Circle Collages

Conform: to act in accord with the prevailing standards, attitudes, practices, etc., of society or a group.

Synonyms: be conventional, be traditional, do the accepted thing, obey the rules, play the game, match.

 

Nonconformity: failure or refusal to conform, as with established customs, attitudes, or ideas.

Synonyms: rebel, maverick, radical, eccentric, free spirit, individualist, oddball.

 

These words drifted through my head when I was asked to look at the children’s circle collages at daycare.  They were each given the same number, color and size circles and told to make a collage.  Simple task for three year olds and even little 15m Gabe participated in the fun.  Here are how the kids did:

 

Luke is one of Jake’s best friends, they are very alike in their personalities.  They both want the same toy and often fight.

 

Maverick is the new kid in the daycare.  I told Jake to tell him his name was Goose.  I find it interesting that Maverick is a synonym for nonconformist, so far he’s not really living up to his name.

 

Ryker is another of Jake’s friends.  Honestly I’m not very familiar with him and who he really is.  But I do like the small circles inside the large circles, very creative!

 

Gabe is only 15 months old and the youngest at the daycare.  He learned to walk and now run and tries to keep up the the big boys.

 

And now for my son, Jake.  He is everything listed in the nonconformist, but he may also have a slight OCD issue.  He stacked the circles by color, then glued them all together and made a circle sandwich.  Very creative and nothing like me!

I hope his teachers in school let him explore the world in his own way and don’t make him conform too much to society.  Yes, make him line up and obey the rules, but when creativity is involved let him do his own thing.  Maybe he will be in marketing or advertising when he grows up.

Greek Yogurt

I’m sure you’ve all seen Greek Yogurt either in stores or in commercials.  The most popular brand in the U.S. is Oikos which may have to do with their spokesperson, John Stamos.  I’ve had a crush on him since Full House and I must say he has improved with age.  So dreamy!

Ok, back to reality.  For Greek yogurt I am not a huge fan of the Oikos brand or the Yoplait brand, but I do like the Yo-Crunch brand.  I love the packet of granola you can add to it which gives it a crunchy texture which I prefer.  But to each their own as there are plenty of brands out there.

I recently pinned a recipe for pizza dough which consisted of just two ingredients: 1 cup self-rising flour and 1 cup plain Greek yogurt.  I wasn’t able to find plain Greek yogurt in a small single serving cup, so I went ahead and bought a large container.  All you do is mix the two ingredients together and then knead for 5 minutes.  I used the pastry hooks on my hand-held mixer then rolled it out flat.  We baked it for about 7-8 minutes at 400F then topped it with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sausage and more cheese.  We baked it for another 15 minutes or until the cheese all melted. 

I liked the pizza dough but Jamie was less impressed, so now I had a big tub of plain Greek yogurt and not sure what to do with it, but that very night my friend pinned a recipe for a Banana Yogurt Smoothie. 

This recipe is super easy and even though it was for a post-workout dinner I’ve been making them all week for breakfast.  

• ½ cup Milk
• ½ cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1 small Banana
• 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1 tsp Honey
• ½ tsp cinnamon

When I first made it I didn’t have any honey and even with the banana and peanut butter it wasn’t very sweet so I went out and tried it with the honey and it is much better.  This smoothie keeps me satisfied all morning and I no longer get hungry at 10am.

To make the smoothie I use an immersion blender that I’ve had for many years and only recently have Jamie and I been using it almost daily.  It is super easy to use and clean up.  If you like to make smoothies then this blender is perfect and it doesn’t take up much room in the cupboard either. 

Now all I need to do is find some recipes for the remaining self-rising flour I bought.  I’m sure there is lots to make with that!

Birthday Cards: The Cute, The Funny & The Obscure

I love finding cards in the mailbox, especially birthday cards.  It’s so much fun to see who sent them and what kind of card they sent.  Some are cute, some are funny and some are so bizarre I just don’t even know how to explain it.

Jamie’s card is sweet & sentimental

 

The cards from Jacob & my Mom are cute & funny

 

Jamie’s Grandpa sends a nice card each year

 

My Nephew’s gave me a homemade card, aren’t they sweet?!?

 

These next ones are from my friends and are the ones I especially look forward to.

My quasi-sister-in-law gave me this sassy one

 

Becky sent this one which fits us to a tee… the inside says it’s from my “110 pound friend”.  Don’t worry Becky, you just had twins after all!

 

Chris sent me this one which foretells our future, I just hope I’m the one on the left, I like the yellow swim cap.

 

And then there’s Jenny’s card.  I don’t know where she found this, but there aren’t really words for this one.  The inside has a letter from the girl in the picture:

“This is one of my 1988 dance recital portraits.  I was twelve years old and obviously at the stage where I had no idea what to do with my body.  Everything was out of proportion; my glasses were too big, my tights were too big, and I could never get my bangs right.  The photographer posed us, and for me there was really no other option than the jazz hands.”

I think her bangs are the least of her worries.

 

Thank you so much to all my family and friends, I am so honored to have you all in my life.  You make me laugh and cry and sometimes at the same time.  May you continue to fill my mailbox and my heart full of your sentiments and humor.

OFA

This past weekend I was in Columbus, Ohio for the annual meeting of Horticultural Professionals otherwise known as OFA.  I am not a huge fan of this meeting mainly because it starts on 8 am on Saturday morning.  One of the reasons I like the meeting though is the amazing and overwhelming amount of flowers. 

There are flowers before you enter the conference center.

 

There are flowers immediately when you enter.

 

There are flowers and displays everywhere you walk.

 

There were even Christmas trees and holiday displays. I just love the poinsettia Christmas “tree”.  I can’t even imagine how much this would cost a consumer.

 

There was a merchandising area for retailers and live competitions on displaying merchandise.

 

There was even a fresh cut flower display and competition.

 

There are also hundreds of new varieties of flowers on display, but the one that caught my eye was this hydrangea called Evolution.  The flowers change color throughout the year.

 

So, although I was stuck inside a convention center all weekend long, all these flowers and the thousands others not shown here made it a bit more bearable.

Faux Quilting

A co-worker is having a baby so for her shower I decided to make another of cute and cuddly owl and a matching changing pad.  I have this cute pink and brown fabric in both fleece and poly/cotton blend.  The fleece makes a super soft owl.

For the changing pad I wanted to use a brown fleece for this inside, but it was a bit boring.  I have a fun pink dotted fleece, but it’s pretty pricy and decided to try and pretty up the brown fleece first. So I decided to stitch a faux quilt pattern with pink thread.

Starting at a corner, I marked a line at a 45 degree angle and continued every 4” making a diamond pattern. Then I stitched a single straight long stitch along the lines.

Back side:

Front side:

Here is the finished product and I just love how it turned out.

T-shirt to tank top

I recently pinned a tutorial on how to turn a t-shirt into a tank top.  And since it’s going to be 95-100 degrees today at the Brewer game I decided to turn one of my Brewer t-shirts into a tank top.

The original tutorial is here but I made a few modifications.

I made three of these shirts before attempting the Brewer shirt above. The tutorial says to cut off the bottom hem and then make another cut for the drawstring.  I liked the lengths of my t-shirts, so I instead cut off bottom strip but left the hem.

Then I folded over the hem and stitched it from that point.  This way I only lost about 1” from the bottom of the shirt.  For the Brewer one above, I actually used a drawstring from one of my other shirts since I didn’t want to cut the hem at all.

The easiest way to get the drawstring through the front and back is to attach it to a safety pin and then use that to work it through the fabric.

I love this shirt and I’m sure it will help keep me cool today at the game.  I have lots more t-shirts in my drawer from various charities and vacations that I can’t wait to turn into more tanks.  These might also look cute on a little girl as a dress too.

Popcorn Wagon

I recently took Jake, and his three older cousins to the Zoo for the morning.  After a relaxing ride on the train Jake spotted the popcorn wagon.  I worked at the Zoo after Senior year in high school and spent a few hot Summer days inside one of those popcorn wagons.  They are hot, greasy & sticky.  After spending a day in a popcorn wagon you need to wash your hair & face at least 5 times before feeling somewhat normal again.

I bought a large family-size popcorn to share and after telling the poor sap working in the wagon to keep the change I realized I had a problem on my hands. I’ve got one bag and four hungry boys trying to grab it out of my hands like a game of hungry-hungry hippo.

Being the quick thinker I am, I asked that poor sap for 4 empty plastic cups.  And because I am a such a Mom, I also made the Popcorn Rule.  After eating their cup of popcorn, they had to fill it with water and drink it before filling it up again.

This was a great plan until Jake threw his plastic cup into the impala enclosure.  Oh well, no plan is perfect.