My Favorite Time of the Year!!

With December comes many wonderful experiences: picking out a fresh Christmas tree, decorating the house, baking cookies, and ElfYourself! That's right, I consider Elf-Yourself an essential ingredient to a successful holiday season. Much to my surprise, they have introduced more versions this year!! Take a look for yourself...

I present to you, the Erickson Family 2012 Elf-Yourself!

Every version (click the links to follow through): Classic, Hip-Hop, Soul, 80s, and Charleston.


I love ALL versions. Please note my dad Mike and Kona (the family dog) high-fiving in the first few seconds of the Soul version!!  And my parent's cute little solo dance in the Charleston version!  (actually, we might change places every time, but you have to trust me that these were hilarious).

I invite everyone to make their own here, I promise you will not be disappointed.

After that belly-laugh, I am back to studying for finals. I swear if I read the words "fecal-bulk" one more time this quarter, I am going to barf... yay for Fiber!! ;)

The Giving Tree

See? I told you I would post more closer to Christmas! :)

I mentioned on Facebook a while ago about The Giving Tree on campus. The tag of a 5 y/o girl requested crafting stuff, and my fate was sealed. After a long, long, long few weeks of non-stop school stuff, I was finally able to dash off to Yakima and do a little Christmas shopping! I learned that I cannot be left alone in the kid's crafting section. Luckily, I was at Craft Warehouse that has super discounts... only a few items for this gift went over a dollar or two, plus coupons! This worked out for both of us. :)

The haul

I think this will keep those little hands busy for a while. Two cute outfits, glitter glue, crayons, colored pencils, friendship making kit, a TON of 12X12 paper, glue sticks, a book....

Beads! String! A nifty little bracelet making tool! What more could she want?!  

I really and truly wish these came in my size. The pockets are stitched with pink, blue, and silver sequins and the button is a huge diamond. With a matching purple shirt, of course! 

A close up. As you can tell, I am so excited for her!! :)

The second outfit. The little ruffled sleeves, scoop neck,  and pink leggings?! I die. 

All wrapped up. My mom taught me to always include a carrying case to keep everything in one place and keep their momma happy too. :) 

The final result!! The wrapping paper is the awesome double-sided stuff, so each gift looks unique, but still cohesive! 

My roommate brought me this little stocking filled with candy while I was wrapping. It matched so perfectly, I had to stick it on top!! ...sans delicious candy... :)

I could not be more happy with how well this gift came together. I hope she has a very Merry Christmas! :)

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I had my doubts about having time (or energy) to put a Christmas tree up in my apartment this year! I was home for Thanksgiving last week and I convinced my mom and sister to go "Black Friday" shopping at Goodwill! We had a full night of Tryptophan-induced slumber, and made it to Goodwill around 3-4pm. Thank you, Goodwill for having your sales at a decent hour (and all weekend, I think!). Everything was marked down 50%, and I found the most perfect artificial tree! It comes apart in 3 sections and each section folds nicely, so no matching "branch A" to "slot A". Much easier.
I forgot to mention the best part- the grand total of my tree was only $10 after 50% off! Score.

Here are some quick pictures of my tree! I have plans to add more frilly things, but I was surprised that I already had enough ornaments to fill a full-sized tree! I have a few leather-bound children's books at the base of the tree from Goodwill last year. I would like to add some sparkly garland to the tree next. I also picked up this cute wooden ornament on the from Real Deals in Ellensburg for $2. I love it.

I hope to add some more sparkle to my tree soon! But for now, I am enjoying the coziness my new tree brings! :)

Holiday Mish-Mash

Hello? Anyone out there?

Life has been batty this last month or so! Midterms came and went and I still haven't had time to catch my breath! There are two weeks until finals and then hopefully I will be able to relax. :)

I have a mile-long list of Christmas projects to work on after this quarter is over, I can't wait! Normally Christmas has taken over my apartment by now, but this year I am on schedule with the rest of the world. Practically moving back to my parents house for the entire month of December means I have to put Christmas decorations on the fast-track in my own home to be able to enjoy it, so at least I have somewhat of an excuse for wanting everything up so early! ...and I just really love Christmas...

