Spring cleanin' and fixin'

...so um, yeah. Been busy these days. The horrible skunk encounter started a cleaning frenzy...(doesn't everything smell better when bleached?)

It took a good week or so to get that smell out of my house (or nostrils). I swear I can still smell skunk when I step out onto the deck. Ugh. Hope that's gone before Jacob's graduation party in June.

Needless to say, I've been in a purging/cleaning/freshening/fixing mood and I started with our sunroom. I should have taken some before pictures. I always forget about doing that for some reason.

I've been shopping inside of my own house. (Taking stuff from other rooms and giving them a new place of importance.)I dunno, it's a cheap way to reinvent my decor. I'm also known as the "huffing queen" since anything can be repurposed with a fresh can of spraypaint. So everything old is new again...at least in my house.

I will start taking pictures to document this disaster area I call home. Hopefully it all comes together and gives me some sense of accomplishment. I really need that right now. Just knowing I can make a change and make a difference is therapeutic for me. Something in my world I can control the outcome of...in the words of Martha Stewart..."it's a good thing."

Random Ramblings

Tonight my dog Duke got sprayed by a skunk again for the second time in his life. Ugh. It's always around midnight or so when he decides he needs to run outside and track down whatever wild thing that just happens to be wandering through our (fenced in?) yard. How on earth we can have bunnies, possums,skunks,racoons, and mallard ducks (in addition to our resident squirrels) when we have a fenced in yard in the middle of the township? Okay, I know they all can climb, fly, or slip in between the narrowest cracks in an old fence...(I did read the tale of Peter Rabbit, ya know)... but I digress.

Needless to say, I was scrubbing my pooch with Dawn dishwashing soap and baking soda at midnight.


Spring where are you? These daffodils from Sheila give me hope for spring...

The panful of paczki I made at 3 am on Fat Tuesday...

Bavarian creme filled...

Raspberry filled...

Ever since we have lived in this house (since February 1995), our next door neighbor Vickie introduced us to the Polish tradition of eating Paczki on Fat Tuesday. (pronounced poonch-key.) That first year, she sent over a plate of the deep fried treats and a tradition was born in our family. Year after year our family looked forward to them...

Until one year Vickie told me she was not going to make them because she was getting too old...You see, she was probably around 96 years old... that day I cleared my calendar and went next door on a mission.

I told Vickie I was her student and she was going to teach me how to make Paczki so I could carry on her tradition. She was so thrilled to have the company and the opportunity to teach a young mother her craft... it was a day I will always cherish. Shortly thereafter she moved into a nursing home and passed away at the age of 98.

Now, every year my kids anticipate the arrival of Lent with the Fat Tuesday tradition of making (and eating) Paczki. I think of that day as I wait for the balls of dough to rise; as I drop them into the hot grease...I remember Vickie in my heart and think how proud she would have been of me.

...the funny thing about traditions is that your kids will hold you to them.

Josh called me and asked me to go with him on his spring break to Chicago. This meant that Tuesday was going to be spent on the train.

"Of course", he said, "you could always make sure you make Paczki on Monday before we leave so I can eat them on the train."

So after I put together all of Jake and Pat's lunches for Tuesday thru Thursday, I dug out my recipe and waited for it to rise...

...and the rest is history.

Oh, and by the way...Chicago was a blast. It was great to spend time with Jen and Patrick and Josh. I came back home with a renewed and rested mind, although it only lasted a day. Pshaw.

Artistic Expression or Do I need to get a life?

It's the month of March...a time for shamrocks and leprechauns...and of course in my little cupcake world, it's time for St. Patty's Day cupcake liners and shamrock sprinkles. It just goes without saying...


But then again...there's an artist inside of me just dying to get out. And since I cannot draw or paint anything other than a wall, I decided to create a crazy cupcake to make Jake and Pat laugh when they open their "cupcake pod" at lunch.


I call it, "Eat your Vegetables"... Don't they look like REAL VEGGIES?


