New Books!

I'm getting my craft on. I have a few pictures to show of a skirt I made, but it's not all ready yet.

Michael bought me this sewing book for my birthday.... and I finally got it. Seriously, I was lucky because the estimated delivery date was May 26, and he ordered it May 6. Gotta Love Free Shipping on Amazon.

But I love it! The pictures are great! And she has lots of good instruction for basic sewing. Some things I can skip ove and some things, like how to make bias tape, I get all giddy about because I don't know how.

When I made Landen's car tote, I didn't know how to use piping and corner it. She has instructions! Wahoo!

There are some cute patterns I'm going to have to try out too. Like her decorative pillows, but since that's on my list of things to make this summer-- I'm definately on that one!

While I was perusing The Sewing Bible at Barnes and Noble, my mom said she had a sewing book from her college days that she would just give me. Guess what? It's pretty good too. In fact, it's one that homemadebyjill has blogged about before.

It's got great clothes-making, pattern following instructions. While I'm not sure I'm going to dive into making clothes, I think it will come in handy. It also goes into more detail about pressure foots, and types of needles, threads, and other notions and when to use them. Which, I could use a little help one.

And now I'm a sewing encyclopedia.

Which is good, because I want to sew more and better. But it's bad because I can't find my universal pressure foot.... and therefore can't go try some of these out!!

My KitchenAid

So, I made braided bread with my activity day girls. Yes, it was lots of fun and I have extra bread the neighbors are enjoying to prove it.

But my KitchenAid DIED!!

I have the Professional 5 Series, so we're not talking about the whimpy artisan trying to knead some dough. I got the artisan for a wedding present and I upgraded because I wanted the Pro. I wanted it to make bread, cookies, frosting, or whatever else I want to make. I wanted the big bowl to accomodate a big family. I wanted to make bread. I wanted a KA to last forever and by my favorite appliance. I know I don't use it nearly as much today as I plan on using it in the future. I predominatly use my hand mixer by GE that does the trick for my family of 3 size batches. (minus the bread of course)

My KitchenAid has a good life. It gets used, but not aggressively. It gets wiped down really well after every use. It gets used for fun things like meringue, and worked for things like bread. It has the best seat in the kitchen. I follow all the rules, I don't push my luck. But my mixer has always sounded a little funny and had a funny smell, and when I asked about it when it was under warranty, I was assured it was just because it was a Pro series and has all metal parts.

So here we are, in my kitchen. I'm kneading a good size batch of bread- not huge but not small. It's on speed 2 and working on it's 5-7 minutes of kneading. After 5min and 30 seconds, the KitchenAid starts to smoke. And then it came to a complete hault. Just stops.

I felt like weeping. I felt like throwing a temper-tantrum, laying on the grounds and kicking and screaming. I wanted to throw it out the window. Or in the street, and run over it with my big truck. I've kneaded a few time before, but I've never had any problems. Why? Why now? What about my bread-making for my future family?

I'm a little upset. These things are suppose to last FOREVER. I'm just breaking mine in! My daughter was suppose to learn to make cookies with it. My mom's lasted like 10 years before it needed a part fixed-- and it's still going. And she doesn't have the professional model. I have recently been surfing the blogs... and the rumor is no using the dough hook. WHAT? I paid how much for my machine and the dough hook isn't suppose to be used? This is awful. My dream for my KA is ruined. I guess I should have stuck with the cheaper model then!

So, I called Kitchen Aid. The nearest repair center is Boise, Salt Lake or Orem. You have to bring it to them. Or it costs $32 to get a package to ship the 30lb machine. And you have to pay for labor and parts. I felt like screaming... but I didn't I tried to be sweet. It didn't work. I still have to pay for what I feel like is a nearly new machine to get fixed. What happened to warranties? Why do I feel so let down?

Probably because when I usually call about an appliance or other purchase- I get it fixed for free or just shipping. Sometimes, I get really lucky and it's been recalled and I get a new one altogether.

So Michael promised to look at it. I don't know how I feel about it.
Things never go well when he tries to fix things.

There are pages online about fixing it yourself. Mine isn't the obivous fail-safe gear, so I'm a little leary about it. If it was the gear, I'd just do it.

So what to do? My KA is just sitting there on the counter, mocking me, and begging to be fixed.

I started cleaning and ended up baking

How many times do you start on project and end up doing another? I seem to find myself doing this much more often than I'd like. Today, I started out cleaning my laundry area and bedroom. Somehow it got about halfway done -- I slammed my finger in the washing maching lid and that HURT. Anyway, I sat down and the next thing I know a friend is facebooking about her baking and I discover a MADE post about braided bread. Then I'm baking. I made chocolate zucchini bread and the braided bread. You can read MADE's post and get the recipe... we'll just say it was easy and really good! Especially the cinnamon loaf! We will have to make this recipe again.

For the chocolate zucchini bread I used my dad's recipe, with a few modifications.

