First Poppet Doll

First Poppet Doll
Originally uploaded by carmenkchan19

After receiving a few poppets from Craftster, I decided to make my first one for MommyTheMaid on Craftster for the 12 day Christmas swap. I definitely have to say that the poppet was a lot easier to than I had thought.

The parts that I had the most difficult with was the hair and the dress. I didn't know how the hair hung so I just cut a random length. I gave her a haircut after I got it on the doll. The dress took a couple of times. For some reason, the dress took me a couple of times, but I ultimately got it right.

Overall, I really liked how it turned out. I'm definitely going to have to try it again. :)

Pumpkin Chocolate and Pecan Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Cookies With Chocolate 
and Pecans
Originally uploaded by carmenkchan19

This past Monday I attended a cookie exchange party at work. It was the first time I ever done one of these events before. It was a ton of fun. I wanted to make something unique and new. I also wanted something that would look nice.
I got this cookie recipe from bakerella.com. I sort of modified it a bit because I didn't have canned pumpkin, but instead I had canned pumpkin pie ready mix. It turned out pretty well. I just didn't use the spices that were listed in the recipe.
The frosting came out a bit different. I didn't heat the butter up over the stove because it was getting late. Instead, I melted it in the microwave. The frosting turned out pretty drippy, but it still solidified by the time morning rolled around.
The party overall was fun. I do have to say that I thought my cookies were one of the better ones. :)

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread - Baked
Originally uploaded by carmenkchan19

I've never heard about Monkey Bread till last week. Andy and I were talking to a co-worker last week and he was talking about this delicious gooey bread because he talked about having just bread for lunch.  He mentioned some ingredients and it sounded delicious so I asked him for the recipe.  He was able to get me the recipe that afternoon.  Andy and I went out after work to get everything that was needed and I made it for work the next day.

Recipe:
20 frozen rolls
1 small package of 'cook and serve' butterscotch pudding
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1/2 cup of butter
Bundt pan

1. Grease pan well
2. Put pecans in the bottom of pan
3. Put frozen dough balls in next, spread as even as possible
4. Mix pudding, brown sugar, and cinnamon together.  Sprinkle mixture into mold.
5. Melt pudding and pour over rolls and mixture.
6. Leave it out over night
7. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Lemon Wreath Cookies for Holiday Parties

Last night I did some baking for work.  Andy needed to bring some stuff for a potluck and I needed to bring a dessert for my lunch party.

Instead of making my usual rice krispies or chocolate chip cookies, I decided to try something new.  I had saw the Lemon Wreath Cookies in the Martha Stewart Living Magazine.  I really enjoy this magazine as there are a lot of good decorating ideas and interesting recipes to look through.  Most likely, I will not be making all these good foods in them, but it definitely gets the brain going on what ingredients to add when cooking.

According to the recipe, I was suppose to make 6 dozen.  I only ended up with half that amount.  I may have made each cookie a bit on the big side compared to what they had in the pictures.  I think next time I will have to use a smaller amount of dough for each cookie.


Each cookie puffed up pretty well.  I think my technique will get better with practice.  I think i will definitely have to save this recipe to my collection.  :)

 I think the best part about this recipe was the frosting.  It was delicious - Lemon and Confection Sugar!  I think overall the cookie looked great, even without the white sprinkles.

Strictly Tucson Phooson & On the Road To The North Pole

On Friday (December 4th), Andy and I attended Stricly Tucson Phooson, hosted by local radio DJs Johnjay & Rich.  There were four acts: Jason Derulo, Orianthe, Justing Bieber, and 3Oh3.  Overall, the concert was great.  I really enjoyed the variety of music there was and the venue it was in.  Unlike Phooson in Phoenix, the Rialto theater made the concert seem more personal.  Also, I was freezing my butt off either.  My only complaint about the concert was the young girls screaming for Justin Bieber, but I guess I really can't complain too much because I was 10 once.  :)  JohnJay and Rich held another great concert and it was all for a great cause - JohnJay and Rich Christmas Wish

On Saturday, we went to the local Gaslight Theatre and saw their winter show On the Road to the North Pole.  The show was spectacular.  I always enjoy the productions they put on at the Gaslight Theatre, but I really enjoyed this one especially because of the Christmas theme.  :)  Aside from the great Christmas numbers, they also had other entertaining tunes.  I also really enjoyed the 2nd musical act dedicated to Happy Days.  If you haven't been to Gaslight before, I really suggest to check it out!

