Craftiva

I wanted to make homemade gifts this past holiday season.  I've just been waiting to share with you my Christmas craft ideas.  We finally had our last celebration, so without further ado, here they are! 

 

My first idea was to make a t-shirt vest.  I cut up a t-shirt according to the directions, and it looked like, well... I cut up a t-shirt.  It was pretty bad.  CRAFT FAIL

Fortunately, the next idea went better.  I made t-shirt scarves.  They didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but I did like them.  I thought about making little pins covered with beads to place on the part where it's gathered.  I might still do that.  The project was fun to make.  I saw a pic of Tullybird wearing hers, and it looked really good!

My version of t-shirt scarves

Next up, I made a Lemon Sugar Body Scrub.  I soon realized after I whipped this stuff up, that I really like this stuff.  My hands have been dry and itchy all winter.  Rubbing some of this on when I've been doing a lot of hand-washing really helps.



Warning:  you may fall on your ass if you use this on your feet while standing!
But man, do my paws need this stuff.

For my next project, I was only able to make a few of these this year.  I need to start earlier next year.  I love painting wine bottles.  My specialty is a snowman... because they are easy.  And this year, I made a female version who loves the tropics! 

My inspiration was when Tullybird mentioned that she keeps the first bottle on display all year around that I painted for her; it doesn't matter what season it is.  Snowman needed a girlfriend!




Aloha!

And for my very favorite project of all.  This was SO fun, but so time consuming.  I could only make one at a time.  I started out by growing sunflowers.  Giant, mammoth sunflowers.

Keystone in my giant sunflower forest

Then I added lots of love and cement. 

I used our existing plain, smooth birdbath as a mold.  I put a trash bag over it to protect it.  Then I poured on mixed up grout mix.  I smoothed it out and then pressed my huge sunflower leaf into the wet grout mix.  Let it sit for 24-48 hours, and viola!

 

This birdbath has magical powers

This is one of the special editions that I made.  I had the most fun telling Suzie's little girl that baby unicorns drank from this birdbath; that's why there is glitter.  Cause everyone knows that baby unicorn's have glitter on their tongues.  I think she really enjoyed the story.  I truly believed in unicorns when I was her age.  Remember the days of rainbows & unicorns and when stickers were special treats?

For Dawn's family, I put a nice rock towards the bottom of the bath.  This is to allow butterflies to rest on the rock while sipping their cool beverage.  Plus they have a bath-less butterfly garden.  Until now.

I can't tell you how badly I wanted to make Shelly one of these.  She likes birds has a bird obsession.  Next to my parents and my hubby, I don't know anyone else who feeds their wild birds as much as she does; and enjoys watching them too.  It about killed me not to be able to make her one and send, but the cost would have been astronomical to send a hunk of huge, heavy concrete across the country.

And I really wanted to make Tullybird one too.  She loves everything homemade that I make, and she would have loved to have had one in her yard under her apple trees.  But again, the shipment cross-country just wasn't going to work.  Not to mention that they would probably beak.

So, it was hand delivery only for the birdbaths.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects.  I had other ideas that I didn't get to.  Maybe I'll start much earlier this year.
 

We Must Be Cool

Happy weekend to you!  I'm so excited to have gotten a nice piece of mail today, that I just have to share it with you.

 

It wasn't a bill, or a piece of worthless advertising.  I'm not buying gutters or feeling compelled to vote for a candidate.  It was a real personal letter.  Written by hand by the son of one of our friends.  And as careful as it was written, it must have taken some time to produce this puppy.

 

I am so flattered that our friends' kids think we are so cool that they want to have their birthday dinners at our place.  I mean, Todd is one heckuva cook.  But for kids to think that, whoa!  That's pretty amazing.

 

Take a look at his letter:

 

All names except Todd's has been removed to protect the innocent.
That means Todd isn't innocent.  I think we all knew that.

IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU'VE READ TODAY????  I just think it's adorable.

I can't wait to eat his Happy-Birthday-Rib-Dinner and play Mario Cart.  Of course we happily accept his request to host his birthday dinner.  (His parents are readers of my blog, so I know they will see this.) 

I still have a pack of balloons around here somewhere...  That's about as wild and crazy as I get.  Especially in November.  We can't exactly break out a slip-n-slide down the hill this time of year.  But man, wouldn't THAT be fun?!?!!

