Scattered Sunshine

Scattered Sunshine
My scattered thoughts on the Web-o-sphere

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

First project picked for the summer.....



Okay, so I decided on my first project for the summer of creativity. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it???? I actually already knew I wanted to do some sewing this summer(I want to make me some new aprons. I love to make aprons) But I got side tracked today in the Walmart fabric department with this darling fabric that I just had to have for something I saw on this website:
http://priddycreations.com/boutique/index.php?cPath=54%22

Hopefully the link will work, because it didn't work for some of my friends. Anywhooo, I don't want to spend $79 for one of their bags with their fabric. I want to create my own hybrid of this design with some of my own ideas. (what hubris!) So I am going to attempt to MacGyver a bag for me. I am really into thinking I am MacGyver lately. Last semester, I had that nickname in my speech class because I always had handy dandy things like staplers and tape in my backpack. When I helped with a wedding and when I did the last meeting formerly known as Enrichment I had to jury-rig stuff to not make messes and be able to measure for lemonaide. So I think I am the female equivalent of MacGyver, only I don't catch bad guys (not for lack of trying). I just fix things for people or me so that I can function. The fabric of my choice is in the Photo at the beginning of this posting. I am going to make some of my quilty friends help me with it, so hopefully I will be able to have something cute to show for it in the long run......

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I was a pedicure virgin... not any more!


Why oh why haven't I done this before???


Samantha and April waiting for their fabulous footsies to be pampered.






I had never done this before, but I have always been curious about it. I have a terrible problem with calluses and peeling feet, and we decided this year for Fathers and sons (which alternately means a date for mothers and daughters) that instead of our usual going to the movie and out to dinner that we would go have a spa day, get a pedicure and go to lunch. For details about our lunch, see the previous post. The first thing I noticed about the nail salon which is one Sam recommended (we (Ashley and I) went with Samantha and April) was it seemed to be a very friendly place. They had a little girl (I think she must have been around 3) who was immediately drawn to Ashley. Soon another little girl, this one aged 10 because she told us, came out and began quizzing us on how old we were. I think she was trying to figure out is Ashley was her age or not. When we finally got to go back for our pedicures, the nice lady asked Ashley if she wanted to sit in the bear chair. Now you have to understand that at 10, Ashley thinks she is nearly grown up. At first she was a little resistant to sitting in the bear chair, but in the end, she gave in to it and she is very grateful she did.




The water in her foot spa changed colors, and there was a little dvd player that attatched to her chair so she watched Bolt while they worked on her feet.



We even made her do the customary the Bear is eating my head pose:



Even sitting on a bear, Ashley is still "cool enough to make them drool" as she told me last night... snicker.



And of course, her toes turned out wonderfully cute and blue!




We had a wonderful time getting the full treatment on our feet. Mine were the worst, because of my callus problem. I especially loved when they cut away all the dead skin from around my nails, avoiding the hangnail problem that sometimes plagues me. The pictures that were painted on were so cute too. Here is a final glimpse of our elegant toes:

http://www.libertymarket.com/

Yesterday we went to lunch at one of my favorite places in Gilbert so I thought I would give them a shout out so that people would realize what a good place to eat it is. It's called the Liberty Market, and it sits on Gilbert Road, right after the many-times owned and ruined Grain Belt. Right by the Water Tower. Yeah. ON the outside, it might no look like much. It's located in a white, kind of industrial looking little building that attaches to the main walk of downtown Gilbert. Inside you have a cozy little bistro type restaurant that serves sandwiches, salads, pizza and pasta, along with various "plates" and I believe they do breakfast too, although I haven't had that pleasure yet. You pick your own seat (heh heh) and then you decide what you want courtesy of plain white menus that you can pick up in a display on the street before you go in. You have to go to the counter to order, where they have a strategically placed dessert case full of oh so tempting goodies. I have mainly had their sandwiches, which are very yummy and very much made for a foodie like me. Instead of boring mayo, they are usually dressed with some exotic, freashly made ailoi (a creamy sauce). Their vegetarian sandwich, called "The Farmer" is very yummy, especially for the addition of the grilled sweet potato. Yesterday, I was with Ashley (age 10), April (age 19) and Samantha (age 21). Ashley had the pizza, which looked like a french bread pizza. The crust (I know because I stole a bite) was extremely crusty, crunchy while at the same time having a chewy texture. It was yum! And the pasta that April had looked heavenly with big meat balls and twisty noodles smothered in sauce and cheese. Samantha's sandwich also looked good. One of the "you better not miss it" aspects of the Liberty Market are their bathrooms. Yes, you read that right, their bathrooms must be experienced! Instead of industrialized bathrooms marked men/women with a few stalls tastefully decorated, they have individual bath "rooms" which I emphasize, because they are each a tiny work of toiletry art that must be experienced. You walk into one and you are transported to the beach, with appropriate music playing. Another shows you a lively mexican street. ONe is covered with recipes for the dressings used on the salads. I even peeked my head into the only one that was gender specific to men (yes I had to look, okay!) which was decorated like a motorcycle shop. So fun!
I highly recommend the Liberty Market and give it a rating of 4 golden spoons.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I am thinking of doing an art book this summer. I am also thinking of writing some original poetry and junk to go in it. Here is my first poem:

Distressing
In crafting
We use a technique
Called Distressing

It usually begins
With taking paper
And crumpling it as tight as we can
To create wrinkles
Then we stretch it out,
To make it flat, but it
Is never completely flat again
Not like it was

We might scrape it against an edge
The side of a desk
And then, to bring out the wrinkles
We stain it
Making brown lines appear to deepen
The wrinkles
To give them depth

We might take a sharp instrument
Or sandpaper’s grit
To torture the edges of the paper
So that some of the pure white
Can show through

We end up with an object unique
For no two papers are crumpled the same
And if it is not a picture of perfect beauty
It is an object
Of Interest


Now all I need is someone to take my picture so the symbolism will show through.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Ninja hugs, Iron Chef and Whipping Cream Hates Me!

Okay, first is last, which is as it should be. One of the best moments of this week was when I confronted Daniel about his habit of all of a sudden coming up and giving me what I had come to think of as Attack hugs. I asked him what the deal was, and he said that they were "Ninja Hugs.... cuz you never see 'em coming." BWA HA HA. Being a Mom is so much fun, and with kids like mine the laughs come a mile a minute.


This is the recipe that I used in our Iron Chef demonstration at Relief Society. I am hoping I get how to do this now and get it where I want in my post, so if it's not where I think it will be, the recipe is what I am talking about. We did Iron Chef Beans and it was really fun. I wish I could make money cooking on TV and talking about it. This recipe is one I stole from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook but I've tweaked it and made it our own. It is Randy, Stephen and my favorite soup. DEEE-LISH! I also provided the food from my own food storage this week for that meeting. I used Home canned chicken, strawberry lemonaid concentrate (that's a new one for me and canning and it is fabulous), My own home canned peach pie filling that I think tastes divine, and all of the recipes (other than the store bought rolls, sigh, not my doing) were stuff you could make out of stuff that you should keep in your three month storage. If you make one meal a week out of your food storage (and replace it!) you can rotate your food storage in a year. True story. So do it.


The final bit is an homage to my battles with whipping cream this week. Last Friday night I ran the kitchen for a friend's wedding. They served crepes, and they wanted me to assemble the filling out of some whipping cream that I needed to whip and some pudding that was already prepared. Well, the kitchen in the place they did their wedding had NOTHING, and I needed to use the one and only bowl they had for it, but it wasn't quite deep enough and it kept spitting whipping cream at me. It wasn't quite the disaster pictured though, but I kept thinking, "Oh if I only had my kitchen aid, this would be so much easier. I could let it run and walk away, blah blah blah..." So on Tuesday for Relief Society, my dear friends gave me some of the left over cream from the wedding to use at the midweek meeting. I brought my kitchen aid, assuring myself that this was going to be a snap. Well, either I am not used to my new kitchen aid, or I really need the spout thing that keeps the food in, because it didn't just spit the cream out, it vomited it out. I ended up having to MacGuyvering the thing with plastic bags to keep it from totally dousing the church kitchen with whipping cream. DANG IT!!! I should have brought my Bosch....

Friday, April 9, 2010

I'm too busy

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully busy....
Much much too busy for me.

This has been a crazy busy week that will feed into a crazy busier week.
Had math test, lots of English homework and notes to type up from Sociology, not to mention meetings that I went to on Tuesday for Relief Society and Thursday for Camp. There was a wedding Wednesday, and a wedding tonight (and tonight I will help in the kitchen). Mixed in between there was an impromptu meeting formerly known as Enrichment meeting about it meeting, along with many calls to make, plans to make, hearts to break and Stephen's long unruly hair to cut. I think that when school is over in May I might just collapse in a heap of trembling flesh.

