It's (Almost) Time to Say Goodbye

Apparently I'm not so good at this keeping up with blogging thing. LoL. And, no, I'm not deleting my blog or anything drastic like that. I'm actually relocating in a few months. Back in January, I took the GRE while I was on Oahu (I think I mentioned that) and got my scores a few weeks later. Just like I thought, I didn't do very well in the math portion, but on the verbal and composition portions, I did better than expected. I applied to the American Studies graduate program at UH Manoa, but unfortunately I didn't get in. I thought that was going to be the end of my graduate school applying season for this year, but I remembered that I had asked the two professors from UH Hilo that were writing my recommendation letters to write me one for UNLV as well. I seriously debated about whether or not to apply and almost wasn't going to, but decided to chance it since they wrote the letters for me. After weeks of finger crossing and hoping and wondering, I checked online (since they don't mail you an actual decision letter) and...nothing. Then I get this e-mail from the Journalism and Media Studies graduate program at UNLV saying that they look forward to seeing me in the fall. WHAT?! I originally thought it was fake because my last name was spelled wrong, but after waiting 24 hours and checking the status of my application again, I realized that it wasn't a fake.
So what does that mean? In August, I'm heading to Vegas. I debated whether or not to accept the admission, but in the end, my mom made a good point. What if I don't accept it and later on decide to apply again because I change my mind and want to go. And what if because I declined it they don't want to accept me again? So I might as well go. It's only 2 years.
It's strange knowing that I'm going to be leaving a job that I've had practically since I moved back from my one year at UNLV seven years ago. My last day of availability at work is July 25 even if I don't leave until August. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be done before I go.
I'm taking some of my crafting stuff with me (quite a bit actually if my estimates are anything to go by) but I'm also going to be selling quite a bit of stuff. Mostly paper and things that may become damaged or not usable within 2 years of not being touched. My off-line friends are going to get first crack at the stuff but after that I'll be taking pictures and posting them on here to see if anyone wants anything.
So I might not be around much until after the move. There are a few things I still want to blog about, but I'm not going to be crafting much between now and then. But if you want to find me, you know where I'll be. :)

See you soon!

~Jeni

Vacation Time!!

HI!!!! 

Okay, I know it's been like forever since I last blogged. But things have been a little crazy and I haven't really even had time to go into my craft room and do anything. (Well, especially since it's kind of a mess. Okay, not kind of a mess. Really a mess. It looks like a bomb exploded in there or something. I really do need to go clean.) 

January was fun and I'm sad it's over. I went to Honolulu for a weekend and had an amazing time. I haven't been on a decent trip in over a year. Sure, the hotel wasn't amazing (I stayed at the Pagoda Hotel. Should have spent the extra $15 a night and stayed at the Ala Moana Hotel.) But I got to see some friends, took my GRE (it's like the SATs for Graduate School), and, the best part, got to see Wicked!!! 

But the trip began when I flew to Maui. LoL. Yes, Maui. There was a flight with a stopover on Maui and I decided that I wanted to do that instead of flying straight to Honolulu. Wasn't the best choice. The flight from Maui to Honolulu was delayed for almost an hour. But, I did get Maui Cookies!

But then I finally got to Honolulu and got to the hotel. Took a taxi to Ala Moana to do a quick little bit of shopping because I had some downtime before my aunty came to pick me up for dinner and then to see Wicked. There were already a ton of people in front of the theater when we got there so we couldn't take a picture in front of the big banner thing, but we took a picture in front of the smaller poster. XD

I did some damage to my shopping funds (they had some cute stuff that I wanted to get, but everything was so expensive!) and then went in to find my aunty because she had already gone to our seats. OMG I was SO happy with the seats we had! Picture of the dragon and the screen on the stage from where I was sitting. 

The show was amazing! It went by SO fast. I was disappointed when it was over. I wish I could have gone again, but I went on the Thursday before the run ended. And tickets were sold out for the remainder of the shows so it didn't happen. I've been listening to the soundtrack almost constantly since I got back to the hotel from the show. (Yay for friends giving me the soundtrack and me putting it on my iPod but never listening to it!) If anyone gets a chance to see it, GO! 

I took the test the following morning at 8a.m. Yes. 8a.m.. Thought it was a total fail but it turns out only the math portion was a total fail. LoL. But I'm not a math person anyway. Totally did not get that Asian gene that gives you super math skills apparently. But oh well. 

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent shopping. I blew the rest of my money in Waikiki (where I went to karaoke with a couple of friends for a couple of hours and then went went to lunch and then I did more shopping) and at Ala Moana. 

Went to this tea place at Ala Moana and bought macarons. I think the red one was red velvet and the pink one was strawberry guava. They weren't bad. The ones I made before were crunchy on the outside and squishy on the inside. These for some reason were squishy all the way through. Not very crunchy. But they were yummy. 

