A Few Of My Favorite Things

THIS weekend was all about my favorite things.  I spent time baking and creating.  A nice casual dinner with neighbors meant I was able to bake dessert.  And OH BOY, what a dessert I baked.  I found the recipe here and since she seems to be my go to for all recipes decadent and sinful, I knew it would be good.



Seriously, how can a recipe that calls for 11 Milky Way bars be bad?

So you start by melting 8 of the candy bars with a stick of margarine.  Again, how can this be bad?





 

The dry ingredients and buttermilk.  Notice the little hand held mixer I use.  Someone could sure make me happy and buy me a KITCHEN AID MIXER for Christmas and I wouldn't complain. (hint, hint)

And of course, nothing goes better with chocolate than vanilla, so this was in the mix too.



I love this stuff!!!!!!!

Oh, and what was even more fun was that I got to use my Grandmother's sifter to sift the flour and salt.  I forgot I had this and was so happy when I stumbled across it.  I love to think about how many thousands of times my sweet grandma used this.  It makes me happy every time I use it even if it isn't so pretty looking anymore.  I think it is just perfect and love the old paint on the handle and the crank.





Once the chocolate bars were all melted it was time to blend everything together.  And just for the record, I did not share the bowl with anyone.  All that leftover chocolaty goodness was MINE!!!



I could have just eaten this and never made the cake, it was that good.

Once that went in the oven I started the frosting.  3 milky way bars and another stick of margarine plus a lot of  powdered sugar, some milk and vanilla, and you have got a wonderful frosting.  Throw in some pecans and you have HEAVEN on a cake.



The finished product.  Thank you Pioneer  Woman for yet another wonderful recipe.



Another wonderful thing about cooking and baking is I get to wear fun aprons, which I have a real love for.  My dear sister-in-law found me this homemade apron from the 1930's and sent it to me.  I just love wearing it.  It is so cute, don't you think?



  I just love it.



Here's the back view.  I wasn't quite sure how to take this, hahaha.



So that was all of my baking fun yesterday.  Today, I spent time working on another mixed media piece.  Good thing I enjoy the process because sometimes I wonder what on earth I am doing.  This is one of those times.  I somehow can not put what is in my head onto the canvas.  I think I rush the process because I am in a hurry to get my finished product.  I don't always wait for each layer to dry as it should, and I end up being really sorry I was in such a hurry.  Oh well, live and learn.  It's not finished yet, I still have to figure out how to make it look just right.  And give it a title.



Working on "Me". 



Let me just make this clear, I hate FACES!!!!  I am awful at painting them and believe it is just one of those things in art you are either good at or you aren't.  I clearly am not one of those in the good category.



I am not sure how to fix this.  My face is too prominent and i want to tone it down by maybe whitewashing over it, but I am afraid all the other colors will bleed if I do that and I will end up looking like a hot mess. 

So this is what it looks like so far. 



I found some more lines from that birthday card I had mentioned in another post.  They seem to sum up where I am at right now in my life.  I am not quite where I want to be, but am trying to keep moving forward and be happy with each stage along my journey.  Reading these words helps to remind me of that.

 So, I'll let you know how it ends up.  Hopefully I won't mess it up too bad trying to fix it.  I  really like some of the papers I used on here and would hate for the whole thing to end up in the trash. 

The only other thing I have to say it this, Jeanne Oliver, if you read this post, PLEASE HURRY UP and get your Mixed Media Art Workshop on-line because sister, I need some SERIOUS HELP :)