Tea Time!

It's one of those days where I'm trying to catch up on housework that gets left undone on the weekend. But I decided to take a break to make myself some tea. I don't like regular standard black tea...I prefer herbal teas, particularly mint tea. I discovered this Rishi Sweet Mint tea at my friends' house a few months ago, and after tastiung it, had to go out and get some myself...

It's officially my favorite tea now! Before this discovery, the previous favorite was Stash brand Peppermint tea.

This is why it's such a great tea...there's more in it than just peppermint. And they're all herbs/spices that I love. I was particularly intrigued thast it has basil in it. I never thought of using basil in tea before.

Mmmmmm...Sweet Mint Tea! I want to make a batch of this in a large, lidded mason jar and keep it in the refrigerator for some sweet iced mint tea.

Blue Glass Photo

*It seems that Blogger is having issues today with uploading/showing pictures from its database, and I can't upload any photos...so today's pic comes to you from Facebook. *

I'm so glad to be able to take pictures with my digital camera again! I just took this picture today while I was waiting for the water to boil for my tea. I kind of wish I'd waited to enter this week's Photography Contest on Facebook (the theme is "Blue")...


... But you can only enter one photo per theme, and I already entered one of my first pictures of Terra that has my blue scarf in it...and it already has 9 votes...so I don't think I can just remove it and enter this picture.

Maybe they'll have a "glass" theme sometime where I can use this photo. Or a more specific "turquoise" color theme.

Life Update...

I must aplologize for my lack of posts this week. (ah yes...the obigitory blogger's apology) My official excuse is that my digital camera's battery died, and I lost the charger (but I do have the camera on my phone, so that's not a great excuse). My husband also took a vacation week, and we were doing lots of household stuff, so I didn't get a whole lot of crafting done.

One thing that happened this week was that we finally got a stove/oven on Tuesday! We have been living without a stove/oven since we moved to this house in August. The house didn't come with any appliances and the appliances we had in the apartment belonged to our landlord. So for the past 7 months, we've been using a hot plate, toaster oven, rice cooker, crock pot, and other various appliances to cook our meals. You'd be surprised how well you can do without a stove/oven. But now we have one! Yay! I can bake again! I really missed baking during the winter...particularly around Christmas.
CJ also got me a new kitchen faucet (you can kind of see it in the first picture)...which makes doing the dishes a little bit less of a pain, since the faucet is a lot higher than the old one. And it's a whole lot prettier.

On Friday my Mom had a doctor's appointment in the morning that my Dad had to drive her to, so they both had the day off from work. So after Mom's appointment, Mom, Dad, and King all came out to visit. We decided it was okay to let King get on the couch. He's such a snuggler. Anyone who says all Rottweilers are mean and scary needs to see this picture!

Finally, here's a picture I took today of my friend Kim's week-old little girl with one of my Monster-Ear hats on. She's such a little peanut (6 pounds!) and the hat fit her perfectly!
It's so hard to believe that a week ago she was still in the womb!

So, that is my week in phone-camera taken pictures. I did find my camera's battary charger today (it was on my craft room floor...I don't know why, but I'm blaming the cat. She tends to jump up on my desk in the craft room and bat things around. Sometimes I'll find sweater scraps in the hallway upstairs). Hopefully I'll have more to blog about this week!

More Modeling...

I met up with Ashley today for lunch, then we went to the town park to take some pictures. That girl does such a good job of making me look good!

The color in my hair has faded a lot from when I first got it done. It used to look a lot more purple in the sunlight. I still like it though.

On Facebook, Ashley commented that she thinks I look like a vampire because of my light skin. I made a comment back that said "You got me...I am secretly a Cullen. I have to wear special vampire anti-sparkle skin creme in order to go out into the sun without being found out!" LOL. Yeah...Twilight geek jokes. (No, I am NOT going out at midnight tonight to get the DVD of "New Moon"...rabid fangirls annoy me.)

Since we went to the park, I HAD to bring Luna! So Ashley snapped some pictures of her too. She took a lot of pictures, but these two (three if you count a duplicate of the one of me, but in sepia tone) are the only ones that made it to her Facebook group. I'm curious what the rest of them looked like.

Presence on the Patio Spring 2010!

Presence on the Patio is BACK! And this time, my friend Rachel and I are in charge!

After the Presence on the Patio we had back in December, the owner of the Shirt Factory Cafe agreed that doing it seasonally was a great idea. He suggested we have it on one of the weekends that the life-sized Thomas the Tank Engine comes to the Medina Railroad Museum (an event known as "Day Out With Thomas", which I'm told draws THOUSANDS of people to Medina each year!). And Shirt Factory Cafe is right around the corner from the Railroad Museum! So we've scheduled the Spring 2010 edition of Presence on the Patio for Saturday, May 8th.

Rachel and I are still in the planning stages, and are trying to line up the vendors (obviously, KiraArts and the girls of Primele (Rachel & Tricia) are going to be there!), but planning is coming along! Hopefully we'll have a list of definite vendors by mid-April. For now, you can check out the Facebook event and fan page. I'm thinking about possibly starting a blog soon as well.

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Monster-Ear Hats are in the Shop!

I've finally made some listings for the monster-ear hats in my Etsy shop!


The photos for the child size listing are by my friend Ashley Clark (and that adorable kid in the picture is her son). She's the one that I've modeled for in the past. Check out her photography blog here. If you're in the Rochester, NY area and need a good photographer, drop her a line! She does amazing work!

Homeschool Co-op Art Class (5-7 year olds)

A lot of my friends homeschool their kids...and a group of them decided to do an unofficial homeschool co-op for the kids to get together and socialize and learn subjects like art and science and phys. ed. I don't have any kids, but I end up being one of the artsiest girls of the bunch and seem to have been dubbed the resident art expert. And I was asked if I could teach an art class for the co-op.

