Sparkly Tree Part Two

Okay so remember the Sparkly Silver Tree of my dreams? Yeah, that one.  I knew that the tree needed to have some special glittery ornaments to make it perfect.  Pink and Purple ones.  Now you have to understand that once I get something in my mind that's it, nothing else will do.  So of course I was less than successful in finding glittery ornaments so I was forced to make them myself.

Here's what I used:

Glitter from Jo-Anns it was a pretty large chunk glitter

As an adhesive I used decoupage gel.

Start with a glass ornament and tie a piece of ribbon or string through the loop.  It you are a neat crafter then I suggest tying on the ribbon that you are going to use to hang the ornament.  Next, cover the  ornament ball with the decoupage gel.  I made it kinda thick all the way around the ball.  Sprinkle the glitter generously around the ball.  If you feel the need, press the glitter into the decoupage gel and add a second layer

Hang the ornament to dry.  I gave them a good hour to really set up and then shook them to get off any excess glitter and then let them sit one more hour.

 Please note the bamboo skewers that we bought for shishkabobs came in very handy for this drying process and the paper towel kept the glitter off the kitchen island. Sorta...

When completely dry, add to tree.

Once again, Arthur approves.

Ugh....

Came home and the furnace was out.  I think I reset it and it seems to be working.  Seems crying works on the furnace gods.   Michael says its the runny mascara that did it.

A case of the Mondays...

I think that there is no more dreaded day in the week than Monday.  I know that poor Monday didn't ask to be the beginning of the work week.  I mean if Monday knew the hate and vitriol that would have been hoisted upon him, I bet Monday would have glad defer to Tuesday.  As it is Tuesday just kinda hangs out there with no real purpose except as a line saver for Wednesday who got the cool nickname.

So today I have a case of the Mondays.  I know what your saying, so do the rest us, suck it up.  Well, I am petitioning for some extra whine time.  See, in my world Monday means that my husband get up at 3:30 and heads off for another week of working in Ohio.  Yep, we live in Chicago and he works in Columbus.  Now I know that I should be thrilled that he has a job and believe me everyday I thank God that he is employed, it's just that today I wish that he was employed in the state of Illinois.

Okay, whine over.  Carry on with your bad self Monday.  See you in a week.

Paper Tree

So this year, being the first year that I'm not in retail, I have decided to go all out on the Christmas decorating because well, I don't have to go crazy, now it's all about want to.  (Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, deal.)

So one morning and afternoon while waiting for the ATT guy to show up, I decided that the work desk needed a little Christmas spirit. Now if you look at any kind of crafting magazine you know that these little trees have been around for years, but this is my first attempt so excuse the amateur end result.  Okay?  (And no that was not an attempt to garner compliments.)

So here's what you need:

That's the 12 inch size foam cone:

Various styles of Scrapbook paper.  Some are Christmas Themed, some aren't. Some are double sided, some aren't.  Thing is, it's about what you like so go crazy.

This one is Arthur's favorite.

I was partial to the musical one because I think I spent the ages five through thirteen learning every Christmas Carol know to man for the yearly Christmas Pageant at School.  That's the beauty of Parochial education, you get to double down on the Christmas Carols and I think I'm the only person who knows every verse to Joy to the World.

Cut the paper into strips of one inch by two inches and strips of one-half inch  by two inches. 

Take the Strips of cut paper and darken the edges with the ink of your choice.  I like StazOn, it's dark and covers completely.

Next the strips and wrap them around the end of a foam brush or a pencil.  I only wrapped it half way up the brush so the paper was more flippy than curly.  

Then with a glue gun start at the bottom of the tree and working in around the cone slightly overlapping the strips of paper.

As you work your way up the tree, use your best judgement on the next row.  The closer the rows the denser the tree will appear, the farther apart the more "Charlie Brown Tree" will appear.

I also alternated one inch and one-half inch strips to give the tree a little more texture until the top three rows where I went all half inch strips to make the curve easier to manage.

So when you are finished it should look something like this:

Don't worry if there are empty areas, the beauty is you can go in and tuck a strip in where necessary and it will still look fine.  Trust me, I speak from experience here. Now the more daring, might add a bauble or doodad, a little glitter, but I controlled myself for the first attempt.  Next time though...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow,Let it Snow...

First real snow of the season!  Woo Hoo! I love it.  Yep, I'm the nut job who loves the snow.

I have secret, I even love shoveling.  

Ohhhh, Shiny.....

I was lucky to grow up in a time when children didn't have to be kept in plastic bubbles and your parents didn't hover over your every move.  It meant that I was able to do really dangerous things like lay in the back window of the car while my parents dove on the highway, or ride bikes in the street or go out and play and return home "When the street lights come on."  Yep the good old days.

