I have been having lots of fun working on my swap doll quilt. I haven't been able to do any real sewing since the flooding, so this is what I've been still able to work on.
The picture is something I've been working on for quite awhile. I took inspiration from a few different pictures, but it was all totally drawn by me. It's supposed to look like my oldest son. I guess it's how I imagined his first kiss will be, and the girl is supposed to look like the girl I imagined it would be with, but it must not look too much like her because my son and my husband didn't recognize her, so I said I made her up. We'll see how psychic I am.
Anyway, I colored it in crayon, set it, then embroidered everything in brown with a backstitch. I forgot my camera at friends' house, so it's a scan, hence the little ripples.
The boys were super excited to hear about the Funny Foods Contest at The Crafty Crow. They started coming up with ideas immediately. We made our first one today for lunch. It's a Stromboli Snail.
They love stromboli and always request to make them, so I wasn't really surprised when they picked it for the contest.
Basically you take pizza dough and roll it out. Then you layer your favorite fillings, for this one they used pepperoni, onion, black olives, and cheese. Then they rolled it up jelly roll style. Placed it seam side down on a baking sheet and brushed it with milk so the outside gets nice and brown.
Baked it at 350 for 20 minutes.
Then it gets sliced.
To make it like a snail, they laid a sliced piece on a bed of "grass" lettuce. Baby carrot was used for the head, string cheese for the antennae, black olive bits for the eyes.
A cut piece of string cheese and pepperoni were used for the little mushroom.
I was really impressed with how well they did this. All I did was put it in and out of the oven, (there have been burnt hands, so they are a little leery of this.) They did everything else, including taking the pictures!
Well, I'm very happy to report that all we did was blow our power supply, so my husband found and installed a new one and we are back in business! The weather in Wisconsin has been weird, just like a lot of the Midwest right now. We were smack in the middle of everything that hit Wisconsin. We were unable to get to our house Thursday night because all of the cities between where we were and where we lived were completely flooded and you couldn't get south. (We were less than 30 minutes away.) Our boys were safe, but stuck at Grandma's, so we ended up bunking at friends' house on Thursday night. Friday we spent assessing damages and trying to find a route home that wasn't flooded out. We did and found, it wasn't too bad where we were, even though we received the second highest rain total of the area. All of the neighboring cities were flooded though, so we decided, this was the perfect time to go visit my brother and his family 4 hours away from the flooding. We had a beautiful weekend, and I got to spend some wonderful relaxing time with my nieces, brother and sister-in-law. I actually miss them already. We'll see them again in 2 weeks though, and until then I can look at the pictures we took. Ambrosia picking flowers
Clover sitting with a very furry uncle Tim
While I was unable to use my computer, I was invited to take part in Bella Dia's Thoughtful Friday. I thought that would be fun, so even though this isn't Friday, I took this picture on Friday, so I thought I could do a belated one.
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination. -Voltaire
Well, if you've been watching the news, you may have seen that the midwest has been hit with some nasty storms. We have been very blessed so far. Some flooding in the basement, some power outages, etc... many people have it far worse! My prayers go out to those who have lost their homes, family, lives in these storms. I almost feel bad whining because I know so many have it so much worse.
But I do want to let you know. My computer went boom. It has died. We are hoping that we can resurrect it with a new power supply, but we'll have to see. I unplugged it during the storm so it wouldn't get hit, and when we re-plugged it in after the storm passed, and then it went BOOM! Don't know what happened. Anyway, so there will probably not be too many posts as I have to use hubby's computer late at night. And it's awkward. And he hates when I empty my camera on here, so there probably won't be tons of pics. Sorry. Hopefully this will be fixed soon!
A toad Lore found, he wanted to keep it, but I told him I'd take a picture and put it online, then he agreed to set it free.
It's pretty gloomy here today. It's been rainy and chilly. I really wanted to hang my sheets on the line outside today, but it's just not going to happen. That always cheers me up. The boys have one day left of school. We have big plans for Friday and Saturday as Tim will be working Friday and with his dad at a tractor pull on Saturday. (I just can't get into those!) So we'll be working on his father's day present which I was really hoping would be done by now. I can't complain, the reason it isn't done is because Tim's been around more than usual. That certainly isn't a bad thing.
