Make It & Taste It

Whoo-Hooo! I am so excited! I am teaching 2 new classes at Memory Bound, our local scrapbook store in Ankeny. Dawn, one of the owners had a great idea for a class where everyone brings a recipe to share with the group, then also makes it to share with everyone. Then we have a mini crop and make pages to hold all the recipes to fit into the album. She mentioned it to me at one of our Design Team meets, and I loved the idea too so we decided to go for it for the fourth quarter! Below is the album (American Crafts, 8.5x11) I designed and the first divider page and a couple pages to hold the recipes. Our first class is in October, we are starting with Eggs and Breakfast. I'm so excited!!!

Isn't this floral BoBunny paper the prettiest stuff ever! I love the colors in it!

Photos are completely optional for the class. LAD loves to help me with cooking so I have some great shots of him. Plus he has this totally cool Chef's hat and Apron, thanks Aunt Suzie! This also showed an alternative way of having hidden photos or journaling and using a page protector, and then cutting the page protector to allow the viewer to see the hidden treasures!

These pages use the Flair paper. These recipe cards are as old as dirt. I think I picked them up at a bazzare or something many many moons ago and they work perfectly!

Patterned papers: Flair and BoBunny, Bazzill cardstock, ribbon, bakers twine, tab punch.

If you live in the area, come join us for some fabulous food and creativeness!!!

The other class I'm teaching is a Christmas Card class, in November. I'll post those samples soon.

Spiders and Butterflies!

We went out to the back yard Saturday evening and picked a few things out of the garden. We took a couple cukes over to Denny and Linda's back deck and I had walked back to our yard (to wash our last non- rotten pumpkin we picked) and LAD was investigating D & L's swing set,
then finally came running thru to our yard and when he did he scattered a huge batch of Monarch butterflies that were apparently trying to roost in the trees and his activity appeared to stir them up (or at least that's when I noticed them!) So we stood around and watched the sky swirling with "beautiful butterflies". LAD was very excited. I had to go inside for the BIG camera, the Canon point and shoot just wasn't cutting it! I got a few nice shots, considering I had my white balance on preset and didn't realize it until later. It actually really saturated the colors, so it turned out OK. I'd never seen so many flittering about, it was quite fascinating!

And luckily I spotted this big fat spider and her (his?) big fancy web _before_ I walked thru it! I pointed it out to LAD and he came up and looked at it, then backed off. He was worried I was going to touch it as I was getting pretty close to it to take the pictures. No worries, I'm not going to touch it. I'm sure it's quite harmless, but still, no. I think spiders are the one crawly type critter I like least. Not afraid to see them, etc, just eullllll (uninteligible sound that can't be spelled). I think it stems from living with brown recluse spiders while growing up. They get into places (clothes, sheets, coats) that you don't want them to get and eullllllll. Can you say shake, shake, shake everything. Eulllllll....

To the Zoo

This was last Saturday. It was a mild day with some overcast. Surprisingly, the animals were very active! I think LAD loved the fish tanks and the trains the best!!! He walked the entire way around but started dragging just past half way, after playing on the playground! But he did it and we saw it all (basically!). And the rocks were the best in the gift shop. And look at all those PINK ones!! You could buy a tiny little bag for $6.00, but we passed and just played with them!

Our Food

The garden is finally overflowing of tomatoes, the cherries and the big ones. The bell peppers have finally decided to make now. They are loaded. The jalapenos have gone gang busters all summer, like normal. I think they could grow in a total drought. There were 3 acorn squash that were close to ready, I thought I better get them picked, before the squash bugs eat them up. One was very tiny, no larger than a baseball, but it was dark green. It was so cute! I've never had one so small!!!
LAD was very helpful picking tomatoes, he loves to pick the cherry ones. Then he moved on to the jaleps.
And we had 3 new strawberries tonight. Two were a nice size, the third was a micro sized one, slightly larger than a good sized pea! But it was red and ripe and later when I put the three pitiful things on a plate after supper, LAD wanted to share, so I ate the micro one. It was actually very sweet (the boy and the berry). And he promptly gobbled the other two, apparently they were very good. He also licked the juice from the plate. Apparently not enough for him either!!!

