Salutary Sunday

Hmmm. It's already Sunday and once again I did not make anything this week. 

{Maybe I will just put this 'feature' on hold for a bit until I can actually make something?}

Instead I've been working on going through everything in my craft room and getting rid of tons of stuff! I've only packed 2 boxes, and am getting rid of about 6 boxes worth of stuff. I can't wait to move and have barely anything to take with us! And the best thing is I'm going to have a couple of yard sales, so I'll be able to make some money off of this stuff.

Vince and I did go to Bookman's yesterday and brought some old Playstation 2 games and a console to trade in.  We got a $62 credit, so we bought some CDs! Music is one of those things I'm willing to make room for in our house.

We got a couple Red Hot Chili Peppers CDs to complete our collection, A Tribe Called Quest, Pantera, Rollins Band, and my 'new' favorite, System of a Down! I used to listen to System a lot in middle school and high school, but over time I've listened to them less. I am anticipating that it will be constantly playing in my car for the next few weeks though!

I also bought a few new magnets! I LOVE magnets and am always happy to add to my 'collection'.

There's one with Mike Tyson from the old video game, 'Rocko's Modern Life' which was one of the BEST TV shows from my youth, Where the Wild Things Are, and of course, Junie B. Jones!

Does anyone remember that TV show?

Salutary Sunday

This week I have finished season 1 of Numb3rs. I'd call that a successful week, wouldn't you? Hehe. No, this week I did a lot of exercising and cooking. I also made a big decision.

My Etsy shop. Ya, ya know that 'thing' I started a couple months ago and have yet to mention it again since? Ummmm ya.

I've decided to put it on the back burner for now. I was 'pressured', in a sense, to get it up, but now I'm not feeling motivated for it!  I don't know why I'm not as excited as I was before, but I'm just not. I feel like I could get myself excited about it enough to continue with my shop, but I also feel like there are so many other things in my life that I am pursuing and everything is getting caught up in itself.

When I envisioned my shop, I wanted to have a lot of product available. I wanted to have a big stockpile of stuff available, and I just haven't reached that yet. If I have my 'brand' out there, I want it to be exactly what I want, and it's just not that. Having a measly 9 items in my shop is not what I want. I think it's pathetic and I know I can do better!

I also feel a sort of internal pressure to do good, so I feel as if I am letting myself down. At the beginning of the year I set goals for myself to work in my craft room for an hour a day, and needless to say, I am NOT doing that. I think it's because I was forcing myself to do it. I need it to just come naturally! I'm still doing great thinks with myself, I'm the healthiest I have ever been in my entire life, and I am PROUD of what I'm doing with myself. I don't need this internal guilt of 'failure' looming over me.

So for now, once my listings on Etsy expire, I'm not going to renew them and I'll close up shop. I'll still  continue to make jewelry, though. It's something that makes me happy and I thoroughly enjoy doing it, so I'm not going to stop that part! I'll post new pieces here and there on this blog, and if anyone wants to buy anything they can just tell me.

Maybe when I get to another point in my life I will pursue it again, but for now, I will not.

I definitely want to thank everyone who has encouraged me through this! All of your kind words were really appreciated and it's great to know there are wonderful people out there. ♥

Salutary Sunday

What did I make this week?

How about red velvet cupcakes and A BROKEN DOG. 

I'll first show you pictures of pretty cupcakes.

I made these cupcakes using the Red Velvet Cake recipe from the book The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook. This book is my absolute favorite baking cookbook. I don't think I've ever followed an exact recipe in the book, but for me they are all amazing starting points. 

Because I took it from the book, I can't repost the recipe online! But, I recommend you buy the book for 12 bucks or go to you local library, because they should definitely have this book. {And if they don't, put if a request for them to order it and they will!}

I used a cream cheese frosting and it's so delicious! I love the taste of cream cheese frosting. I know it's not for everyone, but mmmm!!! I love it. 

Here's the recipe I used to ice 24 cupcakes {and there was still a lot of icing left over...} :

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese - COLD

1/4 cup room temp butter {half stick}

2-3 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla

food coloring if you want

Using my egg beaters, I blended the cream cheese and butter until it was creamy, and then added the food coloring and vanilla. One cup at a time, I slowly added the sugar until it was a consistency and flavor that I liked. I then used a piping bag and a spatula to spread the frosting onto my cupcakes.