I was tagged, and I don't usually do these, but I thought... what the heck;
-What time did you wake up today? 5:30am -Natural Haircolor? It's been so long.... no it's dark brown, but I have TONS of grey from having really high fevers. -Latest movie seen in a movie theater? IronMan & Indiana Jones (same day) -Favorite TV series? Super Nova, Japanese Gameshows, Docto Who
-How many times have you moved in your life? 14
-What did you have for breakfast? A piece of Wasa bread with veg cream cheese and a hard boiled egg -What's your middle name? Lynn -Favorite food? brownies, a really good salad, pasta with grilled vegetables (depends on my mood) -Which food don't you like? peanut butter (except in cookies) and I really dislike coffee in any way shape or form especially the smell -Picture on your Calendar? I don't have a picture on my calendar, I need the space for writting. -What's your favorite CD at the moment? the newer hairspray soundtrack (I don't really listen to cds, more like individual songs, so this is the only cd that I've listened to lately.) -What car do you drive? I don't. -Favorite sandwich? Ice cream sandwich -Which human traits can't you stand? intolerance, ignorance, and dishonesty -Favorite family vacation? Camping with hubby and the kids. -What are your favorite clothes? camo yoga pants, tshirt, and flip flops. -Favorite scent? onions & garlic in butter.... or lavendar -If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? I don't know I'm fairly content here. Lazy vacation in Hawaii, otherwise for enjoyment somewhere in the UK or Australia -Where would you like to retire? I'm only 30.... ok, maybe a nice big plot of land here in Wisconsin. -Favorite time of day? 10am it's always quiet and peaceful at that time here (so don't start calling at that time =) ) -Where were you born? Central Wisconsin USA -Which is your favorite sport to watch? kids soccer in person on tv- Japanese game shows -Your most annoying habit? I'm terribly unorganized, but I'm a psychotic list maker. So people find millions of lists I've made everywhere, but I can't find any of them, so I keep making more of the same subject. -Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi if I have to pick I don't drink either. -Soccer or hockey? Soccer! -Are you a morning person or a night owl? Neither any more, but more often a night owl. -Pedicure or manicure? Manicure if I have to pick -What's something we don't know? My neighbor keeps stealing my rhubarb and strawberries. -What did you want to become as a child? Astronaut -until the Challenger Exploded, Fashion designer until I realized I couldn't put TAB on the label because of trademark laws, Graphic/commercial artist (still occasionally think about it.) -Best childhood memory? Sitting in my backyard between the lilac bushes, it was quiet and no one ever found me. I could do whatever I wanted there. (This was before I became horribly allergic to lilacs. -Biggest phobia? Heights & bridges are probably my biggest. -Ever rolled anybody in toilet paper? Yep -Have you ever been in a car accident? Lots, probably one reason I have no interest in driving. -Favorite day of the week? Saturday, we are all together as a family. -Favorite flower? daisy, daffodil, peonies -Favorite - Hot dog or Chinese food? Chinese Buddha's delight or Combination vegetable plate with an egg roll and half a bowl of hot and sour soup mixed with half a bowl of egg drop soup or Won ton soup -Do you own a bike? Yes, but I am desperately searching for another one that's perfect. -What color is your house? Off-White, but it will hopefully be dark grey by fall. -Who was you latest e-mail from? My sister-in-law asking about text spam she's been getting. -Where would you like to shop more if you could afford to? Realty section for land in the country that we could build our dream green home -Normal bed time? 11pm usually -Latest person to share dinner with? Tim and the kids like almost every night. -Favorite type of jewelry? I really never wear any, including my wedding rings, if I had to pick one it would be the odd necklace on occasion. -What are you up to now? I'm doing laundry, writing this post and debating if I will get up the ambition to stencil/print/paint an Obama shirt for Lore tomorrow. He's been asking and I forgot, but I don't know if I'll have time. -Favorite color? White with Red, pink, and light blue -How many tattoos? None, simply because I keep changing my mind at what I want.
If you would like to do this, consider yourself tagged.
The school year is winding down right now. There is less than a week left. I have had a field trip to chaperone every week for the last month or so. It's quite fun to see the different ages interact. Quite a difference 2 years can make between what friendships entail and how important some things are. On Friday we had our talent show. Honestly I barely even knew we had a talent show. There'd be a little blurb in some newsletter saying it's coming up, but never anything after that. Well, this year my little Lore decided he MUST be in the talent show. The conversation went something like this; L: Mom, I have to be in the talent show, what's my talent? M: Honey you have lots of talents, I'm not sure what you'd like to show off in front of the school though. There's singing, dancing, you are pretty good at the splits and cartwheels, you could somehow work those into an act. L: No, I don't want to sing, or dance, and the whole school has already seen me do the splits. I am a great arm farter! M: Yes, you are quite good at arm farting, I'm not sure the teachers want to hear you arm fart for 3 minutes though. L: Yeah, they get weird about that. Maybe I could do something with my brothers. M: That could be fun, it'll have to be something they like too though. L: Well, then it'll have to be a comedy act, they probably are afraid that someone will laugh at them, but they can't get upset if someone laughs if it's a comedy right!?!
Oh, 7 year olds can be so wise! That was about a month and a half ago. They narrowed some things down, and came up with an act. Tried out, got in. I made them hats. They practiced, and it was performed on Friday. Here's what they did.
The shakiness on the camera is from me laughing. The woman next to me was literally in tears laughing so hard, I couldn't stop laughing myself. I made the hats out of a thin lining fabric, so they could see through them. It has wire for the brim and the top to hold it's shape. Levi changed how he wanted his hands, that's why his eyes are covered too much. They did such a great job, I am so proud of them. And they are sort of rock stars at school right now.
