Is That What I Think It Is

Yep..That's right...This is a cake made out of candy bars. I have seen many flower and gift baskets shops make these. I always thought they were so cool, so when my best friend's birthday was coming up I thought I would order one. So then I started pricing them and I was like "Holy Cow!" Those are expensive. The more I looked at them , the more I thought I can make this! So today I am going to show you how to make them. They are super easy and super cute! The materials can be changed to fit whatever type of cake you want. So please read entire demonstration to best decide what you are going to use.

Materials

two round Styrofoam disc
glue gun

glue sticks for glue gun

candy bars and candy of your choice

ribbons

cardboard cut into a circle or a something to represent a plate














Okay now I went to walmart and the only had one size of the Styrofoam disc. The were smaller than what I originally wanted so I changed my candy to the mini candy bars (the ones that are a $1 for like 8). However it turned out for the best. I am sure if you want a bigger cake or multi layers you can look at your local craft store.

So you are going to hot glue the two pieces of Styrofoam together to make it look like two layers of cake.

Next you are going to glue the candy that you picked to go around the cake. The friend that I was doing this for only likes Hershey and M&M's. So I picked the Hershey bars to go on the outside. Now for a word of caution. Make sure you have plenty of candy. I only got two packages of the mini Hershey thinking it was a enough well I had to use and M& M package to finish it.

So once you have glue your candy all away around the "cake" you need to pick what the top frosting is going to look like. Like I said, my friend only likes the two kinds of chocolate. So my "top frosting" was M&M's. I just put a dab of hot glue on each M&M package so that it stuck but could be easily removed. The Hershey bars I put a little more glue to make sure they were sturdy.

There is no need to "frost the bottom" because that is going to be glue to the "plate" Now I actually used a paper plate because mine was a mini cake. However if you did a full size cake with full size candy bars you might have to cut a piece of cardboard to represent your plate

next you put on the ribbon. Now I went and bought pre-curled but you are more than welcome to buy ribbon and curl it yourself.

Place on top of cake

Now all you have to do is add a vase of flowers and a card and TAADAAA, you've got one heck of a present. Disclaimer****The flowers in the vase were actually fixed nice and pretty before they were delivered.

Anyways, I am going to leave a couple other cakes with you that I did not make. These are just so you can see different designs and make one to your liking.

Ain't Nothing but a Sweet Thing

Okay, so the last couple days I have been craving cupcakes. I don't know why. I am usually not a huge cupcake person. If I want something sweet I usally want chocolate and ice cream. I have been trying to ignore my little sweet tooth but on Monday night I could not take it anymore. I knew that I would buy the cupcake batter but I wanted frosting from scratch. So I started looking up cupcake frosting and came across this recipe on a blog called Breakfast Bunch Handmade.

So I first made the cupcakes. I decided to use Funfetti batter. You can buy the box kind or make it from scratch. I was more interested in the frosting, so I bought the box kind.

So this picture is after I actually poured the batter into the cupcake paper cups. So then I bake the cupcakes.

Now it is time for the frosting. Here are the ingredients

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) butter softened

1/2 jar (3-4oz) marshmallow cream (such as Marshmallow Fluff or Creme)

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

6-7 strawberries, with the stems removed

Directions

Beat butter in a medium bowl with mixer on medium speed until creamy

Beat in marshmallow cream.

When well blended, beat in confectioners' sugar and vanilla.

Blend in sliced strawberries. Okay this is where it got tricky. I actually put a few sliced strawberries in the frosting mix and it would not blend them. So I finally put them in the blender and liquified them Then I added them to the frosting mixture.Add a little more confectioners’ sugar as needed to achieve the texture you'd like. I liked my texture so I did not add any confectioners sugar. It is totally up to you. Increase speed to high and beat 3 to 4 minutes until fluffy.

You can not frost the cupcakes until they are completely cooled, otherwise the frosting with melt.

Then TAAA_DAAAA. It tasted like frest strawberries and cream.

We still have tons of frosting left, so I am going to bake a cake and try to take it to a birthday party we are going to this weekend. We do not need sweets in this house. I took the cupcakes to work and they went quickly. Stay tuned next week when I show you how to make this.....

This is not Oprah's favorite things, This is Amanda's favorite things

Recently I was thinking about some of my favorite products. I was reading a magaizine where they asked celebs what are things that they never leave home without. Then as I was walking around Wal-mart one day I noticed that people would quickly grab a product and go about their business. Obviously they did not even have to think about it. This is a regular for them. So I started thinking about my beauty products and the things that are my favorite.

