Serenity Now

Oh the many usable and true to life quotes from Seinfeld!!! My boys have a bad case of cabin fever. I think tomorrow, now matter what the temperature, we are going to go outside if even for a brief moment. I have been trying to keep them busy playing Zingo (which is so much fun to play especially if you are four years old) and building with legos and reading books. Plus the husband got Rock Band for Christmas, and now both of my children know all of the words to Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" and the words to "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Right now they are pretending that summer is here in the bathroom. Both boys are scuba diving in the bathtub. I am sure that there is a flood of water on the floor, but I did need to clean it so really they are giving me a head start.

I have to finish my bag for my swap partner from this swap tonight so that I can send it off tomorrow. I needle felted some curvy lines to some wool for the inside of the bag. I am pretty geeked about this and already have plans to make an identical bag for myself soon. I am also going to make a bunch of these birds, because I love them so much. I am not sure if I am going to make them into a mobile, as seen here, or just artfully arrange them, like here. What are your thoughts? Perhaps I will do both of them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas! I will be back to posting in a few days. Now I am going to bake cookies for Santa. Ciao!

A surprise in a red envelope

That, dear friends, is what the mailman brought me today. A lovely, lovely surprise in a red envelope from Melissa!!! It is a birthday and Christmas gift for me. Oh, do you want to know what I got? Well, three lovely candles from this store here, a book about aprons, a notepad with Michael Scott's face on it and, drum roll please, A NEW APRON!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously there is nothing like getting a new apron in the mail, especially one that was unexpected and oh so lovely! It is a full apron with apples and pears on it; it's white but has green, lime green, yellow and black and I love it. I wore it to bake in already, too. In fact I took off the apron I was wearing in order to wear my new one. I will take pictures of the loot and post them here soon. Right now, I have to go get ready for a birthday date with my husband.

The Zebra

I thought I would give you a lovely zebra to look at today. Don't you just love their stripes?

Better late than never

So I sort of forgot to post a Thankful Thursday! I don't know about you, but this holiday season seems to have me in a frazzled state. Hopefully I will return to normal soon. I have been VERY forgetful lately, which is not like me. Anyway, here is a Thankful Thursday post for you on a Saturday:

I am thankful for the Black Bean Tortilla Pie recipe from this book. I tweaked it a little, using vegetable broth in place of water and adding my favorite herb, cilantro. I would like to try it with the beer. I bet it would taste amazing. I have made this recipe twice in the past week!

I am thankful for Christmas break. I am looking forward to spending time with both of my boys and my family. I am hoping to have some massive art sessions with my boys. I will have to post pictures and tutorials for you. I have this great idea for waxed paper snowflakes...more to come on that.

I am thankful for aprons. Oh how I love aprons. I love wearing them. I love looking at them hanging on that pathetic nail in my closet. I am going to create a proper hanging tree for them in the next few weeks. Something similar to this here.

I am thankful...even though this seems a bit weird...for all of the snow we got yesterday. I am hoping that many snowpeople will be created in my yard soon.

Anyway that should do it for now. I have to go see what Batman is crying about. Earlier Casey Jones was being eaten by dinosaurs in a pop-up book. Maybe he has a paper cut.

Eavesdropping

Right now, I can hear my Ammon singing his heart out in the shower. I think he would shower for hours if I did not gently remind him that it has to end sometime. He made up some of his own songs this time (those are my favorites), hummed a few John William's songs and then sang a song from, I think, High School Musical or the Jonas Brothers. I am not to familiar with either since his cousin was the one who introduced him to both. At any rate, it sure is funny.

An obscene amount of sugar

That is what was on my kitchen table yesterday...an obscene amount of sugar. My sister and I made cupcakes from this book. The book is VERY highly recommended for anyone who like to dabble in the cupcake arts. We made the Vanilla cupcake recipe from the back of the book and it is pretty good. I liked it because they are not sickly sweet. We chose to make ours into the Christmas ornaments because they required the least amount of candy and skill with a pastry bag. We bought Starbursts to use as our fruit chew but we really should have bought Airheads or something softer. FYI about ten seconds in the microwave made the Starbursts much more manageable. I will have to take some pictures later today. The best ones are the ones the boys made. Ammon's has so much colored sugar and sprinkles on it. Eli's has so many mini M & M's on it that the top of the cupcake caved in. They had fun and that's all that matters.