And now for the Roxanne story...

Goodness, it seems that every time I am happy with how walks are going with Roxanne, she hurts herself! As I have told you before, Roxi and I have a love/hate relationship with walks. When she is on a leash and sees another dog, she goes ballistic. Her hair raises and she barks and growls. When she is off her leash, however, she's usually pretty good. She'll run up to the dog and sniff it and usually walk away from it. 

I, unlike Vince, hate letting her off the leash in the areas we walk her. I get so anxious that we will run into another dog or that we'll come across a runner who will get pissed off that she is in their way. I know that most of the time she is a great dog, but there's always that 'if' running through my mind!

Now that I've started running quite a bit, I've been taking her with me. I've been keeping her on leash since I usually run in the neighborhood, and she tends to 'get in the zone' with me. Even if she sees a dog, I have to just keep running and she gets over it pretty quickly. 

Today, I decided to run on a road that goes through the woods and I let her off the leash. She stayed surprisingly close to me most of the way. She tends to run off around the woods out of sight, and usually I'm ok with that. But she didn't today...until we were heading back home. She saw a rabbit and wanted to chase it!

Eventually she realized that she in fact could not get that rabbit and turned back towards me. I put her on the leash because we were getting close to the main road, and noticed she was walking a little funny. I looked to make sure she didn't have any cactus in her paws, but everything looked pretty good to me. When we get home, I give her the once over again and realize that her paw was bleeding! She had cracked her 'thumb' nail in half and that was the cause of the bleeding. {I was going to post a picture of it, but it looks pretty nasty!}

So, I called the emergency vet line because I wanted to make sure she wasn't supposed to lick it {which is of course what she was doing} and they said to put an old sock over it until I could bring her in tomorrow to get her nail clipped. They will probably have to give her antibiotics for it because it's so close to her paw. Hopefully she'll get better soon though to go on bike rides. 

Until tomorrow afternoon, we have a sockdog! 

{That middle one is my new favorite picture of her! Hahaha.}

Salutary Sunday

I posted earlier about some goals I had for this week as part of the 8 Weeks to a Better Me, and I ROCKED them. I am so proud of myself!

I was very good about keeping the dishes done. I didn't have every dish washed every night, but the ones that were leftover were just a few and I did them the next morning. YES, I did dishes in the morning. Unheard of!

So that was my top goal and I hope I stick to it over the next few weeks so that I can make a habit of it. I can't believe what a relief it is to walk into my kitchen and have everything cleaned. It's SO much less time consuming to make dinner when you don't have to wash all the dishes you need! It also makes me realize that I really want a dishwasher.

Another goal that I was super excited about was exercising! I'm going to write a separate post for that so I can explain in detail what my workout was, how long it took, etc. All I will tell you now is that 

I'M AWESOME. 

I also made some super cute earrings! 

{I swear they look cuter in real life...}

I originally made some for the Flogging Molly concert, but the glue I used didn't work, so when I took them off that night the beads popped off! Definitely not what I wanted. Here's the few very short steps on how to make them, and have them stick:

{1} Gather 'ingredients' - earring posts, any kind of SLOW DRYING super glue, seed beads, and Elmer's glue.

 {2} Apply super glue to the post using a paintbrush. It most likely won't go on smoothly, but that's ok. That's why it's important to have a slow drying super glue, so that it doesn't dry all clumpy.

{3} Dip the earring post with glue on it into a pile of seed beads so the beads are picked up by the glue.

{4} Apply a small amount of Elmer's glue to the top of the beads that are now on the earrings and spread the glue around using a paintbrush. If you use plain white Elmer's glue, it's fine because it will dry clear.

{5} Allow to dry!

See, super simple! And they look really cute on your ears.

I also made some chocolate cupcakes.

On Friday night I went to a friends graduation party and there were delicious looking chocolate cupcakes, and I HAD to have some. So I came home and made some! Luckily, we were having a work meeting and a goodbye party for a friend/employee the next day, and there are a couple gluten free people at work so I brought in the cupcakes for us. Along with the blue and pink cupcakes, I made blue ones with gold sprinkles for NAU's colors.

So aside from those earrings and cupcakes, I haven't made a thing! {Which means that I am sorry, Sara, that I still haven't made the tutorial for those curtains!} I really did just want to focus on my cleaning and exercise goals, and I'm really glad I did. It's nice to not have to worry about anything else.

