This Isn't Your Grandmother's Jello...

First of all, you guys are going to have to help me come up with a better name for these. 

because

Drunken Coffee Gelatin Jigglers

 just doesn't do it.

Secondly, if & when you do make them, promise me you'll taste two. Because, I'm going to be honest, the first one's a little weird. No one is used to coffee in a solid(ish) state. Once you get past the consistency though... you might find yourself in trouble. Don't forget. This has both caffeine and alcohol in it... so go easy. 

And, of course, keep them out of the reach of children. 

The Recipe (not in a fancy pictoral recipe, sorry!)

3 packets Knox unflavored Gelatin

1/2 cp cold water

1 3/4 cp strongly brewed coffee, hot

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT the evaporated milk)

3 tbsps. Alcohol of your choice

                     (the original recipe calls for Kahlua-- I opted for the $6 bottle of Amaretto over

                       the $18 bottle of Kahlua, but I think the Kahlua would be even better)

1. Make Gelatin. (Add cold water to powder, whisk to blend.) Let sit for 10 minutes. It needs to "bloom."

2. Meanwhile, make coffee. I used 8 tbsp coffee and 2 cps water and was a little short, so I guess it depends on your coffee maker. 

Properly 'bloomed' gelatin

3. After the ten minutes are up, add the coffee to the Gelatin, and whisk to mix but GENTLY. The goal is to not create bubbles or froth.

4. Add the can of sweetened condensed milk, whisking gently to mix. Again, no bubbles.

5. Add the alcohol. I was tempted to go with more than 3 tbsps, later I was glad that I didn't... probably don't on the first try... but I'll leave it to your discretion. Mix gently.

6. Pour into an 8x8 glass casserole dish (or plastic containers, or a cake pan... whatever)

      (if you end up with bubbles, you can try to pop them now, or just skim 

                      them from the surface with a spoon. The bubbles set into the gelatin, and look funny later)

7.Cover and fridge until set.

8. Cut up & serve! You can put them just on a platter, as I did, stick them into Cupcake Foils, whatever you please :)

delicious.

So, I hope that you all enjoy your Thanksgiving and, if you are brave enough to try these... enjoy them ;)

Because Some Days I Crave Organization... and Chocolate.

The same Origami Calendar that once inspired Halloweenigami has inspired a massive clean-up of the messiest place in my bedroom. Worse than under the bed. Worse than the closet floor.

my desk drawer.

Now, when I began this project, I was too embarrassed to take a "before" image... so just imagine... a plethora of pencils, pens, & markers. More office supplies than I can shake a stick at. Papers, papers, papers. Some were important (bills, addresses, a birthday card from Grandma O) some were not (work schedule from Spring '09, grocery receipts, etc.)

In fact, one day, my roommate, I call her Fancy, came into my room before I was awake.

"I need a stapler!" she cries. "I'm already late for class!" 

"it's either on the desk or in the desk" I mumble from under my covers, no intention of getting up to help.

Rummage, rummage, rummage....

....rummage, rummage, rummage...

She gave up. "Is this thingy a paper clip?"

"Is it a spiral?" (because of course I can't even have 'normal' paperclips)

"yes."

"yes."

So that gives you a good idea on just how crazy messy it was... 

but thanks to this:

 

& 

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami_magazine_box.htm

I ended up with:

The Stapler is now front & center!

I used Scrapbooking paper for my origami... it's thick enough to hold up to more wear & tear, plus, it's sooo pretty. Here are close ups of one box and a lazy susan:

                    


























After sorting & tossing the useless papers that were in my drawer, I recycled a couple of drawings I did for an art class some semesters ago but never wanted to throw away. I folded them into folders and tied them with a bit of embroidery floss.

I like to call it "Origaminization"

So now that I've shared my Organization craze.... here's the chocolate part... in the delicious form of 

CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE 

here is my pictoral recipe: 

It's pretty self-explanatory, so I'm going to skip all of the photos of the doing... except for this one:

It just makes me giggle.

When it's all mixed and cooked... 

Slide it out onto a plate (serves two... or one selfish one!)

Add ice cream or a tall glass of cold milk...

It's dangerous when you realize you're only about 6 minutes away from a good piece of chocolate cake.

And for next time... the one thing that will help get you through your family Thanksgiving...

...hint... it's an appetizer that has coffee and booze. 

Mad for Plaid

One thing that seems to be back in style this season is plaid. It's everywhere! I even saw a website that said "This season's two greatest hits, Tweed & Plaid!" I thought, If only I could find something that was plaid tweed, it'd be two birds, one stone.  Ultra-trendy. if you will.

Instead, Goodwill sold me this lovely plaid poly-cotton blend, but the colors are fantastic, and it's got darling mother-of-pearl snaps. And it's only about 6 sizes too big.

 I can't give a proper thumbs-up as the length of the sleeves inhibits the movement.

Anyone up for a picnic? 

First of all, I had to get rid of a lot of extra material, lest I have bustle like an early 1900's dress.  Then, I used a strip of elastic to keep the new ruffle in place as well as provide some room for movement. We all know there's nothing worse than a button-up that is too tight and has no movement... it's a popped button, waiting to happen. Especially if your cup runneth over as mine does. 

Helpful hint? I pinned the stretched elastic to a block of wood to make it easier to sew.

Then I stitched up where I had removed the fabric, and was met with a very unsightly bulge-y mess. So, I took that extra material and fashioned a bow... awwww.

It's practically camouflaged, but adorable nonetheless!

THEN... disaster strikes.

I sewed the bottom of the shirt to the back of the bow! It's the equivalent of tucking your skirt into your pantyhose!

