I've Been Busy

Since my last post I've just been wicked busy. I made peanut butter cheesecake brownie babies, I made no bake cookies, and I made strawberry jam. All three are great!

The brownie babies you definitely need to use paper liners for like the recipe says. I didn't have any so I just sprayed the pan, but the bottoms stuck because the peanut butter and cream cheese 'filling' is so heavy. Instead of cool whip I used some heavy cream to make my own whipped cream.

Yesterday I wanted cookies, but we're actually experiencing warm weather so there was no way I was turning the oven on. Solution- no bakes! I added coconut and cut up almonds to them. And I think next time I'll cut back on the sugar because they are just way too sweet.

The jam turned out great. I used the recipe off the pectin box. My sister has already had a peanut butter and jam sandwich with it. She said it tastes just like it smells -awesome! I tried some on a sandwich but I've never been a huge fan of jam and jelly. When I want a sandwich I don't want a sweet one. My dad thinks I'm nuts because I spent hours making it and I bought all the stuff to make it, but I probably won't eat it. I wanted to make it because I wanted to make it. I'm giving half of it away. The batch made nine jars! I couldn't have been happier than when I found out that it had sealed correctly. I was so worried that I had done something wrong at first.

Last night my sister and I house sat for our Aunt Taunya. Basically we were just there to make sure the house didn't spontaneously combust or anything. They've lost two houses to fires. They have password protected wifi, so even though I brought my laptop with the intent of blogging, I couldn't. Have you ever been in a house where everything is so open that every noise sounds louder than it really is? Their house is like that so I didn't sleep well last night. I think I'm taking a nap this afternoon.

I'm going to go and enjoy this warm weather while we've got it!

Failed Strawberry Creations

So far the most successful thing I have done with those strawberries is put them in a big gallon size freezer bag and make a smoothie with some of them. Sunday I made the virgin strawberry bellinis. No one really liked them. I didn't think it tasted too bad, but the carbonation in the sparkling cider made me feel sick. (I don't drink carbonated drinks very often.) Even though I won't make it again maybe someone else will try it and like it. They were actually really easy to make!

Virgin Strawberry Bellinis
14 ounces fresh strawberries
6 ounces water
1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
3 ounces chilled sparkling apple cider

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil 14 ounces of hulled fresh strawberries, 6 ounces of water and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. Remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in 1 1/2 ounces of fresh lemon juice. Transfer the strawberry mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth; strain through a fine sieve. Pour 1 ounce of the strawberry puree into each of 5 flutes and top with 3 ounces of chilled sparkling apple cider.

We didn't use all the strawberry puree from the bellinis, so I decided to use it to try and make cookies. Instead of following the recipe for strawberry cookies that I had. Bad idea! I won't elaborate on that one.... I may try to make strawberry cookies some other day, following the recipe, if I do I'll post about it.

The next thing I have to do with the strawberries is try making jam with them! I need to borrow the canning equipment from my grandma.

Right now I'm just tired and hungry. One thing I know is I don't want strawberry anything. My mom is cooking Hamburger Helper- yum!

Our Findings

I consider yesterday a very successful shopping trip! I found four shirts. The three in the first picture and the one I'm wearing in the second picture. I also found a black sweater that I didn't take a picture of. I found an awesome pair of cargo pants (I'm wearing them in the second picture) and six pairs of jeans. I bought all the jeans at the Salvation Army because I could not find any jeans at the mall. It was the most frustrating thing! I was not going to pay for jeans with giant rips in them just because they are "in style". I'm not very gentle with my jeans, so I need them to hold up. Then, some stores had weird sizes. One store would only have even numbers and another would only have odd numbers. I would always fall in between two numbers! I won't pay for pants that don't fit me right. Oh well. I saved money by going to the Salvation Army, and they already have that comfy feel to them.



I also found two books at the Salvation Army.


Then when we woke up this morning my mom and dad seemed to both be in bad moods so my mom and I went to a flea market to get out of the house. We found this! It holds our potatoes and onions. We were worried about finding a place for it, but it fits right next to the stove.


I also found this cool penny in a bottle.



Belated Happy 4th! Last night I made the non alcoholic version of Mrs. B's Sangria. It's good!

Strawberries

Just over 8 pounds of strawberries there. (Or strawbabies as some of my family members affectionately call them.) We went and picked them this morning over at Dutton Farm. This is something we started doing last year and I'm glad we did. It's fun! Sure, I've picked strawberries off my aunt's bush before, but there are rows and rows of strawberries here!

The only problem was that today is the first day in about two weeks that it hasn't been raining. The rain destroyed a lot of the strawberries. It was difficult to pick through all the bad ones to find the good ones.

