Magnets

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a 17-month old child.

In my church we attend for three hours every sunday
but the childrens' class is only for those who are 18-months or older

which means once a week I have to keep my mobile little boy still
and my vocal little boy quiet ...
for three whole hours.

Every Sunday I come home from Church feeling like I have been run over by a semi-truck.

So I have been working on a few things to help keep him entertained.

The first thing I made were these magnets:


My son loves animals

and magnets

so I combined the two

plus, they stick to the chair in front of me
which makes them easy to clean up
and gives him a chance to stand
with something to distract him from his goal
of running wildly down the long hallways

I bought some 'super strong' ceramic magnets
and some of those marble thingys people put in the bottom of flower vases ...
i don't know what they are officially called ...
but I found them in the floral section of the craft store.

Then I hot glued them.
I globbed about three squirts of hot glue right onto the picture
put the marble on and pushed it down so all the glue would smooth out
then I cut around it,
trimmed it,
turned it over,
and glued on the magnet.

"Not Martha" on this site said to use a silicon sealer
but I couldn't find that so I used hot glue instead
and am satisfied with the results.

I only had two mishaps in the making of these magnets.
One was when my gun ran out of glue.
That magnet looked funny.

The other was when I accidently glued two fingers together because the magnet I was gluing on got too close to its neighbor and decided to attach itself to it at the last minute.
It got what it wanted, and I got burned.

I am having a problem now they are made, however.

When dropped on the tile floor
(or thrown, whatever)
the paper tears in half and the magnet is separated from the marble.

Anyone know how to prevent this?

the TV junkie

My one-and-a-half year old child is sick.

He has a cough
and a runny nose
and an extremely cranky disposition.

He doesn't want to be held
or to be put down
or to be fed

all he wants is to watch tv.

And I am tired.

Tired of the crankiness

tired of trying to be patient and empathetic

tired of my apparent inability to do anything right.

I spilled an entire bag of frozen peas.
I was trying to make him some lunch
while holding him on my hip

he was crying

I set the bag of peas onto the counter
where it then tipped onto the floor
and peas scattered in every direction

so I gave up.

I left the peas

and he is now watching tv.

and as I write this I can hear him giggling
because a dog stuck his tongue out in front of the camera

and I am trying to not be frustrated that a dog can garner his affections
but all my cuddling and singing and reading could not.

there will probably be a lot of television viewing in my home today

oh well.

I have peas to clean up

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

I have gotten a lot of requests for my recipe of this soup,
so here it is:
(and remember, I just kind of make it up as I go along ... so it is different every time ... so I hope this one works out for you! Good luck!)

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

In a frying pan, brown cubed chicken with a little bit of garlic in some olive oil.

In large soup pot, mix:

3 cups chicken broth
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
some fresh ginger, minced

Add:

1-2 teaspoons of yellow curry powder, or to taste
1 can coconut milk
1 can chopped pineapple (undrained)
a dash of red pepper flakes
cubed potatoes

Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes or until potatoes are more tender (not completely done yet though)

Add:
Chopped green peppers
Browned chicken

Simmer until peppers are crisp-tender, then add:
Sugar snap peas
Shredded carrots
Water chestnuts
Simmer for 1 minute longer until peas are crisp-tender (and hopefully potatoes are done, too)
Stir in about ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Serve over hot cooked rice

Virtue Celebration

Everyone has responsibilities in my church
and mine is to plan activities for the women
of the church to gather
to help increase faith and personal righteousness,
strengthen families and homes,
and provide service to those in need.

I feel like a party planner.
I love it.

This month's activity was a formal dinner to celebrate virtue.
We invited all women ages 12 and older.



Then it came time to decorate.
The color of virtue is gold ...
but gold things are impossible to find this time of year.
Everything is pastel.

So, one quick call to my mother-in-law
and two days later I got a box of gold Christmas baubles in the mail.


I put them in crystal vases (borrowed from friends)
but they just looked like baubles in a vase.

So I wrapped each bauble in tulle first (a 6"x8" rectangle)


Then, when added to sparkly gold table runners and chair ties with sparkly gold ribbon
we had a fancy party!

Thrifty Nifty

I am a terrible thrift shopper.

I hear stories about 'great finds' from people like this one

but when it comes to thrift shopping, I don't go often enough and when I do go, I am always looking for two things: a matte silver lamp base and a kitchen hutch.

And I never find them.

I have had a lamp shade for five years just waiting for me to find its base.

And I currently have dishes sitting in a cardboard box on my kitchen floor (seriously!) because I do not have the cupboard space for them.

But, the other day I went on a whim and found this.


Well, not actually that, although it is also an Ethan Allen ... circa 1980 ...


No, it looks more like this.

But for only $72 I think it has potential.


And I am thinking I can make it look like this:

What do you think?

five years

that is how long I have been looking for the base of this lamp:

I bought the shade at an antique store
and have been searching for a base since then
but they were all either too shiny or too brassy
I bought this one when I bought my hutch

and not only is it the perfect color, but it works!

I guess I won't give up on thrift shopping after all ...

New Name

Change your google readers! The new blog is:
http://seemebefancy.blogspot.com/

Hrm ...

This new blog name thing is taking longer than I thought it would.

My imagination's broke (which is actually an available blog address - maybe I should use that).

I have been really busy lately and there is much I want to show you, but I can't get past the lameness of my blog name. And until I do, I'm sorry but I don't think I can post anything.

Please don't give up on me yet

Out with the old ...

I am changing the name of my blog.

And the url.

It will essentially be the same blog,
but let's face it - the name was lame.

I just haven't quite decided what I want the new name to be.

I will let you know what I decide tomorrow.

I am open to suggestions :)