After Christmas Recovery

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! :D I know I did!! My MAMA CAME!! I don know if you can tell or not but im excited. Lol anywho here are pictures from Christmas, Dicksons Faire and general awesomeness.

Work sushi from my over night shift

Bangers and Mash!

 Corsets and Masked Mama

So much Dickens Faire! 

*Sigh* work, but makin it cute

Christmas Breakfast!!

Gifts, pets and Christmas snack!!

Bruscetta and Pizza!!!

MMmmmmm.... Prime Rib....

Push up contest and Pig Mania

Hanging out in the famous Union Square with Mama :) 

 

Ya.. Hope your holiday was as good as mine, but Im not sure it could be :) lol kidding. Took mama to the airport Thursday and  Picked the Gentleman Friend up from the Airport on Friday. He had a good Holiday to and brought back baby Jesus Cookies (kifles) and lots of goodies!! Right now we are eating donuts and watching the Football on Redzone... Im a spoiled girl 

Merry Christmas!

As I write this it is Christmas Eve here, but Christmas day other places. Happy all other holidays as well to those who dont celebrate this holiday, and to those who are anti holidays, hope its just a good day.

Today I had to work (why? people have to get presents 12 hours before the day) and before work i was going over some of my life choices. Im pretty happy with the physical ones, but I need to get my fiscal life together quickly, and maybe my mental health. Im good with money in the short term but long term I loose it, and its a shame. This bothers me quite a bit... which makes me sad and start feeling old bad feelings. I guess this means as good as I have been doing for the past year or so, I still have demons to conquer... we all do i guess. BTW got another ticket even though I had all he paperwork from the DMV. The officer (fiscal rapist) decided to not accept the paperwork. Well, Ill be fighting THAT one...

I didn have my shit together and so now am at my aunties house alone, their all out looking at lights. sad I missed it, but my fault. But they will be home soon and we will be together. BTW I had a beer while waiting for them, something outside my usual activities, is this why Im so cathartic? Bleh....

Ok, more happy time!! Mommy is here!! :D Yesterday for Christmas my aunties took mom and I to the Great Dickens Faire for our Christmas gift. it was so awesome!! So Dickens Faire is a Festival where they dress the Cow Palace (A real place in san francisco) up like the victorian streets of london and everyone dresses and talks like dickens characters! they act out parts of the novels at random times, lots of stage shows around, and amazing vendors. My favorite soup bowls are from there (I get one every year, soon Ill have a set! lol) We ate Bangers and Mash, listened to a hammered dolcemer, watched a family friendly "burleque" show, shopped, ate spiced nuts, and generally had a great time. Ill post pictures ASAP, but I forgot my cord for my phone...

You can see some shots on Instagram (shameless plus) at UntidyVenus

I have been making gifts like a fiend, trying new recipes, and even made a dump cake and a pie. Oh, and make these, their EASY PEASY and fun!! And soooooo good!!!

Homemade Peppermint Candies

Ingredients

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon peppermint extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons shortening

Instructions

1. Add condensed milk, 2 cups of powdered sugar, and peppermint extract to a large mixing bowl. Mix everything on medium speed using the paddle attachment until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Add more powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is stiff but still pliable.
2. Roll 3/4″ balls of dough between the palms of the hands.
3. Press each ball down slowly and set the flattened disk on a flat cutting board or plate. Transfer peppermint disks to the freezer for no longer than 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, temper the chocolate coating.
4. Place chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Melt the chocolate in 30 second increments, making sure to stir after each time until chocolate is smooth. Stir in shortening to thin the chocolate. Remove patties from the freezer.
5. Place a patty on the tines of the fork and dip in the chocolate until completely covered. Allow excess chocolate to drip off the patty before setting each one on top of wax or parchment paper.
6. Allow the chocolate coated peppermint patties to completely set up. This can be done quicker by placing the patties in the refrigerator. The peppermint patties are ready when they are dry to the touch. Enjoy!

