We had a great weekend with the ND cousins and their significant others. The occasion, of course, called for another cake, this one pink. I spent Thursday working on a research paper for school, then on Friday we too Cameron and Kat thrifting all day which was a blast. He got lots of records and she got some cute clothes. Then we spent Sabbath over at the KC cousins' house and got to spend more time with Arielle and Robert. Before we knew it, Sunday was here and spring break was over, and Megan and I had to head back up to school. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to see them all again sometime.
As some of you may know, something I enjoy a great deal is felting. Felting is the art of stabbing wool with special needles to "weave" it together into shapes. Wet felting is somewhat the same, except instead of a needle you use alternating hot and cold water, and dish soap, while shaping the wool with your hands. I usually use dry felting, and like to make little tiny animals. This last week at school I got a package from my sweet aunt and uncle, who sent me some lovely new wool colors. I haven't had a lot of time to use them yet, but I made a few tiny things and I can't wait to make more. Such GREAT colors!
The beginnings of a tiny chick.
Chick and wet-felted peacock feathers. We'll see where that goes :)
I got home today at 4:00 for spring break! YAY :)
I was home for the weekend, and my little kitty has gotten so BIG! He's kind of a lion-cat-dog. What a weirdie. But we love him.
While this post would naturally go under "Travel," I have decided that posts about visiting my grandparent's Oklahoma home is very frequent and thus is somewhat of another home for me. During Christmas break we had the opportunity not only to visit my grandparents, but my wonderful cousins from California, as they were also visiting my grandparents. We had a great week together, so here's a few pictures.
The cousins and Grandma and Grandpa.
Some BB gun time
I had actually never shot a BB gun (or any gun) before.
I think there was one point in time that I had been the tallest, or at least as tall as Justin. Now it is not so.
Over winter break, I decided to try out my baking skills by making a chocolate cake from scratch. A ROUND chocolate cake. This is a feat which is pretty unheard of in our box-cake family. I used a recipe straight off the Hershey's Chocolate website (I'll put it at the end of this post).
Ingredients2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Directions1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING
. 41/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
. 52/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
. 63 cups powdered sugar
. 71/3 cup milk
. 81 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Well, it wasn't long before our little kitten became a cat. I can't believe we thought he was big when we took these pictures. Now he's HUGE!
As mentioned in my UNION blog, there one was a little kitty who lived happily at college. But then the deans said "no more kitties!" so someone had to adopt it. Now, I happen to know that my mother is a HUGE sucker for kittens, so when my family came up for Parents Weekend, I set my plan into action. Although it was unbelievable, my parents agreed to take Penelope (who we later found out was, indeed, a BOY) when he got too big to live in the dorm. So, during fall break, we brought him HOME :)
How cute is this?
