Tag Archives: real world

Things to do concerning Cookies (1)

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Sunday! I hope you have a blessed week.

This upcoming week, I’m going to be traveling a bit. So I’m going to be doing a series on things I’m fairly comfortable with: Cookies. And things to do having to do with them. (That will make more sense as we go along. Hopefully.)

Somehow, I doubt it. Did you even study your own language? That sentence looks like you murdered your language.

If you’re talking about the last thing I wrote, it’s not technically a sentence- it’s a fragment.

But anywho. Without further ado:

Things to Do Concerning Cookies (1): Chocolate Chip

Today I’m going to be looking at Chocolate Chip Cookies, and a few things about chocolate chip cookies.

1) You can change the recipe. I actually have listed my personal recipe adaptation in the recipes section.

2) You can eat them. This should be obvious. My personal preferences include a nice glass of milk. Or maybe coffee. Sometimes both.

3) Zap them, and then eat them. If you’re at a cafeteria, for example, odds are incredibly slim you’ll get cookies fresh out of the oven. But nothing can beat a freshly baked cookie. (Except maybe for beaters- that would likely do the trick.) So,. here’s the solution. Stick a cookie in the microwave. I think about 5-10 seconds is plenty. Or, if you have access to one, stick it in a toaster oven. That reheats the cookie, and gives it the sense of being freshly baked. Again, I highly recommend a cup of milk. If you’re lactose intolerant, almond milk is a wonderful alternative. (I’m not, I don’t think, but my family is. So I’ve discovered a love of almond milk. It does go nicely with chocolate chip cookies. It’s not quite the same, but still really good. Especially if you get the vanilla flavored stuff.)

4) Give them to friends. The cookies, that is. Just to clarify that we weren’t talking about almond milk still. So, yeah. I’d take the cookies, put them in bakers’ bags, and then give them to friends. (Only if you’re feeling generous.) If you’re feeling really generous, you can even give them to professors, teachers, or people you don’t even know/like.

5) Photograph them and put them on Facebook. Because there aren’t enough people using Instagram.

Anyways, there you go! Five things to do that relate to chocolate chip cookies. Have fun! (And tell me how your cookies turn out, if you make any?)

Yarn! It’s Practically Finished!

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Thursday.

Last night I didn’t have that much time to write this post, because I was a little bit too caught up with arts and crafts. And by that, I mean I was FINISHING MY FIRST HOME-SPUN YARN!!! (I’m a bit excited, could you tell?)

No. Really? You’re excited?

I know. Oddest thing, right?

Anyways, here’s a picture of my new yarn hanging up to dry.

It’s hanging up to dry

Isn’t it lovely? I’m hoping I have enough to make a hat with it.

I’m also really looking forward to seeing how my undyed yarn that I’m currently making comes out. I personally haven’t dyed anything before, so it’ll be an interesting experiment… I’ll be sure to let you know in a few months once I actually do it.

Anyways, Fluffsters, happy Thursday! I hope you have a fantastic day and a wonderful rest of your week.

Fabric Finds: Food

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Tuesday!

I’m just going to dive right in.

I’ve mentioned I like to sew, right? I mean, I made that DIY flower wreath, and all. One of my goals in life is to eventually make my version of the Pirates Elizabeth Swan dress, and actually wear it somewhere. (That’s not likely to happen for a while since materials are incredibly expensive, and the pattern quite complicated. But I can dream, right?)

Anyways, today’s post is a discussion of fabric. More to the point, a discussion of food themed fabric.

Until yesterday, (well, today as I’m writing this) I didn’t even know fabric with a food theme even existed. But due to exploring fabric.com, I came across an entire section of food printed fabric.

This sparked a desire I never even knew I had.

I now really want to make a waffle-print skirt. Or dress. Or maybe a skirt/handbag combo.

Actually, I’m not picky. A similar sort of thing with pancakes, donuts, sprinkles, and, especially, CheeseIts. Not Bacon & Eggs, though. That’s just silly. (The grilled cheese, though… That’s tempting!) I can only imagine what my school would have done if I’d walked into the cafeteria wearing anything made from “Michael Miller Bon Appetit Accounts Flax” fabric. (Bon Appetit’s our cafeteria supplier.)

Fresh Strawberry fabric actually looks like it might make a really cute summertime outfit. Especially for a younger child. As would basically anything watermelon.

And personally? A coffee print would make a wonderful computer case holder. Or bag for a college student. (Wouldn’t you agree?)

