What's Cooking?! Play Dough Cookies....

You know sometimes you have certain childhood memories that just stick out in your mind?  Fun things you did that you look forward to doing with your kids when you grow up too?  I have a decent sized handful of things we did since my mom and her friends were super fun and creative.  We had cotton candy and lemonade stands,  we created a 1950's diner and served up lunch and malts on a couple of occasions, we baked and created all the time, and I have really fun memories of playdough style sugar cookies too.

It's been hot as all get out here lately in the South, and I decided that I needed to see if my mom could dig up that old recipe for playdough sugar cookies.  So that's what we did the other day and it was a blast!  This dough is better for playing with than the amazing regular sugar cookies that I make and it can be baked in shaped up to about 3/4 inch thick.  Beware that you do need some flour all over the surface you're working on to roll it out though.  What I'm really saying here is that it's messy folks...even when you contain the messes on individual cookies sheet trays....you're gonna have to vacuum immediately afterwards.  But it's fun....and childhood should be fun, and on occasion even really messy.

So do it.  You will have fun.  Your kids will have fun....and make great memories.  And that my friends is most certainly how to enjoy your life for dessert!

Edible Playdough Cookies

1 cup margarine, softened

1 cup shortening

2 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar

6 hard cooked egg yolks, mashed

2 tsps. baking soda

2 tsps cream of tartar

1 Tbs. vanilla

5 cups flour

food coloring

Cream butter and shortening; gradually add sugar, beating til light and fluffy.  Add yolks, soda, cream of tartar and vanilla, beating well.  Gradually add flour, mixing well.  Wrap in plastic wrap after coloring.  (I made 4 different colors.)  Chill 1 hour.  Hand shape cookies, not more than 3/4 inch thick.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.  Thicker cookies take longer.  Cool on baking sheets 1-2 minutes before removing from pans.  Cool on wire racks.  Makes 5 1/2 dozen 2 1/2" cookies.

Woo Hoo!  Fun had by all!  And I should warn you that if you have a lot of artificial food coloring to make your dough super fabulously colorful...your baby will have diapers for the next day that look like they came straight from the fanny of a leprechaun! WOAH!  That was a shock for sure!

Get out and do something fun today!

Pencil Pushing....

Tid Bit is starting kindergarten this year.

And with real school, comes a real school supplies list.  Pencils, markers, crayons, folders, and more. 

Towards the end of this previous school year, we received an option to purchase the school supplies in a pre-assembled package for a fee... that was of course fairly more than if we just went out ourselves and bought them.  My thought..."Why on earth should I pay more for pencils, paper, and folders when it's such a cinch to go to Walmart or Target and buy them myself?!"

Last week I thought we'd head out early one morning to Walmart and get a jump-start on the acquisition of school supplies.  We'd go before everyone else and their brother went, and we'd for sure go before the tax free weekend which will drive the masses in search of the same things on my list and leave me coming up void.  Aren't I clever?  "Preparation is the key to victory," right?  (I saw that clever quote engraved on a gun in a movie we watched about hitmen last night...Jason Statham at his finest.)

Anyhow...turns out I was totally wrong.  When I'd first glanced at the school supplies list it seemed simple enough, but when I got down to purchasing everything, I not only realized that some of the things were brand specific,  they were item number specific.  WHAT?!

Did I mention that my child is starting KINDERGARTEN?!?!

I wandered around Walmart like a lost puppy... with 2 kids who were sick and tired of school supplies shopping and beginning to whine and tire of the whole ordeal....right there with you kids....I'm right there with you!

The school supplies section didn't have all of the school supplies that were on my list...and making sure that I had navy blue (the specified color for some of the items) was proving to be a pain in the tookis too.  I grabbed a package of pencils and tossed them in the cart only to realize that the list specified "black pencil and black eraser Ticonderoga pencils, 4-6pks.)  I searched all over and finally found a man in a suit with a Wal-mart nametag stating "general manager" (so sue me if I sound rude, but they're about the only ones in the whole store who can answer any question I have without taking me on a tour of the entire facility in search of something seemingly basic like a pencil.)  He took me to a whole other section of the store and we found a 10 pk of Ticonderoga black pencils...so I bought 3 packages of 10 to make sure I had at least 24 since 4x6=24 and that was how many I was suppossed to have in the end.  Surely this would work, right?

