Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge Club Piped Soaps

I had the idea for this soap for a while now. I have been dying to make it mainly because I love doing the sugar skulls. I think the is the first time I waited so long that I only had time to do one batch. This was it. I was happy with the way my soap behaved and it is scented in the most beautiful blend. I used Mad Oils Deviant and Brambleberry's Crisp Apple Rose. I cannot stop smelling it. The colors I used were from Nurture's Soap and the 2 reds were Really red from Nurture, and Brick Red from Bramberry.

I love how vibrant they are and the contrast of colors.

Practicing with tips

While my soap behaved nicely I could not get the the Russian tips to work like i wanted to, I only managed to get 2 semi nice flowers from that tip. I used rose and star tips for the rest. But I think next time I need to make my skulls smaller or my piping space much bigger. I did not achieve the roses I wanted to so that was a disappointment. Overall I like the way they came out. I just wish I had more space to achieve the flowers I wanted and I really really wanted to get intricate with my lines on the skulls themselves. Not to self. Next time do all the detail lines before the flowers. That thickened up way faster than the batter for the flowers. By the time I was done flowering everything the black had thickened up so much I was going back many times to correct.

Then the actual picture taking. I tried many different backgrounds and many different lighting. These were by far the hardest soaps I have ever had to photograph. If it came out with the exact colors then there was no detail in the piping. If the piping was perfect with detail they colors looked either over muted or way to bright. Lighting for these sucked. I have no idea how everyone managed to make
Thurs look so beautiful with such amazing detail. I managed to get two with the closest in lighting and detail. While they are not perfect and no where near what I wanted as far as how they turned out, I am still very happy with them and look forward to practicing to get the piping even half as beautiful as everyone elses. I did do something different though and that is what I set out for. Thank you for having this contest. And good luck to everyone!

Some of the possible photo contest entries.

I really liked this one alot. It was between this one and the 2nd one from the bottom. I loved that this had black on top and light on the bottom. It made me think of the living celebrating the dead.  Which is exactly What Dia de los Muertos is. 

My entry that I decided best showed the details of the flowers while my other choice with them side by side was truer to the actual colors. This was the entry I decided to go with.

Sight Words and Sandwiches

Monday actually had a great start and I am excited that I was able to get the games finished that I wanted done. Lunch today was Fruit Kabobs with blue, rasp and strawberries, pineapple and grapes, veggies were snap peas and tomatoes which all came home. In the push pop containers are 6 mini pb&strawberry jam sammies and the handsome little penguin you see there is hoarding frozen strawberry yogurt, underneath the Tupperware is a stick of mozzarella cheese as well. The only thing to come back was the veggies. It was alot of food today though as I packed snack as well of veggie sticks (chips) and some date balls.

This is what I had been working on though. I traced and cut out what felt like a million circles and then laminated them for Markers, and I cut out 100 rectangles to make mini flash cards and laminated them after writing the 1st 100 sight word list that was sent home with my minion. Then I used square adhesive labels and stuck them on card stock in groups of 10 and laminated those. Since they are laminated I can now use these cards for just about anything. Math equations, shapes, color, words, right now sight words, and the laminate is dry erasable so I can change it all out on a whim. This so far has played out well.

And this which I thought was my own super brilliant idea turns out to be an idea that is all over the internets. Even though I thought I was original I am still glad I thought of it even if I wasn't the first. Laminated all of the candy land cards rendering them dry erase marker friendly and now this changes up the game. If they draw a card and know the word instantly they get an extra turn. If they don't they have to spell and sound it out and they only get one turn. This has proven to be crazy successful with both kids. I am glad they are picking it up faster and I am also glad pre kinder-minion gets excited about playing. Sometimes I think I like to surprise myself. Plus I am also glad that now that they have been laminated I don't have to worry about the cards getting bent or tearing. It is a WinWin. And like the bingo cards, I can change at any time the words to math or whatever other subject I like.

It was indeed a successful weekend.

Friday 1/2 Day Lunchable!!

Yall known what Day it is? That's right! Friday 1/2 day Lunchable! Pretzle crisps, ham hearts and goldfish cheddar, cuz that is how I roll when I have energy but still dont want to cook. lol, veggies were yellow carrot flowers and snap peas, and fruit was raspberries and blueberries. Simple yet fun, and it got all eat up!

With that I have busy plans for this weekend to work on some sight words to help get kinder-minion to be excited about learning since getting him to open up on what he learned at school is like pulling teeth. Ughh. Hopefully i will have photos to post on Monday if I can get finished what I want to get finished. Everyone have a great weekend!

