Todays Bento

Vietnamese egg rolls, fried rice, broccoli, soy sauce and Loquats (Japanese Plums).

Cute Baby Break

These are pictures of my nephews....having a good time at the church picnic on Mardi Gras Day!

 Water and a push truck....in 16 years it'll be mud and and a jacked up truck!

 So nice not to give a rat's rear end about what any one thinks....

 ...a beautiful cool ditch of water and ....I'm in!

 ....no one else is around...just me the truck and this awsome swampy ditch...

 ...there may be snakes?....what's a snake.....

 ...this is the best baby sitter my mom has had in a long time....

 ...content...

 ...hey Auntie....

 ...back to biz....

 Hey Auntie Kristi....

 ...I like picnics...

 ...and this blankie is so soft...and I get to be trundled around and pampered by everyone all day...

 ...Life is Good!....

School's Starting!

School's starting Wednesday so I've been sewing the girls new school skirts.  It's difficult to find modest uniform skirts that go below the knee...so my girls love to tell me what type of skirt they like and let me design it.  I have this wonderful book "Sew What! Skirts" by Francesca Denhartog & Carole Anne Camp.  It gives good and simple directions on how to create your own patterns for skirts using your specific measurements.  I use some old Christmas wrapping paper to make the patterns.  Then I write the girls name and date on their pattern and save it.

Here's a close up of my notes for Seleste.

We're both happy with the way it turned out!  One more to go for Seleste and two for Talia.  Talia's is going to be quite different....I'll post a pic.

Don't be afraid to try sewing if you want to learn!  I had no one to really teach me so....I just started reading and looking at how to videos on line.  I'll post some video links that really helped me soon.  Dive in girl!

How to make a serviceable but old book bag fun and new for the new year....Seleste's plan is to add a cute patch and wrap the back straps in zebra print duct tape...you go Seleste!

Bentos and Flower Shows

Thanks to my Sister Terri I discovered Bento Boxes.  Bento lunches are adorable lunches packed in stackable boxes and secured with a strap.  This style of lunch packing comes from Japan.  I'm now addicted to looking at bento blogs since I've discovered them!   On my side bar I have a link to a bento blog which in turn has tons of links to other wonderful bento blogs.

So I started packing bentos for my girls.  Not very good at it yet...but....I love to make them!  Making lunch for my girls is soooo much fun now.  It's like getting to do a little art project each morning.  It also makes you look at what is possible for lunches in a different way.  I find myself packing things I might not have before!

My girls at first were a little shy to bring their bentos to school.  Now they relish all of the attention!  Lately I've been picking mulberries each morning from the tree and filling the bottom tier of their bentos with them.  When I asked Seleste if she liked them...she replied, "Yes, but everyone begs for them!!!"  It appears that the children all crowd around and ask Seleste to give them some of her mulberries....Now mommies..(pause and sigh)  ..I hope that isn't your child begging my daughter for her lunch.....Get Rid Of The Doritos and PLANT A MULBERRY TREE.....LIKE YESTERDAY!!!!!  :)  My girls love eating their bentos....I find they eat their lunches much better now.  The boxes always come back empty....their bags never did.

A happy Babybel cheese ladybug...pecans from the tree...peanut butter crackers...cranberries...

Recently I gave in to my longing and bought bento tools I'd been drooling over....mind you....I didn't buy all the ones I'd been drooling over.....just a few....

...Sweet little bunny picks for decorating and eating berries and other such things with....

...caa..ute..little picks for the same thing....

...these are the tiniest little cups for packing condiments and sauces...

...the shapes on the left are for shaping rice balls into little bears and flowers...More about rice balls later...the tall silver cutters are for cutting veggies such as cucumbers and carrots and other things into cute decorative shapes...

....some cutsie cutters for cheese and meat etc...

...these are groovy...boiled egg molds!!  after hard boiling the egg you peel it, put it into the mold, drop into ice water for a minute, remove and voila....a bunny or bear shaped egg....how cute....my girls love boiled eggs in their lunches and the chickens are laying plenty!

