Total time suck

As if I don't have enough ways to waste my time, I've found another. Turning photos into cartoons with BeFunky.com. Within just a few minutes I turned one of my favorite photos of Sharkdog from this:


Into the cutest little cartoon beagle ever.


And while it only takes a few minutes to create, it's just so fun to keep trying more photos.

Like this one.


And this one.


Granted, I found this site because I was specifically looking for ways to turn photos into cartoon charaters, but I wasn't expecting to find something so fast and easy -- and totally addictive. Hopefully soon I'll be able to show you the project I'm working on that needed a little cartoonization. But for now, I'd better get off the computer and do something useful. I'm off to the grocery store!

You can look (but you better not touch)

You know how I've mentioned before that sometimes I spend way too much time trying to come up with a clever title for a post? Well, this is one of those times. This post is about how my husband is freakin' awesome and about one particular thing he bought recently that boosted him from "awesome" to "freakin' awesome". Here are some other potential post titles:

A Good Man is Hard to Find
It's Hard to be a Saint in the City
Part Man, Part Monkey
A Night With the Jersey Devil

Any ideas what he bought?




Anybody?






Bruce Springsteen tickets! (All of the potential title are Bruce Springsteen song titles, in case you haven't made the connection.) Now go on and just try to tell me I'm not married to a freakin' awesome guy.

Tooting my own horn

My sister sent me a couple of photos of a project I helped her with recently and it turned out so cute I just had to share. But first, I just want to say how much fun it is to work with my sisters on projects. Who would have thought that moving overseas would help us stay better connected!

On to show and tell. Remember the magnet toy I made for my niece for Christmas? Apparently it was a big hit with one of my niece's friends who recently had a birthday. So my sister asked me if I could use some photos of the girl and her family and photoshop them into photos of Disney princesses (and princes, for the guys). Thanks to Flickr and the generous folks who use a Creative Commons license on their photos, I was able to find some great photos of Disney characters. And while it looks a little unusual to have a kid's face on a grown-up's body, I think they turned out really cute. My sister found the background photos (also on Flickr and licensed under Creative Commons licenses) and printed the images on magnetic paper.

Without further ado, here are the photos:




The magnets were created from altering the following photos:

• Aladdin and Jasmine - flickr.com/photos/truello/2843750009/ by truello
• Aurora - flickr.com/photos/jeffchristiansen/2620465785/ by JeffChristiansen
• Cinderella and Prince Charming - flickr.com/photos/thomwatson/3199625483/ by thomwatson
• Snow White - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2056683114/ by armadillo444
• Belle - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2060325911/ by armadillo444
• Ariel - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2055976939/ by armadillo444
• Cinderella Castle - www.flickr.com/photos/expressmonorail/2689632910/ by Express Monorail (Joe)

And while I'm showing off some of the stuff I've made, here are some links to photos of the gifts I made for family for Christmas. I didn't posted them earlier because half of my side of the family just received their gifts today. (And I can't blame the postal service for this -- it was all my fault.)

• After a long wait, my younger sister received pajama pants and an applique shirt. Her husband received a magnetic poetry-style magnet set with LOLCats words. Both he and his friend love LOLCats, so I decorated an extra container and sent my sister the file of words so she could make a magnet set for his friend. I hear it was a big hit, but I forgot to take a photo.
• I also made a magnetic poetry-style set for my dad. It's hard to come up with good handmade gifts for guys, but I thought this would be good to keep at the office. Everyone likes little distractions at the office, right? For all of the magnet sets, I bought candy tins and found an appropriate CC photo on Flickr to create a label.
• My mom and older sister both received purses. (Mom's purse - Amber's purse.) I sent matching purses to my nieces as well, even though they received their Christmas gifts on time.
• I asked my sister for gift ideas for her husband and she said that all he has time to do is sleep and work, so he got a pillowcase. I used iron transfers to create blocks with photos of the family and then sewed it together.
  

