Rocks in the Dryer

Brown Eyes

What are your weekend plans?  Me?  I plan to be making out with my dog all weekend long.  Who could resist that face, those eyes!  Have a good one!

Kids Birthday Party Favors

Can we talk about party favors real quick?  I make cookies for just about every party I host.  It's standard issue.  I wish everyone would, just do something homemade that is.  Standard kid party favors really annoy me on so many levels.  I wish I could start a trend.....

I could pitch it in the following ways:

• Green:  No manufacturing and shipping of plastic crap.
• Inexpensive:  Making anything saves so much time and money.
• Kids Activity:  Get the kids involved, make them work for thier party.
• Fun:  Darn it, I like making stuff. 

I have done some crazy time-consuming party favors in the past (I'll save that for a later post) in the end the cookies always win.  The whole process goes like this:

 

3 days ahead make the dough  (20 minutes)

2 days ahead, roll/cut and bake (45 minutes with multi-tasking opportunities)

1 day ahead, frost  (20 minutes)

day of, package (10 minutes)

 

A few years ago I purchased a set of number cookie cutters, they have and will continue to take me far with birthday favors.  Easy Breezy! (we make simple sugar cookies)

Frosting?  Easy.  Royal Icing in a squirt bottle.  We are big fans of the dots and squiggles, no matter the cookie shape.  This is something even my kids can do and the result is always divine.

Keep a supply of cello bags on hand.  Bought in-expensively in large quantites, a stock will carry you through many more projects and purposes than you might think possible, for years!

Slap a label on it and you are DONE!  I always get asked where I get my favors.  This happened at yesterday's party and when I told the mom I made them she replied: "Well, I'm never coming here again".   LOL.  Don't be intimidated people, I promise it's easy.  A little pre-thought, a little planning and many less trips to the store or (Oriental Trading.com) - that's my kinda party favor.     

 

 

9 Year Old Boy Birthday Bash

"Keep it simple, stupid": my mantra for yesterday's birthday party.  Lord knows I am highly capable of over doing the kids birthday party thing, this time, I just wasn't in the mood. 

My older son has a pretty unfortunate birth date:  December 30th.  Clearly not such a great time for hosting kids b-day parties, the list of hurdles is long.  For nine years we have struggled to come up with a plan and date that works.  He doesn't care if the party is actually on or near his birthday for that matter, he just wants the darn party. 

This year's mild winter has me think, why not go for it:  Outdoor party in February in New England that is not sledding or skating theme?  Unheard of.  We rolled the dice and won.  Outdoor Laser Tag was the activity of choice and it was a hit!

13 boys, a long stretch of our town bike path, laser guns and 50 degree weather.  Couldn't have been better.

 

 

 

 

 

Little boys running free and wild in the woods might be my most favorite thing on Earth.  Lucky for me, my breed of boys agrees.  Boy number two wonders how many days 'til his birthday. Our neighborhood moms started to wonder if we shouldn't just book laser tag as a monthly event - though don't we truly know if we over do it, the magic would soon be lost.

 

 

Favorite Rocks?

I deal with a lot of rocks in my line of work:  The mothering of boys.  No doubt my favorite kind of rock of all time is the heart shaped variety.  My husband has a keen knack for finding heart shaped rocks and we have built a nice collection.  In celebration of today, thought I would share a lovely photo of a heart-shaped rock!  Happy Valentine's Day!

 

photo credit: the majik of magenta

 

Sleeping Arrangements

Our boys share a room.  It's the standard Beaver Cleaver twin bed set up.  I often wonder why we bother hogging space with the two beds.  More often than not the boys are found like this:

 

 

They sleep in a full tangle, a brotherly loving embrace.  It melts my heart.  Just as I was beginning to wonder if I should consider tossing out the extra bed to reclaim some much needed square footage, our four-legged friend, ever the opportuntist, has noticed the boys sleeping patterns as well.  I believe his claim has been staked.

 

There is room for everyone it seems.

