Scenes from the Kitchen

The gumball machine (and the cherry apron in the background!)
My little kitchen chicken
Love the vintage feel.
You would think I cooked more than I do.....
A dualit toaster like this is sitting in the Victoria and Albert. This is my husband's baby...another ebay find!
Found this in an antique store. Beauty in vintage chrome and vinyl!
The Dishwasher.......
Dear Mom and Dad, I'm sorry for every time I was .... less than enthusiastic..... about emptying or loading the dishwasher!

Spring Skirts

My Easter skirt:
Amy Butler fabric
Pattern drafted by me from Sew What! Skirts
(this was the first one I've drafted and it was surprisingly easy!)


I'm pairing it with a sweater from Target and great shoes from Anne Taylor Loft

Another springy skirt I made:
Fabric: Random Joanns
Pattern: Favorite Things - Cute Skirt

Waffles!

I looooove waffles, especially before church on Sunday mornings. This is the best waffle maker. It is fast, beeps at you when the waffles are done, and pops out waffle perfection every time.

My new obsession is NUTELLA! Nutella and waffles are a dangerous combination for the waistline. Spread a little nutella on a warm waffle. Go ahead, have some for dinner!

My first...

Today was my first St. Patrick's Day as an Irishwoman. I do Irish stepdancing, my first name is Irish, and my maiden name was a river in Ireland, but I was not Irish. This year, I'm Irish by marriage and that's good enough for me!

A very kind and gracious woman at our church crocheted this for us when we got married. We don't even know her that well, but her ministry is to do this for all newly married couples. I guess the gifts we don't expect or deserve are often the sweetest!

Erin Go Bragh!

Creamy bliss

Another favorite tool is our cream whipper. You add fresh cream, sugar, and vanilla and it does all the work for you. You can also do mousse and other things, but we are so in love with the fresh whipped cream that we couldn't part with it long enough to try!

Josh found this one for a steal on ebay.

Go ahead! Have a cup of hot cocoa - winter is almost over!

Magnificent

When the question of important craft, cooking or work tools arose at Heather's blog, I tried to think of whether I had important tools at work teaching fourth-grade. Bribery aside, one of my favorite work tools is a magnifying glass! When I did my teaching in college, we taught a class of fifth-graders about the American Revolution. When it came time to discuss the Declaration of Independence, the printouts we had were so tiny that we needed to give the students magnifying glasses out of complete necessity. John Hancock had great foresight!

The unexpected result was that the students were toooootally into it. They saw themselves as historical detectives and were devouring the document that might have otherwise been unimportant to them.

So... teachers, parents, home schoolers, grandparents, caregivers...... if you want your child to be really interested in a topic, give them a magnifying glass! As with anything, don't overuse this tool and make it commonplace. Here are some applications for magnifying glasses:

• Scientific observations (insects, etc.)
• A closer look at paintings and pictures (in books, prints)
• Dust detectives (send them out with a magnifying glass and a dust rag!)
• Word detectives in spelling or reading books (find this word we just talked about)
• Pin collectors (find all mom's pins on the floor before we step on them!)
• Reading something unfamiliar
• Noticing differences in things
• Finding things on the floor or carpet that need vacuuming
• Drawing teeny tiny drawings, holding the magnifying glass as you draw!

So, when in the course of human events it comes time to motivate children to do something you want them to do, magnify it!

Marching with my Tools

I volunteered to play "March of the Tools" to showcase tools that are important to me. First I wanted to show the girliest tool bench ever. It's part of my craft room. It's so handy to have so much right at my fingertips.
I'd say scissors are pretty important to me. My husband even has his own pair of "Big Boy Scissors" that I got him for Christmas two years ago. They are spring loaded titanium nitride .... argh argh argh! They would be very manly if they weren't hanging on pink pegboard....

Irish Steppin' and A Public Service Announcement

I decided my Irish dancing shoes needed a new home, so I made them a bag. I'm into bags lately.... More will be coming! I've been Irish dancing for mmm.... about four years now. I absolutely love going to my class. It's fun, challenging, and a great workout.
The soft shoes are called ghillies. The hard shoes are just...hard. Be careful not to kick yourself in the shin.
The bag details: Fabric - Amy Butler
Pattern - Chic Bags
It was a really simple pattern to put together..... Recommended!

Public Service Announcement: Back up your computer! Back up your pictures, your music, your documents, everything! My laptop hard drive decided not to work this past week. I had to get a new one, but thankfully my husband's friend was able to get ALL my stuff off my old hard drive. I was so thankful.

Now that the computer is recovered, I plan on posting more often. It's a goal.

Redesign

I'm attempting to make my blog a little more "me." This has been my healing time project in the wake of an illness. I'm still tweaking it, but I'm much happier with it this way! If you have any troubles reading it, please let me know!

I'm watching Pride and Prejudice on PBS right now. It always perplexes me when I watch something on television that I own on DVD. I guess it's fun knowing that others are watching it at the same time. Lizzy is about to see the Collins' humble abode and the infamous fireplace. "Shelves in the closet! Happy thought indeed!"

Pattern Place

Several weekends ago, this was my project. A house for some of my sewing patterns. I was inspired by a project in Martha Stewart Living for a box covered in book cloth. Not patient enough to find book cloth, or willing to pay the price for it, I found my own design.

The box is an empty copy paper box. Instead of the book cloth, I used fabric and freezer paper. I loooove freezer paper! I ironed my fabric onto the freezer paper (in spots I had to piece the freezer paper together in order to make it wide enough) in order to give it the stability it needed. I then used a spray adhesive and Aleene's tacky glue to adhere the fabric paper onto the box, per Martha's directions.

Being unable to leave anything undecorated, I wrapped ribbon around the perimeter of the cover and attached a felt/fabric/button flower a la Heather Bailey.




My patterns are now comfy and cozy inside their new abode!

Oh Jane, Jane

Jane! You're a very, very, fragile creature! You pay no attention to the delicacies of your constitution. Jane.....Knightley! Help us! Knightley! Jane went to the post office today in the rain. A great peril to her health. This was a sign that I was not there to take care of you! Knightley! Tell her! Tell her!

Okay, these aren't exactly the words of Jane Austen, but they are an amusing bit from the movie Emma.

This is my Jane Austen action figure that my husband bought for me for Christmas. (He found her in Barnes and Noble if anyone is interested)

I give kudos to anyone who thought of making Jane Austen into an action figure!

She comes fully equipped with a pen, copy of Pride and Prejudice, and a writing desk.

She's ready to combat the actions of the heart!

Unity

This summer my husband and I got married. I love this picture of us lighting the unity candle. We tried to make and do almost everything in the wedding ourselves (with the help of our family and friends!). I'll show snippets here and there of the things we made.

My dress was not homemade, although I thought that was how things were going to proceed. I am very picky, especially with clothes! The designer was Maggie Sottero, and I ended up loving many of her designs. The dress was lace with cap sleeves (which we did make- who can find a non-strapless dress?). I did make the veil. Sigh....has it been six months already?