Cake Wrecks

When professional cakes go horribly wrong.  http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ 

My favorite is the kind where the decorator takes the order literally.

Orchid

For Valentine's Day Steve gave me a beautiful Oncidium orchid.  It flowered for another week or two afterward and since then has looked green and somewhat happy sitting on the tub. 

Steve has given me an orchid before and I kept it alive for a while, but orchids have a reputation for being finicky.  I don't turn on the exhaust fan when I shower so it will have 15 minutes of humidity.  I water and fertilize it when I think about it, but not as much as suggested, and I even knocked it over a couple weeks ago, spilling bark pieces into the tub.  Ugh. 

But it must be somewhat happy because this is what greeted me last week:

It's not the long branches laden with dozens of blooms that I brought home from the greenhouse in February, but I'll take it.  Maybe it's one of those plants that flowers when it thinks it's going to die, kind of like a last-ditch effort to procreate. 

Delaware visit

Steve had a business trip to Delaware last week, so Olivia and I tagged along.  I kept Olivia up from her morning nap so she'd sleep well in the car, but she talked to herself the whole way to Baltimore.  Steve spent a few hours at his main office, so I drove around hoping Olivia would fall asleep, and then I gave up and went shopping.  First I plugged "consignment" into the GPS and a mile away from the office we found a great little shop.  Except it was, in traditional consignment shop fashion, crammed with inventory so I couldn't bring the stroller in.  About a minute after coming inside I realized it was going to be a short visit if I had to hold a squirmy baby who was trying to grab everything.  Within 3 minutes I located the last of their Halloween inventory (50% off) and bought the only thing in OJ's size, which turned out to be pretty cute for $4.75.  Here she is with Misty Mouse at the Halloween party.  After the consignment shop we hit Target for a Pumpkin Spice Latte and some candy corn baby socks.

Then Livi crawled around Steve's office until he was finished, and finally napped a little on the way to Delaware.  We had a yummy dinner with Cheryl & Jeff at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  I would post a picture of them, but it didn't come out great so I'll post a picture of the mural in the bathroom instead.  It was so good to see Cheryl, short but sweet.  I missed our annual Caribbean trip this year; I had a baby and she went to Prague.

We stayed at the Courtyard on campus because they have an awesome breakfast (oatmeal bar, made-to-order eggs, etc.) and the hotel is run by UD students in the Hotel & Restaurant Management program, so they operate like their grades depend on it.  By the way, you don't have to stay at a Courtyard to eat there for breakfast.  Waffle maker, crispy bacon, and did I mention the omelet chef?

After breakfast we dropped Steve off and hit Goodwill on Main Street for stocking sweaters and baby clothes.  I think I bought 10 things for $28.  That's zero change because there is no sales tax in Delaware. Sigh.  Too bad I forgot about Total Wine, and it was too early for cupcakes.

Next we went to Sparkles Bead Shop where I used to teach jewelry classes and ended up leaving part of my heart when I moved to Virginia.  Olivia sat in the stroller and was SO good while I shopped and visited with Connie and Charlene.  Some jewelry people (like these guys and Cheryl) have become dear friends and it's so nice to catch up with them. 

After that I drove around for a while to let Olivia get a catnap and then we went to see Bertie at her handbags & baby stuff shop in Old New Castle.  She even had toys for Olivia to play with while we visited.  I absolutely loved living in Old New Castle, and I miss the walks through town and along the river.  I was admiring Bertie's bittersweet hanging on the door and she reminded me that I could walk down the river trail a bit and get my own.  I thought about it, but my tummy was rumbling.  (Bittersweet photo by Bradley Wright)

I fed Olivia in the car (no small feat in itself considering it was runny and orange) and drove to my favorite burger place, Jake's.  It's the best burger under the bun.  Then we went to our friends Stephanie & Nick's house so we could meet their adorable and sweet Sully!  He was born a month after Olivia but we haven't seen each other all year. 

Too soon it was time to pick Steve up and head home.  I realized a few things after our trip...

1. Livi pretty much went two days without good naps and there were no meltdowns. She rubbed her eyes a lot, but she was sweet until the very end. I'm going to try not to abuse that knowledge in the future. 
2. OJ ate solids somewhere other than her high chair, something I am usually too lazy to initiate.  I'll probably still be climbing in the back seat to give her a bottle during a road trip when she's 4.  I sat her forward in her carseat, pulled a bib out of the diaper bag, and spoon fed her cold purees from the jar. 
3. I actually miss Delaware.  While living there I made the best of it although it was busy and didn't feel like home, and it grew on me more than I realized.  And not just because there was a Trader Joe's.  Some of our closest friends there have moved away, but I'm glad to have seen some of the ones who are still there.  And we can always go back to visit and shop!

Little pants

Until now I have limited my sewing to projects that don't need to fit anyone, mostly straight lines like curtains and quilts.  I've even made fitted slipcovers, but the sofa sat still while I pinned fabric on, inside out, in order to cut and mark it first. 

But I saw the cutest corduroy at the fabric store so I decided to make a pair of pants for Olivia.  It helps that she has a little monkey butt.  (In fact "they" say you can cut pants the same in front and back until the child is 7.  Do kids suddenly grow butts then?) 

Mom helped me size the pattern using an existing pair of Livi's pants (the beloved green pair) and serged the seams so the fabric wouldn't constantly unravel.  I went into it wanting to avoid sewing a hem add a ruffle at the bottom, and I like how they turned out.  Nice and long, so when she's strapped in somewhere they don't look like shorts.  The hardest part was finding a non-Christmasy red shirt to coordinate.