 

 

Group Giving

I am a member of a group and each year at Christmas I want to give each member a gift, but darn it Christmas always gets in the way.  The last couple of years I resigned to giving Valentine's gifts.  In retro-spec I shouldn't look at it as resignation, maybe another act of accidental genius.  Don't we get enough for Christmas anyway?

Gift giving to a group can be tricky.  Same goes for party-favors, wedding favors etc.  How do you give to many people and have it be worthy and appreciated?  I think presentation makes a huge difference, lucky me, gift wrapping is an extreme pleasure.  What is the actual gift?  To find something on theme and worth of the time and effort - well that is the trick indeed.

My gift this year (I have 23 recipients) are "Quotation Cookies" (porcelain fortune cookies) made by my friend and severely talented potter, Elizabeth Cohen.  I love their simple elegance, and I can't think of a human who wouldn't appreciate and enjoy having one around. I wrote and printed quotations/fortunes that made sense for my individual recipients:

 

 

I then let myself loose on the packaging (well, not too loose there was a budget in mind  - as close to $0 as possible), I often think the wrap is as equally important as the gift - all things considered.  Style doesn't necessary cost money... In the end I spent a total of $14 to wrap all 23 gifts, not bad!

Chinese take out food containers seem the obvious choice.  I found white ones for .40 cents each. (they are made by foldpack, I picked them up at a local paper warehouse). 

 

I owned brown kraft shred from a previous project so I let that lead the color pallate.  Found lovely sheet of lotus flower wrapping paper (needed 1 sheet /$2.50 for 25 belly bands) at the paper-source and the pink rafia was also dirt cheap at the other paper warehouse (two spools for $1.09 each).

 

 

 

Belly bands might be the easiest trick in the book - I love them on boxes and invitations alike.  All you need is a ruler and cutting instrument (I prefer xacto knife and cutting mat).  Just measure and cut!

 

 

The only thing else used was a little scotch tape to secure the belly bands.  I'll be adding a kraft gift tag, also left over from another project, to write a personal note to each recipient.

They are almost ready to go....

 

 

 

I hope the recipients feel the love.....

Hello Vanity!

illustration by: yokofurusho.com

 

Oh the lessons of an ordinary day.  Without warning I got a view of myself, or a view of something deep in myself that I didn't know was there.  At least I didn't know the breadth.  I think it's safe to call it vanity.  Drat.  I thought myself beyond such girlish ailments.

My facebook friends, at least those blessed with certain timing, know that I was the recipient of a dreadful haircut last week.  The attention this received was funny, light and hopefully entertaining to all involved.  I am a big fan of self-deprecation and can hopefully laugh hardest at myself.  It was just one of those little circuses that can give social media a "time wasting" reputation.  Haircut - who cares.

There was a lot of stress draped on my bad hair event.  Did I dare go back to the original offender to fix the disaster?  In all of it's horror it was a rather expensive cut by any standard.  I couldn't bring myself to trust him to go at it again.  That would mean paying another person for yet another expensive procedure in one week!  Was I so vain that I couldn't just wait and let it grow?  Yes, undeniably Yes.  I was freaked out I tell you.

The experts tell us that stress can manifest in powerful ways.  To this, with a dose of hindsight, I concur.  Bad haircut was on Tuesday, followed much dilemma and stress about how to remedy the situation deep into the night.  Wednesday morning I suffered a massive muscle spasm in my lower back that left me, once again, flat on the floor for more days than I have to waste.

Friday came with the blessing of a new haircut waiting for me at 11:00 am.  I limped in with my aching back and walked out with a new do and a bounce in my step.  Poor little me, me and my vanity.  I was so stressed out about my HAIR that I suffered a stress related injury?  I can look at it from the angle that I am so lucky that the worst thing going on in my life, the most stressful event, is a bad haircut.  How lucky am I!  OR - holy mackerel, I in need of a vanity check-up.  

Whatever the case, I am thrilled that I can now stand upright and hold my head high as I venture back out in the public eye.  Though, "Wow", I think to myself, you think you know someone.......