that time between thanksgiving and christmas

My life has been uneventful lately...but I will post an update soon. For now, some random pictures:

I want more of this...

and I love this!

i love free stuff!

I just got back from grocery shopping, where I was able to get:

• 1 gallon of milk
• 1 bag of tangerines
• 1 big bag of cereal
• bacon
• orange juice
• 1 dozen eggs
• english muffins

for...

UNDER $4!

Thank you, coupons for free stuff! :D

a smile

A smile is like the sunshine;
It brightens up the day.
It gives the eye a twinkle
And chases frowns away.
-Children's Songbook #267

oh, look! i found some pictures!

Awhile ago, Mr. Webb and I went on a $60 date for...oh...about $26 dollars.

Yes.

It was basically amazing!

Here are some pictures of our bowling skills. :)

dinner from a garden, a bag, a can, and a lime

I haven't been very good at making dinner lately. I did superbly at the beginning of the school year, and made it just about every day. But the past few weeks I've slacked off. About week or two ago I did make something delicious! And I pretty much made it up by myself.

One of the regular meals at our house is pasta with cherry tomatoes that have been roasted with olive oil and herbs in a frying pan until they split. Simple. Easy. Just the way I like it.

But it was sounding a little boring while I was making it...

So I simply popped open a can of black beans and mixed them in with the tomatoes. Then I squeezed the juice of one lime (could have used two) over the tomatoes and beans, and let them heat through. Instead of Italian seasoning with the tomatoes, I used garlic salt, and some salt and pepper.

Then you just mix that in with just under a pound of pasta (maybe 3/4 pound or so), and voila! You've got a simple meal that we thought was pretty dang good! :)

blah

blah blah blah blah.

blah blah.

blah blah blah.

That's me right now.

blah.

Tomorrow should be better, right? :)

but i can't wait until i'm 8!

Earlier this month, we were able to see our oldest nephew (on Mr. Webb's side of the family) get baptized! He was so excited, even though he left directly after to go to the doctor with a terrible ear infection. He kept telling everyone that Satan was just trying to stop him from getting baptized, and he wasn't going to let that happen!

Following are pictures of (1) the Webb family, (2) the baptized boy's family, (3) Mr. Webb and I with the cute boy!

peanut butter hi-hat cupcakes

My sister sent me this recipe from Baked Bree, and I knew I had to try it out! I made them a week or two ago, took them to Sunday dinner at the Webb home, and they were a HUGE hit! They don't look super impressive, but they taste delicious! My frosting was a little bit too thin (which was my fault, because I was too lazy to add more powdered sugar and thicken it), but after it sat in the fridge for a few minutes, it was hard enough to dip in the chocolate.

friendly fun!

So earlier this month, one of my friends from high school came for a visit. So we made this into an excuse for a get together! We had yummy food, and one of my friends brought a slack line, so everyone had fun trying to figure that out!

update

Onions and I are still not on speaking terms...

epistle to an onion

Dear Onion,

I know that I like to cut you up into little diced pieces, saute you, mix you into my pasta, and then proceed to eat you...but why, oh why must you be so cruel?

I do not enjoy the tears that stream down my face as I slide my knife through your many layers.

Do you not understand that this is the purpose for which you were made?

Hoping to be your friend,

Mrs. Webb

my favorite recipes

Lately I've been trying to use up my cake mixes that I have in my food storage, but I do have a few cake recipes that I love.

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake - This cake is delicious! I fill it with vanilla frosting and it tastes like a high class hostess cupcake.

Brown Butter Cupcakes - This is one of my all time favorite recipes! I found this recipe when I was looking for a good cookie dough cupcake. I followed their recipe, but I did not put cookie dough filling in the middle of the cupcake. I also tried their cookie dough frosting, and even though mine didn't turn out like theirs, it was still delicious!

Frosting Recipes

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 to 6 tablespoons milk

Cream butter until light. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk. If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's to thick, add more milk.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Follow the above recipe, but instead of using 4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, use 4 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 cup baking cocoa. You may also need a bit more milk.

I'll try to remember to keep linking to or posting new recipes as I try them out.

frosting tips - part one

I decided to start my frosting tips with 2 easy techniques. The first is the swirl, the second is the rose.

For both techniques I use a 1M tip. It looks like this:

You can also use any tip with a large opening. I've also done this with just cutting off the end of a pastry bag, and not using any tip.

For the swirl, hold the decorating bag/tube at a 90 degree angle to the cupcake like this:

Then pipe around the edge of the cupcake, working your way into the center. Once at the center, stop your pressure on the frosting, then pull the decorating device straight up. Your first layer will look like this cupcake on the right:

For the second layer, do the exact same thing, but start further in from the edge. It will look like this when you are done :

Congratulations! You've just created the swirl! It's just that easy!

