Toasted Pecans

MMMMMMM, we love them. We went for a flashlight walk tonight with a big flashlight carried by Mike and I (well, ONE of us carried it, it's not THAT big), and a small one that was the prize possession of two small boys and was passed very reluctantly back and forth between them every few minutes. It was a little chilly outside, so we all wore our jackets (I promise I'm getting to the pecan part of this story) and took a short walk around the neighborhood. I was quite cold by the time we got home, but I don't think the boys felt a thing, they just LOVE to be outside. When we were almost home, I decided that ice cream sounded good. Crazy, I know, but it did.

And this is the pecan part. When I was over at Bonnie's house a while back, she made me the yummy dinner with toasted pecans on the salad, and again on the ice cream. Well, I recreated the ice cream she had made me, with a drizzle of maple syrup on top and covered with toasted pecans. Griffin had been whining and pouting because he didn't want me to toast his pecans, but he took one bite and... well, I have never seen his ice cream disappear that quickly, and that's saying something!!

He then proceeded to beg from everyone else. "Are you going to eat your "Buh-cahns?"" he asked everyone at the table. He got pecans from Daddy, but Mommy was feeling a little stingy and didn't want to give hers up. Hey, I like them too! He even got some of the remaining ones from the pan and added them to his "pudding"... you know, the ice cream that has melted in the bottom of your bowl. I think he has a new favorite dessert!

MACM (Wednesday) # 5

Okay, so I forgot to take pictures of the ever-so-fabulous gift I gave to Bonnie, but I may be able to have her take a picture of it and send it to me so that I can post it here. Instead, I am posting a picture of a card I made (a pack of ten cards, actually) for my Grandma for her 80th birthday. Her birthday was actually on February 4th, but she came here to visit so that she could be at a jazz concert my brother Wesley was playing in.

We had a fun visit, and I got to spend some time with her and Mom as we went to look for a piece of jewelry -- also for her birthday, from my mom -- and went to Einstein Brothers for lunch, and visited a super-fun little shop called "Something Else" that was just chock-full of those crafty kinds of things that we could so easily make ourselves but never (make?) time to actually do.

Then we got to spend time with Aunt Susan and Uncle John, my cousin Alison and also Christy's family, eating dinner and hanging out before we all went to the concert and were totally wowed by all of the amazing musicians displaying their talents. I was wiping away tears more than once. Especially when Wesley stood there all by himself and played an amazing solo on his trumpet, so clear and beautiful, even though he was using a mute of some kind... it actually reminded me of Mardi Gras music, but the song was called Meetin' Time, and was reminiscent of a black church service down south. A baby in the audience even cried once while they were playing the song, how appropriate!

Anyway, back to the card. I used some textured lavender cardstock from Archiver's as the base of the card, and layered it with Wild Wasabi, Eggplant Envy (retired) and Whisper White, which are all from Stampin Up!... the ribbon is some lavender I picked up from Wal-Mart. I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons to watercolor the design after stamping it in Stazon ink. The stamp is from the "Long-Time Friend" set.

I love the way the colors all came together, and the card reminds me of spring and summer and all of the warmth and beauty that comes when the sun shines and warms up the earth... boy, I think I need some coffee. Or hot tea. And some warm fuzzy socks. Something to warm up my cold fingers and toes.

I'm going upstairs to do that, and I'll curl up and read a good book while I'm at it (the boys and the girl I'm babysitting are all asleep! yay!).

Because I've been a slacker...

I haven't posted a Make A Card Monday this week, and I have a good excuse, really, I do. I have been working tirelessly (okay, I have been getting SOME rest) on the lovely baby shower we will have for Bonnie tomorrow. Can you tell I hang out with this gal a lot? Yeah, well, she's totally worth all of the trouble we (me and Heather, another good friend of Bonnie's) have gone to to get this shower put together. And I must admit, I have had a BLAST doing it, too. Maybe I should go into the party planning busine.....NAH. But it has been fun while it lasted. I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon. I want to make Bonnie cry. Only because I know I will be crying too; I'm such a big baby when it comes to this stuff. Baby. Hah.

I promise I will post MACM in two days, because I have something really cool that I have been working on for quite a while, but I can't post it yet, because it's a surprise for said shower tomorrow. Don't get your panties in a wad, I'll post it soon!

Meanwhile, here is a creation I worked on one morning. When Mike came up for lunch, he saw it and didn't say anything. Then Griffin said "Hey, Daddy!! Mommy made a PIE!!!

And Mike said "Mommy didn't make THAT!"

