Here we go again...

So that new years resolution of loosing a few pounds never actual works. I thought I'd try a resolution I might be able to keep up with... this here fanciful blog! It's still going to be about my kids, my craft and any other little tidbit I feel like sharing. Here we go:

This week has been filled with cake making and decorating (yes, the WEEK) My daughter (who you would've last seen here at the age of <1 is now 4 years old (hush!) What did she want for her birthday? A unicorn cake... A UNICORN CAKE!!!

Now if this had been Andrew, for sure I'd have made some three dimensional cake that actually looks like the horse. But you see... her birthday is the DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS! I just don't have the energy for that. So off to the internet we go...

Here's a few inspirations that I found:

The Unicorn cake made for Sparklecorn 2009 (if that's correct)
made by the Cakegirls of Chicago
pic courtesy of this nice blogger who must have been there: www.temporarilyme.com

I for SURE wasn't doing THAT! But it did also lead to this one:

Also for Sparklecorn (2011) This one was made by Charm City Cakes (West) photo courtesy of www.sweetney.com

Obviously I'm trying too hard... let's look for things more MY speed! Ok, here's something I can handle during the holiday season. I can bake a cake, I can use modeling things to make a little unicorn figure (I took a class for goodness sake!):

I love the colors on this one by Flickr user: JaneBK

This one was the winner though:

This is by Sachi Swick who makes some FANTASTIC cakes.

I loved this little figure and tried to create a little unicorn from that inspiration. I liked the rainbow cake from Whisk Kid (also seen on Martha Stewart) and decided that would be the cake.. cause... you know, unicorns and rainbows. Here's how it all went down:



1) The BEST cookbook- I used the White Birthday Cake recipe 2) There's no way around a mess for me 3) They look purdy in the pan 4) My own version of the unicorn 5) ok, so I got a little sloppy in the end... it's CHRISTMAS TIME gimme a break!




When you slice it open, a beautiful rainbow! (And it was delicious too!)

Oh no (said in a really deep child's voice)

Since April!?  What's wrong with this blogger?  Espcially since she's been out of school for almost two months!

It seems like there's always something happening.  Two weeks after school ended we had a family vacation to Fenwick Island, DE.  It was nice.  The house was AMAZING (like three hundred floors or something like that) it had a big deck, the in-laws brought their boat.  The weather was really nice.  This was the first time that the kids had ever been to the ocean let alone a beach.  

Needless to say I hate the beach so we stayed... let's see.... 45 minutes total!  I felt real bad because the oldest (who I assumed would be REALLY scared) loved chasing the waves.

Then my mom's cousin came down from NY for the week.  We went for the day to Busch Gardens.  Not much coaster riding, but we did (of course) ride the train...

His absolute favorite ride?  The.... slide.....

                                                                             

Then a trip to the mountains of West Virginia.  It was nice.  The weather was great.  What did he like best here?

Yep... you guessed it!

Pee-ah-cukoo-saaaaa-saup

This is not a recent saying but one my husband just reminded me of today.  It was a little song that Andrew would sing to himself.  We have no idea what he's really singing.  He happened to be singing a song from Thomas today and for a brief second we thought that was what he was singing...  I tried to get a picture of Andrew in his really cute Thomas engineer overalls but he moved too fast!

Anyway.... you see that I haven't posted in a while... What can I say?

Here's Olivia sitting in the Bumbo for the first time.... I think we have a winner!

I have exactly one week from today before I go back to work.  I'm not worried at all about Liv going to the sitters but Andrew (the escape artist) hasn't been there since before Christmas.  I need to start preparing him, and maybe myself too.

So right before Easter/Spring Break I made cupcakes to take to school as it was our (Cultural Arts Department) turn to bring in Goodies in the Lounge.  I looked for some cupcakes because I thought "Hey that's quick and simple"  Well of course I can't do ANYTHING quick and simple.  One of my favorite food blogs Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit had a tasty looking cupcake which I had to try and replicate.  It's a chocolate cupcake with a coconut frosting.  It tasted like a Mounds bar.  Here's the link to the recipe: yummy     And on the same note it's Cupcake Week on Martha Stewart.  She totally sold me on her Cookie book during cookie week.  What am I going to end up with this week?

A new blog I've been checking out is called the Soft Landing.  They've been doing a lot of reporting on BPA free products.  I didn't know much about that whole thing before Liv was born, but I did like the idea of going to glass bottles.  (I was a big fan of Dr Brown's with Andrew.)  Well they've been doing some pretty great giveaways one of which is for two BPA free kits.  The first is for beginning solid food eaters and the second is for the more advanced solid food eater.  Check them out...

Here's Liv with her GumDrop pacifier.  It smells yummy, like French Vanilla!

I'm so glad to see you!

Upon entering the house after having been gone for a while, I'm greeted with:  "Mommy, you're home!  I'm so glad to see you!" (He is two, you know?)

So approriately enough it's been really long time since my last post (I knew there was a reason I didn't start one of these sooner!)

Well.... I'm so glad to see you!  I think the pins went over pretty well because there were none left when I went back to school.  I've been working on a slideshow for a friend of my mom.  It's her parent's 50th anniversary.  There were 171 photos that I scanned in, cleaned up a bit in Photoshop and am now importing into one of the following Apple programs:  iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie.  I haven't decided which is worth its while to me.  None of them do what I want as quick as I want and/or what I want.

