Where Did July Go?

The Bug helping me paint his room. He took the low road and I took the high road.

Now I know why I haven't done a Christmas in July celebration for my shop. This year was going to be the year and then reality set in.

Happy 4th: my patriotic boy

July is probably the busiest month of the year for us (well maybe next to December). It starts with the Fourth of July, then our wedding anniversary on the 9th, our peanut's birthday a few days after that and projects and gardens to be tended to all the while. Before I know it the month has passed.

My husband, the Bug, my niece and nephew at the beach on the Bug's birthday.

Full of P&V. He left with mommy shortly after.

There were so many things I wanted to do this month, like attend a reunion with fellow NRM Music alum. Some of the best folks I ever had the pleasure of working with but, unfortunately, after taking care of the obligations, I missed the weekend (it was this weekend and I had a hair appointment Saturday)
 

My niece Olivia's Hamster sculpture

My nephew, AJ's angry m&m (which his mother and I re-dubbed the 'killer tomato' since he decided not to paint the 'm' on it)

My niece Iris's painted pig.

I spent the last two weeks watching my nieces and nephew while my sister worked so Monday through Friday I was unplugged and madly trying to keep up with the house! The beginning of the first week we made paper clay sculptures and my nephew made a model car, we celebrated my Bug's birthday and later in the week, the younger two made wood puzzles while my older niece worked on a needlepoint project.  The girls spent much of both weeks learning to sew. Just the basic whip stitch and blanket stitch but they got very good at it over the time they were at my house. We watched many movies because of the heat wave, would have liked to take them to more places but my car doesn't have AC right now and I don't tolerate the heat well. Can I just say, I am so happy we only have one little boy in the house. Always wanted a houseful but after the past couple of weeks I decided that God always knows best :o)

I also managed to register for classes, register the Bug for preschool, get outgrown clothes ready for a yard sale and list a bunch of new ornaments in my etsy shop.  All in all a very productive, albeit exhausting, month.

Up next: a Garden update.

Aj's skelton puzzle

Olivia's butterfly puzzle

Iris and her pig. Really Aunt Kelly? you have to take my picture? Yep! That's what I do :o)

Yes, our home is a pretty fun place much of the time

Bug creating a masterpiece

 

It's been awhile!

It's been a pretty hectic week for me! My 40th Birthday was Saturday, no special plans, my mom came out and took us to dinner and bought me a nice gift. My husband and I argued about things that never should have come up on my birthday and that he just can't drop once he gets fixated(a long story that has to do with a waste of human flesh that he for some unbeknown reason tangled himself up with and a legal battle that is absolutely corrupt and ludicrous!!)My little one scared the begeezus out of me when he fell off the couch, almost choked on an animal cracker, went limp and then came back to normal!! I told him he is never allowed to scare mommy like that again!!! I've been trying to keep up with all 3 blogs, my astrology group, 2 businesses, my holiday window proposal all while trying to keep the house somewhat in order!! I've introduced Halloween Play Dough(busy little elf) and Gingerbread Cookie ornaments (busy little Christmas elf). I've been working on mostly Christmas things since I've just been accepted to do a juried craft show the first weekend in December.

40 obscure things about me!

In honor of my upcoming 40th birthday, I thought I would post 40 obscure facts about me that most people probably don't know( yeah, I know...that IS what obscure means!![see number 5]:-)