The more I think about my apartment decorations, the more I realize how busy I have been this year. I still have Valentines, fall leaves, a few little Christmasy-things, and a "spring" candle holder displayed! Luckily I finally took the Halloween decorations off the front door or else it would have really been a holiday melting pot around here. :) My personal goal for next week: synchronize my decor! Crossing my fingers...

When I am not covered in a mountain of textbooks, I am following other blogs and checking in on the Silhouette store's new shapes! Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week (after Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, of course!) because the Silhouette store always has a ton of new shapes, a new free shape, and an updated clearance section. It is like Christmas every Tuesday, I'm telling you! The downside of following blogs/Silhouette so closely is getting hair-brained crafty ideas in my head that I just HAVE TO complete! I have a whole crafting "to-do" list in my OmniFocus where I can jot down ideas no matter where I am. Sometimes I read them and cannot figure out what the heck I was even thinking. Gotta keep life interesting, I guess. :)

This post ended up very wordy, so if you made it this far- I congratulate you. You will be rewarded with a little sneak-peak of a project I surprisingly had time to finish a few weekends ago! I'll go into it more later in December. Once this quarter is over I am going to be blasting your news-feeds with all sorts of Christmas crafty goodness- be prepared! :)

Hmm... I wonder what it could be! :)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Easy Artisan Bread

My name is Hayley and I am an addict. A bread addict, that is! I came across this wonderful artisan bread recipe from Simply So Good while browsing Pinterest months ago. I have quickly become the favorite daughter and favorite study group member. I seriously cannot stop devouring this bread. I followed her methods verbatim in the beginning, but I have quickly found out this recipe is very hard to mess up. It always seems to work out even if my dough seems extremely sticky. The plain recipe is fabulous and a great place to start, but these are some others I have tried:

• Lemon, swiss, and rosemary (this one is probably my favorite) 
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, rasin, and brown sugar 
• Pumpkin and sage 
• Dark chocolate and dried cherries (want to try) 
• White chocolate chip and cranberry (want to try) 
• Pistachio and cranberries (want to try) 
• Garlic and caramelized onions (want to try) 

The pumpkin sage bread was the recipe I brought to my study group on Sunday. We all spent days reading about lipids, gastrin, and gastric diseases and totally deserved to treat ourselves with a carb overload. I picked up a HUGE bunch of fresh sage from the farmers market for $1 (along with two asian pears, YUM). Of course bread always needs butter so I chopped up a bunch of sage and made a sage compound butter. The next day I sautéed leftover sage pumpkin bread in browed sage compound butter and had croutons to go on my salad. As you can tell, I am a little obsessed and will try this again. The pumpkin sage bread was devoured before I got any pictures, but I do have pictures of the loaf of rasin bread I made a few weeks ago! 

Dat crust.

Ignore the bag of soil in the background, my porch is the only place with adequate lighting!

I wish smell-o-vision was a thing. 

Sometimes I think I just use bread as an excuse to eat a lot of butter. 

Just for fun (and because I took them on the same day), my new old lady glasses. 

Side note- I think the sage from the market was slightly spider infested. Every time I pull it out of the fridge I end up with a little cooking buddy. And not the cute Rattatoulie kind. Please don't tell Adam. ;)

I am linking up to a few linky parties this week for the first time. I always LOVE scrolling through lists of linky parties and seeing the wonderfully creative things other bloggers are doing, so I have decided to join in on the fun! If you're stopping by from one of the linky parties, welcome to my little space in bloggerland! :)

Pumpkin Spice Addict

This is the look of a dog newly addicted to Pumpkin Spice Hershey's kisses. I was eating a few and he would not stop begging, so naturally I gave him one. Normally when he is begging for something weird (fruits, vegetables, pumpkin spice kisses) he will just spit it back out. Not this time! I have created a furry little monster.

(Disclaimer: This short little post was actually written about two weeks before I published, but I must have hit "save" instead of "publish", and then forgot about it. I found it in my files and thought it was too cute not to share!) 