Next January, I will start planning my kid's 10th birthdays.  Complete with DOG cake for them and the doggy-hood, and human cake, well, for the humans.  The big ONE-OHHH is a big milestone, which will not go by unnoticed. 

Some day, I'll have to recap for you their first birthday.  That was a real hoot.  Oh, and their puppy shower.  It was definitely good times.

Our Hobby

This post is for Anonyvox.  I've been making mysterious references to which she is curious about the meaning.  It's been so nice getting to know Anonyvox online. We've never met in person but I think we could have been separated at birth or something because we have so much in common.  We have mutual loves for food, ONJ, camping (especially tent camping), LUSH, dogs... the list goes on and on. 

I realized there is a very fundamental aspect to my life that people in the real world know because it's literally pretty obvious. I take it for granted that people know about our hobbyobsession-gone-wild. We like pinball.

Teehee, OK, that's an understatement. We love pinball. We collect machines. We have a LOT in our basement (see pic below), and I'm cool with that. There is a culture across America, and actually the world, of people who love to play pinball. Most of the spouses of the men who play and collect do not appreciate the hobby. The games are big, expensive, and they complain because it takes time to work on the machines. A hot deal may require an emergency cross-state road-trip adventure to obtain that must-have machine. Or you talk a relative into picking up and storing a machine until your next visit. Most women resent the hobby. To which I respond "Poppycock!!!". Why not embrace something your hubby loves. Maybe get into it and enjoy it for yourself. I'll get off my soapbox now, cause this little post isn't going to convince them to stop their whining. Just saying, you might give it a try.

So in 1996 we bought a Police Force. It's a nice Williams machine that is a lot of fun to play.  I remember the day we brought it home.  Little did I know what was yet to be.

From there the hobby turned into an obsession. It's like potato chips, you can't have just one. Why? Aren't they all the same? No. They are not.  They all have their own individual personalities. Pinball machines come in different themes and from different eras. There are the old ones with wooden side rails and wooden legs, and then wedgeheads with a distinctive antique kind of feel.  Then the latest games have the most visually advanced displays with videos and 3D graphics.  Past manufacturers include Gottlieb, Williams, Bally, Data East, and even Atari (there are more, but these are the ones I know).  Current manufacturer is Stern (and I think another one possibly but can't remember the name).  Did you know the first pinball machines had no flippers?  You were supposed to bang and push on the side of the machine to get it to go where you intended, and the ball pretty much had one shot down the playfield.

We collected a few over the years. Whatever would fit in the basement. And then the garage. And then we expanded the garage to store more. And then stored some at a neighbors house. An then another neighbors house. And then Todd got a storage area... 

We currently have an awesome house with a nice open basement, just perfect for our games.

Here's part of our basement.  Yes, it's an arcade.

There is a community of pinheads in KC. We are so happy to be back in the area so that we can see our friends again and gather for pinball events.  There are new people to meet since we left & came back.  More women are getting into it too.  There is one tournament we enjoy going to monthly.  Actually, here is an article about the tournament.  I happen to be the one in a black t-shirt playing pinball (recognize my ring Mrs. Irritation?).  You might recognize the guy in the picture, too. 

We went last Saturday night, and I tied for 5th place in the tournament!  I beat the first 3 guys I played.  I had a couple of awesome games!  It was exciting to say the least.  And then the guy who ended up winning first place beat me.  I don't mind.  I usually don't play very well, so this is a big deal for me.  I knew the guy who beat me first was going to place very high, and he took first, so I was beat by the best.  Last Saturday night was good pizza, good pinball, and good friends.

Plenty of pinheads available to jump in and fix a game that developed a problem.
This was at the tournament a month ago.



Dawn, the Boy and Todd having fun at the event a month ago

We also travel across the country to attend pinball conventions. Yearly conventions for us have included:

• Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) yearly in March in the Dallas area (we still attend this one every year).  This is my favorite show from a party perspective.
• Pin-A-Go-Go in Dixon, CA (used to attend when we lived in NV)
• Pacific Pinball Expo (PPE) in Marin county (San Francisco area) in the fall (used to attend when we lived in NV and a couple of buddies would fly in from KC to go with us).  This by far is my favorite show from a machine perspective.  HUNDREDS of games from the 30s to the 70s plus a few newer ones.  This show made me appreciate the oldies. 

