Tea Time

It's tea time - I'll leave you with a little something I drew for the party. Have a great weekend.

If The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon We'd Be in Trouble

After reading a lovely post on plates at The Cottage Nest, I realized just how much wall space we have devoted to plates. We have a lot of plates. We've got old ones, new ones, blue and white ones, we've got them over windows, under windows and all around. Have a look:

See, our walls would be bare without them.

Brotherly Like

As parents, we want our our children to be healthy and happy first and foremost. Beyond that I think we all have our personal wishes: artistic talents, athleticism, financial success, etc. My personal wish is for my children grown up to like one another - not just love one another, but like each other. As parents, we have demanded they be kind and respectful, but we have not pushed them to be best friends. Fortunately, they seem to have come to that on their own. Sure they get on each other's nerves and, yes, they bicker, but for the most part they really like one another. I know they are young and I am sure we will go through many ups and downs as a family, but it is lookin' good so far.

The other day I was doing something in the yard while the boys played. After a bit, I went to check on them - imagine my surprise when I found them dismantling our old Adirondack chairs with hammers. It was time for the chairs to go, but what an ending for those poor things. Uhhh, demolition for the sake of building relationships... right?

The next day, Spencer had the idea to make a train with one of the trikes and the wagon. Laney was thrilled and rode around like a princess in her (rusty) carriage until Spencer couldn't pedal anymore - she sat for at least an hour. Unfortunately, as a result he woke up in the middle of the night with terrible leg cramps. Ahhh, sleep deprivation to fulfill my dream..., right?

Michigan Rose

Happy Birthday Mom & Monty! It's true, my mother and father-in-law share a birthday. For the occasion, I thought I would post a picture of a flower from our garden. Since most people have a hard time growing roses in Michigan, I have renamed this prolific orange lily The Michigan Rose. Enjoy the rose - we are thinking of you both.

Everything is Coming Up Roses

Here is my 5th cake and the last one for a while. Cake has become a four letter word in my house. Anyway, this one was for my mom who is a rose freak. Oh, I guess it is her birthday...I mean a rose connoisseur. You name it, she probably has it - English, Hybrid Tea, Floribundas, Climbers, etc. So, for her a rose cake was a natural choice. Plus, I wanted to try making them - lots of work, but worth it. It is a yellow cake with vanilla butter cream, lemon filling and fondant. These are some of my favorite fondant roses and the cake:

OXO = Hugs and Kisses

This OXO Good Grips Flexible Spatula is the best spatula ever. If you don't have one, you need to get one. You can find it at amazon.com for about $6 - not a huge investment for something that will change your life. Okay, it won't change your life, but you will really like it. Sam, I mean Santa, gave me one in my Christmas stocking. He is a very thorough gift researcher and he picked this spatula to replace my rusty old favorite. This new one is far superior - it is very thin and flexible, but not floppy. I use it for everything: eggs, cookies, pancakes, burgers, scraping the mixer bowl when making fondant - you get the idea.

1,000 Words

Yeah, that's dirt alright.

Ten-Hut

Don't they remind you of soldiers standing at attention?

For the last two days my knitting project has been on hold because I have been working on these small baskets - favors for an upcoming tea party. I bought the natural baskets at Michael's, painted them white and added some frilly decorative painting. I have some individually wrapped vanilla cookies to go in them. They will be packaged up with a small box of tea, honey spoons and a tea rose candle tin. For now, the baskets are dismissed. They won't be assembled until just before the party, so I'll have to show you the finished product later.

As for the real soldiers, God speed.

Feed Me Seymour

Can you believe the size of this thing? It is like something out of Little Shop of Horrors isn't it? Instead of me eating it, it just might eat me. This thing is not an accompaniment to a meal; it is a meal. Don't get me wrong - I don't think there is an artichoke on the planet that is too large for me. I just have to find a pot big enough to hold two. The best part is they are only $0.89 right now. Heaven, I'm in heaven...

The Infiltration

It is hot here! It was in the 90's and quite humid. Knowing that we have some hot days in the forecast, I bought the kids a Slip n'Slide and a water sprayer. They just looked like so much fun. The kids tore into the boxes and we set everything up. They had a great time - for about 10 minutes. After 3 trips across the wet yellow plastic and a few circles around the spinning sprinkler do you know what they decided to do? Play in giant boxes. When will I learn?