The rose is equally as simple. It is one layer, and instead of working from the outside in like the swirl, you start in the center and work your way out to the edge. Ta-da! You've just created this:

first cupcake job

Yesterday I completed my first paid cupcake job. I made a dozen cupcakes for a bridal shower my friend was throwing for her former roommate. She specifically asked me to make my chocolate cupcakes that I'd posted on here before, but this batch turned out way better than either time I had made them before. Take a look for yourself!

better cupcake pictures

Here are the pictures of my nephew's 8th birthday cupcakes that I took on my camera. They don't have the skittles on top, because I put those on at the last minute.

release

It was probably December or January when I discovered The Hunger Games. I borrowed it from my family. I had heard about the book before, but it sounded like a bizarre plot to me. However, it was Christmas break and I needed a good book to read. So I began reading the Hunger Games.

And I did not stop until I was finished with the book.

Then I was thrilled to find out that my family also had the second book, Catching Fire. So the day after reading Hunger Games, I switched it out for Catching Fire. I began reading this second book in the series.

And I did not stop reading until I was finished.

Okay, that was kind of a lie. I was back at work the day I started Catching Fire (which would make it January...), so every single break I had (3 minutes or 30), and all during my lunch hour, I was reading Catching Fire.

As soon as I was done, I went online to amazon.com to pre-order Mockingjay, the final installment of the Hunger Games.

This book will be arriving at my house tomorrow, and you'd better believe that as soon as I get home from work, I will be reading that book.

Last week I went to Border's and, in all my nerdiness, I purchased a Mockingjay keychain (they are the only place that has them, fyi).

I am ridiculously excited for it's release, and I'm glad I'm not getting it at midnight tonight, or I might be sorely tempted not to go into work for the two or three hours I'll be calling to set up appointments for preschoolers' parents. I might also be sorely tempted not to make my dozen cupcakes that I'm getting paid for. And I might be extremely tempted not to get any housework done, which I need to do before Wednesday comes and I'm back to work full time.

If you haven't read the Hunger Games, do it! I've not met one person who has read them and not liked them. But I'll be really sad if you take my advice and read them, only to find that you hate them...

8 year old birthday cupcakes

So, this picture isn't really that good (Mr. Webb took it on his brand new iPhone 4), but I'm not going to upload the better ones yet. I'll post them later.

I made these cupcakes for my nephew's 8th birthday. They're white cupcakes, filled with cinnamon cream cheese filling, and topped with buttercream, sprinkles, and a fizzle skittle. They were quite delicious, if I do say so myself. :)

In other news, I got my first paid cupcake gig. I know, it's not technically a gig, but that's what I'm calling it. Thanks to my awesome friend who made this happen!

And another friend (the sister of the first friend, coincidentally) asked me to give some decorating tips on my blog, so hopefully I can get to that soon!

free books!

I just read a message from a friend, and thought I share this info with all of you.

If you have an iTunes account, you now have access to many, many books read aloud. If you go to the iTunes store, one of the tabs at the top says iTunes U (this stands for University). Then type in lit2go, and voila! A great list of books to listen to!

I love read aloud books, although I usually like to listen to books I've already read so that I know what's going on if I stop paying attention for awhile. However, I am downloading The Scarlet Letter from iTunesU, because I've wanted to read it for awhile. So now, I'm going to "read" it.

They also have nursery rhymes, fairy tales, poems, and other fun things to explore!

I'm excited to get started!

michigan - day eight

On Wednesday we headed home. On the way down to Detroit, we stopped at Hartwick Pines State Park. It was the only thing we did that day, other than drive and fly, but it was awesome! It was so beautiful.

And here are the pictures:

michigan - day seven

Tuesday was our last day before leaving for home, so we (me, Mr. Webb, my sister and her husband) headed up to Mackinac Island. I don't remember anything about visiting the island when I was little, but I do remember I loved it.

The island is very small - something like 8.5 miles around the whole thing - so there are no cars allowed. People either walk, bike, or take a carriage. The only way to access the island is by ferry (unless you're made of money and want to fly into their private airport). So we took a ferry over to the island and started our day.

First we went to the visitor's center and got some tickets to go see Fort Mackinac. While we were in the visitor's center, I was very tempted to buy this shirt, but I didn't.

So we went up to the fort and explored it for a few hours. We watched a reenactment of a court martial, we saw the barracks, and we took some goofy pictures.

After the fort, we went and got oven baked subs for lunch, and they were delicious! Then we walked up and down the street and checked out the shops until it was time for our carriage tour.

The carriage tour was awesome. The first half was in a cute red carriage, and we were taken past the shops, the stables, the grand hotel, and all the stuff at the main part of the island. Then we were let off the carriage, at which point we were able to go to a butterfly house. It was the coolest experience ever! I was able to take a bunch of awesome pictures, which wasn't too hard when the subjects were very cooperative! :) But it was fun to walk through the butterflies and have one just land on you.

The second half of the carriage ride was fabulous as well. The guide was very punny. My sister liked him, but I think he was slightly over the top. We got to stop and see Arch Rock, we saw the main cemetery as well as the military cemetery.

When the ride ended, Mr. Webb and I hoped over to Murdick's - the original fudge shop on the island - to get some fudge to take home to the Webb family. It was hard to choose a fudge shop, since just about every other shop on the island was a fudge & candy shop.

The we took the ferry back to the mainland, drove home, and had hamburgers and corn on the cob for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Tomorrow, the end! Day eight!