To 2010! To Dream...

I'm not too big on New Year's resolutions. I think that if you really want to make change in your life, you can do it any day of the year. But as midnight approached last night, my family decided to announce our wishes (rather than resolutions). Health, happiness, and success were common threads among my parents, husband and sister. My mom wished that our baby of the family, an elderly black lab, would make it to another New Year celebration, which brought tears to many of our eyes. My sister wished that her dreams to make it to Japan to teach English will come true after years of planning and work. My husband dreamed that this year would be a little lighter on the passing away of family and friends (it's been a tough one).

My dream is to dream. To think big. To not count myself out; to not count anyone out. To try new things. To let things come as they may, but try my darndest to work towards my dreams. It's not really a resolution. Instead, a dream.

----------------------------------------------------------------

In a related, but slightly different direction... I excited opened a Christmas present to reveal a dream of mine for the past year or so:

Yes my friends... a KA mixer! I cannot wait to pull it out of it's packaging and get right to it. I hope to be able to make time away from my rotations to cook and bake to my heart's delight! Creations and recipes may follow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS! May you dream to dream... and may your dreams come true!

Sushi Cupcakes!

Having missed my sister's birthday last month due to my life-sucking Internal Medicine rotation, I had made some large promises to deliver some baked goodies (Weaz is a sucker for cake). I racked my brain for ideas... she loves Japanese culture and so the idea came to mind. Here's how I did it:

The Supplies:

I used some help from the grocery store on this one... cake mix and pre-made icing made this an easy evening project. I used some greenish mini-cupcakes baking cups with some added goodies like mini Swedish fish and sugar (or spice) drops and sprinkles for color.

I followed the instructions on the box (pretty fool proof!) and filled the cupcakes with about a half tablespoon of batter each (one batch goes a LOOONG way -- I made about 40 cupcakes).

I cut up the spice drops into smaller pieces as I waited for the cupcakes to bake up.

Ding! They're done!

One is the loneliest cupcake...

A little bit of icing goes a long way on these little guys.

Once iced, I dunked the cupcakes into a cup of white non-pareils to make it look like rice. Then I added the cut-up spice drops, picked out orange sprinkles and some mini-swedes...

To complete the look, I went to the seafood counter at my local grocery store and asked to purchase some clean bento boxes that they use for sushi... they gave me a great price = FREE!!

The Finished Product: Sushi Cupcakes!

Another AMAZING Giveaway by Melissa

Excuse the lack of posts recently.... I took the biggest exam of my life about a month ago (the first part of my medical licensing exam), and well... I did well. Not super but a heck of a lot better than I expected. And since then, I've started working at the hospital, learning the ins and the outs. Right now I am in my Internal Medicine rotation, which is a whopping 10 weeks, so I'm really learning a lot! So I apologize for the lack of crafting; I hope that I find a better work/sleep/fun balance in the near future. Until then, this announcement was definitely worth breaking my silence:

The amazing Melissa at Creating from the Heart is celebrating her blog anniversary by giving a prize pack that makes me want to jump up and down and say "Please, Please, Puh-lease PICK ME!".

What makes me so enthusiastic you may ask? Well... how about:

A Martha Stewart Dripped Goo Edger Punch

October Afternoon Cherry Hill 8x8 Paper Pad

Making Memories Slice 8x8 Ledger Pad

And... the big kahuna...

A SLICE MACHINE!!

Eeeeeeekkkk! I want one, puh-lease! I am going to keep my fingers and my toes crossed for the next few weeks until the prize drawing! A girl can dream, and if she is going to, might as well dream big!

Happy Blogaversary, Melissa!

Win a Dyson DC25!

A great chance to win an amazing vacuum -- the Dyson DC25! My parents have the Dyson DC25 Animal, which is appropriate since their animal, a black lab named Toby, is the king of shed. We did one of those cheesy commercial style trials, where we vacuumed the carpet with our old vacuum (since laid to rest somewhere in a trash dump) and then vacuumed again with our new Dyson Animal. The canister filled just on a little portion of the carpet, a true testament to the power of these vacuums.

Enter here to have a chance to win!

Out of This World!

This is my afternoon off. The first afternoon off since my birthday almost exactly one month ago. All my other afternoons (and evenings, and then the next mornings) for the past 6 weeks have been filled with books, and facts, and medical school stuff. Lots and lots of basic science medicine. But this afternoon, I'm done. Because tomorrow is it: my Step 1 US Medical Licensing Exam. So to celebrate, and to put good karma out into the universe, I wanted to post about a card that I sent to my sister last week.

I have sent a card to my sister before in congratulations of her work, but usually she is behind the camera. On this occasion, my sister was acting and singing in a community theatre production. Not being able to be there myself because of my affliction (read: studying until the cows, all of them, came home), I sent her my congratulations with this little guy:

Out of this World

This basic card was made with the following supplies:

• SandyLion stamps (my first real stamps, not just the digital ones I've been using!)
• Ink from Versa Magic (Mediterranean Blue and Silver)
• Text was printed on my computer using fonts from Kevin&Amanda
• Papers were from a block of paper scraps (that I bought centuries ago)