There is the Stern pinball factory in Chicago that you can tour. We've never been, but I could see going to that some year.

I've had a brush or two with pinball "royalty". 

• Once at PPE, I was waiting in line to play a tricked out Metallica machine (based on an Earth Shaker that someone had seriously modified in a most cool way), and just before it was my turn, Steve Ritchie walks up to play. Being that he is a well known designer of pins, I offered to let him go ahead of me. He declined, knowing I had been waiting. I said "OK, I'm not that good so it probably won't take long". I played with him watching and to say I was a little nervous was an understatement. I'll be darned if I didn't have an awesome ball or two! I had a respectable game.

• This past March at the TPF, I happened to get into an elevator, and someone was rushing in to catch the elevator at the last second, and it was Steve Ritchie.  I had just stood in line for hours to play AC/DC a few times, and I don't remember exactly what I said but he asked if I was having a good time.  I told him I was and I told him how excited I am about the AC/DC machine and he did a really great job.  It makes me excited about pins again.  I waited in line to play that game about a dozen times that weekend.  Some day, I'll have one.  Some day.

• One time at PPE, Larry Zartarian shared with me the strategy for playing Coronation.  I had a few great games on that machine and found myself drawn to it over the other several hundred machines.  Understanding the strategy from a pro made me appreciate the game even more.

If you find yourself in a pizza place and there's a pinball machine, give it a whirl!  Especially if you see an AC/DC machine--that will be my next acquisition.  Some day.

My score was the top one!

Puppy Time

Dawn is going to kill me for this one.  But I can't help it.  She's so cute, all preggers with her long ponytail and braces.  Dawn favored the pups who grew to be known as Baxter (grey collar) and Frisbee (yellow collar).




Dawn caring for 3 pups.  Only two had fur.

Reasons Why l Love Summer

Happy Summer, y'all!  I pretty much missed blogging the entire month of June.  I've got lots of topics to talk about, but little time to type.  Realistically, I don't know if it will get much better until the snow falls...

In the vain of keeping things positive, I want to share my favorite reasons to love summer time.  I love getting my nails dirty in the garden, and watching all of my baby plants grow up and produce wonderfully tasty treats for the dinner table.

I'll share pics of the garden below.  But first, other reasons why I love summer, in no particular order:

Reason #1)  The dogs have less hair. 

Well, that is because I shave them.  I am not a professional dog groomer.  You will see proof below.  But they are so much more comfortable after they have been shaved, since we are back in the hot humid midwest summer time heat.  Keystone LOVES the attention.  Abby, not so much.

At least KEYSTONE is more comfy.  Notice his cute tiger tail!
Abby would only allow me to do her belly and back of her legs.  Brat.

Reason #2) Baseball brought SamsMom to town over Memorial Day weekend! 

I finally got to meet SamsMom's family and friends when I went to watch her son play baseball. We had a great day visiting. We enjoyed Minsky's pizza (a local pizzeria since they wanted something "KC") and I got to see their awesome luxury-resort-on-wheels. Then the next evening, they came up and enjoyed dinner at our place. We had fun playing our games in the basement. They were properly introduced to real pinball machines.

L to R:  her son, me, her hubby
We were playing mesmerizing games of pinball!

Keystone even loves to play!  We had a great evening and a great weekend.

Keystone loves all the bright lights and shiny balls.

Reason #3)  I love trying to grow new plants. 

We have grown pumpkins before, but we have never tried to establish our own pumpkin PATCH.  This year?  Yeah, it's a patch alright.  We have 28 plants going.  They will be able to spread out for acres if they wanted to.  We are hoping for so many pumpkins, that we'll be able to line the driveway on both sides with them!  Stay tuned for that--we'll open the patch to visitors around the beginning of October...  It's going to be awesome.  Speaking of growing things, here is an update on the garden.  It looks amazingly different.  We are going to have so much produce, we are going to be able to open our own farm stand.  We've been eating tom's for over a week now.

Yes, 28 pumpkin seeds grew into this!

A wall of green beans -- 1st harvest was eaten last night

I GREW BROCCOLI!
You can see some ready to harvest at the bottom and top of pic 

My beautiful tomatillo.
I will roast you, blend you, and cook you into a tasty sauce.

