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!

Rainbow carrots!

Let me start off by saying how much I love rainbow carrots. When we first found them several years ago BC (Before Children) I couldn't believe i had never seen them before. They also got me not only liking carrots more, they got me away from the bleached baby carrots. They just have such an amazing flavor that once you start eating them it is hard to go back to regular orange carrots. These actually have subtle differences in flavor. So far my favorites are the red ones or the purple with the orange inside a bit better than the purple with the yellow inside, The yellow are yummy to but I like the darker ones best. and then once you eat a peeled baby carrot it almost seems like they have no flavor and are a hint chemical tasting. while i cant lie, the convience of baby carrots is appealing, there is just no competition. I will never go back. I am glad i found this out from the begining of my kids lives as they have always known that there are rainbow carrot s and they have their favorites as well.

one of our beautiful finds at the farmers market this past weekend were quail eggs. Kinder-minion does not really like the yolks of boiled eggs, the whole texture issue, or even deviled eggs, but quail eggsa are so small he typically will eat them whole with a little bit of sesame seed and salt sprinkled on top so that was a win for me.  He had a leftover muffin from Jason's Deli, then the middle was snap peas and purple cauliflower, for his fruit he had a medley of berries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and pomagranet seeds, roasted turkey chunks, smoked cheddar cubes and then a peanut carrot noodle salad.

I did not really have a recipe for this as it was kind of thrown together. I put in a a splash of soy sauce, some lime juice, maybe a 1/4 tsp of sesame oil, little bit of ground fresh ginger and some salt and pepper to taste. I thought it was perfect, however i have a hard time remembering sometimes that this is for my sons tastes buds not mine. I called him in to help me by tasting it to which he thought it had too much lime and not enough peanut butter. Thanks to the squeezy peanut butter bottle he added about an 1/8th of a cup if not more to his noodles and then some sesame seeds (Gomasio) and he finally conceded this was a winner. Hooray! He managed to finish almost everything leaving maybe half of the noodles but everything else was gone.

Items used. To make the noodles i used a julieene peeler by OXO, pretty sure i got that from bed bath and beyond. I also used silicone muffin liners as dividers which were about $3-$4 at walmart in their baking section either in the food part or by party items. The lunch box was from PotteryBarn. I think they are called bento boxes, I got a set of 2 off ebay for $5. They are not my favorite so far. They are very deep though. Likely will get more use out of them when serving a salad or big sandwhiches, so maybe in a year or two. Just seems like it holds too much for my 5 year old for the moment.

Minion Mayhem

The begining of this school year has been a joyride for sure. My son has missed both Monday and Tuesday of this week to being sick. Which he was pretty much all weekend. I am not amused. I am however glad he is now feeling well and we can continue with our normally scheduled program.

So with Kinder-Minion making cookies he wanted to be sure to take them in his lunch so we had to make that happen. Instead of making something planned we went with leftovers and tamagoyaki minions which are really nothing more than a simply flavored super duper thin egg omelet that has been rolled tightly in an oval shape and then sliced into ovals. The stir fried cauli rice and beef was season in mexican rice flavors, cumin and black pepper and salt and a pinch of oregano and fried up with beef. Which of course requires ketchup. In the center there are a few gummy hearts and i large gummy bear that i made with beef gelatin and some syrup for making big red zero. and last but not least his fruit which was green and black olives.  Thankfully everything came home empty this day.

Raspberry Rainbow Dash meringues, carrots sticks, ketchup squeezy, home made Big Red Zero flavored gummies, black and green grapes, Tamagoyaki minions with ham, seaweed and cheese face, and cali-rice and beef stir fry in  a planet box.

the mouths show up better with seaweed than with ham

Tools used:Rover  Planet box which i ordered on at a super discount from pottery barn kids when a pattern was discontinued and i actually got one for my daughter as well when i found one on ebay that i won for about $15. i think I got both of them together for about $35 total. Sometimes it pays to bargain hunt in this case. The squeezy for the ketchup is actually one of my awesome finds and I find I am using these constantly anymore as they are good for so many things. I got a set of 3 from World Market which has 1 red, 1 yellow, and one clear for about $2 and I believe i found a set of all clear from walmart for about the same or maybe a dollar more.  I have used them more often than not for peanut butter and jelly which allows both of my kids to make their own sandwiches without help. Or to make cracker sandwiches. i have them filled with, ketchup, pizza or spaghetti sauce, lemon curd, SF chocolate frosting or chocolate nut butter, SF syrup for pancakes, for my daughter mayo or mustard since my doesn't like them. They have allowed my kids to be alittle more independent, and less messy while doing it. Plus it is fun for them so that makes it easier for me on so many fronts. I like not having to make for them sometimes and since i keep them filled in my fridge in the "butter" dish they can fend for themselves and it buys me a few more minutes in the morning of sleep time. I can't recommend them enough.