Well, I am off to take a little nap. I have a cold again and my eyes keep watering as I am typing this. I do apologize for any unnoticed typos.

I forgot about Thankful Thursday!

Okay, so maybe I needed two mochas this morning. Geesh.

I am thankful for mochas (hee-hee)

I am thankful for my husband who surprised me this morning ;)

I am thankful for imaginations...Eli right now is carrying on a very intense conversation with Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Princess Leia. At least I have the light side of the force over here and not the dark side.

I am thankful for preschool Christmas programs.

I am thankful that I get to see my sister and, hopefully, 82% Serious this weekend.

Well, that is all for now. I have to finish putting laundry away, and folding laundry, and putting dirty clothes into the washer......

PS: Jaba the Hut is apparently somewhere in my house at the moment. I wonder how a Hut sneaked into my house without me noticing? Right now, he and Eli are talking about boots.

Good Intentions

Yes, I started out the day having good intentions. Last night, I decided to put some Swiss Muesli in the fridge for me for breakfast in the morning. I even used vanilla soy milk. A nice healthy way to start the day, I thought. I wanted to brew some green tea and just sit back, relax and enjoy the quiet. But, oh no! I forgot to make a snack for Eli's class! So I dropped both boys off at school and then ran to the grocery store to find a somewhat healthy, yet kid-approved snack. I ended up with Scooby Snacks and Apple Juice. What three or four year old wouldn't love that? I had planned on making some healthy and oh-so-tasty pumpkin muffins. Oh well. And as for my tea, well...I sort of ended up with a mocha instead. I am not sure EXACTLY how that happened. But it was good. And so were my intentions.

The long awaited elephant ride picture

Here she is...Laura the Elephant. She's so great, isn't she? I just LOVE elephants. I am not sure what is on her head, but I did really want to ask to give her a bath and then a massage for all of her hard work. I am in the middle, Eli is in front and then Ammon is behind me. I think I had the most fun that day. Oh, and the husband took the photo. Enjoy!

A Get-This-Done-Before-Christmas List

Yes...I still have LOADS of crating to do. I am thinking about getting some recruits. Anyone care to join me? Here is my list

•Finish two pirate quilts (this includes just quilting and binding them)
•Make two bedtime story and pj bags
•Sock monkeys or creatures...at least I have the socks!!!
•Finish my piece for this swap
•Crayon and/or pencil rolls
•Bake a bunch of cookies for the teachers at school

There. That's it. Shouldn't be too bad, eh? Well, I think I will go get started now. I will post pictures when I finish the projects. Hopefully I can get them all done. The only ones that will take a long time will be the two quilts. Plus I can do the baking while I am doing something else. Nice...gotta love multi-tasking! Well, I am off to put together a wish list over at Amazon for my mom. She asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I thought this would be the easiest thing. Oh, hey...I could send her links to Etsy! WOOHOOOOO!!!!!

19 Calzones

Yup. That is what I did today. I made 19 calzones, plus two batches of pizza sauce. Oh the mountain of dishes I created. The calzones were totally worth it, though. Half of them went to a family whose little boy has cancer. I also packed them a healthy salad with a Greek vinaigrette dressing and, just for fun, some homemade hot cocoa mix. I hope they enjoy it.

Well, I am going to spend some time with my husband. This internet connection is doing goofy things today. Hopefully it will be back to normal tomorrow. Sleep tight!

A Lovely Cup of Tea

Please read this post while sporting your best British accent. You can choose to use this accent either out loud as you read or as an internal dialogue.

This past Thanksgiving, I inherited some of my lovely hubby's late grandmother's bone china. I have loads of tea cups and MATCHING saucers, some creamers, sugar bowls and spoons, and teapots as well (pictures to come). I decided this morning that since I am by myself, I would have a lovely tea party with you, bunny readers, while drinking out of my favorite china cup and using the matching saucer. I dare say that tea has never tasted so heavenly. I am drinking a very strong English breakfast tea...very proper for the mid morning. I do feel only slightly silly, since I am still in my pajamas.

Enjoy the day...I am off to clean a very messy house. We all had a cold last week, and my poor, dear Nathan had a nasty bout of flu. Cheerio!