Somehow I managed to ship the gifts to my in-laws without taking any photos. I was trying to get them to the U.S. as close to Christmas as possible (they arrived a few days late). I made my MIL an apron that I loved so much I was tempted to keep for myself. (I have since bought fabric to make one for myself.) And both of my SILs received the hippo pj pants (one red, one green). I planned on making them matching shorty robes, but ran out of time. I think I still have enough fabric though, so maybe one day. My BIL received a journal made from an old German book I bought at the Naschmarkt. I gutted the book and added hand-torn blank pages. My FIL received permission to give me a hard time the entire year. :) Like I said, finding handmade gift ideas for guys is difficult.

That's it for show and tell. At least for today.

It's a reasonable question since IKEA is Swedish and all

Last week I was sitting on the bus when two women got on and asked whether this bus stopped at a particular stop. After fumbling around a bit with the German, we agreed that they were on the right bus. I'm pretty good with keeping up with all of the u-bahn stops, but knowing the bus stops is a completely different story. However, I knew they were on the right bus because we were going to the same stop.

When we reached our stop, I noticed the two women weren't moving, so as I exited I asked whether this was their stop. They looked around and told me they didn't think so and that they were going to IKEA. I told them yes, this is the stop and we all hurried to get off the bus.

As we walked to the crosswalk, I apologized for my poor German and explained that I was also heading to IKEA. That's when the second woman spoke for the first time: "Oh, are you Swedish?"

Last will and testament

Brian informed me recently that in the event of his untimely death, he doesn't give me permission to remarry. But that doesn't really matter since he thinks I'm going first due to of my diabetes.

Brian also said that Sharkdog told him that I'm not allowed to get another dog in the event that Sharkdog goes before me.

Too much time on my hands

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but I like transforming Sharkdog into pop culture icons. So when I saw this video, I knew what I had to do:

Make sure you turn on the volume. It's just not the same without the sound.

Yeah, that's right. It had to be done.

You can't handle the proof

I spend an embarrassing amount of time coming up with funny/corny/creative titles for my posts. And what's really sad about this particular title is that I went over it about a dozen times before I realized the line is actually "You can't handle the TRUTH". And it's probably also a little sad that I've gone over it so many times.

So, anyway, I'm writing about proof today. Well, actually about proofing. I love baking bread. And just about everyone I know loves homemade bread, but sometimes people tell me that they can't bake with yeast. And here's the secret I always share: Proof the yeast first.

I learned this lesson the hard way. One of the first times I made bread it came out hard, dense and tasted (and smelled) very yeasty. And not the good yeasty -- it smelled fermented. So I scoured the internet to figure what was wrong and I realized I had probably killed the yeast. I also learned that by proofing the yeast, I could easily prevent this problem from occurring again. And I've never had a problem since. Well, not with baking bread.


Tasty buns. These are great for sandwiches. Especially chicken salad with almonds and grapes. Yum.
So now you're probably wondering how to do it. It's simple. Always change the first step of a recipe to combine a warm liquid, sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes. It should become foamy and smell yeasty. If it doesn't, either your yeast is bad or you killed the yeast because the liquid was too hot. Just throw it out and try again. Once you've let the yeast mixture sit for at least 10 minutes, continue with your recipe.


Sweet dinner rolls rising. I used a garlic and herbs butter on some of these, which is why there are green specks on a few of them.
I normally heat the water and milk (if the recipe calls for milk) in the microwave, stir in the sugar, then add the yeast. I heat one cup of liquid for about 1 minute and 15 seconds on high and this is just the right temperature. If you have a thermometer, you can test to make sure the liquid is about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

So now that I'm sure you're ready to go out there and conquer yeast, here are some of my favorite recipes:

Tasty Buns - I've substituted up to 3 of the 5 cups of flour with wheat flour without a problem. I prefer the all-white flour, but Brian prefers the wheat flour substitution.
Sweet Dinner Rolls - Sometimes I make these as crescents as instructed and sometimes I make them as rolls.
Bread Bowls - I've only made these once, but they were really good. It's fun to eat soup from a bread bowl.
Light Oat Bread - I found this recipe when I wanted to make bread but didn't have any eggs. I really liked it and will make it again, possibly increasing the oats and decreasing the flour.
PW Dinner Rolls - I don't get all of my recipes from All Recipes. :) I love that you don't have to knead this dough (much) and that you bake them in a muffin tin, but the recipe makes at least 36 rolls and I don't have that many muffin tins.