The "You Get What You Pay For" Cake

Here it is, cake #4 - the cake for the sweet 16 birthday party taking place this evening. Have you ever had the experience of making something for yourself and it turns out fantastic and then you make the same thing for someone else and it is an utter disaster? Well, this was one of those situations. I volunteered to make the cake for this surprise party and for some reason the fondant was very dry. I tried all of the recommended fixes; when that didn't work I tried making more; when that didn't work I started getting nervous. I certainly did not want this cake to be the "lovely" cake the neighbor made. I made another trip to the store to buy different ingredient brands - that didn't work either, so I just had to make do. I would like to say I learned something from this experience, but technically, I still don't know what went wrong. I do think my neighbor learned a lesson - be wary of neighbors bearing cakes (i.e. there is no such thing as a free cake). As you can see, at the end of the day I did have a cake to send. Because the fondant was dry, it was not exactly what I had hoped for, but you can stick candles in it and it probably tastes okay. It is a chocolate pound cake with carmel buttercream frosting. Have a look, but not too close please!

Friday's Fabulous Find

By no means am I an expert, just a mom with 1 husband, 2 fish, 3 kids and 4 cats who is always looking for things to make life a bit easier. I like to try new things and every once in a while I come across something I think is great and I would like to share.


That being said, I love this cleaning pad. Usually I find kitchen sponges to be smelly bacteria swabs, but this one is different. It is like half scrubber and half cloth wrapped around a sponge. Just as advertised, the scrubber part really does works on cheese. When it gets a bit dingy, I just toss it in the washing machine. Give it a try and see what you think.

Idioms Anyone?

I am not going to beat around the bush – I am dog tired. Between the play dates, school events, baking and cooking for school events, the house, the garden and the kids, I have been burning the candle at both ends. I'm hanging on by a thread. Fortunately, the end is almost in sight. One more easy peasy day of school and then, hopefully, we are footloose and fancy-free. Okay, I'll stop now - these idioms are probably getting on your nerves.

An easy recipe that I made for a school event:
Greek Orzo Salad

adapted from the Cooking Light Recipe

1 cup uncooked orzo

2 cups baby spinach, chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves

1/4 cup chopped yellow onion (I like Vidalia)

1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped

1 (6-ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts, undrained

3/4 cup (3 ounces) feta cheese, crumbled
the zest of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook orzo in boiling water until tender. Drain; rinse with cold water and add to a bowl. Pour the marinade from the artichokes over the pasta. Roughly chop the artichoke hearts and to bowl. Add reaming ingredients. Add more or less of anything depending on your likes and dislikes. Serves 4.

Easy as pie - okay I really will stop now!

I forgot the spinach... Also, I would not recommend Trader Joe's Marinated artichoke hearts - they have an off taste. Actually, I would go so far as to say they are gross and, generally, I love artichokes in any form. Sorry TJ's - still love you though.

O-O How She Loves Him So

While playing the piano:

"Shhhh. O-O seeping."

"O-O! Dere e is. Dere es O-O!"

Can't imagine why he woke up?

Elves I Tell You, We Have Elves

Sometimes I wonder if we have elves in our house - things around here just disappear. Something can be sitting right there one minute and then, all of a sudden, it's gone. At least I think it was sitting right there...

I guess that is part of the problem. Last week, Laney, Owen and I went to Costco while Spencer was in school, we were nearing the end of our shopping trip when soap flashed into my head. I headed down the soap isle and after crossing the 45 minute mark of Owen talking at me, the thought of soap left my head as quickly as it had entered it. Owen was still firing off questions one after the other and I finally looked at him and said, “Owen, at this point I don’t even know my name.” He said, “Mama, you’re so silly! It’s Heaver.”

Anyway, remember those Father’s Day gifts that we made with the Kindergarten crew? Well, Spencer’s is gone, G-O-N-E, gone. Owen’s is sitting right where I left it, but Spencer’s no longer exists. Unsettled, I conducted the search of all searches. I looked everywhere: in drawers, under furniture and in backpacks. Being the neurotic person that I am, I have even interrogated the children. I guess I'll have to come to terms with the fact that the pesky little elves got it.

See, the elves leave pennies in the toilet paper rolls.