Back to School and OmniFocus

Adam Sandler's "Back to School" song from Billy Madison has been stuck in my head all week! Lemme sing it to you now:

"Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad I'm not a fool!"

 Okay, it might only funny if you've seen the movie and can hear me in the right voice. :)

Moving on... I am just starting up my LAST first week of school so I've been working hard all day getting organized for the quarter. In the past I've always meticulously written out every assignment in a small planner and tabbed every single reading in all my books with little green sticky tabs. I was always good about keeping up with assignments (I've made it this far, haven't I??), but the reading tabs always got dirty, bent, lost, and forgotten. The only function the reading tabs served were to make me feel organized at the beginning of the quarter and then I would curse them as I furiously ripped them out of my books right before buybacks! Enter: my beautiful new MacBook.

I was able to pick up my Christmas present early (THANKS, Mom and Dad!!) and it has been so awesome for school. My old lappy had to be on life support at all times (both the charger and internet cords) so taking the behemoth to class was not really an option. Now I am that annoying girl sitting in the front row typing away (sorry classmates!). I can take notes directly into powerpoint documents so I am no longer printing out hundreds of ppt presentations every quarter.

One last awesome improvement in my academic life is a program called OmniFocus. This app was $40 through Apple (I had a gift card), and at first I was really disappointed and thought it was a waste of money. Although I was so utterly confused the first few times I tried to figure it out (even after watching 10 tutorial videos), today something just clicked! I had to just start entering in my coursework before I really started to understand the layout. I am so excited to have finally figured this out, and Adam is probably excited to quit hearing about it. :) The online explanations for this program were really vague, so I just wanted to give a quick overview of how I organized mine for anyone who may be interested.

I can view all my tasks in the order that they are due. Right now all I have are readings to complete, but I am sure this list will be much longer as the quarter goes on. The OmniFocus tab that is always on my bar (the little purple guy) will display how many items I have to complete soon (in yellow) or past due (in red) so I can quickly see how much I have to complete soon! 

.

For anyone trying to use OmniFocus for school (the program is initially set up in a work format), the way I have it set up is this:

Projects: Main tasks, regardless of which class they are for. Mine include "Readings" "Exams" and "Assignments"

Contexts: This is where I have my courses separated under the "School" tab. This way I can easily click on whatever class I need to see quickly and focus on that first.

 Like I said, I am pretty pleased with my organization this quarter. Let's hope I can keep it up! :)

Cake Batter Chocolate Sauce, or Using Resources Wisely.

Hi all,

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend of cooking at a Girl Scout camp! This was our first year at Camp St. Albans (camp was traditionally held at Camp Klahanee) and there were a few fantastic improvements. The girls were able to go boating, swiming, and even shoot an arrow at the archery range. A feature the girls wouldn't notice is the wonderful commercial kitchen at St. Albans. Klahanee has very small home-sized appliances, which means one traditional oven to feed 100+ people.  St. Albans has FOUR commercial convection ovens, huge prep spaces, multiple sinks, and a walk-in refrigerator/freezer. The first few days of camp were so hot that we held many planning meetings inside the walk in refrigerator, so refreshing!

I was assigned to help prepare dinner for about 150 ladies (and 2 guys!). The last night we planned to have angel food cake with berries for dessert, but the berries had been accidentally used for a different meal! What is that old phrase about having too many cooks in the kitchen? Anyway... being on a limited budget, we tried to come up with alternatives. The weather was unexpectedly hot, so we had two cases of hot cocoa mix that were going unused. I decided to tinker around with the mix and see what kind of chocolate sauce I could come up with. This sauce was made entirely with leftovers from other meals at camp. The end product was insanely decadent and well-loved by all! Here's what I did:

Melt margarine (or butter) over medium heat in a large sauce pot. Stir in hot cocoa packets. This will look very grainy and will separate into a chunky sludge and a dark smooth oil like substance. Do not be deterred, it will work! 

Crack and beat eggs in a spare bowl. Spoon a bit of the chocolate oil into the egg mixture. This tempers the eggs and prevents you from making a scrambled egg sauce. Once your eggs and sauce are mixed around, pour the egg mixture into the pot of chocolate goop. 