In a mixing bowl, combine the following:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil (or 1 cup oil and skip the applesauce)
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla

Sift dry ingredients and add to above:
2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Then stir in the following:
2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Place mixture in 2 greased loaf pans.
Bake 350 for 1 hour

My Summer List

I'm making a list of my summer projects. I have some great ideas and am excited to get started! I figured since I'm done with the semester I should have some more free time.

So, here's what I want to do -- and in no particular order.

- Finish my skirt I started. I just have to figure out how.
- Make Landen a quilt for his "big boy bed."
- Make Landen a play mat/rug. I don't know if you remember those, you can buy them and they are like a whole city to drive your cars on and through. I had a creative revelation and have a great idea on what to do!!
- Organize my sewing stuff-- and get my machine here!
- Make a scrap quilt for my bed.
- Make some decor pillows


And that's all I'm determined to do. I guess we'll see if I add some more.

April VT - I got a Feeling!

For my April VT, I'm still without a partner, so I just kept it real simple. I made cupcakes for my Activity Day Girls, and since there are only 5, I still had lots left over. I frosted white cake mix cupcakes with some fluffy strawberry flavored icing and sprinkles. I attached the "I got a feeling" note from VistingTeaching.net. (You can laugh at the birthday print cupcake liners all you want... it went with the AD stuff and it's all I had!)

I really liked that quote too! I think women, probably more than men, receive inspirations through their emotions. I remember last year when we were looking at replacing our Alero and every time we would start to like a car, I would just git this incredibly sick feeling in my gut. I'm glad we listened to those feelings and Michael just didn't brush them off. I know at the time I was very unsure about why I felt that way-- whether I was just getting sick over the dollar amount or if it really was inspiration. Later events told me it was inspiration, but it's always nice to feel validated by prophets and his apostles!

More on my classes...

Haha. Maybe I just think you all can relate to these ideas.

I have a hard chemistry class, that I have enjoyed a little. He is participating in this new system of class review that happen 4 times during the semester and are more specific to the class. He also gets the results sooner... like a few days later. He usually posts about his response to them, and addresses an specific issues. Needless to say, his last posts addresses 3 of the answers I gave specifically. I don't know if other students gave similar answers or if my answers just bugged him. It just makes me squirm a little bit, like someone talking to you about something that was suppose to be confidential. While he never did address me specifically, I sorta felt like it. (P.S. I got another perfect score on my 2nd test... go Angela!)

I have a Parent-Child Relations class too. We have to participate in class discussions every week. Sometimes I get frustrated because I get messed up which week we are suppose to be in because some students went and posted all their discussions way back in the beginning. Then there is one particular student that when I read her posts, I always just want to rip her apart. Like today I really wanted to reply, "Did you read the question? This really doesn't answer the question, either part of it!" Or I feel like saying, "Is that really true?" as she shares some outrageously untrue facts. And she constantly sends the class a mass email wanting to know some "duh" part of the instructions. This last paper she sent out like 3 emails asking how long our final paper had to be, and the instructions of the paper said "limit 5 pages." Or asking if anyone had problems downloading such and such file, because she figured it out and could help them. Really, I usually don't get that annoyed with people, but it seems like she just pushes my buttons just right.

Just 2 more weeks and they will be all over.

I need to take a moment

and brag about myself.

So, I've been taking a few online courses to keep me busy and brush up because I've been contemplating pursuing my master's degree.

One of my classes is an upper level Environmental Chemistry class. I'm not as opposed to Chemistry as you might think. I generally don't mind it, especially compared to classes like Biology. Which I seem to struggle a little more with. I know that I'm more into the "romantic" subjects -- English, History, Sociology, etc.

We had our first "take-home" exam. I hate take-home essay exams because they are generally hard, thorough and long. This one was a little grueling too. These questions were hard and he expected 700 words per question. Also, at least one part of the question was not found in the book, because he expects you to use outside sources. Here were the first 2 questions:

1. Global Warming. Global warming is thought to result from an imbalance between the solar radiation received by the earth and that lost back into space. Describe the difference between the solar radiation and the radiation leaving our planet. Why is infrared, 10 μm emission thought to be most important in this energy balance process? How do trace gas species influence the atmosphere’s temperature? What are the some of the predicted consequences of global warming?
2. Stratosphere Ozone Depletion. What is stratospheric ozone depletion? Why is this potentially harmful? What anthropogenic compounds are thought to be primarily responsible for ozone destruction? What is the mechanism, i.e., what role does atomic chlorine play in the chemistry? What historic international agreement addressed this problem? Is it working?

The last question was a literary article that you had to tear apart into scientific fact, emotional statements, and subjective or circumstantial statements. Then we to interpret the article and explain the chemistry behind their claims. This was a pretty easy because it's more what I like to do (minus the chemistry).

I stressed about it. I spent hours researching and writing about it. And even after I turned it in I was a little worried about it. Since he hasn't graded anything we had turned in up to this point, I was a little more worried I was just doing things in a general manner which he hated. Which has happened to me before, but usually I do really well in my classes. All this worry about this class was making me sick.

But guess what?

I got a perfect score!!