The veggies are actually edible and are made out of fruit tootsie rolls...And this is what you need to do it.

The flavor of cupcake doesn't matter...but just so ya know...this one is a white cupcake with raspberry filling pumped into it. (one of my favorites) Frost the cupcake with a Wilton tip #22. (I just happened to have lime green frosting leftover from a birthday cake I made for a friend this morning.) Anyways...Unwrap a green frootie (toostie roll).With your kitchen scissors, cut halfway down (lengthwise) and then again so you have a green base with four "legs". Gently pull the "legs" apart and separate. With the Wilton tip #22, pipe a round blob of frosting at the tip of each leg. Immediately spoon the dark green sprinkles over the blobs of frosting. Gently place the piece of candy broccoli on the top of the frosted cupcake. Next, unwrap an orange and a yellow frootie. This time cut all the way through lengthwise and once again so you have four pieces. Then cut each piece so they look like carrots and corn pieces. Throw in a few green skittles and voila- you have the sweetest VEGGIES ever...

And before you think, "gosh the girl really needs to get a life...Why on earth would she go through all that bother?"

Don't think I haven't asked myself that very same question on numerous occasions. I've concluded that I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to express my artistic self...thankful that I have people who appreciate the "little things" I do. A husband who has people at work checking out his lunch on a daily basis. (this cracks me up.) Jake's lunch is the topic of conversation at school with his friends and teachers. Daughters who are constantly watching and learning fun things to do with food and using their creative side to make people happy with their many talents. Even though they are all grown men and women...I am still teaching them little life lessons. Thoughtfulness is a gift. Little things matter. Pay it forward.

Peace out.

I just realized I started my day frosting a birthday cake I made for my friend and ended my day baking cupcakes for lunches. hmmm...maybe I DO need to get a life?

something to ponder...

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Valentine's Day part two

...Gotta love my Cricut. I'm just sayin'...
and yes, Jake and Aubrey got theirs earlier. :)

I'm not saying what's in the bags because Jennifer and Patrick's are in the mail and Jordy and Josh haven't come by to pick theirs up yet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sometimes I get awesome ideas...but somehow just fall short. I was "concepting" an idea...I made the chocolate dipped oreos on a stick. (easy peasy!) I spelled out "Happy V-Day!" with melted pink chocolate in a Wilton squeeze bottle. The extras were done with squiggles and hearts...But I was out of small cello bags to finish off the project. So off I went to Hobby Lobby. I got home and put the cellophane bags on but soon realized the Valentine's ribbon I bought was way too thick. GRR. Well much to my chagrin, as I was about to assemble the "bouquet" of oreo pops...I realized that someone had eaten the "V" and one of the "P"s. (Paaaaat!)

Anyways...it WAS just a concept....for a future project. If I had been doing it to actually give to someone...I would have spray painted the basket, gotten the EXACT ribbon I wanted, used the perfect color paper shred, and would have spent more attention on how these were artfully arranged. But it was just a conceptual prototype and since a few of my letters were missing...well, there was no use in wasting too much fuss time on it.

Actually, I had found the baskets at Goodwill...they are "Edible Arrangement" baskets that I thrifted for 49cents! I have amassed quite a collection of them for some future projects. (I'm visualizing a fun display at Jake's graduation party. My wheels are turnin' now...)

Needless to say...the gift bags for my kids are made up for Valentine's Day tomorrow. I will save them for tomorrow's post. (sorry Jen and Patrick...yours will be in the mail tomorrow.)

I know I've been severely negligent on my blogposts lately. Blame it on the weather...the winter doldrums, lack of sunshine, etc. Bottom line is that I've been in a funk and I'm trying to shake it. Trying to get my crafty self back in swing.

See you tomorrow!

Fox News induced Nightmares

Let me just preface this story with a brief explanation.