Now get to whisking! I alternated between a whisk and a large metal spoon, but keep in mind I was making a huge quantity. A whisk will probably get the job done in your kitchen. I kept the heat around medium to medium high and stirred the mixture around for about 5 minutes before it became a silky smooth chocolate sauce. 

At this point, the sauce was good, but not outstanding. Rooting around the kitchen a bit more, I found some leftover sour cream. THIS is what gives it a true cake batter feeling. Silky, smooth, creamy, and a little tart bite. I spooned the sauce into glass syrup dispensers and kept them in the fancy-schmancy warmer (held at 140 degrees or higher) until we were ready, but you could easily serve it immediately. Pour over angel food cake (with some donated blueberries- thanks Kim!), canned pineapple chunks, and a dollop of whipped cream. Or dip giant serving spoons in the pot like the entire kitchen staff did. Either way, your taste buds (and camp budget!) will love you. 

Anyone who has watched me cook knows I am a professional eye-baller. I will try and give you quantities, but I did not measure so you may have to play around with it. I made both the "home quantity" and "camp quantity" and they both turned out fine without measuring. 

Camp Quantity- Served 150 (approximately 30 cups sauce)

• Extremely large scoop margarine, probably close to 5-6 cups or more. I probably used close to a 1:1 ratio of margarine to cocoa. 
• 48 packets hot cocoa mix (50 in a case, but I practiced with 2 first). Using bulk cocoa, this almost filled up a small metal kitchen bowl. The packets should contain cocoa powder, sugar, and non-dairy creamer. 
•  About 18 raw eggs. All leftover from breakfast. 
• 1 container sour cream, approximately 12 ounces. 

Home Quantity- Probably 6 healthy servings

• About 1 cup margarine 
• 2 packets hot cocoa mix 
• 2-3 eggs 
• A healthy dollop sour cream

I know the math between the two doesn't quite add up, but that's just what I did and it was fantastic both times. Sorry for the lack of pictures- there is probably a food safety rule about cameras in a commercial kitchen. ;) I am already thinking of ways to change this chocolate sauce up at home, using peppermint cocoa mix, white chocolate mix, etc... anything goes! Enjoy! 

Summer and Salt Water

It's 10pm in Ellensburg and still 80 degrees (and about 90 in my poor-ventilated apartment!). The smell of summer is usually delicious here, a mixture of hay fields and warmth. And the occasional cow pasture, but I digress... While I'm not complaining about the nice weather at all, I am longing for fall and all my favorite things that come with it. Pumpkin spice... stews... pumpkins... *snap out of it*!!

I haven't blogged in a while because I've just been enjoying my summer. I've been spending time with my Grandma and Grandpa B, doing a little gardening and lots of cooking. I have also been helping Grandpa E deep clean his house, I'm positive some of those dust bunnies were older than I am!

I was home for a few weeks, so Adam came to visit me! We watched a lot of movies and went to the beach!

At the Jetty in Ocean Shores

The sky was bright blue and the beach was beautiful! The sand was hot enough to burn your toes, a rare phenomenon around here. Adam "tolerated" all my picture taking... (click on photos to view them larger)

Well, he was being a good sport... 

TONS of horses on the beach. They stunk. We really don't like horses. 

And kids flying kites! So fun. 

Before heading home we picked up a bag of saltwater taffy, because you can't go to the beach without getting taffy! I thought a margarita flavored taffy would be yummy (limey, a little salty) but it was just pure salt- YUCK. We even stopped at the casino on the way home because I had never been to one. I played penny slots and doubled my money- put in $1 and won $2!! Whooo... that will probably be the end of my gambling.  

