Fun things

Had a nice birthday celebration. Nothing elaborate. Yesterday Mary brought strawberry cupcakes. Mary, these were the best they've been so far! She is the queen of cupcakes! (She's the blonde in the picture with me, for those of you who haven't met her) Rob and the kids gave me some fun electronics. We're such geeks. Yes, I was excited! One was a new memory card hub (by my request) and the other is a new router. That one will help us all! I also got some really pretty flowers, a bottle of bubbly (red sparkling), and several cards. My two moms (mine and Rob's) bought me fabric. They didn't know at the time they were mailing their cards of course. Wink! And daddy is sending us to the US for the summer. I'm excited! Tomorrow we're going to see a play at the Kelley Theater, and next week we're seeing Jamie Cullum in Zurich!!!!!!!!!!

We had birthday dinner tonight. I have been experimenting with this no-pasta lasagna. I'm using zucchini instead of the pasta. This time I grilled the zucchini in a pan before putting the dish together. That helped it cook faster and made it yummier. While I was cutting the zucchini I thought, I bet there's an easier way.... Sure enough, deep in the recesses of the kitchen gadget storage container (the hutch) there was a never been used before veggie slicer! Kitchen gadget geekiness wins! And we had lemon cake and strawberry cupcakes. Yummy!

We got these fun little monsters in the store called Smooshies. It was kind of an accident, but a cool one. Jennifer ordered some little ones to see what they were and they were really cute. There were these little cans of parts that I THOUGHT were complete mini monsters, so I ordered a whole set. It turned out that they were just parts! RANDOM parts! So Corinnea and Jennifer went through the website and ordered some bodies. So I bought two today and some parts. These plus the mini equaled a cute little set of monsters. But Haven wanted more parts. Knowing she would have to save money for them, she went through my craft stuff, found felt and velcro, and set to making her own monster parts!

So far she has made the two ears/horns here. Her plan is to buy some more felt tomorrow.

It may seem silly, but I have been wanting her to be crafty for so long. She really is so artistic, but her desire to rebel means she sometimes refuses to have anything to do with anything crafty that I might like to do. So if buying a silly fluffy monster body is what it takes to get her to do something crafty, so be it! I'm so proud of her and her creativity!

Schoolhouse Tunic

I know I'm the last one on the tunic bandwagon... but I finally made one! I am still so annoyed at the weather. This top lets me feel summery and still be warm. I was inspired by Kara's tunic that she did in two colors. Kara, did you post a picture? I checked on your blog, but didn't see one... I added the cuffs to the sleeves to add more color to the top. Anywho... it was fun. Thanks Corinnea for taking the pic. We were both freezing and trying to leave the shop. My choice of pictures was way-too-big-smile and almost-smile. Way-too-big-smile was scary, so almost-smile it was! Ha!

Oh, and today is my birthday. :)

oh yeah, and.....

We saw Iron Man 2 this weekend. So fun! We really enjoyed it. I think the Avengers is next.

I just love super hero movies!

Keep reading below for more of the week's activities.

week in review

My friend Jo celebrated the big 5-OH!

This is her doing Sally O'Malley, "I'm 50!"

Jo is from Tennessee and we frequently discuss the differences between Tennessee and Texas South. Of course I'm forever accused of NOT being Southern because Texas doesn't count. Whatever. This Texas girl made some goooooooood strawberry shortcake!

The recipe is from here. I read the comments and followed the suggestions to reduce the baking powder and leave out the cream of tartar. I don't know how much of a difference that makes, especially since this was my first ever time to make strawberry shortcake! But it was scrumptious. I made it in a big dish instead of individual cakes so it was easier to put together and serve. (The dish was a gift from Martha because she couldn't believe I didn't have a Polish pottery lasagna pan! Thanks Martha!)

I made this one pretty little sample the night before the party to make sure it tasted good. They're lucky the rest made it to the party after we tried this one! Oh, I made fresh whipped cream too.

Wednesday was the Mother's Day Brunch at Ethan's school. It was cute. They made little heart shaped cakes and sang songs. I only got to stay about an hour because.......

Wednesday was also our annual Arts and Crafts contest awards ceremony. You can read all about the festivities on the shop blog here. I made the dress I was wearing but I didn't get a good picture. I tried today, but it needs to be ironed. I'll have to get back to you with that one.

But I DID get a picture of THIS!

The Fleur d'Paris fabric came in this week and this one was just dying to be a shirt! After a lot of debating I finally settled on the Ruffle Top. Jennifer gave me one that she made last summer and I really like it. I pleated the front band to give it a little detail and I really like it. I had to sew each pleat down so it would stay in place. Then I added the cap sleeve instead of the ruffle. I based it on another shirt Jennifer gave me (the black one w/white polka dots) and it was pretty easy once I figured out what shape to cut out. So, anyway, I really like it! Ethan took the picture for me standing up on a bench! He did a pretty good job! And that was with the big camera!! It was so cute because he just kept clicking! Future model photographer???

And last but not least, here is Ethan and his classmates singing a Mother's Day Song in German.

Last Weekend

Last Saturday we had another girl's craft day with the junior high girls in the youth group. This time we made ice candles and friendship bracelets. They didn't get very far with the bracelets, but that was ok because they were just filler while the wax melted for each candle.

Supplies:

Milk carton (1/2 gallon)

tapered candle (about 4")

wax for melting (one box of gulf wax is enough or one big pillar candle)

candle scent

candle coloring or crayons for coloring

ice (smaller crushed ice is more interesting)

tape

Cut the milk carton top off so you can get your hand down to the bottom.

Cut a small hole in the bottom of the milk carton and push the wick through.

Tape the wick down on the bottom of the carton to keep it in place and keep the wax from spilling through.

Fill the carton with ice holding the candle upright in the center. Stop about 3/4 inch from the "top" of the candle (the end sticking up)

Melt the wax in a double boiler. Add scent and coloring.

Poor over ice. Make sure the wax covers the candle. You can use different colors of wax if you let each color cool before you pour the next color.

Leave the candle to cool on a plate or cookie sheet. Some water may leak.

When the candle is completely cool peel the carton away carefully over the sink. The water from the melted ice will pour out!

Light your candle on a heat resistant surface. Some wax may run through the holes.

We had fun making these! Thanks Mary for all your help!

Sunday we hung out at the PX so Ethan could play on the indoor playground. That is such a lifesaver sometimes. Check out what we found in the toy section!

Star Wars Day

Apparently today was Star Wars Day, but I didn't get the memo! I heard about it on my way to work, too late to bring light sabers to work! Oh well... may the fourth, uh, schwarz... no .... FORCE be with you!

Haven was not happy to be Luke, but I ran out of girl characters and I didn't want a mustache! :)

Duh!

Did you know you could change the color of that really annoying bar at the top of the page??? Well, Jennifer did because hers is not dark blue, but the rest of you didn't.... or you really like it dark blue..... Click here to see how to change it. SOOO easy! Edit: Adrienne got hers

to hide! She'll have to tell us how she did it...

I do have some photos coming soon, some of crafts even! But today was National

Scrapbooking Day and I was busy with getting the digital scrapbooking store ready

all week.

I have no idea why word wrap isn't working properly....