Toy Story 3 Alien Cookies
Today Toy Story 3 opens and I am so excited! I already have my tickets for tonight. I still love the original movie and it’s follow-up better than almost all other excellent Pixar movies. The movie’s themes of growing older, friendship, and the importance of childhood are universal. Plus Pixar always promised that they wouldn’t do a sequel without having the story to back it up and I’ll believe anything they say!
Okay I can gush about Pixar for some days (my tour of the studio still remains one of the coolest things I’ve done in years). I decided to try the gel painting technique that Kudos Kookies uses and teaches. Check out her youtube videos!
My main target was this cutie:
Gel painting is just like using water colors. Urp…not really in my skill house, but I gave it my best and it turned out to be very relaxing.
I spent some time trying to mix my yellow and green to get the right Alien shade. Flashbacks to grade school commenced.I let the different colors dry for a few minutes before I added another one. I didn’t have that many problems with color bleed. I did learn that too much water added to the gel color quickly made for problems.
Okay maybe this isn’t the biggest endorsement of my artistic skills. The royal icing layer I did the night before and it acted as the perfect canvas.
Oooooo! Aaaaaaa! (Drat! I just realized I should have written “The Claw!!” on one of them.)
Color splash aka I watch too much HGTV
We don’t have more than the very basic tv channels, but for some reason we also get a spotty HGTV. I don’t know if I’ve just been watching too many decorator shows, but I thought it would be fun to pull some color palettes. Amazing how well it works! All I needed was the color dropper tool in my paint program.
I took both of these pictures on my Memorial Day trip to LA.
It is finally getting hot! I can’t wait to have shaved ice all the time!
R and I watched the sunset just above Santa Monica Pier. After pulling the colors I thought this picture was a great example of how you can find a lovely set of complimentary colors for decorating. Tons of design blogs do the color pulling technique all the time, but nothing like trying it for yourself!
Red, black and white all over
My most awesome friend Sarah loves Alice in Wonderland and the entire aesthetic. With my current skills the 4 types of playing cards were perfect. One of these days I’ll try to add faces and arms to make the Queen of Heart’s guards.
I am still having piping problems. I should spend some time just tracing patterns on wax paper.
Easy Peasy Peanut Butter Pie
I wasn’t going to post this since it was so easy to make, but as you can tell from the pictures we loved this so much it disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Easy Peasy Peanut Butter Pie (aka Arwen loves peanut butter way too much)
This is comprised of 3 simple layers and put in a store bought graham cracker crust. For the more advanced pie maker you can make your own crust, but at least 9inches if you don’t want to reduce to the amount of filling. I bet this would also be great with a chocolate crust.
Layer 1 – chocolate pudding
2 (4 ounce) instant chocolate Jello pudding
2 cups milk
*I used fat free pudding and reduced the milk recommended on the box quite a bit to get a thicker pudding.
Layer 2 – peanut butter cream
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I added a bit more since I’m an addict)
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
*Cream them all together and then add on top of the chocolate pudding layer
Layer 3 – whipped cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar (add or subtract to taste)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
*beat all the ingredients together until you get stiff peaks, around 10 minutes.
Put the pie in the fridge for at least an hour to let it set.
Ta da! Super fast, easy and very rich!
Not a calorie saver, but a creamy tasty blend. I might even add banana slices to the top of the pie the next time I make it.
Memorial Day
Falling under the washi tape spell
I’ve been seeing Japanese washi rice paper tape all over the place for months, but thought it was silly to pay $5 for a roll of tape. Then I finally succumbed to Tinted Mint’s booth at the Maker Faire and picked up 3 rolls. Today my boyfriend had to talk me out of buying another $45 worth of tape… Oh what a slippery slope!
The beauty of this tape is that it is easy to remove without any left over substance, great to write on, and it really does dress up any package. I started by making a few easy gift tags.
Then I was packaging cookies for a friend and instead of using the twist ties to seal the bags I used tape. Not only is it pretty, but it keeps the cookies flat and less liable to move around. The bags were $1.50 from Daiso and I cut them to a smaller size to accommodate the cookies.
I’m already picturing a dowel rod full of gorgeous washi tapes in my craft room. Here are some sellers that have a great selection.
Urge to buy rising! Time to shut down the laptop!
Maker Faire 2010
Yesterday I had a terrific time exploring the ultimate DIY Maker Faire in San Mateo. Although I didn’t understand a lot of the more technical exhibits it was still fun to see everything! The craft section was of course one of my favorites, but there was steam punk, mechanical men pulling chariots, lots of things on fire and the cupcake cars!
zoooooooooooooom! I can’t wait until next year already!
Plodding along
Today I am the tortoise.
Many of my friends think that I’m living the glorious house girlfriend of Silicon Valley life right now. I admit, since quitting my job I have taken on most of the household work and cooking while R goes to work each morning with a kiss and a bag lunch. While I can’t deny there is joy in being in your PJs until 10 and watching bad daytime tv I’m feeling worn down by this…freedom? I’ve started to apply to jobs again and I’m trying to introduce more structure into my day. Still I feel a bit empty and anxious. I want to make progress, but everything I’ve been doing seems like small fun projects and not anything that will move mountains one day. I strive to be as productive as I can each day and I am more satisfied by day to day tasks then I was in my last job. What am I missing?
I just need to remember I am the tortoise. I have been slow, but if I keep going I will win.
Thrift Store Finds: Mr. Owl
This whole not having a job thing has definitely put a crimp in my shopping habits. Then I remembered how much I loved garage sales as a kid. Since not everyday is Saturday, I have been hitting up the local thrift stores for cheap finds. I know R still considers this cheating and shopping, but it’s like getting a hit of your favorite drug without the nasty after effects. I’ll try to be good!
I nearly made a high pitched sound of joy when I saw this guy on the shelf!
It’s Mr. Owl from the Tootsie Roll commercial! I only had dum dums sitting around the house though. Sorry Mr. Owl! How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
Wild Strawberry Cookies
These are my HFFA (hot from far away) cookies. Lovely from far away, full of mistakes and sloppy up close. BUT they tasted great, and I think I learned a lot. This was my first attempt at real freestyle design, where I’m not following the cookie cutter shape. Also they tasted great. Did I already mention that?
Why were they so delicious? I can thank the always fabulous Smitten Kitchen for that! I was getting tired of sugar cookies and decided to use her brownie roll out cookies as a base instead. Everyone I gave them to agreed they were rich and yummy.
I am definiltey using this recipe for ice cream sandwiches later this summer!
For both the red and the green icing I used a Wilton’s #2 tip, but for some reason the green came out much fatter and I couldn’t get a nice clean line. I used a small bowl of lightly tinted yellow icing with a toothpick to add the seeds on the strawberries.
My inspiration for these cookies came from the wild strawberry plant I grew from seeds. I do not have a green thumb (except when it is covered in green icing), so I’m really proud of how this little plant has grown. No flowers or strawberries yet, but I know it’s coming!
The Cheerful Novice 