My goal is to keep the posts more regular than they have been. We'll see how that turns out! :) 

Apple Pie Oatmeal

While flipping through Pinterest the other day, I came across this spectacular oatmeal recipe. I love oatmeal and this recipe made me pine for crunchy fall leaves and pumpkin patches. I didn't take any pictures of mine because it looked like regular mushy oatmeal (follow the link above for her pictures and original recipe). I decided to add some brown sugar to mine, and I would probably use a bit less next time because it was like eating an actual apple pie, not breakfast oatmeal. I doubled the recipe so I would have enough to take to my Grandpa and have leftovers. Here's what I did:

Combine 2 cups steel-cut oats, 5 cups apple juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 (or more) diced apples, and a splash of cinnamon and vanilla in a slow cooker. Mine cooked long enough for the dog and I to walk around a lake and clean the house (about 3 hours on high). You could cook it for 7 hours or more on low. I did end up adding an extra cup of water towards the end, you'll just have to watch it. It is important to use steel-cut oats in this recipe because they keep their shape and texture. 

This recipe has joined my arsenal of go-to recipes, even Kona approved! I hope you try it! :) 

Good Old Fashoned Fender-Bender

Do you believe in fate? Chain reactions? "Everything happens for a reason"?

I sure do. Whenever something happens I think "If I had spent 2 more minutes in the bathroom this morning, I would have missed this event completely". I couldn't help thinking about that yesterday after my car was backed into in a parking lot! :( Adam was having car problems, so I was on my way to help him. I decided to swing by 7-11 and drop off a Redbox. If I had decided to drop it off later in the day, or if I stopped at Starbucks first, this all could have been avoided. But unless I whip up a time machine, the damage is done.

After the wreck, the jerk that backed into me and ran around the parking lot looking for witnesses to tell the police it was all my fault. Some guy that watched it happen told the police that I was on my phone and wasn't paying attention. This made me absolutely furious because I was NOT on the phone!! Ugh. Since this all happened just yesterday, we don't know what is going to happen yet. All I know is my near-perfect little car is so ugly. :( The only saving grace is that this happened on the passenger's side, so I don't have to look at it every time I get in the car.

My poor, poor car. :( 

Just my luck- he had a ball hitch :-/ 

I do not handle car problems well. Adam's poor brother has seen me flipping out and crying after my car broke down last summer. Lucky for me, I have the best parents ever who always swoop in and solve my problems (extremely spoiled, I know). Mom was on the phone all day with the insurance company- thanks Mom!! Hopefully this all gets resolved soon.

I'm heading to my parent's house for a few weeks (or however long...). I'll get to hang out with my (four year old) puppy and have plans to help my Grandma in her garden! Now, I just have to pack.... 

Live Long and Prosper.

Star Trek, anyone?

Adam picked up his new car last weekend, courtesy of Shalee's sister! It's an Oldsmoblie Aurora which looks uncannily like a spaceship. It is extremely comfy and has all four wheels that run beautifully so there are no complaints about the car, but it has earned Adam the nickname of Captain Kirk. This has been my favorite joke all week- "Hey Captain, let's go to ____." I'm sure he thinks it is just as funny the 15th time. :)

Even the mirrors look like the SS Enterprise!

The above picture isn't his actual car, but it is the same make/model. I have a little surprise for his car next time we (the car and I) are alone. Being computer/Silhouette savvy, I cut a Star Trek (Technically, Starfleet Command) logo out of black vinyl. I can't wait to slap that baby on the bumper!

I'm not going to tell him and see how long it takes before he realizes he's been commanding the SS Enterprise. He has a 24-hour shift today, so I have to be patient for the car to come back. Patience has always been my strong suit. :)

Drowning in Paper.

Two posts in one day- this is what happens when I go on a blogging hiatus for a few weeks due to finals and now I have so many things to share! 

Now that I have a Silhouette, my obsession with paper and card making has gone a bit overboard. Luckily, I have an enabling mom and we make a dangerous pair in a craft store. I'm pretty sure my paper storage box weighs at least 25 pounds. The only solution- make cards! I have used my Silhouette a ton since "Santa" brought it in December, and my favorite things to make are definitely cards. June has been a crazy month for card making (and studying for finals too!). Two birthday cards, four Father's day cards, and one graduation card later, I'm ready to share them with you. :) 

Look how beautiful this paper is!! Swoon! 

A birthday card for someone who likes butterflies and the color purple! If you happen to see this, act surprised for me at the end of the month, okay?? I've learned not to post gifts before they're given (I'm looking at you, mom!) but I'll make an exception because I love this card so much. 

