Tea-Party Success

No, Adam & didn’t join the Tea-Party movement. I don’t even know if we understand that Parties policies. But I’m pretty sure they’re not as fun as the Tea-Party I hosted for book club in honor or The Forgotten Garden!

Wednesday night I had 11 lovely ladies over to our place for a “tea” party.  I use quotes because there was only one women who actually drank tea and the rest of use were using our tea cups for, well, other things…Red wine, sweet tea vodka, Makers and sweet tea, white wine, tequila rose….you get the idea. (you want to be apart of this book club, don’t you)

It was a great night-we all crowded around our large dining table and enjoyed finger sandwiches, salad and yummy desserts.  I loved being able to use our china, which we only use on holidays. Most of the tea cups still had stickers on them, because we’ve never used them! And seeing as it was a Victorian themed book, I even pulled out the antique silver we purchased back in January.

We discussed the book for…20 min…but the rest of the time we just enjoyed each others company, while poor Adam stayed in the guest room-outcast from his own house! (Good sport) The ladies had such a good time that when they all left I finally looked at the clock and it was 12:10 am!! We’ve never gone that late! And I had this to contend with in my sink.

By 1 am I was in bed and the house was clean. Our new book was selected (The elegance of the Hedgehog) and we’re already excited for the next meeting (French Themed!).

Gotta love mid-week girls nights!

FYI Dried Red Wine stains do come out of porcelain china

Finished! Let’s Eat.

A couple weeks ago Adam FINALLY put the last coat of finish our dinning table.  It took us a good 16 months, but we can now say the table it done! (Well I do want to add some pads/velcro to the folding legs).

We’re both really happy with it, although if you ask Adam I’m sure he’d say there would be things he’d do better or would like to improve.  But I’m just happy it’s finally done and have enjoyed eating on it, sewing on, spreading things out…ect. It’s gotten lots of love.

I still can’t believe that this:

Became this:

The wood is so rich looking and full of character.

And the leaves turned out great.  While we can’t open the table all the way to it’s 11’4” length  we were able to open one for thanksgiving. Boy was that nice. We really broke it in that day and tested it out!

We were able to fit all of the food, our formal dinner ware and crystal on the table with out feeling crowded. Making it 42” wide was definitely a good move.

We’re both hoping to have some friends over to christen it with a nice dinner party, but life has been busy.  And hopefully some day we’ll have a place big enough to expand the whole table…and fill it up with family and friend and good food!

Thanks for sharing in this project with us, we hope you like the final result and look forward to having you at it with us someday soon.

Here’s one last recap of this way too long project:

Wow…that was a lot of work!

Sew Spring!

Spring is in the air…well I guess living in Florida it’s always in the air…but even though we don’t get Spring Fever here, we do get Spring Breakers! So in honor of spring and the littlest spring breaker I’ll see this year I decided to whip up a couple of spring dresses for a few of the cutest girls I know.

Kylie will be celebrating her 1st Spring Break Disney Style and I was told by her mommy that she could use some new dresses.  Being the wonderful Aunt I am I figured that was my cue to make her her very own Florida Dress.

I didn’t use a pattern on this one, instead I drew up a design and figured it out as I went.  And unfortunately I figured Kylie a lot smaller than she is…So this is Zoe’s new spring dress!

The next attempt (after getting proper measurements from Alyssa) went a lot quicker-since I knew what I was doing and where not to screw up. Within an hour I had Kylies dress complete and hopefully the right size!

I can’t wait to see it on her & Zoe! Ya for matching cousin dresses! (Remember those Jill?)

Next up is Ms. Caroline.

She is my oldest friend’s (Joelle) daughter and I had yet to make her something. And since Joelle just had her 2nd, Evan, I figured as long as I was making Evan something…

Caroline should get something too.

Again, I didn’t have the exact pattern I was envisioning for her dress…so I took one I did have (for a romper) and turned it into a dress.

And the pleat on the front & back was a happy mistake.  Since I didn’t put the seam in the center that was on the pattern, the dress was slightly wider than the lining.  quick fix; add a pleat-make it cuter.

It’s been a while since I’ve sewed, and I’ve missed it. I’ve had so much fun the last few nights working on these while Adam has been at work.  Next up…matching “purses” to go with the dresses, because every little girl wants a purse of her own.

Read this, See this.

Read this:
This month I am hosting book club, so I got to choose the book.  I had a recommendation from a co-worker, but in the end chose a book that I had forgotten about that I had put on our list 2 years ago:
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton.

