90th birthday

We had a great Memorial Day weekend!  Last week was my great-aunt’s 90th birthday, so we went and stayed at the West Norway Lake “Hilton” (my cousins’ place).  Some family stayed Fri-Tues, but some of us were only able to be there over the extended weekend.  Even so, we still had a great time!

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

 

 

281 years accumulated in this room.  Wow!  I guess good genes run my family!

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the birthday girl with all of her family – all four generations.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the back of their house that overlooks the lake.  All freshly mowed and trimmed for the party.  Tables are set up and waiting for the guests to arrive.

 

 

As you can see, it was a beautiful day for the party.  It was a comfortable 70° with plenty of sunshine and just a hint of a breeze from the lake. (Shh – don’t tell Dave I have a picture of him here!  He hates having his picture taken!).  The previous day saw some rain (and we heard rumors of frost just north-east of there); the following day was overcast and very windy – either type of conditions would have made it tougher for an outdoor party.

 

Tanta Margaret and Mom spent a lot of time helping out in the kitchen.  With 100 party guests (including the 13 overnight guests), there was a lot of work to be done in just a few days!  We all pitched in to help where ever we could – food prep, outdoor cleanup, or just moral support.

 

 

George was a big help in greeting everyone and making sure we were comfortable and well-relaxed.

 

 

 

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.  Paul and Evaline were married almost 35 years ago.  She realized that all of her wedding party was present (except that one snuck out early), so we had our picture taken together.  That cute little flower girl in the front has grown up a bit!!

 

Both nights that we stayed at the lake, we spent part of our evenings outside, roasting “mushrooms” (Greek marshmallows??). Some had to be taught the patience of sloooowly roasting them so they’re golden brown and squishy … not burnt to a crisp!  (Oh, would you look at that.  Another picture of my husband.  LOL)

 

If you’d like to see more picture from the weekend, you can view, print, or download them here:

Pictures from Memorial Day – Elsie’s 90th birthday.

Misc May crafts

It’s hard to believe it’s almost the end of May – and I feel like I haven’t accomplished much this month – or at least in the last couple weeks.  I’ve made the usual birthday and anniversary cards.  My favorite is one I’m giving away this weekend to my great aunt who is turning 90! (I don’t think I’m in danger of her reading the blog beforehand).

The little flower is one that I crocheted.  Does that count as one project done?!  If so, I might have to start making a lot more of them. I might anyway – they’re quick and a rather cute addition to cards.

I have been working on some long-range crochet projects, so that may be part of the reason I don’t have much to show.  The bath mat I’m trying to finish for my sister has been frogged (rip-it, rip-it) and redone countless times.  I didn’t have this much trouble with the one I made Mom for Christmas!  Hopefully I have it right this time.  I’m also working on a Tunisian crochet afghan that was restarted several times – I’m getting close to half done now, so at least there’s some progress.

In an effort to give myself a boost and to say that I finished something this week, I offered to test another pattern for Donna at SmoothFoxLover.  This one is called Fox’s Easy as ABC square, and I believe it will be offered as a free pattern on her website.  It was pretty easy – I had one done in under an hour.

 

My big project this last week was to make up a gift for my good friend Lucy who just had a BIG birthday.  She loves to have family pictures up on her refrigerator, so I decided a good gift might be to make her some personalized magnets.  I have seen these in various places on the web, but the most comprehensive directions were at Not Martha.  It wasn’t until after I had purchased the glass 1/2 marbles, that I read it was best to find the non-iridescent ones (which I’m not sure the store had anyway).  I think the underlying pictures would show up better if they were completely clear.  In my enormous stash of punches, I had a circle punch that was perfect for the size of these marbles.  I grabbed a stack of magazines I had intended on looking through ages ago and went to town. The bonus was that I was so intent on finding small pictures for these magnets, that I ended up ignoring the recipes and other articles … no extra stray papers around the house!  (You can click on the pictures to see a larger view)  In addition to learning about the iridescent versus clear marbles, I also think if I were to make these again, instead of using silicone caulk, I might try decoupage liquid instead.  Some of these ended up with air bubbles, especially on the edges.  I think I could control it a bit better with a thinner liquid.  I found the magnets for the back at Wa$mart – in their kids craft section.  Those I used super-glue to attach the magnets, so they should stick tightly.

Not all of these ended up in Lucy’s gift.  I chose about a dozen, including a jalapeno, onion and tomato.  All in memory of the infamous salsa making episode last summer!  I also included a few flowers, some fun words (like “blessed”, “hugs”), and I even found a little picture of a farm – barn and silo (that picture didn’t turn out so good).

The magnets that I saw on the internet were usually wrapped in small tins – like those for Altoids, but since we don’t really use anything like that, I had to find a different container. I found an small round tin and covered it with this awesome star-embossed paper I’ve had forever but couldn’t figure out what to do with it.

Even though my husband is of the opinion that refrigerator fronts should be CLEAN – devoid of all papers, magnets, pictures, etc., I made him two magnets.  He loves Spam, so I couldn’t pass up these pictures since they were the perfect size! (And I won’t mention that the only two “papers” on our refrigerator front are business cards that he put up there!)

