you put the shirt on a cute kid I think it doesn't even matter....right?

MoMo Monday Week #4

2013-05-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Happy belated Mothers Day to all you mamas out there! Hope yours was great....mine certainly was.

Yes....I may not have human spawn but my I am most definitely a mother to my MoMo. Do I not feed her? Love her? Put a roof over her head? And pay over a thousand dollars recently to get her diagnosed and given surgery? If that doesn't qualify me as a mother I don't know what does.

Friday at work my supervisor was leaving and from across the kitchen I could see him mouthing something but I couldn't hear him. I said "Huh....what?"

"Not you he said.." and he turned to Persia my coworker and said "Happy Mothers Day" (she has a 17 year old and a 14 year old)

I was pretty happy that she came to my defense and said to him "She's a mother too...what about MoMo?"

Haha! thanks Persia! I'm glad somebody gets it ;)

Basically I think it boils down to the fact that there are 3 kinds of people in the world

Person #1 They don't like pets. And that's where I ask.....what the hell is wrong with you?? Seriously?

Replace the word "pets" in that card and that about sums it up

Person #2 You have a pet, but your pets are just "pets"

And then Person #3 is me.....your pets are much more than just a animal roaming your house. They are family. You talk about them to anyone and everyone who will listen....heck even to the people who don't want to listen. You take an insane amount of pictures of them and the people of Instagram and Facebook hate you (the ones without souls that is ) You may even write about them in your blog.....I'm not sure what kind of quack does that

With that being said.....back to Mothers Day.

The Boy....uhh...I mean MoMo made me a lovely card

I think she handles a crayon exceptionally well considering she doesn't have thumbs. Don't you?

And now for some Mama and Me photos. Or in this case MoMo and Me.......

I've showed this one before but it' worth showing again in my opinion. The night of our wedding I rushed home to see her before the after party. I love this picture because I'm still in my gown and she couldn't look anymore like an embarrassed child if she tried

Had enough?

Ok.....until next Monday

Low Carb Everything "Bagel"

2013-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Recently there has been one thing I've been craving.....an everything bagel

Considering there are over 60 carbs in one.....making my own version had to happen

So here's what I came up with

Start out by making your basic One Minute Flax bread

1 pat of Butter

1 Egg

1/2 tsp. Baking powder

2 Tb. Golden flax flour

1/4 C. Cheese

Start by spraying a ramekin with nonstick spray. Melt the butter in the ramekin, then mix in the egg, baking powder, flax, and cheese. It will look like this

Microwave it for....you guessed it....one minute. Flip it over and if it isn't done on the bottom cook it about 20 seconds more

Just plain like this it's perfect for sandwiches and burgers....whatever! Here it is as a breakfast sammie with bacon, tomato, a little mayo, and a fried egg

Now to make it into a bagel...

I made some of the "Everything" seasoning by combining equal parts:

Seasame seeds
Poppy Seeds
Minced dried onion
Minced dried garlic

Plus 1/2 the amount of salt of all the other ingredients

Whether it be teaspoons, tablespoons,...however big a batch you want to make

I sliced my minute bread in half and sprayed the outsides with nonstick spray and dipped it in the seasoning

Then toasted it in the toaster oven, cut side down to keep as much of the topping on as possible

Then I dressed it up the same way I do my bagels. Loaded with cream cheese, tomatoes, shaved red onion (literally shaved with a vegetable peeler) sliced avocado, salt and pepper

So here's the deal.....don't go into this expecting it to really feel like a bagel. It doesn't. Bagels have that very chewy...VERY doughy feel that this will never have. Actually, this bread in general is much closer in texture to an english muffin. I only call it a bagel because the flavor profile of the everything bagel is what inspired the idea

For me it was less about the bagel "feel" and more about the taste of the seasonings and gobs of cream cheese....I never ate bagels plain. It was all about how I loaded it up. So for me....this is a delicious alternative. I was delighted to get all those flavors together again....and in a "toast" like manner

Note: Some of my topping did fall off. The dried onion I bought was really big and chunky and I think that was part of the problem. It was heavy and didn't stick as well as the other ingredients and took some of them with it. I will look for smaller onion pieces and possibly use egg whites to stick on the seasoning next time. Over all though it didn't really bother me. What did fall off I would scoop off my plate and sprinkle on top of my bagel so I wouldn't miss out on the flavor

X-Ray Tech Graduation Party

2013-05-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

My seester Kinsey graduated from X-ray school 2 years ago this month. Yay for smart successful family members!

Here she is with her boyfriend Brian....he also graduated from the same school

I have a few pictures I thought I would share despite their terrible quality. These of course were my pre-blogging days

I mostly just wanted to show you a few ideas because at the time when I was doing her little family party....I remember googling ideas and there wasn't much out there. So maybe this will give you few ideas.

I wasn't quite as creative back then as I am now (that's me...tooting my own horn. Toot toooot!) I think if I could do it all over again I would have gone CUH-RAY-ZE with the theme....I love me a good them!

But I was a little strapped for cash at the time and in the middle of planning my own wedding.....you know how that goes....kinda takes over your entire life

But here's a few little things I came up with......

I made her a cake to look like an X-ray...

I also bought her this dress offline....seemed fitting, don't ya think?

