Another year older, and wiser...

51.  Yes, it was my birthday this week.

Last year, when I turned the big five-oh, I was in Disney World with my sister.  What an amazing way to ring in a new decade.

This year I decided to go a little more low key.  I decided to sort of let the day come and go as it may.

I was happy when I received a call to sub on my birthday.  The call came a few weeks ago.  I would be hanging out with kindergartner's.  Perfect!

On the night before my birthday I had decided that I really, really, really wanted to wear my flowers from last year on my head.  There is something so feminine about wearing flowers!  Something so outdoorsy!  Something so me!  Could I get away with it?  I'm fifty-one now, should I do it? Or do I need to really grow up?

I decided to go for it!


Because I was subbing in my "home" school, I knew everyone would look at me and just say to themselves, yep, that's Lisa!  Everyone who saw me said, "I like your flowers."  If they didn't all ready know it, I told them, "Thanks!  It's my birthday!"  I'm sure if they hadn't all ready said to themselves, yep, that's Lisa...they did then.

What I am loving about myself and about teaching is that I can embrace my inner fun and share it with others.  Others who can tell me, That's cool!  I want to do that too!  And I hope they will.  Children need to have a safe place in which they can dare to be different.  A place they can find themselves and not be made to feel wrong for being who they are.  I feel a school can be and should be this place.  I hadn't realized that I have a little bit of a free spirit in my soul.  How cool!  How fun! I don't want to be exactly like everyone else.  I want to be me!

I am glad I am on the Eating, Praying and Loving journey while in my fifties.

~Lisa

P.S.  I wore my flowers the entire day!  I wore them while I was subbing, when I went out to eat dinner with my two children, and when I went to my divorce support group meeting.  Although this birthday didn't top last year's Disney trip (honestly, none ever will), it was exactly perfect!

My Birthday...in Pictures

Surprise flowers from close friends 

First Box Turtle sighting of the year...it's a Girl!  

rescued a mouse...from my hunter

Redbuds in bloom

waking up worms

wildflowers in bloom

flitting butterflies

the trees...rooting for my favorite college BB team

squirrel corn...wildflower

fern fiddles

a funnel cloud...at dinner time

pea-sized hail

hail in the grass

my favorite carrot cake...from my husband (he doesn't bake, he buys)

over-the-top make-up on my ballerina for her performance

one of our felines channeling her inner snow leopard

We came home very late after an evening at the ballet and watched an exciting DVR-ed NCAA basketball game.  Too bad for my Hoosiers.  Still, it was a perfect day!  :)

My "Silver" Spoon...

If you know me, then you know I really HATE admitting I am over 29! As spunky as I might be, I certainly am starting to look a bit ... more mature.

I don't recall when I found this spoon. I've had it tucked away in a little yellow pouch forever. Isn't it cool that my parents had it engraved? Or maybe it was a gift when I was born. It's not REALLY a sugar spoon, but I use it that way because I got tired of it hiding in that yellow pouch.

Can you click on the pic? I love the little AM on the clock! :)

Sweet 16!

Last Monday, my baby turned Sweet 16! It was her golden birthday too! To celebrate her day she and several friends got dressed up...teen girls, they LOVE dressing up...and went to lunch. After paying for lunch, I took the girls back to our place where they changed into hiking/kayaking clothes. We hiked to the nearby lake where I had reserved kayaks for them. Winston actually led us to the lake and he and I stayed close while the girls were out. I took Winston to a cove where he could swim and I could watch, and photograph, the girls. After an hour on the water we made the return trip to our house. Dessert time!

Here's how the cupcakes I made and my daughter helped decorate turned out. Many thanks to Sweetcakes for her advice! Details below...

Store bought, ready-to-go, fondant was used for the flowers. I wasn't ready to experiment completely with this task, plus I left this part up to my creative daughter!
The cupcakes were a recipe from the FamilyFun cookbook. I got out of the habit of using store bought cake mixes about 10 years ago. I would certainly re-use this recipe and will gladly send it to anyone who requests is (as well as any other recipe I ever mention!). The only thing I did differently was to add food coloring. The cupcakes would have been more of a pale yellow than what we were wanting. I added 16 drops to the mix! :)

Sweetcakes advised me to bake and cool the cupcakes then cut out a cone part from the top. I wanted to added ganache to the middle of the cupcakes. After cutting the cone shape, I trimmed it so it would become a cap. Sweetcakes and I talked flavors and if you read back to my original thoughts you'd see I probably had too much going on...flavor-wise. White chocolate ganache was changed to chocolate ganache. Buttercreme frosting was almost cream cheese frosting until Sweetcakes reminded me it should be refrigerated. Not really a problem except that would make the ganache harder than what we were looking for. Cold ganache firms up, room temperature ganache is creamy! In the end I decided upon vanilla frosting that I colored pink. Both the ganache and the frosting were homemade.
Here's the ganache, made the day before. This was my first time making ganache and I didn't think it was going to work out. It seemed too runny after the recommended two hours of cooling. I let it sit longer though and it was perfect!

Putting it all together!

Well? What do you think?

Here's how they looked on the inside!

*****

And here's my Sweet 16 year old!

Give-Away Alert!!!!!

First, my thoughts on handmade items...I LOVE them! I had a mother and grandma who were both crafty ladies; always having several projects going at once.  My mom was incredible.  The things she made were wonderful and looked professionally done.  My grams was crafty, but....her things DEFINITELY looked home-made!  Not that there was anything wrong with that.  I remember going to bazaars with mom and Grams and seeing wonderful handmade items.  If there was some thing I fancied and I asked if I could get it, my Grams would pull my mom toward her and whisper in her ear, "we can make that!"  It's true, they could.  But they rarely did.  They created a lot, just never things we saw or things I wanted.  Still, I inherited that crafting gene and I do like to make things.  There are plenty of times when I see something and I hear my Grams voice in the back of my head saying..."You can make that!"  Sometimes I do.  I enjoy giving and receiving handmade items.  I do appreciate the time and energy that goes into their being created.  

Now for the goods:  I hope you all will go check out the Give-Away at Wee Folk Art.  I am particularly fond of their little fairies, flowers and gnomes.  I love the earthy feel their creations send out.  Maybe I'll use their patterns to make a flower bouquet...my baby (who turns 15 soon) would love some flowers for her bedroom when my yard blossoms are all spent once the weather turns.  Or maybe I'll make one of WFA gnomes or fairies and let them wander around inside my house.   Right now I have another crafting project underway and I hope to show it off here soon.  

In the meantime, click on over to the Wee Folk Art Blog using the link above or on the right hand side of my blog under Blogs I Read.  Even if you don't win this give-away you'll still win seeing all the cute ideas they have to share!  :)  

Happy Blog Birthday Wee Folk Art!  

Birthday Treats!

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the anniversary of my birth last week, my Sweetcakes of a friend made me these delectable treats! 

A dress by any other name...

While looking for a photo of THE dress I came across these old memories too precious not to share as well!  

THE dress, recycled, nine months after the wedding...

***NOTE: This is NOT the tiara from the bridal store, it is a rhinestone head piece from the mother of the flower girl's former baton twirling days, circa 1969-70.  For the record, I have two!

At a birthday party, long, long ago, Link and his friends needed to save Princess Zelda.  With handmade shields and swords, our warriors set off...

Through the streets of Callery...

...arriving at the castle where Princess Zelda was held.  Our brave warriors defeated their water balloon welding evil nemesis.  

Another great part of this birthday was that these "costumes" were recycled yet again into Halloween costumes a few months later.  

It's my birthday!