Another Leftover Day. Sort of. I always keep a ton of fruit in the house. We try to rarely by sweets but have unlimited access for the kids to whatever fruit we have. I was getting to the end of our fruit stash and needed to replace everything so i need to use up what we had. Kinder-Minion voted for a fruit salad with cottage cheese. He did however have one slice of pizza that was leftover that he wanted as well so that got thrown in the mix. I was surprised that he didn't finish his pizza and only ate half of his cottage cheese. Lunch was a medley of Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon balls and pineapple. Side of full fat cottage cheese.

Crazy random Piece of pizza that was cut into 4 tiny slices

I didn't realize that I had a bread tie under my photo. My bad, this was trying to pack in a hurry since running late.

Lovin' Leftovers

Sometimes I may have one meal planned, But It turns out leftovers can save the day. Leftover steamed rice with sesame oil and sesame seeds and a vegetable furikake mixed into the rice. Steamed carrot and edamame, Ham pieces for the kitty face and soy sauce fishies. In the upper left box is meatballs from Ikea that were rolled in stir fry sauce, and some raw broccoli and purple cauliflower with a chopped cheese stick. Fruit was melon balls and grapes. in the upper right corner is a pair of blue clothes pin chopsticks, These I found at the dollar store and Yes, they are super awesome.

So far no days have been missed for this week. Thankfully Monday was a holiday. Lol. So i am happy to accept 2 days in a row with no illness. WOOHOO!

Tackle Box, Craft Box, How do you do?

Who doesn't love a tackle box lunch box? If this wasn't a tackle box, It was a craft box. Seriously for $5 you can move around the dividors and put all kinds of fun stuff. In fact after this photo I will add a few other just for some ideas. I have been using this specific box for myself since I was pregnant with my son. When I would be out all day long I would pack this for myself in a little cooler and I was good to go for the entire day. The squeezy bottle again have come to the rescue. One if filled with peanut butter and the other is filled which jam. He took his cheese out and made basically a peanut butter and linzer cookie on a grander scale. The cheese he had on the seperate heart not pictured that was cut out. He didnt see the smiley face until he removed the heart for his lunch. fruit was Grapes and off to the right are homemade peppermint date balls and raspberry meringue roses and for his veggies he has rainbow carrot flowers, broccoli and cauliflower and cheese.

Success as usual. But I wanted to leave you with a few other ideas. Some of the items I might not know what exactly they are since some of these photos are a bit more than 5 years old.


This one was cucumbers, cheese cubes, peanut butter yogurt pretzles, mixed nuts, Egg salad on thin bread rounds, and homemade applesauce. This container is deep enough to fit the 1/2 cup glad containers.

 This was Peanut butter sandwhich with yogurt mixed with ALOT of peanut butter for a dip, carrots and celery, raspberries and yogurt pretzels

Turkey Croissant Sandwich with spiced apples, peanut butter yogurt pretzels and mixed nuts.

I remember I was pregnant with this one and I was flying to see my mom. This was my flight food. Ham and cheese with spinach roll ups, ham cubes, cheese cubes, truffles, dried plums, mixed nuts, carrots and celery, grapefruit and strawberries. I had packed a TON of food for that flight with a super long layover. I was ever so grateful for not needing to buy food in the airport.

I know this photo was on my 1st entry but I wanted to share it again because it was one of my favorites. It just looked so pretty and it was soo yummy. I will likely pack this at least once for my kinder-minions lunch one day.

Almond Butter and Blueberry Jam, Almonds, Truffles and Dried Lemon Escennce Plums, Cinnamon spiced apples with english toffee stevia, cucumber and radish salad, Cheese cubes, And lemoney lemon pepper snow peas. My favorite simple lunch ever.

The things you can do with a craft box. I love it.

DIY Lunchables

Sometimes I think it is easy to see when I don't want to wake up in the mornings. Because those mornings look alot like this. The home version of a lunchable. All the lunches I make i have written in my book by category. Protein, Dairy, Fruit, Veggie and Grain/Fat/snack. This is about as basic as it gets. Crackers, cheese rounds, ham rounds, pickles, grapes and 2 small plums, veggies were carrot sticks and snap peas. I am sure you are begining to see a pattern as well on my sons favorite vegetables. Which are broccoli, cauliflower, celery (only when it has peanut butter) snap peas, carrots and green beans, occasionally cucumbers and very rarely tomatoes. He likes others as well but these are this favorites. His snack on this day was not pictured but it was a small bag of almonds and cashews.

There is never leftovers when he takes a meal like this to school. I am likely to be making this once a week and peanut butter at least once a week as it is super easy when I am just too tired or running late, or when it is just plain requested. Plus it makes for easier clean up and if there is leftovers they normally get eaten in the car on the way home from school. Another reason for this simple lunch which is more and more likely to be on Fridays from now on, is Friday he has half day which means he eats a bit earlier and less time. This is a nice grab and go for this day as its just throw in a box and give a big kiss!