I studied an actual hand x-ray very carefully to make it look as close as I could.....but I know it's still waaaay off

Printed out some Xrays offline and taped them to the sliding door so you could see them

And made some little signs

I don't have any pictures, but I also cut bone shapes out of cardstock, strung them on string, and hung them around like garland

You could also pull out any bone Halloween decorations you have....that would be cool! I have some now but didn't have any at the time

Another idea that I didn't get to do was to make "Barium" milkshakes. I intended to buy cups and decorate them to look like the ones in the hospital and serve everyone vanilla milkshakes out of them......but I suck and it didn't happen. Waaah!

It wasn't much.....but hopefully this will give you some ideas to help plan a graduation bash for the X-ray tech in your life

MoMo Monday Week #3

2013-05-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Don't let MoMo's sweet baby face fool you........

She's been known to punch her daddy in the face

And again........

Moral of the story. Don't piss her off man

Ceviche

2013-05-05T23:46:00.004-07:00

The first time I ever had ceviche was at my friend Kristina's house in high school

That day the clouds parted, the sun came out, and my life was changed forever. f you think this sounds dramatic....it's not. It's just really that good...promise

It's so refreshing and addictive....and the bonus of it all is that it's actually really healthy . It's just shrimp and veggies.....whose gonna complain about that?

It's a perfect summer time dish because like I said, it's super refreshing and requires no heat....so you get a meal without heating up your house. A bonus for me because living here in AZ I avoid turning on the oven and stove at all costs about 4 months out of the year

Here's the delicious ingredients you'll need

Fresh shrimp, cilantro, red onion, orange and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, and lemons

Start by fine dicing your red onion

And your cilantro

Then start to finely chop your shrimp. When you think you've chopped it fine enough...you haven't. Keep choppin! I usually buy the larger tail on shrimps and it takes me longer to take the tails off and chop, but this time I paid a little more and got the smaller tail off ones to make it go a littler faster

In a non reactive pan (I suggest glass) mix together the minced onion, cilantro, shrimp, and the juice of your lemons. I usually used about 10 or so. You want to put it in a pan with alot of surface area (I use a 9x13 baking dish) so everything can lay out in an even layer to allow the lemon juice to cook the shrimp evenly

Correction....it's not exactly "cooking" Let me drop a little knowledge here.......

Technically, to cook something you have to apply heat. The shrimps reaction to the lemon juice is actually just a denaturing of the protein. The same denaturing process happens in cooking....but with the use of heat. In this process the denaturing is being done by acid. Make sense?

I paid thousands upon thousands, upon thousands of dollars to learn that. Wanna thank me for this tidbit of information? Feel free to send a check on my behalf directly to Sallie Mae....please and thank you

I kid, I kid

Unless of course you REALLy want to....I won't fight it ;)

Here's how it will look right after you mix it all together

Put it in the fridge and let it "denature" ;) Stir it occasionally to make sure it is all getting coated in the lemon juice

I let these ingredients sit on their own for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours

In the mean time, finely dice your bell peppers and cucumber

I've seen some ceviches where they leave the shrimp whole and everything is really chunky, but I prefer everything chopped small so that you get a little bit of everything in every bite

After about 2 1/2 hours you'll see a difference in the shrimp. It will be firmer and orangeish in color compared to the translucent blue look from earlier. This means your shrimp is now "cooked"

Now mix in your bell peppers, cucumber, and diced avocado. Add salt to taste

Your ceviche is ready!

Eat it on a tostada or with tortilla chips

I warned ya.....this stuff is CRAAAAZY addictive. I crave it so bad I sometimes have to make stops at the ranch markets for theirs to tide me over.....but it's nothing compared to this

I also made some Posole today in honor of Cinco De Mayo

Go Here for the recipe

*Low Carb Note* This could easily be adapted to low carb by eating it with pork rinds, lettuce leaves, zucchini chips, or simply with a fork

Ceviche

2lb. Shrimp, finely chopped (white fish can be substituted)

2 sweet bell peppers, finely diced

1 red onion, minced

1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

5-7 avocados depending on size

10 lemons (roughly)

Salt

Mix together the red onion, cilantro, shrimp, and lemon juice and let sit in a glass pan with alot of surface area (such as a 9x13 baking dish) for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring occassionally.

After the shrimp looks "cooked" stir in the bell peppers, cucumber, avocado, and salt to taste and let that sit and marinate together for another hour or so before serving

Artichoke Cheese Squares

2013-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Do you like artichokes? What about cheese? If you answered yes to these questions there is a pretty good chance you'll fall madly in love this recipe. I mean I make no guarantees (I'm no eharmony over here)....but it's entirely possible

It's a recipe that you can completely adapt to your tastes. The basic recipe is.....

15 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

4 eggs

2 cup shredded cheese

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

.......but that is just a starting point. Add whatever your in the mood for....or whatever is in your fridge that's on the verge of growing fur. Or veggies that are gonna begin to "juice" themselves if you don't hurry up and eat them. You know what I'm talking about right? That brown juice that accumulates at the bottom of your veggie crisping drawer.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who experiences this "juice" from time to time.... Right? I blame the damn lettuce personally....

Anywho....

Some ideas are:

Bacon

Diced ham

Zucchini

Tomatoes

Different kinds of cheese

Oregano

Cajun seasoning

Hot sauce

Spinach

Garlic

You get it....it's whatevs!