Contests galore!

I went through a phase a couple years ago where I was entering online contests left and right.  I now use my time for other adventures – crocheting, cooking … and Contests!  Yep, I’m still finding online giveaways, but this time around they’re usually hosted by individuals on their blogs, and referred to as “blog candy”.

A good example of this is one hosted by My Paper Adventures (direct link is http://mypaperadventures.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-blogiversary-to-me-candy-time.html)  This would be such an awesome prize – I see ink, a Cuttlebug die, Copic markers, a couple of stamp sets, and embellishments.  A card-making dream!

Off to surf more crafting blogs…

New blog – Mish Mashmie

I’ve decided to start a new blog.  This one will still remain, but I’m leaving this for crafts and other general family news.  The new blog is called Mish Mashmie.

The term was one my sister and I used for Pistachio dessert – the one with pistachio pudding mix, marshmallows, pineapple chunks and whipped topping.  We used this phrase after watching (and re-watching and watching-to-the-point-we-could-repeat-without-watching) the Disney movie Mickey and the Beanstalk.  Willie the Giant in the movie loves “Pot roast.  Chocolate Pot Roast.  With stispacio, mish mashmie, with dishmash … with Green Gravy!”  (he’s trying to say pistachio)

So, in case you haven’t guessed, the new blog will be all about recipes and cooking.  I’m hoping that I can eventually get all the recipes from my original website recipe list here – complete with pictures.  But that means that I’ll have to make each and every one of those recipes :) … and figure out how to get Dave to stop thinking I’m weird for taking pictures of food!

Holy Hailstorm, Batman!

It’s hard to believe that early on Wednesday, we saw the sun shine, for around 2pm it darkened up and we suddenly heard noisy “pings” outside.  (Click on the picture below to see a larger picture – you can see the hail falling!)

We had hail and enough rain to create “river Nuland” on the north side of the house.

 

The hail was only pea-sized, but it came down for a good 10-15 minutes! It created quite a (temporary) mess outside.  It almost looked like snow - and was just as slippery.

 

Our deck shows another example of how much came down.  Just in case you’re concerned, the table did NOT get blown over.  While it was windy for a while, I ran out there when the hail started and tipped the table on its side – we don’t want another glass table-top broken (combination of a good windstorm and the table umbrella broke one a couple years ago).

Just a few hours later it was all melted.  I went out to check the newly sprouted plants and everything looked fine.  There were a few daffodils that fell apart, but I think they were almost done anyway.

Our yard still needs some work, but there are areas that look very nice.  The hostas really shot up in the last two days.  Dave didn’t used to be fan of hostas, but he’s decided they look good enough, he has requested a few more plants (so he doesn’t have to mow those areas).

I am ecstatic (!!) that my vinca vine has several flowers!  It’s only taken all 4 years we’ve lived here to blossom.  The whole vine still isn’t much bigger than this, but at least it’s surviving – and it may grow more during the summer.  The vinca came from my dearly departed / beloved aunt Mag’s house – the north side of her house had a huge area of this.  It’s such a pretty vine – and the picture doesn’t do the flowers justice (it was getting dark).

Ah – the joys of spring ….

Bags o’ plenty

As many of my friends know, for years I went without carrying a purse.  I’d use a purse insert / wallet only.  I just didn’t see the need for a purse and carried all the “extra stuff” in my pockets.  Winter was easy enough – there are coat pockets, sweater pockets, etc. but it could get tough in the summer months.  A few years ago, I decided I’d give purses a try again and realized it was so much easier to keep tissues, pens, paper, my LISTS, etc handy at all times.  I now own two (yes, TWO) purses – one for summer, one for winter.  With just two even at this point, I don’t consider myself purse-crazy.  But I’ve found in my eternal search for patterns, that I “ooh” and “aah” over bags and purses a lot.  Hmm – maybe I’d have even more purses and bags if I made them myself!

I finished two this weekend (not to mention the black coin purse I finished earlier this week).  The first one … well, I’m not sure what to say about it.  The local Dollar Tree has had Lion Brand Fun Fur in stock again, so I bought a few skeins.  Since I haven’t worked with it much, I decided before I purchase more I should see if it’s useful (to me).  I decided to make a fun fur bag using the Tropical color, combining it with regular worsted weight yarn to make it sturdier.  I had issues trying to get a decent picture of it last night.  It looks a little better in person, but I’m still not sure if I like it – at least it’s plenty roomy.  If I get feedback that friends/family think it’s ugly, bizarre, or just plain too weird for words – I may rip it all apart and just stick with using fun fur for toys.  (Maybe it would have helped not to put the fun fur edging on the flap?) 

The second bag I finished turned out phenomenally better!  I started this one a few months ago as well, and set it aside to finish later.  This was my first time working with wool yarn.  It’s a little scratchy to work with, but not any worse than the inexpensive acrylic yarns.  I made up my own pattern – using 3 different colors of wool and just the single crochet stitch.  The picture on the left is the bag when it was completed, but not felted.  You can see the individual stitches.