This week I was teaching the 5-7 year olds...10 of them. And I was teaching about color-mixing...with paint. 5-7 year olds x 10 + paint = messy disaster...right? Nope! Everything went so smoothly! I think one reason is because the kids didn't actually get to use paintbrushes (this time). I did 2 activities with them that had the paint pretty contained...

I took shoeboxes and taped a piece of paper inside...had the kids pick 2 colors of paint...squirted the paint in...add a few marbles...let the kid tilt and shake the box.

The second activity that we did was the classic "Ink Blot"/Rorchach Test project. I gave the kids pre-folded paper...asked them to pick 2 colors of paint...dripped somepaint on their paper...and had them fold it in half. Surprisingly enough, they liked this project even better than the marbles! When given a choice between doing one of the projects a second time, they all chose the "ink blot" project! (I would have thought they would pick the "marble roll"!)

All in all, the class was a rousing success! All the kids seemed to have a lot of fun.

I know you're not supposed to have favorites as a teacher, but this "ink blot" (shown above) was my absolute favorite out of all of them! Everyone unanimously thought it looked like a big pair of lips! There was another one I forgot to take a picture of where the kid used black and blue...he said the black part looked like a sheep head (which it did!), but I thought the blue part on top of the black sheep head part looked like a hot water bottle. So I said it looked like a sheep with a head cold! (Oh, I wish I'd thought to take a picture of it!)

The hardest part is finding a place for all the wet paint to dry!..and then having it dry in time for the kids to take them home. We globbed way too much paint on the paper for the "ink blots"...because the hole is so big on the caps of the bottles of tempera paint I have. I need to find some clear condiment bottles (like the hot-dog stand style ketchup bottles) so I can have a bit more control of how much paint comes out. (I should just make sure I don't store the red or yellow paint in the refrigerator!)

Nubbin-ized Na'vi

Movies inspire me. After seeing the movie "Avatar", I got inspired to make a "Nubbin-ized" Na'vi (the tribal, blue, "cat-people" aliens in the film).

My husband called dibs on this one as soon as he saw it, but I might be willing to make another if one is specially requested. (but I should probably call it "Tribal Blue Cat Person" to avoid getting sued). I like the design though. If I made one in different colors instead of blue, it wouldn't be recognizable as a Na'vi.

"Cat people" huh?...see any resemblance? ;)

Speaking of cats and movie inspiration...and blue...I love the blue stripes on the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland movie...and am dying to make a Cheshire Cat Nubbin/pillow/hat with blue stripes now!

Custom-Colored Wild Thing Nubbin

My 11 year old friend, Emily, requested me to make her a custom pink & beige "Wild Thing" monster Nubbin "for her birthday"...which was back in December...of course, I promised I'd make it for her back in January, but have gotten sidetracked by life and other projects. I finally got around to finishing it this week...

She's very happy with it! But now she wants me to make her a pink Max!

Runner Up Cat Photo

The picture of Terra I entered in the Facebook Photography Contest got 3rd place! I know it's not 1st...but I'm just excited to place in this contest since there are professional and amatuer photographers alike in it, and I am one of the amatuers.


Go to the Photography Contest Winners Blog to see the photos that beat me for 1st and 2nd place. (it seems poor Terra, as beautiful as she is, can't compete with the hilarity of a soaking wet cat, or the cuteness of a newborn kitten!)

Finished "Professor Wormbog" inspired Nubbins

I've finished the Nubbins I was comissioned to do, inspired by the book "Professor Wormbog in Search of the Zipperump-a-zoo"! (wow...that sentence sounds like a children's book rhyme).

Professor Wormbog...

Little Laff...

...and the elusive Zipperump-a-zoo!

Family Historian

I'm becoming something of a family historian. My great grandfather (my father's mother's father) was an amatuer photographer and I have a lot of his photos (as well as other family portraits not taken by him) that I have been scanning in to incorporate into Aunt Grandma's book. (Aunt Grandma/Aunt Carrie was my father's mother's sister)

My grandma Janet as a little girl.

Grandma Janet as a young woman. I never knew Grandma Janet...she died when my Dad was 17. All I have are these pictures of her.

Great Grandma Ruth on Lake Ontario

Aunt Grandma/Carrie and Aunt Marion

These are only a few of the pictures I have. I have a lot more to scan in. Then even more work to implement them into Aunt Grandma's book.

I ♥ Anthroplogie

My mother has been clamoring for me to upload this video of us in the new Anthropologie store in Eastview Mall in Victor, NY. I've always heard about Anthropologie before on home decor blogs like Apartment Therapy and Design Sponge, but I've never been to a store before (I guess the one in Eastview is the only one in New York besides the one in NYC.) I absolutely loved it though. This quote says it all...

"We're too fat for the clothes, but we love the housewares!"

They got some sweet doorknobs and other hardware! They have the kind of stuff that would look great in my 100 year old house. This doorknob is Mom's favorite...

Although my mom and I both are way too thrifty/frugal to pay $42 for a doorknob! My only issue with Anthropologie is that it is pretty pricey. But it IS so cool!

"Un-Toys"

A post on Apartment Therapy's kid blog Ohdeedoh sparked the memory of my favorite "un-toys" (things that aren't really toys that kids like to play with...like the classic empty cardboard box). Two of my favorite things to play with as a child were these two ceramic mice my mother had painted for me...a little boy mouse in overalls and a little girl mouse in a pink dress.


They were meant to be only for decoration, but I would play with them like they were little toy figurines. That's probably why they have chipped ears and feet now.

Other "un-toys" I enjoyed were bolsters, pillows, and blankets, which my brother and I would always use to make forts. (every kid knows blanket forts are the BEST!)