Recently I was spending some time with my cousin Rory. She loves to draw, and I was thoroughly impressed by the artwork she had created on her phone and on paper. I've never seen someone draw so well on a little hand-held device before! With that, my brother and I recommended she make a blog, so she can post her pictures online. The link to her blog is down below, along with my brother's website (just for fun).

Rory's Blog

http://roryarts.blogspot.com/

Lushe's Blog

http://project-airfoil.blogspot.com/

I like to watch anime and REALLY like to watch anything and everything made by Studio Ghibli. I have always admired the way the animators from "Spirited Away" drew Chihiro's clothes when she was working in the bath house, so I tried to draw the pants like that. The rest is just me trying to experiment with foreshortening.

Currently, I'm on summer vacation and visiting the rest of my family. I have a cousin who is three years old, and a very picky eater. Since he loves dinosaurs, I decided to make him a dinosaur themed meal. I used this template.

Crust less bread, nutella, banana, and kiwi. My dad added the apricot sun.

He did not eat it in the end, but it was really tasty!

In Bulgaria, we have a dessert called "biskvitana torta". It translates to biscuit cake. It is a really yummy recipe and extremely easy to make!

Biskvitana Torta

(Biscuit cake)

Ingredients

1 liter almond milk (or cow, whichever you prefer)

2 packets Dr.Oetker Creme Ole

Biscuits (Graham crackers are a great choice. Size and amount depends on your pan and how many layers you want. I used both packets in the picture for my pan.)

Directions

Pour 850 ml milk into a pot and heat on medium until warm. Stir in Dr.Oetker until it is fully dissolved. Once it is a creamy consistency, layer your pan with cookies and pour pudding on top. Repeat until pudding is all gone. Optional, crumble left over cookies on top as decoration. *If pudding does not reach creamy consistency, is too thick, add more milk.

My dad took a piece before I could reach for my phone! xP

For last Mothers' Day, I decided to make something special. My mom is the most kind, caring, and selfless person I know. She does so much for me and my family that words are unable to fully express how amazing she is. Back to the gift, I wanted to make an edible arrangements, since she likes fruits and chocolate. Here is what the final product looked like.

I used grapes, pineapple, strawberries, and melted chocolate chips.




I love to bake/cook basically anything that is interesting or just tastes really good! This time, I tried making my own recipe (using online references and changing portions/ingredients). It was for my mom's birthday, which we celebrated early due to it being on a school day. I made mini pies with graham cracker crust and either meringue or almond pudding filling with garnishes. They were pretty tasty and not very hard to make!

Graham Cracker Mini Pies

Yield: 10 mini pies

*Complete in this order

Graham Cracker Crust

6 crushed graham crackers (93 g)

2 tbsp butter, melted (28 g)

Directions

Mix graham crackers with butter. Line any pan with 10 cupcake liners, fill with graham mixture. Press into mold with spoon and bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.

Custard Filling

1 egg

2 Meyer lemons, squeezed

4 tbsp sugar (56 g)

Directions

In a pan, over medium heat, dissolve sugar into lemon juice. Beat the egg in separate bowl, and slowly combine lemon into the egg stirring continuously. Beat mixture for a minute and pour back into pan. On low heat, stir constantly until custard is thickened. Transfer to bowl and cool. Place into 5 of the graham cracker crusts.

Pudding Filling

1 cup almond milk (240 ml)

2 tbsp cornstarch (15 g)

1 tbsp cocoa powder (14 g)

2 tbsp sugar (28 g)

Optional

1/4 banana sliced into 10 pieces

5 almonds (4 slivers each)

Directions

Put almond milk, cocoa powder, sugar, and cornstarch into a sauce pan. Combine until fully dissolved. Place over medium heat and stir constantly until pudding is thickened (10-15 minutes). Place pudding, while still warm, into remaining graham cracker crusts. Lastly, place 2 banana slices and 1 almond worth of slivers onto each pudding pie.

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar (104 g)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (.84 g)

Directions

Place egg whites and tartar into bowl (mixture will need space to puff up). Place bowl into a larger bowl filled with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of boiling water. Beat egg whites until foamy, then slowly add sugar while beating. Once sugar is incorporated, mix eggs lightly until mixture is about 160 f (to kill salmonella). Take off heat for 3-5 minutes, then place it on top of the custard pies. Optional, blowtorch the meringue. Be careful not to start a fire.

Enjoy!~

Did I mention that I am a HUGE Portal fan?

For a few weeks, I had this spontaneous obsession with DIY vending machines. I just had to have one. No reason why, I just had to. I started off simple, trying to just randomly create one without any instructions or videos. This is what I got.

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but it was a "candy" dispenser. The tab sticking out is supposed to be pulled, thus releasing the food into a bowl or cup. It kind of worked, except the seeds sometimes fell through with the tab closed.

Being adventurous and all, I made a second attempt, but changed the design using some online videos from this guy It worked pretty well overall, but the candy bars I put in sometimes got stuck. It works by pushing the button, which pushed the bar, into the opening and letting it fall through. There are rubber bands on the sides that put the button back in its original position.

Seeing that this Kleenex box vending machine did in fact work, I knew I had to make one that was not only sturdier, but also more accurate. I did not use rulers or measurements on the last two prototypes, so I decided that the last one should include them. I asked my Dad to help me with this task since he knows his way around the designing/building/planning field (and also to spend time with him!). After about three-to-four hours (total) working on the cardboard and paper clips I bought from the FedEx store, we reached a working vending machine!