Our Garden

Giant Sunflowers in the background.
Birdhouse gourds growing in the foreground (just 3 plants)

Reason #4) Winner, Winner, BIRTHDAY Dinner!

I am delighted to explain that we were chosen by Dawn's daughter to be the host of her birthday dinner.  She turned 9.  When her parents asked her what she wanted for her special birthday dinner one evening, at first she said "steak at Texas Roadhouse".  Then her dad asked if she wanted that or steak at Uncle Todd's house.  Guess what she said?  Yep, you guessed it.  Steak at Uncle Todd's house!  So we hosted a special dinner for Dawn's family to celebrate a wonderful 9-year-old's birthday.  Todd took the opportunity (since the house would be clean) to have a few pinheads up to fix up some games, and play some pinball. 

We had great fun playing with balloons in the living room

Pinheads playing pins in the basement

Her dad planned a special "dessert buffet" for her 9th birthday.
Treats from The Upper Crust and I have to say they were INCREDIBLE!

Her favorite part of the night was a bonfire.  We got the jackets out and walked down to a rip-roaring fire Uncle Todd created. 

It's a fire!

Aunt Tracy & the birthday girl

Complete CHEESE from the birthday girl & Uncle Todd

And now, the BEST REASON why I love SUMMER TIME!

I steam our homegrown yellow banana peppers:  cut in half, de-seed, and put in a bowl with 1" water and cover; microwave for 1-3 minutes.  Drain them, put them on a sprayed cookie sheet.  Put some taco sauce on them, cover with cheddar cheese and broil.  THIS IS SUMMER ON A PLATE TO ME!  Enjoy.  (These are addictive and will incent you to start gardening if you haven't already.)

I'm Such A LUSH

I am not being endorsed in any way for this post--if you know me, you know this topic is straight from my heart.

If you don't know what LUSH is, let me introduce you.  It's the BEST, most fun store ever.  I saw a comment from Mouse the other day on Anonyvox's post, and it reminded me that I had this post in progress.  If you are lucky enough to live in a city where there is a LUSH store, even just a little corner in a Macy's, then you are very, very lucky.  It's a fresh handmade cosmetics store. Not cosmetics as in makeup, although they do have lip balm (hardly makeup, I know).  It's bath bombs, bubble bars, bath melts, massage bars, fresh face masks, soaps, moisturizers, lotions, and potions and I ABSOLUTELY ADORE this company.  My ultimate crazy wacky dream is to someday own my own LUSH store.  I'd sell jewelry too, and mix my own soaps in the back room.  MMMWWWwwhhahahahahahaha (evil scientist laugh).


Mrs. Irritation introduced me in Vegas when we were there with our hubby's.  We went to LUSH again on our first girls trip to Vegas, which was a first time LUSH visit for Becky and Erica, it was so fun!  I got Dawn hooked on it when we decided to unexpectedly go shopping 2 years ago in Dallas.  I am so lucky to live just an hour from the store in KC now, and I had to get a present for Tullybird before my final move (can't wait to take her to the actual store).  Whenever I travel and have this stuff in my bag, I wreak in a most delightful way--during a business trip to Chicago, I picked up Suzie's 40th birthday present last fall.


My favorite product: Soft Coeur Massage Bar.  This stuff allowed me to live in the high desert and not shrivel into an old wrinkled prune.  It's amazing stuff!  There is a trick to using this: After you get out of the shower, warm it up in your hands, roll it all over, and THEN towel dry yourself off.  Not only will your skin be soft and hydrated ALL day, but your towel will smell like Heaven too.  If you think the feel is too greasy or you need to get dressed quickly, just sprinkle on some Silky Underwear Dusting Powder or any of their dusting powders.

Need something else that moisturizes?  Their bath melts are AWESOME!  Try this one Floating Island or this one MMM Melting Marshmallow Moment.  Or this one Deamtime, or You've Been Mangoed, or the witchy one.  I love every single one of these for a really moisturizing bath that takes your stress away.


When I was in NV, I LOVED the closest store in Sacramento.  The employees were always so fun and everyone is always knowledgeable about all of their products.  I've only been to the store in KC twice, so I haven't gotten to know their staff.  Yet.