Now one of my favorite memories from the good old days is shiny Silver Metal Christmas tree that we used to have.  If you lived through the 1970's you remember what I'm talking about. Ours was about four feet high and was kept in the basement in the play area.  I loved that gaudy shiny thing.  When you covered it with lights it glowed like Chernobyl. Sure my younger sisters got to grow up in the house with the pool but I had the shiny Christmas tree.

The Shiny Tree has become a thing of legend in my family.  A story to be passed down to future generations like the lore of a magical Christmas Elf.  So imagine my surprise when I dragged The Husband to Target on the saturday after Thanksgiving, a task he relished with delight I might add, and while walking through the Christmas aisles I came across a Shiny Silver tree.  Now, much to my chagrin they no longer make the Shiny tree out of metal which means a new generation will not have the chance to cut their hands while decorating, but this is what happens when lawyers become involved.

I stood there in awe, suddenly a six year year old girl again I had to have it.  The Husband, being of the Jewish faith and male, knew we were there to replace a Christmas tree skirt and to get Spaghettos. He didn't stop to look at the tree, to reach back to a simpler time when Christmas was about wonder and light. No, he walked right past it toward the cat litter. So as stood there I had to make the decision myself. As I liberated the tree from it's lowly place on the shelf I knew it was meant to be, I was going to be whole again.

The Husband looked at me as if I were insane as I came out of the aisle.  "What is that?" he asked.  What is that? What is that? Well it's only the embodiment of my childhood memories. It's only the symbol of a time when Santa was real.  It's only the thing that I have been searching for my entire adult life and as I stood there in Target and explained the significance of the tree he looked at me and said, "Ok. Do we need anything for lunch?"  Do we need anything for lunch? Really? Men.

So here we are thirty-ahem years later and my life has come full circle.  My shiny tree replaced in my life except this time as the Mom I get to put it in the Kitchen and not in the basement.

Chernobyl here we come.

The Festival of Lights

So the beautiful thing about being a multi-religous family is the many holidays that we get to celebrate. Last night started the celebration of Hanukkah.  The Boy and I had a great night making the traditional Latkes and some Matzo Ball Soup.  My cooking skills being based more in the "sugar based" creations we have usually made our Latkes and soup out of a box.  Yep. Just like mac and cheese.

Done shaking your head? Okay, this year since I have a helper that gets "extra credit" for his cooking class if he helps make meals we decided that we, meaning The Boy, would make home made latkes.

So first The Boy had to peel the potatoes.

I told him not to join the Navy and if he did not to get into any trouble because his peeling skills were lacking and his whining would not be well received.  We almost put an end to homemade Latkes one and a half potatoes into the process.  But as soon as I pulled out the Cuisinart his little eyes lit up and he played through the pain just so he could shred.

Bless him, he had a good time with that shredder.  What is it about men and things that cause destruction?

I even got him to chop onions:

And let me tell you how happy he was to have to squeeze the water out of the potatoes:

See the face? Excitement and murder all in one look.  You have to love it. It was almost as good as the look I got when I told him he needed to mix everything up with hands.

All that kept him going was the promise that I would let him cook. On the stove. With oil. So the first thing I say is, "What should you remember about cooking with oil?" To which he answers, "If it catches on fire throw water on it." Now a less seasoned parent might freak out and take the spatula away from him, but not me, no. I know we live less than a mile away from the fire station so we probably wouldn't wreck the whole kitchen. After I lecture The Boy that he was in fact completely incorrect and that he should do the exact opposite of his answer we were ready to go.

 

Look at that face. I think he had the spatula like that so he could take a swing at me if I tried to take it away. 

Not bad for Christian and a 13 year old.  Tasted pretty good too.  Happy Hanukkah to everyone!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

The annual Christmas Tree debate usually starts in my head sometime around Halloween.  I just love the Christmas Tree if I could float it past the husband that sucker would stay up every day of the year.  I love the lights. I love the garland. I love that the tree sucks up that empty corner of the living room that I haven't decorated in the four years we've lived in this house.

I have a basement full of ornaments that would fill more than the one tree that we set up and so I have to plan out our decorating and this year I decided old school was the way to go.  My mother, for many years gave me Christopher Radko ornaments as part of my Christmas gifts. Now if you are familiar with Radko ornaments you know that they are hand blown glass.  If you are familiar with me you know that I have had a herd of cats for the last two decades and let me just say Cats + Glass = Bad. 

This year, I have had a change of heart, life is too short to keep all your beautiful things in a box in the basement for "someday" plus the one cat we have is really mellow for the most part. 

So I hauled the tree out of the basement.

Now every good construction site needs a foreman and Arthur is just the cat the job.  See we came to an understanding I put half the tree up and gave him five minutes to climb around it then I was able to continue with my project.