I kinda forgot to take pictures from the rest of my trip. But I did buy yummy cake at Shirokiya. It was from this little place called Kulu Kulu on the second floor. It was really light cake and I wish I had bought it on the first day so I could have gone back and bought more. LoL. 

But now I'm home and back at work and school. Things are back to normal. I finally put my UH Manoa Graduate School application in and now it's a waiting game. And work on my UNLV application. But I'm hoping to get my craft room cleaned up on my next day off and get back to working on stuff.
Okie dokie, back to my homework that I've been procrastinating about for the past 45 minutes while I wrote this blog post. ^.^. It's not due until Sunday, so I still have time.
See you later!!!

~Jeni

Duct Tape Bag!!

Hi!!! Look who's back!!!! I know I haven't blogged in like months, but between work and school and work I just didn't have any motivation to do much crafting at all. I didn't even experiment with new cupcake recipes. :*(  But I was at Target a couple of weeks ago and was browsing through their Back to School section and came across the cutest duct tape! It has monsters on it! So of course I bought it. And it was sitting in my room until this past Friday night when I realized that I needed to learn how to make a duct tape bow for Saturday and fast (since we had the Hello Kitty day make & takes at Ben Franklin)!! So I hunted for duct tape and just grabbed my roll of monsters since I didn't want to use the fast food duct tape I also bought.
ANYWAY, yesterday I decided to take the roll of tape to work with me, hoping that I'd be able to work on a bag that I had been hoping to make. I did get a bag done...it took me all morning but I did get it done. I also got a bag done made of pink, red, and Hello Kitty duct tape that you can see if you visit the store. (It's by the TV display with all the duct tape by Make a Memory.) I ended up not liking the first bag very much, so today I worked on a second one once I got all the work stuff done. So...here it is!!:

The inside is red duct tape and the outside is monster. It's not a very big bag. I wasn't even able to put both rolls of tape into it. But I think it'd be cute for a small gift bag or something. All in all it took me about 2 hours total to finish it. I had to stop and go while I was working on it at work and when I got home I finished it. It only took a while because I kept taping my fingers and making air bubbles.

I think I may have to buy more duct tape and make a few more of these. I'm going to try some other bags too. Just probably not at work because I think I've played with the duct tape enough there. :)

See you later!!!

~Jeni

Please Donate to Relay For Life!

Okay, so this post has nothing to do with crafting, but something more personal.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo hosts their own Relay for Life each spring and I've participated in it for the past three years (well, with the exception of last year...it was the three years before that.)

If you don't know what Relay for Life is, it's a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The event is held all over the country on different dates. It's an overnight event with teams of people walking around a track or a specific route. For more information on Relay for Life, you can visit this site.

This year we got a little late of a start because our team didn't know if we were going to actually have a team.

I've participated because cancer has affected my family as well as hundreds of families all over the country and the world. My dad is a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2008. Thank goodness it was only in the early stages when the doctors caught it and he has been in remission since. But I always think of what could have happened. We didn't need the services that the American Cancer Society offers, but there are many families and individuals who do.

Please donate if you can. Relay for Life is this coming weekend but the ACS can use donations any time of the year. My personal donation page is here if you'd like to help my team reach its goal.

Thanks for reading!

Oreo Cupcakes!

Am I sure I didn't post this already? I guess not. I wonder if I closed the screen instead of scheduling this to post last night. LoL. Completely possible with me. XD


Anyway, we had a meeting at work this past Sunday and I always like to make something for the meetings.  (I like to, but it doesn't mean I always do. Usually it depends on what time I finish work on Saturday...) I hadn't made cupcakes in a while so I asked a co-worker what kind of cupcakes I should make. She said chocolate but I'm not completely happy with the chocolate recipe I have (and the really good one I used to make I can't find the recipe for....) so I needed to think of something to add to it. I've already done chocolate cherry so I wanted to do something different. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for Oreo cupcakes online a couple of months ago. I decided to go searching for it and see if it was easy enough to make for the meeting. Unfortunately, that recipe had way too may steps and I didn't want to spend that much time baking so I went Googling for another recipe. Anyway, long story short, I found one that I thought sounded interesting, although I was a little skeptical because I've never made a chocolate cupcake without butter before. 


The resulting cupcake:

It turned out a lot better than I had originally expected. Especially since I used the generic Oreo-like cookies from Safeway because the real Oreos were like $5 a bag. (The generic ones were $2.50 or something like that.) A co-worker gave me some mint Oreos so I used those too. 