I also was plagued with insomnia this week. This is how insomnia messes with my life. I am a morning person. That means I get up freakishly early (I give myself permission to be up at 4:00 a.m. okay, so sue me I'm weird)(I got that from my Grandma George who also liked to get up freakishly early) so I usually fall asleep in my pudding by around 8:30-9:00. It is a family joke that I turn into a pumpkin if I am up too late. I am not a good night person. So here is what happens. I fall asleep at my regular time but then I wake up at 2:00 a.m. And I can't go back to sleep. The windmills start turning and churning and I can't sleep so I generally read. This week I have been reading a book by Dr. John L. Lund called, "For All Eternity." He is a marriage counselor, and this was a marriage book, and a darn fine one in my opinion. For my facebook friends, I was following his suggestion when I decided to have a day where I didn't criticize anyone. It was hard but I did it. (and I got that idea reading at 2:00 in the morning, yawwwwwnnnnn) I had to decide what I was going to do when someone at school was smoking where they weren't supposed to. I loathe that. My biggest pet peeve at school is that they have a myriad of smoking places set out around campus, but the silly smokers have to smoke in the no-smoking zone as well. I'm a little allergic to smoke, I have gotten worse as I have gotten older, so it really bugs me when my eyes tear up and my nose runs and my head aches courtesy of my non-courteous smoking classmates. I had to decide that I would think (because you had to be criticism free in your mind as well) "I wish you wouldn't do that" instead of, "stinkin' lousy smoking person polluting my air...." Anyway, what did I learn from this experience? I did tend to have a gentler attitude towards people that day when I was trying hard not to be critical. I don't think my family really noticed much difference because I am a positive person and I don't generally screech tooooooo loudly... although I did almost blow it at one point with them. I removed myself from the area.

It was an interesting experience and I would highly highly recommend that book, even if your marriage isn't on the rocks. Mine is NOT ON THE ROCKS! But I am interested in family counseling so that is one reason I read it. The other reasons is that everyone has things they can improve, even in a nice marriage like mine.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Me, Holidays, and FOOD









Okay, so the first picture is not food that I myself created. But it is danger food for me. I just like chocolate too much. We have too much in the house, and I decided after a very bad choices eating day yesterday that today I am not even going to eat anything at all until I feel hungry. Truly hungry.
The next foods are ones that I actually did and do make. They are a family tradition on Conference Saturdays. Cinnabons. No kidding. I included the recipe cards, but I warn you, these can be lethal. Almost more dangerous than candy. For one thing there is the smell oozing out of the oven as they bake. Then there is the unbelievable silky cream cheese frosting that has to whip for twelve minutes. That's right, you heard me, twelve minutes. AHHHHH so good. So creamy. So easy to dip you fingers in and lick and salivate and.... I digress. There is one cup of butter and one pound of cream cheese in this frosting, not to mention 2 pounds of powdered sugar. It gets EVERYWHERE. (notice the bowl, very sugary) but soooooo darn worth it. Oh so delicious! And then, warm from the oven, you think, one little teensy corner of one teensy little roll can't hurt..... BUT WATCH OUT! The addiction is speaking to you. And if you don't watch out, you butt will be just like one of these rolls, fat, fluffy, and.... well, I think you get the picture. Later I will post pics of our Easter feast that will be shared by the daughter, son-in-law, and friend April who I might as well adopt. Love her. And the recipes too. To all of my foodie friends, Have a happy (burp) Easter, and enjoy conference.

GIRL POWER! Gotta Love it!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Will they ever get too old for this?





My kids think that they are not too old to hunt Eggs. Unfortunately, I am getting to old to want to hide them well. I had around 100 easter eggs that I hid at 5:30 this morning but they were still just as anxious to go and get them. They were also quite enthusiastic about coloring them last night. I tried to talk them out of hunting them: I told them they could have their baskets all full of eggs and goodies and call it good, but that doesn't follow the tradition! They looked at me like a traitor, so I realized that I am stuck hippity-hopping every Easter Saturday until the end of time in order to keep up with family tradtions....
But I admit, with all the grumbling, I love it.
I love that my kids are good at having fun!
I love that they are happy and want to be together!
I love that our family traditions are a big deal to them!
When it's just Randy and me left in a few years, maybe I'll have grandchildren to pass on these family traditions too.

My favorite thing is to share the secret family jokes and smiles with my children.
Family is EVERYTHING to me.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Just a good thought for today...


It will be conference soon. I had a busy busy day, a test in Sociology, going to the gym, worrying about what I want to eat and not losing weight, math, trying to figure out how to teach grown up kids to be responsible... the usual things. I ran across this quote and it helped me and maybe it will come back to me again when I need it again. President Hinckley was my hero! How I love him! So glad that we have so many of his wise words. I am looking forward to the wise words that will come to me this weekend. Enjoy!