Holiday Adventures

With the holidays coming up and a couple of office events, I've had more push to try a couple of new things.

First, I got a mini muffin maker from my mother-in-law. I'm actually really excited to use this gadget. My first trial with this was with a pre-mixed mixture for chocolate chip muffins. They cooked fairly quickly, but it was hard to get them out of the machine. I ended up using a spoon and some of them broke as seen in the picture below.


The other thing I tried is cinnamon hard candy. I've made hard candy before but never with a candy thermometer. I definitely do have to say it's worth paying for one.


My candy came out consistent and did not turn into a gooey mess in the mouth. It also didn't taste like a mouth full of sugar like my first time.


As for crafts, I can't really show any at the moment. I just sent out the 2009 12 days of Christmas swap. I will post pictures as they get opened. :) I will start working on my quilting now that one of my last craftster swap is done.

Day After Thanksgiving Break Cooking

I had a wonderful time in Hays, Kansas. It was nice to see Andy's family and my best friend from high school. It's back to reality now and I have to think about what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After seeing others cook dinner, I have gotten a much needed push to do more cooking at home.

For dinner tonight, I made Seafood Alfredo with Capellini pasta:

Ingredients
1 jar of Alfredo Sauce
1 bag (about 1 lb) of Seafood Blend
1 cup of mixed peppers (frozen and pre-cut)
Capellini Pasta

I first cooked the pasta according to the instructions on the bag, it took about 3 minutes after the water boiled. I then sauteed the seafood in some olive oil. I added the peppers after the seafood was cooked. Once the peppers had softened, I added the Alfredo sauce into the pan and let it cook on low-medium heat for a bit so that the sauce could inherit some of the seafood taste. Once everything was done, I added the pasta to the sauce.

After dinner, I decided to make some dessert. Most of it will probably be taken to work because Andy and I will eat it all and regret it later if we keep it at home. I decided to make Andy's mom's rice krispy treats since it's commonly asked for at work. :)

Rice Krispy Treats

Ingredients:

Unfrosted Rice Kripy Treats


Rice Krispy Treats Ready for Eatting

No Habla Español

When I lived in Miami, I was able to learn a little bit of Spanish. I definitely did better than the people that didn't speak Spanish regularly, but I definitely wasn't able to communicate at all in Spanish. I could say the words and connect a few words together but I could really talk to anyone on a normal basis.

I really wish that I pursued the language a bit. It is so much more common than French and definitely more alive than Latin. I don't know why I didn't study it in high school nor college.

Spanish is definitely a big factor in living in Tucson. I want to learn Spanish so that I can communicate better in this city. Yesterday Andy and I stopped by this hot dog stand for dinner, and we ran into a big obstacle. The people that ran the stand did not speak English at all except a few words here and there. We pretty much had to point at what we wanted and hoped that it was good. Although we couldn't say clearly what we wanted, the food we got was great.

I think it was called hot dog de hungaro. It didn't have bacon or anything. It was a hot dog with baked beans and lots of toppings. That's one of the things I've discovered and loved in Tucson, the cheap hot dogs with lots of toppings. :)

New Baking Recipes

I tried out out a couple of different recipes this week. Both of which are from bakerella.com.

The first one I tried was a brownie with cookie bites. I don't have pictures from it because I took it to work. Andy doesn't really like brownies and it turned out really rich. I think I made some new friends at work by bringing in treats, which is always a good thing. I think I've also made some enemies into not-so-bad enemies. I'm glad I can try things out now and they won't go bad before it's been eatten up, which is super nice.

The second recipe I tried was a cheesecake. I've made cheesecake before but it was from the back of a Nestle bag. The recipe from bakerella was much better. It had more cream cheese and it didn't include any chocolate chips, which made the cheesecake part stand out rather than the chocolate. The crust was regular graham cracker:

This was my first time making a crust from graham crackers. The most tricky part of this was blending enough to make a crust. It tasted really good. The rest of the cheesecake was really good too. This can be clearly seen here in the half eatten one :).

