Crafty Tuesday

Thwarted again! This week I missed out on the fabric run in downtown LA’s fabric district because I was sick! I had my list of fabric I need – no, really! I do need some fabric, although after cleaning out the stacks of fabric and moving it up to the sewing room, I’m pretty sure I’ll have a hard time convincing anyone that I need anything. But, I do need some fabric for the roman shades I’m dreaming up for the bathrooms and kitchen. I have all the supplies – and hopefully I can find what I need this week.

Meanwhile, I’ve been pinning stuff on Pinterest like crazy, but haven’t actually done any of it. I have so many ideas for Valentine’s day…I gotta get started. And my house project to-do list just continues to grow. I think it is so large right now that I’m thoroughly overwhelmed. Every room needs paint, some sort of furniture, new flooring or rugs, LIGHTING…it is just too much. So I’m trying to tackle the “little things” – things that not many people would even notice, but I do and it makes me feel like I’m making some sort of progress. Things like – cleaned out linen closets, re-populating photo frames with new pics, culling our book collections and spreading the stacks out throughout the house. All things that seem to take a few hours…but I notice it when I walk in the room.

Oh…I do have one thing to share – a most excellent recipe! After many, many years I finally realized that J. would really much rather have cheesecake than real cake for his birthday. (I think I just couldn’t believe that there are people who wouldn’t like a big piece of chocolate cake on their birthday!) So, I have on occasion made the quick, no-bake cheesecakes for him – or grabbed one from the Cheesecake Factory. See, I am not a fan of cheesecakes – eh. I can take it or leave it and would usually just leave it. But then I found this recipe for Company Cheesecake.

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Oh my.  You guys…I might have to make it for my birthday now. It.Is.AMAZING.  We had chocolate, berries and homemade whipped cream to douse it with…but it doesn’t need a thing. It is delicious. It has pecan crust – instead of graham crackers. Mmmm…it is so good. It is a little time-consuming and I’ve found a bunch of ways to try to not get any “cracks” in the top that I’ll file away for next time.

Oh, there most certainly will be a next time!

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Happy Birthday, J!

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I don’t usually say too much about J. on here – just a tidbit or two, mostly funny stuff and a photo here or there.  Not that I don’t have plenty of fodder and other things I could write about, but partly because I started this blog about the girls and also because I’m a little superstitious. We have a really good thing going here, and I am not going to mess it up by broadcasting all the details.

But the biggest reason I don’t write a lot about him is that it is just too hard to put into words how incredible he is. As a husband, father, friend and love-of-my-life, he is indescribable and just very, very special.

I hope your day is spectacular and this year is even better than the last.

Love you with all my heart, baby.
-c.

Friday Randomness.

I can’t do Friday Love today because I’m feeling under the weather and so do not LOVE that. So you get all kinds of weird – some funny – but mostly just weird stuff that is floating around in my head over here.

  • I have been in my pajamas and sleeping on and off for the past 17 hours. THAT is weird, especially for me. I seemed to have contracted the plague that Em had a few weeks ago, only in reverse. Earlier this week I had a sore throat and was willing myself to not get sick and I actually felt better on Wednesday, plus it did not progress to the dreaded cough. But then, literally as I was walking to the car after choir last night I started to feel not so great and by the time I got home I was shaking with the fever chills, nauseous and every joint in my body just ached with exhaustion.
  • I’m so thankful for Daddy running on home and taking care of the girls and even getting them off to school this morning. I’m also so happy that we are at a stage that the girls can get their own dinner (it was a cereal-for-dinner night!) and take care of themselves for an hour or so. They got to watch an hour and a half of TV (during the week!?!) and I felt just rotten enough that it didn’t even worry me. I’m sure they are wishing that I was sick more often.
  • I thought initially that my joint aches were due to my long run yesterday morning. I had a rather weird out-of-body experience while I was running, too. I have a playlist that I listen to every day when I run, so…same songs, same order everyday, why yes, I am a creature of habit. But I must’ve been zoned out because as I was running I realized that I didn’t remember my favorite song being on (Faster – by Matt Nathanson, good running song!) and so I stopped to see if I was on the right playlist. And when I looked up? I had one of those moments when I wasn’t quite sure where I was, or how I got there. I kind of didn’t remember running the 6 or 7 blocks up to that point. Please tell me that this has happened to you before, or that it is normal to have running blackouts? Anyhow, little weird.
  • We hardly ever watch commercials any more (thank you, TiVo) but the other night while we were speeding through a break one of the commercials caught our eye and J. said, “Well, I might have to go back and see what this is all about…” And it is my new favorite commercial. The girls L-O-V-E it! Have you seen it?

