ordinary miracles

At the start of this summer, I had lofty plans of family togetherness.  I planned for us to do things together like catch fireflies, stargaze, roast s'mores,  read,  run through the sprinklers etc... For myself I had plans of reading, finishing a painting project or two and deep cleaning and de-cluttering.  Most days however, I got uncooperative, grouchy kids who had to be refereed every few minutes.  It seemed that we couldn’t go an hour without the kids fighting over something, which left little time for me to get much done... that is until our power went out on Monday.

As inconvenient as not having power is, it sparked a miracle in its wake. There has been no TV for the boys to sit in front of and vegetate. There are no video games to fight over. My husband voluntarily took 3 of the kids to the Laundromat yesterday and did the fifteen loads of laundry piled up on my kitchen floor, while my oldest stayed home to paint (this in itself is amazing, seeing as my husband has volunteered exactly 3 times EVER to take anyone with him on errands).  The biggest miracle of all is that my children are playing together and getting along. They have engaged in impromptu games of hide and seek, we set up a tent in the backyard as a getaway for them to read or hang out in because it is cooler outside, and the oldest 3 slept in it the first night sans fighting. I caught my ten year old giving my five year old a hug yesterday just because. And today he helped him get his shoes on and even tied them for him so we could go on a walk. they are calling each other buddy, and taking turns unprompted by me, with the only handheld video game system we can find at the moment.  It seems the affability that has infected my children has infected some neighbors as well. The houses across the street got their power back yesterday afternoon, and many neighbors have extension cords stretched across the road to our side so people can run fans or their refrigerators. I learned the name of my neighbor to the north, whom I have lived next to for 8 years, I guess I never had occasion or inclination to know it before. We met the neighbors across the street, who moved in recently, another thing we were generally not inclined to do.

Of course I miss the convenience of flipping a light switch versus opening the curtains for light, and I miss my washer most of all, but for now, It seems that my wish of a family togetherness summer has been granted, even if it is fleeting. Our summer days have slowed to a lazy pace that is filled with laughter, and fun, and now finally, seven weeks into summer it actually feels a bit like a vacation.  Eventually the power will come back on and we will go back to using too much electricity,  running our air conditioner and electronic items, but for now I will bask in the glow of a summer slowed down and the goodwill shared between fellow human beings .

Romance? not so much (reprinted)

I am reprinting this from my extended family's blog by request (written in January of 2010)

Over the course of the 15 years with my husband (almost 13 of those spent married to him). I have accused him many times of being unromantic. Oh sure, he buys me the obligatory box of chocolates each Christmas, but it is usually the nut variety, of which I am allergic, and each year, he thinks he is surprising me, and each year, it is the one gift that I didn’t wrap myself. I can’t count the number of anniversary, or valentine cards that said something like “Have fun you two, anniversaries only come around once a year”. Or “Happy valentines day honey, your Dad and I are so proud.” He means well, he just sometimes misses the mark, and gets me the first card that he sees. I recently tried to hint that I wanted this Jessica Rabbit type satin nightgown. He looked right past it and tried to get me the much more practical two piece set next to it, I gave him that look, the one that says” Really? Those are what you want me to wear?” I did not get the night gown, I bought myself a consolation pair of Red Mary Jane’s instead.


For years, I have spent a small fortune on scented lotions, and perfume, trying to elicit some sort of response from my husband. I was not looking for anything big, just a “You smell nice”. Or, some other such sentiment. One day, I was sitting next to my husband , when he leaned over to me and said “MMMMMMMM, You smell so good”! I was ecstatic! He had finally noticed! I spent the day riding the compliment like a surfer rides a wave. That is, until later that evening, I realized, that I had not worn any perfume, or scented lotion that day, Instead, he smelled the Dryell I had used to home dry clean my sweater. He has to this day, not mentioned another scent that I have worn.

Valentines, Anniversaries, Birthdays and Christmas’s, were usually a let down, until many years back, I decided to just take him with me, and buy things I liked, or buy my own presents, wrap them and act surprised on each occasion. I have surprised myself with Phantom of the Opera tickets, a lovely new coat, and a new ring for my 10th anniversary (it was really pretty). This Christmas seemed to be following the prescribed course, he came with me, and let me get several pairs of my favorite shoes; Mary Jane’s, and a pair of boots. He also, with my help, picked out a lovely new rice maker. I as usual, wrapped them myself, and placed them under the tree.

