Birthmarks

Let's talk about birthmarks, shall we? Well, birthday bookmarks, that is. It seems that a few of you thought it might be a good idea for me to make some holiday bookmarks, and I love that idea, I really do, and I'm going to get right on that, but I don't want anyone slinging any blog snot at me for putting my Christmas pretties up before Thanksgiving, so I'm going to hold off a bit.

In the meantime, I thought these little guys might hold you over for a bit.

I'm totally giving these to my sixth graders for their birthdays. It's a perfect teacher gift, don't you think? I think it would be a nifty party favor too. Or a great gift with a Barnes & Noble gift card. Or a fun little somethin' somethin' to stick inside a birthday card. Oh heck, just make some for yourself and celebrate your birthday all year long.

You can't have a birthday without cake, right?

I tweaked the one on the left a wee little bit, so if you're wondering why it looks different down below, it's because these are my prototypes and I thought the one was a little blah.

Oh dear, how did these get in here? You weren't supposed to see these.

Close your eyes and don't hate, okay?

Remember how I made my last batch of bookmarks with freebie magnets from the phone book? Yeah, well . . . I ran out so I had to go and buy some magnets.

And just between you and me, I'll never go back. These are worth the ten cents per bookmark because they have the adhesive already on them and they are STR-O-O-O-NG.

Notice that it's a box of 50 magnets. And each magnet is good for three bookmarks.

And, oopsie, I used all of those (yes that means 150 bookmarks, but really, who's counting?), and I had to go out and buy the gigondo box of magnets so I could bring you some more magnet love.

Can you believe it? I'm a little magnet happy lately. You could say that the kids in my life aren't lacking for bookmarks and you wouldn't be wrong.

As I was saying, I looooooove the self-adhesivity of these babies.

Remember I said that I can get three bookmarks per magnet? This is how I cut them up. I cut them in half, then each of those halves into thirds. I'm reeeeeeeee-al good at fractions. A fact that my sixth graders do not appreciate one little bit. They sort of hate fractions.

Then I cut a little extra off the edge of one of the pieces for each magnet. I do this because the little suckers won't line up perfectly for some dang reason. They go all magnet-mind-of-their-own on me and repel each other when I try to stack them perfectly lined up.

So I had to smother my symmetry issues and deal by making one of them shorter. It still bugs me.

Here's the longer of the two magnets.

And here's the shorter one on top and ready to be stuck to the opposite side of the bookmark.

Smackdown! And there you have it, another magnet bookmark. Bet you needed one too.

Here are the jpgs for you. In case you didn't see the last batch, print these as 4x6 photo prints, cut them in half lengthwise so they are 2" x 6", then fold over for a magnet bookmark.

Also, don't forget to click on each image before saving them to your computer so you get the best resolution.

Happy Birthday!

Pretend, okay?

Portuguese Sweet Rolls

Are these gorgeous or what? They're Portuguese Sweet Rolls and Peanut Head made them. Really. He is a man of many talents. I looooooooove them. I've been known to beg him to make them for me. Sure, I could make them myself, but why would I when I'm living with The Bread Man?

When we got married I was the bread maker. Then the Barefoot Contessa bought Peanut Head a bread machine and my skills were kicked to the curb. Everyone started buying him bread machine cookbooks, he had so much fun baking, baking, baking.  And then he started experimenting, because that's the kind of guy he is, and he can never leave well enough alone. He's like the Enterprise, exploring strange new worlds, yada, yada, yada. 

That's neither here nor there though, you want to know how to make these rolls, right? Well, the recipe is posted at the end if you just want to skip the blah, blah and get right to it. Otherwise, Peanut Head is going to demonstrate how he gets his buns so cute. I mean his rolls.

Oh never mind, watch this.

Peanut Head starts with his dough that has just come out of the bread machine.

Then he starts with a piece of dough equal to approximately a third of a cup, give or take. The size is not super important because you can have little bitty buns, or gigondo buns, like me. You pick.

Then you need to roll that bit of dough into a little snake. Remember doing that with play dough? Same thing.

Stretch it out a wee little bit so you have enough length to tie it into a knot.

See how he holds his fingers as he's stretching his dough around them?

Almost there.

Ta da! It's certainly not rocket science, but it is bread science.

This is what they look like fresh out of the oven. They're almost worth the gigondo butt, aren't they? Who am I kidding? They are.

Here's that recipe card. Enjoy!

Halloween Ain't What it Used to Be

In case you can't tell from the excellent disguise, Zoe Bug is going as a Gunslinger for Halloween this year.

Big surprise.

And no, it was not my idea.

I used to pick out the Halloween costumes for my kids, but Peanut Head shut me down a couple years ago. I'm still pretty bitter about it too.

Back when all was right in my world and I had control over every stitch of clothing that my girls wore, they would beg me to be crazy things like Hannah Montana and I would be all "NO!"

It's not that I don't want my girls to have a say in what they get to be for Halloween, it's more that I'm only okay with it if their idea of a cool costume lines up with my idea for a cool costume. Oh whatever, who am I kidding? I want control of everything. 