I was, alas, unable to find any prints with eggplants or steak on Fabric.com. I don’t know what I’d have done with a fabric with either of those foods on them, besides laugh, but even laughing would be worth it.

How about you, Fluffsters? Any favorite food-fabric you’ve seen that you love? (Or hate? I don’t mind either!)

Or have you seen any clothes made from some of these novelty fabrics? I’d love to hear about it!

Have a great rest of your week!

Origins Questions: Bouncy Balls

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Monday! I hope your week is starting off phenomenally well.

Today, I was struck by the concept of toy balls. They’re round, and they bounce. And sometimes they’re soft.They’re also frequently brightly colored, and sometimes a choking hazard. They also can provide hours of entertainment to children and adults. But who came up with them?

From what I remember, there have been balls around for at least a very long time. Wooden Balls are referenced in a number of historical fiction novels and fantasy novels. So, here’s my theory on:

The evolution of the Bouncy Ball

First, people started playing around in the mud. It was nice and softly squishy. You could make designs with it, and mud pies, and all sorts of wonderful things.

Then along came rocks. So one day, as little Johnny or Suzy was out playing in the wonderfully smooth and soft and delicate mud, a stone popped out of the ground, interrupting the previously uninterrupted hours of imaginative play.

They must have been shocked. Especially if they’d never seen rocks before!

Anyways. So after the rock stabbed him in the leg, Johnny would probably have examined it. If it stabbed him, it was probably a bit sharp. He might have thrown the rock away, or he might have kept it. Regardless, rocks were now introduced into the child’s play.

After the rock was introduced, more rocks started to spring up in the most unexpected places. After that, it was only a matter of time before one of the children found that you could shape a rock by banging on it with another rock.

After rock carving was discovered, it’s possible that somebody might have happened to shape a rock to form a smoother, rounder surface.

Once you have a round surface, it’s harder to hold on to. The smooth rock would have escaped poor Johnny’s (or Suzy’s) grasp, and… rolled! What fun!

The children would then have found a new toy to play with.

After rubber was discovered, it’s probable that bouncy balls were one of the first things invented. And from that time onward, bouncy balls became one of the prime toys of children everywhere.

The end.

That was… quite the story.

Explanation! Please. Stories are fictional.

And you always end your explanations with “the end”?

…

Anyways, thanks for reading, Fluffsters! I hope you have a great week.

Good Birthday Cakes

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy July 27th!

New way of starting your greetings?

Only when it’s my birthday.

That makes sense then, I suppose. Because your birthday has become like a holiday; is that correct?

Well, it’s at least a day that I’m excited about.

Fair enough.

But that leads me to today’s topic:

My Favorite Types of Birthday Cake. (In no particular order.)

So, just a bit of background. I really like all of these kinds. It’s really hard for me to choose which type is my favorite. So if there’s any difference in the ordering, it’s purely coincidental and only reflects the order in which I thought of and wrote about the different types of cakes.

First: flourless chocolate cake. I’ve made this for people more often than I’ve had it for my own birthday cake. But it’s a really good cake. How can you go wrong with something like 8 ounces of dark chocolate per cake?

At some point, I’m going to need to upload my favorite ways to make flourless chocolate cakes. But for now, here’s a link to the epicurious cake recipe I use, and the AllRecipes Ganache. If you use the ganache as the frosting, it’s really amazing. The cake itself is already very chocolatey. Add a combination of boiling cream and pure bittersweet/dark chocolate, and it’s one of the most chocolate chocolate experiences you can have.

1) Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I haven’t made one in a while. But it’s really good. Nice and perfect sugary-sticky-sweet-maraschino-cherry-and-canned-pineapple goodness. It can also be a thing of absolute beauty.

It doesn’t come with frosting or an icing, which can be a downside. But the crustiness of the cake itself is wonderful, and doesn’t actually need one.

Alpha) Carrot Cake with cream-cheese frosting. This is another one of my favorites. If it’s fresh, then recipes with a bit of pineapple in them are really good. Yes, I do like pineapple. How could you tell?

Now, a small confession: I really like stale carrot cake.

What is wrong with you?

Haha, very funny. I know, it’s a bit odd. But it’s really good! If you wait for a few days, the frosting gets a bit of texture to it. A bit of crunch, that is, which is something I really like with this particular flavor. It’s sort of almost like carrot-cake croutons. Admit it, those sound like they’d be good.

