A Little Backyard Madness

I'm going to saturated you with videos of my dogs today (well, about 3 minutes of it if you watch it all). And I'm not sorry for it one little bit. :D

Last weekend when my in-laws came out they brought their two little dogs, Jean Paul and Pierre - which made it a total of five dogs here at the house. None of us mind that a bit. We're the type of people that always have a dog or cat hair stuck to a random item of clothing. We all think furry critters are pretty awesome. But as I was finally sitting here watching some of the hilarious video I took of the dogs playing in the backyard I realized something...

Our dogs sound like assholes when they play.

They aren't assholes...well, for the most part. Mobee certainly has his moments. But on the whole they all love on each other - they're a pack. To the point that I worry what will happen to the others is something happens to one of them. But they sound like total jerks when they play. If I lived next to me and I heard them...I wouldn't let my kid come anywhere near them. Case in point:

They sound like assholes. I mean, I get that Jean Paul is there and he and Mobee have some history between them...and that Mobee feels the need to claim domain over the stick because it HIS stick in HIS yard and STUPID JEAN-PAUL isn't going to have it DAMMIT because he, Mobee, is DOMINANT! (pfffffffft - just play along with me here okay, and try not to laugh loud enough for Mobee to hear you)...but man...it just gets cranked to the point where finally Crystal even gets sick of it and comes in towards to the end to tell them to shut the hell up. Which they do...for a second, before they're back at it again. It never turns into anything more than this though. They really are the sweetest, most lovable, somewhat clueless dogs I've ever had the pleasure of knowing in my life.

Even Crystal and Fletch sound all snarly when they play - although they're much more cute about it. Fletch jumps around like the nerd he is, and Crystal does this spiffy little spins that she thinks are so cool. I'll have to get a video of just them soon, but here another one similar to the one above - it has more of Crystal and Fletch playing though.

And lastly, I had to throw this in here because we watched this dog do this for about 10 minutes straight. We can't for the life of us figure out why! It was a mild day and they had plenty of water...he just wanted to lay the bottom of his tongue on Todd's weight....

Just plain weird.

On and on a side note...Mobee ended up with his stick. :)

'til next time... ♥

Purple Ombre Petal Cake

Mister Man's parents came to stay for the weekend and since his birthday and Easter had just passed I had an ambitious plan to make an Ombre Cake - which I've been seeing all OVER the place. I honestly didn't think I was going to pull it off...but I was totally game to try. I think it's fun to do stuff like this - even if it stresses me the hell out sometimes.

The recipe was something I came up with myself. Mister Man and I are calling it Strawberry Lemonade. I started with a Pillsbury Moist Supreme White Cake Mix (they were on sale and I'm lazy). When mixing up the cake batter I used buttermilk instead of water, butter instead of oil and I separated the eggs and whisked the egg whites before adding the entire egg to the batter. I then added (for each box of cake mix) 1 tspn of lemon extract and 1 tspn of fresh lemon juice (you can skip the fresh lemon juice if you don't have any on hand - it will just be slightly less tangy. Our Kroger just happened to have them on sale for freaking 18¢ each - so I couldn't resist buying a huge bag). Then I spread Smuckers Orchard's Finest Pacific Mountain Strawberry Preserves in between each of the five layers. I'd actually recommend staying away from preserves or anything with chunks in it. I haven't made very many cakes - and during this experience I found that you want your cake layers to lay flat...duh.

The tutorial for decorating the cake came from The Hungry Housewife. She has a very concise post with great photos and a short instructional video. If this is something you're going to try, and you have an extra sec (let's face it...if you're making this bad boy you've got some time) you should watch the video. It seems so much more simple once you see the technique in action. Hers is obviously so much more crisp and evenly spaced then mine...but my frosting kept getting super soft from the oven being on. It got sort of mushy and started to run just a bit.

Top of the cake

I had a really hard time getting a good photo that represented the interior cake color - but here's five layers of deliciousness. The cake came out so unbelievably moist, yet dense like a home made cake, not a cake mix. Next time though, I'll totally use more jam. It tasted sooooooo yummy and the cake layers soaked it up beautifully. To make this particular cake I used 8" straight side pans. It took two boxes of cake mix and about 1/3 of a small jar of jam. I made two batches of frosting and had a bit left over when done with the cake. I might have been able to plan a little better, make my petals a bit smaller, and have an additional layer of petals running around the cake.  Hindsight...

Can't resist the cute candles. I mentioned how much fun they'd be to make and Mister Man cringed. Don't worry sweetheart! I'm not planning on taking on any new hobbies any time soon!

