Pea Pickin Cake

This was my birthday cake. It is a Pea Pickin Cake...it wasn't pretty, but it was really tasty. I got the recipe from my cousin's wife. Here is the recipe:

Pea Pickin Cake

1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

11 ounce can mandarin oranges (juice and all)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 box of instant vanilla pudding (small)

Mix all together. Bake in 3 (9-inch) round cake pans for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees in greased and floured pans. When completely cooled, frost and refrigerate. Can be made 2 to 3 days ahead.

Frosting

16 ounce container Cool Whip

1 large package of vanilla instant pudding

20 ounce can crushed pineapple (juice too)

Combine all ingredients; frost layers of cake and refrigerate.

I hope you'll try it. It is really good and it was even better the day after....breakfast cake. Billy was so excited and kept saying "birthday cake" all day. He couldn't wait any longer at one point and took the cake out of the fridge and had it on the couch. Too funny. Summer Break sucks....kids 24/7...argh. Hard on the crafting (or even thinking)....I managed to finally finish my tags for the Summer Loving Tag Swap yesterday. I need to get them in the mail today. I need to work on two more projects...treasury shadowbox and Christmas ABC pages. I haven't had a lot of chance to look for fun stuff for the box. I screwed up the first one and had to order another box....double argh. My partner and I agreed to a later mail out date....so some of the pressure is off. :) I need to cut out the backs for the pages....27 of them...oy. I know what I want to do...it is a matter of cutting out the backs. Lazy ass procrastinater....that is what I am. Before I forget...Amy and Jane win the extra tags/books...congratulations. I guess I need to go and get some stuff done. :) Have a good day!

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday....I'm 39...not ashamed of my age. Small blog absence.....things have been nutty. I got three swaps taken care of (as you can see).....charms, little books, and mailed out the tags from my Secret Garden Tag Swap. I had the hardest time getting the backs off of the vintage jewelry.....after that it wasn't bad....I enjoyed gluing them onto bails. I made two little books instead of one....yes, a food theme....I can't help myself. The one example of the fruit book was the wrong one....I needed to get them in the mail. I hand drew and watercolored them. I used the cutest fabric (that I've had for about 18 years) for the covers of the books. I didn't have much choice in paper (local UPS had super thin, linen finish, and card stock), so they are a little thicker than I wanted and not all of them folded up good....I am bummed.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure (it was all theirs) to join my guys in Phoenix for the Comic Con. Think Silver Bella for geeks, nerds, and the like. Everyone wore their badges with pride....everywhere. Billy got to join his Dad and Brother twice.....he took an Imperial Cadet Training Course....he wore the stormtrooper helmet the whole time. I was upstairs bored off my ass in the hotel room most of the weekend. Thank goodness they had USA on cable. :) It is going to be a long summer. They don't have summer school for Special Needs children here, so Billy is going to be a handful. Fun, fun, fun. I've been working on my shadowbox for Stevie...oy. I, also, need to work on 12 tags for Jonnelle's round of the tag swap. Nothing like having a great idea and being foiled by your printer/scanner that doesn't love you anymore. The printer works...the scanner not so much. I need to get a new one...scanners are important....I don't like using original vintage ephemera (photos and such) if I can help it. I have ABC pages that are due at the end of the month as well. I know what I'm doing for those....it will just involve a lot of cutting...procrastinating (as usual). Oh well.

Okay...now for the fun part....since it is my Birthday.....I'm going to have a giveaway. If you would like to win a set of Secret Garden Tags (shown in the last picture), just leave a comment on this post. I will leave it open until the Army's Birthday (Flag Day to civilians). I have two sets of tags, so two winners. I'll probably throw in sets of wonky little books as well and who knows what else. Good luck and now I need to figure out when the commissary opens....I want to bake my birthday cake, but I'm missing one ingredient.