Gotta Have It!

I was scanning this week's North Carolina grocery store ad, and there's a section called "Everyday Essentials." First of all, I get a kick out of the fact that Kingsford Charcoal (for all that NC BBQ) and cartons of Marlboro cigarettes are advertised in that section. I guess if you're addicted to nicotine, yes, those are essential. But charcoal? Really? An "Everyday" essential?? Do people grill every day? Or even every week? I'm happy if I just get grilled food once a season...

But then, in the same section, these were advertised:


Don't believe me?



Every. Day.

According to my mom, these are "vitamins", so of course we'd need to take a few of them daily, right?

Success!

Here's the face of a man who is starting the 26th grade with a great job offer from a great law firm in Salt Lake City.

Congratulations, babycakes. You've earned high marks.

Tessa is pretty sure that translates into more candy for her.

Happy Easter 2011

This Easter was graced with flamingos instead of baby chicks. Easiest dress ever to make (and wear). The hairpiece is handmade, but was outsourced.

There was a swarm/herd/cache/litter/gaggle/den/covey/army/colony/flock/school/rabble/company of caterpillars that the girls could NOT keep their little paws away from. Poor critters. Notice Tessa's bare feet? We bought a new pair of shoes (sandals) a size bigger than she normally wears to accommodate her "tall" foot problem and the girl made it to the car, but not out of it. So she went through all of church with no shoes. Lucky girl.

It was such a lovely day, full of the things that Easter should be full of: music, hallelujahs, gratitude, and lemon cupcakes with phyllo nests and Cadbury eggs. Hope yours was grand as well!

Late Night Boy Toy

No, not THAT kind of boy toy.. perverts. I made this little monster toy for a shower a while back, and it all happened so fast I forgot to post it. The basketball in the monster's hand is NOT some sort of applique gimmick that places like Carter's and Circo insist on employing. Both parents are legitimately awesome basketball players, and the dad just graduated from UNC. You like how I slipped Duke Blue in there? heh. heh.

This is unfortunately the only picture I took of the Little Monster. Like I said, it happened pretty quickly and I finished it in the wee hours of the morning. Not exactly prime photo-op time. So I'm sad you can't see it, but my favorite part of this little guy is that snaggletooth. I did a satin stitch into a long triangle, but I don't have a fancy machine, so while I was holding the fabric with one hand, I had to perfectly move my stitch width selector with the other. I was sweating legitimate bullets as the rest of the face had already been embroidered and satin-stitched. But it came out perfect. Yay for me. Oh yeah, and yay for little C. He must have been a tiny little runt, because in that picture, Mom is 38 weeks pregnant. Some people!

"Just something I whipped up"

Yeah right. This dress took me 2 1/2 tries. I love the outcome, however. I had to make the sleeve ruffles a little wider since my daughter's arms are, well, a little wider and I wasn't adding the long sleeves that go right underneath.

Thanks to The Train to Crazy for making the pattern free, thanks to Annee for hosting sewing soirees at her house so that when I screw up (and I've done it every time) there are people to sympathize and encourage me to fix it instead of scrapping it and throwing up my arms in angst, and thanks to Tessa for making it cute.

I have so much to learn, but thankfully, my kid's not picky (yet). Though more often than not these days, I'll be getting ready to put clothes on her and she'll say, "Dress?" I'll respond, "You want to wear a dress?" and in a voice that sounds consigned to a mediocre fate, she'll answer, "okaaay...." It just occurred to me that she's probably saying "dress" the verb and not "dress" the noun. Duh!

He gets it from me

I took a bunch of pictures in a row of Dean while he was sitting on Daddy's lap, and after uploading them, I almost trashed this one until I remembered one I took of myself on a definite "bed head" morning. The poor kid never had any hope. He even got my double chin!! hahahahaha

On the cooling rack: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

We had a celebration at church last week. I signed up to make a cake, thinking I'd just do something I always do. But then I was flipping through a library book and saw a cake with piped henna on it, and wanted to do something similar, though my piping skills are minimal at best. Like, I know how to put a parchment cone together and squeeze frosting out of it.

After a lot of time and a LOT of swearing, this was the result:



Not perfect, but a good jumping off point. The best part was the taste. Oh heavens....devilishly good. Four layers of dense chocolate cake with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips, filled with creamy peanut butter straight up, then frosted with my favorite semisweet chocolate buttercream, and the piped peacock is in a whipped peanut butter frosting.

Pass the milk, please.