BAKING FAILS...

 I don't have a huge passion for cooking or baking but I like to change things up every once in awhile so I go on the hunt for new (easy!) recipes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. In this case one failed completely and the other just wasn't what I was expecting.

My first recipe was a variation of a s'more. Now, to be fair, this was an off-the-cuff attempt at something a co-worker made. She brought in these lovely little bites that she called Baked S'Mores and said it was super easy. So, like the idiot I am, I thought I'd try to make them without actually getting a recipe from her. I figured, it's graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate baked together, how hard can it be? Answer-hard for stupid people like me.

My approach was pretty haphazard with just a guesstimation of a recipe. Here's what I did-
Greased a mini-muffin pan. Put crumbled up graham crackers on the bottom of each muffin dish, layered a wedge of Hershey's chocolate bar on top, then 3-4 mini-marshmallows. More crumbled graham crackers and another wedge of chocolate on top:

 Then I baked it for waaaaaaay too long (on 325 degrees). See, this might have turned out ok had I not over baked it. I dunno. Anyhow. Big fat FAIL. I think it should have been more like this recipe from allrecipes.com. If I had done a simple google first I would have realized that but I figured-it's S'mores, how can you mess that up? Apparently you can.

Nevertheless, I will try this again per the recipe above and I'll let you know how it turns out.

The second recipe was something I found from a blog I visit called, With a Cherry On Top. It was for Homemade Oreos. You can find the recipe on her blog here.

These didn't turn out too badly but they just didn't taste like an Oreo to me... I was sort of disappointed. I think the recipe for the filling had too much vanilla so I might try these again but cut down on vanilla. The cookie part was ok, but again, not like an Oreo. I made them for my husbands birthday since he isn't a big fan of cake but loves Oreos. I think he was underwhelmed too. I should have just stuck with something I know he really likes for his birthday but I really thought these would be good (and, to be fair, they weren't bad by any means...but wow-it's difficult to replicate the yumminess of Oreos).

I might try this recipe again but tweak it a little (but we see how my off-the-cuff tweaking can go so who knows).

New Orleans...

Haven't posted due to being out of town. The husband and I took a long needed mini vacation to New Orleans with some friends. It was fun but tiring (we drove).

I'll load some pics later but for now just stare at these lovelies:

yum.

Chihuly Exhibit

I don't remember how or when I was first introduced to Dale Chihuly's work but I have to say I love it. And not just him specifically but the whole blown glass art thing all together. Of course, he's branded well so everyone who thinks blown glass thinks =Chihuly. Frankly, blown glass is blown glass is blown glass to me. You could show me a piece of glass washed up from the sea, say its a Chihuly and I'd be like, "Wow, it's gorgeous!". I always marvel at why this guy specifically is famous, and his work can sell for thousands, but some nobody's blown glass is like, a cereal bowl at Ross for $4.00 (and I'm sure a million and one art conoisseurs could tell me the reason is because he does, blah,blah,blah and those others don't do yada,yada,yada but for us simple folk let's just ignore the whole art class 101 breakdown and just say he's got stellar name branding mmmmkay?).

Personally, I say it's cuz he looks like a crazy pirate who dresses like a clown but I'm just hypothesizing here.

Whatever the reason, his work is famous and I got to go to the recent exhibit that opened in St. Pete, FL. It was awesome. His work really is beautiful (even without all the art 101 lessons) and I just couldn't resist reaching out and touching almost all of the pieces in awe. This pretty much gave my husband a heart attack each time I did it because he was like, "Please don't touch that-we can't afford any of the stuff in here if you break it!" Luckily, I broke nothing and his wallet sanity heart was in tact at the end of the exhibit.

I couldn't take pictures but just let me say it was phenomenal. If you're ever in the St. Pete area I highly recommend stopping in. You can get info and tickets here.

DIY Book Wreath:

Okay, I'm gonna show you a quick idea of how I made my book wreath but if you want more directions (and to give props) I actually got this idea from Living with Lindsay. Feel free to click the link for info.

First, I bought a cheap-o book from the thrift store.(1.50):

What I liked about this book was the texture of the pages:

 I started by painting the outter pages a nice metallic gold:

Which turned out very pretty but probably not really noticeable in the end (you could probably skip this step and it wouldn't look any different):

Then I went crazy and tore those pages out. I used a styrofoam wreath from the dollar store (1.00 obviously):

 I made my book pages into an S shape and then stapled the bottom to secure:

 At first I started by stapling them around the wreath but that wasn't working so well so I did eventually hot glue everything.

I kept going until the wreath was full and then I assessed and filled in bare spots.

In the end, I did end up rolling some pages instead of S-shaping them (make sense?) to give more texture/variety. The rolled pages were to fill in the bare areas:

This was a very easy (and inexpensive! Only $2.50) project that only took me about 45min-1hour to make. I did it while watching a movie so it went fairly quickly.

 I secured a ribbon that I had laying around to the back to hang it on my mirror. And since this wreath is basically weightless (pages and styrofoam=not much) I didn't even secure it to the wall. I just hung the ribbon over my mirror (which is leaning against the wall) and let the weight of the mirror hold it up.

 And it was as easy as that! Pretty, huh?

Copy Cat fashion

I know, I know, I said I'd give a quick tutorial on my book wreath but...well, have I mentioned before that I'm lazy? And stubborn? And basically, I only do things when I feel like it. So, since I'm in the mood for fashion rather than decor, I decided to show my copy cat replication of a look I saw on Weeds.

I don't watch Weeds any longer (got too annoyed with the direction the show was moving) but as I was browsing Showtime I stopped on it.
 And thank goodness I did because one of the things I loved the most about the show was Mary-Louise Parker's character's style (is this statement even grammatically correct?!). She always looked cool but not like she was trying to look too young (aka-like a hoor). She plays a mom with 2 kids...yet she always dressed  fashionably (as only Hollywood can)-no mom jeans and sneakers for her!
(and yes, I know I spelled whore wrong. It's what I call a whore who is so whore-ish that she is a Hoor [with a capital H]. And now I fear that I should say a prayer or something because I just said the word whore in 1 sentence, like, 50 times.)

Anyhow.

I saw this outfit and fell in love with the casual coolness of it:

Forgive the crappy quality--I just clicked a pic fast from the tv screen.

I call this look hippy cowboy.

And so I set off trying to replicate it.
I wanted to spend little to nothing on this "outfit" so I started by shopping at home.
If you notice those boots only go shin high and then she's wearing burgundy knee highs (LOVE!).

So, some thrifting later (and a stop at Walmart for knee highs) and here's my replication:

Sure, the shirts white and not exactly like hers but, for the most part, I think I've got the look down.
Boots? Check.
Knee highs? Check.
Belt? Check.
Jean shorts? Check.
Jacket? Check.

Total to replicate this look? 12.00 (knee highs and jean shorts).

What do you think? Did I get close enough to call it a copy cat?