oh my god cookies

I just stumbled on another unnecessary item that I NEED!!

I love baking sugar cookies. I usually bake sugar cookies when I find myself in a slump. Today, I found an Etsy page called WarpZone Custom Cookie cutters. Here are some of my favorites!

If that doesn't peak your interest they have less cute, more nerdy options like Dr. Who themed cutters.

weird game

I bring you this flash game.

Basically, you are at a noodle shop and need to pour water in peoples noodles. Arrow keys move your character and when you want to pour your water press the up arrow. 100 happy customers equals a win!

To begin, click the left character letters under the billboard.

Play Free Games at GamesList.com

food truck festival

Andy came home from work on Friday and informed me that on Saturday we would be going to the Texas Food Truckin' Fest. 

When we arrived, I was surprised to find out that the festival was being held just outside of Rangers Field. They had food trucks lined up next to the park and tickets were purchasable from the regular baseball ticket booth. We entered and the first thing to greet my eyes was a slew of disembodied torsos.

Oh my!

After that, we found our way to the food trucks. There were roughly about 30 trucks. I was thrown off by how small this was because of my previous experience with food festivals. I am originally from Chicago, The Taste of Chicago is my "standard" of food festivals.

Thinking about it now, it was the perfect amount of trucks...HOWEVER, they could have made a little more room for walking. Between people waiting for their food and people trying to read the menus; the areas they made for walking became clogged with confused people and baby strollers.

Also, since this was a family affair...children were provided with sidewalk chalk. Which was charming and enjoyable to view their art, but made for unexpected human caltrops. Here is my favorite caltrop who was drawing pictures of food all over the festival. IRONY!!

Enough of me blubbering on about nonsense, let's get to the food !!

I began my food adventure, with a tiki sized Cappuccino Pina Colada from Maui Wowi. Which honestly, turned out to be my favorite item from the festival. It was smooth and creamy. It was a total surprise and I got to keep my tiki cup. WIN!

The next truck we went to was the Bacon Lover's Truck. Here, Andy ordered the Red Hot Cheesy Pepper Sandwich. It had thick bacon, fresh ingredients, large portion size, and plenty of grilled cheese. Andy was super happy with his choice and was cooing like a baby with every bite.

Next, we went to Lee Malone's Sliders & Fries. Andy choose this truck for its rustic image. He said, "To compete with all these shiny new trucks, they must be doing something right."

Andy ordered two different sliders and some fries. One of the sliders was a peanut butter, bacon, and jelly burger.

I tried this even though I am "off meat". I mean, what a unique idea! It was crazy delicious and the fries were AMAZING! Which says a lot since, I rarely-to-never eat potato. That pretty much sums things up. So, until next time....

clubs and cameras

Last night, I went out on the town. I began my short lived adventure at the Soda Bar at NYLO, in Dallas. Honestly, I don't really go out "bar hopping" or "clubbing" anymore. However, it was my friend's birthday! Like a good friend, I went.

Somehow my friends managed to get us kicked out of Soda Bar. So, we left and tried to go to It'll DO club to dance, but it was closed. Then, we tried to go to Beauty Bar. Parking was terrible so like the grumpy old woman I am, I went home.

The good news? I got this awesome shot with my iPhone at the Soda Bar. You can almost make out the huge B and G that people stand between and take pictures. I was amazed how many people stand there trying their best to be the I...to complete the word BIG. You know, for Big D a.k.a. Dallas. Oh, and that blue thing? Infinity pool.

Don't be afraid to click the image to see better details!

I used the app called Panorama 360. Which allows you to take a series of images and then it laces it together by way of magic. I am pretty happy with these results and plan to use this app ALL THE TIME!

be yourself

blonde hair and andy

Andy is a Japanese school girl. I sent him a picture of my new blonde hair and he send this back.

He adjusted the color to pastel and added the hearts...all on his cellphone. 

never grow up

Never grow up! by definelulu 

"Be the princess you are. Let your inner child free. Don't act your age. Laugh. Play. Explore. Be silly. Don't be afraid of what other people think." - These are my words of advice. Here is a fashion set based on that idea. YAY!

paper and penpals

Yet, another blog about penpals. I know, talking about my penpals is akin to watching Grandma's vacation slides.

TOO BAD!!

One of my penpals is my "crafting" penpal. We send craft items. I have been trying to figure out what to send. In a moment of pure genius, I ran off to locate my Papertoy Monsters book.

This book is filled with pre-made monsters and directions. I had originally purchased it as a gift and ended up keeping it for myself. I thought it would be a good item to send my penpal...

Again, greed took over and I couldn't even part with one paper toy monster.

