Baked Potato Cake

A friend of mine decided to throw her boyfriend a mashed potato-themed birthday party since it's his favorite food. So I decided to contribute by baking a baked potato cake, not exactly mashed potato, but it was on the potato theme, plus I really wanted to make one.

I initially got the idea after watching Sandra Lee make baked potato ice cream sundaes using potato-shaped chocolate ice cream dusted with cocoa powder and topped with whipped cream. For my cake, I used 2 boxes of cake mix for the cake covered with chocolate frosting and dusted with cocoa powder. I carved out an area in the middle to add the potato filling which was actually just frosting with extra powdered sugar. More frosting went to creating pats of butter and green fondant was rolled and cut to make chives.

Building a Bed

I thought I'd start off my first project entry on a good note with a project I have completed, a bed. (Note: the first major piece of furniture I've built.) I had owned an IKEA bed previously, but sold it when I moved 2 years ago. Since then I've been sleeping on a mattress and boxspring that sits on the floor. Now that I've moved to a more permanent residence, I've decided it's time to have a real bed again, and one that's not made out of particle board.

Inspired by a Pottery Barn design, but turned off by the price tag ($$$$), I decided to build my own bed. I used the dimensions listed on Pottery Barn's website to create design plans for the bed and purchased all the wood from Lowe's for about $200.

The construction consisted of 3 identical boxes with storage space, trim around the borders, and a support system to connect the 3 boxes. Working here and there on the project for a bit, I built the three base wood frames with my boyfriend's help in 2 weeks. The first week was spent cutting all the materials, then the next week was used for assembling of the boxes. As expected, I dropped the project for about a month until I picked it up again to do the trim and paint which took only 3 work evenings since I did not buy enough trim the first time.

Now the next hiatus in the project was not my fault. This was the time when mother nature released her wrath on New England for supporting the Patriots and the basement was flooded with an inch of water for 2 weeks. Luckily there was a wooden pallet in the basement where we could stack the boxes until the basement was dry again.

I then dragged my feet on the project because I had no idea how to connect the 3 boxes so that it supported boards for the mattress, but could also be disassembled without unscrewing the wood. When I finally sat down, figured it out, and did it, it was already 3 months since I first bought the materials for the project.

The final product is shown in the picture above. The wooden plank and 2x4's on top of the bed are used to fill the whole in the middle and connect the 3 sections together. The dimensions fit a queen size mattress.

Flying Lesson

When Groupon Boston had an introductory to helicopter flying lesson for $80, I immediately bought the Groupon deal and only afterward, did I actually think about what I had just monetarily committed to.

Going to the online course site, I had to read 3 different manuals, fill out a questionnaire that checked I had read the material, and then register for the ground school class. The reading took hours, especially since some of the information was very technical and ground school class was an additional 3 hours in preparing for a 20-minute introductory helicopter flight.

The instructors kept ground school class fun and as entertaining as humanly possible given the topics of aerodynamics and laws of physics. At the end of the class, there was a 30 question quiz where you had to get at least a 75% to pass ground school and be able to fly. Failure to pass meant you had to take ground school again. Although the test was open notes and handouts, a few students did manage to fail.

I signed up for my flight the very next day and the weather could not have been more perfect. The 20-minute flight went by so fast and was incredible. The only "oh sh*t" moment I had was when the instructor first started the helicopter engine and the whole helicopter shook. It also didn't help that the cockpit of a helicopter felt less securely caged than a car.

I would love to fly again, but to take the helicopter out for an hour costs $330, plus an additional $50 for the instructor. The flying club also has airplanes for rental for as low as $95 an hour, so that may be a viable alternative.

An ADD DIY-er

I have a problem, I'll admit it. My parents have lived through this with me for years and my live-in boyfriend is beginning to grasp the extent of my issues, but I cannot help it. It's just the way things work for me no matter how hard I try to focus.

My problem? I start projects, numerous projects, and am lucky if I finish one of them. Every time I start one thing, it'll consume my attention for a few days and then slowly it fades as another project takes shape. I have notebooks, word documents, and bucket lists listing random projects/hobbies/interests to do, but have barely made a dent in the list. Granted, the shorter a project takes the more likely I am to finish, but I have ongoing projects that I have been lingering for years to I complete. The oldest project to date is 7 years in the making now and I'm nowhere closer to being done with that project.

So here is a blog of projects that I am/have undertaken. Some blog subjects may take months/years/never to reach a conclusion and I apologize, but what can you do, I have never figured out how to focus fully on just one thing at a time.