Earth-Friendly Friday

What might look like an old pile of used lumber to you . . .

Could be something much more than it appears.

You see, my husband loves to reuse old lumber and there was a house being remodeled in the neighborhood. The people were throwing away some good old wood. My husband couldn't bear the sight of all that wonderful old fur flooring going into the landfill. So, what did he do?

He knocked on the door and asked if he could rescue that wood from the dumpster. And he did.

Then he cut off the tongue and groove edge and sanded the wood (notice the scrap pieces inside the garbage can).


Now, he's making a bench out of the free wood and he even made me a couple of planters for my deck.

See what you can do, if you think outside the . . . landfill?

Idaho Oil

Have you ever wondered what you could do to liven up your dinners? Well I learned a couple of tricks today from the Coeur d'Alene Olive Oil Company

They let us taste an assortment of olive oils and vinegars with different recipes.

By using new flavors of olive oils and vinegars or mixing them together and trying dipping sauces you can spice up your meals. The Coeur D'Alene Olive Oil Company will even mix flavors for you. Plus, they'll help you come up with recipes to help make your life a little easier too. Check them out here.

If you try one of these recipes, let me know. I got the Blood Orange Dipping Sauce to use with some salads. I'll mix up some lettuce, mandarin oranges, almond slivers, water chestnuts, sesame seeds and pour some of this dipping sauce over the top for a yummilicious salad.

Word for Wednesday

What does the word fetid mean?

Take a guess

Now scroll down for the answer

Further

Have you taken a guess?

It means Stink

Thanks for playing

Class of 2011

Waiting for the big event

Kate and Will

Real Life imitates fantasy :)

Earth-Friendly Friday

Did you know that computer equipment can use energy even when it's turned off?

Well, you can cut off that drain by connecting your PC, monitor, and peripherals to a single power strip; when they're not in use, turn the strip off. One easy flip of a switch and you'll stop the "leakage" from the nominally switched-off electronics.

CELEBRATE

So there's the finished product! Yesterday I showed you how to make the veil out of ribbon. And here's how I made the cake.

I rolled out some white fondant and started cutting out decorations for the dress

Then I put a crumb-coating layer of frosting on the cake.

I tried to find some free patterns for Barbie dolls on line so I could pattern the top of the dress easily but I couldn't find anything I liked for free :( so I just winged it and cut the bodice (freehand) for the dress out of the fondant and decorated it with white pearl sprinkles. I wanted it to all be edible (except the doll and the veil--and the stems of the flowers.
I made a little bouquet using blue fondant and some green floral tape. I hot glued the bouquet to her hand.

While I was working on her, I stuck her in some floral foam for easy adjusting.

Then I rolled out a larger sheet of white fondant and slipped it over the crumb-coating of frosting and started decorating.

I stuck the decorations on using left over frosting for the glue and a long bamboo skewer as a paint brush. Then I randomly placed the decorations on the dress.


I trimmed the excess, leaving a train for the back.


Connecting her body with her dress was the fun part.


I wanted to decorate the stand with pretty paper.

The hard part was transferring her to the stand. I had to call in the reserves: my daughter and my husband.


Here's a view from the back

I placed some white frosting roses around the base for extra decorations and I was finished.

I had a lot of fun making this cake for a co-worker's wedding shower. And I hope she likes banana - because it's a banana cake :)