Here's the recipe (as I usually do, copied and pasted from the site I got it on, with my notes added (with the **)...):

Oreo Cupcakes

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour (**I used one cup cake flour and one cup AP flour. I wanted to use my cake flour.)

3/4 cups cocoa (**Cocoa Powder...unsweetened)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (**Rounded)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 package instant chocolate pudding

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream (**=one small container)

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water 

24 Oreo cookies, with one side twisted off and reserved (**Approximately...I actually think I used more. More like 36)

*Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans.

*In a large bowl whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pudding mix. Add oil, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well blended (about 2 minutes) Continue beating while slowly adding in the boiling water. Beat about 30 seconds after adding the water.

Put the Oreo with one side twisted off cream side up and fill cupcake liners about 1/2 way. (**I did some this way but I found out afterwards that the cookie did not stick to the cake when you took the wrapper off. I ended up filling the liner a little, putting the cookie in, and then adding more batter. Worked a lot better that way.) Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. (In my oven it took more like half an hour. LoL) Let them cool completely on cooling rack.

The frosting was just a canned vanilla frosting mixed with a container of marshmallow fluff. Only because I only bought one container of frosting and I'm a girl who likes a lot of frosting. XD So I added the marshmallow fluff to make it stretch more. I frosted the cupcakes and then put the top cookie from the Oreo on the very top. Like a little hat. ^.^

I'm thinking of making these cupcakes again this weekend. I have everything except the pudding and the sour cream. And the frosting. Market tomorrow! Or maybe Friday since I work all day tomorrow. 

Okie dokie. I think this post is long enough. LoL. I'll see you later!!

~Jen

Yummy Goodies!

Just before New Years we pounded mochi at my house, like we do every year. Since it was a smaller crowd this year and we normally pot luck, we didn't know how much food was actually going to show up so I told my mom that I'd make some snack kind of things just in case.

I actually only had time to make two things, but they were really yummy! One of my go-to recipes this fall/winter has been pumpkin spice cupcakes. (And I had to use Halloween cupcake liners that were a little bent out of shape, which is why it looks all warped. LoL) It's a super easy recipe that I found in a magazine and went a little crazy on. 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 can pumpkin puree (it said 1 cup in the recipe but I put 1 can. It tastes better that way)

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

*Mix all ingredients in a bowl

*Line cupcake trays

*Fill 3/4 full

*Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

*Cool and frost. 

I used a regular canned cream cheese frosting that I added a little bit of vanilla, cinnamon, and clove to. Just eyeball it. I think the recipe makes about 28 - 30 cupcakes, possibly more. 

The other thing I made was Muddy Buddies. So super duper easy and took all of 10 minutes. I'm sure everyone knows how to make these but here you go anyway:

Muddy Buddies

1 box Chex or Chex-like cereal (I used these Rice Pockets or something like that from Safeway once and it worked fine.)

1/2 a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 a bottle of peanut butter

1 cup (or so) powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 a stick of butter

*Melt chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 30 seconds. 

*Take it out and stir. If it's not completely smooth, put back in microwave for another 30 seconds. 

*Once the mixture is smooth and all melted, empty the box of cereal into a big bowl

*Stir vanilla into mixture and pour over cereal

*Completely coat cereal with mixture

*Dump cereal into either 2 1-gallon size Ziplock bags or 1 2-gallon size bag. 

*Pour in powdered sugar, close bag, and shake like crazy until all the cereal is coated. If you need more powdered sugar, add more. 

*Dump cereal out onto waxed paper to cool

And that's pretty much it. I poured mine into a bowl and mixed in some mint M&Ms because I just had some lying around. 

Okie dokie. That's all for today. Bye!!

Blogging Backlog!

Okay, okay, so apparently I've only been blogging every couple of months. Sorry! It's not that I haven't wanted to, it's just that I need to learn time management a little better. So I have a ton of stuff I need to blog about. I keep taking pictures and go "I need to blog about this" but never get around to it. I'm going to try to do better this year.

The first thing on my camera was some pictures I took when I was working on cards for my mom's Christmas baskets that she gave family friends.

I procrastinated way too much so I needed to get these done in a hurry. It was a good thing I had a bunch of stamped and colored images from when I was doing cards for the church on hand and so I just kind of only had to piece everything together. I have to admit, though, I really love the geta that I found on my Cricut Pagoda cartridge. So cute and so easy to cut out and piece. Every set of cards had at least two cards with the geta on them. LoL. And the Sister Stamp images are some of my favorites so I think I need to stamp and color more of them to replenish my supply. :D

I'm going to actually write a few more blog entries and set them to post over the next few days since I'm working every night this week except for Friday (but I have school and work at my other job and a meeting for an event at the University that's happening on Saturday so...) but by the time I'm able to post again I'll be all caught up! Yay! LoL. 

See you later!!