This particular time I added bacon. So I chopped up about 5 or 6 slices and began to render it in a pan. When it was almost crisp, I tossed in the onion and cooked them until soft and translucent. Then add in your chopped garlic (I used 2 cloves) If you weren't using something like bacon that gives off it's own fat just use olive oil to cook your onion

In a bowl, mix together the eggs, cheese, and artichokes. Pour in your cooked onions and garlic and bacon in this case. Add seasonings (I used salt, pepper, and oregano....go easy on the oregano because it is strong....maybe 1/4 tsp) and mix all together. Pour into a well greased 8 in baking dish

It will be more chunky than eggy. Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes or until set

Let them cool. I like to eat mine semi warm or room temperature. They are good to keep in the fridge to have on hand for a quick meal or snack. I only heat them up about 45sec-1 minutes and then I let them cool a little.

Pair it with a salad and you have a tasty lunch

Cinco De Mayo Wreath

2013-05-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

So last year I made...not so much a wreath....but a door decoration for Cinco De Mayo. As soon as I made it I liked it, but I didn't love it. It just wasn't quite what I had in mind You can go see it HERE

Sooo....when April rolled around this year I pulled it out and decided I didn't want to put it up again and pulled the maracas off of it. Bad idea. Baaaaad. This ripped something else on it so the option of just reattaching them if I wanted to was out the window.

But I thought...No biggie....I have the whole month of April to make a new one.

Well....life happened. Between taxes, a friends wedding (which was multiple projects in itself), other projects, maintaining a house, oh yea....and the little thing I call a full time job......it didn't happen.

By the end of last week I was starting to stress over not having one made yet. It was literally hard for me to go to bed at night because I kept thinking I should be making a Cinco wreath right NOW!!!

I know.....crazy right?

So then the semi logical part of me kicked in and said "Hey Whit.....stop stressing. Nobody will care if a holiday comes and goes and you never put up a wreath...nobody will even notice" I chose to listen to that moment of logic and thought I had come to peace with the idea of just skipping it this year.

That is until..........................

Dun dun duuuun.

Monday my sister Kinsey came over...and whataya know.....one of the first things out of her mouth was "There's no wreath on the door?!?"

Welp....so much for logic and "nobody will even notice"......buncha bullshit!

So I frantically made one the other night....and guess what....I still don't love it. So I'm sure I'll be back in this same position next year

Normally I love all my wreaths, but I think Cinco De Mayo decorations have such slim pickins that I just can't seem to get anything I love. I still have an image in my head for what I want....I guess I have a year to make the PERFECT Cino wreath

I guess this one will have to do in the meantime

All I did was glue on my usual wreath background of shreddy paper. I used red, green, and white. Then glued on my maracas (which I'm sure will somehow end up in the next one too) And then some of these paper fans I made.....Here's what I did

Cut 3 sqaures the same size. Fold the square accordion style....then fold in the middle

Glue or staple the two middle sides that come up to make your fan shape. Repeat this with the other 2 squares, the glue or staple all 3 together to create one large circle fan

Now I've got myself another mediocre Cinco De Mayo wreath. Oh well....there's always next year ;)

MoMo Monday Week #2

2013-04-29T12:13:00.002-07:00

So here's the thing about MoMo....whenever she is laying anywhere in the house and you merely walk past her she makes this sort of "burrrughp" sound (that's the best I could do at trying to type it out) It's like her way of saying "huh?"

The point being she makes plenty of noise when she's out in the open....but when I'm looking for her she doesn't make a damn peep!

She has sent me into mass hysteria many times. One time for example, I was looking for her for over 45 minutes when I got home from work. Walking from room to room calling her name over and over....not a sound. This was at a time when she was mostly indoor but I left the doggy door open so she could get out if she really wanted to (doggy door is now covered)

I had visions of her laying dead in the road. I even got a flashlight and walked up and down my street looking for her.....no sign of her anywhere.

Turns out she was laying in our hamper....and I had checked our closet at least 3 times. I swear she does it on purpose....she would normally barely have to move for her collar to jingle and I would hear it. I'm convinced she does it on purpose to mess with me. She can sense when I'm in a panic and all of the sudden she becomes a mute who sits like a stone.

Anyway....we had another one of these little incidents. The Boy and I tore the house apart looking for her. I had checked under the bed multiple times when I finally noticed this lump....

Apparently, she found a gap where the fabric was stapled to the box spring and crawled in creating her own little kitty hammock

It became her favorite spot for quite some time. To coax her out I would bring food and her little sniffer would get going and slowly she would crawl out...typical right? Well not this time....and I'm SOOOO glad we got this one on tape

I hope you find this as hilarious as I do. She got too smart for our shenanigans. She got her sour cream and she got to stay in her spot...MoMo for the win!

And there's something about the way she gets it too. She doesn't simply dip her paw....there's sort of a fancy flick of the wrist (paw?)

Oh MoMo....she never fails to make me laugh

Low Carb Zucchini Chips 2 Ways

2013-04-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

IF there is anything I thought would KILL me about cutting out starches and sugars in my life I thought for sure it would be chips

I never had a huge sweet tooth. Granted I do get a hankering now and again like any normal person but I don't crave sweets on a regular basis....but chips on the other hand...oooh lawwdy!

I could devour an entire bag of potato chips myself. Heck I'll even hoover a bag of tortilla chips...don't matter to me as long as it was crunchy and salty

But surprisingly I have handled a chipless life quite well. Once you don't have them in your house you realize you can do it. Parties can still be rough on me....because what's a party without 4 different flavors of chip? (at least in my family) I have my strong days and my weak days at those events....but over all I do ok.

