DIY Batman/Batgirl Costume

In honor of the Dark Knight Rises premiering so recently (& being so amazing!) I thought I would share my quick & easy DIY Batman/Girl Costume from last Halloween.  In reality, this method can apply to ANY superhero you choose, but my example features Batman/Batgirl :)

Items:

1. Yellow belt (if you don't have/can't find one: buy a white belt & spray-paint yellow: $7 @ walmart)
2. black mini skirt for the girls; black pants for the boys (I got mine for $4 @ Plato's Closet)
3. black knee-high "hooker" boots for the girls ($15 @ Plato's Closet; black shoes (of any sort) for the boys
4. Batman Tee ($10 @ Hastings or Spencer's)
5. plain black mask if you like ($1 @ Walmart)

Put it together and...

With the mask 

With the belt

Batman & Batgirl

I also chose to roll up my sleeves & make my shirt a v-cut

Birthday Cake Time!!

This weekend was one of my best friends' 21st birthday!!
Normally she is the chef in the family, so we collaborated on a cake for her.

I also iced this 9x13 cake myself for the birthday princess :)
I used a zip-locked bag (with a tiny hole cut in the bottom edge) filled with her TCU purple icing (8 drops of purple "neon" food coloring in 1/3-cup of icing)
The pink icing (12 drops of pink "neon" food coloring in remaining icing)


So this blog entry is a "how to make a box cake taste like a bakery cake" + "how to make the best sugar-icing ever" + "what to do when you run out of vegetable oil"


Part I:
How to Make a Box Cake Taste Like a Homemade/Bakery Cake

• Add 1 extra egg to what the box "requires"
• Substitute water for milk (to keep flavor listed on box)
• If you would like to create your own flavor: buy vanilla/white cake; substitute water add-in with a liquid flavored to your liking. For example: lemon lime soda; other soda flavors; orange juice; apple juice; e.g.... PLAY AROUND WITH IT FOR YOURSELF! :)
• Another option to add flavor to the box cake: add jello or pudding box mix to the powder & water

How to Make the Best Sugar-Icing Ever!

I'm taking this one straight from the best friend 

(Twitter: @anderson_ivy)

Powdered sugar & butter. THAT IS IT!!

1. One stick of butter (1/2-cup)
2. 1/4 bag of powdered sugar

Blend well (I Like to mix by hand to maintain structure & not let it get too liquidy)

What to do When You Run Out of Cooking Oil
Substitute cooking oil with applesauce 1:1
There is NO DIFFERENCE in the flavor & it is actually much healthier for you.
I recommend this for baking sweets only though!

TV time catch-up

Summer is the perfect time to catch up on those tv shows you love, but don't have time to watch every week during the "regular season" or to be introduced into a series you've never seen before.

In light of my all-time favorite reality show, BIG BROTHER starting back up for its FOURTEENTH season, I've come up with 2 top 10 lists of tv shows.

drumroll please.....

Currently airing shows that are overlooked:

1. Supernatural
2. New Girl
3. Parks & Recreation
4. Whitney
5. Archer
6. Futurama
7. Rules of Engagement
8. Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
9. Up All Night
10. Best Friends Forever

Retired shows:

1. One Tree Hill
2. Friends
3. Charmed
4. Angel
5. Boy Meets World
6. Lost
7. House, M.D.
8. Las Vegas
9. 90210
10. Yes Dear

Happy Watching!!

Easy Cookie Dough Brownies

I came across this idea on Pinterest one day.

Cookie dough: good.
Brownies: good.
COMBINATION??? = HEAVENLY!!!

So here's a quick little recipe tutorial:

1. Make brownies.
2. Make Cookie Dough (or dough dip).
3. Refrigerate Cookie Dough.
4. Cool brownies.
5. Scoop dough atop brownies.
6. Freeze/refrigerate (based on how quickly you need it).
7. Cut.
8. Enjoy.

My recipes listed below yield ~16 servings = 9 large servings

BROWNIES:

Now there are probably hundreds of thousands of brownie recipes online, I like this one best for this particular recipe b/c they're vegan & anyone can enjoy them!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 2 cups white sugar

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Tools:

large bowl

baking pan

oven

mixing spoon

Directions:

Preheat to 350°F

Mix first 5 ingredients in bowl

Stir in last 3 ingredients

BLEND WELL (should not have clumps)

Poor evenly into baking pan

Bake 30min.

It'l look a little gooey, but stick a fork in it, it's done!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (room temp)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

3 Tbsp milk OR 3 tsp whipped cream & 1 tsp water

2 tsp syrup OR 3/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

assorted chocolate chips (as many as you prefer in your dough); none if you like!

Tools:

medium bowl

spoon/mixer

This makes a fairly thin amount of cookie dough, so expand on it, to scale, to as large an amount as you'd like :)

Directions:

mix first 3 ingredients WELL (should be thick)

Mix in liquid ingredients

fold in flour (do not overmix)

stir in chocolate chips

 YUM YUM!!

