Sad, Sadder, Saddest

Sad: The Godiva Strawberry Truffle cost $2.00.  
Sadder: Cooper grabbed it and popped it in his mouth before we could stop him.  
Saddest: The look of horrified disgust on Cooper's face as he ran to spit it out.

A life lesson

For a 4 year old.
Yesterday Cooper learned that forcing farts has its risks...

Beautiful Orchid

Mei Lan, my Chinese (and middle) name, means "Beautiful Orchid." That's what I chose for my station wagon's vanity license plate. As I pulled into the left turn lane yesterday morning, I was startled by the tag on the car in front of me. It read "Orchid." I SO wanted to jump out of my car and let the driver know that we had the same words on our tags, only mine was in Chinese. But I refrained.

(Image source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1253&picture=orchid&large=1)

Valentine's Day Goody Bags

This year I volunteered to supply the goody bags for my youngest’s pre-school Valentine’s party. A top priority was to not fill the bags with plastic junk that would be looked at for a second and then tossed in a landfill. Since bookmarks are small, useful, and can be designed for any holiday I chose a reading theme.

Each goody bag would be filled with:

•     A card
•     A bookmark
•     A full-sized Kit Kat candy bar (because of its red packaging)
•     2 pieces of Valentine’s Day taffy (to share with siblings. and because I love taffy)

First the bookmarks. I originally intended to create a cardboard bookmark. Well, I’d like to THINK that was my original intention. Because that would have been the wiser (and cheaper option), but I ended up making ribbon bookmarks. After scouring the web, I found instructions for creating them here and here. (I'm so glad that I found ImogensGarden's blog because that's where I learned to look for "ribbon clamps." Using the right words can save so much time when explaining to a sales person what one is looking for.)

This project could have cost a lot more than it did but I made several trips to Michaels with coupons in hand. I also found that the wedding craft section of that store is a great alternative for charms. If I’d chosen them from the jewelry section, it could have cost as much as $5.00 for 5 items. As it was, the wedding section had a packet of FIFTY (50!) heart charms for $4.99…that combined with a 40% discount made them very inexpensive.

I also returned to the wedding section for a package of 50 mini tulle bags to put each bookmark in. I then secured a bag inside each recipient’s Valentine’s Day card.

But I didn’t make 50 bookmarks. Oh, no. I didn’t have THAT much time on my hands. Besides which, each ribbon clamp package was only available in packs of 5 complete sets of varying sizes. Rather annoying. So as I was using coupons very actively, I only managed to get 5 packs…for 25 bookmarks. (It was annoying at the time, but in retrospect I am relieved that I was unable to find large packs of ribbon clamps. Because then I'd have had to make 50 bookmarks.)

Fortunately, though, the bookmarks were really quick to make. The most time consuming part was gathering the supplies. I applied the clamps and then focused on adding the beads. We were able to get them done in an hour or so. (I doubt it took much longer than that as I distinctly remember my sons patiently hovering around us as we worked…and it was getting to be dinner time…and they SO wouldn’t have let us work peacefully if their stomaches were growling…which means I was multi-tasking…but, regardless, it was a peaceful evening.)

I didn’t take any pictures of the bookmarks in progress, but I’m not going to reinvent the wheel with instructions for creating them. The earlier links to Imogen’s Garden and Michaels lead to great instructions for creating ribboned bookmarks of your own.

Now the cards. Creating the cards and the goody bags was the most time consuming part of the project. I scoured (again) the Web for reading-related Valentine’s text but not finding any I attempted to create my own. The final product was corny and not worthy of the beautiful bookmarks. After another I attempt, I found the PERFECT text. It was written by a librarian, her site gave permission for it’s re-use, and I want to credit her, but I can’t find the site now. (So Dear Librarian, or Friend-of-Dear-Librarian, if you should stumble across this blog, please send me a link to your site and I’ll add the info!)

If I’d known the cards would take me ALL day Saturday to create, I might not have done as much Xacto cutting and punching as I did.

Here’s the work table:
(Do you see the penguin waving at you? And the Lightning Thief Guide Book? --- Why, yes, we DID brave the crushing crowds last Saturday to meet some of the movie cast members!)