I did however think it was time to branch out and start trying a LC chip alternative besides my go to pork rind that I could possibly pack with lunches or bring to those gatherings for myself to lessen the temptation

This first recipe is not my recipe at all. It is straight from http://yourlighterside.com/. This site is simply amazing. It is all about adapting your old favorites to your new lifestyle of eating and she does an AMAZING job at it! She is the original creator of the cauliflower pizza crust!

Here is a link to her original recipe and post for these chips http://yourlighterside.com/2009/05/zucchini-nacho-chip-recipe-2/

But I added a few steps when I made that I wanted to share

2 cups grated zucchini

2 eggs beaten

2 cups cheese

She doesn't state this in the original recipe, but whenever I make anything with zucchini that I intend to get crispy I take the extra step in trying to remove as much water as possible. You do this by sprinkling the shredded zucchini with salt and letting it sit for about 10-15 minutes. This will draw out all the water and then you wring out as much as you can either in a dish towel or ricer

Add your zucchini to the egg and cheese. Scoop your mix onto a well greased piece of parchment (I used a silpat) into 6-8 inch circles

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 12 minutes, then flip and cook another 5 minutes or so or until brown

Take them out of the oven and let cool slightly before cutting into chips

Her recipe states to put them back in a cool oven to dry out and crisp for 6-8 hours, but I decided to go another route. I have a dehydrator so I just loaded them up in there over night. In the morning I had perfectly crisp chips!

I made them into nachos that day at work

Here is the instagramed version of the pics. Come follow me! TheBusyBroad

One thing I did notice was some were the perfect chip thickness and some were a little thick and crackery...so next time I will be sure to spread the mixure a little more thin and even. Otherwise they made a good hearty nacho chip

And since I had a leftover zucchini and the dehydrater was already out, I made another version of chips

Just thinly sliced zucchini, tossed with a smidge of oil and some cajun spice

Ended up with some darn tasty and spicy chips. I think I could go wild making all sorts of flavors of these babies!

I think the first recipe is better suited for nacho or cracker type applications, where as the second one is more similar to a potato chip. Now I have all my chip bases covered

Low Carb Herb Flatbread (Good Low carb panini bread)

2013-04-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago The Boy and I celebrated our 4 year dating anniversary. And by celebrated I mean we got to hurriedly eat lunch together....on the couch.....while doing our taxes on the laptop..... before he had to run off to work.

Pure romance ehh? We do what we can. Oh the joyful life of being young and poor with crappy work schedules. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Ok.....I kinda am.

Anywho....I wanted to work up a little nostalgia factor so I decided to recreate the meal we had on our first date. The restaurant has sadly closed down since then, but I remembered exactly what we had. Genoa Salami paninis with caesar salad.

I didn't exactly feel like blowing my eating for a meal that would be eaten on the couch in our pajamas while I gasped for air in fear of the outcome of our tax situation (I forget to breathe when I'm anxious so I end up gasping every few minutes...I'm a real treat to be around in stressful situations ;))

The caesar salad was a green light...inherently low carb with the right dressing and minus the croutons. It's the panini that posed the problem....I wasn't in the mood for cheating and getting a serious case of wheat belly so I knew I would need to make the bread

I wanted to try what looked like an awesome panini bread recipe I found on Pinterest, but had no luck finding oat fiber. No, not oat flour, not oat bran, oat FIBER. So I had to scrap that idea

That left me to figure out something on my own the night before. I ended up making the same batter I always make to make my Oopsie bread. (<Go there for the recipe and step by step picture tutorial)

The only thing I did different was I added about a 1/2 cup of shredded Parm, 2 tsp italian seasoning, and 1 tsp dried basil to the mix. Then, instead of putting the mix into little pie pans, I spread it out evenly onto a heavily greased piece of parchment paper that lined a baking sheet

I really wish I had taken pictures but I was in such a last minute rush I forgot all about it

Bake as normal and then let rest until cooled completely. Cut into squares

The next day I just built my sandwiches and slathered them in butter as I would any regular panini and put them in the press

They cooked up surprisingly more golden brown and crispy than I expected

And it stayed crispier FAR better than I had imagined considering it's sort of a a more spongy bread to begin with....but it held up awesome! This was a last minute trial that turned out so good I can't wait to make this flatbread again soon

And in case you were wondering....this panini has Genoa Salami, provolone cheese, shaved onion. roasted red peppers, tomato, and basil.

It made for a delicious lunch....and our taxes weren't quite as bad as we though they would be....so I was able to keep the sandwich down...even better!

Easy DIY Fleece Tie Blanket

2013-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

These blankets have been around for years....I've been making them since I was at least 14....so I have 10 years of experience with these babies. They were go-to gifts in our family for many years...actually they still are.

Who doesn't like a soft cuddly blankie? I mean really now....

You're feeling comfy just looking at this picture....admit it.

Anywho....I have made a few for gifts just this past year alone. I took pictures of the process but never got around to making the tutorial until now.