We got together with my mom and her brother for Easter dinner.  Afterwards we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens.  There weren't as blooming as I thought they would be, but it was gorgeous.

I tried to get both kids to sit with Peter Rabbit.  Liv cried and Andrew refused (that is until I convinced him that if he gave the rabbit five he would get a lollipop, and what wouldn't a boy do for a lollipop?)  See it there in the picture?  Andrew would barely sit with me...

On a very exciting note for me, I got my Martha Stewart Baby magazines in the mail today!  Although I've had too much going on at the moment, they're sitting right there (over my shoulder) waiting to be read.  I had looked on ebay originally for some copies.  The two most recent I'd looked at were a collection of, I think, three issues and four issues respectively.  Each auction went for over $50! WOW And that was without the shipping!  I called up Martha Stewart (the company, not the woman herself) and ordered some back issues.  With shipping included, it only cost me about $40.  Hmm....  maybe I need to go into business?!

Ok, have to go finish this slideshow.  Hopefully I'll post again before another week goes by!

So Beeg

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is one he's already stopped using... if you try to help him with something he's having a difficult time with, "no you can't do it, you're too beeg" or something might be so beeg. On the contrary he is so smwall (like a northern accent- which one?)

So Sunday, at the last minute I decided... Hey, I know!  I'm gonna make St. Patrick's Day pins for all of my co-workers at school. (In the past I've made pins for various special occasions.)  So I started about lunch time collecting all of the stuff I'd need.  The idea is from Martha Stewart (I've been using her site a lot lately, you can see it here.)  Anyway, this particular craft offers a template that you print out, attach some pipe cleaner shamrocks and ta-da!  Well I didn't have the regular pin backs so I started with gluing small safety pins.  They of course weren't holding up on their own so I concocted this method of gluing then holding them up with clothes pins.  

I took a break for a bit and gave Liv some tummy time in her crib.  She loves the mobile that her Gramma bought for her brother a few years back, so it's a great incentive to lift that tiny head!
So here's as far as I could get with the pins.  I think not enough for every adult (I believe there are more than 100, I made about 75.)  Anyway I sent along some pieces to my co art teacher so she could make more if anyone asked.  Did I mention that this picture was from 3am?  Yup!
So about the only thing I accomplised today was to start an embroidered onesie.  Uh, yeah.  I think I've found the craft that I don't like.  Well let's just say it looks terrible and I'm completely not satisfied with it and I don't think I have the guts to actual make one for a friend.  I mean, what if it looks terrible? (and it would)  I wouldn't want to have to pretend I like something someone made for me that looked like crap! 

Ok, off to bed early.  Is 10:30 early?  I guess it's better than 3am, huh?

Oh ganks...

So my mom and I had big plans to go to the local craft fair.  Got the kids all ready, (just about 2 hours! Two kids is hard!) picked up my mom, and made it so far as the first booth....

Then the tantrums began... and again, and again....

We made it through two ENORMOUS buildings in, I think, less than two hours.  Let's just say I really don't remember what I saw.  When we came home, my mom went outside with the two-year-old and played while I made puree for his meals for the week.  Has anyone made anything from the Sneaky Chef or her nemisis Deceptively Delicious?

So today my friend from school (I teach art to middle school students!) and I went to the show again, without a two-year-old!  It was nice.  I had the youngest in a sling (Hotslings, my fav by far) and got a tremendous amount of compliments.  (It sure is nice having a cute little baby attached to you!)  Anyway, I was able to get a couple of things this time...  something for a gift (can't say what or who in the case that that person is reading this right now) something for myself and something for the hot tub (or also for myself!) 

So here's the something for me.  It's a beeswax vase with birch bark and little flowers.  The tapers off to the side are matching.

While at the show, I was completely in love with this artist who paints sheep.  No, we're not talking about your typical pastoral scene.  It's called "Sheep Incognito" Check her work here.  There 

are so many that I want I can't even list them.  Ironically she was painting one while I was there that looked a lot like my little girl sitting in her sling right then!

On another note, we have a baby shower coming up and I've got the typical list of things I want to make.  I'm really inspired by this baby bouquet that Martha Stewart did on her show:

I've never been a big fan of artificial flowers, but I found these and I'm going to try it out!

I have some onesies I'm going to try to embroider (never done it before) and I'm waiting on some cute socks and hats to come in so I can put them all together.  There's no real directions on the Martha site, just a video where it shows you how to wrap the flowers.  I figure if I can't do it, I'll just wrap up the onesies, socks and hat together in a box!

Update:  I realize that I'm putting Andrewisms in my titles but that probably only makes sense to our family.  Oh ganks is, of course, oh thanks.  There are also other versions like:  oh gank you, no gank you and ganks mommy.  So I'll try and explain them better!

Your snacks are ready!

Like all two-year-olds, my son has got his own little sayings or phrases.  This is one I hear every time the microwave beeps:

YOUR SNACKS ARE READY!!!!!

Yes that's in all caps...  that's because of course all things said by a two-year-old are yelled.  You know, like on Austin Powers where he says he has problems controlling the volume of his voice?  Same here!

So this will be a snapshot of little sayings of his, things he or even his sister (... is it bad that I'm just now mentioning the sister?) have done.  I think I might post about things I do too.  You know there's always a list of things you want to accomplish, little projects you'd like to do/make.  Somehow that list never diminishes...

Well, here we go...