Archive for For Fun

Cake!

Yeah, I know the previous post was about eating better, but you have to have cake sometimes.

Last weekend Mom and I were asked to make a birthday cake for a little girl’s first birthday.

We decided to experiment with the types of things you see on tv. These decorations are made from gum paste, but now I think fondant might be more appropriate:

The design is based off of the mural we painted in her bedroom which is based on a quilt set from Pottery Barn Kids (not in production any longer).

Addi enjoyed her own personal cake:

July is my month to do birthdays at work. I put it off as long as I could (sparing a couple days) and I decided to do fancy cupcakes:

I have been missing zinnias this year as I never got them planted, so I made fake ones. 24 fake ones.

Life Is Hectic…

I’ve been really busy the past couple of weeks between work and everything not-work.

One of the big things: Paul had surgery today to remove three large bladder stones and whatever small ones the x-ray didn’t pick up. Now, if you would have asked me two weeks ago, I would have said, “No, I would not spend that much money on a cat to have surgery.” Right. I did. $51 for the first vet trip, $35 for the second, $70 for the third and $250-300 for today. He is staying overnight at the veterinarian for observation, but they said he used the litter box after he woke up, which is a good thing (no blockage). He also has to stay on a special food now to prevent recurrence. Apparently some cats get them and some cats don’t.

Paul

Earlier I started to yell at Gurney and Paul to stop rough-housing, then I realized it was Gurney rough-housing by himself.

Another big thing: Our office switched over to Quark 7 two weeks ago. This week they are using 6.52 again. There was one day that I just dropped everything I needed to do and spent half the day with the open question, “So what is your problem?” x 20 people. That program (in my opinion) is a piece of crap. They are just begging people to switch to InDesign. In order for us to switch to InDesign though, we need to get the programmers from American Color in to see how well the database program works with what we do compared to what it will do with InDesign.

Lately, getting ready for work in the morning has been a trial because I have nothing to wear. Most of my clothes are winter clothes with the exception of about three work appropriate shirts. I’ve been wearing a lot of tank tops and sweater cardigans. Ryan told me to go buy clothes then as I was ranting about this last Monday on the phone while trying to find something to wear to a church dinner. Most girls would say, “Sure!” I for one, Hate Shopping For Clothes. It isn’t that things don’t fit (sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t), it is that with the current style trends I can a.) look pregnant b.) wear tie dye c.) buy pre-worn out clothing d.) any number of things I’m not paying money for.

Saturday I went with my aunt Teresa to the Dayton Mall (she had to return eyeglasses). Between a variety of stores I bought a t-shirt (not for work), a button up oxford shirt and a white tank top out of a nice fabric. I tried on lots and lots of shirts, but that is what worked.

Today I went to the outlet mall at 9am only to realize they didn’t open til 10. I wasn’t going to wait around until they did open, so I headed to Beavercreek to go to Goodwill which is where I actually wanted to go on Saturday. Normally at that particular Goodwill I can find tons of clothing in almost new condition. Even there though, there wasn’t a lot of good work clothes. I ended up getting two button up shirts. On my way home I went through Xenia and stopped at that Goodwill and found another.

I also went to Kohl’s. My mom could tell you how desperate I must be if I ventured in there. I found a pair of Lee jeans ($20) and a pair of Croft & Barrow dress pants ($8!).

So I guess I have a few more things to be wearing now. I am quite aware I wouldn’t have this problem if I would make it a point to let’s say, buy one shirt a month, but as previously stated, I don’t like clothes shopping.

In addition to buying clothes, I of course bought some other fun stuff:

I was being lazy and made the collage all one picture, instead of a bunch of little ones… 1. New Moleskins. I keep my ‘ideas of things to make’ magazine clippings in a set of small kraft cover, grid paged moleskins. Lately though I have found the need for a sketchbook again, so I bought the medium sized ones with blank pages. 2. Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Needlework. Slowly I am finding the books that were staples of my childhood once I could check out ‘adult’ library books-mind you, they were mostly craft related. 3. Hamburger & Fry Baskets. These are from the Target Dollar section. There have been times I have wanted them in the past, now I have six. 4. Iron On Vinyl. I did not know such a thing existed, now I do. 5. Shish Kabob! So cute, this is from PetsMart’s new summer collection. The ‘meat’ pieces squeak and the red and yellow things crinkle. 6. Produce ball. I’m sure that has another name, but I don’t know it. Technically I also bought that last weekend, but I needed another picture. 7. Ice Cube Drink Stirrers. This is in Target’s summer section. Normally they are expensive, but this one was $2.99. 8. Wind Chime. This was in Target’s Dollar section too. 9. Bath & Body Works Shampoo & Conditioner. I did not know they started making hair care products again. I’ve used it once so far and am pretty pleased with it.

One last thing before I go to bed. Last weekend I needed to fit something new into one of the drawers in my kitchen, but it just wasn’t going to happen (see first picture). I took a three drawer storage container from my sewing room and repurposed it for the kitchen. Now the top drawer has cake/cookie decorating supplies. The middle drawer has sandwich/drink supplies. The bottom drawer has cupcake liners and treat bags. Cleaning that drawer out also enabled me to realize I could get rid of some of the stuff. Yay for organizing.

Culprit Top Drawer
Middle Drawer Bottom Drawer

Tomorrow night I am going to try and upload all of the pictures and movies I haven’t messed with in the last month…

It’s my blog, I can use it to store links if I want…

I am wanting:

Ashford Knitters Loom Just think of the scarves that could be made with that thing. And quickly! Then I looked at the $230 price tag.

I want to make these:

Jello Fruit – Other than the fact they are cute, I see no practical purpose for these.

Mini Pincushions – There is a small pile of lids sitting on the kitchen table in preparation for this weekend.

Some neat graphic design stuff:

Coffee Stain Brush For Photoshop – I really don’t know why you’d want this, it’s just neat.

Vector Magic – I haven’t tried this yet, but wow, where have these people been all my life? Or rather, how did I just find out about them yesterday? (They trace your raster images and make them vector images.)

Just for fun:

The Bureau of Communication – Form letters for miscellaneous things to fill out and email. Very official looking, if not so in subject matter.

Japanese Print & Cut Out Things – I don’t know what a thing on this website says, but with random clicking you’ll get the idea.  There are doll house rooms, stores, sushi, animals, vehicles and more.