Here's what you do. First off you will need to buy your fleece. I usually like to do one side patterned and the other side a solid coordinating color....but you can do whatever you want of course

I usually buy 2 yards of each fabric...that is my go to size. The blanket I am making in this tutorial was for a new born baby so I made it only using 1 yard of each fabric

One thing to take into consideration though....the first Christmas me and The Boy were dating I made him a 2 yard blanket since it was my usual. He LOVES that thing to death (in fact it's so ratty now I owe him a new one) but it's a little too small for him. My husband is 6'2 and a big guy....his feet stick out the bottom. So lesson learned....if it's for a giant like my boy..try going 3 yards

Ok, so you have your two fabrics....lay them down sandwiched together so that the good sides are both facing "out" You'll especially notice with the printed fabric, one side will be sort of blurry and one side more crisp. Obviously the side with the clearer picture faces outward

Trim the fabrics to get rid of any printed words that sometimes shows as well as to get them to match up as closely as possible

Next, cut a 6 inch square out of each corner

Then cut one inch strips that create a sort of "fringe" that are about 1 inch wide and go up the 6 inches in to meet the cut from the corner. You could use a ruler or yardstick if you would like, but I just eyeball it and move across and it has always worked well enough for me

Repeat this around all 4 sides

Then begin tying the fringe

These aren't tied like shoes....it's the kind of knot where you take both fringes together and wrap them around your finger,then pull the ends through the hole

I'm sure you could knot them together however you like...this is just what I've always done

Just keep working all the way around. It isn't hard....just time consuming, so put on a movie or something while you work. One side will be very easy to tie because it's the stretchy side of the fabric. The other will be much harder because it doesn't have any "give" so the knot is much harder to tie.

Forewarning: Your fingers WILL hurt by the end of the project. But at least you'll have a super cute blanket to show for it

And just because I think they're cute and funny....here is MoMo supervising as we worked on a different blanket. She was all up in it the entire time

Man she's tough.....she was workin me like I was in a sweat shop!

Creative Wedding Gift Wrap

2013-04-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

So my dream finally came true.....well....at least one dream

I FINALLY got to go to a damn wedding! Not that I had never been to one before or anything cuz I have....let me explain

I have been married now for a year and a half and all I have been wanting since my wedding was to go to somebody-else's. Not in a feed me, let me drink booze on your dime, give me cool party favors kind of way (although those are awesome wedding guest perks...no denying that!) But more so in a way that I just wanted to sit back and watch another couples big day

You put SOOOO much time, effort, and money into your own that you come out with such an appreciation for the entire process....down to every little detail that you never would have noticed in your PB (pre-bride) days.

Well....my sister Kinsey went to 7 weddings in the year after mine. Yes.... SEVEN!! Meanwhile I'm over here with a buncha invitations to NOTHING. So needless to say when our friends got engaged last November I was pretty freakin excited

So combine the fact that I was practically peeing myself over attending this wedding already and my deep, deeeeeeep love for themes and bad ass gift wrap I had to come up with something cool.

I thought it would be funny to make the gift look like a wedding cake since people are always making wedding cakes look like stacked gifts.....see what I did there?

I think the sad part is that I then picked out their gift based off of what would lend itself best to a cake like size and shape. So the gift wrap came before the actual gift....but hey....whatever works right?

We ended up getting them an enamel dutch oven that they registered for (it made a fabulous bottom tier) And the top tier was a DIY Photo Coaster set I made.

I wanted the boxes to look like they had frosting piped on them. So I used my hot glue gun to simulate frosting designs. Here is the box for the top tier where I just did a simple dot pattern

I didn't take pictures of the bottom box, but I did the same technique making dots and scrolls

As I "piped" all around I had the box laying on its side...of course MoMo had to crawl in and make a house out of it. (You can see the coasters I made)

The I spray painted both boxes white, glued on ribbon trim, stacked them in place, and glued on some fake flowers

We used bride and groom Pez dispensers as the toppers because our friend Morgan is a Pez collector and he went in on the gift with is. It was his bright idea to add them on top...kudos to Morgie!

Came out pretty good......except......

I took these boxes from work and in BIG, BLACK, lettering it said "Heavy walled elbow noodles" No matter what I did....no matter how many coats of primer I used...I could NOT get that shit to cover

I cropped it out in the above photo.....but this is how it looked

Drove me effin crazy! Luckily, the groom is a fellow food industry worker (me, groomy, and The Boy all met in culinary school) so he found it pretty amusing

I was one of the first ones there, but I kept my eye on the gift table and as soon as it started to fill up I swooped in and used one of the little boxes to cover it up

Problem solved!

It was a great night. Two amazing people got hitched, there was good food and good company, and lots and lots laughs

I guess the wait was worth it =)

DIY Photo Coasters

2013-04-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our friends Tanya and Dale just got married and I thought I would share with you part of their Wedding gift...DIY Photo Coasters.....even if it is alllllllllll over Pinterest

I wanted to give them something they wanted so of course that means a gift off their registry....easy peasy. But I also couldn't let a big event like a wedding pass by without getting a little DIY action in

I figured coasters were something they could actually use in their house....but still sort of off the grid. I don't think many people wake up and think "Hey....we need coasters with our faces on it!"

That's where I come in.......

You need

Mod Podge, Plain tiles, Pictures, & Acrylic Sealer spray

I already had the Mod Podge and sealer so all I had to buy was the picures ($1.05) and the tiles for .15 each. Gotta love a gift where you get to empty out your change pocket. My purse is much lighter now thanks to this project.

Now I gotta confess.....I felt like a total creeper acquiring these pictures. They hadn''t gotten back all their engagement photos yet so they only had 5 "sneak peek" pictures on their Facebook pages from the photographer. And in total stalker/creeper status I saved them to my computer.