I have always been jealous of those girls with really thick eyelashes that make their eyes pop when they wear mascara. I could never find one that did it for me until a friend gave me a mascara that she bought and only tried once and hated it. She handed it to me and said "here I think this works better for white people." So I gave it a shot. It is called Loreal Telescopic mascara. I love this stuff. I love the way it makes my eyelashes look. It never clumps and is easy to wash off. I know it is not for everyone but this works for me!

On to my next favorite thing...My hair is so hard to do. It is not curly enough to put some gel in it and run, and it is not straight enough just to blow dry it. No sirree. If I want to look nice I either have to blow dry and straighten my hair and put smoothing cream or it just looks frizzy or blow dry it and hot roll my hair. All of this takes to long, so usually wind up putting it in a messy bun. Until my sister introduceed me to my next two favorite products. It is Aveda confixor and Be curly. I love this stuff. I just put the confixor in my hair followed by the be curly and WHAM!!! everyone is asking me how I get my hair like I do and when I tell them that I just put these two things in it and let it air dry. I have people glower at me. You mean you did not curl it that way. NOPE. I will not leave home without this stuff.

Next up is moisturizer! Living in southern Louisiana humidty, I never really needed moisturizer. You sweat buckets over there! However, living in Texas now where it is more dry, I have needed a good moisturizer. I have found it with Olay moisturizer. I use different ones, but now with the summer coming up I am making sure to use the one with the spf. This product helps my makeup stay on better.

Obviously, I use more products than this but these are the ones that I can not leave home without. Some of my products are still in the test phase. I like them but I am not to the point that I LOVE them, like I do these products.

SO let's hear it....What are your favorite things. What are the products that are tried and tested true for you.?

I tag Misti, Mom, Lynsie, Cami, and any others that are reading this to post a blog about their favorite things!!

****Disclaimer*****Do not blame the products for the way that I look. It is not a personal reflection of their capabilities. You would first need to see the before. So they took me from ugggg, gasp, look away to the current not break a mirror look.

I am going to be selfish

Okay people I am about to do something really selfish. My mom just posted a wonderful blog about me! I can not help it. I really love it. So please go check it out. Go http://thehillmansion.blogspot.com. Humor me!

An Easter Message

Please watch this Easter video. It brought tears to my eyes because of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

What to do

Okay, so I have enjoyed being at home. I am enjoying having time on my hands. I have enjoyed having my own agenda every day. But now I think I am going a little stir crazy. Today I got up made a doctor's appointment, called my insurance, called bill company to tell them that they did not file my insurance correctly, paid some bills, did 3 loads of laundry, made breakfast lunch and dinner, surfed the internet, watched a movie, filled out milton's fafsa, and I still had time left over. Trust me, I know there is tons more to do. I can clean out closets, pantry, refrigerators, dust every surface of my house, clean the bathrooms....but I just know that if I do all this at once I will get burnt out. So with that I decided that I needed a hobby.

My mom constantly tells me that I operate like I have some check list that I need to get done.....high school (check), college (check), meet the man of my dreams (check), master's degree (check), first home (check)...and so on. I do have to agree. I am still like this in my life even though I battle against it. It is hard for me to be distracted. When I get up in morning I have this mental check list that I want to get done before I watch a tv show or read a book. So in order to fight the good fight. I decided to take a class just for fun!!! I have been tossing around ideas but I would be interested in what ya'll have to say. With that being said, please do not suggest any type of exercise because I have recently joined a gym and already made goals there. So I know I do not have a huge following but those that do read, I can not wait to hear your suggestions.

She might be a Little Furry

but she is MY BABY!!! Very recently someone pointed out that I have never blog about a very important someone in my life. Let me introduce the very thing that brings sunshine into my life all day long. Meet Darla Clementime Timoteo!Please excuse me while I brag like a proud momma does. This little girl has brought so much joy in my life since the first day I met her. Good friends of ours gave her to us. (Thank you Gene and Jeanette)We can never repay them for the joy we experience very day. No matter what kind of day I am having, Darla instantly makes it better. The second that you walk through the door she is there to greet you and jump around. It makes you feel wonderful that someone is so happy to see you.

A few things I love about Darla:

1. when we are saying family prayer, Darla can barely stand it and will put her paw on your face or if you are standing up saying prayer she tries to jump in your arms.

2. When I am cooking dinner, if she thinks that I have forgotten about her, she will give me a little push with her paws on the back of my knees.

3. She eats anything and everything. She eats tomatoes, celery, lettuce, uncooked spaghetti, pickles...I could go on and on. She loves food!!