I've made a pumpkin pie last month already, but I'm probably going to try it again. It probably won't be done till sometime in November. I may try making the pumpkin pie bites that are the front page feature of bakerella.com.

Sunday Morning Baking

One of the things that I love to do other than knitting and crocheting is baking. I'm not super great at it, but I love to try different recipes. I wish I could make things pretty and become a pastry chef, but I'm not that talented.

Anyways, one of the things I got from Andy's mom is the Donut Bite - Mini doughnut maker.

I really didn't want it when she first offered it to us, but Andy did, so we took it. I didn't know what we'd do with it, and I really didn't have a recipe of any sort.

I decided to look a recipe one day online and try out the machine. The recipe I found sucked. It made the donuts too salty and extremely dry, even powder sugar couldn't cover up the saltiness. Halfway through the process, I decided to add some more stuff and made it much better. After a few attempts, I came up with the perfect recipe.

Mini Chocolate Chip Mini-Doughnuts
2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup mini morsel chocolate chips

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together except the chocolate chips
2. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture
3. Stir in the chocolate chips
4. Lightly oil the doughnut device
5. Scoop mixture into the device and close lid
6. Doughnuts will be done after 2 minutes

It's now a Sunday tradition for me to make donuts. It starts off with the recipe at top, plus my wonderful mixer:

Some time for the gadget to work:

Some time for the doughnut to cool:

The doughnuts usually disappear before the next Sunday arrives because of my little tester. It definitely makes me extremely happy seeing how much my hubby enjoys them.

Tucson Tamale Company

I had been craving tamales lately. I think it stems from the tamales I got last year from this guy dragging around a cooler. He was selling tamales his wife had made for very cheap. He only had two kinds, red or green. We got both, but I loved the green. We've been back to the shopping center where we saw this guy, however, we've haven't seen this guy again.

The Tucson Weekly just came out with the Best of 2009 list and they had one for Tamales. The winner was Tucson Tamale Company. We decided to try this out today, especially with my tamale craving. Between Andy and I, we were able to have 4 different Tamales - Jojo, Arizona, The Tucson Tamale, and Green Corn Tamale. We both got the tamale plate which came with a side and salsa. We both chose the green salsa made from tomatillo, cilantro, garlic and cumin. Food came out hot and very quickly. It was all very delicious and unique. Before leaving, we bought cold tamales for home. I hope that my microwave and or oven will produce as yummy ones as the ones we had today. I hope to try out the Thanksgiving one that I've been hearing so much about. :)

I think the only thing I have to complain about the Tucson Tamale Company is the hours. Most of the week they close at 7, and weekends at 5. With how long Andy and I work, I don't think we would ever be able to go there during the week. I think we will definitely visit this place again, if not for the hot plates, definitely for the cold tamales to go.

Jo Ann Coupon Commotion

This week is Jo Ann's coupon commotion week and it made me think about my life. It's amazing how cheap I still am even though I make more money now than I did in college.
I really discovered how much I enjoy crafting in college, but I was always too cheap to buy the nice yarn or tools to craft. A lot of the tools and supplies I used came from the thrift store. I would go to Michael's and Jo Anns once in a while but usually to look unless I had a coupon.
Now that I work full time, I am still the same. I refuse to buy full price and am always disappointed if I find the items cheaper somewhere else. I guess that's just the way I'll always be. I definitely can say that it's not a bad thing, but it's just funny thinking about it.

6 Months and Going Strong

Just wanted to take a little time out of my day today to say Happy Anniversary to my husband. Today is our 6 month anniversary. :)



I love you Andy!

Destash Swap

My partner recently received her package. I was really happy with the way it turned out especially since all the yarn was from my stash. I couldn't buy anything for the swap because it was a way to use up some of the craft stash that most craftsters have stored up.


I like knitting up shawls/scarves. Although it takes the longest, it's usually quickest because the pattern can be easily memorized. I really liked how this turned out. It's a lot softer than the crocheted scarf I made for another swap a while back. It's too bad it's hot here in Tucson, I would love to use scarves and wraps.