Is it just me or is that totally weird when you stop and think about it? Like I'm pretty confident they won't think anything of it (until they read this....awesome.) but it is kinda of weird that anyone can just right click and save your face. But I guess that's a risk we all take right? haha

Anywho....clean your tiles well and cut your pictures to size. I decided I wanted a border so I cut them into 3 inch squares

Apply Mod Podge to the back of the picture with a foam brush and position onto the tile. Apply 4 coats of Mod Podge or more letting dry completely between each coat. I would brush side to side for one coat, let dry, then up and down and repeat. Unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that there will be brush strokes....so just got over it now. I had to.

After you've done enough Mod Podge coats, spray 4-5 coats of acrylic sealer.

I do these over the course of 3 days (start to finish) to ensure that each coat was completely dry and I didn't end up with globs

Once they were completely dry I added feet by cutting out squares of stiffened felt and hot gluing them to the bottom

Here they are all done

Wrapped them up in some ribbon that coordinated with the wedding colors

And that's all it took! I really love how they turned out and hope they like them too. Even with the whole stalker aspect.....

Introducing.....MoMo Mondays!

2013-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows me in real life or merely follows me on Facebook or Instagram could tell you that I am obsessed with my cat. Yes.....obsessed.

It occurred to me just this past weekend that it almost seems wrong how I haven't incorporated Mo into the blogging portion of my life. She's a part of every other aspect of my life so I decided it was time to dedicate some posts all to her. To give the blogging world a glimpse into the love that is MoMo

I will be calling these posts "MoMo Mondays" (if somehow you hadn't already figured that our from the title.)

They will be short stories, pictures, and perhaps maybe a video or two that I hope will make you chuckle or smile.....and give me another social media outlet to brag about how dang cute she is.

First Up....MoMo versus the Real Housewives

A few months ago I spent my entire day watching a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills marathon. I only moved to pee. Basically I was a large sack of useless. At one point I noticed I couldn't hear anything and as I looked up at the TV I saw the volume bar working its way down

I looked at the other end of the couch where the remote was and there she was standing on the remote turning down the volume. MoMo had spoken. As I fumbled around looking for my phone to take a picture she sat down....but she never took her paw off the remote

She means business man. You can see it in her face....Mo was pissed! She was like "Damn it Mama pay attention to me! Enough with these "catty" broads!"

I love how her paw is perfectly positioned....almost as if she is threatening to hit the power button

Needless to say I turned off the TV and gave her an intense chin scratching session. I also gained a little more respect for her that day.....she gets what she wants.

DIY Dr. Who Inspired Fez Nipple Tassels

2013-04-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

If I haven't mentioned before....my husband is a nerd. But I think most wives think their husbands are kind of a nerd...right?

He is majorly into Dr. Who and so are all of his friends. One of his best friends, Dale, is getting married in a week (woo hoo!) And he is also a huge fan of the Doctor

I mentioned in passing once when we were all hanging out that I should make nipple tassels that look like a Fez because fez's have tassels and Dale was the only who laughed....

I appreciated his pitty chuckle so much I knew I had to make his fiancee some DIY fez nipple tassels to honor his love for the show

This was new territory for me. There aren't exactly dozens of fez nipple tassel tutorials to choose from. So I got the basic idea of how to make the regular ones and went from there

Here's what I came up with

I needed something that was shaped like a fez. These little food cups were perfect. They are the kind that dressings and stuff come in, only the bigger ones

Painted them red and poked holes in the top

Then I hot glued on red sequin decorative trim

Just keep making your way around until the whole thing is covered

I bought these out of date graduation tassels for .50 at Dollar Tree. Pulled of the year and cut of some of the metal top so it wasn't as long. Stick in through the hole you made on top and hot glue in place

Now for the nipple area. Cut a circle out of red craft foam. You could be more exact than me and measure it, but I winged it and just found a cup that was slightly larger than little "fez" we just made

Cut a triangle out of the circle

Using hot glue those bring these two points together to create a cone shape. This is what will make it fit your nipple well

This is why you need the circle you started with to be bigger. Once you cut out the pie piece and glue it, it will be smaller. You want it to be the right size so that you can then glue this entire thing into the fez cup and not be too big or too small. Like I said, I winged it and it worked out to be the correct size

And there you have DIY Fez nipple tassels!

And because the Doctor always wears a bow tie I got a matching one to complete the ensemble

Seeing his woman in nothing but this would get any "Whovian" all hot and bothered

Before I wrapped them up I had to take a picture of me demonstrating the fact that they really do fit well over your nipple region.................................

Don't worry. I'm fully clothed in these pictures. ;) After all....I do want my readers to come back don't I?

I hope I don't make that face often. Is that supposed to be my "naughty" face?? If it is....that's pretty unfortunate. Poor hubby

I have little experience with nipple tassels. Correction...NO experience with nipple tassels. In fact I even had to look up how you would even go about sticking these suckers on. I read that eye lash adhesive is good so I included a few tubes in with the gift.

It's up to them which one of them wears it lol If Dale wants to take them for a spin I won't judge ;)

There ya have it folks. I'm no Dr. Who expert but hopefully I have delivered in the form of Doctor themed nipple wear

DIY Picture Frame Ring Holder

2013-04-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Forever and a year ago I came across this picture on Pinterest and was blown away by the idea

Why the heck didn't I think of this? The idea is so simple but soooo genius at the same time!

