"Best thing since Robert Redford" Desert

Let me warn you before you make this... it is THE BEST desert and it can be dangerous!  It consists of four amazingly good layers:  a graham cracker crust, then a cream cheese layer, next a chocolate pudding layer, and finally topped with cool whip.  YUM.  Hint:  You can use any flavor of pudding to mix it up.  I prefer chocolate, but vanilla would also be good for those who dont like chocolate.  Or for a banana cream pie desert, use Banana pudding!  That sounds so good, its on my to do list for the future.

  My mom has made this for years and would bring it to family get togethers and everyone always seems to look forward to the desert we call "Robert Redford."  Well.  I finally got the recipe from my mom and made it for the first time last night.  It turned out AMAZING if I do say so myself.  I am bringing it with me this weekend so that my family can eat it because if I keep it in the house God knows I'll end up eating the whole pan myself!  Anywho. Lets get down to it.

<----- Those are the main ingredients, but not all of them.  The list of ingredients you need are:

For the Crust:
2 1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
2/3 cup melted butter
6 tbs sugar

Cream Cheese layer:
1 block of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs milk
1/2 cont. Cool Whip

Pudding layer:
3 1/4 cups of milk
2 boxes of chocolate pudding

                                                                Cool Whip layer:
                                                                1 container of Cool Whip

And now the fun part.  I was first intimidated by all of the layers, thinking it would be a lot of work.  Nope it was actually very easy to make!  (And I am by no means an experienced cook!)

Directions for the crust:

• Mix together the graham cracker crumbs and sugar
• Stir in the melted butter.  (I used a fork and that worked pretty well)
• Pat to the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 pan
• Put in the fridge while you make the next layer

Cream Cheese Layer:

• Soften the block of cream cheese.  (Using a hand mixer is the best way to do this)
• Mix in 1/4 cup of sugar
• Mix in 2 tbs milk
• Mix well until light and fluffy
• FOLD in 1/2 container of Cool Whip
• Spread on Top of crust, put back in fridge

              Cream cheese layer














Pudding Layer:

• Slowly add both packages of pudding to the 3 1/4 cups of milk, while stirring
• When pudding is set up, spread on top of the cream cheese layer

Cool Whip Layer:

This is the 'easy' part

• Spread 1 container of Cool whip on top of the pudding
• Done!

It will look something like this picture once completed.  Now I know its tempting to dig right in, but it needs to sit in the fridge for a while in order for it to set up properly.  I put it in there overnight like my mom usually does and that gives the best results.  

If you dont wait for it to set up, it will still taste the same, it just will be ALOT messier. :) 

                                    I dug into mine this morning...

                  The first piece is always hard to get out :)

My 1st FINISHED quilt

A couple of summers ago I decided that I was going to make, and finish, a quilt.  I had made two quilt tops in high school and never finished one, so I was determined to see this one through.  I know I wanted it to be outdoorsy, and I had a shower curtain I bought at Cabelas that I wanted to use because it was made out of fabric.  So I went to the craft store and picked out some other fabrics.

I ended up getting a green material with paw prints on it, an orange tree bark material, and a light pine cone material.  Because they are all pretty busy, I decided to get plain black material to put in between each piece to break up the materials.  To the left is a picture of just one of the many blocks used to make up the large quilt.  

The pattern I used was like the Zig Zag Rail Fence.  I used the same pattern for one of my quilt tops I made in high school, so I already had some experience.  I did not use an actual pattern for this quilt.  My grandma and I crunched some numbers and I followed my own pattern.  The original pattern does not include the black pieces in between the other pieces so I wouldn't have been able to use that pattern anyways. 

Here is a few of the blocks put together

It took some thinking to get the quilt just right and to figure out which way every block had to go.  It was nice once the pattern started to come together.  

Before sewing the blocks together, I laid them out to make sure I got the placing right.  My grandma had some sort of contraption made that had a big piece of felt like material that held the blocks on nicely.

I finally had all the blocks done!! Now all I had left was adding the borders and the top was finished.

There is the finished product! (Not including after the backing was put on and the actual quilting was done)  My grandma had a friend who was really into quilting and had a top-of-the-line quilting machine.  She was nice enough to let me use it and quilt it myself.  The machine was very fun to use and hopefully one day I can buy one for myself :)

After it was quilted, my grandma hand stitched the binding for me and it turned out AWESOME!  It is my proudest creation to this day.  Now I am itching to make a new quilt!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Took this lovely picture while I was working at the Airport.  I put this quote by Abraham Lincoln on the picture because it is such a true quote to me.  A beautiful sight like this comes right from the hands of God.  

When all else fails, go to grandma's

Learning to crochet.. NOT as easy as I was hoping. How hard could it be? All you need is some yarn and a hook! I was wrong. You also need two trained hands, which I do not have. I bought how-to books, watched online tutorials, and scoured pinterest for helpful hints on learning to crochet.  None of it worked. Seems the only useful method for me is a crash course from my grandma.  She has taught me all I know about sewing, embroidery, an any other "crafty" hobby Ive picked up along the way.  Unfortunately for me she lives hours away and I hardly ever get a chance to go there BUT this weekend I am and hopefully I will come back an expert crocheter!!  I have way too many baby blankets and booties patterns that I need to put to good use before our little one gets here in February :)

Another quote

Another quote I love
Speaks for itself.

Picture also taken on my grandparents farm.

Words for thought

This is one of my favorite quotes.  Put on a picture I took at my grandparents farm.  This quote means alot to me, because its just so perfect.  I had all these big plans.. college, degree, high-paying job.. but God had a different plan for me.  College was not right for me and I couldnt decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  Then I met a wonderful man and got pregnant and I just feel like I am exactly where God has chosen me to be.  And I couldnt be happier. 

Upcycled Barn Wood

These were some of my all time favorite projects to make.  They are fairly easy, I just had to be very careful making them, because as easy as they are to make, they're just as easy to mess up.  Luckily for me, I had access to a huge pile of old weathered wood from a barn my grandparents tore down long ago.  I took the four wheeler to the pile, loaded it down with wood and got to work.  Besides the wood, all you need are some paintbrushes and paint, and unless you feel like handwriting all of them, some stickers.  Note:  Handwriting them all is VERY tedious.  For me, anyways.  I get very shaky when concentrating and ended up with a LARGE pile of signs that were ruined.

One of my better free-handed signs

So head to your local craft store and stock up.  Get as many stickers of letters that you want.  I tried re-using stickers but that only works if you are very careful and I got a maximum of two uses from the stickers.  Get whatever paint colors you want.  (Just the little acrylic paint bottles that come in thousands of different colors)  They are also fairly cheap.  Only a couple bucks a bottle.

You will also need paint brushes.  I like to be over-prepared so I probably had one of every possible size.  the skinnier ones are better for free handing on the wood, I had a flat one that I found worked best for the signs like the one in the picture above.

To get started:
Pick out the quote you want to put on the piece of wood
Place the stickers down where you want them, spelling out the quote
Paint over the stickers.  How you paint over them is up to you.  If you want to paint the whole board, using a larger paint brush would be better.
Let it dry a little, then VERY CAREFULLY peel off the stickers.  I used a pin to get under the sticker without making a mark in the paint.  Note:  I learned that if I used too much paint, which I did alot, the stickers were more prone to ripping, making the process that much harder.
Let dry the rest of the way, then enjoy!

I got claw-like hangers and nailed them on the back of the signs so they would be easier to hang.

2 more finished products