the perfect lunch

What could be finer for lunch…pancakes + coffee. We always make paper cranes when we go out to eat, instant toys, and you can always find some bit of paper.

from Thomas

Remember how I mentioned I got up early on Monday and spending the day in Gettysburg (robotics camp). Well I came home to this lovely painting that Tom had made for me while I was gone! I love her, do you know what she is from? If you cannot guess take a look at this post. It is a semi-local-east coast-ish sort of thing. Tom is currently mulling over the idea of getting prints of one of his paintings made (we are talking months of mulling here), I keep bugging him but he gets sick of his work easily and has trouble settling on anything. You can go bug him about it over at Flickr. :)

working 9-5

Okay so the title of my entry is so totally untrue, I do not work 9-5 ,but I do love that movie, Dolly Parton was one of my child hood favorites. Not to even mention Lily Tomlin, another fave (Incredible Shrinking Woman!) Goodness, okay way off topic!

My working hours depend on when the creative mood strikes, what the kids are up to, and whether or not I have orders to be filled. Lately with working on new stuff for my show I have been pulling some late nights, sometimes 3 and 4am. Not in a bad time crunch way either, but an “inspired cannot stop working” sort of way….much better!

Anyhow here are some more sneak peeks for you. This week was going to be a little crazy since my eldest child is involved in a robotics course that runs 6 hours a day and is 45 minutes away. I drove him this morning and then spent the day in Gettysburg with my youngest until the class let out. Lucky for us one of his friends is in the same class and his family is camping out the entire week. Today during pick up they asked if K could camp with them for the rest of the week, and really how could I refuse? Now that I will not be juggling drop offs and pick ups things should be a bit less hectic then I thought. :)

the thrifty shopper

So I mentioned some thrift shopping the other day and thought I would share some photos. I feel like it has been so long without thrifting. I have been gone so much, and just plain busy, plus Heather is up to her eyeballs in photo shoots and hasn’t had to thrift to replenish her ebay shop in awhile. I miss the days she would come over and we would spend all day on our thrift route!

So I had a domed cake stand but the dome broke inside my very badly packed cabinet, and I have been on the look out for a replacement. Thomas and I are also planning a trip to find a used curio cabinet of sorts to hold some of my dishes. I have this funny long kitchen cabinet now that has to hold most of my baking pans, casserole dishes, and the like. The cabinet is so oddly shaped and has one door but stretches back far off into darkness. This makes it impossible to reach anything that you put into it without removing everything at the front first (and this can lead to broken cake domes!) So a curio cabinet would be a nice addition.

I found my new cake stand for $5, and I just love the little lines in the glass. In celebration I made a cake last night..a lemon cake based off the recipe here. It is filled with lemon curd, has a lemon buttercream frosting, and is vegan. It reminds me of lemon jelly donuts and tastes even better the second day!



Some other goodies I found are these delightful little bear paintings. They were .25 each and are signed by the artist. I am in love with the red polka dot chair, but could not split that little set up. Not to mention at a quarter each they were a bargain.

A new Pinocchio doll who cost me $10, but I still feel it was worth it. He is about twelve inches tall all wood and is jointed with elastic so that he can sit or stand. I also found a Pee Wee Herman doll that looks fantastic and still talks. I hid it away for K’s bday (like a freak I have started to collect presents for the holidays and fall birthdays) I feel like this way I can find all sorts of fun thrifted and handmade items since the holidays are such a busy time for me business wise.

Happy 232nd Birthday!

And this is how we celebrated…
+breakfast with Tom’s parents. I got festive with BLUEberry muffins and RED strawberries haha.
+seeing my parents in the afternoon, with a little bit of thrift shopping and a lunch date out.
+stopping to pick up sparklers and being wooed by other merchandise (I really wanted it ALL, the packages made everything look like a party)
+vegan smores! Tom has been getting the marshmallows from Sweet & Sarah locally every now and again and we tried them out for smores last night, along with some rice milk chocolate, yum!
+the rainy evening which I am listing as a plus because it felt like good cozy rain, and we made a pot of faux chick n dumplings for dinner, and the rain tapered off once it got dark so were able to watch fireworks on the upper porch and got to play with the stuff I bought as well.
-one sick 12 year old who spent the whole evening in bed. Seems to be something going around sadly..he watched the fireworks from his bed half heartedly and we saved a tank, sparklers, and box of poppers for this evening when he is feeling better.
I hope everyone had a grand day even if you had some of the rain like us!