On Christmas Eve, he came home from work early, which was a good thing, because I was overwhelmed, and still had many things to cook before the evening’s dinner. He told me that he had to wrap some of my presents, and I resentfully told him that I had wrapped everything, and he needn’t bother. He said “I got you something that you don’t even know about.’ I rolled my eyes, (imagining my “surprise” chocolates) and left the room. About an hour later, he came out with a grin like the Cheshire cat, and said “You have to open these right now.” I said “I don’t want to open the few things, I don’t know about right now.” He was jumping up and down like, well a kid at Christmas, and said “trust me”. So with a huge eye roll, (I know, I am such a brat) I started to open the presents. Did I mention that despite his gift buying lack he is a very talented gift wrapper. So I opened my presents (there were 3 ) And found a new kitchenaid bowl, 3 lids, and a new dough hook! I was so excited, I had dropped hints that I would be a much more proficient cook, if I had an extra bowl to switch between, when I am cooking. (I actually needed a new paddle, not a hook, but was not about to split hairs). He had finally done it. After 15 years together, he had gotten me the ultimate romantic gift. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks. And they say romance is dead.

Let them wear capes...

So, I have been posting a lot of cape pictures lately, and that is because I have made a lot of them recently. I just finished one that my friend requested for her little guy (younger brother to capes T and E respectively) and she said her little one was feeling left out because he didn't have a cape. The only request she had was that it be red. So I went out scouting for cute fabric that coordinated with the red fleece of the cape. I found a very cute flannel with nuts, bolts and nails on it. Then tried to recreate the shape of the nut on the shield on the back, and the "J" is supposed to resemble a screw, I even managed to make the threads on the screw. And then my other lovely friend requested a cape for each of her kids. So just be prepared, I will be posting more (you guessed it) cape pictures as I finish them. I have to say they are much easier to make than a cake.

Capes Part 4 or 5 who can remember?

My two youngest were recently invited to a birthday party for some friends who are brothers. Since two of my kids were invited, I didn’t feel right simply bringing only one gift apiece ( the Mom only asked for one gift per child), so I decided to make each boy a cape.

The oldest boy was turning 7, and is really in to sports. So for the inside of his cape I chose a sports print, and found coordinating orange fleece for the back, the star mimicked the pattern on the lining.

Back view

Lining of T cape

The other little guy was turning 3, and is just in love with trains. You would think that train prints would be  in abundance, but alas I struck out. So instead I found a neutral calming green stripe, and was lucky enough to find a fleece remnant in a coordinating color, Then I was able to fashion a train shape out of felt with his initial on it.

Back view

Lining of E cape

And this week, one of my favorite little girls is turning 2, so she is old enough to get her very own cape, which will make her very happy when she is running around with her cape clad friends.



Back view



Lining of B cape, pretty hard to see but it is actually a tiny gingham print.

April fools

April fools is here once again, and this year, wanting to top my usual go –to April fools dinner (meatloaf and mashed potatoes), I decided to peruse a cupcake decorating book for new inspiration. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to decide that this year we would dine on Pizza, and for dessert… pizza. I made our usual pizza, then while that was baking; I threw together the ingredients for my favorite sugar cookie recipe, while my oldest cut out Archer farms strawberry fruit leather with a small circle fondant cutter. I scooped up the dough with my muffin sized scoop, staggered them on the cookie sheet, then with a small bowl, floured on the bottom; I pressed them down to form a small well in the center, and to mimic “crust”. Then I popped them into a 350 oven, and baked for 6 minutes. Meanwhile I took a bar of white chocolate, ran it through the food processor to shred it, and set it aside.

When the cookies came out of the oven, they were lightly brown on the edges, and looked very much like mini pizza crusts. While the cookies were still hot, I took some of my homemade strawberry jam, and put about a teaspoon and a half into each center. Then I topped that with the shredded white chocolate, and then topped them with the fruit leather cutouts. They were a bit sweet for me, but the kids loved them.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by...