When I went to the source I realized it was a store bought frame from Kohls. I knew I could probably find a similar frame if I looked hard enough, but being the project loving gal I am I decided to tackle this one myself

I got a small wood frame and painted it white. I completely forgot to take a "Before" shot of the frame but I'm sure you can use your imagination to picture a plain old ugly frame. Think "builder grade kitchen cabinet" color

This project was also a good excuse to invest in some mass amounts of pearls and gems

Then the fun began. I glued every single one of those suckers on...one by frickin one.

Please excuse my grimy work station. This is literally the same "lap desk" we've had in my family since who knows when. Literally....I'm pretty sure it's older than me. I don't remember a time not having it. I think it belonged to my 2 oldest sisters and considering I'm the baby and younger by 12 years.....the thing is pretty damn old. But it has held up like a champ and I kept it....apprently I love it? I think the cuts, sticky glue areas, and marker marks give it some character. Or does that just make it dingy?

Anywho....just keep gluing. Just keep gluing. What do we do we gluuuue! Can you tell I'm pumped for the release of Finding Dory? We only have to wait until the end of 2015...Crimony!

After you are done gluing, cut a piece of scrapbook paper or fabric to fit inside the frame. I glued the paper to cardstock to make it more sturdy.

Take a pearl pin and position where you want it on the paper and push through. Once it's through bend the pin down straight so it lays flat and hot glue it into place like this

Then after hours and hours of gluing and burning yourself....you're done!

I made this for a friend that's getting married. I really want one for myself considering how I put my ring in a cup right now....but I'm usually only willing to commit to a labor intensive project once. The second time I just get annoyed and bored and get a "been there, done that attitude" Just blame it on my ADD babayyy. (name that song!)

Sooo...back into the cup my ring will go

Monster High Gift Wrap

2013-04-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Keeping with our tradition of gift wrap matching the theme of the party....I knew exactly what I wanted to do for Brooke's Monster High gift

I saw that on the show their lockers at the school were shaped like coffins

I had made a coffin box once before for a Halloween party to hold breadsticks so the construction of one was familiar

Draw out the coffin shape for however big you want it and cut out 2 of them. One will be the base and the other the lid

Starting with the two longest sides, measure them and cut out strips making sure they are tall enough to cover height of your gift. Hot glue in place

Repeat with all the other sides

Then I painted the whole thing pink and The Boy made the skull lock

It's fun to do. In fact I think I'm going to make myself some more sturdy versions of this for Halloween this year to keep year after year. I'm looking forward to it

Ooooh the crafting mind. Already planning rojects for holidays that are 7 months away, It's a sickness I tell you....a sickness!

Monster High Party Activities

2013-04-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

The bad thing about Monster High as a theme is it seems that not nearly as many games and activites pop into your head right away. It's not as "obvious" This party was much less orchestrated and more about letting the kids run around and have fun doing whatever they wanted

When they first got there we let them get all decked out with dress up. Tutus, gloves, hair extensions, all sorts of cool stuff. I forgot to take pictures of all that but you'll see them wearing all their garb in the pictures

Then they got their faces painted

Birthday girl was dressed up as Frankie Stein so she got a full face of make up

Even my 13 year old niece joined in on the fun. But instead of getting a flower or stars like all the other little girls.....she went for a replica of Mike Tysons face tattoo

The face painting lady seemed pretty appalled. My brother inlaw was right there with her encouraging it.....I'm pretty sure that woman was judging his parenting style at that moment. But coming from a lady who was wearing a potted plant on her head....I think we can take that one with a grain of salt haha

Next they played a mummy game. They grabbed a partner and had one minute to wrap them up as a mummy

Then they were judged.....


as you can see, the wig didn't last too long

And the winners are........

Here's the group all face painted and dressed up

And of course here is one of birthday girl screaming. I think Brooke will grow up to be a Woooo Girl. (How I Met Your Mother anyone?)

This last thing isn't really a game or activity....but Imma show it to ya anyway

I decorated a composition book with logos that I cut off of packaging that the store bought stuff came in and glued it on

I made a sign for everyone to sign her "Fearbook" so she could keep the messages and remember this party forever

The rest of the time the ran around and did alot of screaming.....I think that's code for "I'm having fun" in little girl world.

Look under "Monster High Party" in my labels for more posts about food and decorations

Monster High Cupcakes

2013-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

When Brooke's birthday rolled around I know a tiered cake just wasn't happening. I just wasn't feeling up to it at all. So I decided on cupcakes.

They did still take up quite a bit of time because I made individual cupcakes toppers out of fondant....so lots of detail work. But the beauty of it is unlike a cake one little mistake can screw up the cake majorly....with cupcakes it's not like that. You just scrape off the top and start that ONE over instead of trying to find a way to cover up or fix the whole cake

I iced the cupcakes in blue and pink buttercream and then I made 4 different topper designs

First up.....red hearts with black polka dots

I cut hearts out of red fondant and used a black food color marker to line the edge and make the dots

Next is the blue heart with stitches

Now for Dracula fangs

I made my own lip template and used the fondant tool that looks like a little spatula to make the indentations

And added in some fangs

And last but not least.....bones

Roll out little ropes of white fondant

Cut into the sides

And roll those pieces inward to create the bone shape

I made one mini cake with a bow and stitches to reprsent "Frankie Stein" which is who my niece dressed up as at the Party

To make the mini cake a little cuter I used pink frosting in the middle so it would be blue and pink when you cut it

Cupcakes were also a nice break from having to slice and serve. Just scoop some ice cream and send them on their way