Here’s the incomplete supply list:
The supply list picture is missing: heart punch, hole punch, beading tools, Kit Kat bar, taffy, paper bag …umm, I’m sure there’s other stuff. But it’ll give a general idea as to what I used.

And the final product:

The inside of the card has a small tulle bag holding a bookmark with “Happy Valentine’s Day” stamped beneath it. On the back of the card is a small picture of smiling cherubs that were also individually punched out and then glued on. (I'm kind of glad I forgot pictures of the inside and back of the card because this blog entry would be unforgiveably long. Well. It's in that category already, I suppose.)

If I were making the card for grown-ups rather than four year olds, I would have used better quality paper for the text (I just used plain old typing paper). And, yes, I know the clamp on that ribbon on the left is too large. I doubt the four-year olds will notice. And, actually, there are a LOT of non-crafty grown-ups who wouldn’t notice as well. (But, of course, if I’d noticed the size discrepancy before production time arrived, I would have chosen another ribbon. Because I’m a perfectionist. Even when it nearly kills me.)

The delivery method:
I love lunch bags. I truly do. They are my preferred method of gift packaging. There’s so much that can be done with them AND they’re bio-degradable!

And that’s that for the goody bags. The party is this Friday. I also volunteered to supply decorations for the class so I’m making a felt heart banner. (Of the style that is sweeping the blogosphere this season. I’ll post pictures of it this weekend. I hope. Good intentions and all that…)

Best pumpkin cake ever

Really. It turns out the secret to extra-moist cake is vegetable oil!?

My recipe is based on this one. Despite having lots of oil and sugar it is AMAZING. So far my adjustments to the ingredients have not disrupted the integrity of its flavor or moistness. Once I've got the recipe down, I'll try making cupcakes with it. I can't imagine the format would make a difference to the final output, but better safe than sorry.

I first concentrated on replacing the white flour with as much wheat flour as possible. (I've got it to 1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat flour.) Next was to reduce the sugar...so far I've brought it down from 2 cups to 1 1/4 cup. Of course, the sugar reduction was negated by the 3/4 cup of chocolate chips I added, but it's still better than the chocolate plus the original amount of sugar.

Right?

I tried reducing the oil and adding applesauce. I found that the interior moistness remained, but it gave the exterior a slight crunchiness that I didn't like. I'd rather just keep all the oil and not eat the cake like it's a main dish.

Just in case the link becomes unavailable, here's my modified version of the recipe:

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 12x18 inch pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared 12x18 inch pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Cousin sleepover

Two of our nephews spent last Friday night with us. I didn't have anything crafty planned or a specific outing...just pizza and a movie and then bedtime. It was the first time we've had them over---which as they're 6 and 9 years old seems rather shameful. But times change...we used to see them a LOT more than we do now so sleepovers were never a thought. I'm actively working on changing that, though. The 9 year old and Oldest are so sweet together that it warms the cockles of my heart watching their interchanges. The 6 year old is two years older than Youngest so they don't have that much in common, but as a group they get along very well.

As supported by this, unstaged, picture.

My oldest nephew is playing his DSi while the others watch. (Hmmm. Have we come full circle in terms of electronic screens? Small to extra-large back to small...)

I absolutely love having relatives over and making memories with them. We'll be seeing them again tomorrow as we head over to Marietta Square for its 33rd annual Harvest Square Arts and Crafts Festival. There'll be arts and crafts (duh), scarecrow contest entries, a kids' costume contest, a pet costume contest. We're not prepared to participate in the kids' costume contest, but this family will be represented next year.

Welcome to my gym

Since becoming an over-scheduled parent, I've attempted several times to incorporate exercise into my daily life. Each plan and good intention was invariably thwarted in some way. One July I started swimming in the early morning only to later discover that the pool would be closed during the entire month of August. I started hiking at a local state park only to learn a few days later that someone was attacking females there. I started walking in my neighborhood only to develop severe lower back pain due to my swayback (such an old-fashioned word!). I truly have multiple examples of how each of my plans was foiled.

So here's my newest creative approach to getting exercise...my office building's stairwell. It is a really great workout and fits so well into my schedule. In about 5 minutes I can climb 17 flights of stairs, get my heart rate up, tone my muscles and then get back to work. Perfect. (Knock on wood.)