Yesterday was the culmination of a 20+ year dream. It is what Oprah would have called a “Full circle moment”. I, along with my husband had the incredible privilege of seeing Les Miserables on Broadway. My love affair began as a 12 year old girl in Mr. Noyce’s 7th grade girl’s choir class. He introduced us to as many musicals as was humanly possible in a school year, and the first time I heard Castle on a cloud, I was overcome with emotion. I knew that come hell or high water I would see the musical some day. I read the Novel, and watched the movies made about the story, and regularly tortured my husband and children with the music and story behind it. Each time it came to a city near me there was always some conflict that prevented me from seeing it. I was devastated when it stopped touring, and was sure I had missed my chance at seeing it.

Fast forward to late January, when I received an email letting me know that for one month it was coming to my area, starting February 1st! I called my husband, who was scheduled for a tonsillectomy for February 16th and told him we were going, and that I would try to get tickets for shows happening before the 16th. Since I work from home and have young children, weekdays were out, so it left Sundays and the Saturday after my husband’s surgery. He thought he would be feeling 100% a few days after surgery, so he said any time was ok. When I looked online for tickets, I was stunned to find that nearly every single performance was completely sold out! Then I found out that tickets had gone on sale the previous November, so it would be a miracle if I found any tickets. After a few hours on the internet, I was finally able to score probably the last 2 tickets to the last show on the last day of the performance. Yes they were a bit more than the $35 I paid to see Phantom, and the $25 I paid to see Wicked, but when you are talking about a life long dream, price is not a consideration. Plus it fell smack dab between Valentines day and our 14th wedding Anniversary, so in that regard we saved money.

We were excited for our impending date, and planned to take the train into the city. I looked online for train schedules only to find out that our closest train was out of commission due to a derailment a few days before, and the next closest station only ran trains every two hours, which meant that we would be gone 4 extra hours from the kids. So my husband agreed to drive us down. Saturday, my teen babysitter, informed me, after a scuffle with his brother that he would not be watching his brothers the next day, and that I had better find other care for them. Being that we can’t find anyone willing to watch 4 boys even with a months notice, I knew I would never find someone to watch them with less than 24 hrs. notice. After a few tear, and a little guilt trip I resorted to bribing him, and he agreed once again to watch his siblings. Then that night , My husband called me on his way home from work and told me that his first day back at work had made his throat hurt again, and he just didn’t know if he was up to driving down and then having to walk to the theater. He suggested that I call a friend. The first friend who sprang to mind loves musicals as much as I do, so I called, no answer, I called again an hour later, still no answer. I tried her husband’s cell, her Facebook page, you name it, I tried it. I finally left her messages every place I could think of and crossed my fingers. I still hadn’t heard from her by the next morning, so I told my husband he was stuck taking me (he was feeling a bit better). That was right about the time he started spitting up blood. Yes you read that right. My husband told me that I would have to take the train down by myself or take my oldest son with me (I don’t drive to the city, it freaks me out) and this was 30 minutes before I would have to leave to catch the last possible train and still get there on time. This will make me seem horrible, but oh well when dreams are on the line sometimes you have to be ruthless. I called my husbands Dr. and made my husband tell him what was going on, he said if it stopped in 30 minutes or less he was fine, if it continued a trip to the E.R was in order. He told my hubby to gargle with ice water and eat a Popsicle. I made sure he followed through. Thank goodness it was no big deal, the bleeding stopped and he was fine after the first initial scare. Apparently 11-12 days postop a little bleeding is normal. So after all of that I developed nervous diarrhea. I really thought the Universe was out to get me, but with a little Immodium I was good as new.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, we drove down, dealt with very little traffic, parked the car, found a place to eat, then went to the performance of a lifetime. It was so amazing, I laughed, and cried, and drank in the gorgeous art deco of the theater, and the brilliant performance. It was an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life. As we were walking back to our car my husband asked me if it was everything I had dreamed of. I told him that it was so much more; it was the culmination of years of dreaming, and that this girl with not much money to her name, could still find moments of great joy in life and that dreams really can come true.