Monster High Party Decorations

2013-04-07T16:42:00.001-07:00

As I said in a previous post, our family experience March Madness in terms of birthdays. We have one nieces birthday party one week and another the next

Elsa had her Camping party and a week later Brooke had a Monster high party

I didn't know a damn thing about the show. I ended up watching short clips of it on Youtube just to gather some basic knowledge of it. The Boy would come home from work and I was always watching Monster High....he was convinced I was enjoying it too much

Anywho....we made some cool decorations

One of the most recognizable things about Monster High is what they refer to as the "Skullette"

We decided to make a few on our own. We found the image on the internet and projected it onto the wall. This way we could trace it onto foam board

Then painted them with acrylic paints

We also did the Monster High school logo just like this

I bought some stickers to give Brooke as part of her gift and ended up using them as inspiration to make some more decorations

Each heart represented a character

While I was watching videos I saw these penants

So I of course made knock offs

We mixed our DIY decorations with some store bought and some ones from the party store

Balloons on the garage in a "6"

Streamers in the cut out

And that's a Monster High party for ya!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2013-04-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

My husbands best friend is getting married in a few short weeks. Bachelor party #1(yep...there were 2) consisted of some of the guys going up to my inlaws cabin for a weekend full of boyish shenanigans. In an attempt to keep the costs relatively low I sent them with some food so they wouldn't have to buy so much when they got there. One of them was these Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.

I know cupcakes aren't exactly the most manly things in the world and definitely not what comes to mind when you hear the words "bachelor party" but I didn't get any objections

I guess this post is really more just a peanut butter frosting recipe. The cake is from a box. Yes.......a box. I think boxed cake mixes can be great. They can serve as such a great base to build onto. Sometimes I add chocolate chips, cherries, coffee in place of water etc. This time I went simple and just used milk in place of water for more richness.

And while I have never tried a peanut butter frosting that was bad, they just weren't quite peanut butter enough for me....so I developed my own. If I'm having a chocolate peanut butter cupcake I kinda wanna get punched in the face with peanutty goodness...ya hear? I used a whole jar of peanut butter. I don't mess around man.

Peanut Butter Frosting

18 oz jar Peanut Butter

1 Cup Butter

4 1/2 Cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

4 TB. Heavy Cream

Cream together the peanut butter, vanilla, and butter until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl periodically. Slowly add in your powered sugar about a cup at a time, also scraping down the sides for even mixing. Add your cream to reach desired consistency

*You may use more ore less of the powdered sugar and heavy cream to reach the consistency you desire whether it be for a spreading consistency or piping.

Add a cute little peanut buttercup on top for garnish

Disney Easter Eggs

2013-04-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

And no...I'm not referring to the hidden finds in the movies...which are also called "easter eggs"

I mean the actual from a chicken eggs...and dye....and crayons....and stufffff

The last 3 weeks have been so insane. We have been to multiple ER and vet visits for our furry little love which resulted in little Momo getting surgery last Thurday....so needless to say last week was chaotic and intense.

This mass chaos and stress resulted in no Easter spirit whatsoever...no eggs and no baskets. I thought it wouldn't effect me as much as it did. I think because I have ALWAYS made The Boy an Easter basket. We started dating right around Easter and after our 2nd date I made him a basket....the same one we still use. So I guess the whole Easter basket has a deeper meaning for me

Anyways.....Last night (easter night) after work I just couldn't bare the thought of not doing anything so I set up a "day date" for use to have a nice lunch and dye eggs together

Of course being the Disney Peeps that we are...a Disney theme quickly came to be

We have.........

(cue Disney intro music)

Like my fancy shmancy egg holders? Cut up toilet paper rolls. As you can see we have big budgets over here at The Busy Broad.

Woody and the Alien (making stripes on and egg is harder than I ever imagined...just an FYI)

Marie, Mike Wazowski, and an abstract Snow White

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Cheshire Cat

Remy in his chef, and Eva (or Eve)

As you can see some are dyed and colored and some are just colored. Of course you can get a much cleaner look using markers but we wanted to go old school just like our childhood where only crayons and food coloring were your mediums

It's worth noting that I also made a Mater, Aurora, Minnie, and Cinderella but they looked like ass so I didn't think they were worth taking pictures. They will be egg salad before you know it

Not Disney related but we also did Batman and our little Momo...eyes all pinchy like when she's sleeping

It was alot of fun....I'm already thinking of new characters for next year. Like why didn't I think of Flounder? And I need to come up with a better princess strategy....I have 363 days or so to figure it all out

Easter Mini Tree

2013-04-01T10:15:00.003-07:00

Yes....this is late. I am aware.

But last week was such a crazy hectic week I never got around to posting this and there is no way in hell I am going to wait a year keeping this in my drafts....so just consider this as extra early instead of late. K?

One of my first goals when I started blogging was to have a wreath for every holiday/season. Now that I've almost accomplished that goal and I think it's time for a new goal....enter the mini tree

I want a cute little tree for ever holiday. So far I've only done a St. Patty's tree and now this one.....but we're just getting started

I wish I'd had the foresight to buy a red tree at christmas time to use for Valentines and patriotic holidays....I guess I'll be waiting another 8 months before I can get those :(

I got these glitter foam flower picks at Dollar Tree

Pulled out the sticks, put a dab of hot glue in the hole, and pushed ribbon into the hole to form ornamnets

I had leftover little egg ornaments that I used last year to make my Easter wreath

And there ya have it