I used a combination of the above food colors/pastes. The darker colors didn't seem to mix quite as well in the frosting - but the cake batter took it well.

Colors of my cake batter. The difference in color seemed to come out a little more after it was cooked.

And of course, my happy husband. He didn't even scrape off any of the frosting when he ate his three pieces (three since last night!). That's true love.

I'm excited to play with other flavors and color variations. This truly was a fun cake to cut up and eat.

'til next time... ♥

p.s. If you've made anything Ombre leave me a link so I can check it out!

Meet Brandy the Zen master flash!!!!

Hi, my name is Brandy and I write for the blog brandy-son Zen master flash. The chaotic bore of which each post consists of is mind numbing to say the least. But if you do decide to venture on over there against your better judgement you will find an occasional DIY post or random silent vlog. I'm married to a drummer and together we have a very spoiled boston terrier. I love music, making things and going thrift shopping. I also have a an etsy shop where I sell handmade and vintage goods. I love venturing out and finding awesome treasures to give a new life. I'm so glad to have met Colleen. She always makes me laugh!

Blog // Etsy // Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest // Youtube // Tumblr 

Stop by and say 'Hey' to Brandy - she doesn't bite. I promise!  ♥

Life Lately

I've never painted my fingernails before. Suddenly I'm in a glitter frenzy.

Picked it up last night - finally. 

Preview for the movie looked good so I figured I'd give it a try.

Hubby just had a birthday and this was one of his presents from good old wifey 

Too cute not to throw in. Look at her little whiskers!!!!!

I love this time of year when the stores start stocking their agricultural livestock. 

Tubs of chicks and duckies abound!

Sticks, as always, are a hot commodity around here

My husband has suddenly taken to climbing trees...some sort of Crossfit thingie

For hubby's birthday I made attempted to make a cake that he had requested from scratch. 

The recipe seemed pretty straightforward despite the numerous ingredients.

But this is what we ended up with... File that shit under 'Fail'.

Mister Man was very happy with the taste of it though - He sat there with a fork eating the stuck chunks out of the pan. So of course now I'm contemplating making and Ombre cake for when his parents come this weekend. What the hell is wrong with me? Am I simply glutton for punishment????

For those unfamiliar with an Ombre cake, here's a photo of a slice.

photo credit

So yeah. We'll see if that happens. In any event whatever I make has got to turn out better than the last cake...right???

'til next time... ♥

Hey Mister Man

Oh, and by the way...

I think you've figured out that you need to hide all accessible cameras if you intend to end up passing out before me...

Love ya, Boo ♥

Some bunnies gonna break in my house tonight!!!

Hello peeps! Does everyone have fantastic Easter plans for tomorrow? Me and my Mister will be hanging out at the park, having a small picnic. Nothing big because his parents are coming up next weekend to stay, and we'll most likely celebrate then. Todd's birthday is on Monday, and I don't think his mom could stand being away from us on both Easter and his big day... Which is adorable :)

I wanted to stop off and direct your attention to the left where you'll see my featured blogger for the month of April - the witty, ever-so-sarcastic Brandy of the blog brandy-son Zen master flash. I can't wait for you guys to meet her and her crazy Boston Terrier, Frederick Biggie Franklin, whom she profiles in a reoccurring post called Fridays with Fred.  And I'm not gonna lie when I say that her silent vlogs are pretty hilarious...I'm rather partial to this one. 

But the only way you're going to know for sure is if you click over and meet her....unless you just trust me that much. In which case.....that's cool.

We'll be hearing more about Brandy later this month, so check back!

Happy Easter Eve!!! ♥

Random pics from our weekend

Not the winning lottery ticket.

This is how our cat woke us up Sunday morning

Hounds picking out a stick to nom on.

nom nom nom nom nom 

We visited the Salato Wildlife Center for the fist time this year

 Saw us a Bald Eagle. This guy is beautiful and he sat there talking to us while I snapped photos

A really, really fat and fluffy Bobcat

And a really lazy, sleepy bear that napped the entire time we were there.

We hung out in front of the buffalo enclosure - but evidently they're lazy asses too. Didn't see any.

Salato is a beautiful place to hang out. They don't charge an admission - they have a wonderful learning center, some great animal exhibits that include Wild Turkey, Alligator Snapping Turtles and Elk. The park that it's in has several lakes to fish in, and is where I take most of my pictures of all the Canadian Geese.

We've been trying to eat healthier. 

Enter smoothies.

And spring has sprung again, my friends. Bringing with it all the creepy crawlies that will have me screaming like a little girl for the next 6 months. Oh joy.

That's us this weekend! Hope your's was nice and relaxing! ♥