Experiment in Blogging - Being an Adult

I've been doing a lot of thinking about being grown-up lately and what, exactly, that means. This introspection was originally sparked by this very amusing, and accurate, blog post. If you haven't read it yet, go do so, and then you can relate when I say that this woman nailed me to a freaking T. That is my cycle exactly, and the graph at the top is a testament to the level of successfulness that I experience in my daily life.
So, what does it mean to be an adult? Certainly there are upsides, like being able to eat ice cream at any point in the day just because I want a damned ice cream! Or being able to stay up until 3 o'clock in the morning - even if I know I'm going to be paying for it the next day. Being an adult also means having responsibilities that you know you can't really put off or give to someone else, like getting in the rent check on time or going to the grocery store.

Experiment in Life - Divorce and Single Parenting

Apparently it has been nearly a year since I sat down here to write. It isn't that I haven't had anything to write about, goodness knows, but more that I've been dealing with life in general to the point of not even thinking about sitting down. This means that you (whomever is reading this) get a recap blog before I even actually write about what drove me to sit here right now in the first place! Yay! Right? *listens to crickets* Well, anyway, moving on!

Let's jump right in this with the major change in my life: I am no longer married. For any reading who already know the whole story, sorry because you know I'm going to recap it all right here anyway. Just bear with me and go get a cookie or something.

Experiment in Sewing and in Crafting - KoL Con Costume

This has been an on-going experiment. I was keeping it pretty hush-hush because it's for a contest, but now that the contest is only a couple day away I suppose that it is safe to talk about it - and I'm super excited about it!

What contest is this, do you ask? Why, none other than the KoL Con 6 Costume Contest! I may also wear my gear to the LARP (which is actually what inspired the costume idea in the first place) but as of right now I know for sure that I'll be wearing it to the costume contest. My idea was to do an entire KoL costume from the game. This consists of a hat, a shirt, a two-handed weapon (or a one-handed weapon and an off hand, or 2 one-handed weapons), a pair of pants and three accessories.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Caramel Apple and Bananas Foster Truffles

Post from the past!

Caramel truffles sounded like a very good idea. As a matter of fact, I fixated on these for quite some time (since August 14th, to be specific, when I had the idea after we went out for our anniversary dinner). I first came up with the idea for Bananas Foster truffles - white chocolate or vanilla shells, flavored with banana and rum, encasing caramel. This expanded slightly to include the idea for candy apple truffles - in which the shell would be apple flavored.

Experiment in the Kitchen - Pesto

Tonight I have managed the seemingly impossible! After many months of longingly wishing to make home-made Pesto (and not getting off my ass to get the ingredients for it) I have gone forth and done so!
This is not as easy as it sounds - or, at least, it wasn't for me. The biggest set back? Acquiring fresh basil here in Ohio. In California, fresh herbs are in every supermarket. So I never thought about the potential difficulties in acquiring fresh herbs with which to cook with. I'd just go to the supermarket and pick some up, right?
Wrong! Apparently here in Ohio it is a monumental task to track down and purchase some fresh basil. Luckily, after calling a couple stores (and one abortive attempt to visit the grocery store we frequent) I found a store that carried some. I went there (in the pouring rain... wtf with the weather here?!?) and located their little plastic blister packs of fresh herbs. Wary because I couldn't view the contents easily, I got all the packs they had - 4 - in the hopes that between them there would be enough basil that wasn't bad which I could use to make the sauce.

Experiment in Sewing - Capes!

Last night, I finally bit the bullet. Yes, I finally got started on getting all the party things ready for my eldest's (and her cousin's) 6th birthday party. The theme? Superheroes. The goal? To have an awesome party (and possibly top last year's Princess theme). The Mom? Freaking crazy, apparently.

My tasks started simply enough. I was originally just suppose to make 15 capes, handle cake arrangements for our cake (I demanded that each child get their own cake - and their own candles! - due to hang-ups from my own childhood's shared birthdays) and invite 15 kids. Of course, I couldn't have it be that simple!

Let's start by saying that the birthday party happens to be two days before we are leaving for Ohio. Oh, and that my daughter has a dance recital the day before, the day of and the day after the party. So, amidst packing and organizing and arranging our lives so that they can be shipped most of the way across the country, I also have to make sure that my daughter makes her dress rehearsal and all 3 show days. And I need to make things for the party, get invites out and get all of us to the park on time. Did I say freaking crazy? Let's up that to "where are the nice men in their clean white coats?"

Experiments in the Kitchen and Life - Blogging / Raspberry Almond Truffles

So, today amidst the chaos of packing the house to move across the country, I have decided to start a blog. Yay, right? The idea came to me while I was in the beginning process of making truffles (the latest in what will probably eventually be a long line of "hey, I could do that!" experiments for me).

Now, normally I would just twitter about any random daily revelations. Yet as I was sitting at my dining room table, methodically filling in the molds with what will become the outer shells of my truffles while at the same time trying to figure out how to reduce my revelations to a 140-character tidbit, I realized the futility of the exercise.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love twitter and think that it has an excellent place (especially when the thoughts are truly random) but for something like this that 140-character limit was just too... limiting! So the idea for a blog was born. A place to record various experiments (either in the kitchen our outside of them as I go about other activities in my life) and whether or not they were successes. A place to note down observations - why I think something did or did not work - and perhaps (once I get some readers) get some feedback from others out there who have had similar experiments/experiences in their own life.