 

To felt wool, you need hot water, a tiny bit of detergent, and agitation.  Several articles I read suggested throwing it in the washer in a lingerie bag (to hold any lint that will come off) and include a pair or two of old blue jeans to help with the agitation.  Check the bag every 5 min or so so you can stop when you think it has felted enough, and don’t let it go through a spin cycle (can produce irreversible creases?).  I ended up running mine through two wash cycles – maybe that was because this was a 95% wool, not 100%?  Still, it felted nicely.

 

I knew it would shrink up more width-wise than length-wise because of the way the stitches ran, but it actually shrunk more than I expected.  My overall impression of felting is F.U.N. !!  I can’t wait to make another!  I already have some improvements in mind (wider width, make in “circle” so I don’t have sides to sew, two handles) … now I just have to wait to find a wool yarn sale.

Dave had comments for each bag.  The first one he said reminded him of the jacket a hooker would wear (gee, thanks dear!).  The second one he liked and strongly hinted that he’d like a wool felted sweater like that.  I’m not sure he realizes that it would be extremely warm, considering he doesn’t wear sweaters much - although as he gets older he seems to be colder more often, so he might use it more if he insists we keep the house at 60ºF in the winter.  It also could be a challenge trying to figure out how large to make it so it would shrink to the correct size, but what are loving wife’s for? 

On the card-making front, my dear friend and neighbor Jenni is celebrating her birthday today.  She’s going through a particularly rough spot in life right now, so I want to make this day as special as possible for her. I thought about giving her one of the cards I made during the mass-weekend, but she saw all of those already!  Besides, she loves quilting and I saw this idea for a card over at Jan’s Stampin’ Creations.  This took a while to piece together.  I suppose I could have made it simpler and just done a full-square flower background with only the purple squares cut out, but I didn’t think about it until just now! *sigh* I like this one - I might have to find more quilt patterns to make into cards.  It’s easier than sewing a quilt! (especially for me)

Lessons learned from Carrot Cake…

A few weeks ago, Dave was gobbling up carrots so fast that he got the bright idea to buy a 10-pound bag of baby carrots to eat.  Ok, so maybe it’s not a 10-pound bag, but it’s still the biggest bag of carrots I’ve ever seen.  And then … he forgot about them / stopped eating carrots.  So that means we have a large amount of carrots to use up somehow.  There’s only so many nights you can have steamed or boiled carrots, no matter how good they are.  So what to do? Make Carrot Cake!!

The recipe is Double-Decker Carrot Spice Cake.  I found while looking at food p.orn – probably on the TasteSpotting site.  They have oodles of beautiful food pictures – and links to the sites or blogs that contain the recipes.  Very addictive.  And non-fattening, unless you actually make the recipes you find.

I’ve been a little down lately due to an upcoming date, so I decided to try some baking therapy.  It’s been a long time since I’ve done any serious baking.  The main reason being our waistlines keep growing – even without treats in the house (how does that happen?!).  This certainly wasn’t the best or prettiest cake I’ve ever made.  And I learned (or re-learned) some lessons in making it.

1) Use parchment paper!  I thought I did a thorough job of greasing and flouring the pans, but the cake still stuck.  Both layers.  Very sad.  Dave was able to get an offset spatula under there and pry them out.  Fortunately, these cake are a little crumbly-looking anyway, so you can’t tell where parts were “glued” back together.  Parchment is my new best friend in the kitchen.

2) Use a cake-pan insulator.  I remembered this trick from the Rochester cake class days.  The idea is that you insulate the sides of the pan so it takes more time to heat up – consequently the sides and the middle heat up about the same time so you get a nice even layer, instead of a mounded middle.  You can purchase insulated wraps that go around the edges of the pan, but you can also make wraps by cutting up old towels, wetting them down, and using safety pins to hold them in place.  The towels obviously dry out by the time the cake is done baking, but it doesn’t seem to harm them.  See how nice and even this looks?  I didn’t even have to put a ton of frosting in low spots, because there were none.

3) Use fresh ingredients.  I don’t know if anyone else could tell, but I think the pecans I used were a bit on the old side.  Not rancid by any means – I checked that before using them.  But they didn’t taste “fresh”.  It’s probably just me being picky.

4) Don’t bake late at night.  At 9:30pm last night, I was putting this cake together and frosting it.  It was fortunate that nothing went wrong (except cake stuck in the pans) – but that hasn’t always been the case when I’ve baked late at night.  The direction-following part of my brain seems to shut down before 9pm.

5) And finally, coworkers make the best guinea pigs.  Bring something to work and they’ll eat it right up (not that it was a hardship to devour this cake). I left a few pieces at home for Dave and the neighbor, and brought the rest to work with me today.  Even if Baking Therapy works, I don’t want to have to hire a personal trainer after I’m done!

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On a completely different note, I’ve been hoping to get a good video of this before Charlie is gone.  We call this game “Stair Ball”.  Charlie sits at the top of the stairs, Dave throws the ball up to him, and Charlie “throws” it back.  Sometimes Charlie doesn’t get the ball close enough to the edge, so the game stalls for a bit, but eventually he nudges the ball close enough it rolls down again.  This was a good day for playing:

Charlie and Dave playing Stair Ball