Bisquick Caramel Apple Desert

We had a few apples sitting around and I wanted something different for desert so I found this recipe: Bisquick Caramel Apple Desert. I liked this recipe because it doesn't have eggs - we don't eat them that often so I almost never have any in the house. It took a while to bake (nearly an hour) but it was worth it! It was great served right out of the oven with a little bit of Cool Whip.

American Idol Cake: Adam versus Kris

I wanted to do something special for the American Idol finale, so I made little fondant figures of Adam Lambert and Kris Allen to top a cake I ordered from the grocery store (my homemade cakes never taste nearly as good as store bought). This is the first time I've made fondant figures so they don't look much like the actual people but they were fun to make!

Amigurumi Raven

I crocheted this raven back in March as a birthday gift for my dad. Unfortunately I was in a hurry and I "freehanded" it so I don't have a pattern. If you want to make your own, the shapes I used were fairly simple (except for the feet):

Body: A pill shape - just an amigurumi ball with a few extra rounds thrown in the middle to make it longer.

Beak: I think I started out with four stitches in a circle, then increased twice in each round, putting the increases opposite from each other. I stuffed it a tiny bit.

Wings: Also started with four stitches in a circle. I then put all the increases on one side so that the wing would be curved. I didn't stuff the wings.

Tail: I did the tail a little different. I chained several stitches (6 or 8 maybe) and then started crocheting "in the round" up and down both sides of the chain. Once I had one round finished, I decreased twice in each following round, putting the decreases opposite from each other. I stopped when there were only a few stitches left in the round. This made a flat trapezoid shape. I did not stuff the tail. I sewed the open end (the less-wide end of the trapezoid) to the raven's body.

Feet: I'm a little unsure how I made them. I think I made a small circle (maybe 4 or 6 stitches) and then did the toes by making a few chains away from the circle then turning and stitching back down the chain until I hit the circle again. I repeated that for each of the three toes.

I hope this helps explain how I made it. If I still had the raven I would try to write up a pattern but it is now in Texas with my dad so I'd have to start from scratch and I don't have time for that at the moment. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help.

Simple Apron

I made this apron as a gift for a friend's bridal shower. I made a similar one for myself a long time ago (I think it was my first sewing project ever) and really love the style - it covers everything! The pattern is Simplicity 5525 which is unfortunately out of print but Simplicity 4987 and McCall 5690 are similar. The only modification I made was to leave out the elastic waistband - I don't like the way it looks and it works just fine without it.

Make Your Own Lawn Markers

If you need a way to mark your lawn or garden that's cheap and won't interfere with a mower, try something like this:

It's a plastic cap from a milk (or water) container and a large 8 cent nail from the hardware store. I used an icepick to poke a hole in the center of the milk cap and pushed the nail through (if your nail is sharp enough you probably wouldn't need to use an icepick).

Then you can just push it into the ground to use as a marker.

We were looking for some way to mark where in our lawn we wanted to set our sprinklers so we don't have to figure out where to place them every time we set them out. Flags would be in the way when we mow but plain stakes or nails would be hard to spot when they're pushed all the way down. So my mom came up with the idea to use the milk caps and a nail - since they're brightly colored they show up in the lawn but they're flat so they won't get in the way.

My Texas Saguaro

So I am 98% sure that this cactus is a saguaro (pronounced sah-wah-roh). If you don't know what a saguaro is, it's one of those giant cacti that have the big arms. I had no idea that they were called saguaros before I moved out here to Arizona. The saguaro is pretty much the mascot of Arizona and the southwest - there's even one on the Arizona quarter.

The interesting thing about my saguaro is that it is not in Arizona. It's at my parent's house in south Texas. Back when I was still in grade school I got one of those little greenhouse cactus seed kits while on vacation at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I'm not sure exactly when that trip was but I am guessing it was between 10 and 15 years ago.

This cactus was the only one to survive from the kit. It finally outgrew the little pot we had it in so we re-planted it in the back yard. I never really given much thought as to what type of cactus it was - I thought it was some type of barrel cactus until I noticed that it getting taller but not wider as a barrel cactus should. It's shape made me think of a saguaro, so I started researching them online.

After a few days of searching, I was almost convinced that it wasn't a saguaro because many sources said that a ten year old cacti would only be 1.5 to 6 inches tall. As you can see from the photo above, mine is between 2.5 to 3 feet tall! But after doing some more research I found that those heights were for wild cacti in the desert. Since Texas is slightly wetter than Arizona (and since my parents probably watered it occasionally) my saguaro probably grew faster than it would have in the wild.

I compared my cactus to pictures of saguaros and to saguaros I've visited in real life here in Arizona - I couldn't find anything that made me think that my cactus wasn't a saguaro. The main identifying trait that I found mentioned online was that in each group of spines, there is one spine that is much larger than all the others and points downwards. You can see this on my cactus here:

So all these things together have led me to the decision that my cactus is a saguaro! After living here in Arizona where saguaros are a big deal (a full grown one can cost thousands of dollars), it's fun to know that I grew one without really trying! And that's even more special since it's in south Texas, which is not really it's native habitat (there are no wild saguaros in Texas or even in New Mexico). It's kind of cool to think that my parents are probably the only people in my hometown with a saguaro in their yard!

(By the way, if anyone who has some cacti knowledge thinks that this might not be a saguaro, please let me know why not and what you think it might actually be. I'm no expert so it's very possible that I'm wrong!)

"The Office" Party Decorations and Activities: Throw a party themed around the TV show!

As part of (another!) task at DunderMifflinInfinity.com, my branch (Ypsilanti) came up with a bunch of printables that can be used by anyone wanting to throw an "Office" themed party. We won the task so I guess our items must be worth something! Here they are:

Jell-O Mold Placecards and Butt-Kisser Game

"The Office" Paper Dolls: Dwight, Michael, Pam, and Jim

Not pictured: Who Said That? "The Office" Quotes Game and our Party Recipes.

- Jell-O Mold Placecards (PDF) To decorate your table.
- The Butt-Kisser Game (PDF) Played like Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, but with Michael's butt as the donkey and Dwight's lips as the tail!
- Who Said That? "The Office" Quotes Game: Questions (PDF) and Answers (PDF) Quiz yourself or your friends by identifying quotes from "The Office".
- "The Office" Paper Dolls (link) I posted these here before, they can be used as decorations or party favors.
- Party Recipes (link) These were also posted here before, there are 14 party recipes submitted by the members of DMI Ypsilanti.