Did you do anything awesome this week or make anything?

Salutary Sunday...on a Thursday!

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, and I'm kind of stressed! I've been trying to get my house super clean all week because my brother will be staying here while we're gone and I just simply don't want to come home to a dirty house.

Because of that, I haven't read any blogs for 3 or 4 days, and I haven't blogged either! It's been a nice unintentional break. After this post, I probably wont blog again until Monday or Tuesday when I get back. We'll see.  ♥

So here's my Salutary Sunday post...on a Thursday!

Throughout the week I was working on my curtains that I'm going to put up in the bedroom. It's a blue background, and I'm cutting circles out of 3 different fabrics to applique onto it. I'm so excited that it's getting close to being done. I just have to put all the circles onto the blue fabric. Once I'm done I'll have a simple tutorial post for you guys!

While I was cleaning this week, I decided to do a 'deep' clean and went through some drawer in a side dresser. When we moved, we didn't go through it, just left everything in there, so it was messy! I found some old sewing projects that were half finished, so I decided to finish this one:

It's a rice bag for a kid! I think I meant to make it an octopus type thing, but there's only 7 legs...hmm...

I also made some new earrings and a bracelet...

While doing the dishes, I noticed there are flowers growing on my plant that I didn't know grew flowers! That was pretty exciting.

And lastly, I did a whole lot of reading on this here couch. It was wonderful. 

I love the accomplished feeling I get every time I read a book! I just finished Across the Universe, and while I LOVED it when I was reading it, I'm kind of 'eh' about it now. It wasn't the greatest book, but I'll definitely read the second book when it comes out!

So that's all I've done recently. Not too much, yet I've been pooped out! All I've felt like doing was reading.

Have you guys done anything?

Salutary Sunday

Thanks to the few posts I've done around the blogging world recently, I have quite a few new people here at Iffy Inklings so I'd like to say, hey! Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments, send me an email, or leave me a comment on Facebook! New people always make me smile, so welcome. ♥

Every Sunday I do a little feature called Salutary Sunday. To learn more about it and actually know what it is, feel free to read my first post about it!

This weekend has oddly been somewhat productive. I was out of work sick on Wednesday and Thursday and did nothing except lay around and watch Big Love, The Office and some movies. It really sucked being sick, but it was nice to have a couple days off! 

Because I was so lazy for part of the week, I felt like I really needed to do a lot this weekend. So I did! Yesterday started with a bang by making gluten free french toast. Really really really good gluten free french toast that even Vince liked.

French toast is pretty much a super simple recipe, but here it is for you in case you want to make it and don't know how:

French Toast for Two

6 slices of bread {Gluten free if need be! I LOVE Rudi's brand.}

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

3/4 tsp cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Syrup and Butta

In a small bowl mix the egg, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Dip the bread into the egg mixture and put into a HOT pan. Cook over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, and then flip over for another 2 minutes. The bread may look a little burnt, but it's most likely not. It just turns darker. Once all the slices are cooked, smother with butter and syrup and devour. SIMPLE AS THAT.

After breakfast I thoroughly cleaned the bathroom, did baskets and baskets of laundry, vacuumed every nook and cranny, broke said vacuum and then fixed it, got rid of some clothes, bought some new clothes, and rearranged our bedroom. 

I think I continued to clean my whole house simply because I did not want to do dishes. I hate dishes, and our counter is covered in them, which is why I am drinking my milk out of a wine glass today.

Why, oh why, do we not have a dishwasher?!

So today, I decided to tackle the dishes after once again eating french toast for breakfast. Halfway through the dishes, I remembered that I was going to make cookies for a friend who just had surgery, so I took a break. Thus, Cheesy Red Velvet Cookies were born. 

Since my friend is not gluten free, I took the easy route. I went to the store, bought a cake mix, turned it into cookies, and threw some cream cheese frosting in between. Here's the full recipe. I don't remember where I got it from though...

Cookie recipe:

1 box red velvet cake mix {or any flavor}

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Spoon out about 1 1/2 Tbsp of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350* for 9-12 minutes. (I needed the whole 12 minutes.) Let cool for about 10 minutes. Once cooled, spoon about 1-2 Tbsp frosting between two cookies. Enjoy!