Crafty Friday For Myself

It was very nice that I didn't have to work today. I was able to go get my car in for a service. I got to see the updated Toyota place I go to. I do have to say that it was very nice. It was all shiny and clean and bright. My '99 Camry is still in good shape. I love my car, even if it's a bit damaged (hole in the side mirror).

Nothing else too exciting happened today. Andy and I mostly stayed at home to enjoy the day watching TV and playing some games. I spent a little bit today making a small craft for myself. I've been wanting to make my own headbands, but fancier, like the ones in Gossip Girl.

I got a boring headband (from a pack of 5 that cost about 5 bucks) and some shiny ribbon (came in a bag of a various ribbons that cost 77 cents).

This is the after, a shiny ribbon with a flower.


I loved making it. I think I will be making more with different colors and other decorations beside the flower. :)

Motivation Anyone?

Where do most people find the motivation to complete things in life? Lately, I've felt that I've lost my motivation at work. It's more of "Go to work, stay there for an amount of time doing brainless stuff, leave" and repeat the next day.

I get more out of doing crafts and getting things done. I've never felt let down by my crafts and yet I didn't go to school for 4.5 years to do crafts the rest of my life. I wish I could though because honestly, crafting can get very expensive, especially with the Jo Ann's coupons that come in my mail every month. What a dilema!

Back to work..... Yay?

Which Office Character Are You?
	You are Ryan. You are extremely smart and perceptive, and it irritates you to no end when inferior people try to tell you what to do. Sometimes, though, your critical eye makes you come off as aloof and bitter to others, and it may take awhile for people to get to know you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

New Grill

For a long time, my mom has been bugging me about getting a BBQ grill. I've been putting it off for a long time because I didn't want to deal with buying one and assembling it. Andy and I finally took the leap and got one.

The one we got is from Weber. It is a medium sized one.

We got a cart that the grill sits on which is pretty nice. It has sturdy side tables.

Our first meal on it was steak and corn. It smelled soo good as we were cooking it. It was done really quickly too. It took less than an hour for everything. I think I may have found my new best friend. :)



Here's Andy cooking our first meal with the grill. I think he really likes this purchase we made. :) Isn't the background beautiful??

Some Very Crafty Stuff, Not For Swaps :)

It's been a while since I've updated, but there's a very good reason for it. I have been a very very busy woman!! First and foremost is my quilting class, my very first one. I was very scared to take these classes, but they have been super fun and very helpful. The first class I took was to create a stained glass lap quilt. This is the stained glass portion of my quilt:

This is the completed top of my quilt:


The back of the quilt is blue. The only thing I have left is the edging. The back of the quilt doesn't look so great, as I've never done such a large project before, but I like the way this looks. :D

The other thing I worked on are the cupcake bites. I found them from bakerella: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-your-cupcakes-pop.html .
Mine don't look as good, but I'm proud of them. :) I don't know if I'll make these again as they were pretty difficult and very sweet.

It was worth the try tho. :D

Swap Slow Down - Attempt #2

I've got three swaps left to complete in Craftster. I've already sent out for the Crocheter vs. Knitters Swap. I received wonderful things shown here:

A cute crochet top

Two Star Pillows

I still have the chocolate swap and the star trek swap to go. I'm almost done with the chocolate swap. I've started on the star trek swap, but I just need to find inspiration.

After I'm done with these swaps, I hope to stop for a little bit. I want to focus a little on quilting and starting a Etsy of my own. Here's hope to 2nd time attempt at a swap slow down!!

1st Attempt at Pastry Cuteness

So this weekend I decided that I would try something new. I found these wonderful instructions from Bakerella on how to make cupcake bites.

You can follow her blog here: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/
She has great recipes and instructions on other edible cuteness.


I've got all the ingredients I need except the cookie cutter. I thought I'd have it, but amazingly, I never got it during my cookie phase. I already have the balls rolled and in the fridge. I will start taking pics once they look a bit better than chocolate balls. I hope that my end products will look like Bakerella's:


Aside from being a pastry chef (J/K), I finished my big knitting project this weekend. Although I did mess up a little bit, I love the overall look of it. I forgot to take a picture of the finished projects, but hopefully the recipient of it in my swap will take a good. one.