I found what I could at Walmart, save the "green tipped Crayola No-Drip glue", and the "Smead legal sized expandable poly folder in navy blue" which I apparently could only find at Staples...at least there was a SKU number for this item.  So we paid for our 8 pks of Crayola crayons, and 8 pks of Crayola colored pencils, and standard Crayola water colors, and 1 inch navy blue plastic binder, and other super-specific items, and of course our black erasered Ticonderoga pencils...and we headed for Staples to get the one ultra-specific item for a whopping $16.99, and hopefully find the other things that Walmart didn't have.

I immediately found a manager upon entering Staples and asked about the Smead navy blue legal sized expandable poly folder and the Crayola no-drip green lidded glue.  Her reply, "Staples does not even carry the Smead brand, and I've never even seen that type of glue here."

WHAT?!?!?!

I found a folder that I thought would work for $8.99, and then asked about the black Ticonderoga pencils 6pks.  The manager then surveys my 5 year old and 18 month old in the cart and says "Now what grade is this list for again?  Kindergarten?!"

"Yes."

I found more black erasered pencils...in a 6pk.  These are larger and more triangular in shape and apparently claim to be "The World's most comfortable pencil," and they darn well better be since they were $4.50 for ONE 6 pack.  Our list specifies 4-6pks.

I'm thinking after all of this school supply shopping and $25 dollars worth of PENCILS, that my 5 year old will probably be writing in perfect cursive and complete grammatically correct sentences by the end of K5.  

And if not, then next year I'm buying the pre-assembled package of school supplies for twice the price.

Baby Baby.... Nursery Decorating...

I hope you all don't think I've been a total slacker today!  I promise that I haven't.

This morning I had a design consult with a client to decorate her new baby's nursery.  Have I ever told you how much I love decorating a nursery?!  Well, if not...

I love decorating nurseries.  

Hands down, they are my MOST favorite rooms to design.  I love them for so many reasons, but the number one reason is that I love the time and care people take to create something beautiful for a new baby.  For me, it's the first thing that new parents do for their baby to say "I love you" before the baby even arrives.

I've also found, generally speaking, that most people will take the time to address even all the little details that really complete a nursery as well.  That makes it particularly fun to "do" nurseries for me.  To have a vision with a client and see it through to completion...it's very satisfying.

So that's why I wasn't around earlier today.  I'm also going to be helping these particular clients with some other areas of their home as well which will be really fun.  They've commissioned me to refinish a changing table, and today I took a small end table to give some new life.  I got to work on that this afternoon while my kids were resting.  It's going to be awesome.

In all this thinking of nurseries today, I just thought I'd pick back through a few of my old nursery pictures and show you.  Baby LOVE....

This one above was obviously for a baby girl.  All of the bedding in this one and all of the ones I'll show you below were custom made.  One of my favorite things about decorating nurseries is picking out loads of fabrics and textures.  The rug above was custom as well and it was so gorgeous, I just can't tell you!!!  This client really liked mixing vintage and new together, so it was right up my alley as that's my natural bent as well.

Ok, now these clients didn't ever find out what they were having and wanted to make sure that the bedding and window treatments that we used could be reused for multiple children.  Custom bedding is an investment, so I wanted to show you how a few tweaks here and there with the same bedding can feel really very different for each child.  (In this case 3 children!)

Recognize this one above?!  Yeah, it's my most favorite one yet...probably because it's mine and every single thing that went in that room was exactly what I wanted.  18 months after completion and it's still my favorite room in the house.

This one was Tid Bits nursery in our old house.  When I took these pictures back 5 years ago I apparently hadn't finished everything int he room as evidenced by the empty sconce shelves on either side of the mirror above the changing table.  Oh, and see...I reused my glider up there in both of my boys' rooms and just recovered it.  (Just a tip...recovering a glider like this one with removeable cushions is much less expensive than a fully upholstered chair.  I only need 4 yds of fabric and it's about $150 to have it all recovered professionally...as oppossed to perhaps 8 yds of fabric and $300 upholstery fees for a fully upholstered chair.)

Well, I just thought I'd take a trip back down memory lane for fun.  I'll of course show you pictures of this nursery I'm starting on as soon as it's completed!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

PS. Spell check isn't working and I'm going to eat dinner finally...so if I missed a lot along the way...please be kind and overlook it?!

