Here is a video for a song called "It's Amazing" by Jem. At first I watched it because her name is Jem- Helloooo! GEM?? I wanted to see if she was a worthy Namesake, and ended up inspired. My Favorite Lyric is " ...nothing can compare to deserving your Dream."

It's Shake and Bake... and I helped!!

The weather here has been more warm than cold lately and this has prompted me to want to let girl go bump around in the yard more- only problem is that we have a not-so-private or attractive chain-link fence around our yard, and it's just off a busy street with some foot-traffic. Also, I realized that once the girl gets out there she has only a couple of choices of things to do- play with a ball or, um, pick up sticks?? So- inspired to give her something to wrap her imagination around- Hubby and I decided to build a playhouse for her this past weekend. We got the Frame together Sunday, and she already spent three hours playing outside with the neighbor kids yesterday. I also used the opportunity to learn how to wield a circular saw. (And no, I didn't hurt anyone doing it!) Girl and I primed the frame and wall-boards yesterday, breaking in her overalls with some respectable splotches of Primer, and Hubby stayed out after dark to put the walls on. It is progressing nicely, and I am pretty excited to get it done. I would guess that it won't really get done until this coming sunday, but we are sticking with it- that's the one thing Hubby and I love- a good building project. So hopefully I will have finished pictures to post by next week. In the meantime, here is a pic of where we were as of Sunday evening!

My Snuggie and me, we can climb up a tree!

I love my Snuggie!! It was actually a Valentine's present from the Hubby, but I was so happy to get one! My four-year-old daughter immediately exclaimed "...and you'll have the freedom to use your arms!!" I think she might watch a bit too much television...

Try try again

Yesterday was the Hubby's birthday. He is so old! (I can say that because I'm actually two years older) so I tried to actually make a birthday cake from scratch. Technically it was a bunch of little cakes- strawberry shortcakes to be exact. I have always claimed to love baking (more than cooking) and yet never really bother with it anymore. More than anything lately, I find myself reading websites with great cooking and baking and creative ideas but not ever getting around to actually doing any of it. I always blame my weird and unpredictable work schedule for this lack of action, but the truth is, I think, that I have just plain gotten lazy. I remember spending whole days in my teenage years in my room hot-gluing fabric to those little green plastic berry-baskets from the supermarket. I made scrapbook style photo albums (of course that was before you could just store digital images on your computer, and before someone decided that "Scrapbooking" was a hobby to be marketed) which I still have and look through from time to time.

I did pretty good with the shortcakes, despite putting an extra egg-white into the dough ( a real-life reminder to read any new recipe thoroughly before beginning). They weren't very puffy, but they tasted fine, especially once I heaped the strawberries and real whipped cream on them, but I am still going to try again today.

I also will start carving out time in my day to spend "in my Workroom." I seem to have developed this unneccessary "rule" that I should only create things that have a use. It's not a terrible rule, but I think its keeping me from just going in there and puttering around- and that is keeping me from the process that makes for the best discoveries. So, onward and upward- to the workroom, that is!