An Apple For The Teacher

Check out this awesome cupcake! It was delicious!

The last week of school at my job site, one mom from the PTA made about 50 of these cupcakes. She placed them on what looked like a parade float in the teacher's lounge as a thank you to teachers for all of their hard work this year. These cupcakes are a work of art.

On the top of the cupcake secured with frosting is a small donut. The stem is a piece of Tootsie Roll rolled to be smaller and the leaf is a premade or purchased white chocolate candy leaf.

The whole top is rolled in red sparkly sprinkles. The crafter of these delicacies said her fingers were red for most of the day from the frosting dyeing process.

Many thanks to the PTA of Rainier View for being so organized and involved in the school that their kids attend.

The Floors and Painting Are Finished...Yay!

Remember this?

Now it looks like this!! Isn't it just awesome? God makes some nice wood doesn't He? Ya baby!

While the floors were being refinished we ate a few meals in the back yard. I actually cooked two breakfasts. I don't do breakfasts very often so it was a special event when I cooked two days in a row. I have to say, it was good.

We also stayed in the back rooms or kitchen or out of the house while this process of floor refinishing was going on. Jack, our cat, basically lived in our bedroom. He was getting pretty fed up with it all. We let him out between coats of FloorFin whenever the floors were dry enough to walk on.

Now when the floor was finished & the painter showed up Jack was very curious. He kept an eye on that guy. Wondering what he was up to.

Jack watched for quite a while while A painted.

And he watched some more. Finally Jack was getting too close to the freshly painted walls & we had to put him back in our bedroom. Poor Jack. A really liked him too.

As well as many other things my hubs installed the base board. At first I was apprehensive because in the past, I'll just say, the work was less than what I had hoped for. Well he did a very good job this time and A followed him with caulking & sealed the top & covered nails. It looks very nice. I am smiling.

Nice eh!

A 52 year old floor uncovered after many years of abuse and carpet covering it.

For not really fixing any walls other than minor patching and covering up our old house turned out pretty nice.

It's me, Mocha Momma, very pleased and right before the 4th of July too. Now to bring in the old furniture and then the newer furniture.

We were anxious to bring the furniture in off of the deck and get everything back in order so we could relax and enjoy the Independence Day festivities.

But it had poured rain the entire day on July 2nd and when we pulled off the tarp there was our old furniture sitting in water on the tarp. Big oops! Shouldn't have put tarp under it or should have made sure the top tarp was tucked under the bottom one.

We spent a lot of time with a heat gun drying pieces so we could put the pads on the feet and set them in place.

The entertainment center, the piece we wanted to set up the most so we could get all the electronics back into it, was soaked about an inch and 1/2 to 2 inches.

This is the bottom of the back. Ugh!

And this is the oldest piece we have that came with the house. It has the most damage. It's a Secretary's Desk. It had some broken parts, but it had never been refinished so apparently it has more value that way. As it dried one of the claw feet cracked & part of it fell off.

This side is warped, cracking and the finish is gone now. We let it dry and then brought it in and put it back in service. Not much else to do unless we take the time and money to get her fixed. So much to do, so little money.

The whole project went very smoothly until the rain soaked things, but it's all okay. We're still very pleased and we even had some old friends over for the 4th. As always, God is good and shows us what's important.

I hope your Fourth of July was fun and festive. Hopefully I'll be back soon with more fun stuff we've been doing. God bless you all.

The Tent - I Am So Done With It!!

I know some of you have seen these tent pictures, or most of them anyway, but I just want you to know I am not going to mess with it anymore. The kids haven't taken to the idea of sleeping out there or even playing out there. Hey, I gave it a whirl!

Thanks, Hope for the great idea. It really was a good thing for me to do. My kids will remember the summer mom and dad made them a tent. We will keep it and try again next year. Hop over to Hope's blog and see her Summer Club posts. They are so fun!

The kids can take it from here if they're interested. H has ventured into it a time or two and JB and his friend ran through it several times the other night, but other than that, no interest. The poor thing blew over or fell over today. I don't know why, it's not really windy. HOT, but not windy! I'll go out there later and survey the scene.

This is the tent in it's beginning stage. Draping it over the clothes line did not work. Duh!!

So my hubs got involved. This was good! And two or three weeks later we had a frame, LOL! I'm LOL at the time lapse. Then the poor thing fell all to pieces one day.

