Aggies Do It Better

Well, it's here! I finally finished the boy's Halloween costumes, with a couple days to spare!! Go me!! This is one of the few times, if ever, I will be posting pics of the boys. They make such cute little models. They are thrilled to be wearing them, for the most part, which is a huge relief! Even #2, who, wants to put his on when #1 has his on, and take it off the same way. He wants to be just like his big brother!! Here they are.... straight from their debut at my mom's group Halloween party this am! Garfield and Odie! Next week I'll do a side-by-side with the costumes I made and the ones I found from the internet that I was "inspired" by. I think I came pretty close! And I think my Garfield stripes are better! #1 "Odie" #2 "Garfield"

Yall didn't think just because I'M IN HAWAII RIGHT NOW that I would skip this week! No Way! This week is Kansas! Ok, not much chatter for today, I'm gonna go have another mai tai!

I can't believe how close it's getting. All my training has been going well, and I DOMINATED my 10 miles 2 weeks ago. I was not worried at all about logging in my 12 miles (another record for me) this weekend! I wound up having to do it today (Monday) because we were out of town this weekend for my b-day (more on that later). Let me tell you, there is a world of difference between 10 and 12 miles! GAH! I finished it but barely. I walked alot. I did finish in my projected goal time frame, surprisingly, but still! At least I know if I can do this, I can probably squeeze out another mile for the actual half (13 miles). However, I still have a 14 and 15 mile run between now and then. I honestly don't know how I'm gonna do those! So, that's all for now...I have 3 days to get ready for my trip to Hawaii for my brother's wedding this weekend. I'm going Thurs through Tues. Hopefully during that I'll be able to squeeze in a few short runs inbetween the mai tais! ...

This week the Aggies play Missouri. This logo is the last of the hard ones I think! God bless the easy schools with just big letters (N, OU, TT, BU, UT). I couldn't decide whether I was gonna put this guy on the white background or not because he has so much white on him.

Hello, My name is Jennifer. And I'm a project-starter. (see also: Project Halloween , Tour of the Big XII ) So, if that's not enough, I decided I needed to do a "Cupcake of the Month". This will allow me to branch out with my cupcake flavors and try out how some of my favorite holiday flavors do in a cupcake. It doesn't help that we are officially in the "baking season", my bread and butter! (mmmmm.....bread.....) I decided October needed to be something fall-ish, but not to Thanksgiving-y, we have November for that. I guess I kind of already did this with the Candy Corn cupcake , but since I did that before now I can't really count it! So I decided on Carmel Apple. The idea was red, apple-flavored cake with Carmel Buttercream frosting. The trick is findng a recipe for apple cake that's JUST apple, not apple-cinnamon, or spice, or something like that. Not so easy! I decided on trying out 2 recipes. The first one was just adding a bunch of choppe...

This past week was and eeeeasy week of running, which was nice since my knees hurt for days after long runs like last week's 10 miles! My 2 short runs during the week were the same as before and will be from now on...just 30 minutes. I usually go a few min longer so I can get a nice, round, 3 miles in. (Mostly because I'm wierd like that. Better 3.0 than 2.78 or something. And it tells me my mile markers better on my Nike+ thing I use.) From now on , I get about 2 weeks in between the super-long runs. And good thing, that works into my "life" schedule better. This past Saturday was my city's Komen 5k. (my viewpoint before starting....waaaaay at the back of the runners, but in front of the walkers) This has always been my favorite event. This year was my 6th race in 8 years. I'm pretty proud of that! It is such a well-sponsored, well-organized (well, mostly, depending on what city you're in. Dallas is hard to beat, but it is where this foundation is based) ...

This week the Aggies take on Arkansas State in the new Cowboys stadium, so I'm taking the chance to do another team in the Big XII that we aren't playing this year: Iowa State. Again, with the hard logos!! On this one I had to use the "Rule of Oklahoma State", where I have to eliminate some of the microscopic lettering. Under "State", it says "cyclones". The scale of these logos is about 5 inches, so it's hard enough to cut out even normal sized letters! This guy also had tons of blue swirly things all around him, I'm guessing to indicate movement?, that I just couldn't do with fondant. Maybe sometime I could try those food-marker things again, I never had any luck with them before. post note: I've been lovingly reminded by my husband that we are playing ARKANSAS, not Arkansas State. Bah. Same thing .

Well, here's the OSU logo I should've done last week, but was too busy and needed to save my black fondant for the zebra cake! I decided to go ahead and do the logo that's on the Big XII logo, but I had to take a little bit of "artistic licence" and left out the lettering above the "State" (Oklahoma) and below it (University). Those letters are teeeeeny tiny and there was NO WAY I was going to be able to cut them out of fondant. So sue me! I also didn't put this one on a cake, because we have more than a few cupcakes around here and I just didn't have it in me to make another cake. So, you get logo a la carte!

This past Friday I had a WHOLE naptime (with a 4.5 yo in tow) to work on nothing else but the second costume. Since I already got the pieces cut out last week, I was able to get the front and back panels sewn together WITH zipper (which was MUCH easier to do backwards from the way the instructions said), sleeves on, entire front and back sewn together, measure on said boy, then add elastic. That's as far as I've gotten, but that's a lot for one day! I still have to make the hood, mittens, and shoe cover things for this one, and then all the details. It's pretty boring right now!

Ok. Yall. Braces yourselves for this coolness. I'm going to say this again, this is one of my favorites I've made!!

Wow it's getting close! I'm still having a bit of a hard time with my new shoes. I guess it's like a new car that you don't know where all the controls are at and it's just wierd. Good, but wierd. My first short run (30) min was the first run in the new shoes. I don't think I had them laced tight enough, because they felt way too big and loose on my feet. Granted, they are a size bigger than I'm used to, that's supposed to help with the blistering. So for my 2nd short run, I tightened them up a bit. Too much, it turns out, because it caused the new insole arch support thingy to be too tight on my foot and I had hella blisters after just 3 miles! I was really worried about attempting 10 miles in them. I was prepared to take those suckers back after that. Should I put the large bandaid on my foot like I usually do so I can get the mileage in or give my shoes a chance to do what they are supposed to ? The consensus was give them a try and take them if I nee...

Well, I didn't get to this week's Tour of the Big 12 cake, because I need black fondant for the ::cough:: OSU logo (even though I am so tempted to make the "easier" logo they have on their helmets and field, not the one that's on the Big 12 logo circle, but whatever, ANYWAY, I have another cake this weekend that I need the black for, so I want to be sure I have enough first! I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but I will! I barely got anything done on the second costume this week either. I got the material pieces cut out, but that's all! I've been busy all week catching up on laundry and cleaning the house for the father-in-law to come for a visit this weekend. I have a super funny story about him I'll have to tell next time. (Hopefully, me not getting the cake done before game time is NOT what made us lose...) Anyhoo, I did make these little beauties for a famous musician 's birthday this weekend. OK, maybe you haven't heard of him, but...