Italian Creme Cake

This cake is beyond good, it is scrumptious. I found the recipe at Pioneer Woman Cooks and I made it for the Sister Circle Meeting. If you like coconut you will like this, moist and coco nutty.

Cake Batter
1 stick of soft butter
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of sugar
5 whole eggs (separated)
3 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of coconut
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9" round cake pans.
Beat 5 egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
In a large bowl cream butter, oil and sugar. Mix in egg yolks, vanilla and coconut. Stir in flour, baking soda and powder. Stir in buttermilk. Fold in egg whites. Pour evenly into the three prepared pans and sprinkle with at least 1 tablespoon of sugar on each. Bake for 20-25 minutes or slightly browned, do not over bake. Cool 15 minutes then turn cakes out onto cooling rack.
Frosting
1 stick of soft butter
2- 8oz packages of soft cream cheese
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 lbs of powdered sugar
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of nuts (I didn't have any)
Cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla till smooth. Stir in powdered sugar. Stir in coconut and nuts. Spread between layers and serve. Refrigerate.

Practicing

What do you do with a white blank tire cover? Express yourself, "Practicing Retirement". I will be 50 in October and I'm already receiving mail from AARP. My husband who is six months younger thinks its funny, that's OK (hear the sarcasm), I get to retire first. But really, I have to work to pay for my crafting. I finish one project and have three more in line to attempt. My name is Valerie and I'm a craftaholic.

Teach 'em to Dance!

For the moms who have little boys and
for the little boys yet to come.
While your boys are small, teach ‘em to dance.
That means now, before their too old to think its lame,
before they get older and won't talk to you.
Where will He need to dance???
Parties, School & His Wedding.
So in the evening crank that music up and cut-a-rug,
maybe your husband will join in and dance with you too.
You don't have to worry about the girls
it just comes natural to us.
Hold ‘em, carry ‘em, let them put their feet on yours
and two step, count with them 1, 2, 1
And they should always save a dance for me!
Aunt Val (aka - Grandma )

Alice Apron

This is my entry into the Alice in Wonderland apron contest. It is a pinafore style apron and ties in the back. This style was worn over the dresses in the 1800s and Alice in Wonderland was written in 1865. I have two tea cups for the tea party and the red hearts for the Queen of Hearts. The original illustrations show the Mad Hatter wearing a checkered vest and pants and the rabbit wore a checkered jacket that is where I got the idea for the checks. I should have sew a tea pot and tea cup or maybe a key resting in the tea cup. Too late now, but that would have been cute. The deadline is June 1st and after that you can see all of the aprons at angrychicken.typepad.com/tieoneon/

Bluebonnet Photo Contest

I entered this photo into the local photo contest and I won.
That same weekend I beat my husband at Yahtzee. I never win at that game but that weekend I rolled a double Yahtzee, woohoo, what a weekend. When you have young children there never seems to be enough time to do anything you want to do. My children are all grown now and I plan on trying everything.
I received a basket from Special Teas and a certificate for a hair cut and color. This Church is so darn cute. I had to lay on my stomach in the ditch on Hwy 6 just outside of Hempstead Texas to get this photo. This is fun!!

May Day Tag

Happy May Day

God sends April showers

to bring May flowers,

that is what they say.

And if all the showers

turned to flowers

we’d have quite a lovely day!

May Day Cups

The kids will be making these at Church this next Wednesday so I needed to test the mod-podge on the cups. I smeared mod-podge on the side of the cup and took a 12" strip of crepe paper and wrapped it around adding more mod-podge on top of the crepe paper and smoothing it down. I cut out some flowers with pink crepe paper and with a permanent marker I added some details. While the green paper is still wet I just placed the pink flower on and spread more mod-podge on top of the flower. I punched 2 holes in the rim, added a pipe cleaner handle, candy and paper flowers and then we will hand them out to some of the shut-ins and elderly. I spread the mod-podge on with my fingers, so I will be sure to take the baby wipes for all the messy little fingers. The mod-podge will smear regular markers so you have to use permanent markers.