4. If little gives me a kiss, she gets really excited and tries to give us kisses too.

5. She is so playful. She plays all kinds of games. I love this about her.

6. I swear sometimes she is human. I talk to her all the time. It is almost like she understands. I will say stuff like "where is daddy?" and she will go lay next to Milton.

7. She is so smart. She knows how to sit, lay, shake, go get your ball, fetch, come, and if we tell her to get down she knows what to do.

8. I love that when we go to sleep at night she curles up to me and the fact that she follows me around the house.

9. I love when I go outside, even if it is just a second she cries so loud you can hear her.

I love Darla for some many more reasons. She has several nicknames: Darla Squat, Dar Dar, Muffin...She has truly been a blessing. She is so much a part of our family. When we plan a vacation we only go places we can take her. I hate leaving her at home. I want to leave some pictures of darla, some are baby pictures and others are more recent.

Dreams really do come true

Today is the second day of me being a stay at home wife. It is so funny to see people's reaction when I said I was quiting my job. Everyone always responded "Why?" I would just repond by saying "I get to be a stay at home wife." Then I would get the response "Are you pregnant?" If I was pregnant the whole world would know including the president of the United States. I said stay at home wife not mother.

These past two days have felt like a dream. I have not had a bedtime because I do not have a time that I HAVE to wake up. I get to do whatever I decide to do. My first day I stayed in bed and read until 11, then I got up and took a shower. By this point Milton was home and he wanted to go to lunch and to take me to see twilight for the second time at the dollar movie. In between lunch, we went to this decor store that was having a sale and I picked up a picture for my guest bedroom and 3 things that I am I going to work on for a project.

Today I woke up and went to work out. It felt great. Then Milton and I went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things. We came home and I fixed lunch. Then I did our taxes, and now I am writing a blog. I know that these seem like boring details of an ordinary life, but these are things that I have dreamed of. It has been so nice to be able to have the time to enjoy these everyday little things. I am not sure that I will appreciate them as I do now, but I just wanted to say how grateful I am for blessing like these. It is such a blessing to have a husband that is so supportive of my decisions and is able to support those. Milton has woken up everyday telling me how excited he is to have me home. Everytime we have gone to do anything, we has looked in my eyes and said "Isn't it great to have you home?" Make a girl feel good!

Where have you been?!!!!

I know, I know!! I deserve a scolding.I am doing the one thing I hate and not updating my blog. Life has been crazy busy here at the Timoteo Shack. I feel like a barely have the time to breath much less write down all the boring details of or day to day lives. However, changes are in the air. Can you feel them?

In two weeks, I am going to be the thing that I have always dreamed of!!! I get to be a wife. No I am not getting married again. I am just finally doing the thing I started five years ago. Five years ago I made the commitment to be a wife and now I get to follow through on the promise. Today I gave my two week notice at my full-time job. It felt sooooo good. I have to submit that letter. I am still going to keep my part time job but that is only two and half days. So I will be able to stay home pretty much 5 days a week. I am so excited. My entire family says I never know when to quit or how to slow down. Well I guess I better learn real quick.

Can you believe it? I get to be a real bona fide wife to my wonderful hubby (see my mom's blog thehillmansion.blogspot.com for verification. She has a whole post dedicated to him).

Things I am looking forward to:

1. Not answering to anyone.

2. Making my own schedule. I get to plan whatever I want to do each day!!!

3. I am looking forward to being to decorating my home and working on little projects

4. Believe it or not I am looking forward to working out.

5. Having lunch whenever I want with my sexy husband

6. and doing the stuff the housewives are suppose to do!!

So look forward to my diary of a bored housewife! Put a completely happy to be bored housewife.

Hello Dolly

You look swell Dolly!! It so good to see those of you that read my blog again. Oh wait...My mother is the only one that reads my blog. Just Kidding. Anyways, sorry I have been such a slacker blogger. I hate to go on people 's blog and they have not updated for like months or weeks. So in order to avoid a pet peeve of mine, I here to update. Not much has been going on in the Timoteo shack. Milton has started school again and we are both working two jobs a piece. We are hoping that comes to an end soon!!! I am sure Milton would love to have some form on his wife back! We recently took a big step for our family and ....bought an x-box. If you knew us you would know that we are not the type to buy an x-box. Right in our home we only have 1 tv and we have always tried to keep it on the lowest channels in a package. We try not to let the tv be our focus. This is why we do not have one in our room. We want our room to be one of rest, relaxation, and conversation.

