Tag Archives: Huskies

{Wine Wednesday} Game day wine pairings

Posted in Drinky drinky, Food, Wine Wednesdays by

WineWednesday

VinePair always has the best wine pairing ideas and infographics! (See Halloween candy, Thanksgiving, and Christmas cookies.)

They scored once again with these football foods and wine pairings. I’m sure these would all be great with beer, but that’s not my thing, so this is especially poignant for me. Especially since I’ll be spending the bulk of my sportsball-watching at home, in front of the TV with my little guy. Don’t nachos and malbec sound delightful right now?!

 

2015-9-16 football-gameday-wine-pairings-infographic
Happy drinking and go Huskies, Broncos and Seahawks! 

3-D Husky tailgating cake

Posted in DIY, Food by

I kept a lot of you in the loop via Facebook and Instagram but for those of you who only follow me here, I wanted to show off this year’s tailgating feat: My husky cake!

Woof! Here's my University of Washington Huskies cake

Woof! Here’s my University of Washington Huskies cake

It didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but I was pretty pleased with the final product. (This cake was for the University of Washington football game against UCLA. Unfortunately the rare November Seattle sun turned the purple cake Bruin blue. Totally not cool. 100 percent Wilton food coloring fail!)

And now it's a Bruin cake!

And now it’s a Bruin cake!

This was the goal cake and I followed the instructions very closely. Unfortunately I didn’t have a large enough plate, so I had to freehand the shape, hence the squatty pup.

The original inspiration

The original inspiration

Here are some photos of the progress of the cake. Please excuse the poor lighting:

Baked cakes!

Baked cakes!

Frosting, I mean glue, I mean frosting!

Frosting, I mean glue, I mean frosting!

Cake progress!

Cake progress!

Huskies cake: assembled but not frosted!

Huskies cake: assembled but not frosted!  It’s 3-D!

Might I suggest you try making this cake for the Cactus Bowl on January 2? Gooooo Huskies!

Woof! Here's my University of Washington Huskies cake

Woof! Here’s my University of Washington Huskies cake

My new AstroTurf “W” wreath

Posted in Around the house, Crafts, DIY, Homemade by
One of my most favorite crafts to date: An AstroTurf W!

One of my most favorite crafts to date: An AstroTurf W!

My dear old glue gun made it halfway through this very special project. I wanted to finish it so badly that after the literal glue gun explosion, we rushed to Lowe’s to pick up a new one.

I started with this “W” letter from JoAnn’s. It runs $2.99 and stands 9.5″ tall. Perfect. And, you can use this technique for just about any letter or number combination.

You’ll also need that giant roll of AstroTurf that I convinced you to buy a couple of months ago.

I flipped the AstroTurf over and traced my letter, leaving about an inch of overhang. From there, cut it out and get that glue gun ready.

Flip and glue. And glue and glue and glue

Flip and glue. And glue and glue and glue

What I didn’t do on my first go-around and will do in the future– and you SHOULD do your first time, add a wire or a tie of some sort toward the middle of your “wreath” before you glue on the facing layer of AstroTurf.

Start gluing. It’s important to go from one side to the other of the facing of the letter and to go with quick speed, since hot glue dries pretty quickly. Specifically, I glued in three main sections (left, right, middle), one section at a time. First, the fully covered “front” side, then I wrapped the overhang around the back, being very careful not to burn myself. On the backside, I pulled the turf tight and added cuts with the X-acto knife as needed.

Two sides done, just one to go

Two sides done, just one to go

I added some felt flowers to give the wreath that extra Husky feel, using leftover felt from a new coaster project I’ve got up my sleeve. (I tried a variety of designs for the flowers with this technique, for the most part.)

Felt flowers made out of extra AstroTurf coaster fabric

Felt flowers made out of extra AstroTurf coaster fabric

The project didn’t take too long and I think the finished product was well worth the time. I’m going to wager that this wreath and its presence at our game watching parties are the reason the Huskies are winning! (I hope I didn’t just jinx them!)

Anyway, happy Purple Friday and GO HUSKIES!

(YES! There is still time for you to grab the project pieces and make one of these to celebrate UW Homecoming on Oct. 25! You know I’m going to make a couple more!!)