Frosting recipe:

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

It was really hard for me to not lick my fingers when I'm baking, so I kept a piece of gum in my mouth the whole time. This was the first time I've ever cooked with gluten in my kitchen since going gluten free, and now I am so paranoid and will never do that again! I am such a messy cook, meaning there is probably gluten all over. It's so much less stressful to just make everything gluten free, even if it's more expensive or time consuming.

Well, it seems like I actually didn't do that much once I write it down. Maybe I'm forgetting some stuff!

We did buy some sheets yesterday to turn into curtains that will go up in our bedroom. I plan on adding some fun colors to the blue sheets. Hopefully they turn out good!

Did you do anything this week?

Salutary Sunday/Tattoo

It seems like I say this every week, but this week FLEW by. When I'm at work, it seems like the days are DRAGGING on, but once I get through the weekend, it seems like it went to quickly. 

As you know, this week I opened my Etsy shop, and I'm proud of it!  I'm really excited to have it grow over the next few weeks and hope to add enough items so I have at least 30 items for sale. 

What I was most excited about this week, though, was my TATTOO!! I finally got the outline started from Tanin at Birch Ave Tattoo and now I can't wait to get it completely finished. 

Getting my arm tattooed is way easier than my chest or belly. I still can't say that my chest hurt, because I've felt worse pain than that, but it was definitely uncomfortable. My arm, however, was pretty easy and there were only 2 or 3 parts that were even remotely uncomfortable. It was awesome. It was only the outline, so we'll see how the next few sessions treat me.

When I went in to get the tattoo, the part I was most excited about was the girl, Effie. Now that it's on me, I think my favorite part is actually the little guy on my shoulder! 

{Sorry it's a little dry, it's still healing!}

I just love his face and the way it sticks out of the mask. I'm amazed at how well Tanin captured both of their faces, and how exact it is. As I said, I am SO excited to see how this turns out!

*****

So, moving on to the Salutary Sunday part, because while my tattoo was created, it wasn't created by me! 

Some things I made this week was good food. 

Yesterday I got to spend the whole day alone with Vince and it was so wonderful. I've been having a rough time with my sister this past week, and having Vince to support me has been so helpful. It makes me realize that he is absolutely my rock, and that I wouldn't change anything about my life with him. 

The first thing we did was ate some yummy gluten free waffles I made {recipe found HERE}. 

I bought some maple syrup over a year ago and it was sugar free; it was the worst thing I have ever tasted so I threw it out and I've forgotten to buy syrup since then! What I did to make my own syrup was just use some apple jam {that I had canned last year when apples were on sale}, added a little water to it and threw it in the microwave for about 20 seconds to warm it up. It was delicious. 

{Isn't the color gorgeous?!}

Vince also added some peanut butter to his waffles and made some bacon {and then tried to avoid me getting a picture of him}. 

After eating we were supposed to CUT THAT HAIR, but played disc golf instead. Vince's beard and hair is SO long and now that winter is hopefully gone, all of it is going. I'm stoked.

Anyways, as I said we went and played disc and it was perfect outside. I wore a long sleeve shirt because I couldn't put sunscreen on my tattoo yet and I got a little warm, but luckily there was a slight breeze. The dogs had a blast and just got to run around and get muddy and tired. As soon as we got back to the car Izobel passed out but Roxanne was ready to run 10 more miles! Izzy's definitely lazy like me. Hehe.

After disc we dropped the girls off so they could eat and sleep, went to an outdoor store and got things for the yard like a new hose, and went to the post office to drop off some stuff I sold. After that we came home and I cleaned out both of the cars. The new one was so dusty from all the dirt roads we go on and Sedona trips! We I also cleaned the house up so that I had nothing to do today and could just relax.

After eating dinner we watched the movie How Do You Know. It was HORRIBLE. Like one of the worst movie I've watched recently. The acting was disastrous and there was absolutely no plot. I clearly don't recommend it!

What have you guys done this week? Anything fun?!

Salutary Sunday

Whew, I can't believe another week of my life is gone! It seems like it went so quick, yet dragged on for ever. I worked last Sunday for a friend, so I worked 6 days last week, which explains the 'dragging on' part.  

I made a few things for my Etsy shop, made some good food, and hung out with family, but other than that I haven't done too much this week.

Some food we made was delicious gluten free onion rings, shrimp tacos, and bacon covered hot dogs. HEART ATTACK WAITING TO HAPPEN.