Milton has never been one for video games. We have always believed to try and lead productive lives. We do not want to be stuck in front of the tv while life passes us by. So for Christmas we received money from various relatives. We could not decide if we wanted to divide the money and buy our own things or put our money together and buy something big. So you can imagine my surprise when Milton told me he wanted an x-box. I immediatley said YES!! I said yes because my husband never asks for a thing. We never wants ANYTHING!!! He is always content and happy with what he has. So when he requested this one thing....I was so happy to give it to him. Here is the surprising thing. We actually have a really good time doing it together. We play games. We have a netflix account which let's us watch movies instantly through our x-box on our tv. I am grateful that Milton wanted it. It has truly been fun

Warning!!! This is going to be Mushy

So Christmas was fun and fabulous. Christmas always is!! However, I want to dedicate this to my husband and I. On December 27th, 2008, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It has been five years since we took our eternal wedding vows. I have enjoyed every minute of this roller coaster, even the down times. I just want to share a few pictures. I know you are probably going to go gag. I am so glad that we have had sooooo many adventures together. From living in a tiny little crappy studio apartment to building/owning our first home, from living surrounded by family to living around no one, from going through school having crappy jobs to well still going through school but at least having better, from adopting our little fur baby to hopefully having real babies of our own. I look at how quickly our time has come and gone and it makes me more and more grateful that we get to spend eternity together. It is not very often that I get to express my love for you. I just wantedto leave a few reasons why I love you.

1 You are the hardest worker that I know. I am so proud that I can take you anywhere and you get in there and do the most back breaking work. Even whil I am working and you are working, you still manage to do most of the housework, grocery shopping, all the yard work, and get your Ph.D. You never put it in my face how hard you are busting you butt, you always look at the little things I am doing.

2. You let me be ME!!! Trust me sweety, I know that that is not an easy task. I have a very strong personality and a push and prod until get my way. I think that shows what a strong personality you have. It takes a really strong personality to sit back and let me always have my way. You have inspired so many dreams in me and have never kept me from any of them.

3. You pamper me. I love the fact that you are always trying to make sure that I am taken care of. You are always trying to find new ways to invest and save and make sure we have a secure future. However in the mist of all this you always make sure that I have all my needs and most of my wants. You have never denied me anything. I have had more than I could ever dream of since I have been with you.

4. I love the fact that you take the gospel so seriously. I know there has been times at night where you have had to drag me out of bed to do scripture study and family prayer. You probably felt like you were getting a kid out of bed but you are so forgiving and on top of it. I love the fact that I can depend on you and I to go to church every Sunday and I do not have to worry about convincing you to go. I love the fact that you make sure we are involved in church and go to all the little activities.

I could go on and on. I just want you to know that I love you. I know that 2009 is going to be great for us. I can just feel it!!!

OH BY GOSH BY GOLLY

It is time for some mistletoe and holly.....I have been such a slacker blogger I have now finished my 8 weeks of training. 2 of them were 60 hour weeks and the other 6 were 80 hour weeks. I really do not know how I got through it, but I did. It was not as bad as I thought. However, I mean what I say, It is time for some for mistletoe and holly....We are headed to Louisiana tomorrow afternoon. We probably will not get there until early Monday morning but we are EXCITED!!! My sister and I have are in charge this year so we are ready. I will update you on are trip and pictures when I get back, but once again I want to leave you with pictures of our decorations. The house is not decorated as much as I want but then I again I have only spent like 6 hours in it a night for the 8 weeks so I have an excuse.

The most wondeful woman I know....

Let me tell you about this awesome woman. She goes by the name of Amanda Gail. To me, she is everything. I can't imagine living this life without her. She is smart, witty, humble, full of integrity, stylish, and always willing to serve. She is gorgeous! Baby, I hope you know that I love you more than words can describe. These last few weeks have been busy. Thank you for being my best friend. Thanks for your endless service. I love you.

The Festivities

Sorry it has been so long since my update. Life has been crazy busy. I have started my new part-time job. I am really blessed because I love it! I like my co-workers and the job seems pretty cool and not to hard. However, I have only been there a week, so you never know. As far as the invitro stuff goes. I am on 9 pills a day. I take four in the morning and five at night. It has not been too bad except I have had some nausea. It got so bad I called my doctor and they had me take my pills at different times, so it seems to be better. Milton only has to take two. I start my shots this Wednesday. Luckily I am not scared of shots.

Anyways, I do not know if anyone knows this, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I really get into it. So I am going to leave you with some pics of our decorations. There is a lot more but I will only give you a few

These pumpkins went around our porch lights. They were totally cute.

This is are little ghost and graveyard in the front yard.

These lights were all over our entry way. I don't know if you can see the spiderwebs but they were all over our entry way too.