Now let me warn you, if you visit a store and the employees seem a little eager in a crazy kind of way, like they believe their stuff is just SO awesome, well, it's cause their stuff IS. JUST. SO. AWESOME. Really. I am this Canadian companies' biggest fan.  Oh, oh, if you are lucky enough to be there at the right time, one of the employees might mix a "bath time cocktail" for you.  It's usually some kind of complimentary scented bath bomb and bath melt, or bubble bar and bath melt.  They swirl the items together in a big bowl of water, and messier the better!!! You can stick your hands in and feel how nice a bath full of that stuff would be.

I love most of the products I have ever purchased and all of the products I have been the very lucky recipient as a gift.  Christmas time is SO MUCH FUN to sniff your gifts first, if you think it might be LUSH, or if you recognize the paper.  I've been SO EXCITED to unwrap presents from Suzie, Tullybird, Mrs. Irritation and my parents in years past when I saw the LUSH paper. See what I was like at Suzie's last December?

I am not a sales person, it's not in my DNA.  But this stuff?  I'm their biggest cheerleader.

I do have to admit there are a few items I wouldn't purchase again. 

• Phoenix Rising bath bomb is a beautiful product with a different scent that had me enjoying it after getting used to how different it smells.  However, when I went to drain my fresh clean tub?  I had to scrub it 5 times because the bath water had left a pink stain all over my tub.  Not happy about that especially since I had JUST CLEANED IT BEFORE THIS BATH.  Use this only in a hotel. ;-)
• If you like your hand soap to suds up a lot, I'd recommend skipping their bar soaps.  However, you are missing out on some killer great scents.  Honey I Washed The Kids soap and Rock Star are my two favorite bar soaps.  You can't beat those scents.
• This eye cream, Enchanted Eye Cream, is inconsistent. Since their products are hand made, I experienced a difference in this.  The first bottle I ever bought, I loved it.  The second bottle?  Not so much.  It was much thinner and didn't work well.  It actually didn't work at all.  I SHOULD have taken it back to the store and gotten a replacement.  A sales person told me that since they are hand made, that batch may not have been the same, so I should have brought it back.  So that is really my fault, but I had purchased it while on an out of town trip.  I could have called them.  But I'm still not going to purchase it again.  At one point in time, I did love it though.

I used to misunderstand their Shower Jellies.  And then one birthday, the daughter of Mrs. Irritation picked out a shower jelly especially for me.  She chose a Halloween themed jelly in my favorite color, neon green!  I learned that if you smoosh it into a shower scrubby, it lathers up really well and works really great!  Viola!  I love them now.  I do not freeze them to use in the shower, like they suggest.  That's just too high maintenance for me, if a bath product needs to be kept in the freezer.  My freezer is on the other side of the house for crying out loud.

Here's my little protégé.  Mrs. Irritation sent this pic one time they were in a LUSH thinking of me.  Her daughter loves the store as much as I do:

I do love their 9-to-5 to wash off eye makeup.  It's so gentle.  I just use it in the shower on my eyelids.  Another product I love is their lip scrub, Sweet Lips, which was another mandatory item when living in the desert.

I am a certifiable LUSH fanatic! If you have never been and have a LUSH accessible to you, GO, GO NOW!!!!  Or shop online.  I have absolutely no idea what you are waiting for, an engraved invitation?  I'm working on it.  But go now!

Happy Birthday And My Week

Happy birthday to my hubby yesterday!  We spent the day running errands he wanted to run.  Got to enjoy Smashburger for the first time.  Holy oil slick, my sweet potato fries were bathing in so much olive oil I gained another pound just looking at them.  Tasty, they were.  Good thing it's over an hour away--not making that a habit.  Got to see Mitch & Dawn and fam.  That is always nice.  See their daughter and "donkey" (that's the name of the lizard):

My business trip this past week to CA was a success.  My big activity went well, and I was able to meet and develop relationships with many coworkers.  I didn't spew forth unintelligible mumblings into a microphone when answering questions standing up in front of ~130 people, nor did I trip walking up the stairs to accept a little present on stage in thanks for all the work this project required from me.  I heard from several folks how happy they are that I am part of the company and how much they value my contributions.  I heard many supportive and appreciative comments this week.  It's really nice to hear.  *Really* doggone nice.