I loved how this turned out. A birthday card for my cousin Larissa, given with rustic orange flowers and a jute-wrapped mason jar, sooooo cute! Per usual, the colors were brighter in person. I really need to figure out my camera.  

Father's Day Card- outside

Father's Day Card- Inside

"Dad's Stache" filled with Sweet & Spicy Candied Walnuts.

The father's day card pictured above was made twice, one for each mine and Adam's dads. I normally do not like making repeats of cards, but this one turned out so awesome I couldn't imagine making anything different. I was really worried that I would run out of candied walnuts before I filled both jars, so I bought two pounds of raw walnuts. I ended up stuffing the jars as full as they could go, and still had an entire mason jar full of leftovers. Not that I'm complaining about having delicious nuts hanging around. Yum :)

I also made a card for each of my Grandpas and for my cousin Josh's high school graduation but totally spaced on taking pictures. You'll have to trust that they were awesome too!

I am very seriously tossing around the idea of opening an Etsy shop with cards and whatever else I decide to make. Input?? 

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I love freebies. Especially when I feel like I've had to earn them (by leaving a comment on a FB thread). I've been entering all the Craft Warehouse drawings lately and guess what? I WON!

I waited very patiently (right, Adam?) for what felt like an entire month, or like a week, and my package finally came! In the package was Bo Bunny's Hello Sunshine collection. 

See my patience? I managed to take a picture before I ripped into everything.

Brads & Trinkets (aka sparkly, shiney goodness)

Stamps, Jewels, and Petals.

Stickers, Buttons, and Rub-ons.

The whole mess. Beautiful paper and chipboard stickers are behind everything.

I cannot wait to dig in to this stash! It is all very summery and bright ....and perfect for a baby shower, perhaps?? :)

The Beach and a Jewelry Thief.

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend (aka- 3 days with no school!) so Adam and I took a trip home. We got to see a good chunk of Adam's family including visiting siblings- Kevin, Shalee (Hi, Shalee!!), and Kristi with her family. I sped home to hang out with my mom before she left for a church retreat with my sister. This left me with my dad and four year old dog, Kona, for the weekend. We kept busy by planting flowers and tomatoes, grilling pizzas and burgers, and we even took Kona to the beach!

Remember the Mother's Day planters I made? Look how much they've grown! The "flowers" in that lower pot were actually weeds- ha! They've been replaced with much prettier flowers since then.  

Kona loves the beach. He's about to pull my arm off!

Eyeballing me.

I never understand why people swim/surf here. Soooo cold, windy, dreary, and miserable!

He got a little too brave. That little speck is him!

I didn't catch a picture of it, but the stinker decided to root around a dead, rotting seagull and later found a nice pile of dog poo to sniff at. Later, we took him to walk around the shops in Westport and one of the owners came out to say hi to my cute pup. She proceeded to let him french kiss her. Dad and I were both holding back fits of laughter/gagging because she was doing this not 10 minutes after he licked everything dead on the beach. YUCK.

One benefit of Mom and Morgan both leaving for the weekend is that I had full access to Morgan's closet and makeup stash.

Sidebar- I got to right here in writing this post when our lovely toilet overflowed for no apparent reason (this is the SECOND time this has happened. Grrrr). Looks like I get to do multiple loads of toilet-water towels tomorrow. Yay. 

Anyway, back to my point.  I scavenged through old boxes and came up with a ton of old jewelry (which may or may not have been my sister's...):

Exhibit A

I also found an awesome Ikea rack I bought years ago with good intentions but never used. It is now holding pens and misc. crafty goodness next to my desk. I got so excited after finding a stash of my old cds. Unfortunately, I could only find all the burnt mixed cds which were okay but not what I was looking for. Adam and I skipped through them all the way home... until he couldn't take anymore early 2000s R&B ;)

Adam thoroughly enjoying my rediscovered Savage Garden. 

I'd better get to bed so I can go to the laundry mat early in the morning. Oh, the joys of living in an apartment with horrible plumbing and no washer. :)