My Son the Baker

Today I would have to say was a good day despite not being able to breathe most of the day. kinder-minion had a great day at school. They had a fundraiser at our school to raise money for a playground since the school just had the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new school 3 weeks ago they are still working on the outside for now. Their goal was to hit 15,000 and they raised 20,000 so that is huge. He had fun running laps plus it wore him out and I am always a huge fan of that. Even better is since school has started we have moved from a 2+hour pickup (school is drop off and pick up only since there are no buses) to about 20ish minutes and that's awesome.

Lunch today was another make it yourself meal which he seems to totally love. I honestly think it is just the idea he has control over what and how he wants to eat his lunch. The only think he came home with was his cucumbers and broccoli which he ate in the car ride home. And his Apple the second we walked in the house.

Lunch: 3 mini pizza crusts, squeeze bottle of pizza sauce, shredded cheese, green and black olive slices, pepperoni, cucumbers, broccoli, grapes and blueberries and strawberries and for snack an apple and 3 small cookies we made at home. 

Because I got a lot accomplished at home and I have a few plans for some design ideas for soap I had the idea of practicing with my piping tips. Rather than just piping icing or wasting fresh soap batter, I decided to make meringues and to make kinder-minion help by showing him how it's done. He picked his colors and I mixed and showed him how to color the bag. I showed him how to pipe 2 and he did the rest. He did such a great job. I was so proud of him. I just had to keep reminding him to slow down. When he worked slow his cookies came out perfect. I was impressed. Others came out crazy wonkey which made him laugh which was hysterical.  Before he even knew we were going to be baking cookies today he said after his book when he got home he wanted to watch the kids baking cook off show. A boy after my own heart. :) I got to practice of my piping which came out just ok. But the tip I wanted to use just didn't work with this medium. So back to square one. The flavor he picked was strawberry but I think they taste like cotton candy. What better way to blend that strawberry flavor than using chocolate though yum! Tomorrow he want to sandwich his with lemon curd for strawberry lemon meringue cookies. This boy has some great tastes! He picked all his colors too for a Rainbow Dash cookie. His sister is gonna love the my little pony bites. It indeed was a great day and I am looking forward to the last day of school week tomorrow.

 I have to say, when he was paying attention he was spot on. But his giggles on the blobs we the best thing on making these!

Tiny Strawberry Rainbow Dash Meringues

Seriously!?! how perfect did some of these get?

How do I heart my Kinder-Minion, let me count the ways...

 Practicing my piping, just with the wrong tip :(

 Despite my original tip I had planned to practice with not working I at least got to practice with this one and I don't think they turned out half bad.

Especially when sandwiched with CHOCOLATE ganache!

Insta meal and sleep

It seems that Kinder-Minion is finally back to his old self. He is doing amazing and wants to take care of me since he got me sick, he is too sweet. He originally wanted me to make him tomato soup and grilled cheese but I am lucky i even got up this morning. I run through the daddy back up plan of PB&J and an apple and cheese stick for him in the event i didn't wake up. Fortunately everything worked it self out and I did wake up. 

Sandwich pepperoni wrapped around cheddar and ham slices wrapped around mozzarella. thinking back I prolly should have paired that different. snap peas, pickles, carrots, cantaloupe and blueberries

not pictures is a serving of maria cookies and a squeezy bottle of peanut butter served in a lock n lock container.

I am not anticipating leftovers since this is a normal quick lunch that I think of a lunchable where i don't care nor want to do anything even though i know it is much better and cheaper than an actual lunchable. After making lunch I headed back to bed. I am clocking out for the day and will make his lunch tonight if I am feeling up to it. Goodnight everyone and have a super day!

The Plague!

 Well I was super exciting knowing that we planned on dropping off my son today at school and then going to pick up his sister. Of course we all know what happens when you make plans right? I woke up this morning and felt like i was swallowing razor blades. Awesome. I didn't want to but i made lunch anyway and the new plan was to drop of my son and head to urgent care. This was brought to you by me preplanning meals from complicated to crazy easy and not wanting to make food.

