It is October 1st and I am going to follow some of my fellow bloggers ideas…and try to write  a post every day for the month of October.  Hopefully, I will be able to pull it off….try to make the mundane seem exciting.  So, I have been working on a lot of custom orders and at the same time, trying to fill up my Etsy shop.  I love doing custom orders and I love being able to just create…without having to worry about all the little details..so doing both, at the same time is the best.

Lately, it seems that my days are filled with errands and more errands and endless errands. I’m trying to combine all the errands to one or two days, if possible, so I actually have days to stay at home and……sew…or at least try do get some sewing done!

Toilet training is also happening in our house….it started out well..but got a bit stalled…we’ll keep trying!

While at the store, I saw these and they seemed so wrong, I had to buy them.  Whenever I make cookie dough, I have to hide it or my husband and children will eat it all BEFORE I even make the cookies!  They will freak when they see these!

Well, for the week, it is just me and my littlest one, River.  Christopher took the kids up to Maine for the week.  So, what did I do with all the time?  Well, of course, I ripped up the carpeting in our living room!  It was something I have wanted to do for a long time.  I thought ripping it up was easier than getting the steam cleaner out and cleaning it!  At first my 2 year old was very upset and kept saying that she didn’t want me to get rid of the carpet!  But, after awhile, she seemed happy about it.

The first photo is a before shot.  I took lots of photos while I was ripping up the carpet, but forgot a before shot!

The other day I made my favorite cake…it is incredibly rich and moist.  I actually got the recipe from the Hershey website..which has sooooo many delicious recipes!  The recipe calls for a chocolate frosting, which I think is (believe it or not!) too much chocolate, so for the frosting, I don’t add the cocoa.

And of course, the best part of making a cake….

Hershey’s “Especially Dark” Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• “ESPECIALLY DARK” CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “ESPECIALLY DARK” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

“ESPECIALLY DARK” CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

 

Well, I finally set up my Etsy store.  Etsy is so different from Ebay.  We will see how things go for awhile.  I think Etsy takes awhile to get yourself established…things don’t happen as quickly as on Ebay.  My Etsy store is:

www.catchick6creations.etsy.com

Things around here are topsy turvy and slow.  I haven’t been sewing as much, but I am trying to get back into the groove of things.  Doing a lot of facebooking and listening to some new music on Youtube.  My latest love of music is Danielle ate the sandwich.

http://www.youtube.com/user/daniellesmagic

Well, Happy New Year to all.  I hope everyone had some wonderful holidays.  I know we had some crazy days!  Everything always goes by so quickly.  Things have been crazy and chaotic and they still are!  Quinn is home sick from school, so things still aren’t back to normal.

We made so many great Christmas gifts this year…and of course I forgot to take pictures of them!  Tuesday and Quinn made snakes and hippos for Gram and Bop’s Ark, we made Aunt Rose a beautiful cashmere scarf, Maggie got a homemade bag which was made from a recycled sweater.  Quinn painted Unlce Denny a Jersey Devil shirt.  He made Brian some embroidered socks.  Tuesday made all her friends gifts and Quinn made his friends all wooden ornaments!  We really had a lot of fun making everyone’s gifts!

Somehow, putting away all the Christmas stuff, just isn’t as fun as getting it out!

Well, we got the first snowfall this morning, if you can call it a snowfall.  The kids were so excited to walk to school.  When we got to school, they were so disappointed that everyone was inside.  They wanted to stay out in the snow!  I told them that some children were probably allergic to snow, so they all had to go inside!

and then eat chili…….