3 of 4 Finals Down

OMG Im almost done with the semester... In digital media now, just had my critique, went alright! Then I head to the lab to take me art history final and I AM DONE!! Fashion Rachel and I are going to celebrate by eating shit tons of pizza and a batman marathon, plus making Christmas Presents!!!

GF is in Utah as of now, off to visit family. Mom comes up on saturday and OMG I might get to see her even! Weird!

Sorry, Im tired and not thinking good. lol!! But as promised, here are some last minute Poor Girl crafty gift ideas.

Home made marshmallows:

2 tablespoons gelatin
8 tablespoons cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:

1 Dust an 8- or 9-inch square pan with powdered sugar. Set aside.
2 In a small bowl, soak gelatin in 8 tbsp cold water. Set aside.
3 Combine granulated sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a large heavy saucepan.
4 Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved.
5 Add gelatin and bring to a boil.
6 Remove from heat. Pour into a large mixing bowl and let stand until partially cool.
7 Add salt and vanilla extract.
8 Beat with an electric mixer until soft and double in volume. About 10-15 minutes.
9 Pour into prepared pan to about 1/2 inch thick.
10 Set to cool until it will not stick to your finger.
11 Cut into 1.5 inch pieces and roll in powdered sugar.
12 Variation: toasted coconut can be substituted for powdered sugar.
13 Variation: other flavorings can be substituted for vanilla extract.
Thank you food.com for that

Work, Finals, Work, Finals...

I have been bitching so much lately, sorry guys!! Its just getting stressful around here. Holiday hours are in full swing, (Friday I work 11:45pm to 7:45 am, because we will sell a shit ton at 3am right?) and this is finals week! Just finished Heads and Hands, which actually was fun, we drew charactures of each other. Ill post some of the good ones people drew of me. still to go, my art history final, Still life painting critique and digital media critique...

Also on a side note, MAMA IS COMING SAT!!! :D

This weekend Gentleman Friend and I exchanged gifts, sine he will be running out to Utah for almost 2 weeks.... (Im such a girl, I'll miss him) Anywho, he got me the COOLEST T-Rex Necklace!!! And a book of SHATNER!!! :D

Im such a lucky girl!! I made him action figures of some characters in a story he is writing. Ill post more pictures soon, but here is the zombie t-rex

 Also last Thursday after school GF had tickets to see Gangster Squad!! I know it doesn't come out till next year, he somehow got press passes, which included pre-show drinks, and make overs for the ladies. So I let them do my make up, munched on prechudo, and got a little buzzed :3 At the theater we split a hotdog and nachos. BTW the movie is everything you would expect from the director of Zombieland trying to do a gangster drama. GO SEE IT!! when it comes out of course...

 So ya, my work outfits are getting sillier and sillier, and i love it. So i will leave you with some shots of the bay and other silliness from work and school

How to spend all of your monies in 3 days

First off my T button still is acting funny, so sorry if I dont catch all of the silly typos. its amazing how many times you use a T. This week has been an expensive one for me. I thought I was good and bought a beautiful pair of boots to get around town in. I love them and will wear the shit out of them like I do my brown ones, but if I had known what was to come I would have waited.  My Union randomly decided I needed to pay them $266 in a week or they would cancel my membership and so fire me from selling shoes from my corporate department store. I was up on my dues, so Im not sure why the squeeze... but its paid. Then I paid the water bill, and there apparently was a typo and I over paid by like $50 it turns out... which will be good for later but GEEZE... Now I get to get the car worked on and pay the ticket i go for expired tags.... lol... plus the phone bill was almost $100 more then usual (have to ask them about THAT)

All in all Im broke... good thing I have Christmas figured out for the most part!! 

But this is a great excuse to use my delightful dried goods that I got for my birthday so long ago. I also have part of a turkey which will become soup and enchilada's this week, then im really excited about making this wonderful looking recipe from Crockpot 365. Here if you dont feel like clicking the link.