In the summer I NEVER watch TV. But with this blustery winter this year (and the fact that I am in HIBERNATION MODE) I have been watching too much tv. I'll admit, it's usually for background noise...I have way too much A.D.D. to just sit and watch tv. I have to be doing something else while it's on. (Like surfing the web on my laptop, flipping thru a magazine, working on some craft project, folding clothes, etc.) Otherwise my body thinks it's time to sleep. Just watching tv makes me fall asleep. ANYWAYS, I digress...

Which brings me to my story...

My own personal observation and word of warning: Do not fall asleep with the tv on...especially the news. It will make you dream absolutely ridiculous dreams. Now I've fallen asleep watching Discovery Health and dreamt medical dreams all night, or dreamt about having babies (Deliver me), adopting baby a baby from Russia (Adoption Story) I've even had a WEIRD dream involving Emeril Lagasse which I won't go into because I still cannot watch him on the Food Network to this day without blushing...

After Pat and Jake left for hockey practice at 5 am this morning, I turned on the local news to see how many schools were still closed after the STORM OF THE CENTURY. I stayed awake for a while to hear what was happening in the world...from Lindsay Lohan getting caught stealing a necklace to the latest scandal at Planned Parenthood. Somewhere along the way I slipped into dreamland.

Let's see...before I fell asleep last night Ryan was over visiting and I had been texting Jordanne about a cake she made. So obviously these two particular kids were on my mind.

I dreamt that Ryan was in trouble with the law...he and his buddy Pete (who ironically is a cop) had been having a few beers and Ryan got pulled over and was thrown in jail for a D.U.I. (this must have been in between the Lindsay Lohan troubles/ Charlie Sheen rehab part of the news. I was just sick about it...to the point where it woke me right up. While I went to the bathroom I was thankful that it was only a stupid dream...I washed my hands and crawled back into my warm cozy bed.

Of course I needed to purge my brain of this awful dream so I continued watching the news...this time I turned on Fox News...Laura Ingraham was talking about the latest Planned Parenthood debacle...once my brain was purged of my bad dream, I slipped into another dream...

This time I was a worker at Planned Parenthood. I was incognito...an underground reporter working the front desk for incoming counseling needs. My first customer was my own daughter Jordanne. Of course, I was utterly shocked that she would be in such a wretched place. I raised her better than this! I could not blow my cover, so I had to listen to her plea. She told me a horrible story about her awful parents who didn't understand the ways of the modern world...she told me she was pregnant and she thought she should get an abortion because her parents would not understand. She said she really didn't want to get an abortion because she had been raised better than that, but she had taken birth control pills when she was in high school and had taken the RU486 pill once... she decided since she had already had one abortion, why not get another one? GASP!(good Lord, where do dreams like this come from? I swear Satan is working overtime...)

Anyways...I was so devastated in my dream, I had to walk away for a moment in fear I was going to start to cry. I had been hired as this undercover reporter and I could.not.blow.it. After getting my head together, I counseled this young girl and convinced her NOT to get an abortion which is NOT what they do at Planned Parenthood. (Laura Ingraham said PP makes all their money from abortions and did you know OUR TAX DOLLARS support PP? Do we have any say in this?)

Anyways...my boss at PP heard me convince this young girl (my daughter) not to get an abortion (this was my undercover reporting assignment) ...she pulled me aside to reprimand me. (I was miked and wired with a camera...just like they showed on Fox News.) I recorded the entire confrontation...to expose Planned Parenthood. It was breaking news and instead of being happy my mission was accomplished, inside I was just dying a slow death thinking my poor daughter had been led astray and wasn't really who I thought she was. I was crushed. I seriously could cry just thinking about this dream. Needless to say, this is how I awoke this morning and I am just so unbelievably sad as though it really happened. I just want to hug her and have her tell me it wasn't true. This is one of those dreams that will bother me all day.

Moral(s) of the story: Do NOT FALL ASLEEP WATCHING THE NEWS. The world is a messed up place. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. Hang onto the morals and beliefs you were raised with. I feel I need to bless my house with holy water to protect my family from all harm and to spend the day praying for them.