Cake Pops

These represent 2 days of my life and more hours shopping for all the little candy bits to decorate with.
They were for a contest at work and tied for first place. A toss of the coin by the folks counting the votes had me end up in 2nd place and winning $50.
They were fun to make and a great hit.

St. Nicholas Day

The Truth (& Legend) of St. Nick

Saint Nicholas was a real person. We know very few facts about him: He was born to a couple who had been childless for some 30 years, around 300AD, in what is now modern Turkey. When he was around 9 his parents both died in a plague and he was raised by an uncle who was a devout man.
While still a young man, Nicholas became the Bishop of the city of Myra in the province of Lycia. He is said to have lived a life of selflessness, using the money he had inherited from his parents to care for the poor and destitute of his city. He served as Bishop for about 50 years and died on Dec 6.
Many things about St. Nicholas have come to us in the form of legends, which probably contain a grain of truth embellished with time.
He is the patron saint of ships and sailors, schoolboys, and pawnbrokers:
Of ships and sailors—it is said that while still in his teens, Nicholas visited the Holy Land. On the return voyage a violent storm came up and the sailors turned to him for reassurance. For 2 days and 2 nights Nicholas prayed for safety and at dawn on the 3rd day the ship found a safe harbor and they were saved.
Of schoolboys—it is said that he once went in search of 3 kidnapped children and rescued them from an unscrupulous innkeeper who had hidden them in barrels to keep them for ransom.
Of pawnbrokers—Nicholas inherited a sizeable amount of money from his parents. Being deeply religious and having no family of his own, he began to use his own money to buy things secretly for the needy people in his town. It is said that he secretly employed a weaver and a toymaker who kept him supplied with warm clothes and wooden toys which Nicholas distributed with money at night to poor families. Our tradition of hanging stockings probably comes from one of the best known stories in which Nicholas used his own money to save 3 daughters of a destitute family from being sold into prostitution. Legend says the girls had washed out their stockings and hung them on the windowsill to dry. Nicholas is said to have crept up to the open window at night and tossed in 3 bags of gold, thereby providing a dowry for the girls so they could win respectable suitors.
Many parts of the world celebrate Dec. 6th, St. Nicholas Day! “Authentic” stocking stuffers should include food because Nicholas fed the poor (Lifesavers—he is the patron saint of sailors); gold coins because he provided dowry; clothing and toys because he gave those items to the poor.
The gingerbread boy belongs to Dec. 6 because St. Nicholas was a special friend to children and is said to have baked bread himself with sugar and spices from exotic lands to hand out to the children. Even today you can find old cookie cutters that show the pointed miter of a Bishop for their heads!
Adapted from material by Patti Willburn

More info can be found here: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38

Sewing Room Remodel

With the delivery of the PODS unit Friday June 25th my long awaited sewing room project started.




The upstairs room was always supposed to be my craft room but over time became the junk room where anything and everything was dumped. We had old computer parts from the boys many upgrades, computer books going back to Windows 3.1, jugs of water from our Y2K supplies, and on and on.

Here's the before picture:



And 3 days later:



Finally empty:



And the PODS slowly filling up:





We rented a carpet cleaner and got that done July 3. Painted the ceiling and walls July 4.



That picture makes it look like mint green but it isn't. We like Devine paint
--the ceiling is Custard and the walls are Cypress



Next came track lighting. The only light in the room was by the door so Kent had to run wire to the middle of the room. We've had the track lighting units for years but hadn't gotten around to installing them. 2 days, 2 trips to Lowes, 2 trips to Home Depot, and some side errands to Ikea and grocery shopping later I have lights. We got Daylight CFLs. It looks dark because the camera was pointing right at the sunny window. Also pictured is my new Ikea desk (and Kent taking credit for all his hard work)...it will work for sewing until I get a real sewing table and then it will be come my painting desk as it fits perfectly in the cubby area by the door.

Friendship

Do you have friends who make you laugh? I’m not talking about a polite chuckle. I’m talking about laughing so hard you cross your legs, your stomach hurts, your hands sweat, you cry until your glasses steam up and your nose runs. Laughter that leaves you unable to talk and gasping for breath. THAT kind of laughter. Do you? I hope so! At work there are a couple people who can do that to me. I’m blessed by my friends.

Last night we had our sew night after work. Who would have thought that one person could get up off the floor where they had been quietly hand stitching and say something SO unexpected that it caused that kind of sustained laughter…and then went on to say something else that just made it worse (or better?). I’m still smiling as I write this. I’d love to give you the details but much like Vegas we have a rule…what happens on sew night stays at sew night.

Wishing you much laughter….

Food Wishes

Tristan is finishing up his 2nd year in Japan. As much as he loves it there when he comes home there are certain foods he looks forward to because he can't get them in Japan. I suspect lasagna fell off the list because while visiting him I figured out how he can make it in his toaster oven. He's coming home for the wedding so I got the following email with this year's list of food wishes:


I know it's gonna be busy, so if we don't get to all of it, that's cool, but this is what I've got so far.

Food to eat out/order in
Chinese food
Pizza (Papa Johns! extra garlic butter sauce!)
Burgerville
Gustav
Hawaiian Cafe
Taco bell for Tacos

Food at home:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/big-sur-bakery-hide-bread-recipe.html
honey nut cheerios
waffles
sourdough bread
Fajitas
chimichangas with mexican meat mix!
Connecticut beef supper
Steak dinner (with the typical side dishes) :)

We have 2 1/2 weeks to get as many things as possible checked off the list! Wish us luck!

Happy 4th!

Here's Patriotic Eeyore wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th!

Oliver

Can you find the kitty in the picture?


Oliver is my shy kitty. He's a big scaredy cat. You will never meet him. Not if he has anything to say about it!

Our backyard is fenced with a Purrfect Fence and while our installation didn't go as smoothly as planned it has been purrfect at keeping the cats in during the past year. But Oliver would run under the deck and hide and I believe the other kitties were using it as a litter box under there so we had to block it off.


After we did that Oliver got a little panicked because there was no where outside to hide. He spent a day in his house inside but eventually wandered back out. Then I went looking and I couldn't find him. We searched and searched and eventually I figured it out. Can you see him now?


AH HA!


Since I found him he figured he might as well come out...he loves me...or maybe he was trying to get away from the camera.


He is evidently very camera shy as well. I was trying to get pictures of him.


and when he saw the camera he actually GOT UP and turned around to face the wall!


His head was actually touching the wall. Silly boy! But oh so loveable.