Ugh. Rookie Mistake

So after I redid the bow, the shirt looked good, but still kinda mannish. It needed a feminine touch. So I grabbed the lace. ♥

And Voíla... 

my new shirt is born.

The shirt cost $2.96 at Goodwill. 

It took less than 4 hours.

This Project: $2.96

Total Project: $9.67

.

Halloweenigami

At work on Friday, I was very bored. There wasn't any work to do and the 5 hour shift lasted longer than my entire week. So what did I do?

Origami. Duh.

Since today's Halloween, I am (procrastinating real homework) and going to post the cute 'gamis that I did.
Also, if you're bored and have a square of paper, I highly encourage origami. Mostly because it's frickin' sweet, but it's also... because it's origami. What else do you need?

What was the Hippie Vampire like?
He was ghoul, man. Real ghoul.

What do you call a mummy that eats cookies in his tomb?
A crummy mummy!

What do little ghosts drink?
Evaporated Milk!

The vampire came from the 365 Days of Origami calendar at work (really cool... er, ghoul) and here are the links to the others... 

the ghost came from this great website

http://www.spiraclemusic.com/webwalk/origami.htm

and the mummy from this one:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/pdfs/Origami_Mummies.pdf

the mummy is super-easy and would be great for kids! 

I wish everyone an awesome Halloween!

The American Constitution Hard at Work

In an e-mail, my sister-in-law, L, asked, "What are you going to be for Halloween?  I don't know what would beat Flo, probably nothing.  But, you'll try I'm sure."

So here's last year's Flo costume:

And did I beat it? 

I'll let you be the judge.

Wait, what is that?... is that...? Is that what I think it is??

Yup. It's

THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

The right to bear arms.

So now that I've told you the end, I'm gonna pull a Quentin Tarantino and go back to the beginning. Waaaay back to the beginning of my hairy tale (see what I did there?) to June, I think, when I read a headline in the paper at work. The headline said "Something Something Something The Right to Bear Firearms" and it amused me, and I smirked (or at least I would have) and thought, that's funny because now you can't make it a pun. And then I laughed out loud (my co-workers must've thought I was mad) because BEAR ARMS. So then, BEAR ARMS is running through my head all day long (and still made me laugh) because we all know how much I LOVE puns.

And then the costume idea was born. 

And this is how that went:

The Beginning. This also spurned a "bear skin rug" idea... more on that later.

Then it turned into:

The right to bear arm.

And you can't have bear arms without...

Let me open that for you with my BEAR HANDS

One last little detail to pull it all together...

Why only four stripes you ask? Either I was too lazy or I only recognize 4 original colonies. Your choice.

So now we've come full circle and it's the end again. I'd post the after photo again, but you can just scroll back up. Finger exercise. 

WAIT! A Twist! 

It's not the really the end! Remember when I said "More on that later" ?!?! That was foreshadowing. Astute readers would have gotten it. 

Bear. Skin. Rug.

Now all I need is an appropriately-colored and -sized teddy bear to decapitate so he'll have a head.

The [actual] End.

really.

The Argyle Gang

We're all just argyled-peas in a bar-shaped pod.

An Outing in Argyle!

My roommate, we'll call her E (for privacy reasons, of course), chose to have an argyle-themed birthday outing. Instead of wearing the one argyle shirt I already had [boring!] I went to the good ol' Goodwill and purchased this monstrosity for a measly $2.96:

A little bit of Grandpa with a little bit of 80's... and a whole lot of argyle.

I know you're now thinking, "what in the world was she thinking?" I was thinking "Deep V-Neck Cardigan!"

So, I hacked that puppy up a little until I ran into this problem:

The knitted collar was not going to cut it for a deep V.
Solution: It had to go.

I folded the raw edge under & made a (not-so-straight, but who's perfect?) new hem. Success!

Problem number 2: button holes. How the heck was I supposed to do button holes?

Solution:

I totally sewed them suckers straight on the front.
Tracie: 1 Button holes: 0. 

So then we're left with the final outfit. I threw it over a tank & some leggings & a necklace I got from a garage sale a couple years ago, put on some flats and we were ready to rock!

Ze front

Ze Back

All in all, it was a great night, and I wish a very happy birthday to E. As soon as I have access to the photo of the whole Argyled-Gang I'll post it!

This Project: Sweater: $2.96
                    Buttons: $3.75 (don't you love that I paid more for buttons than the sweater?!?!)
                  Total: $6.71

Whole Project: $6.71

Next time: A brief history of the spork.
                                                               Kidding.

Anything Unrelated to Elephants is Irrelephant!

I have a plan that includes making purses and lining them with silver satin and calling my "brand" Silver Lining Purse Company. Here is the first one... it's a Before & After though, does it still count? And it's not completed yet, I'm still going to cover the sides and back... someday.

The original was a gift from an old roommate... she got it for free during Spring Break in Florida, and everything I used on it was given to me or I already had, so total cost for this purse... $0!

The Before:

The Pieces:

I added the striped background, the elephants, the heart, the cute cupid "grass"

Lace cloud :)

Some fabric, a little tatted piece and a button make the sun

The After:

Two cute elephants sharin' some love on the savannah

Project Cost: $0

Total Cost: $0

That's all for now!

Being Inspired...

I've been tossing around the idea of making a blog for awhile now, but worrying what people would think: that they'd think I was showing off or making a big deal of my creativity. Then a good friend said to me, "Do what you want. Stop worrying about what other people think." And two days later, Elephants in Pearls was created as a place to put my stuff and share some inspiration. Because we could all use a little more inspiration.

Good Night!