 
The most fun I had was a cooking/wine tasting class I elected for my free afternoon activity.  This is so awesome y'all, listen to this.  I had a choice between several wonderful options on how to spend an afternoon, and why yes, I chose drinking delightful wine and eating outrageously delicious food prepared by the resort chef.  Then after the festivities were supposed to be over, we sat on the patio cheering on the golfers as they played through one of the holes.  I believe our supportive clapping and shhhshing the "audience" helped everyone enjoy their golf outing just a little more since they surely felt the ambiance of a Pro tour.  I know we thought it was a hoot. 

Now for a recap of the food.

This cheese was on the appetizer board in the kitchen.  If you ever have the privilege to try this cheese--don't miss your opportunity.  It was an amazing *firm* goat cheese.  I didn't know this kind of cheese exists, and it was the chef's personal favorite.  I understood why after I tried it.

Next came a roasted beet salad with soft goat cheese crumbles that had rosemary, lavender and thyme herbs in the cheese--please bathe me in this when it's my time to go.  I cared not for the beets, but I get credit for trying them.

Now for the main courses, there were two.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  The dark pieces within the rice looking stuff are pieces of the best smoked bacon ever known to human kind.  The spareribs on top, I cut with my fork.  No knife was required.  I could not believe this half of the plate.  I wanted to stuff this in my pockets and bring it home to Todd, but I was pretty sure TSA would not have approved.  I LOVED LOVED LOVED it. 

On the other side of the plate, two scallops swimming in a butter, shallot, leek sauce with tomatoes.  This was very tasty.

And to finish off the feast, on a toasted bird's nest of coconut sat a shimmering gold dusted poached pear filled with mascarpone cheese with a side spoon of blue cheese, caramel and blackberry.  Sounds very odd, but it worked people, it worked!  LOVED every bite of it.

Back to reality for me now. I have more "lint filter cleanings to plan".  I do love my job and am beginning to really enjoy the people I am working with too as I form more relationships.  Which is a damn good thing since it is requiring so many hours from me every week.  Todd is nothing but support though, he's the best.  You know, all great leaders have someone or multiple someones behind them helping to make them as strong and successful as they are.  Most of the time they don't get there all on their own, they usually have backup troops who hold down the home-front allowing them to focus on their mission. God knows I've got lots of support or I'd never have made it this far.

Many days I get to my work and think, "here I am, let the stress begin".  But would I want it any other way?  Well maybe just a tad bit less stressful, but I will take that over being bored ANY day!

Now I'm off to bake my pillar-of-support / birthday-man some caramel brownies since we were too busy running around yesterday.  Oozy gooey sticky squares of pure evilness which cannot be resisted.  Happy Birthday weekend, Todd!

It's Good To Be Back

I am so stinkin' happy to be back in the KC area.  We've seen so many great old friends within a 24 hour time span this weekend.  We saw Kevin & Suzie and the girls, Butch & Bev, Dave R (finally got to see him!), Mitch & Dawn and the kids, a ton of old and new pinhead friends at the pinball tournament last night, Ray & Becky, and Bill & Vera.  We've seen all these friends in the past day!  Wish I had remembered to take pics of the monthly pinball tournament last night to share, but I forgot.  I will remember next month.

 

We had a fabulous Mexican breakfast with Ray & Becky this morning.  I had (pork) salsa verde.  Mmmmmmm.  I can't wait to grow tomatillos, onions & cilantro in our garden and have a Mexican market in my own kitchen next summer.  The patron will be flowing.  (Note to self: buy an indoor lime tree.)  Rick Bayless is one of my favorite chefs.  I made one of his recipes last weekend and it was pretty good.  I am trying to make ourselves eat more vegetables.  I find that it is easier with Mexican food to do that.

 

We used to go to Mexican breakfast with Ray & Becky a couple of times a month back when we used to live here. It was fun finding a new dive with authentic Mexican cuisine.  You know it's good when you're the only table speaking English.  Speaking of tasty Mexican food, Ray slow cooked some incredible pork with arbole chilies all day yesterday.  He made soft tacos for us last night that I enjoyed even more than the salsa verde this morning.  I could eat Mexican food every day. 

It's definitely yummy to be back!