2 cups lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (with juice!)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups hearty torn greens, like kale or chard (if you'd prefer spinach, stir in before serving)
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (optional: add another 1 to 2 cups of broth if you'd like before serving)

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Put the rinsed lentils into the bottom of an empty insert. Add the diced celery, carrot, onion, and garlic (if you have a food processor, it might be helpful to use). Add the entire can of diced tomatoes, and add the seasonings and torn greens. Stir in the broth (I used chicken, but any broth will work just fine).
Cover, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until the lentils are soft. If you'd like to stretch this to feed more, or for a thinner soup, feel free to add more broth. 

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired, and a hunk of garlic bread.

This will be perfect as I have everything already except canned tomatoes, which are CHEAP!! I have been growing Dinosaur Kale, which is the best of the kales in my opinion. They have the most texture, perfect for soups.

Sorry so whinney, feeling the pressure and instead of freaking out about classes as I prolly should be, this is what Im obsessing over. Geeze Im weird.

If your looking for something interesting to listen to, check out the Studio 360 podcats, which are free, weekley and AMAZING. As Im typing this I am listening to a special on I Love Lucy, and Curt Andersen is talking to people who worked on he show, playing clips, talking to feminists about their veiws- positive and negative- about it, just so good!!! Most people know Im SO IN LOVE WITH PODCASTS!! Their free-ness, the stories, the time filling :3

Happy 55th Anniversery Whopper!! and memories

Today the Whopper is 55 years old! For those who may not be from 'Merica, We have a large coporate burger chain Burger King with a flag ship deightfull food-like-product called the Whopper. Anywho, in honor they are BUY ONE GET ONE FOR 55 CENTS!! Omg!!! Yaaaaayyy!!

By the way my RR button is a little gummy today so sorry for any typos other then my regular strangeness.

The other night I went down to the garage to get some things and discovered the flooding that ALWAYS happens was much worse and some of my boxes were getting soaked. So I moved everything around, and in the movie I found my old photo albums. So here are just a few pictures I found, more should follow...

My little Sully, gone to soon

Color theory jello

Sweet Leo pig

Fashion Rachel and Gustofer

Wife and Fashion Rachel in corn

Crafting and School and Honor

So this last weekend was the craft show. It has been raining like crazy, and while we were indoors, Im sure it kept people home. The table was $40, and we sold $41! lol!! Gentleman Friend was amazing and helped out all day, wore antlers with jingly bells and bought lunch and dinner. :) So sweet!!

So I accidentally deleted the pictures from my phone :( but Gentleman Friend won a sSUPER prestigious award at his place of work!! About time, they run that poor man ragged!! basically he is employee of the quarter!! and My lucky rear got to go and witness the event, and have a 5 star lunch of lavender chicken, toasted barley, various rolls, and a fruit tart. It was all delightful but very much GIRL food. I take it back, girl and bad stereotypes of gays food. Which is fitting for this place of work but I was sitting by all 6'7" of GF who was posed next to his co-worker who is about 6'5". I kind of wanted to order steaks for them. some MAN food. BTW skipped out of a class to attend this, a class which i had missed a week, gone a week, then missed another week, then skipped out for like 2 hours for this... lol!! Lucky I have a pretty good grasp on it and made up the work. But back to the goodness!! I teased GF that it was a penis worshipping ceremony, so he now has a 5 star penis (true story). Im so proud, he's such a super hero.

We're heading into finals, which means these few weeks before we are working on the pieces we will be turning it on finals week. While most people study for weeks for one big test, we craft for weeks on one piece, 40-60 hours often to turn it in on critique day, where it will be shredded emotionally. so little sleep will happen. plus those retarded holiday hours at work...

Speaking of work, I had my first and possibly last Ding Dong at work front he vending machine. it was really terrible. With the demise of Hostess, everyone is freaking of the loss of desserts, but WONDERBREAD, and AMERICAN STAPLE!! It too is gone. I feel like Bimbo will buy all the recipes... the Mexicans are smart that way. Yes, your Twinkies will be from Mexico is my hunch is correct.

Sorry for the rambling and lack of actual things to say, Im so tired, and get to START work in like an hour.... uuuuugggghhhhh......

The cats got along for like an hour the other day!! Here they are sharing the cat tree.