She's Here! Daughter Number 3 is in the House!

He's one happy Papa! He's trying not to crack up, so it's not the best picture of him, but Ashley sure looks cute. It's so good to have her home. We had Gus's Greek Salad & bread sticks for dinner last night & Pizza Hut Supreme Pan Pizza. Those are two of the things she's been craving since she moved to Mexico. Yes, you can get pizza in Mexico, but it's not the same.... Ashley says they put Ketchup and chimichuri sauce on it, and the toppings are hot dogs and ham (lunch meat style), it's not exactly Pizza Hut.

Today she visited the dentist and had a great report; no cavities and then we went grocery shopping together.

I'll post more pictures as I take them. Tomorrow we plan to go shopping for maternity clothes.

A 3 Layer Cake-Waiting for Toppings!

Time to make another diaper cake. This will be diaper cake number four for me, so far they have all been disposable diapers. Here's the supplies I used to roll the diapers.



To begin just tuck the top of the front section of diaper down a little,so when you roll it you don't see Elmo peaking out. After rolling, secure it with yarn to keep it rolled. You want a light color of yarn or string, so it won't show through the ribbon you attach later.




Make up a cake board or buy a cake plate. I put doilies on mine, but you can use your imagination and do something completely different.



In the center of a cake plate place a paper towel tube and stand about six rolled diapers end-up around the tube. Secure the six diapers with another piece of yarn or string. You may want to enlist a second pair of hands to hold the diapers in place while you tie the string around it. Place a second ring of diapers around the first ones you put on and then secure it with yarn as well and then a third ring around the second one. Viola! You have one layer completed. Now proceed with the second layer, but just put two rings of rolled diapers around the tube. And your third layer will have just one ring of diapers around the tube.



Chose a wide ribbon to secure the layers of the cake. You can do a more than one ribbon around in different widths if you prefer. I decided to add pastel bows around the cake this time. They are pinned on with tiny gold safety pins from the back. I have also dangled charms and other items from the ribbons on previous cakes.



Here's the resulting undecorated cake. Now for the fun part. Add lots of baby stuff. Here's some ideas to get you going:

Baby care products like lotion, powder, bath wash etc. in travel sizes
Booties & socks
Comb & Brush
Nail Clippers
Toys
Baby bottles
Pacifiers
Hat & mitten
Bonnet
Onsie
Baby sunglasses
Lullaby CD
Barrettes & Hair ties
Baby tooth brush
Rubber duckie
Thermometer

I could go on & on, but you get the picture. I will post a picture of the diaper cake when it's finished. Wish me Luck!

BEWARE!

I heard a few weeks ago that criminals are using face book as a tool to commit crimes. I certainly didn't think at the time that there would be a hit on someone in my own family. Don't worry the crime was attempted, but it didn't work in this case. This is what happened.

My daughter, Meghan has a best friend named Megan B. Megan B. called our house to tell us that her husband received a notice on his face book page that our daughter had been mugged while on a trip to London and needed to borrow money to get home. Megan B. called my daughter to see if it was true, but the answering machine is all she could connect with, so she called us. Megan B. stated that her first clue that it was a hoax was that the message didn't go to her face book page. We know for a fact that our daughter is not in London. But Megan B. was worried enough to call us and what if she would not have been able to reach us? They've been best friends since Kindergarten and if it were true, well certainly she'd wire the money. See how it works, they are preying on your emotional connection to friends and family.

This is scary business. Unsavory characters lurking everywhere these days, taking advantage of unsuspecting people. Don't think that it can't happen to you. Protect yourselves as much as possible. Believe me I'm going to be more wary from now on.

The Revealing

I won't tease you or make you wait a second longer. Yesterday I made another trip to Joanne Fabrics ( affectionately called Joanna's in this family ) for ribbon and completed the shoes last night. At each phase I kept telling myself, this is the hardest part. I think I tied one shoe five times before I got the bow right. The two bunny ears method worked the best, for those who are curious.


Just like the invitations I made them in the four colors. Aren't they just precious?