Check, everything is to code.

Here are some the ornaments we are featuring this year.  This is one that actually isn't a Radko, it was picked out by The Boy when he was three years old.  There are intense negotiations as to wether it's mine or his, but possession is 9/10ths of the law and the tree is mine...or Arthur's I'm not sure which.

This one is one is in honor of my favorite Christmas Album.  The Muppets and John Denver Christmas. Go ahead snicker I can wait.

This one might actually belong to The Boy because it showed up the same year he was going through his train phase: 

This one is called Sugar Shack Extravaganza.  Mom was especially giddy to get me this one because it was a limited edition.  It's number 51 of 5000, just like mom.  Just kidding.  She found it at Neiman Marcus, because who doesn't buy their ornaments at NM.  

So anyway, when you put it all together, heres what you end up with:

Not bad considering my assistant was a cat.  Merry Christmas!

A new life....

So for a long time I have been threatening to leave retail and move on to a more "normal" hours job.  Apparently my motto for the last few years has been, "This is my last retail Christmas." Yeah, like the last fifteen years there has been a pool to see when the declaration would come out of my mouth.  

In September I did just that, I got it together and started Real Estate School.  I submerged myself in the experience and got a job in an office while I took the state required class.  I was excited and nervous each step along the way.  Every test threw me into that crazy "WTF am I thinking I'm too old for school" panic until the results came back.  But I was excited that the end of my journey came to a successful end on friday when I passed the state boards.  I came into work on saturday and saw this:

Right there at the top was the pay off for all the hard work and hours of stress and studying.  So when you are looking for an agent, give me a call.

I really need to clean my desk more often...

My boy, the same one who turned thirteen yesterday drew this for me when he was in second grade.

Yeah, that's him protecting me from the evil giant robot monkeys.  God knows what I did to piss them off but I'm sure it was something horrible given the weapon power needed to protect me.  Lucky to have him.

Thirteen Years of The Boy.

Today the boy turns thirteen.  I'm not really sure what this means in the grand scheme of things other than, well, I'm the parent of a teenager.  Holy Crap.  Give me a second while I put my head between my knees and get myself together.  Phew, that was bad, I got a little woosy.

Now the the boy's favorite thing to do on his birthday is hear about the day he was born and after thirteen years of telling the story I think I have it down pat. No really it is, I swear.

The Boy was born at 10:28 in the am. after a traumatic three hours of labor.  Yeah, three hours.  That's it.  Four pushes.  Bam. There's your kid.

Now I know what you women are thinking.  THREE HOURS? That's it? Seriously? You hate me right now.  Just hold on a minute.  What I have left out of the story is the fact that I had to be induced twice.  TWICE. With one baby.  That's right.  The boy right from the beginning let us know who was in charge and clearly it wasn't me.  The best I can figure, The Boy didn't want a November 5th birthday.  Although it was interesting watching the nurse order the labor inducing drugs for a second time and arguing with the pharmacist that in fact I was still pregnant and he was welcome to come and double check.  He skipped the drive by and sent the drugs on up.

So The Boy was born in the morning and The Husband was all in all a good support system expect for that whole distracting the nurse with his chattering, but at least it meant I didn't have to listen it to him.  The Husband will tell you that I hurt his arm while I was in labor by squeezing it too hard.  I usually roll my eyes at him and point out that only he could turn my giving birth into a trauma for him.  By the way, if you're looking for a good hospital to give birth in I highly suggest Hilton Head Hospital.  It was like giving birth in resort and if you have a low tolerance for pain they are pretty loose with the drugs.

The Boy, from the beginning, was one of those kids who was going to be independent.  He didn't like to wear the little hat that the nurses like to put on the baby's head.  He'd somehow get it off within 30 minutes.  There was one nurse who rolled him bassinet and all, into my room and gave me hell because he wouldn't leave his hat on.  I gave the confused dog look and suggested a stapler.  I think that might have been the drugs talking though.  Maybe not.  So there he was in the room with me and no hat and I'm of course the worst mom in the world with the defiant one day old baby who won't wear a hat.  Great, can someone point the way to juvi?  I started crying, he started crying and I think poor Husband didn't know what to make of the scene when he returned.

Despite our rocky start The Boy has turned out pretty good so far.  His father has decided when he gets to 18 we need to write a book called, "How to not raise an Ax Murderer."  I figure that's getting to close to jinxing ourselves so I'll probably skip the idea.

Happy Birthday Boy!  Hope you have many more!  And that car I  promised you if you'd stop crying and leave your hat on, that was the drugs talking.

Birthday Cake

So the boy is turning 13 on Saturday and has requested a Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream and Vanilla Cake birthday cake.   No problem, your wish is my command.  After all, I have only one child so if I piss him off there will be no one to protect me from the bad old age home.  Of course I am secretly cursing the boy under my breath because an ice cream cake of course requires that extra step of ice cream.

