Meeting Goals

It is that sort of a day, so much time + so many things to do + rain = nothing done at all.

BUT, there have been some highlights; first, this morning I woke up to tomato and jalapeño plant sprouts!!

This is the first year I am trying to plant a garden, and it is a little nerve racking. My dad is building me two raised beds, about 8x8 feet, to plant in, and I'm super excited for the point when I can actual plant some stuff :). 

 See! It's a tomato plant! 

 I know this picture is super fuzzy and a little painful to look at, but it is most definitely a little jalapeño plant.

 Second highlight; I successfully made hamburger buns! I tried it once before and it ended up as dense dinner rolls, but these were perfect-- if I do say so myself. I made them from the King Arthur Flour cookbook. Of course.

Right before my birthday I made this list, 15 things to do before I turn 16.

And guess what? After 4 months.... 2 things are crossed off. But I'm working on a bunch more! 

Friday night was our church talent show, and I sang and played guitar, by myself. #1, check.

As I mentioned earlier, I have started planting my garden! Just got to wait till the end of May so I can actual plant it. I'm also running with my brother a few times a week to get ready for the July 4th L.L. Bean 10k! It's not 9 miles, but it's very close...

Also, in May me and a bunch of other TeenPacters are taking a road trip to Tennessee to attend TeenPact National Convention, which is on the list!

That ^ all was a little meaningless, but point being: this is going to be a great year. 

Taste the Rainbow

That's right; I finally made rainbow cupcakes. Or sort of rainbow, I went for more of a pastel rainbow look, and some of them are tie die. It was something I had been meaning to do for a while, and the 16th birthday of one of my best friends, Emily, was the perfect occasion!
I used the Elegant White Cake recipe from the King Arthur Flour cookbook; which, by the way, is an amazing cookbook. Every recipe I have tried so far as been a delicious success.  I tried to find the recipe online, but I suppose you will just have to buy the book. Or just find any white cake recipe... That one is just really moist and delicious, don't settle for less ;).
First, I just divided up the batter and made whatever colours I wanted, then layered them in a rainbow-like way. I ran out of some colours sooner than others, so I swirled those ones together.

 Voilà! Rainbow cupcakes. So simple :).

I frosted them with butter-cream frosting from a recipe in, you guess, King Arthur Flour.
I was going to swirl the green and pink together, but that was turning out to be more complicated then I had time for...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! 

I don't have any cool craft, or baking experience to share... Just thought it was about time to post something.
In the last 3ish weeks I have:
a) Gotten a haircut, almost 12"! Unfortunately I have never gotten it to be as perfect as the haircut lady did. Oh well...

b) Broken my camera :'(. I was in a hurry and may have closed the car door on my Olympus E520. Fortunately the only thing that happened was the LCD screen cracked, so now I can't see any of the picture I take until I put them on the computer... It's like the olden days. I still manage to use it on manual setting though, and later that day got some pretty good shots! Now my darling camera is lying disassembled in my brothers room, it's looking grim.

d) Started to fix up a 50/60's dress that used to be my great aunts. I have a before picture, but it's pretty embarrassing. I'm hoping it never ends up on the internet.

e) Been a bum. For about a week Maine had June-like weather, it was gorgeous to say the least. Now it has returned to cold March/April weather. I took this picture on the way home from the HOME convention, it was the last day of the nice weather.

Tomorrow is the first day of 4 that I'm headed up to Augusta for TeenPact! So much excitement.

Pi Smoothie

I made a pumpkin pie, then made it into a pi pie, then made it into a smoothie. Mhmm. 

Ok, first of all; I had been planning on making pumpkin pie smoothies for a while, but since today is Pi Day it seemed like the opportune time to do it. And yes, I know, linking pi to pie is very cliché... But hey, I live in America, that's what we do. 

I found the idea here, but why just go there when you can learn how on my blog instead?

All you need is a pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, and milk.

 Then put 1 piece of pie, and 1 1/2ish scoops of ice cream, and 1 cupish milk into the blender. Alright, my measurements weren't very exact. Maybe you should just go read that other blog...

Blenderize for a little bit then.... Bam! Pumpkin pie smoothie.

Me and my brother both thought is was delicious, but my parents opted for the more conventional route and ate it without it having been in the blender.

  

Picture Transfer

I have been spending my day attempting to get some school work done. But as a motivator I find it helpful to do some school, then do something else for 15 minutes or so. That way I can turn on some music and think about something other than chemical equations and John Quincy Adams. 

This is one of today's side projects, it's a super easy, looks harder than it is, project. Canvas transfer, or picture transfer.

It went from this picture (which I took this morning from that wonderful bouquet of roses):

To this: a perfectly imperfect picture.

To make, start with a reasonably simple black and white photo on normal printer paper. I turned the photo of the a rose black and white using Picasa's filtered B&W effect. That way I can make the colors have as much contrast as possible.

Then cover a canvas in white paint, pretty thick, but not gloppy. Lay the photo face down on the wet paint and press on so the whole paper is firmly stuck to the paint.

 Once it is fully dry (I waited about 10 minute then got impatient and used a blow dryer) start to careful spray or rub a small amount of water on to the paper. You want it to be damp, not wet and not to dry. Then lightly begin rubbing the paper off. This takes some patience since if you rub to hard the ink will come off with the paper. Not all of the paper ever comes off, there will always be fuzzys left over.

 After using the canvas I tried it with a piece of cardstock, it worked all right but the ink rubs off a lot easier.

Alright, now I'm going to keep reading To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm lucky that reading such a good book is part of my literature curriculum :).