Oh, especially the ewok and Princess Leia – so genius.

  • The girls are also loving these Annoying Orange videos. The current fave is the Valentines one:

“You are tickling me with your words!” Hee hee hee hee….

And on that note…I’m out of here, back to possibly taking a little nap. Happy Weekend!

Crafty Tuesday

Capes. That is the only thing I got off of my sewing table last week. Two little SuperCapes for my friend’s little birthday kids!

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I do however have some cool pillows that Birdie #2 made last week and I’m attempting to do some roman shades for a bunch of windows in our house this week. So I’ll update you on how we did all that next week.

I KNOW there has been mention of craftiness over the weekend, so make sure you share with us.

If You Give A Mommy A Rainy Day…

…chances are she is going to want to make chili for dinner.

And after she starts making chili, she is going to want cornbread to go with it.

Chances are, once she turns the oven on, she is going to see those bananas that are a little ripe and decide that she might as well make some banana muffins for breakfasts this week.

And as she pulls out her new mixer (named “Marcella” – Addie came up with the name) she will realize that the mixer is out, the oven is on, and all the ingredients for cookies are hanging out, too. And chances are she is really going to want to make some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies (because the oatmeal makes them healthy, you know!) as well.

Once everything is measured, mixed, baked and pulled out of the oven, she is going to look outside and realize that sometime during her kitchen time, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

And chances are, the Mommy is going to wish for a rainy day again. Maybe tomorrow?

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(As if I need a rainy day to break out the mixer! It is no secret my love affair with my KitchenAid, I’ve written about her over here, but my old one was starting to die a little bit of a slow death. So Jeff and JB upgraded me at Christmas to a new, shiny, much less-tortured sounding one. I *heart* her with all my heart. And she works like a dream.)

Snapshot Sunday ~ Musician

This is pretty much where we can find Gracie these days – at the piano.

Sunday Snapshot ~ Musician

Usually I just see the back of her head, but I love this look when I do catch a glimpse of her face and she is trying to figure out a new piece. Her Wicked music book arrived on Friday evening and she immediately sat down with pure joy at the possibility of learning a new piece. She is practicing for an Instrument Recital coming up at school, and her piano teacher asked if she would play at the Shrove Tuesday celebration at church in a few weeks, too. I’m just living vicariously (and a little in awe) through her since she has already far surpassed any “plunking” I can do on the piano.

Friday Love.

Ooof. We are in serious need of a Friday Love around here. Especially since we haven’t done one in a very long time, and quite frankly, I really, truly need some reminders about the good stuff right about now. It has been yet another frustrating week. We just cannot seem to find our groove, and I’m getting a little anxious…I mean we are 20 days into 2012 already! So let’s get on with it…

Things I am (remembering to) love this fine Friday:

  • Tea parties that are finally rescheduled.

  • The fact that Addie was completely giddy with getting to dress up, bringing her AG doll, and getting dropped off at the Rose Tea Garden to have REAL tea (with 5 sugar cubes!) with her teacher.

  • Emma Grace is just about over her several week-long illness, including free of the rash that incited the ER visit last weekend.
  • Em’s love of reading, even when I catch her reading long past “lights-out.”

  • It is Friday. And between taking the Brownie troop on a Field Trip to the art museum this afternoon and putting on the Pancake Breakfast for the children’s choir on Sunday – we have a blissfully low-key weekend on tap.
  • Today is Day #1 of Girl Scout Cookie selling in our area. Well…I love the cookies at least. The cookie season is just a necessary evil in order to GET the cookies.
  • Posts like this one. I intend on reading this to both of the girls at some point this weekend. Kind people are brave people.
  • My dear friend Vic is traveling to Houston to the best cancer hospital in the US to hopefully be a part of one of their clinical trials. (Well, I don’t love that she has to do this…but I do love her spirit and the fact that she the fight in her to tackle this, again.)
  • It is Friday, and you know what that means…I love that this week is almost over!