So today we have the ice cream part of the prep going on.  I took half a gallon of Mint Chocolate chip ice cream and got it all melty and soft and then pressed it into a cake cake pan and suck it in the freezer where it will sit until tomorrow when phase two of the cake begins.  Let me just suggest that if you are going to do this type of a cake that you let the ice cream get super soft because the longer it takes you to press the ice cream into the cake mold the colder your fingers get.  Nothing like self induced frostbite to bring you back to your senses.

Off to figure out how to make mint flavored buttercream frosting.

Election Hang over....

I was up way too late and I much too tired today.  Hope you all have a great day.  Talk to you tomorrow!

Election Day....

So in case you hadn't heard, it's election day.  I voted.  Yep, voted, got my sticker, checked the pulse of the election judge because he looked old enough to have been in the Civil War and then headed off to work.  When all was said and done it took maybe ten minutes total and I think some of that has to do with the fact that my polling place switches every election without fail and no one is really sure where it is until sometime around two pm.  I was the 52 person to vote in my precinct, of course that was at 7:40 in the morning so I am hoping that the turn out gets better as the school day progresses.

I'm actually super psyched to watch election returns tonight.  I have a sick addiction to the constant guessing, pontificating and general broadcasters disappointment when a republican wins.  I can still remember when I was in seventh grade and it was a homework assignment to watch the returns.  It was 1980, Reagan, Carter and a third Party Candidate John Anderson.  Iranian Hostages were somewhere around 400 days of captivity.  Gas prices were at record highs and my parents were paying double digit interest on their home.  It was an interesting time in our history.  Russia was still our mortal enemy and there was an East and West Germany.  I was hooked and I still am.

I'm not one of those people who gets caught up in the whole if my guy doesn't win it's the end of the world.  I figure we've seen good and bad times from both parties and as a nation we continue on.  Our strength comes from our ability to adapt and change as needed.  For me that's what the election is really about.  Adaptation and Change.  So no matter what happens today, remember there's another election in two years and the ads should start sometime next week.

Peanut Butter Cups

So my whole trick or treating life was plagued by one thing.  Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Now I know what you are thinking, you are thinking.  Babe, you had sisters why the heck didn't you trade them away.  Oh no my friends, that was not the problem.  The problem was that I loved the Peanut Butter cups.  I mean really, two of my favorite things Peanut Butter and chocolate in one neat package.  How could you go wrong?  You can't.  Well sure if you have that pesky peanut allergy thing going on then yeah, you might want to stay away, but otherwise, really you can't go wrong.

And there in lies the rub.  Because I wasn't the only person in the house who felt that way.  That's right I had one of those parents who shared my love of the Reese's Peanut Butter cup.  My mother.  Again, I know what your thinking, toss the poor woman a bone and hand her peanut butter cup, after all she brought you into this world.  If only it were that easy.  You see my mother took the love of peanut butter cups to a new level.  A level of obsession that might scare an amateur.  We were sent out trick or treating with the the declaration, "If you get to choose, choose a peanut butter cup."  Really? No pressure there.

So as I was pondering my Christmas candy this year I thought I need a tribute to my childhood obsession and an easy way to lure my mother from the warmth of Texas to the bitter cold of Illinois for the festive holiday season.  So the result is the homemade peanut butter cup you see above.  Simple to make.  The hardest part is microwaving chocolate.  All you need is:

12 cup cake wrappers
1 bag chocolate chips milk chocolate or semi sweet
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 t. salt

Cut the wrappers down to half size and put into muffin tin.  Melt half the bag of chocolate chips for two minutes in the microwave, stirring after one minute.  Line the cupcake wrappers with a coating of chocolate making sure to coat the sides of the wrappers completely. Refrigerate until solid.  Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar and salt in a bowl and then spoon into the cups making sure you don't go over the edges of the chocolate.  Melt remaining chocolate chips  and spoon over the top of the peanut butter.  Refrigerate until solid and then dig in.

Enjoy and I'll let you know what mom thinks.

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. It's possibly my very favorite holiday of the year.  I like that there's no real pressure on the holiday to get it perfect.  No gift giving.  No uncomfortable family meals with the extended family that you don't really like.  No tree to dig the cat out, or is that only my cat?  Anyway this year I went low key.  I've been taking a continuing education class and my final exam was friday and I was in serious study mode the last two weeks so my decorating had taken a back seat school.  I did get it together enough to get some pumpkins this morning, and my procrastination paid off because they were free at Dominick's this morning and who doesn't love free?  So I give you my low key Halloween presentation.  Have a great holiday and remember candy for dinner is allowed on Halloween.