And finally, just in case you're working up the nerves to attempt baking bread for the first time (or to try again after a disappointing foray into the world of bread baking), here are some other tips I've collected along the way.

* Yeast needs heat to work its magic , so if your kitchen isn't warm enough, put the bread in the oven at the lowest temperature to help it rise. Or you can preheat your oven a bit, turn it off and then put the dough in the still-warm-but-not-currently-on oven. Cover with a clean towel even though it's in the oven. (Some websites recommend adding a dish of water on a rack below the bread while it's rising to keep the dough from drying out. I don't go to the trouble and have never had a problem with dry dough.)

* I've found that buns and rolls work a lot better for me than loaves, especially for sandwiches.

* I never use a bread machine, but I almost always let my stand mixer do the first kneading. After the first rise, I generally knead by hand before shaping the buns/rolls. Even if a recipe is written for a bread machine, you can always make it the old-fashioned way.

* If you don't knead enough or don't let the dough rise enough, the rolls will end up being dense rather than light and fluffy. Sometimes I want dense bread, like when I'm making it to go along with soup or for most sandwiches, so I intentionally under-knead so the rolls end up dense.

I love this beagle!

Brian and I often borrow phrases from some of our favorite tv shows, changing a word or two as needed. One phrase I exclaim fairly often is I LOVE THIS BEAGLE! (Like when Michael Scott exclaimed "I love this woman!" about Jan.) So here are just a few things that make me want to proclaim my love for Sharkdog.

He knows how to get comfortable.

When we brought Sharkdog home I only had one rule (that I can remember): He could not sleep in the bed with us. I don't know where I got that rule from, but it only lasted about a week. After I went to bed, Sharkdog would start running around or whining next to the bed. Several nights during the first week I ended up sleeping on the couch until Brian got home from work. I finally said he could sleep in our bed and he actually started sleeping at night.

He loves to be under the covers, so when he's ready to get under the covers he'll start gently scratching at the edge of the blanket near my shoulder. If I don't respond by lifting the cover, he'll inch towards my face until he's actually scratching my face, but it rarely takes me that long to lift the covers. He can manage to get under the covers himself when he has to, but on more than one occasion he has gotten himself inside the duvet cover instead of under the duvet.


He knows how to get even.



Brian probably find this funnier than I do, but every time Sharkdog has a bath the first thing he does when he gets out of the bathroom is run to the bed and dry himself on my covers. But it's so cute, I can't get mad.


He knows how to strike a pose.






You're probably thinking that Sharkdog must have some kind of formal modeling training, but this is all natural talent, baby.


He knows how to have a good time.

My favorite part is right after Brian says that he thinks Sharkdog is worn out.


He's iconic.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I think I've proven my point. Sharkdog is a pretty swell dog.

Little 'Lisha Snack Cakes

I've really been trying to cut back on sweets this year. I've only had dessert once since the second week of January. (Brian's sister visited during the first week of January and for some reason I think having a guest is a good reason to make and consume a lot of sweets.) A week or so ago I made chocolate chip cookies for a function and I didn't eat a single one. Even when I was baking them and needed a taste test, I had Brian give them a try. I was quite proud of myself.

