*Grin*

STOP! Take my poll. It's over there <---, above my profile.
Ok, now continue :)
First, I would like all of you to partake in my joy in the fact that when I stumbled out of bed this morning to take the puppies out, it was cool out. As in... I was a little sad that I had just rolled out of my nice warm bed and was standing outside in my pjs cool... Now, I know that it won't stay this way. I'm sure that this is just leftovers from Ike or something like that, but still... It was a nice change of pace. I kinda like not sweating by 7 AM. It was a nice little change. I'd also like to talk about this...

I'm ever so mildly in love with it. See, I have this thing for mustard yellow... and with this nice warm plaid... *sigh*... I've been needing a new bag. Mine is fabulous, gun-metal gray, shiny "patent leather", the perfect size and shape... but alas... I've used it till it's at the end of its life. the handles are peeling, and the zipper pulls are breaking. It's time to move on. I can accept that. And to ease my suffering... I have this pretty little jewel! I'm just so happy with it :)

Moving on... Happy Monday!

Me and My Hand

You know, I've been thinking recently that I really love all my new bloggy friends. Josh makes fun of me for being totally anti-social except when it comes to the blog world (and it's true...). You have all become a very real support system to me in ways that you may never know. Sometimes I think about this and how funny it is that I've never met any of you in person (well, except for my IRL friends who come play :)). I mean, I feel like you can tell a lot about a person by their physical traits (no, I'm not saying that I judge people by their outward appearance, it's just that it's interesting to see the body and soul combined, you know?). Anyway, today I've decided that I'd like to share a little bit of me with you. So today I give you, my left hand. You excited yet? You should be. Anyway...

From spare time

This is my left hand. It says that I'm married to a wonderful hubby who loves me. It says that I'm pasty white and the only reason I go outside is so that the puppies' bladders don't explode. It says that I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that I'm not really afraid of needles, or being labeled (which, by the way, I told Lula that I would tell the harrowing drama of my tattoo one day, and I will, just not today). If you look closely, it says that I keep my fingernails short (a spill-over from the decade during my childhood in which I played piano and had to keep them trimmed at all times). If you saw it in person, you'd see that I have small fingers (as in, when I picked up my wedding band from the jewelers, he asked me if it was a child's ring) which is fine since I'm just barely over 5' tall. You can't really tell in this picture, but at the moment the fingernail on my ringfinger has a small dent in it from where I nearly sliced my finger open the other day (thank you Jesus for giving us fingernails!). If you flip it over, there's still a faint remnant of the callouses that used to inhabit my hands at the base of my fingers from the years that I was a gymnast.
Well, I suppose that's about the extent of what this hand'll tell you... Anyway... Have a happy day!



***Seven years ago today, I was sitting in Physics, waiting for Dr. Bottrell to start class. He walked in, turned on the tv and said, "Some things are much more important than Physics". I haven't forgotten.***

Ahhh... Autumn...

I love Autumn (really, I love whatever season comes next, if you know what I mean)(not that I'm experiencing it yet, as I wouldn't call 95 degrees autumn, but whatever, everyone else is talking about it, and I like living vicariously through the seasons in the rest of the world). It's such an exciting time of the year. It makes me think of being a kid, going to school, plaid, books, the thrill of changing weather... I also really love the colors of autumn. Like the colors in this...

From spare time

I also love that after Gustav, my yard is putting on some really great September clothes. Like these that have sprouted all over my yard...

From spare time

From spare time

and these (these are my favorites!)

From spare time

Mostly I love that so many of the flowers are red! And that I don't have to do anything to make them grow (this is especially good considering my extremely potent ability to kill all plant life placed into my care (I'd like to remind everyone of the Man-Eater. The one thing Josh told me when we moved into this house, the one thing that he said was most important, he told me not to kill the Man Eater and everything else would be ok. He said that it was very special and that I shouldn't worry cause it had lasted 40 some-odd years up to this point, and surely it would be fine. Yeah, well... tell that to the Man Eater corpse that's sitting in my backyard waiting to be burned (I mean, you can blame it on the fact that it bloomed and that's what happens, but I know it was me))).
That's all. :D

Craft Time!

Ok Kids, on today's show, I'd like to talk a little bit about magnets. Now, I'm sure none of you have this problem, but in my house, there is a serious lack of strong magnets on the fridge. We have some of those flat ones that are cool, but can't really hold a sheet of paper up, but we only have like 2 that can do their job. Anyway, I've been wanting to get some more magnets for my fridge, but I wanted cute ones, and I've been having trouble. So the other day, I was browsing Etsy, and I saw these. I thought to myself, wow, those are cute. But I couldn't convince myself that they were worth a dollar apiece plus shipping and handling, you know? So I stared at them for a while, cause that's what I do when I see something I want but decide I don't need. And I realized, I can totally make those! So I went to Hobby Lobby, got the supplies and made totally cute knock-offs. I will now proceed to share my secrets with you.
First, you need... ModPodge (I keep the matte kind on hand at all times), a brush (or sponge, or whatever you apply ModPodge with), scissors, cute paper (I got this scrapbook paper set on clearance for like 3 dollars), regular black round magnets (I found them in the craft aisle at walmart), and glass pebbles (this is a really bad picture of them, but you'll see them later. At Hobby Lobby they're in the wedding section. I recommend the big (a little bigger than a quarter) ones that are totally clear. They didn't have the totally clear ones when I went, so I settled for the irridescent ones. They're still cute, just way shinier.