Go Read this Book! It was so good, so enjoyable, such a nice book to get wrapped up in.  I call it The Secret Garden for grown ups-part mystery, part family saga, a little bit of Titanic Romance. At first I was weary since it was almost 600 pages and we only have 4 weeks to read it, but I finished the book in 9 days.
The first few pages I was a little worried…didn’t really grab me, but after I got into a few chapters I was hooked and was reading it when ever I could-I had a hard copy and an electronic so it was always with me. 
Here is the summary from the book to entice you more:
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.
If you want the e-pub file (for iPads ect.) let me know- and I’ll email it to you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
See this:
Tara and I had went to the movies last week to see a movie we figured both our husbands wouldn’t want to see. We saw The Artist.

I recall seeing the previews a while back and thought the movie looked cute. Then I found out it was a silent film…and thought eh… Then it won the academy award for best picture and actor…so I thought what the heck.
And I must say I was pleasantly surprised and happily entertained. The story line was pretty basic, but there was comedy, sadness, drama and love.  What I really enjoyed, after getting used to the fact that there wasn’t any speaking, was the way in which the music told the story and how the use of sound played into the story line.
So go to the theater and see this work of art on the big screen.

Oh and there’s a really cute dog in the film…and he looks like Bruiser.

Groupon Fun

Over a year ago we purchased two Groupons for a Glass Workshop.  Adam has always wanted to do glass blowing so he was very excited about this and even convinced me to get one too, despite the hefty $50 a person cost.

Well fast forward to a few weeks ago and I realized his prized groupon was about to expire, so I quickly found us some time and on a hot Saturday we went to Zen Glass studio for our workshop.

The workshop was to create a wine glass, we’d actually be creating the stem by fusing and manipulating glass.  I wish I had pictures of us doing it…but when you’re working with 3000 degrees you don’t really want to stop and snap pictures.

We selected our our goblet and our base then we were told to select colors form a basket of glass rods. (think long filled straws) I chose blues & Green and Adam chose red & black (big surprises).  After a demonstration from our teacher, who made it look so easy, we jumped in and began heating up our clear rod (think 1/4” dowel). 

Once that got nice and hot (aka an orange ball of molten glass) we could introduce our colors. Now when the instructor was doing this it looked like he was just writing with a pen…he put perfect strips and dots and even drew the letter S.  I was so excited to try it…then I when I actually did it it was like cleaning gum off your shoe. I just couldn’t get that smooth application and ended up wrapping color after color around my ball.

(I’m assuming Adam did just fine, but I wasn’t about to take my eyes off my flame to check him out. I was too worried about keeping my rod moving, the sweat dropping into my eyes and not burning myself.)

Once our colors were on then you began creating your shape and stretching the stem.  For some reason I thought all their samples looked way to short for a wine glass so I made sure mine was nice and long…as did Adam.  I went for a square stem, which ended up like a twisted rectangle and Adam stretched his to thin so his swirl ended up with a knot in the middle (which looked really good)

Then the instructor attached the goblet and base. That was when I realized that maybe I made mine a little too tall.  Like 3” too tall. And Adam’s wasn’t too far behind mine.  We had created GIANT wine glasses.  Also keep in mind that we both picked the biggest goblets they had!

When we were all done they had to go into a kiln over night so we left empty handed but very anxious to see our creations.  Adam picked them up on Monday and that night we christened them and laughed at how large they actually were.  Those wine glasses on the left are normal size!

Adam’s:

Stephanie's:

The colors turned out really cool and we both enjoyed the whole process.  We’d like to do this again and Adam may even take there 9 hour workshop to learn more ins and outs, so that he’ll have access to the shop whenever he’d like.  I’m so glad that we finally used our Groupon and if you’re ever in town, stop by for a glass of wine…and plan on staying over!

Original Art

I love art. And I think Adam appreciates it too.  But art is expensive-especially Original Art. So in order to fill our house with art I buy reprints or sometimes even cards of art and frame it.

Our 5x7 Clive Butcher greeting cards.

After purchasing Adam’s Photo Book, I began receiving emails from the company on more specials and deals.  A few weeks ago I received a deal I didn’t think we could pass up. They were running a special for 16x20 prints for $10 or $12 for metallic prints.

We have a blank wall in our bedroom that we had been planning on filling up with one of Adam’s photographs, so when this deal came through we jumped. 