Uno) Ice cream cakes. I like both BaskinRobins’ ice cream cakes, and ColdStones. If there’s the possibility of mixing flavors, like Cold Stones does, I really like their Strawberry, with either white chocolate chips or Kit-Kats. (I haven’t checked to see if they let you use a sorbet. If so, I’d go with either lemon or raspberry sorbet with white chocolate chips.) For the straight ice cream flavors, I really like mint chocolate chip. It both tastes fresh, and like chocolate. Where even can that go wrong? (Unless the mint tastes like toothpaste. That’s a problem.)

Chief) Mud Pie. Not technically a cake, but I don’t know if ice cream cake really counts as a cake either. Mud pie is another one of my more favorite desserts. The coffee ice cream and rich chocolate flavor combine in a perfect flavor harmony. It’s like eating a sugary coffee drink. When done right, it truly is a thing of beauty.

S, what about you, Fluffsters? Do you have a favorite birthday cake? I’d love to read about them in the comments below!

Happy Saturday!

Creeper Rainbow: Illustrated

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In honor of my Stalker Rainbow showing himself to me again yesterday-

OH NO. NOT your crazy conspiracy about how rainbows are creepers again?

…I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.

AS I was saying. In honor of him showing himself to me, I drew a picture of him. That way if he attacks me, I’ll be able to report him to the police, and already have the pictures for the wanted poster available.

Creepy Stalker Rainbow waiting to POUNCE!

He’s hiding in a TOTALLY inconspicuous way, so that he can POUNCE!

You’ve got to be the only one…

Who makes wanted posters? That’s not true! There are over 22,000 people searching for “wanted poster” templates! So, my wanted poster can’t be out of the ordinary.

An old-west styled wanted poster for the Stalker Rainbow

Wainted: For General Creepiness

Uh… I was referring to your referring to rainbows as “creepy.” And drawing creepy rainbow pictures.

Now that is definitely not true. First, that picture isn’t that creepy, except for the rainbow in it. Even so, I couldn’t help but cute-ify him a bit.

Second, there are search results for creepy rainbow pictures. (A lot of them are a lot creepier than that picture. So I don’t suggest doing it.

…So why did you look in the first place?

Empirical evidence against your position?

…I guess that actually makes sense.

Anyways, Fluffsters, happy Thursday! Just think, it’s almost the weekend!

Obsessed with Royalty 2: Baby

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Your home.

What about it?

You’re still so obsessed with other countries’ royalty!

I mean, really. How many articles about the new royal baby do you need?

First, I think it’s mostly just the British that we obsess about.

Second, given that we’re writing one, at least one more article.

Third, you do realize that you linked to a British article? They’re probably permitted to be more excited about a new royal baby than we are about new presidents every few years.

Ok, fair point. In my defense, though, I did get to that article through an American website.

In all honesty, I’m not actually that upset. The Baby will be important. When it comes down to it, he probably already is important. Even if the monarchs of that realm do not have the same power as in my home land.

Huh? What do you mean?

From what I can tell, the United Kingdom’s monarchs are mostly symbols. I don’t think they do that much in making policy decisions.

But symbols are power. One article put it as the baby being a symbol of the country continuing for another generation. I could understand being excited about that- if it were my own country. Since you Americans aren’t British, though, I don’t entirely get it.

The way I see it, it’s an opportunity for us to make a big fuss and get excited and look at cute baby pictures. The British Royalty are essentially celebrities in America, after all.

I guess that is fair.

That doesn’t mean I have to agree, however.

Of course not. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look for more footage of the new prince!

…

Well, Happy Wednesday, Fluffsters! I hope you have a great week.

Who thought of: Aloe?

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Monday!

Today, I’m going to go a bit more contemplative, and examine one of the big questions in life.

Wow! You’re actually going against the grain of no content for TotalFluff?

No more so than usual. And significantly less so than many of your posts.

So here it goes. My question is:

Who on Earth even discovered the use of Aloe?

I mean, think about it. It’s a plant, where the main benefit comes from the inside of a leaf. It’s a weird looking plant, too. Sort of like a waxy fern. (Minus the leaves.) The inside of the leaves is what is useful, as I already said, but it tastes absolutely nasty. (Judging from the times I’ve accidentally not washed my hands thoroughly enough between putting aloe on my skin and eating an apple.)

According to some websites, some animals do eat aloe. But one bite with the aloe flavor, and any person should have preferred starvation to consuming any of that nastiness. In my opinion. Even if not, that still doesn’t answer the question. Who decided it was a good idea to smear the inside of plant-leaves on our skin? It doesn’t even smell nice!

