DIY Bling Pet Collar

A few weeks ago it was my MoMo's birthday

You can see the festivities Here

I decided to make her a special occasion collar in honor of the big day

It was super easy and all came together in 20 minutes the night before her birthday (I'm the queen on procrastination) 

I bought a plain pink collar from the dollar store and attached gems and pearls with hot glue

Trying to get a cat to model for you can be a little tough.   She insisted on taking a shower in the middle of the photo shoot.  And not a simple lick the paw, rub the head kind of bath.  No no.  It was the head between the legs kind

This was the best I could get

Here's a side view of her wearing it during her birthday dinner

Now she has a fancy going out collar.  Not that she goes out or anything....but if she did she would be preparedd

MoMo Monday Week #6

All you hardcore Disney fans out there probably already know this....but this past week Disney Parks hosted a Monstrous 24 hour All Nighter 

It was a promotion for Monster University coming out June 21st where the parks were open for 24 hours straight.....awesome right?

I was already bummed that I was missing out on the fun when I started seeing all the pictures roll in on the internet.....that lead me into straight depression mode.   Waaaah!

Look at how cute all of them are in their jammies!

I would LOVE to go to Disneyland in my PJs.....I would rock my Minnie Mouse onesie

(Please ignore my ratchet hair)

Now for the MoMo portion of this MoMo Monday post......

Seeing all the characters all cute in their jammies made me dig through my pictures to find an old photo of my little love in her nightgown

I think she would have fit in well with the Disney crew!  They had mice, ducks, chipmunks, and even a dog....but no cat.  MoMo could have filled that void.  After all.......she is the Cats Pajamas!   (see what I did there? ;)

How to Make Ice Cream Cake Cupcakes

My niece Katie just turned 14 on Monday....yea....she's getting old!  My little buddy is getting all growed up and stuff :'(  Here's a picture collage I posted on Instagram

It's hard for me to even fathom the idea that she will legally be able to start driving a car in one year and 7 months.

Not that she should....she kinda goes into complete spaz mode in any kind stressful situation so god knows what would happen to that girl in traffic.  The point is though she legally COULD drive relatively soon....and that's just plain weird!

Anyway....all the men of the family went away this past weekend on a testosterone filled man camping trip.  It of course included beer, guns, off roading, and the pungent smell of man feet filling the camper.   

Us wives were so bummed to miss out...(yeeea....bummed) so we had to have our own fun.  We had a chickfest weekend which included mounds of sushi, drinks, pool time, and of course a little birthday celebration for Katie

After giving her some ideas she decided on ice cream cake cupcakes as her dessert

They're really quite simple

Start by spooning a tablespoon of the cake mix if your choice into your cupcake liner.  I used silicone liners but traditional paper ones work just fine

Bake about 12-15 minutes or until done and let completely cool

Then scoop softened ice cream (we used mint chocolate) on top of the cake and smooth.  You want it to come up to the top of the cupcake liner

Put in the freezer until solid

Then pipe on your whipped cream and topping of choice and put back in the freezer to set up the cream

That's it!

You get the best of both worlds.....and no cutting and scooping required!  It would be great for a kids party and make your life alot easier.

DIY Painted Floppy Hat

Last summer I fell in love with the floppy hats at the dollar store.  They seriously seemed almost exactly the same as the ones I've seen that are $10 and up 

Here's the one I made back then

And the tutorial.   In that post you'll see how I said I was tempted to buy a bunch and make a butt load of different designs

Welp.....I did just that.  I bought a bout 5....ok 6.............alright maybe it was 8

And now I'm having fun doing all sorts of fun stuff to them.  This first one I made was inspired by this look that I found at alot of different stores....stripes!

All I did was use acrylic paint to paint on the stripes using the lines on the brim of the hat as my guide 

You really have to sort of push the paint through the holes for even coverage

I just did one black stripe and one white stripe.  I'm debating whether or not I should keep going and paint the entire thing like the example above?   What do you think?   Or should I leave it?   I can't decide!!

Thanks to Elsa for modeling it for me

Can't beat getting a customized hat for around $2.

MoMo Monday Week #5

Last Tuesday was MoMo's birthday. 

Ok.....so technically I have no idea when her actual birthday is.  I didn't have her mom as pet or adopt her from a friend whose cat had kittens or anything like that (actually...she adopted me.  Another story for another Monday) but she needed a birthday. I took the month that I got her in and gave her the same birth date as me....so I deemed her birthday May 14th

Each year she gets a special dinner of salmon...this year was no different

I even let her eat it out of a fancy dish like one of those stuck up Fancy Feast cats.  Why they're on TV and MoMo isn't I'll never understand

She was a trooper with her party hat.  She wasn't a huge fan of it but the trick is to put it on her and then set her down right in front of her birthday dinner.....she forgets all about the hat

And of course....what's a birthday without cake???

MoMo got salmon and cake waaaasted!!!!!

Then she proceeded to curl up on the rug and fall into a deep birthday induced coma.  I think she had a good time

And here are the pictures I posted on Instagram that night

Come follow me.  TheBusyBroad

Happy Birthday little Mo!  Here's to many more years of a purrrrrrfect friendship.  (I couldn't resist a good cat pun)

DIY Custom Shirts Using Freezer Paper

I have been DYING to start making my own shirts.  My head is stuffed full of cool sayings and designs.....but I've been unsure of the best way to go about executing them

I really love all the cool shirts people make using iron on vinyl....but since I don't have a Silhouette Cameo or any other kind of cutting machine for that matter (This busy broad is also a poor broad) I haven't really felt like I should bother breaking into the world of vinyl.  Pretty much too depressing for me without a machine haha

So I decided to finally give the freezer paper technique of making shirts for an idea I had for my niece Elsa's birthday

If you follow me at all, you might remember that she had a camping themed party....so sticking with the theme I decided to make a "Happy Camper" shirt

First off I decided to use up some pink flower iron on letters I had left over from making the little girls flower girl shirts for the rehearsal

Then came the camper portion

I found an imagine online and printed it out.  Then I traced it with sharpie onto the freezer paper

I marked with an X what was to be cut out.  