Upcycled Sweater Stockings

Years ago I read about making Christmas stockings from old sweaters, now called upcycling. (I guess they assume the sweaters left something to be desired, so to be made into stockings would be an upgrade.)  There are several tutorials online, and even a yummy felting book with the pattern pictured here. 

Have I made them?  Not yet.  After all, it was just Steve and me for many years and we still have our lovely stockings from childhood.  This story made me laugh:
Every Christmas Eve with my mom, she drags out these utterly awful stockings for her grandbabies to use–quilted cotton with a printed image of teddy bears in bathrobes and slippers, bought sometime during the Reagan administration. From Wal-mart. On sale. Ugh. But how could I complain? I, who am obviously too cheap to pony up for non-teddy bear stockings for my own kids? All that will change this year. With four tacky wool sweaters and an easy-peasy stocking pattern, I sewed up a houseful of awesome, unique, sturdy and sophisticated stockings...

This fall I've been perusing thrift stores for sweaters to use, especially those with Fair Isle designs (swoon) so that we -- now that we are a family and not just a couple -- can finally have new stockings. I've found more than enough sweaters, which works out well because in my search for pictures of sweater stockings I also came across another upcycled-sweater project: baby leggings!  Also called "longies" and way cooler (and warmer) than tights.  (These are by SnugglePants, available on Etsy.)

 

Another thing I like to get at thrift stores?  Baby toys, like little rattles to keep Olivia busy at a restaurant or in the car.  They're only a quarter so if we lose one it's not a big deal.  OJ doesn't care if someone loved them before, and I just run them through the dishwasher or washing machine before she gets them. 

What's new, baby girl?

Livi has four teeth now and her new game is to bite the spoon that feeds her.  After all it is rubbery and good for chewing!  Feeding in general is going better after I started puréeing everything.  She likes to feed herself things like cheese, cereal, deli meat, canned veggies, diced fruit, and did I mention CHEESE!  Riley had a checkup (before the chocolate incident) and the vet suggested keeping an eye on her weight now that Olivia is dropping delicious food on the floor feeding herself.

A couple months ago we introduced a sippy cup per Dr. Robertson's suggestion.  At first the flow was too fast and made her gag, so we gave it a break.  Then she got teeth so now it's a chew toy and she won't try to drink from it.  We've tried different styles with the same results, although she will drink from a juice box straw. (Juice either dribbles down her front or worse, goes undiluted into her stomach, so we don't try it that often.)  She has no interest in holding a bottle and if we let her hold the sippy cup she just swings it around by the handles. 

During Thursday night Olivia woke up (which never happens) screaming inconsolably. We took turns holding her and rocking her, took her temp (low grade fever), gave her Tylenol, and finally she cried herself back to sleep. After reading her manual the next day it sounded like an ear infection, so I called the doctor's office.  The receptionist didn't come out and suggest that I not come, but she said the office had been full of swine flu cases, there were no open appointments, and throughout the week people had been lining up for the after-hours clinic 90 minutes before it opened.  O is around kids on Sunday and Tuesday mornings and usually develops Nursery Nose afterward.  How many kids will come to the nursery before their parents realize they've got swine flu?  I don't even want to go to the shot clinic b/c I'm mentally picturing the the peds office as a germ factory.  I'm considering staying in the house until March.

Wash your hands a lot, don't touch your face, and please keep your kids home if they are sick.

More on Cameras

I got a lot of feedback (thank you) on my previous post about DSLRs, so I wanted to give you an update and see if the Peanut Gallery has ongoing thoughts.

I took my "old SLR" (Quantaray 75-300) lens to Best Buy yesterday in order to see if it would work on a Canon DSLR body.  There was some sort of error indicating that the body and lens weren't communicating, which squelched the possibility of using my old lens on a new body.  Up until now I have had only Canon cameras, but now (especially since I can't use my old lens) I'm more open-minded.

Funny story about my transition to digital photography from film.  The last time I used my 35mm camera was on a Caribbean cruise in 2004.  Right after that I bought my first digital camera and never went back.  I didn't even develop the last roll of film (but I did just take it in a darkened room as the camera's batteries are dead).  Anyway, a year after the cruise my family was planning a trip to Bermuda for Dad's 70th birthday.  A couple days beforehand we were putting together our travel documents and couldn't find the sole official copy of Steve's birth certificate. (Back then you didn't need a passport.) We tore the house apart and I was absolutely distraught before realizing the last time we needed it was on the cruise, and on that cruise I had put the birth certificate in a *very safe place* (i.e. the SLR camera bag) and never unpacked it.  When I finally found the certificate I sat in the middle of the floor and bawled my eyes out in relief.  Oh, and this picture from the cruise?  Scanned from a negative, pretty awful.  Like my short hair with the humid windblown look?  Oh, and one more thing about film.  I am jealous of excited for the brides who get to have digital photos of their weddings.  We didn't even get to keep the *negatives* from our wedding, just expensive prints, and I'm not even confident that our photographer is still in business here. 

I digress...

Another reason to visit BestBuy was to hold the Canon XSi and Nikon D60 (my top two contenders) and compare shape, button layout, see if the Live View mode on the Canon is all it's cracked up to be, decide which one felt more natural in my hands...  To my surprise they didn't have a D40 or D60 floor model.  I have come to realize that the life span of a camera in today's competitive market is way short.  I have mulled for too long and my research has become antiquated, so now I am looking at this year's Nikon D5000 (which has Live View mode and a nifty fold-down screen).  Thoughts? 

Also, there is such a thing as Nikon School (thank you, Stuart).  I have learned about photography but back when film was king, so I'm hoping to take their Intro to Digital class in November.  It seems like the responsible thing to do when plunking down hundreds of dollars for something.