Circus Monkey

I am a big fat slacker this week. Sorry for the complete lack of posting. I've been trying to write the next installment of the Glory Babies post but I tell you what, it's not coming easy. It's a long story to write and the reality is that I need to sit down and write a lot of it at one time...this broken up stuff is for the birds.

The Hubs was gone all week at a training in Atlanta, so I was doing the single parenting thing. If you remember, the last time that he was gone I wrote a post giving MAJOR props to single parents. Yeah, gonna go ahead and give you another “whoop whoop” shout out here people...it's tough! All to say, between laundry, keeping my house in order, sneaking in some time with friends, and falling into bed at night...blogging has gotten pushed down on the list of things my brain could actually handle this week.

It's been a good week though...just busy. In some really hilarious news, Little Bit now smiles on command. When he does it, I seriously want to suck his cheeks. And I've yet to actually capture the exact hilarious cheese-face smile on camera...this is as close as I could get. (it's not nearly as tooth bearing or squinty eyed enough to look like the actual smile he does on command though.) I love my little circus monkey!

The Egg Hunt

Ok, it's finally here.  The Easter Egg Hunt post.  I hope it doesn't disappoint since I'd been working on the actual party for so long.  It was a blast.  I was worried that it could have been rained out, but the weather dried up and even though the ground was damp beneath the grass, it turned out to be just fine.

I could probably do a post on just the flowers alone...and maybe I will at some point.  One of my MOST favorite things to do is to arrange flowers.  I bought about $50 worth of flowers from Whole Foods and the rest I got from my neighbor's garden...way more from my neighbor's garden.  Amazing stuff.  Here's a peek at a few of the arrangements.

All of the flowers were in things like antique mason jars, tin cans, and old timey milk bottles.

Everyone came around 10am and brought brunch items with them.  We had quite the yummy spread.  By 10:30 everyone was eating and around 11am we sent all the menfolk out to hide the eggs.  We have found to maximize fun for all ages, it's best to divide up hunting areas by age.  Ages 3 and under hunt in one space (where eggs are obviously hidden), 4-6 in another area (getting trickier hiding here), and ages 7 and up all hunt in my neighbor's yard where the dads really have fun hiding!  Works out well and all the little kids aren't having to fight bigger kids for obvious eggs.  Plus, each child hunts til they find 12 and then are encouraged to help one another.  Was a good time had by all I think.

I really love having new people I've never even met come to the party...family and friends in town of our friends.  And even better than them just coming is when it's obvious that they honestly had a good time!  Of all the compliments I could receive about my home or hostessing...that is definitely the best one for me.  And I think that's a compliment to our friends as well!

This was the set-up in the dining room where the food and coffee station were.  And I'm shooting myself for somehow not getting pictures of my favorite drink station outside.  I've been refinishing a china cabinet and a dresser lately, but they were just junking up the garage unfinished, so I moved them outside and had drink dispensers in the cabinet and cups, napkins, etc on the dresser.  It was so cute!  (So if anyone who came has a picture of this...I'd love a copy!)  The perils of hostessing...last minute finishes didn't make it to the photo memory card!

I found these cute aqua sandwich boards at an antique store probably 2 years ago and got them for $15 each.  I finally got around to painting them with chalkboard paint last week and I'm super pleased with how they turned out.  I've put them out in the past and just taped a sign to them, but I LOVE the way they look with the chalkboard on them.  We even used one later in the day for a lemonade stand (with the leftover lemonade from the party.) 

View of the hunters and gatherers in the front yard and on the back porch.  

One day I want to screen in that porch....ahh the list of things to do...

It was raining the night before the party and I had several things that needed to be put outside the next morning, so here's a little entertaining trick that I pulled out to make sure I didn't miss anything.  A quick little sketch of my front and back porches with notes and pictures of everything I needed to remember.  Never a bad idea to draw out what you want to get the idea of what you're putting.  And even though I forgot to take a picture of the drinks on the back porch, you can at least see the general idea of what went on back there!

Sorry it's taken me forever to get this posted!  Tid Bit turns 5 this Friday, so in addition to getting the Egg Hunt undone in our house,  I'm re-doing things now for a bluegrass themed birthday party tomorrow.  This is just the month of parties around our house! 