CAREFULLY cut the entire image with an exacto knife as well as the X out areas....but be sure to keep the pieces..you're going to need those

Take the piece of freezer paper and iron it onto the shirt shiny side down.  It's the shiny stuff that makes it stick

Then position those little pieces you saved and iron those on too

Take your fabric paint and cover the whole area using a foam brush.  I did about 3 coats to get it even

Peel off the outside

And then the little pieces

Not perfect...but not terrible for a first attempt at a new technique.  You can see spots where I didn't have the paper ironed down good enough so paint seeped under.  Next time I will do a better job of checking that.  But once you put the shirt on a cute kid I think it  doesn't even matter....right?

MoMo Monday Week #4

Happy belated Mothers Day to all you mamas out there!  Hope yours was great....mine certainly was.

Yes....I may not have human spawn but my I am most definitely a mother to my MoMo.  Do I not feed her? Love her? Put a roof over her head? And pay over a thousand dollars recently to get her diagnosed and given surgery?  If that doesn't qualify me as a mother I don't know what does.  

Friday at work my supervisor was leaving and from across the kitchen I could see him mouthing something but I couldn't hear him.  I said "Huh....what?"  

"Not you he said.." and he turned to Persia my coworker and said "Happy Mothers Day" (she has a 17 year old and a 14 year old) 

I was pretty happy that she came to my defense and said to him "She's a mother too...what about MoMo?"  

Haha!  thanks Persia!  I'm glad somebody gets it ;)

Basically I think it boils down to the fact that there are 3 kinds of people in the world

Person #1  They don't like pets.  And that's where I ask.....what the hell is wrong with you??  Seriously?

Replace the word "pets" in that card and that about sums it up

Person #2  You have a pet, but your pets are just "pets"

And then Person #3  is me.....your pets are much more than just a animal roaming your house.  They are family.  You talk about them to anyone and everyone who will listen....heck even to the people who don't want to listen.  You take an insane amount of pictures of them and the people of Instagram and Facebook hate you (the ones without souls that is ) You may even write about them in your blog.....I'm not sure what kind of quack does that

With that being said.....back to Mothers Day.


The Boy....uhh...I mean MoMo made me a lovely card

I think she handles a crayon exceptionally well considering she doesn't have thumbs.  Don't you?

And now for some Mama and Me photos.  Or in this case MoMo and Me.......

I've showed this one before but it' worth showing again in my opinion.  The night of our wedding I rushed home to see her before the after party.  I love this picture because I'm still in my gown and she couldn't look anymore like an embarrassed child if she tried

Had enough?  

Ok.....until next Monday

Low Carb Everything "Bagel"

Recently there has been one thing I've been craving.....an everything bagel

Considering there are over 60 carbs in one.....making my own version had to happen

So here's what I came up with

Start out by making your basic One Minute Flax bread

1 pat of Butter 

1 Egg

1/2 tsp. Baking powder

2 Tb. Golden flax flour

1/4 C. Cheese

Start by spraying a ramekin with nonstick spray.  Melt the butter in the ramekin, then mix in the egg, baking powder, flax, and cheese.  It will look like this

Microwave it for....you guessed it....one minute.  Flip it over and if it isn't done on the bottom cook it about 20 seconds more

Just plain like this it's perfect for sandwiches and burgers....whatever!  Here it is as a breakfast sammie with bacon, tomato, a little mayo, and a fried egg

Now to make it into a bagel...

I made some of the "Everything" seasoning by combining equal parts:

Seasame seeds
Poppy Seeds 
Minced dried onion
Minced dried garlic

Plus 1/2 the amount of salt of all the other ingredients

Whether it be teaspoons, tablespoons,...however big a batch you want to make

I sliced my minute bread in half and sprayed the outsides with nonstick spray and dipped it in the seasoning

 Then toasted it in the toaster oven, cut side down to keep as much of the topping on as possible

Then I dressed it up the same way I do my bagels.  Loaded with cream cheese, tomatoes, shaved red onion (literally shaved with a vegetable peeler) sliced avocado, salt and pepper

So here's the deal.....don't go into this expecting it to really feel like a bagel.  It doesn't. Bagels have that very chewy...VERY doughy feel that this will never have.  Actually, this bread in general is much closer in texture to an english muffin.  I only call it a bagel because the flavor profile of the everything bagel is what inspired the idea

For me it was less about the bagel "feel" and more about the taste of the seasonings and gobs of cream cheese....I never ate bagels plain.  It was all about how I loaded it up.  So for me....this is a delicious alternative.  I was delighted to get all those flavors together again....and in a "toast" like manner

Note: Some of my topping did fall off.  The dried onion I bought was really big and chunky and I think that was part of the problem.  It was heavy and didn't stick as well as the other ingredients and took some of them with it.  I will look for smaller onion pieces and possibly use egg whites to stick on the seasoning next time.  Over all though it didn't really bother me.  What did fall off I would scoop off my plate and sprinkle on top of my bagel so I wouldn't miss out on the flavor