Little Things

My family unexpectedly suffered a loss last week. While I've been muddling through the shock and sadness, it's been nice to have these little things to appreciate. Some of them came to me last week, and some are just the happy product of the world continuing to roll around through space.

This was my Grandma's garlic keeper, and the "Dial a Pick" toothpick holder I remember being in Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen when I was a kid. I'd forgotten about the garlic keeper until last week, and was really happy to see it. I think it's pretty funny, and I like to think my Grandma did, too.

Here's the back:

This is the dish my Grandpa would always have peanut brittle in. It sat on the desk in their living room, waiting for the odd sweet tooth to get curious and take a peak.

Here's one of the first tight curls of rhubarb starting to unfurl through last year's dried leaves. It's a strange, sort of alien looking thing, but the first vibrant sign of spring to brave the chilliness.

A blown open crocus. It's so amazing how those delicate little things can manage through the cold nights, isn't it?

Ah, the surest sign of spring. Short of making bread or maybe folding sheets, there's no work as honest and mind cleaning as breaking up the garden and getting it ready to go another year. That hoe is my parents ( I "borrowed" it a while ago), and the handle is nice and worn. It's nice to keep using old thing like that, I think. It's reassuring, ya know?

It's heeerrre!

Well, after finding out that it had actually been waiting for pickup for over a month, my wedding dress is finally in my possession! It's so nice to know it's hanging there in the closet, and it's not going to go anywhere without me in it. In fact, I have plans to make the most of this dress, and wear it around a little - when T's not home of course. I just think I'd like to a.) get a little practice wearing something fancy again, and b.) get a little more than a few hours wear out of it. So, hopefully the gas meter reader won't come to the door, or I might have some awkward explaining to do.

In other news, I finally feel like I'm caught up and "back" from my last NJ visit. I had a whirlwind of a time at work last week, due to a library staff plague, and I had a busy weekend, gallery hopping, working and well, not cleaning the bathroom. So, now here I am, simmering up some amazing smelling chicken stock (I'm trying herb de provence this time!) and letting some bread raise. Aaaaahhhh. And since the sun set just an hour ago, I don't feel like I'm living in Siberia. Life is incredibly good right now, right?

As a parting photo, I caught one cute kid displaying about 5 of the 6 Ready to Read skills! (You can't hear it, but she's "reading" Green Eggs and Ham to herself.) I miss this little lady and her sis big time!

Mmmmm, cake....

For whatever reason, I was struck with a major chocolate cake craving earlier this week, and found a nice little recipe to help me out. I actually had every ingredient I needed in my kitchen, in the right quantity, so miracle of miracles, I got cake with icing too!


The recipe calls for 1 cup of cold coffee, which I might bump up to instant espresso powder, since the flavor didn't stand out too strongly. It was still delicious, none the less.


And here's a really simple chocolate icing recipe that I luuuv:

1.5 cups confectioners sugar

3 TB cocoa powder

3 TB milk

3 TB oil (canola or vegetable oil)



Mix it together - maybe add a little more cocoa powder, or coffee or vanilla if you want, and you're ready to ice it up. Deelicious. T and I actually managed to eat this whole cake ourselves, so it must of been pretty good.

Itty Bitty Lamp Shade

Another fun project I tested out this weekend was a wine glass candle lamp shade. I've been cruising around so many crafty, wedding type blogs and sites, I can't remember where I picked this one up. Here are the directions I linked, from CasaSugar.com.







Again, another simple idea that has great possiblities of making reception tables look charming. The shade it made of vellum, cut out with a decorative edged scissor (on sale at Joann's - sweet!). After it's cut out, all you have to do is glue up the straight sides, and you have a wine glass sized lamp shade. Pop in a votive - or safer yet - an LED votive, and you've got a little sparkle on your table.


I'm hoping to find wine glasses on the cheap at Old Time Pottery, thrift stores, or Big Lots. Also, check out this website, if you haven't already - Save On Crafts. They have pretty decent prices, no? I think I may snag additional vellum, here, as that stuff is crazy expensive!


What do you think? Maybe 3 per (round) table, surrounding a simple jar with flowers?

Big, White and Fluffy

Well, I think I'm finally getting to the fun part of planning my upcoming nuptials. Yesterday I finalized my homemade Save the Dates, played around with tissue paper and vellum. Weee! Not that buying the dress wasn't fun, but there's an element of stress involved with it that just doesn't come with tissue paper.

I think I stumbled upon this idea while looking at Martha Stewart wedding stuff, online, and noticed that she sold a kit for giant tissue paper pom poms. They looked adorable, but let's face it - I'm not going to shell out $15 for something I could make for a buck fifty. So, I found several sets of instructions online - including Ms. Stewarts, and saved myself a few pennies and had a great time, too.

The idea is pretty simple:

- Layer 8-10 pieces of tissue paper - size isn't totally key, but I think rectangular is the important part.

- Make accordion folds every 1.5 - 2".

- Once it's all folded up, take your white fabric covered wire, and secure the paper with it, twisty style.

- Now you get to hack your way through all that tissue paper! On each end, cut a curve, a point, a curvy-point - whatever you want - to create the scalloped, fluffy edges to your pom pom. So, sharp scissors are pretty key here. Don't worry if it looks like a five year old hacked at it with their safety scissors, just even it up as much as you can. The fluffing out disguises all the uneveness, anyway, so don't sweat it.

- Once you've made your cuts, just gently - VERY gently - pull apart the layers and fluff them out into a big ball. Ta da! Super cute, super cheap decoration for any occasion.

All together they take maybe 15-20 minutes to make, and are ever so gratifying. I'm having to restrain myself from make a bunch more, since the event isn't until August, and just where would I store all those lovely pom poms? I think I'll stick to white, but wouldn't these just be the perfect thing for a child's party, in bright colors? I may even have to decorate the children's area in the branch with these come spring!

Now, just try to restrain yourself from making one of these right now - you know you want to!

Before Things Melted

While I was in New Jersey, two weeks ago, one humdinger of a storm came through Ohio. I got to have an extra day with my sister and her family, and everyone back home got snow and ice! Once I did get home, I just had to take some pictures of what all that pain-in-the-ass ice did to everything outside. It was a beautiful sunny day, but colder than cold. The next day it warmed up enough to melt all the delicate ice on plants and such, so I'm glad I braved the temperatures to get some pictures.

And now this weekend we've warmed up to the 50's on some days, so we're finally seeing the ground again for the first time in what feels like months. I never thought I'd be so happy to see the asphalt on my street. I know it's a nature fake out, but you could easily be tricked into thinking spring is here. I worry for the spring birds I keep hearing out there! I'm sure we'll get more winter, but the respite has been nice. I'm definitely in the mood to get going on garden planning now, too. Warm weather will be here before we know it, and I can just smell the dirt already!

A Week with a Baby Bird

I just got back from spending a week with my niece, E, who is officially a big sister. She is pictured above, giving a concert for me and Papa Bear, of the Berenstain Bear family. Periodically throughout every day we had to look for Papa Bear, and he was usually found sitting in this room. So, naturally, a couple of songs were sung. Heaven forbid if Aunt Di sat at the piano, though!

I had such a great time with E reading, playing grocery shopping, coloring, painting and squishing play dough. Her imagination is running at full blast, so it was amazing to see what she would some up with each day. There's nothing quite like reading with a little one on your lap, is there?