I really am capable of compromise. Really. I just like my kids to look cute in their costumes. I try to accommodate their wishes too. Stinkerbell has been asking to be a lobster for at least three years now, since she was three, and I would be okay with that, except who sells lobster costumes? I'm not that girl who can whip up her own costume after designing and creating the pattern, so if it's not in the store, it's not going on the girl. Hence no lobster. Yet. Maybe by the time she's 25 we'll find that special costume. Won't that be cute?

Finding a costume to satisfy Stinkerbell is a traumatic event for me. We went to look for costumes at Target, and in the costume aisle, I am not kidding you, she would only pick up ugly, creepy, scary costumes. Not cute. At all. It was so sad. And I don't mind telling you that I was so desperate that I was begging her to pick the vampire costume because at least I had the smallest shred of hope that I could find a way to cutify it. I could get out the make-up kit and accessorize a costume like that.

The swamp monster though? I've got nothin' that can make this cute. 

Am I right? I just want to schedule her a pedicure and some sedation dentistry. Girlfriend needs some heeeeeeeelp.

I keep asking myself, "Why do I have girls if they're going to dress like this?" I'm no fashion diva or anything like that, but come on.

Does anyone feel my pain here?

Well shoot, there's always next year.

Monsters in My House

I got this spooky treat idea from Kara's Kitchen Creations. She has lots o' spooky recipes on her blog right now. I should mention than I cheated though, because I made brownies from a box instead of Kara's cookie bar recipe. I was impatient and I wanted a canvas for my Frankenhead chop, chop! I even used canned frosting. I feel so dirty.

Nah, not really. I always make brownies from the box. They're best that way.

The best part about these Frankenheads, is that they were simple and fast to make. I cut the brownies into squares and then I frosted them with green frosting. How fun would it be to drop a little mint flavoring in the frosting?

You're supposed to use miniature marshmallows, cut in half, for the whites of the eyes. I really think they would be cuter that way, but I was too lazy to go looking for marshmallows so I just used more frosting. As a result, my Frankenheads look a little hopped up on drugs of some sort, don't you think? Or maybe it's just a sugar high. The eyes look pretty dang crazy.

The hair, mouth and pupils are just chocolate frosting, piped on haphazardly. You could totally whip up a batch of these for a Halloween party and still have time to do your nails. Are you game?

Harvest Punch

This is my all-time favorite drink to make for guests, and I was recently surprised to find that I had never posted it before. I aim to fix that today. Please, please, please try this. It is so yummy, you won't even believe it.

This is all you need: water, Sprite (or any lemon-lime soda), 1 can of frozen orange juice, 1 can of frozen lemonade, vanilla, almond extract (the secret ingredient), and sugar (the magical ingredient).

Surely you must be thirsty now?

Breakfast Recipe Card Divider

Some anonymous person posted a comment on my blog recently, requesting that I make a recipe card divider for their Breakfast recipes. Well, I don't want to put you on the spot or anything, Anonymous, since you appear to be shy and all, but I sure hope this makes you happy.

Smooches!

Halloween Treats--CHEEEEEEEEAAP!

So the girls and I got their treat bags put together for their school Halloween parties. The parties which I will not be able to attend this year since I'll be working.  Sniff, sniff.

Anyway, I made these little tags for their treat bags, but I really wanted to post something that might help you make your Halloween a little more special. Last year I posted these treat toppers, that you can still use if you want.

But, I've been racking my brain, trying to come up with something new and cute for you, and it finally came to me tonight.

This is what I came up with.

Do you want to know what they are?

They're BOO!k marks. Ha, ha, ha

I kill myself.

Seriously though. I designed these things to be printed out as 4x6 prints (hello photo center of the cheap prints), and then you can just cut them vertically into 2" x 6" bookmarks.

You can leave them like this . . . the old fashioned way, functional, old school.

Whatever.

Or you can fold them in half so they are short and cute like this.

I just looooooooove the spider.

I actually detest spiders in real life. All spiders must DIE. But this one I could hug.

I like the cute little ghostie guy too.

Eeek! They're killing me.

So, as I was saying. The cute little short bookmarks actually are not done. They need to be magnetized.

Do you have any of these freebie magnets still lying around? Or is it laying around? Cripes, I'm supposed to know this stuff.

So, as I was saying . . . . Geez, do I keep saying that? I'm sorry. As I was saying, go find your freebie magnets and cut them up. You need two pieces for the bottoms of each bookmark.

Adhere the magnets to the inside of the bookmarks with double sided adhesive. By the way, that is a roll of magnet tape that you see there, and I didn't use any of it. It was there just in case I ran out of the free stuff.

Once you get your magnets on . . .

SHA-ZAM! You have a bookmark.

Does anyone else remember that 70s dude, Shazam, or am I crazy?

I mean, besides me being crazy, am I alone here?

Never mind. Forget I said anything.

Here are some bookmarks for you to give it a go yourself. Don't forget to click on the picture before you save it to your computer, so that you get the highest resolution. If you forget that step, you might get blurry bookmarks.

Have fun! I'm going to bed.