Beverage Dispenser Tags

We had Tea, Sweet Tea and Lemonade at our Church picnic and the dispensers weren't marked. So of course everyone had to ask what was in the dispensers. I told myself, you can fix that problem and I did. I drew the shape I wanted and then in a word document typed the names (font-CK Curly) and spaced them about 3" apart and printed it on scrapbook paper. I placed the shape I drew on top of the paper, traced it and cut it out. I laminated the tags and cut them out leaving a small lip and punched holes for hanging. I made 3 different sets for
different occasions, the first one is for fun (picnics) I hot glued the flower on each with button centers. The second is for church dinners, I used E6000 to adhere the jeweled buttons on it. And the third is black type on beige paper for more formal settings with beige fabric flowers hot glued onto it. Tie on matching ribbon to hang them and your ready to go.

2-Sided Flowers

I thought these would be perfect for a
May Day basket and they are very easy to make. You can use cotton material, felt, paper or just about anything that will stick to Heat-N-Bond. Heat-N-Bond is a heavy duty two sided, no sew iron on interfacing. If you try to sew though it with a sewing machine it will gum up your needle, trust me. On medium heat I ironed the Heat-N-Bond onto the back side
of two pieces of material, peeled the
backing sheet off. I had a roll of batting you use for quilts and I cut a piece off the size of my material and ironed the material onto the batting. If you let the full weight of the iron rest on the piece it will flatten the batting down so I let the iron just barely touch the material. Flip the piece over and iron the other piece on just barely touching the material. I placed an extra piece of material over the pieces while I ironed so the batting wouldn't melt and get on my iron. You need to do this for felt, it will melt and get all over your iron. I printed some sayings onto paper, cut them out, inked the edges and hot glued them on. The other is a plastic button I cut the shank off of the back and hot glued it on. I let the weight of the iron sit on one of the flowers and it was pretty flat so I gently pulled the petals apart and it was just fine. I pushed a skewer into the batting and that seemed to hold it good enough without glue. You can hand sew a circle around the center, add sparkles and paint the skewers. Now what elderly person wouldn't love getting one of these in a May Day basket?

Get yourself a cup of coffee

Get yourself a cup of coffee, see the sunrise and smell the honeysuckle hanging on the fence. God is Great.

Most Likely To.....

This is my last child to graduate (out of six). Woo Hoo, time to party, there is no empty nest syndrome here. She's a Texas Scholar and she loves Basketball. She has played basketball since she was a little girl, from the Waller Hoopers to Waller Ballers and Waller High School Bulldogs. After all of the games I've seen I still don't understand the game, but she loves it. She plays hard too, I think she's been injured at least once every year. When she was young she wore glasses and wanted to get contacts but I thought she was too young and would not keep up with them until during one game she collided with another player and her glasses sliced her eye brow open (she didn't brake her glasses). They stitched her up and you can't even see the scar, she is a very blessed child and she knows it. Well this year we made it all the way through the basketball season and no accident, even her friends were shocked, until Friday. We were supposed to go camping but it looked pretty bad Friday so we decided to stay home and I'm glad we did. I got that dreaded call from the School, you know that call were you feel immediate panic but hold it together, Sam might have broken her ankle. Off the top of your head how many doctors have an x-ray machine in their office and are open evenings and weekends? I don't know any so we put her in the truck and off to the emergency room. It was packed and they told be they would probably get to her about midnight so we go back home and search for a Urgent Care Clinic, open Saturday. We found one and we were there when they opened at 9am. Yea, it's only sprained but she will be on crutches for a few weeks, how do you think that prom dress will look with crutches? The Awards Banquet, the Athletic Banquet and then there's Graduation. I will carry her across that stage if I have too. Most likely to get injured, that's my girl, Sam.