*****

When I was at Walgreens on Friday picking up some meds and for some reason I had the urge to buy some bright and pretty nail polish. I love popping over to the blog The Dainty Squid because she always has such fun nail colors! {And hair colors. I really miss dying my hair shades of blue, pink, and every other color.}

For this week, I settled on 'Blue Me Away' blue, and I love it!

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear and I only needed ONE coat. I was shocked. I'm used to having to put on like 5 coats to have a color this vibrant. I knocked my fingers on various things while it was drying {I'm too impatient to just sit} so it messed it up a bit, but I cleaned my house a LOT after my nails were dried and it didn't chip like I expected it to. So I definitely recommend this stuff. 

I also got a couple other colors, and I'm excited to use them!

Did anyone do something more exciting than me? Let me know!

It's naptime for me...

Salutary Sunday

No blogging for me recently! It's be crazy in this here house of mine.

I'm slaving away for my Etsy shop, and I'm excited to announce that it's opening April 1st! {Yes, April Fools Day!}

I have a couple of exciting things planned, so I had to have it opened by then. Meaning you'll have fun jewelry to look at! {And buy, ya?}

What did I make this week?

Well, I made this little boy happy!

{He couldn't see because the sun was too bright...}

My 'baby' brother Will turned 6 on Friday, so Vince and I took him out to pick up his present and get some lunch at Subway. He said that he wanted a foot long like Vince, but needless to say, he did NOT get that. It sure was funny, though.

I think he is the cutest little man in the world and is so incredibly smart. I remember realizing when my other brother Connor was 'smart' and it's such a fun experience being an older sister. One day Connor, Pam and I were talking and Connor said that he was 'puzzled' about something. Puzzled was a word I had heard before but it wasn't a word that was really used in my house and since he was probably only 8, Pam and I just turned to each other and were like, 'Wow, that's a good word to explain how you're feeling!' I bet that doesn't seem like a 'smart' moment to some people, but I guess you had to be there! 

Will, on the other hand, uses big and complicated words all the time, unlike any other 6 year old I've met. It's so fascinating to hear him tell a story and have it be so detailed. He's such a joy to be around and Vince likes him to. When we were walking around Will just grabbed his hand and it melted my heart! It  was so adorable.

{Note to self: countdown from 3 before you take the picture.}

For his birthday present, he picked out a ZhuZhu pet and 2 armors for them. 

{Thor on the left with new armor, and the new Drayko on the right with the new armor.}

They are these little automated hamsters that battle each other and make crazy sounds. He is OBSESSED with them and knows all 8 of their names, the names of their armor, etc., and always like to recite them to you. He also likes giving you little quizzes and asking which is which. His mom, Pam, knows almost all of them, too! Haha.

He now has all 8 hamsters and armors and it building the track they play in. He loves them, and he told me that he was 'so excited that his stomach hurt' when we were buying them.

{Side note: I've always been made fun of for my 'Chinese eyes' by my brother and sister. I never really had eyes that were similar to my family, and they are always so small when I'm smiling and are a little poofy. Whenever I talk about my eyes with Vince, he denies that they look squinty, but a teen at the library asked me the other week if I was Chinese! These pictures definitely show how squinty they are...}

Salutary Sunday

What did I make this week?

At the moment I am working on a tote/bag for my friend/coworkers birthday.

She said that she had fabric to make the bag but didn't know how to do certain things, and didn't have time. I told her to bring it in and I would sew it for her!

The fabric is BEAUTIFUL. I love it. The true color doesn't show in the picture, but I'll take a better one when it's all finished. It has embroidered flowers on it:

So far I have the inside and outside done, I just need to work on the straps and the flap that she wanted. Meaning, I'm almost done!

I'll try and finish it tonight, but I'm going to play basketball and have a BBQ with some friends. It's been SO nice recently that there's no way to stay inside all day.

I've also made some new buttons for my blog! I know my original button is on some peoples blog, but if you prefer one of these, go ahead and grab one. Let me know if you do. ♥

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/iffyinkliingsbuttonheart.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/IffyInklingsButton.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/iffyinklingsbuttonsummer.jpg" /></a>

And lastly, I've painted my toenails. They look black, but it's a really dark purple.  You know what nail polish means? Warm weather!

Also, you should like me on Facebook! I'm trying to get to 25 likes so that I don't have a bunch of numbers, I can just have my name. ♥

What about you guys, anything fun being created this week? Or anything fun happen?