After looking through some contenders I decided on the photograph that I have loved since the day he took it.  It’s from our trip to Amelia Island and it’s  of an old stump in a wetland. Adam agreed with my selection and I began touch ups in Photoshop to get it just right.

When we got Adam’s book the cover had this really neat pearl sheen to it, we assumed it was the metallic paper so since we loved it so much on the book, we thought it would be great for the print.

After a week or so the print arrived and I reused an existing 16x20 black frame I already had-ya free! And then I hung it up where a lone nail has been hanging out for a year or so!

I must say it looks great, so great that I really don’t want to hide it in our bedroom, but to save time doing a total rearrange of all the frames in the house, it will stay here for the time being.

The metallic paper gives it  bit of that old silver print look, but it’s not obnoxious or gaudy. I love that we are able to have some real original art in our house and I’m even more lucky that the artist lives in the house with me.

And just for comparison:

Price of an un-framed Clyde Butcher 11x14 print: $150

Total price of our new 16x20 Adam Young: $17.57. Score!

February…Fly By

So it’s March.

Both of us felt like February Dragged on…but I think that’s because we were SO busy!  Here’s a quick, mostly photographic recap!

My Aunt Sandy & Uncle Don returned from their Cancun Trip and stayed with us the 1st weekend in February.

Then the following Wednesday my Parents & Aunt Annette Arrived. My dad had a work meeting so he stayed at the hotel until Friday while my mom and aunt stayed with us.

Also that week this guy…turned 40.

Our good friend Jimmy.

And we all went out to the beach (brrr) to celebrate on Saturday.

Then is was valentines day…Adam made me a card-cause I guess the day after V-day they clear Target of all the cards.

We went our for a nice dinner at a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try since I moved here; J. Alexander’s. It was pricey-but very worth the money and very very good.

The next weekend my friend Richy was supposed to come down, but due to a broken foot that didn’t happen and our trip to Orlando went from a party of 4 to a party of 2.

Kristi and I had a fun day at Universal studios.  Their new roller coaster, Rock Roll N’ Ride was so much fun! You got to pick your own music to be played while you rode! Then when you get off you find out they video taped your whole ride! Kristi and I were dying laughing at ourselves!

But the main reason for the trip was this girl.

I love me some Kelly Clarkson and she was performing as part of Universals Mardi Gras event.  Free Concert! She was AWESOME and it was a fun fun weekend.

The next wee was pretty normal. We had church on Wednesday and a Transformers Dark of the Moon Viewing with a couple friends Thursday night. Then something weird happened. Adam had the weekend off!! His first in I can’t remember.  So Saturday we both went and got our hair done! That night we went out on a double date with Krista and her then BF Skylar. We had sushi then found a fun bar with a live band, Golden Tee, Darts and Bowling.  It felt so good to get out and I know Adam was happy to be able to have fun as well. Sunday my husband surprised me with his skills once again and changed his breaks on his car.  It was a  much needed chill weekend.

February ended with Adam working 3 nights in a row and my book club meeting on Leap Day. Phew! I’m tired just re-typing all of that!But you want to hear something else, he’s got this weekend off as well! Whoop whoop! I love me some husband time. We’ve got fun plans…hopefully I’ll be better with updates in March.

Edible Art

This past month my book club read “Just Kids” By Patty Smith.  It was an intimate look at her life with Robert Mapplethorpe during the time before they both made it big in NYC.

The book was interesting, but nothing I would rave about.  I learned a bit about Patty Smith (totally had her confused with Chrissie Hynde)

Seeing as the pair (Smith & Mapplethorpe) lived on basically nothing and would sometimes share a cheese sandwich, Tara (the host) decided that our Food theme would be Art as Food.

I began the Google search for ideas and found nothing that was even slightly capable of!

Then I remembered something I had saw on Pinterest a few weeks back that I thought Adam would like.  I got all the supplies and started the night before. Then the day off I would put my “piece” together.

Lets see if you can guess what all this becomes…

Any guesses???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

None???

 

 

Give up?

 

 

 

Penguins!!

A Whole Army of them!

Then for my presentation I cut up Tofu for blocks of ice and made an Asian sauce for the sea.

Aren’t they so cute? Everyone at book club (and my work) raved about them. But the best part was that they were way easy to make, had a big impact and where a tasty treat. I only had one; I found it hard to eat something so cute.  I wish I could say there were more examples of Food as Art at our meeting, but besides a piece of brie with ears and a mouse nose…everyone else coped out.