Fudge Flop

I think fudge doesn't like me.  I made it once, heated it to fast, and it burned.  I made it again a couple days ago; same result.  I think it still tasted okay, cause I didn't burn it too bad, but my mom thought otherwise.  At least the photo's turned out cute.

Isn't that like the cutest photo ever? (I'm so proud of it)  It could be better, but its still pretty cute.  Anyway, I didn't have time to post last week because I went on our church's girls camp.  And afterwards my voice was super hoarse from screaming/yelling/singing-like-crazy/staying up until 3 am for 4 days.  But it was super fun! However...I have no pictures (yet). Now on to the fudge.  I used this recipe from allrecipes.com:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan. Set aside.
2. Combine sugar, cocoa and milk in a medium saucepan. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer. Do not stir again.
3. Place candy thermometer in pan and cook until temperature reaches 238 degrees F(114 degrees C). If you are not using a thermometer, then cook until a drop of this mixture in a cup of cold water forms a soft ball. Feel the ball with your fingers to make sure it is the right consistency. It should flatten when pressed between your fingers.
4. Remove from heat. Add butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Beat with a wooden spoon until the fudge loses its sheen. Do not under beat.
5. Pour into prepared pan and let cool. Cut into about 60 squares. 

Go really slow, don't turn the heat up higher to get to the right temperature.  Please. Have patience. Because I'm not patient at all.  And it didn't work out so great.  I couldn't figure out how to cut the squares without my fudge cracking, so I ended up using this dough scraper.  It worked a lot better than a knife.

Easy $1 Bracelet

So, the other day I found out that they had a dollar beading section at Walmart, right under the rest of the beads. After browsing through a bunch of colorful chain, I found some yellow beads that, while being made of plastic, were actually pretty cute.  I  bought them thinking, they're cute, I like them, and I'll do something with them eventually. So I decided to make a bracelet.

Materials:
-pliers (needle-nose)
-Walmart beads
-medium jump rings
-lobster clasp (or other clasp)

First open a jump ring and hook 2 beads together. Then close the ring.

Keep linking the beads together till it fits your wrist (I used all the beads except one) and attach the lobster clasp.

That's it!  Now I have a fun, little pop of color.  And now a little something to brighten your day:

-Maddie

Schools Out!

Finally Schools out, so I'm done with middle school. But its kinda sad, since I'm not going to the same high school as all my friends and I won't see a lot of my teachers again. And also Mr. Davis is retiring (you are the best band directer ever Mr. Davis! We miss you!!!!).  He was fantastic.  After every concert we would have a "test" (everyone brings a treat and we party) the next day at school.  And we would also have "pop" quizes, where if we played a certain piece well enough, we would get a soda.  And I'll never forget his stories about the little house at midnight, and his ex-sister-in-law. He made band the best experience ever. At the beginning of each year we elect a class president, secretary, sergeant or arms, and historian.  Me and my friend Kenzie (here is her new blog) and another friend of mine are historians, so photograph the class and scrapbook them.  It was so fun thanks to Mr. Davis.  I play flute (just so ya know).

Anyway, I'm totally obsessed with this British TV show called Sherlock (just plain Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes or anything). It is so good (my friends have heard nothing else out of me). Its the Best Show Ever made. And I was going crazy since the newest episode (The Reichenbach Fall) was almost the biggest cliffhanger ever, and we couldn't figure it out, so we watched the end around 8 times.  Then my mom saw this tiny tiny little clue (the writer of sherlock even said there was a clue that everyone was missing) and we figured it out!!!!!!!!!!  It was so satisfying! (it made me feel so smart)  And NOW I HAVE TO WAIT TILL STINKIN 2013 to find out if we were right. But I'm pretty sure we are.  Whoohoo for us.

PS: Watson and Sherlock are both in the movie the hobbit (Watson plays Bilbo!)
PPS: I can start blogging again!

I'm FREE!!!!!

I'm-free-at-last!  Finally the dreaded PACE Project is OVER!! Now I can pretty much have my life back.  PACE stands for Performance Assessment of Critical Elements.  Its a big huge scary science experiment + english report + speech + a bunch of other things that lead up to that.  And my (extremely stressful) PACE speech was today! Yeahhh! Thank goodness. We had to dress all professional and fancy and give a memorized 10 minute speech (at least it is in front of 2 random people you don't know).

Unfortunately, I most likely won't be posting until summer, because of school, and the fact that my life is busy. So I'm very sorry, but I haven't been able to post for months anyway (another reason I haven't been posting is because I like looking at all the other pretty blogs instead of working on my own).

To celebrate, I made PACE cookies...which I don't have (good) pictures of at the moment.  In fact, I don't (good) have pictures of anything really.  You see... a few months ago, my camera broke. And now I am forced to use my moms 3 generation I-phone which does NOT take good photos. So now I'm saving up for a $400 dollar one, which is a lot considering I don't have a job (but-good news! I've been hired to decorate cookies for my school librarian for $20)  You might think its strange, but me and my friends all spend break and lunch in the library everyday.  So we love our librarians.  Also, I just spent a lovely spring break visiting Disneyland, Universal Studios and Six Flags. But, as as side-note, have you seen the Hunger Games? Its so good (if you haven't seen the movie yet, read the book first!). Happy Hunger Games!