Pie Contest.

I am so cheesy. I got tricked by my own husband into representing our entire church in a city-wide pie baking contest. I have worked so incredibly hard trying to prepare for this. On Thursday I attempted pie crust 4 times before I ended up just patching it together. And I accidentally used all brown sugar in the filling, which made it so so rich. Too rich. And if you know me at all, you'll know that NOTHING is too rich for me. But yesterday I experienced divine intervention regarding the preparation of my crust. It was perfect the very first time. Rolled all the way out, stayed in one piece with no weird patching. I am very optimistic. And the pie itself is pretty awesome. It's a plain old apple pie, right? Only way crazier. On top of it you put down this layer of sugary sweetness that tastes a little praline-y. And then it gets all crunchy. Then you put on some toasted pecans. THEN (here's the doozy), you top the whole party with half a jar of caramel ice cream topping. It's a little fantastic looking. Wish me luck. It's going to the festival in three short hours!

And what kind of sick-o takes pictures of food with a backdrop? Me. Click on the recipe to see it all big. 

OK, Shannon. I doubled the recipe.

...and now i have 1 BILLION pumpkin zucchini muffins. they are to die for. this picture was taken about halfway through the baking process. there are many many more muffins than what you see here. the last batch of minis is in the oven now. yum. i didn't even eat dinner. i had a muffin and a bunch of batter over the course of this afternoon and evening. i feel sick. will is trying to sneak them whenever i turn my back. oh my gosh!!! he's eating one RIGHT NOW. little sneak. 

6:21 ... More albums

you guys, i am so almost done with the albums. i even made a little bday sign yesterday. i definitely would not have done these albums in time, and thus EVER, if it weren't for forced crafting, so that's great. today i feel like baking because i somehow ended up at this site. never knew it existed and now i do. that's probably not good.  i'm really thinking of making pumpkin cream cheese cookies. every ounce of my being wants to make these today, but my brain is saying that i should probably paint some birdhouses. 

5:21 ... Computer crafting counts

i think the computer will do for this project. and i make up the rules so it does. yesterday i worked on the kids' bday photo albums. they just NEED to be done this week or they're just not going to get done. 

and on the home front ... abby's got such blueberrhea that her butt is stained purple. for reals. i'm not making that up. and there's another truly truly truly sick story that goes along with that but i'll spare you the details. but let me just say that her legs and feet are blue too, and that we brushed her teeth really well. 

4:21 ... Desperate Crafting

i had nothing all day long. i was going to do phase 2 of the stockings, but i need to print on iron on paper and i don't have iron on paper like i thought i did. and my printer isn't working. that is ALWAYS the case. why don't printers just work?! when we actually do get a printer to work it's only for a little while and then something goes wrong. or it runs out of ink ridiculously fast or something like that. anyway, i'm really really going to try and make it happen today. 

so at the end of yesterday i still had not done anything remotely crafty besides cleaning my craft room (aka my dining room that is now unrecognizable). it's nearly 8:00 and will's watching the good night show and the host suggests that tomorrow we should make maracas. will of course asks if we can make maracas, and normally i would say "no way. you don't have that kind of mom." but last night i seized the opportunity and did it. maracas made out of paper plates. will didn't even help. he got sidetracked. 

and on the home front ... look at will's closet! i was hanging up his laundry when i noticed that everything in his closet is blue. everything. blue and brown mostly. the kid could use some color in his life. it's just that he looks really good in blue. and our house is blue and green. so if i happen to take his picture and it gets printed, i know it'll match. but it's just wrong. this fall i vow to throw some red in there. 

3:21 ... big ole victory

yay me. i made a stocking. i started it anyway and i'm over the moon. i've been wanting to make stockings forever. so today i traced one and made a template out of it. now, i know sometimes i make some freaky looking stuff, but this one is just a practice. i'm not going to give any of you this wild and wacky printed stocking. i just love this print and i had plenty of it. tomorrow i'm going to do the pretty part. i know i can do that. it's the functional part that hangs me up sometimes. so i'm all excited about tomorrow. this baby's all nice and thick with layers and batting and everything. 

and on the home front... will didn't take a nap today, making him an absolute nut case. he's just sort of freaking out. he's being a beast to his baby so he got landed in time out in his room. he still managed to terrorize her from there, so i had him close the door. next thing i know they are PLAYING under the door jam. both of them cracking up. this lunacy while crafting, while brandon is on nights, while amy is LEAVING TOWN TOMORROW for a peaceful weekend sans husband and children (shopping, eating, drinking wine, and being spoiled by her dear sister), has inspired me to crack open the screw top, unbreakable, individual sized, pink wine bought in a gas station. i've been saving it for a special occasion. 

2:21 Slow Going, but ok in the end

i was pretty creatively uninspired today. craft-wise. ew. did i say 'craft'? i'm not fond of that cheesy word. anyway. we've been painting the house and it's essentially blue and white now instead of brown and brown. i love it. really loving it more each day. we have big arches in the front of the house that are begging for some kind of artwork and we thought that some blue and white mediterranean tiles would look just perfect in those niches. so that's where my mind was when i came across some pretty fabric samples in a sewing magazine. so i cut them out and mod podged them onto a cheapy little ikea frame. tada. now what in the world am i going to do with this? probably throw it away. the point was to create. not create something worth anything. good news is i did come up with some cool ideas for stockings. hopefully i'll actually implement them this year. 

and family, i know you so don't care about this. so here's you update on what you do care about. the kids. will spent the whole day in time out. abby cried her head off because she's decided that she needs to be held always. always always. and i actually cooked dinner with a vegetable. go me. 

1:21... i'm a joke

today starts a 21 day challenge that another blogger friend does and i thought i'd jump on board. and give it a shot this time. i'm supposed to do one thing and record it every day for 21 days. we'll see. 

my challenge is pretty simple. to create something with my hands every day. today i was WAY too ambitious. you know how i get. i thought it would be this great thing for the kids to do as well. i thought it would be fun to make some bread. i set it up. waited for stephen to get here. we start getting it going. about 30 seconds into the project the kids are goofing off. go figure.

will's sifting flour onto stephen's head. stephen's pulling all the flour out of the bowl. we start kneading. i say 'we' like we were doing it. I was. and i still was yacking away about yeast and kneading and nutmeg. i thought they might learn something. i thought at least stephen would take me seriously! nope. it just played out like this. and the kids looked like this.

and my kitchen looked like this. 

 i wonder why the bread looks like ET's stomach flesh when he's all diseased and freaky at the end. obviously, i don't even need to say, that this is not edible. i can't eat ET. that's sick.

so i thought i would instead, just pretend like the bread incident never happened and act like i'm really going to make quilt squares for 21 days. i thought i'd go for a simple 9 square pattern. when i turned it over to admire my handiwork i see this. 

it's a Y. y is for....you should stop right now?... i'm sticking with it. see you tomorrow.