I'll go ahead and tell you not to be expecting anything as elaborate as Little Bit's 1st Birthday because I have a a kryptonite around here called sanity and sleep.  And I couldn't be more thankful that Tid Bit actually requested cupcakes!  I'm still making a more elaborate cake that he wants to take with us to a Bluegrass festival in NC this weekend, but I'll tell you more about all of that later on too!

In the meantime though I have some musical note sugar cookies to churn out this morning and a bluegrass table to set for tomorrow's birthday party!

PS. Let me just say that while this isn't the best picture of me, I do love the fact that the way I'm holding the baby makes my waist look about half of it's normal diameter...this is the result of creative baby holding, not a sign of restraint with Easter Candy consumption.

I'm Pretty Keen on These...

These are quite possibly the best shoes known to kid-kind.  

They rank pretty highly in the man and woman-kind category as well, but in the realm of kids...I give them 2 seriously hearty thumbs up!  In fact, I'll even go ahead and raise my third thumb to these...ok ok, so I don't have a third thumb.  I was just going for extra emphasis.

Tid bit has had a pair every year since he turned one.  Little Bit is now wearing Tid Bit's first pair.  And, we've had them in several colors... because happily, they are available in tons of different colors.

What are these magic shoes you might ask?

Keen Newport H2's that's what!

I'm going to go ahead now and provide a big fat bummer of a disclaimer by saying that in no way shape or form am I being compensated for this smashing review.  Keen didn't send me a new pair for myself or my kids to test.  Noone called and asked what I thought about them.  Not a soul.  This is plain and simple my opinion about a product that I think is quite frankly fantastic.  So there...if you were wondering what's in it for me...here's your answer.

  Absolutely Nothing!

Bummer... but...moving along.  I might lose a load of readers with the following comment, but if you want me to really be me, the following statement allows me to remain true to myself. 

I am not a fan of Crocs. 

And moreover, I have never been a fan.  While I realize that they make some cute ballet flat style ones now, and Mary Janes....the plain old kind that the free world wears...the clunky looking slip on ones...yeah, I think they're ugly.   I don't even feel swayed by the rainbow of colors they come in either.  And, I think they are impractical for kids.  They don't stay on well on a jungle gym.  Dirt and mulch and rocks creep in from any one of the massive gaps around a kids foot....and oh yeah, I think they're ugly.  Wait...I already said that.  If Crocs would like to send me a pair to change my mind, I'll be happy to try them...but not this style please.  I still think they are ugly.

You may be asking why I'm hating on Crocs...and I'm really not a total hater. It probably all stems from the confession that I jumped on a bandwagon of ugly, yet comfortable shoes once upon a time... and I still look at them in my closet and 99.9% of the time I choose something else.  And you know what.... they are ugly...and thus, I really hardly ever wear them.  Yep.  On the right.  Those are the ones.  If you have them and love them...it's probably because you must significantly value comfort over even remote stylishness. Whoever tried to make them stylish was clearly one of you.  Either that or you legitimately wear them on a boat....and for that I salute you for dressing for the part.  Anyways, I digress.

All of this is really meant to say... when it comes to dressing my kids, there are times when one shoe can, in fact, cover pretty much all of our bases.  And the Keen Newport H2 fits that bill.  They are about as cute as a water shoe can possibly be.  They can be worn in the water...think hiking up a river, or playing in a creek.  I happen to be of the opinion that they are even better for kids than any other river sandal because they have a tough rubber toe cover to protect your baby's little piggies!  You can wash them in the washing machine...or probably even in the dishwasher if you really wanted.  They are rugged and tough.  Kids can run in them, go to the pool in them, hike in them, wear them to school, in the mud, in the sand.  Seriously, these are the 4-wheel-drive of kids shoes I am sure.  And...they are velcro, so they can put them on themselves....or you can do it quickly.

Really, if you're in the market for a good pair of shoes that will survive the toughness that your kids will dish out, these are the shoes for you.  You can find them all over the internet or in most good outdoor stores too.  Buy a previous season's color for an even better deal.  They run about $50, but I promise you they are well worth it.  After all, they are supporting the cutest little people you know.  It's like investing in a good bra...some things are just worth supporting well. (But that's another post for another day!)

As you can tell, I'm Keen on these shoes, and I'm pretty sure you will be too!

- Logan