Sweet rewards

                                  The finished cake

I just sold my very first cake that I baked, leveled, frosted and decorated with my own two hands! Now I have made many, many cakes for other people and leveled, and frosted, and decorated them, but this was the first time someone has actually offered to pay me to do it. My friend had seen some pictures of previous cakes I had made on my Facebook page, and asked me if I would be willing to make one for her sister-in-law’s baby shower, I of course panicked and let her know that I have as yet still not completed course 3 of the Wilton method, and was a novice at best, she said not to worry that she was looking for something simple. She gave me a picture of a jungle themed paper plate, and said she wanted those colors, that buttercream animals were ok, but she would prefer fondant, and let me do my thing.

                The plate that inspired it all.

I was immediately inspired, and decided that the only way to do her cake justice was to learn how to make fondant animals. So I looked through my decorating books, and since I am a visual learner, they were of absolutely no help. So I turned to the next best thing; YouTube! Seriously there are so many videos on how to make fondant animals. And many of them give bad information, like they made their animals in one piece which looks fantastic if the fondant is still wet but when it dries it cracks like my skin in cold weather. So through trial and error, and one whole block of wasted fondant, I mastered a jungle animal or four.

I started with the lion, since that was the only criteria my friend had. I figured at the very least she would have one animal. I only had to make him twice to get it right. Apparently fondant works best if it is left to dry overnight before assembling the body parts. When he was dry and together, I used tinted buttercream to pipe a mane around his head.

                                                                                         Mr Lion

Next came the giraffe, I at first made his neck and body separately, and his feet as four separate pieces. But when I put him together, (again the 24 hour rule here would have been good to know) he was too soft and ripped and cracked all over. So I decided to remake him and make his head and torso one piece, and was able to use the original legs. He looked great. When he had dried for 2 days I piped chocolate buttercream on his head and back for hair.

                                          

        Mr's Giraffe and Elephant respectively

My friend never mentioned an elephant, but the color of blue she had chosen for the polka dots, was begging to be made into an elephant. Again, it only took me two tries to figure out the best way to make him sturdy.

     Nothing nice to say about this cheeky little devil

                   

Then it was time to make the monkey. First let me say that to save money I had only purchased white fondant because it is a fraction of the cost of tinted fondant, and I just had to buy gel color. So when I got to my 4th animal and started the tinting process, it became apparent to me that there is a reason you pay a pretty penny for tinted fondant. Some colors take forever to tint, and use a ton of gel color. Brown is one of those colors; it took half a bottle to tint enough fondant for two monkeys. When I was done the texture of the fondant was different, stickier, harder to shape and smooth, and much more brittle when dry. But since it takes nearly 2 full days for the fondant to really dry I wouldn’t figure it out right away. ::Sigh:: so after making 3 failed monkeys, I decided to use gum paste instead of fondant to make my monkey. I was slightly more successful and with some smoke and mirrors got him to look cute enough to sit on the cake (as long as no one breathes, or looks at him funny that is.)

     Pretty good view of the palm trees

On the paper plate that my friend had shown me, there were two palm trees. Now when I originally thought the cake would be 2-D, I had dozens of ideas on how to execute the making of a tree. But when I decided to take the cake 3-D they became a bit more challenging. I decided to use Pepperidge farm pirouettes as the trunks of my trees and fondant in 2 colors for the leaves. I cot out the leaf shape with my fall leaf cookie cutter, then put them on my wave flower former upside down to get a good curve in them. When they were dry I used green butter cream to secure the pirouettes to the leaves, then left them to dry overnight.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this I realized that my friend had requested white cake, and since I had never baked a successful white cake from scratch before, I knew I was up for a challenge. I tried a few recipes from the internet, and then had my family and my friend’s family taste test them for me. The simplest cake won for flavor and texture, much to my relief. When I figured out how much to expand the recipe I discovered that one sheet cake would take 12 egg whites, 1 ½ C butter, and 1 ½ C sour cream!

The frosting of the cake is always where the panic sets in for me, it is a point of no return, and a place where in the past my cakes have fallen apart, or been very crumby and gotten into the frosting, but because I had frozen the cake, and the amount of moisture in the cake, it stayed frozen and hardened the frosting which made frosting and smoothing it a breeze. Because of the density of the cake it held up beautifully under the weight of the frosting and fondant.

   I tried to make the lettering look like jungle vines, and added little leaves.