I forgot to take a picture of the mints that are going in them. Darn! They are called mint drops, and are the shape of chocolate chips. The packages are a mixture of green, yellow, pink & white mint drops and they have white beads on the bottoms of them. You'll just have to picture them in your mind, because it's too time consuming to repeat the process of taking the picture, downloading, and posting for one picture.


Here's the whole batch, I made 40 just to be sure I have enough. Ashley may want to take some back with her if she can fit them in her luggage somewhere. If we put them inside a Tupperware container or something else rigid, they may make the trip back to Mexico okay.

Derek, my son-in-law once told me on the phone that my daughter was at Joanna's when I called. When I talked to her later, I asked her who Joanna was, I had not heard her talk about this particular friend. She had been at Joanne Fabrics buying craft supplies for scrap booking. To this day the name Joanna's has stuck.

A Styrofoam Cup & All These Supplies = Baby Shower Favor

Can a simple dollar store Styrofoam cup become a really cute baby shower party favor, used to hold mints for the guests???

That's the question. What will the answer be?

My neighbor made these really cute favors for her daughter-in-law's shower, so I asked to borrow the pattern. They didn't look that hard. There were no warning labels, red flags or signs of dried tears on them.

I'd like to rewrite the directions and place a few words to the wise of my own (in big red letters) in the heading of said directions.

Must have a year or two of extreme crafting experience.

Requires previous experience cutting circular objects with scalloped scissors.

Must be able to dump half a grocery bag of Styrofoam into your local landfill and still be able to sleep at night.



Must be able to squeeze plastic bottle evenly with the right hand while also making an up and down motion with that hand (going over the scallops) AND be able to rotate another object with the left hand in a circular motion. If you can't tap your head and rub your tummy at the same time - FORGET IT!



Must be able to live with imperfections. Read - Blobs, smears and other boo-boos bound to happen when working with craft paints.



I'm now on the third day of making the favors.

Day 1 - Cut all cups to size. Cut tongue of shoes. Cut scallops around the top of shoe. Punch holes for lacing ribbon through to later tie the shoes.

Day 2 - Apply fabric paints to scalloped edges of shoes. This takes forever!!

Day 3 - Punch hearts for decorative touch and glue to shoes. (My neighbor used hearts, ducks & Teddy bears.) Apply iridescent glitter paint over entire shoe and let dry.

Please stay tuned for the unveiling of these unique, easy and impressive looking party favors!!!

Who says the exposure has to to perfect?

We just returned from a trip to North Carolina and before I download the trillions of pictures off my new Canon Rebel; I wanted to share these photos from my last trip, which I took with my old Kodak.

Perhaps you're one of those people who would say "Why did she keep that? It's over exposed." Who says it has to be perfect to be cool? Not me. I love photos that are a little bit different, a variant of the norm. These are one of a kind, not-so-perfect, unusual and well .... they're mine.



Most of the time, people try to capture the picture of the subject looking at the camera smiling. A picture can be cool even if the subject is not looking at the camera.

I love the sky in this last shot. Ava is larger than life, David (who's practically family) is in the background and then there is a crowd behind him and lastly rolling hills. I love the layered effect.

It's been less than a month

It has been less than a month ago that a classmate of Audra's was murdered in Detroit and now a classmate of Ashley's was killed in a rollover accident on I96. It's so sad when people die in their 20's, no chance to marry or have children or do anything with their education. I can't imagine the sorrow their loved ones have to bare.

Karla Johnson was in Ashley's girl scout troop. She was an avid dancer, an excellent student and a good kid. The newspaper article stated she was a passenger in a car that swerved to avoid hitting an animal on the highway. The car rolled over several times and Karla who was not wearing a seat belt was thrown from the car and seriously injured. Alcohol was not involved in the accident, just a failure to buckle up.

In the back of my mind a little voice nags at me....it could have been one of my kids. Nothing in life is guaranteed. I may be one of the lucky ones and live to a ripe old age and die before any of my children do, but there are those who are not so lucky. I do not know what my future holds... but I do know who holds my future and with that in mind I'll say a prayer for Karla's family and thank God for the many blessing he's given me in the form of children & grandchildren.