Wonderful Weekend

I think that the most fun weekends I have with Andy are those where we spend the whole 3 days at home. We have no plans to go anywhere. We have no plans to see anyone. It's super great. :D

Harry Potter!!!

Andy and I have bought tickets tonight to go see Harry Potter! I'm pretty excited to go see the movie because it's definitely been a while since the last one came out. I don't remember quite what happened in the book, but I think it will overall be good. We're seeing the midnight screening and I really hope that I don't fall asleep. The last time I went to a midnight movie, I stayed awake, but will that work again with me being at work all day today?

So..I said I would not do twitter. I didn't think much of it, I still don't, but I have an account. It's linked to everything that I deal with, blogspot and facebook. I've updated it with a picture and picked a background I like. I am being such a hypocrite. LOL!

Weekend Fun and Week to Come

July 4th weekend was great! It was nice that Andy and I were able to stay at home and enjoy the 3 day weekend. The weekends always feel like nothing and I never feel better on Monday. I know Mondays always suck, but today was not too bad. Granted, I am a bit tired, but it's not too bad today. I don't know if it has to do with the work that I must get done or lack of sleep, but I am feeling OK today. :)

I was able to get a bunch of crafting done. I was able to do knitting, quilting, and a bit of doll making/sewing. :) Everything is turning out pretty good. I'm hoping that I don't get behind in my swaps like I did last time. Things seem to be moving at a pretty good pace right now.

So TV has been a bit sucky lately. Most of the tv shows I watch have ended their season finale. Currently, there's only a couple that I really keep up with. Some of the shows I watch, I just do cuz I have nothing else going on that certain night. It will definitely change this week! :)

Big Brother 11 is starting this week!! I am super excited as the characters and theme looks really interesting. It will also be nice if the rumor is true that one (or a few) old house guest will be back this season. I definitely agree that the players look interesting and not all the females are dumb one with big boobs.

Here's Meet the House Guests with Julie Chen:

Quilting Classes

I'm excited for my work day to end today. I signed up for two quilting classes at Hancock's fabric. They are back to back.

The quilt that I will be making is suppose to mimic a stained class. The theme I've gone with is starry night. I just made up a name. I've chosen colors that are of the rainbow. The patterns of the fabric are of stars and other things that remind me of the sky. I think it'll be pretty and I'm really excited for the class. :) I just hope that I can find all the other stuff that I need for today before the class.

I've been working on a knitted project for a swap. I really am enjoying how it's turning out. The colors I've chosen really work well. :)

I've noticed that I tend to cook a lot more on the weekend. I think I ran my dishwasher at least 3 times this weekend completely full. I enjoy cooking. I think I would enjoy going to cullinary school, but what would I do with it? Hrmm...

Monday, Monday, Monday...

I've noticed that Mondays are very useless to me. I usually come into work really tired cuz I don't go to bed on time on Sunday night. I'm too confused and not focused too. I enjoy my weekends, but who doesn't? :)

Crafts has been keeping me pretty busy. Things on my que:

1. Making my own poppet. I've gotten two of three of these in a swap and I totally love them! They're pretty much stuffed dolls that you can dress up and make stuff for. The original creator of it is ghilie on craftster.com. Right now I have 2 legs finished. I have one arm that is sewed and just needs to be stuffed. The rest of the doll is not cut out yet.

2. Knitted item for a swap. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so no details now. I will post pictures once the swap has been completed.

3. Trying out my the walking foot on my sewing machine. I signed up for 2 quilting classes this summer that required a walking foot. I've never used one before but I'm excited for the different possibilities. :)

4. Figure out how to get my house to look more presentable and color-coordinated. This will definitely take forever!

So, it looks like I have a pretty busy summer ahead of me but it'll all be good and worth it!

Swap Slow Down

I've decided that I am going to slow down a bit on Craftster swaps. I always seem to sign up for as many as possible, and honestly, I feel like I have no free time for my own personal things. I do enjoy crafting and making things for others, but recently, I feel that I just don't have time for things I want to do.

