Bumble's Playlist

I've made a little playlist to play during the day. I usually sing along with these songs and it's my usual mis-match of songs, but I hope Bumble enjoys them. Seems to by the amount of movement I get. Of course, I could totally be misreading the signs and Bumble is actually "O my God would please stop!!!!", but I will think not for now. Here's my little playlist:

1. Baby I Love You - The Ramones (I've actually sung this to Bumble since we found out I was pregnant, so....before Bumble even had ears)

2. Here, There and Everywhere- The Beatles

3. Love Me Tender- Elvis

4. Over the Rainbow- Judy Garland

5. Real Love- The Beatles

6. Heartbeats- Jose Gonzalez

7. Baby Mine- Bette Middler (I wish I could just find the version they played in Dumbo, but no luck. Ah well....)

8. Love Is Like A Butterfly- Dolly Parton

9. Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles

10. The Rainbow Connection- Kermit the Frog

11. That's How Strong My Love Is- Otis Redding

12. Tonight You Belong to Me- Folk Uke

13. Clementine- Pink Martini

14. Hang On Little Tomato- Pink Martini (This was also one of my songs during those shaky first 12 weeks of pregnancy)

15. I'm Only Sleeping- The Beatles

16. And It Stoned Me- Van Morrison

17. Across the Universe- The Beatles

18. Farewell and Goodnight- Smashing Pumpkins

There are some other songs I really wanted to add, but they have somehow disappeared from my Itunes, which is quite worrisome. I can't decide if I want to take this playlist to have during labor, if I should make a whole nuther playlist for labor with songs that "pump me up", if you will. But those songs are very cheesy, like, "You're the Best Around" from the Karate Kid. We shall see.....

Oreo Cake

 This was without a doubt the most delicious cake I have ever made. I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake and am even less impressed with white chocolate (which is what is in the icing), and with that said, it was still THE BEST CAKE. I'm not one of those cooks/bakers who will shy away from saying if something I make is good. IT WAS GOOD. The picture isn't the best; apologies. I'm including the recipe for any of you out there who want to give it a go. It was sooooooooooooo worth the effort! 

For the Chocolate Cake:

Dark Chocolate Cake
makes two 9-inch round cakes or three 8-inch round cakes

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans, or three 8-inch round baking pans. (I used 8 inch pans and had enough batter for 4 cakes)

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Mix in boiling water - the batter will be quite thin. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then tap the cakes out of the pans. Cool completely before frosting.

For the Icing:

FROSTING:
around 4-6 oz white chocolate

1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar
a couple splashes of milk

Melt chocolate. I usually do this by placing a glass dish in boiling water. It melts more evenly than using a microwave. Meanwhile cream butter. Once chocolate has melted add to butter. Continue to mix at low to medium speed while adding vanilla. Gradually add in milk and sugar until frosting reaches desired consistency.

This wasn't my recipe and I can't take credit for it. I found it on Ohdeedoh.com and I found the frosting website on someone else's blog. It seriously was the tastiest cake I have ever had, or that could just be my prego hormones talking. But it was pretty damned good! 

New Floors--- The After!

Aren't they beautiful? I would say it was definitely money well spent and I can rest a little easier now knowing that at least one BIG project was done and finished before Bumble gets here!

New Floors--- THE BEFORE

When Griff and I started our house hunt, we always had hardwood floors on the top of "The List". So when we found the house we now call home, we loved the floors. It quickly became apparent that the job that was originally done on these floors was a pretty piss poor job. I know hardwoods are a lot of work and need a little extra TLC, but things were getting ridiculous. We have been here almost 2 years now and I felt like I was pulling splinters out of my feet constantly. While I know our baby won't care about a lot of home renovations, I knew the floors HAD to be done. Because as quickly as Bumble will be here, I know we'll be turning around and have a baby crawling and learning to walk. I want to minimize the splinter situation if possible. So here are some photos of our floors before they were done. Extremely discolored, many boards were ruined by a shoddy plumber who had done some work for us before we moved in, a fair few split boards and just ugly damage. Yuck.

 

Ruby Slippers

It seems so long ago that I was begging for votes for some beautiful replica Ruby Slippers. Not long after winning I found out I was pregnant, and suddenly red sparkly shoes just didn't seem like the accomplishment I thought they were. 

When I finally got the shoes they were more beautiful than I could have imagined. I was very disappointed to find that they were the wrong size. I would say a half-size too big. So even though I can't wear them, I keep them up on a shelf in my guest room, right below my collection of Green Glass!

I would definitely like to say thank you again to all the wonderful people who got me those votes and who pestered their friends and family to vote for me some magical shoes! I do love them very much!