Okay, that was Owen, but they do steal garden gloves. See it hanging from the tree?

Okay, that was a red squirrel. The devious little thing tried to take it into its nest 30 feet above ground. Can you believe it?

Maybe we don’t have elves, but strange things really do happen around here.

Birthday Blueberry Buckle

Ladies, you should see this movie. It was good, and not good just because I got to see it in the theatre and didn't have to wait for it to come out on video - really it was good.

Poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473308/

After watching all those pies being made, I was inspired to bake. In Jenna form, I made My Neighbor is Having a Birthday and I Found a Cute Plate Buckle. You can find the recipe here.

He Moved

Have you ever in your life seen a dimple like this? Don't get too close to this thing. It just might suck you in. You could sprain an ankle or something. Exercise extreme caution around this guy. He's got two of them. Once your in, that's it - your Owened for good!

Owenisims:
bark = pizza crust
nut = avacado pit
orange avacado = apricot
I need to tell you a question = I have a question
I'm a little bit drinkable = I'm thirsty

Mom why are you polishing your eyes? = me putting on mascara
hear this = listen
I'm gonna keep on Laney = I'll keep an eye on Laney

Monkey Stew

We had the Kindergarten crew over yesterday - the same 3 that came the time before. Last time I had a Mother's Day craft for them to do while I made lunch. It really helped to have them occupied while I was occupied, so I had to come up with an easy last minute craft. I looked in our craft stash and I found: Shrinky Dink paper, magnetic tape and clothes pins. A little assembly and presto - magnetic note clips for Father's Day.

While I was wrapping the little treasures, the boys went upstairs to play. Not more than a minute after going upstairs, one little boy came down the stairs asking for fake swords and guns. He was quite disappointed when he found out we had neither. I could hear the other children upstairs playing Star Wars. Because Spencer is not into playing the Star Wars games, he came downstairs with some of his stuffed monkeys. In a very gentle voice, I heard him say, "come here little monkey, come over here cute monkey." In that moment, I was so proud of my darling little boy - choosing to play with stuffed animals rather than being the "good guy" with a gun. I thought to myself, he is so sweet and we really are doing a good job as parents. It was then that I heard, in a gruff voice, "I'm going to put you in my pot and cook ya up!"

Hey Spence, are you serving anything with crow?

Hooked

This space was originally an appendage of the kitchen with the refrigerator in the corner. The placement of the fridge was particularly strange given that the stairs to the side door and basement are just to the left. We'll just chalk that up to one of the quirks of living house from 1930. Thankfully, it's now a much needed mud room. Sam drilled the holes for all 16 of the hooks - it involved a tape measure and I do not have the patience for that particular tool. Although it is contrary to my very Virgo personality, I am more of an "eyeball it" kind of girl. What can I say? I like to keep 'em guessing.

The Puff That Goes Poof

Sometimes breakfast is best - even if it is for dinner. Apple puff pancake is so easy to make and everyone in our family will eat it. Amazing! I always add an extra apple or two. Last night I made a 1/2 recipe, but should have made more. It was gone in a flash and Mr. I'm not Hungry Spencer actually asked me to make another one.

Make a Mug - An Unoriginal Idea for You

I found these thermal mugs at a local store. They are super cute as they are, but I thought they might be even better personalized. The bottom of the mug unscrews so that another paper can be slipped in. I made a couple for Mother's Day and I am making a few more for the coffee toting dads. I decided to look on-line to find more mugs and, while doing so, I found that my bit of genius was not an original idea. Copco sells kits to do the very same thing, BUT I could not find them.

So, if you want to make one, you can go to amazon.com and order a mug or two and then use this Word template. This is a very vanilla layout, but can be embellished - you can always make your own too. To use the template, click on the link and save it to your computer. It can then be easily customized in Word with your photos. This project would also be a great "kid craft" with a drawing from the household artist.

Here is one of mine...

Tips:

• Note - the picture boxes will be angled since it is a square being wrapped around a circle.

• The gentle use of tweezers helps to get the paper in and out.


• The replacement paper can't be too thick or it won't fit.


• Push one corner of the paper in first - do not try to shove the whole thing in at once.


• Don't put anything close to the edges - it will get covered and you won't be able to see it.


• You can add clip art, add color, change the frames, or change the font.


• Stickers work well.