1. I love Tim Burton films(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is my favorite but Big Fish reminds me of my dad before he died so it's my sentimental favorite)
2. I'm Godmother to my best friend's daughter, Brigid (and they call me her fashionable godmother)
3. I love John Cusack( Too bad guys like him don't exist in the real world!)
4. I'm fiercely independent and have been since an early age(and it doesn't make marriage easy)
5. I love to read the dictionary when I'm bored...okay, even when I'm not bored!
6. I've studied astrology since the age of 20(give or take a year, my mom studied since I was a small child!)
7. I went to CCS-CAD (Center for Creative Studies-College of Art and Design in Detroit, MI)
8. I was disappointed as a little girl (2 or 3) when I found out the cherub 'sculpture' was not a decoration for my bedroom but part of the swag lighting in the bathroom. [My dad built our house and he had the pieces for the lamp in my unfinished bedroom;-(]
9. My first nail polish was dark purple
10. The first song I remember liking was Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"(heard it at a wedding when I was about 5)
11. I have 1 older sister, a brother-in-law, 2 nephews and 2 nieces
12. I'm pigeon-toed (although as I've aged it doesn't seem as noticeable unless I'm very tired)
13. I have an astigmatism with one ovoid eye and one cone shaped eye ( well I did mention obscure facts, didn't I?)
14. I took driver's ed at 16 but didn't get my license until I was 22(my family didn't have a car I could practice with and take my test in)
15. I was in 2 car accidents in 2 months(to the day, March 15 and May 15) when I was in high school. Both times other people were driving but it spooked me into thinking I was jinxed and would die in a car accident before I was 21(so I was superstitious)
16. My Grandmother died the day before my birthday, my uncle the day after my birthday (not the same year...Thank Goodness!)
17. Out of 18 biological aunts and uncles only 2 remain (both aunts on my mom's side)
18. I'm 50% polish and 50% mutt(German, Scottish, English, Irish and Dutch)
19. My hair was spiked like Robert Smith of the Cure when I was in my late teens and early 20's (and they are one of my all-time favorite bands)
20. I looked up to and wanted to be like Cyndi Lauper when I was in high school and I still admire her.
21. I loved Danny Elfman (and Oingo Boingo) back in high school and still do.( WEIRDOS UNITE!!)
22. I've always chosen my friends on the quality of their character and remain loyal to my menagerie of friends ( whether I am still in contact with them or not, they are still my friends!)
23. I like cats better than dogs
24. My childhood cat, Spottie and my single life cat, Teddy, were both born on July 4 (and to date they are my two favorite cats although my current cat Oscar ranks up there too!)
25. I met my husband on E-harmony
26. I love all spotted big cats(snow leopards, ocelots, Persian leopards, jaguars) and Lynx
27. I love Canada and would love to live there someday
28. When I was a teenager I used to go down to the lake at the end of our street (it's a little one called Erie...) and I would imagine that my real family was across the way in Canada (sure I look like my mother but when you are a teenager and not so happy you imagine a better place, mine was Canada)
29. My favorite sport is HOCKEY!!( I have a hierarchy of NHL teams) but I didn't like it until I was 26ish
30. I wanted to go to New York City(Parsons) to be a fashion designer
31. My current dream life is to have a small Christmas Tree Farm/boutique in New Brunswick (Michigan would be okay too!)
32. My favorite color is deep vibrant red (but until recently was purple..I go back and forth between the two)
33. I love Moose
34. I managed a music store for 7 years ( and always liked Annie Potts character in "Sixteen Candles")
35. My first boyfriend was Brian Hood and he worked at Record Carnival (and he was probably the nicest boy I ever dated)
36. I love Chucks!
37. One of my favorite places is the Cleveland Museum of Art
38. House cleaning is definitely not my forte
39. My favorite car was a used '94 red Acura Integra
40. I would love to meet Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra or the Dalai Lama

Birthday Boy

The highlight of a first birthday party! It was a great day and the only low point, besides the balloons getting tangled on the way outside, was the scraped nose. (which was really no big deal)
His cake was yummy, but didn't look over the top due to the high humidity which caused the sea anemone to self destruct over night. The good thing about working in a bakery for 1 1/2 years is I learned how to quickly decorate a cake so it looks presentable, and quite honestly after the homemade frosting separated the night before the anemone fell apart, I was pretty impressed with how good the finished cake did look. Best of all, it tasted great, which, let's be honest, is way more important!

Winding down

I love the culmination of anything. Case in point, the little boy's birthday party.
If you have been reading along, I tend to get carried away with plans of what I'm going to do. Everything starts out so grandiose in my creative mind, then reality sets in. The husband doesn't come home from work on time and doesn't call to let me know when to expect him, the dog needs to go out more often than normal, errands take twice as long as planned, the baby won't take his naps and all creative plans fly out the window. The bright side, and the part I love the most, everything still comes together, I'm usually a whirling dervish trying to get done the absolute essentials(in this case, the birthday cake) but everything does come together. Sure it's less grand than anticipated but I'm the only one who knows how grand that truly was and there's always next time. My 35th birthday party was a prime example of this, I had truly remarkable images of what it could be. It wasn't the image in my mind's eye but it was well worth the effort and memorable I would think to many of our guests. Same with our wedding 3 years ago. In that case, we were tight on cash so I had to do WAY more than I would ever take on again (feeding 35 people when you are also the bride probably not the brightest of ideas!!) But the reality of that day was many of our 35 guests commented on how wonderful our wedding was and that it was one of the nicest they had attended to date. Not because it was over the top but because it was down to Earth, accessible and heartfelt. The handmade aspect was minimal but added to the overall simplicity and lets be honest, allowed us to keep our costs down.(our entire wedding and honeymoon cost us less than $1500)It also allowed us to offer a menu we could not have afforded to get catered. We served Cantonese BBQ pork, tri colored asian slaw, dim sum, rice, vegetarian spring rolls and they were all homemade and very, very yummy! Basically what I'm saying is what's essential is what ends up coming together and all that extraneous stuff falls by the wayside. The same will be said of my little one's birthday party, but truth be told he is the most important part of the day (and the best thing I ever made and we all know I really had very little to do with that, I was basically a condo for 9 months)!