But today I fell off the wagon. I was looking through my bookmarks to see how many recipes I had for red velvet cake. Now I know it sounds like I was looking for trouble, but I wasn't. I only eat red velvet cake on my birthday and since I'm planning on making my own cake for the first time this year, I've kept my eye out for recipes. And I thought it might be time to look over them and narrow it down to one recipe. That way the next time I need to make a cake or cupcakes (for other people of course, I'm cutting back on sweets, remember?) I can give the recipe a test run. What? You don't plan your birthday cake 2 months in advance? It doesn't matter in any case because I've only bookmarked one red velvet cake recipe.

But while I was looking through my bookmarks, I found another recipe. A Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie copy cat recipe. And wouldn't you know it, I just bought oatmeal today. And I had one jar of homemade marshmallow cream in the fridge. (Marshmallow cream is one of those food items we hardly ever ate in the U.S., but now that it's not readily available sometimes we really want it. Little Debbie snacks fall into that same category.) So it was like all of the stars had aligned and I was destined to make these treats today. And I don't fool with destiny.


The recipe came together nicely. The cream filling didn't taste quite right, but I'm guessing it's because of the homemade marshmallow cream. The filling was also not as firm as I would have liked, but the homemade marshmallow cream doesn't hold it's fluffiness like the store-bought stuff. I'm storing them in the freezer, so that should make them a little less messy. And even though the filling isn't exactly right, overall the cream pies really hit the spot.

The recipe said to use a tablespoon of cookie dough per cookie. But often when I want something sweet, a small something will do just fine. So I made some regular-sized oatmeal cream pies (pictured above) for Brian and some mini cream pies where I used a teaspoon of cookie dough instead of a tablespoon (pictured below) for myself.


Okay, so I realize now that you can't really tell the difference in size when they're not side-by-side. But the mini cream pies are much smaller. In fact, I'd say they're one-third smaller (since there are three teaspoons in a tablespoon). I also used less filling on the smaller pies.

The hardest part was preparing the snack cakes for storage. I wrapped about half of them individually in parchment paper and then foil. But that was taking way too long so I ended up placing the rest in plastic containers and popping them in the freezer. We'll see how that works out. I hope they last a while in the freezer because there are about 12 to 15 large cream pies and well over 20 mini cream pies.

Big plans

2009 has gotten off to a slow start. I've been a little sickly since around Christmas and I still don't feel like I'm back to 100%. But I'm finally getting a little energy back -- at least enough energy to think about what I would like to be doing instead of laying around all day. So here are some things I hope to accomplish in the next month or so.

- Finish Christmas presents. Yeah, I'm a little ashamed of this one. I was doing so good before I got sick, but I didn't finish the gifts for either of my sisters before Christmas. I finally finished the gift for my younger sister about half way through January, but I still need to finish the gift for my older sister.

- Make a nursing cover for my sister who is expecting a baby this summer. She sent me these tutorials: here and here. I told her that I would make one for her as long as she didn't call it a hooter hider, like in the first tutorial. Although secretly, that's probably my favorite name. Shhh... don't tell her.

- I accidentally bought these ginormous salt crystals a while back and ever since have been thinking about making pretzels. I soon as I stop coughing and blowing my nose every ten minutes, I'll give it a try. I'm planning on using this recipe, but if anyone else has recommendations, I'd love to hear them. This will be my first attempt at pretzel-making.

- I also want to try this Pizza Hut crust copy cat recipe. I've tried homemade pizza crust a few times, but I've never been completely happy with the results. I'll give it a try once I'm better. I just have this rule about not making food that requires a lot of handling when I'm sick. It's in everyone's best interest.

- Prepare the balcony for my second attempt at gardening. This year I plan on getting a few tomato plants and some flower pots for herbs. I haven't decided which herbs. I'm thinking cilantro. Can you imagine -- with tomatoes and cilantro on the balcony I can make pico de gallo anytime I want. I looked into attempting avocados indoors, but it can take 10 years for the plant to start producing fruit. That's a shame because I love guacamole. I'm also planning on sweet potatoes again and hopefully I'll end up with something more substantial than this: