Show and Tell

Last week was a very creative week for me. I shall tell you about it. =)

I had a little home decorating project to do that turned out really well.
Turns out, doing things make my life seem a little more meaningful. Who'da thunk!

Last week our corner shelves were put in their homes in the dining room, looking rather bare. Guess whose job it was to spiffy them up? Mine! Yay!

I went on a scavenger hunt around the house, found some interesting stuff, and put it all on the dining room table. We were lacking some focal centerpieces, so I dragged out the percolator and espresso machine.

Then I was at a loss as to how I should arrange it all.

Somehow, it ended up looking really nice. The percolator and espresso maker constantly being before my eyes don't help with the frequent coffee cravings, but they sure are pretty.

Most of the week's creativity was spent in the kitchen. I cooked a lot of stuff. I decided that we needed to have some new, different stuff for dinner, so I went to the library, picked out two cookbooks that had "normal" sorts of food in them, and went from there. (Turns out, most cookbooks are full of recipes that require fancy things we don't keep around here.)

Besides for 3 recipes I (sort of) made from the book, I also decided I wanted to replicate the chile rellenos I had at the Mexican restaurant. Success! No recipe, but it tasted exactly how I wanted it to. Probably not authentic, but whatever. It was delicious.

Also, I kept thinking about all the homemade poptarts I'd seen online. I was itching to try it, and it did so warily. My expectations were very low. I expected nothing more than edible-ness, and that only because the ingredients were edible. I certainly did not expect triumphant success. That's what I got, though!

Even though I used different flour than what the recipe called for, I had perfect, flaky pie crust. (Which you can't tell from the pictures.) You would not believe how excited I was. I ran around jumping and squeaking "IT'S FLAKY! LOOK! It's REAL pie crust!!!" (which you also can't tell from the pictures.)

Anyways, it was a good week. I cooked two Asian-y meals yesterday, complete with oyster sauce I bought at the market. Yum!

While I'm showing off, here's a picture of our mantle that I mentioned somewhat recently.

You kind of can't see all the awesome grasses and stuff on the left, but they're there.
So, that's all for now. Now I need to get off the computer and find some creative things to do today. I think I'll crochet something. I haven't done much of that in a while.

Have a lovely week, people!

Caitlin

Grass and Sticks

Yes, this post is about grass and sticks. Sort of. Since we took our Christmas decorations down, the walls and mantle have seemed really bare and sad. Mama put me in charge of making the mantle pretty again. She gave me a couple other things to do, too. The other things didn't get done til the last minute in the evening because I spent the WHOLE afternoon on this one project.

Benjamin and I went out in the woods and foraged for pretty things. Sweetgum balls, pretty sticks and grasses, curly vine things... It was a lot of fun. I filled a glass lamp base with the sweetgum balls, and made a pretty natural arrangement with grasses and star shaped seedpods in a mason jar. I would post a picture, but our living room is so dark I can't get a good shot of the mantle. Maybe I'll try again eventually.


After the lamp and the mason jar, I got a little overzealous and built this really tall arrangement in a gooorgeous glass jug. (That jug was on the porch when we moved in! It just needed some washing.) After meticulously arranging the whole thing, I went to put it on the mantle and discovered it was way too tall. Unless I wanted to smoosh it. Which I didn't. So now it has a lovely home on the piano.

Those berries were actually just sitting on the piano beside the pictures before I put them in the arrangement. I found them lying on the ground at the park last week!

Then I had the problem of a big open space on the mantle where I had been going to put that jug. The kids told me that we already owned a similar but smaller one somewhere. I went rummaging downstairs again and found it! As of yet it has nothing in it, I tied a satin ribbon around it and set it on top of some books. Books make everything nicer!

So... there's my bit of show and tell for the day. :) More coming soon, as I'll have to show you all the wonderful things I posted in my shop this week!

Happy Saturday!

Caiti

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school! I was so excited. Really, I was! And I'm still excited.
And all the other teachers think I'm nuts. But I love teaching, and I love little kids, so... Of course, some of the love and excitement wears off by the end of the school year, when you're sick of saying "don't climb the slide!" and chasing barefooted kids, germy (and prohibited) crocs in hand.

Anyways, where was I? Right. First day of school, in a cute clean room, with cute little boys.

There's my door, with all our names on it. Nifty, isn't it?






Here's my room as seen from the door! This photo turned out really blurry. Hm. Oh well.

I really enjoyed preparation week... playing with sticky tack, construction paper, and foam pieces... Painting my tree on a bulletin board was really fun. I laminated it so that I can put different art projects up for the different seasons. Jessica liked it so much, she had me paint one for her room.
I got her to cover my extra board with yellow paper in return. I still haven't decided what to put on that one... Any ideas?


I also brought in my bean bag chair, a fluffy dog, and lots of pillows from my room that I never use. Makes a super cute and comfy little reading/music corner. No success reading today, though. We're gonna have to work on our circle-time skills... But they're only 2. We have time.





I asked Mrs. Dawn to hunt down all the trucks for me. As you can see, we have no shortage of wheeled vehicles. And for good reason, too - all of them were employed today.

I used sticky foam letters to put the boys' names on their cubbies. I really like the way it turned out. ... Only, Nathan isn't coming. lol

I had his name on a couple of things already, and then Mrs. Nancy told me Tuesday that plans changed. It's ok. I can handle six boys, but five is just fine, too. :D

Well, I was going to go ahead and post pics of the little guys, too, but I've got to get off the computer now. Ah well. It was a good day, and I'm ready for bed.

I leave you with a picture of one of the cutest moments of the day.

-Miss Caitlin

My Room

This is my room!
(or part of it, anyways.)
Guess who decided to paint it green?
:D

I suppose this picture is a little misleading, though. My room isn't quite this shockingly bright. It's a much tamer apple green. Thank you, editing software. Also misleading is the lack of clutter. Just beneath where the photo leaves off are the peaks of yarn stash mountain, and clothes that haven't been put away. (my honesty really needs to just shut up sometimes.) Just to the left is the edge of my bulletin board, smothered with drawings from my little brothers and sisters, and pictures of my friends.

Speaking of pictures of my friends - see that superman picture under the purse painting?
That's my friends and I posing with the giant Superman in Metropolis. :D

This shot shows the color of the walls pretty well, but the lighting is still odd. The area around the chime by the window is pretty true to life. ... isn't my guitar pretty? It's not really dark red, though...

My own two corners of my little shared room make me very happy. If I could have any type of room I like, it would be awfully similar to what I have now, though more put-together. I would have more pictures, and they would be in a random, but orderly sort of fashion. If that makes sense. Right now my pictures are just hanging from nail-holes that were already in the wall, thanks to my brothers. :P

One idea I've been toying with for a while is making a graphic collage of my friends. I may never get around to it, but it would certainly look neat.
Like take a picture of each of my friends, and make it really different,
like these sorts of photos.
Only not as self-centered.
And I suppose in order for it to look right, I'd have to pick one style.
High contrast color, high contrast black and white, or outline/threshold style. I can't decide which is my favorite. But I'll probably never do it anyways.

But wouldn't it look cool!

In case you were wondering, this is sort of a random post sparked by Abby Clark, over on her blog. I had other things I was going to blog about today, but my response to her post sort of took over. :)
So, I'll be back tomorrow with other cool stuff!
Bye!