I am stunned at how quickly this is snowballing into a business. My friend is giving out my number at her party, and even my Dr. Wants to hire me. This is a dream come true, and I am so grateful that I can make something that people actually want to buy. I am stunned at how much people are willing to pay for a cute cake. I had been putting off taking course three from Wiltons because of scheduling conflicts, but plan to take it soon. The course subject  is fondant and gumpaste.

Saturday was sew hard...

Over the Christmas break, I mentioned to one of my friends that I had sewn the capes for my little people, and she decided to ask me to shorten the sleeves of her suit jackets. She is going to law school, so she needs to look sharp on the days that she actually has to appear in court, and she is very tall so most things don’t fit her correctly, hence the need for shortening them to ¾ sleeves.


I have never shortened anything lined before, but told her I would take a look and see if it was beyond my capabilities. When she brought the jackets over, I was relieved to see that only 2 of the 4 jackets were lined, so that would be easy at least. The last 2 jackets were really scaring me though. So knowing nothing about what to do, I told her that yes, I would shorten them and crossed my fingers that divine inspiration would hit me.

The first two were easy cheesy, the third one, I sort of winged it, and guessed at how to do it, it turned out ok, but it was bunchy. Then came the fourth jacket and all of the sewing classes from high school came flooding back, linings are sewn inside out then attached using a small slit hidden in the lining. Once I located that in the sleeve of the jacket, it was smooth sailing. Unfortunately I had to take jacket number 3 apart and redo it via the correct way. But all in all I am super proud of my accomplishment. I now know how to shorten the sleeves in my husband’s next suit jacket, instead of paying a tailor. Now to learn how to take the shoulders in…

Thankful Thursday

One day while sitting in the pick up line at one my kid’s schools; I came up with a notional idea of changing up my blog this year. I am not the most consistent person, but I thought it would be fun if my blog had more direction. So I came up with an idea to have themed days based on the day of the week. Since I tried and failed to follow simple abundance last year, I thought that this year I could do thankful Thursday posts. Things, people , experiences etc… and since I am apt to change my mind, by years end this may very well be thoughtful Thursday, or thong Thursday, really hard to say. But for now, I will stick with the thankful idea. So on that note…


I am so incredibly thankful for winter break. I had the entire two weeks off, and I enjoyed it so much. I got to see family, and hang out with friends, I went out to lunch, breakfast, and dinner all in one week, saw a movie with family, got to go shopping with a friend, went to a party or two, and got to spend some quality time with my oldest nephew. Most of all I relaxed. I was a little sad to see it go, but the kids did get restless at the end, so I am also thankful for school.


I am thankful for my family, both immediate and extended. When I was growing up I didn’t take much time to stop and enjoy the view, I spent most of it counting down the minutes until I could escape. But now when I go back and see my family, I feel so complete, so loved, content. I am sorry I didn’t realize how much I would miss them when I lived closer, but I love them and appreciate all the quirkiness and insanity that comes with a large family, and cherish each moment spent with them that much more.


I am so thankful for my job, it keeps food on the table and is rewarding in so many days. I am blessed to work for generous and loving families, who treat me like a queen.


I am thankful for my husband being able to take 2 unexpected vacation days this week, usually we drive each other crazy, but not this time. He was thoughtful, and helped me put the last of the holiday decorations away.


And food, oh how I am thankful for food, really fantastic mind blowing food! I especially appreciate it because I am on a detox of sorts, and am not eating salt, sugar, fat, or dairy for 2 weeks. I really hope it is worth it, because those are the best parts of food. Who knows in 2 weeks I may be thankful for my little cleanse.

More super heroes

I made more capes for the cute little people in my life for the most recent Christmas. I was planning on only  making 2, because I thought my older nephew would think they were uncool. Not so, he requested one, and I was able to whip one together using some left over material from a few different projects. Overall I am very pleased with how they turned out.

This is the outside of the cape for my 4 year old Nephew.

This is the lining of the Super "C" cape.

The back of my 9 year old nephew's cape, a bit shorter than the others but not bad for a last minute idea.

The lining of the Super "M" cape. It actually turned out to be my very favorite one to date.

This is the back of my own super "X". I was thrilled that I could include a skull on his shield, since he is obsessed with them, and make an X at the same time. He was ecstatic!

the lining of the Super "X" cape.