The first thing you're going to do is cut out chunks of paper (I also had some random circle cut-outs that were the right size, so I threw those in) that are slightly bigger than the pebbles (I normally do about 2" by 2").

Now, gloop some Modpodge on a piece of paper, and plop one of the pebbles flat-side-down strait on it. Press it down a little to make sure it kinda seals.

You'll end up with a bunch of these...

From A Life of Delight

Now, when you look at them, you'll notice that they look milky because of the ModPodge, like this...

From A Life of Delight

Don't worry about it. As the ModPodge dries, it'll turn clear. Promise. Ok, now... When they've dried (make sure that there's at least not any wet glue still around the outside), you're going to cut off the excess paper by cutting around the stone. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that the bottom blade of your scissors is the one closest to the stone. Get as close as you can and just trim off that excess paper.

From A Life of Delight

Now, flip them all over so that they're paper side up. Take your magnets (I like to seperate mine before starting this part), put some modpodge strait on the magnet (you don't want it to be super thick, but you want the magnet to have a layer of white), then stick the magnet on the stones. At this point, I like to (carefully) flip them over so that they're resting on the magnet. The main reason is that sometimes the stone will shift with the weight of the magnet, and it'll slide around before it dries. Now, just wait for them to dry, and you're done!

From A Life of Delight

These make great stocking stuffers, gifts for teachers, I put some in each of my swap boxes... They're just so easy. You could also use pictures, or drawings, stickers... whatever!
Anyway, enjoy!

My First Swap!

So... I got home this afternoon, and I was greeted by this...

From Swap

When I opened it, I found lots of these...

From Swap

In which I found all of these...

From Swap

I took a close up of the jewelery because it is so pretty...

From Swap

Funny story... See that book? No, not the awesome cookbook... the one called "Created to be His Help Mate". Yeah... not even a week ago, one of my best friends told me that I might want to check it out. Well, of course, I totally put it in the back of my mind, and nearly forgot all about it. Then, behold! Here it is, in a package sent to me from a perfect stranger :) I love the way God works. Apparently He has something to teach me through this book :)

A Bit of Ganache

First, thank you all so very much for your honesty. My sister was happy to get so much input.

Now... a word on ganache. Being the etymology nerd that I am, I would like you all to know that the word "ganache" is a french term originally used (loosely) to call somebody a fool. One day, a chocolatier (greatest job in the world!) accidentally spilled some cream into some chocolate that he was melting. The result was ganache (an accident, "foolish").
Anyway... I have only recently discovered my love of ganache. It was always one of those things that I thought was amazing, but I was too scared to even attempt it because I just knew that it would be insanely difficult.
So, for a while now, I've been on a search for the perfect brownie recipe. Many that I've found come with a frosting recipe (every one has been a powdered sugar/cocoa powder base). None of them have really spoken to me. I couldn't figure out why they never seemed chocolatey enough (has anyone else had this problem, or is it just me?). Moving on... a while back, my IRL friend, KD posted her mom's brownie recipe. I decided to give it a shot. I know her mom, I like her mom, and I can imagine her mom making awesome brownies.
As they were baking, I got to thinking about ganache... I wondered how difficult it really was... I mean, I love to bake, and I've gotten pretty adventurous as of late. Also, I'm totally into frosting on brownies, and I knew that ganache could be used as frosting, and I had become totally disenchanted with all the frosting recipes that called themselves frosting, and I thought that maybe if I called it ganache, it would taste better, and I'm sorry for this run-on attrocity.
So to google I went. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Ganache has got to be one of the simplest things to make (and with insanely amazing results, I might add). I feel like it's kinda like pasta; pasta is really easy to make good, but it takes quite a bit of skill to totally kill it, or to make it totally killer, you know?
Moving on... Ganache... To make ganache, you first boil cream (I just brought the cream to a boil cause boiling dairy makes me nervous), and then you pour it over chopped chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you're not supposed to use chips... you're supposed to use baking chocolate that you've chopped). Then you stir them together. That's it. There are tons of variations... The most important thing (as far as I can tell) is that you should never have more cream than chocolate. So if you use a cup of chocolate, don't use more than a cup of cream. Other than that, you're golden. Now I (being me), didn't have quite as much cream as I wanted, so I put a splash of milk in. This was wrong :/ Don't get me wrong, it still made something delectable, but it never really coagulated, you know? It remained a little too liquid to be a good frosting. So I stuck the brownies with the liquid ganache frosting in the fridge (which was fine by me since I don't like warm baked goods and prefer them to be cold anyway). Once cooled, my ganache solidified just the right amount.
Basically, ganache is one of those things that is used as a filling for truffles, an icing for cake, a frosting for anything... it's just wonderful, and it totally brought out the chocolateness of the brownies, if you know what I'm saying. So... the next time you need a little fancyness in the kitchen... make some ganache... it's wonderful. Also, play around with it. Make up your own rules. Have fun :)
Next time, I think I'll try whipping it once it has cooled a little to make a fluffier frosting...

I Promise I'll Write a Real Post Soon!

First... ok people, this is another booger moment. I'm looking for complete honesty here. This is not the time to make me feel good about myself. This is not the time to be diplomatic. I need you to keep it real. My sister has requested my advice, and I'm enlisting you all (with her permission). She's wondering about the price of her bags. Is $40 too much? Too little? Just right? HONESTY people. If you're uncomfortable putting your real thoughts into comment form, shoot me an email at lbspringer@gmail.com Seriously, help a sister out :)
But until then... My sister has posted a couple more items on her Etsy site.



And... she said she'll give free shipping to anyone who mentions my name :D