The Ugliest Shoes I Own!

Ugly huh!

If its not bad enough they are the ugliest shoes I own, they are also the most expensive. For some that might mean a pair of $300 shoes, for me that's only about $70. I very rarely buy shoes that aren't from a discount site, or on clearance, but always name brand. I usually wear Nike, they fit me the best.

These are Skecher Shape-Ups, they are a type of excercise shoe that are suppose to firm your calves, thighs and doompa. Plus they also improve your posture because you are basically walking on balance balls. I was a bit worried I would fall and break my neck the first day I wore them, but it didnt take long to work out the whole balance thing, and you do notice that you are standing straighter right away. You have to or you will trip, fall, stumple, you get the picture.

Do they work?
Like I said I noticed my posture is a bit straighter, not sure if it sticks with me when I take them off though. I read reviews that your calves will be sore the first day, but that hasn't happened either, but my calves weren't flabby to begin with. Maybe I could wear these on my tummy! I think I have to wear them every day to really notice a difference, and I havent done that yet since we have had snow. I do have to say they are very comfortable, good for long trips, if of course you were in the car, they are too ugly to wear in public. :-)

And..... they do make you look thinner, because they add a good inch and a half to you height!

Can I recommend... not quite yet!
M

Cheryl's Cheesecake Recipe ....

... that isn't really cheesecake, but it's a family favorite. When Brian's mom first saw it, she called it Lemon Fluff, that really is a better name for it. I'm guessing it's from the 1960's just by the fact that's how long we have been eating it. Cheryl always made it when she lived at home, then at 20 she eloped and I've been making it ever since. Every Thanksgiving Renee calls for the recipe, and Georgia just asked for it the other day.

So this post is for my sisters!

Cheryl's Cheesecake
Cook---
Mix 2 cups of water and 2 little lemon jello, and cook till it reaches a boil. Cheryl use to put the the pan in the fridge till she needed it, I just put it in the very cold sunroom.

Crust---
While your jello is cooling, make your crust.
4 cups crushed graham crackers
2 sticks melted butter
2 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter, add vanilla and graham crackers
(I usually add just a bit of sugar and cinnamon)

Grease pans and press graham crackers into bottom and about an inch or more up the sides. Save a bit of the graham crackers to put on top.I can make an 9x13 and a 8 in. with this recipe. Also have made some very tall 9 in round, with the pre-made crust from Keebler.

When your crust is all set in the pans.
Blend---
2- 8 oz. room tempeture cream cheese
2 cups of sugar
Add...
2 cans (not the tiny ones, reg. size) evaporated milk or Milnot.

When you have that all mixed slowly add the jello mixture. Then pour into prepared crust, sprinkle with a bit of graham cracker on top and put in fridge till set.
(I looks like this, whoever made this one, I got the pic off the internets, she didnt put enough butter in her crust so it crumbled when she went to cut it.)

Thats it!

The Office

Scotty: I don't think we need to do the office it looks fine.
Michelle: It doesn't look fine, it's gross.

(you can click on these to make them bigger, but this "before" pic is bad enough small)

First Scotty had to cut a hole in a wall to make a better access panel to the hot water heater. I stayed clear it was dusty! Once again you can see the smoke stained walls from where the wall border was. I painted the ceiling earlier in the day.


Back in the summer I bought a used kitchen table and six chairs. The table was a little worse for wear, and too big for the kitchen, so I had this great idea. Cut it in half and make desks! So I painted the office walls a grey/blue, and the white parts of the table a dark midnight blue, almost black. Actually we thought it was black in the store when picking colors.

Once each table half was mounted on the wall with L brackets, Scotty made a hutch for the side that wouldn't have a computer on it.


Added some trim. I painted it like the table legs, and the chair legs and backs.


Then we needed some corner shelves.



And here's The Office...

There's a litte closet behind the louver doors next to the hutch desk, that Scotty bought a $30 shelving unit for and just built it in the closet. I got that little black clamp lamp for $2.37!

I love when I enlarge the pics and see a spot I need to put another coat of paint, like the table!

Some left over black fake leather for a window treatment. I think it's called pleather, but that sounds like a porn movie, so I'll just go with fake leather. And the chair Scotty had to have also made of fake leather, found a new home, and it's in its rightful place in the house.



We needed a picture for over his desk, and he's a WWII plane buff, so I had a digital picture he had made into a print. We couldnt find a frame that was nice and cheap, so he made a nice and cheap frame!



This room is very very small, and it took the longest of any of the rooms, I think we started in November, but the holidays hit, Scotty went back to California for Christmas with his kids. I cant tell you how many coats of paint are on the table legs, black paint ....... what a pain in the doompa! Theres still not a door over the water heater hole yet, but that will be white. :-)

I'm trying to think of how much was spent on the room, but it's a bit hard. The kitchen table was $125 with six chairs. The office only has one chair, the others are scattered throughout the house. The wood and trim for the corner shelves was left over from other projects, and the little window treatment, so that was all free. The wood for the hutch was $25, and the bead board was left over from my kitchen and bath. The "must have" chair was $99, and paint was about $35-40. Picture frame was around 17 for glass and trim. Then Scotty bought some slide rails to make a keyboard tray for the table for 8 bucks. I'm sure I missed some things but for sure it will come under $375 for the whole room even with the access panel/door he has to make.

It's a small room but has a bunch of storage space and it's kinda cool too!

M

Battle of the Brownie Pans!

Okay.... a couple of years ago I got a Baker's Edge Brownie Pan for Christmas. It makes more edges! The edges are my favorite part of the brownie. It was a pricie pan, $34 and shipping.



I usually use a homemade brownie recipe... which is...

1 stick margarine
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
vanilla

I think thats it, Im going from memory, which can be scary.

But lately what I usually make is this...


...for these reasons:
1. They are low fat and don't taste low fat.
2. Homemade brownies never get that shiney top. I dont know what makes that shiney top on box brownies... but I like shiney things. Diamonds more so than brownies, but I'm on a brownie budget here.

I got this pan for Christmas this year, it looks like an ice cube tray.



Now there are two type of Brownie people in this world. There's the fudgy brownie people and the cake brownie people. I'm more of a fudgy brownie gal myself, but nothing beats a cake brownie warm with ice cream and hot fudge.

Here's what I have discovered after using both pans with the lite brownie mix.

Baker's Edge...
Lots of edges for sure, but higher tendency to have too much of a crunch edge to get the middle done. You know the type of crunch that is too close to burnt. Sometimes the brownies are too fudgie, almost raw. Which I love brownie batter, but not cooked brownie batter. The dogs seem to get more middle parts when I eat these. Dont worry, not enough to kill them!

Ice cube brownie pan...
I just made a box mix of brownies with this yesterday. I wasnt very hopeful about the results since the pan is very thin, and I didnt think it would cook as well as the thicker "edge" pan. I was wrong!!!!!!

This was the first time I have ever made brownies that got that tall, and were pre-cut with nice straight lines. For some reason I can never cut my brownies w/o them falling apart. These were a bit more cake like, hence why they were taller *grin*, and the only real edges on them were the regular pan edges, they each didnt have four chewey edges on each brownie like I thought they would. These were very pretty too, you could actually bring these brownies on a plate instead of just the whole pan that you cant cut straight. This pan was 19.99.

If I had to choose to have only one pan....

I would say this one! I can put it in the diswasher and I hate doing pans by hand, which is recommend with the "edge" pan, and I felt like I was getting more brownie to eat! Since a brownie is three points on Weight Watchers, size is very important.

Now if I could only remember I have special brownie pans before I toss it into a 9x13 pan!

Mmmmmmmmm Brownies!
M