Embarrassed, I began scouring the internet for similar items. I stumbled on an italian website called, minimimmo.com. This website has a cute little character and a free printable. People pose this little guy and send pictures of him from around the world.

Even though this was a perfect fit for my penpal, I was curious about what other printables I could find. I then stumbled on to another website called papercritters.com. This is a website (and ipad program) that allows you to custom design your own little paper character. You can save the characters, print your characters, and print characters created by other people. You can also embed your character design online, which ends up looking like this.

Here is the one I created.

After bookmarking these fun projects, I decided I had to print them out and build them right away!

Here are the printed versions.

Not that I need more toys. I have a slight addiction to Kidrobot and Rotofugi. As evident by the following images.

Can you spot the finished products?

wholesome and yogurt

I am making yogurt. A long time ago, I was surprised to learn that yogurt was a fairly simple thing to do. So this is going to double as a very simple how-to...recipe...thing.

I begin by making sure all my tools are clean. I don't want any "bad bacterias" growing.

Tools

• Whisk
• Large Saucepan
• Thermometer
• Jars
• Yogurt "Maker"

It is important to note here: that a person doesn't NEED a yogurt maker. All this machine does is keep the yogurt covered at a consistent temperature. I purchased one because it just makes things easier and I enjoyed the idea of having single serving jars in the refrigerator.

Next, get everything I need out.

Ingredients

• Milk
• Yogurt Starter
• Flavorings

With this process I can make pretty much any type of yogurt. I could make this with goats milk or soy milk. I could flavor with any type of sweetener or preserves. I could make regular or greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is just strained. You strain the whey from your freshly made yogurt and then whisk. 

In this case, I am using skim cows milk. I am going to flavor with agave nectar and vanilla extract.

I start by pouring 42 ounces of milk into my saucepan. I heat it until it reaches a temperature of 180 degrees. This sterilizes the milk from any mystery bacteria that could be growing. Then, I let the milk cool between 107 degrees and 110 degrees. This process should take about 10 minutes total and is super easy.

When the milk is finally cool, I add my yogurt starter and thoroughly mix.  For yogurt starter...a person can use 6oz of active culture yogurt or dried yogurt starter. In this case, I am using dried starter. I alternate between saving yogurt from my last batch, to using new dried starter. This way, I am not growing "bad germs".

Then, I pour the mixture into my jars and place it in my yogurt maker. The growth time for this is about 10 hours, in the machine. The culture time depends on the milk and yogurt starter used.

Once finished, I'll cap them and place them into the fridge. I usually wait till my yogurt is cooled to flavor. To flavor...I will add a drop of agave nectar and vanilla extract to each jar to taste.

Viola! YOGURT!!! 

kudos dove

I remember the first time I saw the Dove's video evolution...

It really adjusted my view of the world. I always understood that our self image and ideas of beauty were contorted. I also had a general mistrust of media affecting my daily life. Somehow, this video put things into perspective.

Well, Dove has done it again. They recently put out a new video that makes me wonder, "How do I see myself?...and....How do others see me?" Truly, in the long run it doesn't matter. Yet, I wish I could have been part of this project. Everybody needs a little bit of perspective.

create the future

(Source Unknown)

pen pals are awesome

I have a few penpals. Today, I received a goody package that was full of fun little things to coo over. However, this is my favorite. I do love the ocean!

that is how i like it

(Source Unknown)

computer pains

I think my technology is conspiring against me. My iPhone has decided that it no longer wants to play sound (unless using headphones). The ringtones still work, but no music. After, many hours of troubleshooting, I still have the problem.

Then, my computer has decided to have problems as well. 

Each day, it works fine while on. Each day, it shuts down like normal. Each morning, I try to turn my computer on and it glitches and turns back off. Each day, I go through troubleshooting and think all is better. The next morning?

....then computer turns off. I really do not relish going in for a "genius bar" appointment. Because, if I have to have one more person ask me a question like...

"Was your computer plugged in?"

...all my meditation and Buddha nature will reset and I will burn the room.

the sick set

The Sick Set by definelulu

I am sick. That is all.

in other news

This weekend I will be going to the post office to send out various goods and sundries.

In preparation, I was digging through my closet for a perfect sized box. (I save all my boxes so I can mail stuff.) I found the correct box which was the one that my wok came in.

Then I thought, I don't want the receiver to think they are getting a wok. I mean, if I got a box with a wok picture...opened it up...and found something else

...I would be very disappointed. This was my solution!

happy socks

I wish I wasn't saving all my money for that trip to Italy this summer. Why you ask? Because, I need to replace all my socks with new Happy Socks.

Okay...okay...need IS a strong word. However, these socks are sooooo cool. They rotate available designs and do a lot of collaboration work, which can be found in their website's colabs section. Leave it to the Swedes to renew my sock fetish.