~Happy Baking!!

Finger Paint Baby Name Art--DIY

This weekend my sister & I undertook a dangerous endeavor: Finger Painting With An 17mo.-old.

I saw a cute little DIY on pinterest, so we decided to try it out as well.
We taped my niece's name down on a canvas (Rayah) & let her finger paint ALL OVER the canvas.
I suggest doing this with an older child, but it turned out great!!

You can use masking tape or painter's tape

Lay some newspaper down because it WILL get messy!

The painting mess :)

After the tape was peeled away

Painter's tape won't allow any paint into the letters & masking tape will, but masking tape allows some paint to smudge its way in, but I think it gives a nice touch to the letters.

Paint Away!!

Glitter Cookie Jar DIY

Even though glitter is the STD of the craft world, us girls still love the scintillation of a nicely glittered object.  I've seen quite a few different objects glitterfied & in MANY different ways, so I tried a few out & found my favorite while creating the perfect gift for my best friend!

She loves pink & baking, so I came up with a DIY glitter cookie jar. I wanted the entire thing COVERED from tip to toe in glitter, no room to see the cookies!

Here's what I did in pictures, with the captions as the steps:

Here's the final product so you know what we're aiming for. That glitter ain't going anywhere, folks!
This jar is 9-10" high & 4.5" in diameter.

Here are your ingredients:
Jar of any size, glitter (I chose the "medium" glitter), regular modge podge, a paintbrush, and TIME

First coat the area you wish to start with in purely modge podge. You will paint this on.
Then dash glitter atop it & "paint" it across.
The glitter will be very sparse at the beginning.
Let this coat dry.
I recommend doing up to 2 sides at a time (as seen here)
You will need to repeat this process 3-5 times until there are few "holy" areas. Don't worry about the edges quite yet (they're really tricky!)

I decided to work on the lid as the other dried, here is some progress with it as well
Once again, tricky edges

Begin a second color, if you wish

After the entire thing has been sparsely coated:
MIX THE MODGE PODGE & GLITTER.
You want to see more of the glitter color than modge podge, as seen with the paste

Coat the ENTIRE thing with this paste. TWICE. At minimum. This will cover every inch of the jar.
Don't worry about the white look to it, the Modge Podge WILL DRY CLEAR & the glitter will stay "stuck!" 

Dries perfect enough for you to paint on top of the glitter or use permanent marker on it!!

Now, this process took me about 10 minutes each coat, about 5 times on day 1 and twice on day 2.
It's a great DIY when you have other things to do and need many breaks OR you have little breaks throughout your day.



Good luck, glitterers ;)

Pinwheel Cookies... My DIY on a pinterest favorite

I don't know if you've seen the link yet on how to make pinwheel cookies (seen below), but they look incredible & fun, so I thought I'd give 'em a whirl!!

http://www.soudersstudios.com/recipes/rainbow-pinwheel-cookies.php

Now mine are red, white, & blue in honor of the 4th tomorrow, but they do work in any color...

I offer a few tweaks to the recipe found at the link above.

• You can use store-bought sugar cookie dough, or make your own
• I recommend you separate the dough equally into different containers & mix-in the food coloring
• BALL UP individual bits of dough (1/nth of the size of your end cookie--if 3 colors, 1/3 of the size) & place on tray/plate
• THEN REFRIGERATE. It is very important to let the dough harden a bit, otherwise it is too gooey/oily from your hands & the dye and is very difficult to handle.  About 15 minutes of storing should work well
• get some flour handy for your hands (dough will still get oily quickly & need flour for structural integrity)
• ball all of the colors you wish to use together, then roll cylindrically & twist from the center-outward.
• Bake for 10 minutes & VIOLA!

Just out of the oven, and looking SWIRLY

HAPPY COOKING!!

Date Ideas, Anyone??

Today my boyfriend came up with an exquisite date idea for us that I haven't seen on any websites before.  This inspired me to come up with my own list of unique "date" ideas for when you & your significant other are out of ideas!

This evening (after it cooled WAY down, but while it was still light out) we went on a campus photoshoot!

The first 2 are at some campus benchmarks, but the last is just a normal one you can get at any park. Don't have a campus around? Find a park! Don't want to bother a friend or pay for a photographer? Get a tripod and take them using a timer!

This is a great free & easy date idea!! Here are some more:

1. game night
2. fly a kite
3. go to the pool (we like to try other apartment complexes' pools too)
4. tv show marathon
5. cook your own dinner ENTIRELY
6. watch an "old school" movie from the video store
7. play videogames together
8. read together in bed
9. take a mini roadtrip (day or 2-day trip)
10. re-do something in the house together (paint a room, build a table, re-do the bathroom, re-decorate a room)

More to come as I write, it's time for a brunch date with my boyfriend :) <4