Which just goes to show how much confidence he has in my pie-making skilz. And yes, I do have skilz. I love me some pie, and when I make one, I put my heart and soul into it. Actually, he said that it was truly a compliment to say that my pie looked store-bought. So I accepted his statement and gave him a piece.




OH! And here is a picture of the bouquet Mike gave me on Valentine's Day. I had a rather unpleasant "yearly checkup" at the ob/gyn that day, and he knew how much I had been dreading it. He came home while I was at the doctor's office and left this on the table for me to find when I got home. Isn't that just too sweet? He knew it would make me smile... and I did. :-)



Here is the recipe for the pie.

Valentine's Day Pie

1 Graham Cracker pie crust

2 boxes banana cream instant pudding mix

1 small container strawberry cream cheese

chocolate chips (1/2 bag? 1/4 bag?)

*make pudding according to "pie filling" directions

*pour pudding into graham cracker crust

*fill decorating bag (I used the star tip) with cream cheese

*make two circles of stars around the outside of the pie

*make one circle of chocolate chips

*two more circles of stars

*one more circle of chocolate chips

*one more circle of stars, with a big star in the center

and you have yourself one very yummy pie

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

We had Bonnie and Caleb over the other night for "tacos"... I make flat shells, so what would that be? Tostadas? They all just get crunched up into taco salad anyway. It was a yummy meal, followed by a multitude of various kinds of ice cream and Italian Gelato.

Then we all migrated into the TV room and snuggled up on the couch to watch The Little Mermaid. Can anybody say "Under the Sea"? da-da-da-daaa-daaaa-da-daa-daa-daa-daa

Yeah. Good times.

The movie was almost over when I glanced at Sammy and saw this.

and this...

Oh. My. Goodness. It was just too cute.

MACM # 4 -- Happy Valentine's Day!!

I'm really going to have to change it to "Make a Card Tuesday" if I keep this up. Mondays have just not been working out for me. But here are a few cards, anyway. The one on top is the card we made at the Stampin' Up! club meeting last night -- we have meetings once a month, and I wouldn't miss it! SO much fun, and a real stress reliever for me. Our demonstrator, Kim DePugh, helped us make these cards using the "emboss resist" technique, where we embossed the white hearts onto white cardstock and then rubbed pink ink all over the cardstock. Where the embossed hearts are, no ink shows up. Cool, huh? I love the effect.

And here are the ones I have made myself over the past few weeks. Yes, technically I did not make them on Monday, but I can still show them off. :-)

Spider, Schmeider

We were eating lunch today, and I saw a spider on the ceiling. It was one of those "flat" ones that is about quarter-sized and can make itself almost completely flat. Strangely enough, I have never seen one anywhere but on the ceiling.


Well, being the brave soul that I am, I wanted to find out if it was alive. So I blew as hard as I could, hoping that the air flow would stir the spider and make it move.


Why, exactly, I would want to make a creepy-crawly spider MOVE, and thus creep myself out even MORE, I have no earthly idea, but I guess maybe it is just my dark side coming out. So there I was, blowing for all I was worth, and the darn thing wouldn't move!


So of course I went to the kitchen and grabbed a towel.


I proceeded to flap the towel in the general direction of the spider, preparing myself to run in the other direction (I didn't know WHICH "other" direction, just anywhere but DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH said spider) if the spider so much as lifted a toenail...er...a leg-hair?


The spider didn't move.


Griffin had been saying something -- apparently TO ME -- the whole time I had been placing myself in harm's way (because everybody knows that all spiders are aggressive and deserve to be squished) to protect him and his little brother. But the business at hand was such that it required my full attention and caused me to tune out all other noise...


"MOMMY!"


"Yes, sweetie? OH... did he just move??? Did you see him move?"


"Mommy, I think the spider is dead."


"Really? Hmmm, I don't know. He hasn't moved, and I have hit him about 30 times... you could be right."


Reluctantly, I abandoned my post beneath the might-have-crawled-his-last creepy-crawly spider, and sat back down at the table with the boys. I kept casting glances in the spider's direction, sure that he was just biding his time before he attacked us all.


"MOMMY."


"Yes, sweetie?" (I'm beginning to sense that it is hard to get my attention sometimes.)


"Mommy, I don't think that is the kind of spider that will bite us."


"Oh, honey (rather condescendingly)... ALL spiders can bite."


"Not dead ones."




WELL, I guess he told me.

Make A Card Monday # 3

I knew as soon as I saw the uber-cute line of baby boy clothing at Janie and Jack that I would just HAVE to make a card with those colors. So here it is. And if you want to see the clothes, go to www.janieandjack.com and click on "boy"... but check out the girl clothes there too, because man, oh man, are they adorable!!!