I've got plans for these strawbabies! I'm going to-
Make jam
Make cookies
Make virgin strawberry bellinis
And I'm going to freeze a bunch to use for smoothies!

I do not plan on sitting and eating any of them. I actually can't stand the texture of berries, so the only way I'll eat them is buy making something with them. There's plenty for my mom and sister to enjoy eating, though!

I'll post any recipes I use once I start making stuff. It needs to be soon, because I can't let these sit for too long.

Two Posts That Inspired Me

This morning I read two blog posts that inspired me. I rushed to work and forgot all about them, but then I came home and re-read them and was re-inspired by their awesomeness. The two posts are Brandi's Monday Mission, and Jamie's post about not being afraid to have your own style. I'm sitting here now trying to figure out if they can be connected in any way, but that's just that part of my brain talking. The part that needs to analyze everything and find connections. Instead of listening to that part of my brain I'm going to continue writing about why these posts inspired me so much!

First Brandi's doing it imperfectly. Could this have posted at any better time? I don't think so. I've got all these creative ideas flowing through my head, even as I type. The problem is I would most likely start them, and quickly decide I'm not doing it 'right'. This is why I stop doing so many things I love doing. Writing for one example. I criticize myself, and I can be brutal, so I just stop doing whatever it is. Well I'm going to write this quote down somewhere so I can see it next time I think of stopping in the middle of a project. "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Julia Cameron

Now Jamie's fearless fashion sense. Fashion scares me. Where I live it's all jeans and t-shirts. There are exceptions, but the majority of people (all ages)wear jeans and t-shirts. That's what I wear, it's what I'm used to. And in my family we all wince at the thought of spending a lot of money on our clothes. Just looking at the price tags on the nicer clothes makes me want to die. $20 for a shirt? $50 for pants?! How can anyone spend that much? I guess I do have that negative view of fashion that Jamie talks about.

Anyway, for school in September I need to have white button up shirts and black dress pants. When I first realized this I had no clue what I was going to do. I still don't. I hate walking into stores where they sell these kinds of clothes. I feel so out of place. I own a few shirts now, but I'm stumped on the pants. I'm going to the mall this weekend, so I guess I'll look there. I also want to update my wardrobe. I've never really gone clothes shopping at the mall before, so this will definitely be interesting! I'll be wincing the entire time, but I swear I'm going to actually buy some nice clothes! Maybe I'll ask my cousin to come with us, she'll defend me when my mom tries to make me buy clothes I know I'll never wear.

Thank you Brandi and Jamie! This is why I love blogging, I know I'll always be inspired daily by wonderful people.

Herbs and Flowers

We were shopping at Walmart this morning and what do I see sitting there? An herb garden kit! I've been wanting to try this again, (I had a similar kit years ago) I just hope they live. The box says "guaranteed to grow", but who knows with me?

Then I made my dad take me to Beadniks (gotta love that store!) so I could buy stuff, and I found that little egg shaped thing. It was called 'Fairies' Favorite Flower!' and said 'Believed To Attract Fairies!' I bought it without a second thought. Something as small as that is just wicked convenient, it fits right on my windowsill. It also says it's guaranteed to grow, but most of the seeds looked crushed.

Fingers crossed that I don't really have a black thumb! Have a good Sunday. <3

Books, Movies, and LIFE

On Wednesday my graduation present from my parents came in the mail. They got me a kindle! They told me what it was before they ordered it 1- to ask if I would want it or not and 2- because it would not be here in time to give me on graduation. I'm wicked happy! It is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. I can order books right off amazon with it, and I get them in less than a minute. I can upload mp3 files on it from my computer, but I haven't tried that yet. I also haven't tried out the text to speech thing yet. I have, however, figured out that I can go online to just about any website with it.

When I got it I immediately started reading. I found out that Phantom of The Opera (the book) was free and ordered that. I like the movie better. Last night I bought Earth Power by Scott Cunningham. One of the writers at The Modern Pagan wrote about it and I decided it would be neat to read.

Meanwhile the book that I am supposed to be wrecking (even more than it already is) sits there untouched... Ever feel like you just don't have enough time to do everything? I had a friend drag Tia and I to the movies last night to see My Sister's Keeper. I really didn't want to go. I knew it was a sad movie that would make me cry. And guess what- it made me cry! The worst part was we missed the 7:00 showing (because I only had my debit card, no cash, and apparently this stupid theatre is so old they not only don't have any seats with cup holders but they don't accept debit cards!) so we walked around wasting time until the 9:00 showing.

Today I plan on actually spending time at home. When I get busy I tend to neglect things (like laundry...) and my room's a mess. A mess by my standards at least. It's probably clean compared to my sister's room!

Hell, Thy Name is Factory Work

*I plan on this being my one and only rant about my new summer job. Whether that is that case or not depends on other factors. Feel free to not read it. I need to rant.