I will keep signing up for swaps, but I think now, I'm only going to sign up for 1-2 at a time and only try out the ones that really interest me and not just sign up for the sake of it. I've tried many different ones, and really there's only a handful that I would repeat.

I really want to start re-organizing our home and decorating it. I don't know how, I don't know when, but I want to. I think I'm going to start with the guest bathroom and go from there. If I mess up there, it won't be a big deal as it is the bathroom and nothing more.

I'd also really want to work on a quilt and a poppet. As to the quilt, I don't know what color or what size, but I definitely want to do one. They look like fun. Of course, I need to find space cuz right now my craft room is a mess. A poppet is a kind of doll. It's really popular on craftster right now. I've received 3 of them in swaps, but I really would love to make my own and add my own accessories. :)

Other random things I would like to do include starting my own Etsy store, making clothes, and getting better at my crafts.

Cruise Journey - Blog #2: Ziplining in Ketchikan, Alaska

Our first excursion on the cruise was to zip-line in the rain forests of Ketchikan, Alaska.We got to spend some time in the city before our excursion, which was nice, although the city seemed more like a tourist attraction than a town that people live in most of their lives. There were a ton of jewelry stores. One of the biggest thing we regretted was not buying some alcohol in this city. It was so cheap. We thought that we would find the same cheap alcohol in other ports, but we were wrong. Oh well..I guess it is kind of a good thing because we don't want to become alcholics. :P

The ziplining was one of the most fun things ever. I was super excited for this excursion as I've never had the chance to do it. The other thing that probably made this so special was because it happened right on my birthday also. The ride to the course was quite different. We had to ride this rather high and oversized golf cart that got up to pretty fast speeds. It was quite bumpy but fun. It took a while to get the safety gear and talk, but finally the wait ended. It was such a beautiful view from the platforms from ziplines to ziplines:
The weather was really perfect. There was no rain and the sun was out. There were various lengths of zip lines. Here are pictures of some of the longer ones, it's really hard to tell where the end of the line was:

The bridge is where the end was. It's hard to see, but it's the lighter thing in the picture among all the green tree.





In the middle of the zip line course, there were some rope bridges that we needed to cross. I think these were a lot more scary because they swung pretty well. It was awesome to walk through them though because we were able to see some really cool things that were growing in the forest that we were zipping across.




It was extremely good day. Andy and I got to experience this with a nice group of people. Some pictures of us and the people we were with:

The group we zip lined with

Jasmine and Jo from Las Vegas


Me and Andy. I had to take this at a weird angle

Some action shots:

Here I am on the last zip line.

Here's Andy leaving a platform.

Cruise Journey - Blog #1: Wine Tasting On a Cruise

So I don't know how long I can remember everything that has gone on at the cruise, but I will try to post about everything that we did.

One of the things we did on the cruise was a wine tasting. The price per person was actually not too expensive and we came away with a shot glass with the cruise logo on it. The other nice thing was that kids weren't allowed to attend. I'm not saying I don't like the kids, but it was nice to just have a normal conversation without one of the kids going "Look! Look! Look!"

We got to taste 5 different types of wines. 2 of them were white ones, 2 of them were dark ones, and one was a sparkling one. My favorite one was the sparkling wine, but I think that's mostly cuz I like my girly drinks. LOL! The others weren't bad at all. They all had a great flavor to them, and the part that surprised me the most was that they didn't have a bad after taste. Also, I didn't feel drunk or anything either. Maybe it has something to do with the price?? I don't know. Some pictures from the event:

Andy and I

Ceasar and Becky (Andy's Sister)

Tiffany and Curt (Andy's Brother)

Harvey and Roxie (Andy's Parents)

I seemed to have not taken a picture of Andy's other sister, Jenny, and her husband. :(
I'm sorry!!

This was a good experience for Andy and I because we usually don't like wine. The only good stuff we like are either Boone's Farm (which to most is not a wine) and White Zinfandel. We've also never been to any wineries before, but maybe this will change. Andy's sister suggested we should visit a winery that is close to Tucson. We will probably do that when Andy's parents come to town.