The Studio Kitchen

The Studio Kitchen is a place I hope to visit very soon. This is another bright idea by one of my friends, that after the last bright idea I swore to myself, "no more bright ideas." But here I am dying to get over there and try it. I even kept her busy texting so I could blog this big idea first. Muahahaha...my evil knows no bounds.


From reading the website I am to show up and put together about a month's worth of dinners. All in about an hour and a half. Hmm. We'll see. They have a great menu. I'm hoping to save some money and time on cooking. I will get back to you after I have gone and give a really big biased one sided review.


The other thing that will make this outing fun is I GET TO GO TO IKEA!! My friend and I are wondering if our other friend has been there before and we're all giggly about going. And if the other friend hasn't been there, then we'll be there for hours. I need to go for research purposes. And my friend needs to go because she likes to "drool on the fabrics and small accessories." She really said this. I just want to look at furniture and compare the pics from their catalogue. But I will wear my bib just in case.


Now I'm going to text my friend and tell her I just posted this. Then I will turn off my phone and go to bed so she can't text me back.

Just Blog It Already....

I thought I better put this post up because I already have another post working its' way into my head and I'd really like to get thinking about that one. Here's the pics of activities that I promised. Sorry this is such a long post with 18 pics. These pics are of me learning how to group photos together on this blog by accident. They also show Rowan making a cake from scratch (with a little help). It was a sour cream cake and we had some blueberry jam left that I wanted to use up. Made the batter and poured half in the pan and then covered with the rest of the batter. It came out really good and I gave half to the lady who gave me the jam in the first place.

This is a mountain of heaven. The second pic shows what it really is, tumbled glass for decorative touches to gardens. And this place has it cheap. It's shiny and sparkly and I can't wait to come up with some sort of design so I can go buy this stuff. Instead we bought 3/4 gravel, which is bigger than pea gravel but smaller than golf ball size. Since it rained for many many many days we have lots of muddy spots which make us tell Rowan "no you can't play outside." She's like a pig drawn to mud. Hence, the gravel is supposed to solve this problem.

Also on that day, yes this is all stuff happening in one day, I made this delicious vegetable and stuffing bake. Then it was time to do the yard. That's Jace way off mowing part of the yard. I'm on the porch supervising (taking a break). And that's my assistant supervisor in charge of mud.

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day I had to get some blood drawn for my doctor to see if my thyroid is temporarily high due to having the flu and I was still feeling run down...blah blah blah...the whole getting put on a course of steroids post. Anyway, this is where they stabbed me in the arm and gave me a boo boo. They don't even give pretty band-aids. Afterwards I went to a special place to forget all my pain and sadness. Who needs a bar when you have a row of riding mowers just waiting for you when you pull up? A place where you can reach out and touch your dreams, if only for a moment.

Feeling inspired I went home and worked on mulch island. It's pretty much done now and I have very muscular arms. Then came prezzie time! We call pressents prezzies here. Don't know why, we just do. Jace brought me home a netbook. Isn't it cute? It's like a baby puter. I took a pic next to the regular laptop so you can see. It takes a little getting used to typing. If you have big fingers it's not really going to work for you. Now Jace says it's for my couponing, tweeting, blogging, ebaying, etc. But let me tell you what it's really for. It's so he can go slay dragons or other IMAGINARY villains on the regular laptop. This way I'm not making him wait to plunder and pillage and rake in the loot. But I love him and if it means that I have to make this serious sacrifice, then I will.

My other prezzie he brought me was a new living room floor. We really need this. A few weeks ago I mentioned the carpet in such a favorable light that Jace felt equally compelled to get rid of it. Some words are very powerful. Apparently the words "flea-bag rag" are very powerful words. There's no animals running around, it's just cheap carpet that only looks good for maybe a year and it came with the house. It's really windy out here some days and we have lots of pollen allergies. I know that carpet was just retaining every plague known to man. The pics show the flea-bag rag in all its' glory, the removal down to the subfloor (where we swept up over a cup of dirt/sand/fuzz), laying of the vapor barrier, and lastly a quick pic of the finished floor as we started moving furniture back in.

Jace asked me what I thought about the new floor. I said, "if I had a profile on a dating site, instead of saying I liked to take long walks on the beach, it would say I like to take long walks on my living room floor." We have plans to put on socks and just a long sleeve shirt and underwear and pretend we're Tom Cruise in Risky Business. It's also so slippery we're betting on who will fall and break their hip first.

Whew! Finally got this post out and can now start fully developing the next one. It will be about my Dad. I think it will be a funny one...

Short update

In my last post I said I would be documenting all these steroid-induced activities and you would be amazed. But of course I was too busy doing said activities to actually sit down and load pics and write complete words.

So a quick summary: Finished mulching around the tree in the front yard, helped mow the front yard, made mulch island around 5 trees on side of house, planted tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, got a truckload of 3/4 gravel and helped put it out, helped friend load truckload of mulch, drank 8 bottles of water, made a cake from scratch, cleaned my entire house in 1 hour, went to work for 2 days, got a netbook for blogging (thank you Jace!), aaannnddd....tomorrow we are putting down a new living room floor.

Can you believe it? I know I left some stuff out. But I'll add to the list. Oh and my Dad is moving down here next week and I have to clean/create a guest room for him to stay in for a week.

A view of parts of my day

My day started out very nice. I got up early since I had a doctor appointment (getting to that) and drank coffee and read email. Lo and Behold! Can it be? Austin Celtic Festival tickets are on sale! I promptly buy 2 (kids under 12 are free) and will impatiently wait till November 7th. I will probably be beyond annoying because I loved going last year. I might even participate in one of the workshops. Look out Riverdance!