So, that summer job I just started today? I hate it. Factories suck!! I don't know how my parents do it. I was utterly bored and depressed by noon. I work in a factory that decorates and packages makeup containers. I was sitting putting mascara bottles in a box all day. 22 in a row, 4 rows, 10 layers. I think I did 9 or 10 boxes. The bottles need to be packed very tight so they don't move during shipping. The box is too small, the foam that goes between each layer is too big, and the bottles don't like to fit.

I miss school. I have nothing to keep my mind occupied by all day. Music isn't allowed. All the machines are too loud anyway- earplugs are required. So here's what I did. I came up with different names for the place. My favorites- a soul sucking black hole, and a pit of despair full of misery where people's dreams go to die.

Half the people have the correct attitude about the place. "You're going to school in the fall, right?" I nod yes "That's good! You don't want to stay here forever!" other people are just weird... They ask me "How are you liking it?" I reply "I don't." and they look strangely disappointed. Then they ask me if I'm coming back. I tell them yes and they just walk away mumbling stuff I can't hear because the machines are too loud.

The person I was working with today just told me "Factory work isn't for everyone." Well I guess so!! I am serious when I say that there is nothing to occupy my mind. The machines are too loud to talk to anyone, and the work is all so simple it's done without any thought. They should just train monkeys to do it. They'd work for peanuts.

At least it's only for the summer. But suddenly my summer is looking very long.

Graduation

It's done and over with! It doesn't seem real. I feel like today didn't really happen. But I graduated today! The weather was great. No rain, and not too hot. We were all really scared we would end up having it in the gym- which would not have been fun with the humidity!

I got a lot of awards and scholarships. I really don't feel like listing them- but I got over $10,000 in scholarships. That'll take a dent out of my college tuition! The ceremony went off perfectly- for us at least. I'm sure the principal will have a few complaints. Andreas 'accidentally' falling down the stairs after receiving his diploma. Or how we all threw our caps in the air like he asked us not to. It was great.

The best part for me, though, was afterwards. I got to spend the whole day eating good food (a lot of desserts!) and hanging out with the people who mean the most to me. It seems kind of silly, how much I enjoy just spending time with my whole family.

It's 9:30 and I'm exhausted. No parties for me. I don't drink (even though I believe the drinking age should be 18) because my parents don't want me to. My Aunt Jen did give me a bottle of strawberry rum as a joke, though. It's going to sit on my shelf for a little while I guess!

I start my summer job on Monday. I'll be working in a factory packaging mascara bottles. My mom works there, so she got me the job. It won't be fun, but it's money! And thank gods it's only temporary. I wish I could take a week off. I'm going "out of the frying pan, into the fire" as everyone keeps saying. I'll take my break at the end of the summer right before I leave for school, though.

Trip to Boston

Finally I have a few minutes to post these pictures!

Last Friday was the senior class trip. It took some convincing, but we got the school board to let us go out of state to Boston! Our town is literally on the corner of New Hampshire, right next to Mass. and Vermont, so none of us thought it was a big deal to drive two hours into Mass.

When we got to Boston first thing we did was watch a cool 3D movie about the sea. We then had the chance to go see all the cool animals in the aquarium. The last time most of us had been to the aquarium was for our 2nd grade field trip there. After the aquarium we had lunch and went shopping at Quincy Market! This was my first time visiting Quincy Market, and it was so neat! There were more places to eat and shop at than I could count. When our two hours were up (that was so not long enough if you asked any of us)we went on a tour of Fenway Park. I've been there for games before, so it was really weird to see it empty. Because we live in New Hampshire most of the people are Red Sox fans. There are a couple Yankee fans in my class, though. They got razzed a lot on the trip.

After the tour we went on our dinner/dance cruise. It was so much fun! Sad enough, everyone agreed that it was even better than prom. There were other schools on the boat so there was a lot of socializing. What really made it great was the DJ. There was no break between songs, it was just an endless stream of good music.

It was a great trip. There were so many other fun moments that I couldn't catch on camera. Like how we got lost multiple times and when we asked for directions the person we asked didn't speak English. Lucky us Nate had a GPS on his ipod. Or when Drew got a wicked bad nosebleed on the bus and we stopped it with a tampon. The two people on bikes stopped at the same stoplight as us who started kissing as the boys on the bus cheered them on. Or that other couple we saw making out on the sidewalk on our way home. The boys yelled to them too. The other bus full of teenagers we saw on our way to Boston that we kept passing. People eventually wrote cellphone numbers on paper so they could text back and forth. It turns out they were from New York. It's too bad we never caught up with them.

I don't like cities (at all) but if I have to go to one, Boston is the one I choose.