My current hypothesis is that aloes are actually a space-plant, brought over by the aliens currently hiding in Area 51. Clearly they would have told ancient humans how to use the plant properly, and this is just further proof that rainbows are conspiring against us with the governments of the world to take away all the cookies. But what do you think, Fluffsters? How do you think we discovered the proper use of aloe?

Just when I think things are getting normal… If you don’t want to answer the Webmaster’s question, here’s a different one to answer: Why do you think the Webmaster always has to create new conspiracy theories?

Spinning Yarns!

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So, I’m ridiculously happy. I got my drop spindle today!

As in for spinning thread and yarn?

…yes? What other kind of drop spindle do you know of?

I don’t, which is why I was clarifying.

Huh?

I hoped there would be some logical explanation for why you’re happy.

Because I’ll be able to start trying to spin yarn.

Oh, right. It’s a bit less common on your world to do that, isn’t it?

I don’t know. It’s certainly not overly common.

If I had to spin in my new home, I’d be jealous of that. As it is, however, I’m not. I needed to spin back on my world, but I don’t here.

I guess the novelty of it does count for a lot.

But anyways, I made a very bad, very short length of yarn tonight! And I’m very happy. After all, I’ll only be able to improve, right?

Very lumpy uneven first spun thread/yarn

My first spun yarn/thread/thing! I can only get better, right?

Well, I don’t think you can get any worse.

…Uh, yeah. Well, it was my first one. And I’m using a video tutorial. So yeah, it’s bad. But I’m still very happy with it!

I have a hope of being able to crochet my own hat from hand-spun yarn one of these days. Preferably soon. But more likely, before I die. You know, set your goals low, and then you can meet them!

That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.

Yup! Anyways, Happy Sunday, Fluffsters! I hope you have an excellent week.

Cuddly Critters

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I’ve mentioned I have small dogs, right?

Yes. Repeatedly.

Good. Well, given that they’re the fluffiest thing I have (and that includes my various skeins of furry yarn!) so they should be mentioned fairly regularly on this blog.

Anyways. I was thinking about how interesting small fuzzy animals are.

What’s so interesting about them? It’s not as though they talk to you or anything.

Well, that in part depends upon how you define “talk”. With my younger dog, for example, she will definitely try to communicate with you. Especially if you try woofing or howling at her. It’s actually really cute! Most of the time.

But that isn’t even what I was thinking about. I was rather thinking about how the whole system works. A favorite webcomic of mine, Doghouse Diaries, sums it up perfectly. We take care of our pets, hypothetically, in return for… what?

My answer? One of the sweetest little things that can’t actually talk. (Unless you have a parrot. Or another type of mimicking bird.)

I mean, just think about it. I’m using my dog as an example, but you can use almost any other type of mammalian pet. And maybe birds, but that varies. (Fish and amphibians, alas, don’t quite fit the bill.)

We take care of the dogs. We give them food, water, toys, and shelter. (Not necessarily in that order.) And in return we get companionship. And hopefully loyalty, but that can vary by pet. I understand that most cats are trying to kill you, after all. And my older dog is quite persnickety- he isn’t overly loyal to most people. Just my Dad.

But my younger dog, on the other hand? She’s one of the sweetest things. She likes to cuddle, and she stares at me, and others, in an adoring, trusting way.

She wasn’t always like that. We got her as a rescue. It took her at least a few months to really develop comfort. She would freak out at some of the most trivial things. (For example, we live in a neighborhood that does an annual Christmas light-up event. One of the streets had carousel horse cutouts as a street decoration. The little dog wouldn’t go near those things.) She also never flopped onto her back when she was a lot younger.

These days? She is incredibly comfortable. She actually comes when called (mostly) and flops onto her back, legs sticking up in the air. And she likes to be held.

That’s another odd thing. Why is it that holding a fluffy creature is so enjoyable? Dogs. They love to be petted. And we like petting them. It’s a perfect win-win situation. But why is that? I personally don’t know, but I love it. I can pet my 8-year-old puppy, and she and I both love it. It’s marvelous, isn’t it?

Well, I’ve been rambling a fair bit. I’m actually a bit surprised Fluffy hasn’t interrupted me…

That’s because you’re actually talking about reasonable fluff. I had a fluffy pet too, remember. So what you were saying I actually agree with.

Oh. Um, thanks!

Don’t get used to it.

Don’t worry, I won’t.

But anyways, happy Saturday! I hope you have a great weekend!