Lunch: Ikea meatballs, red and yellow watermelon balls and cantaloupe balls, 3 crackers and cubed cheese and some snap peas. served in a Beaba multiportion babyfood container. All of the cups are 5 oz. Not shown snack was a mini bag of animal crackers

I am ever so thankful that i prepped all the fruit and cheese on Sunday when I wasn't sick because i definitely did not want to be doing it today. When he got home we found out this meal was another success because he had Zero leftovers today.

Going to the urgent care found out I have a severe case of strep. The white blisters go all the way down my throat and some are bleeding. On top of it I also have a sinus infection so I can breath out of one side of my face while the other side is runny. Seeing as how I use a CPAP machine at night to breath. This is proving to be a challenge. Not a happy camper. I know it does no good to whine about it. So I am gonna do it here. Damn you Plague... *shakes fist in the air* GRR, ARGH...

Monday and back to school YAY!

 So hooray it looks like Kinder-minion is feeling well enough to go back to school today and I am so happy. We wanted to wait till end of day before deciding on when we were gonna go get mini minion in case we got a call from the school again asking for us to go and pick him up. He seemed to be doing fine but was a bit spacey so we are erring on the side of caution.

Lunch today was a bit of a rush since we have been going to bed so early.

left to right. celery sticks, bread rounds, apple rounds

apple rounds, homemade peanut butter, cheese rounds

grapes, bread rounds and carrot sticks in a 

Kiddo Feedo 9 section silicone mold

So i learned something today. Unless i have something to secure a sauce, it isn't recommended in this container. Apparently his peanut butter exploded everywhere. It was a mess to clean at that point however he ate everything except half a round of apple slices and half of his celery which i expected anyway since he does not like celery unless it has peanut butter on it. Despite the peanut butter fiasco I would call this a success.

Happily since we haven't picked up mini minion yet I had a chance to work on and clean up after a soap project today and I am very happy with how it turned out. I have them scented in a Fragrance called Spanish Fly and it smells oh so sexy. And despite dropping my squirt bottle in the middle of the wet soap and messing up the design i think i was still able to salvage it decently.

I cannot wait for the cut. These will be my dragon egg soaps. These are also 100% olive oil so they are my castile soaps and will be super moisturizing. I have only made one other castile and it cured for just over a year. It is wonderfully bubbly and makes my skin feel nice and soft.

1st week of school and strep throat.

So i made lunch for a total of 3 days. 1st day half day, they fed my minion Chic Fila. Awesome. @nd Day, he ate everything except maybe an ounce of his thermos of homemade spaghetti Oh's and was still hungry. So his first week turned out to be a day and a half. That makes me soo sad. So obviously instead of blogging during this time I have spent it will the sick one. Thankfully he is on the mend though he is still not at 100%. I am just hoping he is well enough before end of tomorrow so that he can return to school on Monday. I did take photos of the 2 other days he did go to school though.

  Day 2. I packed for him his favorite Homemade spaghetti Oh's. Sometimes he even helps me shape the Oh's, that take forever doing by hand but they are a nice mindless activity to do while watching television. I like to make them as thin as i can get. Sauce has cottage cheese, ground beef, spinach, zucchini, squash and mushrooms. In his Zoli Sumo, I used 3 tiers. 2 for lunch and one for his snack. 1st tier had green and black olives from the deli, snap peas and cherry tomatoes, the 2nd tier had pitted cherries and his snack or 3rd tier had boiled eggs, ham rolls and cheese chunks and the tiny pink tupperware under the egg was filled with crunchy shriracha peas. In his thermos i used a Reduce thermal insulated jar for his pasta.

I love his Zoli Sumo. Honestly I had thought I would get rid of some of the things i had gotten for them both when they were babies. But happily I have found that many things I purchased are still proving thier usefulness to me. They are great for snack or mini meals when stacking them up. The thermos I got at Krogers on visit to my mom's house and found them on sale for $5 each.

I was also super excited he had an awesome 1st full day of school and the teacher sent him home with a note.

On Wednesday before he was sent home I packed him leftovers in his Planetbox. and snack in one of his Zoli tiers. Sesame and Soysauce steamed edamame, Meatballs and cheddar, Blueberries and strawberries, leftover stir fried rice triangles and hearts with soy sauce fish bottles and for dessrt was a homemade BigRed (soda flavor) gummy bear and a mint chocolate date ball.

for his snack he had a boiled egg car and cheese stick with a side of mixed dried fruit and nuts (walnuts, almonds, pepitas dried cranberries, blueberries and raisons)

this all came home with him because he was sick. He ate some of it but the strep was already starting to really bother his throat. Hopefully next week he can go the whole time and feel much better. He is missing the whole getting to know you and your school week of the school. I haste when my baby is sick.