My Three Lloyds

This was last Friday night. The daycare had a "back to school" potluck. There was a huge turn out and LAD got to play with some of his friends. As you can see they held it at a park, with a very nice playgound set with swings, etc. LAD is a climber and zipped right up the climbing wall that it had, then zoomed down the slide. He could hardly stay away from all of it long enough to eat, but managed a few bites. Then he took Grandpa Airplane back to swing for a while. It finally started to get dark when we left, LAD reluctantly or course. The group picture, he was mad he couldn't go back and play more. Notice he has no shoes, they were shucked at some point during playing in the pea gravel! Grandpa Airplane is looking more Santa'ish this year. His beard is whiter, and it looks like he trimmed it up some, maybe just for the potluck? He went back to MO the next morning, and we went to Minn to send Randy off to AK on Sunday. LAD keeps asking where's "Daddy and G'pa Airplane?" Too hard for a almost-3-year-old to understand!

I can't believe it, I did it...

The stars must have aligned on Saturday AM, I did it, I splurged and signed up for this! I would never have dreamed of being able to attend this workshop, but it just so happens it's the weekend after the DRMS Spring Workshop in Raleigh. Normally I wouldn't even go in 2009, it would have been Amy's turn, but since she is having a baby in January, she won't be going. So I get to go again and that meeting is from Tues-Thursday AM, the Inspired. Artist Workshop is Thursday PM thru Sunday. Stars begin aligning. It won't cost me anything to get there, aside from a rental car from Raleigh to Charlotte (Concord). Procrastinate. It's a lot of $$. I kept forgetting to talk to Randy about it, then on Saturday morning I got an email saying there's only 50 spots left, shit. Randy's not gone to AK yet, he's here, I can ask him about it now. "Go for it". So I'm going for it!

September 1, Adventures in the sandbox

We filled in the sandbox part of the playhouse today. LAD brought over the fire engines and they promptly got buried. He had to rescue them. It's hard to believe it's September already. We took Randy to Minn Saturday and he headed to AK yesterday. It's pretty quiet around here today!

The World's Smallest Head of Broccoli

After looking it up at dictionary.com and learning to spell it, I think this might possibly be the smallest head of broccoli ever! Whatever had been eating on these plants must have moved on because they finally look like they are growing, but just a little too late! But they are hardy, as all 3 plants were eaten down to no leaves and just spindly little stems poking out of the ground. And look at them now, at least one plant. The only one currently trying to bear fruit. One broccoli bite to go with one strawberry bite! BTW, we have a couple ripening strawberries, I better check them again tomorrow night or they will be half eaten by some critter, a squirrel I suspect.

Playground-Part 5-Final installment

Grandma Airplane was here last weekend to take aerial photos. And she also got to help assemble the climbing wall, tunnel and tower roof. I've lost track of all the hours we've actually put into assembling this monster, but who cares. We had fun doing it and the whole family (at least those who dared travel north to IA during assembly) got to be involved!!!

Now the ongoing challenge will be mowing around it! Thankfully it's approaching fall, then winter, so it won't be such a headache until NEXT summer! LAD definitely is enjoying it and it's his favorite popsicle-eating-spot. And it swings really good too!

Playground-Part 4

So it's finally assembled. It's already been added on to-the climbing wall and tunnel were added a few days after it was completely assembled. And now it's anchored to the ground, so we're in the
playground business!

LAD even had company over to play on it-our neighbor and her granddaughter came over to check it out and she (5 years) pushed LAD on the swing. She could even grab the yellow bar
thing without help and after LAD watched her a few times, he was trying to "jump" up and grab the handles. He's got a couple inches to go yet for that. But he does hang from them if you lift him up. It's still not weather-sealed, but Randy did buy a jug of the stuff, so now I just have to get it on. Eventually...