Birthday cake

Let me just say, just because you are capable of doing something doesn't necessarily mean you should do it! Case in point, my boy's cake topper. In hindsight, I wish they made a Finding Nemo cake pan that I could have decorated with my little star tip and we'd be done. Oh no, that would be too easy. My topper has taken on a life of its own. I have started recreating a coral reef, while it is fun, I have a one year old I have to keep entertained and engaged. This is not an easy task while covered in gumpaste! It really goes back to me and why I have to recreate the actual environment in Nemo and the only answer I can come up with is that I can. So going back to my opening sentence, just because you are capable of doing something doesn't mean you should do it!

Watercolors!

I have the palettes for the kids watercolor paints and I hope to have them listed within the next few days. I'm still working on the boy's birthday cake and have my wedding anniversary in a couple days so I probably won't be able to get much more than that accomplished before Sunday. I always think that I can get so much more done than I actually can! I guess I do get a lot accomplished, it's just the things that I don't plan on getting done or the things I forget to schedule the right amount of time for. Like errands! Today it took us nearly 3 hours to get all our errands done! That's just ridiculous! Oh well, it's time to turn in for the evening, after all our running today, and working out in the yard, I'm a wee bit tired! Sweet Dreams!!!

birthday preps and a monkey on his back

Well, I'm trying to make headway on the little one's birthday cake. Here's a picture of my first (failed)attempt at royal icing coral. I need to thicken the icing a little more. It was very damp yesterday so I think that's why it didn't work well. Very soupy! Today I hope to find a store open that has fondant or marzipan so I can start making his Nemo and Squirt cake toppers. Also, the bug and I went to the store yesterday and I let him walk on his own. I bought him a monkey backpack harness with a leash of sorts, yeah, I know, some people think it's ludicrous to put a leash on your child but I worked in a mall for years and I think it's more ludicrous to let your child run out in front of you unattended!! He loved it! He walked the entire perimeter of the superstore and tired himself out! Here's a picture of Bug with his monkey on his back!

a new adventure!

OK, my baby turns 1 in about a week, give or take a day or two. I splurged! My little one LOVES to go on adventures, usually they are of the errand variety but for his birthday I bought him a front mounted bike seat and bike helmet so when daddy's away at work, mommy and boy can play.Now mind you, I haven't biked for awhile but I used to and quite honestly I missed it. I think it is good to show your kids an active lifestyle and lately mine has been anything but! SO! Bike we will. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm sure the bug will love it, I'm just hoping I don't give myself a heart attack peddling an extra 25 pounds around!!:)

Brief Hiatus

Well the baby's first birthday is in a couple weeks so I'm going to take a brief hiatus so I can work on his birthday cake and party plans. I'll continue to be working on my projects so I may post some pictures if they warrant it.
If you're in the USA, have a happy & safe fourth of July. Lovely Canadian neighbors, Have a wondrous Canada Day!! I love your Country and your people, such a fine lot you are!!!

our little squirt!

So the little one turns 1 in a month. He loves Nemo(we think because he loves orange) and has both Nemo and Squirt plush from the Disney Store. Squirt seems to be his buddy, we take him everywhere (I actually panicked once and even called daddy at work because I couldn't find him when we were getting ready to leave one day. After looking everywhere, I found him under the floor of the pack n play!!!) Anyway, this was the invitation I came up with for his party (since they don't seem to make any with Squirt) I'm going to make his cake with a Nemo theme, get balloons in orange and ocean blue and of course get all the cute party supplies with Nemo et al. If the cake comes out nicely I'll post photos of it and instructions, too!

Possible Birthday Cupcake!

This is Pink Cupcakes YUMMY looking black forest cupcake. Since I'm turning 40 this year, am the baker in the house and really don't need a full cake to celebrate the day, I think this may be my choice for birthday yumminess! Anyway, check out PinkCupcakes5.etsy.com and pick your poison!!