All Grown Up

Just a quick update on my garden...

Here's how it looked about a month ago...

Here's how it looks now...

Zucchini!

Cherry Tomatoes!

Tasty Teasers

No worries, there is another project in the works, I'm just afraid to post the pictures now because it looks scary. I'll give some teaser clues at the end of the post (and probably worry my mother).

Here's what I've been doing in the mean time.

Cooking calzones. Homemade dough, ham, spinach, mushroom, pizza sauce, and green pepper.

Making Lemon Strawberry Cake. Kinda mixed a few recipes to get this one. I would say that some questionable chemistry was used to make the cake... but luckily it turned out. It had strawberry chunks in the cake itself and layers of pudding icing and sliced strawberries inbetween. Pretty tasty... Jeremy took it to a work party and I ate what was was left :-).

I spent all of today painting the dining room. I primed the whole thing and painted the ceiling.

Then Jeremy joined me for an hour to paint.

I painted this lovely cat. I gave it whiskers later but forgot to take a picture.

In honor of our upcoming anniversary.
 

We put a bird on it!

Jeremy made an island paradise including fish, a shark, clouds, and a lovely palm tree.

The other pictures look like Jonas painted them.

Heehee. I'll just have to keep you in suspense about what it is going to look like on a whole. :-)

Big Summer Project #1

Even though my relaxing summer sometimes makes me feel like this:

I realize that I need to get things done. It's time to start the dining room. Here's what it looked like Monday morning.

That nice tear has been in the wallpaper for probably eight months.

 I wish I could say that this is my last advent with stripping wallpaper, but sadly the red of the foyer still menacingly beckons. However, this wallpaper came off significantly easier than the stuff in the master. The dining room is all stripped and washed--meaning it's ready to be primed!

More updates to this space coming soon!

Pink and Purple Post

I have this long sleeve shirt that I hate. I like the color and 95% of the fit, but THIS drives me crazy.

Where the sleeve connects to the shoulder there is a point. I can't handle it and I can't make it go away.

Solution? (as Mitch would say)
Cut 'em up.

"I think Pringles original intention was to make tennis balls... but on the day the rubber was supposed to show up a truckload of potatoes came. Pringles is a laid-back company, so they just said, 'Forget it, cut em up!" -Mitch Hedberg

I started by carefully cutting off the sleeves. Then I cut strips out of the sleeves, did a basting stitch, and made it into a ruffle. I used a couple to go around the neck and sewed a couple into roses. Making the roses-- not that difficult--take one of the ruffles, roll it up, sew around the bottom. I could make a significantly better tutorial than this but
A) "My idea" was based on this blog which already has a tutorial.
B) Let's be honest, like me you're here for the pictures. I know that when I look at blogs I can't be troubled to read how it's done. I want to see the before-after.

Also. Updated hydrangea photos. They're looking pretty amazing. Our hydrangea can't decide whether it's blue, purple, or pink... so it picked awesome.

 Obviously a transition photo. "Hey I just talked about this shirt now I'm going to show you these flowers.

Schooooool's Out for Summer!

One more day of school. The kids finished up finals today--which means that I'm going to be home ALL THE TIME. Lots of time for activities!

Recently I've been up to... umm... nothing.

Made some good food including

1. Lemon Lavender Bread.
Tastes pretty neat. It has this kind of aromatic aftertaste. Is that a valid description?
http://www.cookbookarchaeology.com/?p=1313

2. Pad Thai! So amazing...

Don't know where I got the recipe from but really yummy...

Also took some pictures of my flowers...

...and that's it...

More later in the month!