Have Your Cake and Eat It Too...

 Maggie-Doodle turned 10 in October, so we threw a bash for all of the girls in her class.  We decided to do a "cake decorating" party.

To make sure we stayed nice and clean whilst decorating our cakes, we first decorated aprons.  (Yes, I said "whilst.")  Apron decorating also killed a boatload of time; key when you have 7 10-year old girls giggling and carrying on and whatnot.

 I sewed ruffles on canvas aprons and we set up the "Apron Decorating Station" in the dining room.  They decorated while eating a delicious after school snack of meat, cheese and crackers. (Maggie's request - I wholeheartedly approve, I must say.)

The aprons turned out beautifully. And fabric markers dry right away, so we could wear them immediately!  Perfect.

Onto the cake decorating extravaganza.  7 6-inch double layer cakes, frosted white, with three tubes of frosting each - pink, purple and green.  We also gave each girl a cupful of fondant flowers and butterflies to use.  Delightful.  (Didn't think it would be so delightful when we stopped at the bakery to pick them up..."Sorry, we misread your order.  We thought you wanted one 7-inch cake instead of 7 6-inch cakes."  GAH!  Thankfully, they have the little six-inchers baked and on hand, we just had to wait while they frosted them all.  Phew.)

And then the fun began.  They worked really hard and had a great time.  Yes, the volume at times got to be a little much...I would just step out of the room during those times.  Scott's mom was here and helped - mostly with my sanity!

Maggie did a horse on her cake - better than any horse I could have done.  And yes, her hair needs to be cut.  We're trying to grow out the bangs, but it might get to be too much for me before we get very far.  Headbands, here we come.

Beautiful.  Each girl got to take home her cake, her apron, and her frosting tube kit.  (We washed the tips and gave them some clean frosting bags.

After all of the revelry, we opened a few gifts, ate a little pizza, watched a movie and then took them all home.  And then Scott's mom went to bed by 8.  It wiped us all out!  So we ate some cake and called it a night.  Until next year...

I Did It

Well, I completed the Army 10-miler.  I ran the whole way, even smiled once in awhile.  Like when a guy playing a fife (yes, a fife) wearing American flag shorts ran past me, tooting on that little horn the entire way.  (Irked me a little though - he wasn't even short of breath.)

Now, the real kicker is, Scott totally one-upped me.  He ran it, too - that's not the one-upping part.  Sort of old hat for a guy who has run 13 or 14 marathons (I have lost count); but this time...wait for it...he ran while suffering from pneumonia.  You read correctly.  He has pneumonia.  He should probably be in the hospital (in my opinion); but of course, when one of us is a doctor and it's not me, then my medical opinion doesn't count for much. 

He actually was in the hospital all day today and will be tomorrow and the day after that, but only because he's working. 12-hour shifts.  Say a prayer for him if you would; he really does not feel well and sounds terrible.  I really wish I could do something useful for him, but painting furniture does not help pneumonia.  (I have offered hot tea, a back rub, a trip to the store to buy more cough medicine as well, by the way.) He is currently trying to sleep in a recliner with a bucket nearby in case he coughs so hard that he throws up.  :(

Anyway, other than Scott feeling icky, we had a great time in DC; fun with the Causeys, a little sightseeing (The International Spy Museum, Ford's Theater, and the National Air and Space Museum); yummy eats, a couple of Causey kids' sporting events and of course the 10-miler. 

And a little Costco episode that I will let Lauri blog about.  Never a dull moment.  Never.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving...

So, people have started giving me old pieces of furniture to "do something with."  A friend gave me this child-sized rocker that she used and then passed on to her kids.  They didn't want it anymore, so she gifted it to me. It was originally brown with some flowers stenciled on it.

I decided to do an "ombre" treatment - where the colors start dark and fade into something lighter or vice versa. I thought it looked ok, but still wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it.

And then LaRayne gave me this bench.  LaRayne is a woman who does daycare here.  She has been to our school auction and likes some of the pieces I donated for that.  So, she goes to thrift stores and buys things for me to redo.  Here's the kicker.  She would leave them in her garage for me to pick up - until a few days ago, I had never actually met this woman!!  She won't let me pay her, just likes the fact that I take something sort of ugly and pretty it up a bit. Isn't that cute?

The bench was, um, not my favorite.  It was dark brown and I'm not a huge fan of heart cut-outs.  In fact, if I had seen this at a thrift store, I would have kept walking.  But, after I got it done, I am loving it.  I think some little girl will be thrilled to have it.  

These two pieces will be donated as a set to a benefit auction for one of my sister-in-law's friends.  Liz has been in the ICU at the Mayo Clinic for more than three months following some complications with heart surgery.  She has two little girls and is missing them like crazy.  I was thinking of them when I was working on these things...hopefully their mom will be able to go home SOON!!

I found this fabric on clearance (I think I paid ten bucks for this print and the stripe) and I mod-podged it onto the bench, made a cushion and some pillows.  I can't get enough of those birds.  I sort of wish I had a "little" girl so I could put it in her room.  (Maggie informed me she is no longer little - won't even go trick-or-treating this year, it's "too baby, Mom.")

LaRayne also gave me a coffee table and a desk.  The friend who gave me the rocking chair also gave me a dresser and a mirror.  And my neighbor hauled over an old chair the other day.  My workshop is overflowing.   The thing I love is that people know I will redo these things and then donate them to some worthy cause.  And I enjoy every second of it.  It's repurposing with a purpose. 

(If you're interested in these particular items, head to Beresford, SD on December 1st and go to the benefit. :)