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!

Love Is...

When Children Ages 4-8 were asked What Love Is

Courtesy of Spirit Daily

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca - age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day..'

Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it But if you mean it, you should say it a lot.. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8


And the final one:

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Happy Valentines Day to everyone! I hope you spend it telling those you love how much they mean to you.

Amanda

Why I gave up on "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"

I stopped reading it on purpose- and it may be the only book I've ever started reading which I consciously chose not to finish I didn't think it was engaging at all, and as a result the title made me angry whenever I picked it up- like "HA HA! SUCKER!" I wanted it to at least be sarcastic or funny or, oh... I don't know... ACTUALLY GOOD??

If I had easy access to a helicopter, I'd fly to Chicago this weekend

I have alot of friends there whom I haven't seen in ages, yet I live only hours away.

If I were a superhero, I would certainly wear tights

My Superhero name would be Supermom. I would be able to make things happen just by thinking about them. I could get the dishes and laundry done just by seeing the clean dishes in the cabinets and the clean laundry folded in the drawers in my mind. I could make a gourmet meal just by seeing the food on the plate. The only catch would be that I would have to wear a special mind-wave blocking hat at all times, removing it only when I wanted to use my powers- this hat would prevent all the worrying I do from coming true by the power of thought.

Lust

I am currently lusting after this Reclaimed-Wood bed from Sundance Catalog. It showed up on one or two of my favorite design blogs a week or so ago, and I love it like I have loved no other bed before. We don't have anything near a bedroom set, and that means no headboard whatsoever- just our mattress on a bed-frame. I don't know why, but not having at least a headboard has always made our bedroom look more makeshift to me than anything else in our hodgepodge of a home.

Our house is furnished with 99% hand-me-down furniture, and a few select home-made items thanks to the Hubby's woodworking capabilities. The only furniture in our house that we have actually picked out and purchased is the two couches in our living room. Everything else, besides four bookshelves, and my worktable-top is "inherited" which means that my mother in law decided sometime in the past thirteen years that she didn't want or need it anymore, so it showed up in our house. The hand-me-downs are really not bad- they are usually good enough quality, though they are usually a couple of decades old at least, and they show it aesthetically... not to mention that they usually don't quite fit our needs exactly, so they are only about 50%-70% useful for their assignments in our house.


Added to that is the fact that we rent an old house which was obviously owned by deranged do-it-yourselfers with little need for closets, so we end up having to find jury-rigged solutions for issues such as no coat closet (that's the easiest solution- though hanging the coats on hooks by the back door means that I need to Febreeze my coats after any cooking involving breakfast meats or onions) or no Linen storage anywhere, or no closet at all in the largest bedroom in the house. And the fact that we rent means that we don't want to really fix these problems for the owners and contribute to someone else's bottom-line instead of our own..


One day soon I'll get to grow up all the way and buy a house and make it perfect for us, but in the meantime, I think I have some re-purposing to do...

A little diversion

Here's a little list of questions I felt like answering after seeing it on a blog- feel free to respond in the comments with your own list of answers to these questions!!

1. 3 living things you treasure

My Parents and Sisters
My Hubby
My Daughter

2. 3 non-living things that you treasure

Painting my dad put me in 'cause it was my (11th?)birthday.
Ceramic Christmas tree that was Jason's Grandmom's
Box my dad made and painted for me.

3. favorite time of the year and why

Fall- I love the crisp weather, the changing colors, the leaves on the ground, wearing jeans and sweaters but not a coat.

4. favorite things to wear

JEANS, Sweaters, my Fluffy White cotton-terry robe, my awesome Clarks slippers

5. are you a perfume wearer ? If yes, which one? / top 3 favorite smells

Summer: Demeter Honeysuckle
Winter: Calvin Klein Contradiction

6. favorite animal

Don't really have a favorite animal

7. top three events in your life(so far)

Marrying my Hubby (12 years ago! wow!)

Birth of my Daughter

Don't have a third one that rates as high as the other two yet...

8. top three favorite small pleasures

Long, Hot Showers
A good book that I can't put down
Shrimp

9. top 3 favorite places in the world( you have visited or would like to visit)

I would like to visit too many places to list- I want to see the whole world!!

10. top 3 favorite sounds

Birds Chirping

The soft quiet of a snowy/snowing night

Water sounds

11. top 3 favorite things to eat

Hubby's Homemade "Awesome Bread" with olive oil and herbs dip
a really good Caesar salad
Cheesecake

12. 3 favorite favorites right now! (from etsy or elsewhere)

cloche hats
cuddly sweaters
big cozy afghans (can you tell it's winter??)

13. 3 small ways someone has made your day lately

The Wig supervisor on Happy Days saying he was hoping to get to work with me again.
Jason cleaned the Kitchen last night.
Sam cuddled with me this morning.

14. 3 small habits/quirks you have that make you specifically you!

I am contrary- I don't like to be predictable/ I am not interested in mainstream.
I am sassy- you know I'm comfortable around you when I start ribbing/sassing you.
I am unfailingly optimistic- I will always spin a situation to the positive.