...these are little cutters for cutting bread and other things into shapes...It makes adorable sandwiches...

I've also been knitting new dishrags for my kitchen.  My old kitchen linens have been transferred to the carwash/house cleaning rag basket and I have and am making new ones....the old rags were...um...well...raggedy...!

It's spring and it's flower show time.  Myself and two friends from my garden club conspired to interpret a painting with flowers for Art In Bloom at the New Orleans Museum of Art.  Much to our delight we won first and an overall award for "Best Interpretation".  I remember going to Art In Bloom as a teen and wishing to my sister Terri that I could participate.  This is my fourth year doing so....God does so like to give his children the desires of their hearts!

I submitted quite a bit of horticulture in the Federated Council of New Orleans Garden Clubs and Jefferson Parish Council of Garden Club's flower show.  I was thrilled with the awards my specimens won.  Eleven blue, two red and an honorable mention.  As well as two of the five coveted overall awards.....

This large green ribbon was the Arboreal award for my crybaby tree.  I was able to cut a long large perfect branch filled to the top with red calla lily like blossoms....stunning....I was thrilled to win (most of the cuttings I threw out after the show rather than transport them home again...things that could be rooted we shared with one another).

This award of merit was for the large perfect leaf from my Tropicana canna lily.  This canna is grown mainly for it spectacular foliage which is yellow, lime green and green bordered with red edge.  Again...I was smiling ear to ear...!!!

Sessie's Minnies

Sessie (my middle daughter) loves nature.  Often I find little odd nature items tucked away here and there.  I've chased more than one acorn that fell out of her pocket around the round tub of my washing machine.

Recently she's used these items and lots of hot glue :-) to create these adorable birds.  Seleste purposely goes on walks and picks up interesting items then tries to make them into something.  She has such a talent for seeing what an item can be.  We are truly made in Gods image, and the creator part of it is manifested in Sessie's adorable little critters. 

I also threw in a pic of a precious clay rabbit and veggies Sess made in Art.

Humming Bird

Goose?

Penguin? (I love the body.  It's made from a Polyphemus Moth cocoon.)

Rabbit

Owl

Turning 10

Turning TEN in our house hold is a big deal. It's one of the two years you get to have a shin-dig! Ten and sixteen, that's it. That's the only two years you get a birthday party except for family coming over singing happy birthday, eating cake and getting a few gifts from Mom, Dad, Grandparents, and Aunts....at 10 and 16...YOU Get To Invite ALL Your FRienDs!!!

So great preparation and anticipation were involved to put together a delightful bash a ten year old missy would never forget! I think it'll take a few posts to show all the ten year old joy from Saturday...I'll start with the pennet banners we made.

We bought pretty, cheap, and clearance fabric for a $1.50 a yard in five different girly patterns. Next we cut out a diamond shaped pattern and used it to cut out 40 pennets. Stacking the fabric helped speed up this process. These diamonds were then folded in half and ironed into the pennet shape.

Then we used fusing to fuse the edges together from the tip to about 1 inch from the top.

Here is all the ironed pennets waiting to be fused and then....

Strung on ribbon to soon festoon the par-tay room!!!

After the party they'll add some spice to the girls' room. Next......The PARTY!

Fridge Art

Fridge Art by Seleste age 11 and Talia age 9. List by Kristi.

No Terri, I Didn't Bribe The Judges!

To Terri who jokingly accused me of bribing the talent show judges...No I didn't bribe the Judges! I may have threatened them...nahh.

I'm working on my very own little classical trio here. When I get old they can roll their eyes at me while I clap and admonish them to play for everyone that little piece I love so much! Wait, I do that now. I think they roll their eyes when I'm not looking.

Music is something I desire to give to my children. It's something that can be appreciated, admired and used at any age. It's not always desirable to give up the time and cash it takes to make this possible....but nights like this make it worth it.

Congratulations my girls and thanks to their wonderful teachers!

Sessie and Tally took 1st and 2nd in their age group, and Tera took 2nd in her group.