Cake Bites

About a month ago, one of the lovely ladies in my bible study group provided us with these amazing treats. It was incredible to watch 7 grown women drool over, stare at and devour an entire plate of cake bites.

Today, I ventured into the world of making cake bites, per the instructions on her blog. Truthfully, they aren't as pretty as hers were....but they do taste just as good as I remember.

I encountered several problems, rather faults of my own making. First, I should have reserved a bit of cake out before mixing in the icing....while it tastes moist, I think that some of my later issues (see below) would have be avoided. I could have always added it back to the mix. Second, after I scooped out the balls, I should have hand rounded them just a bit, to get rid of a bit of the lumpiness--I did do this for the last bunch that I made. Third, well.......all of my inexperience at dipping things in chocolate is compltely to blame.

I'm just not good at it........no surprise, since I've never dipped anything before. I had TONS of crumbs in my melted chocolate, I had several just fall completely apart in the middle of dipping them, and I had a few that ended up with so much chocolate coating that you needed a carving knife to cut them!!!

And last, but not least, for the pretty drizzle on the top........I just need some help. Mine are much more like globs. Good for eating, but not much to look at--despite everyone's comments on them!!

All in all, they turned out well. Will I do better next time? Hopefully. I will probably be smarter, having made them once already. I will make them smaller also--I think this will make them easier to dip and also there will be more to eat serve.

I hope you will try them......and know that even if you make the same mistakes that I did, at least they will still taste good!!!! And know that if you take them to a gathering.....there probably won't be any to bring home!

Goal Setting

I have been in denial. I have duped myself into thinking that I can actually get projects done in a room full of clutter and junk. I was WRONG!!!! The time has come. I have put it off for too long. While I am still going to be working on projects, I am going to set limits and goals!

For each sewing/crafting session that I have, I am going to get rid of something in the room or return something to it's rightful place, or trash something.

My most recent project is super cute, but sadly I can't share since it's a birthday present for my niece and I am sure that my sister will read this before her birthday in July.......so that will just have to wait until July--sorry.

I finished all of the sewing on said project today and since I was motivated, I was able to sort through an entire box of papers. The super sad part is that there were things in that box from 2 moves ago.....that were trash!!!!!! I CAN'T believe that I have moved them TWICE!!!!! I would save myself a lot of work if I would just keep up with this sort of thing!!! I hope that when all the sorting out of my sewing room is done, that I will be able to maintain the sanity and never return to all the clutter and craziness!!!


Things trashed: an entire box of papers
Things to donate: a bag of baby goodies for the local pregnancy crisis center
Things found: a refrigerator magnet set, a lost book and 3 square feet of floor!!!

Laundry Update

Since I don't care too much for dirt and grime......I tend not to get too dirty myself (save from food spilled on myself....I'm such a mess sometimes). I also tend to not let my girls get too dirty, if I can help it.

However.......gardening is the exception.

So after some serious yard work, I let my damp and grubby jeans dry. Then I went back out in the yard and did some more work.....and let the damp dirt dry again. Then, without scrubbing or pretreating any of the dirt (the knees were especially encrusted with a mud/clay mix) I tossed them in the washer--on cold--with my new laundry soap.

The result: they came out almost completely clean.

I then put some of the laundry soap directly on the knees, the only area that still had some dirt residue. I scrubbed lightly and rewashed.

The final result: No dirt. They were completely clean!!!!

Yippee!!!!!

Laundry Soap

After lots of reading and perusing of recipes, I decided to make my own laundry soap.

1. It's super cheap.
2. It's environmentally friendly.
3. It's fun to make your own stuff.


I first learned that you could make your own from here. It looked pretty easy. It looked like fun. And it was going to help my family be more green and decrease our consumption of goods and save us money. What more can you ask for??????

After doing a lot more research on making laundry soap, I finally settled on this recipe. The site is easy to follow and there is also a picture tutorial link, which was helpful. I then proceeded to gather my ingredients. I opted out of the Fals Naptha soap--I got the impression that it was made from animal fats and veggie husband would not approve. I was going to choose Ivory soap, but right next to it at the store was a hypo-allergenic bar of Dial soap.......and it smelled much nicer to me than the Ivory......so home it went with me.

Finally, the day came when it was time to make the soap. With my husband's help (He was so excited, I don't think I could have excluded him from the process!!!), the laundry soap came together in about 20 minutes or so. Much faster than I had expected. The girls even wanted to watch most of the process.

The next day, there it was. My ready to use soap....okay, so it was a little too congealed, but a bit of stirring and mixing with a stick did the trick. I couldn't wait to use it--but there was the minor issue of having just done laundry the day before, and hence, no dirty clothes!!

After a few days of wearing our usual attire, jeans and tees, there was enough for a few loads. The verdict: pretty good. I can't say as I notice any difference between my soap and the store bought stuff.

I think it's a keeper!!! I think I should do some yardwork and see how it works on really dirty clothes!!!!