Then I was off to the House of Horror Ear, Nose, Throat doctor. They use items like these to test your hearing, and look up your nose. It was interesting but I don't know exactly what they were doing. The results came back that my hearing was in the "normal" range and they didn't need to do anything at this time. I'll let you know what I think of that in a moment. But I also got put on a course of steroids because my nose freaks out when I get sick.

I have a love/hate relationship with steroids that is very easily solved and my doctor knows how to do this. The fabulousness/problem with steroids is they make me a very happy busy lunatic. I want to clean the entire house, mow my yard, mow my neighbor's yard, mow the whole block. Finish every project and start a hundred more. All 24/7. But life will not let you stay up 24 hours a day for a week. Jace & Rowan would want to sleep and me being up all night doesn't go over well. I started the steroids this afternoon and I know by morning I will spring out of bed like Wonder Woman with a cat on her head! I do have some mulch work that needs to be done... Where is that flood light? I have time right now! Luckily my doctor has supplied me with a "balancing" agent, otherwise known as a knock-you-on-the-head-with-a-hammer sleep solution. This is a catch 22 because I will sleep but in the morning I will be well-rested with plenty of energy. I will update you on my accomplishments.

After my wonderful doctor visit I came here. One I was very hungry, and two I was going to get my hair cut. I call this place Taco Cablamo. Nothing wrong with the food, I just like to give places my own name. They probably wouldn't see the humor in it...


So now with a happy tummy I went to get a hair cut. Just a trim and shape please. The girl stands right next to me and says, "how are you spending your day today?" I say, "I'm fine thanks." sigh Did I not just get a hearing test and it was "normal"? So I can't understand her question when she's standing right next to me. Now I'm depressed.

I came home and got the finances all caught up and the coupon train. Very busy things. I have a magazine to get started and a million other relaxing things because it's evening and INEEDTORELAX!!! Jace comes home and gives me these...beautiful gold earrings designed by someone somewhere. I'm wearing them right now. I love them. ( Jace reads this blog) I was very surprised because I can't remember the last time I got real jewelry. I'm very picky and don't wear a lot of jewelry anyway. It was a moment of "Awww." Then he made dinner. Very good. Double Awww. I married him for reasons like these. He knows how to make my day great!

Coming Back from the Dead

I'm going to start by saying "I'm sorry" it has taken so long to get back to this blog. My extended flu and then working have kept me uninterested and in a fog. Something I discovered while being an "invalid Grandma"(no offense to invalid Grandmas) is that I really like reading the paper. This picture is my paper and hot chocolate. It's such a peaceful activity on a rainy Sunday. Probably more valuable when you think about all the newspapers that are no longer printed and the list seems to grow everyday. One day this little past time will no longer be a possibility. Sure it's good for the environment, but reading off the computer isn't the same. The same goes for books. I don't think I could "curl up" with a Kindle. Trees, shmees. I want paper!

This picture is what I will call "False Hope." Why it just looks like leaves on paper on you say. But this was an experiment. I planned a lesson on Fall Things to see if Rowan could follow along. She did quite well. She gave me false hope that we could do home schooling in the future. Kids are crafty like that. Make you think you could be the absolute sculptor of their world, and then refuse to follow directions. We do know she has one very important skill...glueing objects to paper.

This was another part of the lesson. After we glued fake leaves to paper and talked about fall colors we marched around our yard and picked up leaves. Since we don't really have trees with leaves that change color we had to settle for whatever weeds she picked up. And more glueing to paper.

The next part of the assignment was Googling and looking at various pictures of fall scenery, fall clothes (a very important part), hayrides, and fall food. This week I'm hoping to continue our talk about fall and make: roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie, and caramel apples. And afterwards I'll slip into my fall fantasy of thinking we'll be able to homeschool, drink some hot chocolate and read the paper.

My Review of Disney Princess Sing Along Boombox

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Top load CD player. CD control buttons and LED display. Sing along function, rotary volume control for MIC, Master and Echo.

Disney Princess Sing Along Boombox

Awesome!

By Rowan's Mom from San Marcos, TX on 10/10/2009

 

4out of 5

Pros: Attractive Design, Easy to Use, Fun, Portable, Engaging

Best Uses: Learning, Entertainment, Young Children

Describe Yourself: Parent Of Two Or More Children

Daughter LOVES it! Great for a 4 yr old and her dad. Not only does it play CD's but we plugged in the Itouch and can play our whole library of songs and internet radio. The long mic cord is handy. Very pleased.

(legalese)

Round 2 and smellin the roses

So I am gradually feeling better since my relapse because I overdid it at work. Today I went out and played! I got a new book at the library. I went to the eye doctor and got some new eyeballs that should be here on Thursday. Then it was off to that glorious crafters haven...Hobby Lobby. Also stopped by Walmart and here's the best of what I got. Stuff to make Rowan a dress she doesn't deserve. A game of Scrabble. This is hard to find. I think because kids don't know how to spell anymore. Maybe they should have Scrabble, the text version. A clear container. A cherry pie, because healthy eating made me sick. Decorative grasses and a black and cream stationary box.

I used the decorative grasses in the vase on my entry table. So far this is what I've got. I'm a slow decorator.

The black and cream stationary box went on the t.v. table. If you want to see the full table it's in the 2010 IKEA catalogue on page 83. I lurve that store. The table is just over 6 ft long with adjustable shelves. Perfect for different size baskets or objects.

And this is what I did with the Scrabble letters. It's a great element since I'm loving the black and cream right now. If you decide to do this it is not as simple as throwing the letters in a jar. No matter how hard you try they will always end up facing blank tile up so you will have to put them in one at a time with letters up. This is before Rowan got home from school. This is the best it will ever look. Really.

Hopefully I will keep getting better and will have something interesting to blog about soon.