The frame couldn't hold the weight of the sheets. So a week or so later more pieces were added and we kept looking at it to see what else it needed. We glued all the PVC pieces together (except for the top center piece), added some clamps and some twine to hold that puppy down.

It stayed like this for a week or so. H layed down there for thirty seconds and said "Ahhhh!"

(Look at the grass...it is sooooo dry. I can't believe it was this dry so early in the summer. It usually rains until well after the 4th of July. This year the grass was dry by the 4th.)

Then she saw a little spider and it was all over. As I said, "I am so done with it", but it was fun and it kept me busy. My creative juices were flowing and it was not in vain because I needed the action in my life.

I can say I made a tent this summer and my hubby helped. I can say it was fun and the cat layed in it a few times too. So kids don't always take to our idea of what's fun, but I learned that this summer too. Oh, Lord you are magnificent and funny. I love you!

Hope's Idea...Summer Club

I got an idea from Hope over at My Hope Is In The Lord to set up a tent in the back yard and stay out there like once a week for the summer months. She called it Summer Club.

We don't have a tent so I thought for a couple of days about how I could make one. I decided to take all of the twin size top sheets that no one wants to use and sew them together and hang it over the clothes line and use a couple of stakes and some twine and that would be it.

So here the kids are using clothes pins to hang the tent in place so I could get an idea of what I really needed to do.

I wanted to see what it would look like so we put some broom and mop handles in the corners and posed for a picture. Then we showed hubby a couple of days later after the rain and wind finished and it got sunny again.

We noticed that it was too heavy for the clothes line and it needed
more than twine. Hubby had some ideas, he took some
measurements and promised to dig around at work in the
left over wood and PVC pipe bin. Well he forgot for two
or three days and then the weekend came. It took a while
to get back around to it.

One morning I left the house to run some errands for an hour or so and this is what hubby and JB (our son) came up with. I thought it was cute and that it would be perfect. We discussed anchoring it and attaching the covering to the frame because the wind has been crazy this year and he said it blew over on the test run with the covering.

Later that evening I went out and tested it myself so I could take a picture. It definitely needs some more support and anchoring, but I can see that it'll work. So I took the covering off and hung it back on the line. I walked away and the wind was blowing. Then I heard the sound of PVC pipes collapsing on each other. I turned around and saw this...

Ahhhh! I sighed and got the camera. Look at the sheet. It's not moving at all, but moments earlier it was whipping all over and whipped the frame into submission.

Today hubby went back at it in the hot sun which he hates. He put it back together, anchored it into the ground, draped the covering over it again and my daughter (H) crawled in and layed down. There's still more to be done as you can see the sagging, but we're going to the ocean tomorrow for the day. Mr. Tent, you'll have to wait some more.

This might take all summer, but by golly we are gonna play in that tent some day or night and maybe even sleep out there.

Thanks, Hope, for the idea. Maybe next summer I'll buy a tent, if I have a job.
Happy tenting everyone.

Many a Little Makes a Mickle

I was going to name this "A Stitch in Time Saves Nine", but when I looked it up it didn't quite fit what I want to share. Many a little makes a mickle fits better because a stitch in time saves nine has to do with patching holes in cloth before they get bigger, but the mickle one means "many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount". It comes from Scotland and the original word was actually muckle.

All that to say I admire women who can do needle work (quilting included), especially when they are hanging out or watching T.V. I think it's amazing that they can concentrate on the counting, thread strands needed, colors of thread, number of stitches, etc. I don't even have that patience and concentration. God bless them especially when I am the receiver of such fine pieces of art.

I have several framed works, some works made into pillows, of course the quilt my mom made for our wedding gift (thanks mom) and pieces that I've inherited. My grandmother knitted, crocheted, did cross stitch and even a little sewing. She did her part in teaching me how to crochet and knit, but it just didn't stick.

I look at the collection I have out (much of it is tucked away in my hope chest) and I think, "What will I do with it all when I redecorate some day?" I don't think it'll all fit in with the new look I'd like to have and I don't want to store it away in boxes in the attic. I thought of sewing them together, but I don't think that'll look too good. Then I thought of some kind of keepsake book for the smaller pieces. Maybe it'll end up being a combination of these, but I do want to keep every piece I have. Each means so much to me because they were handmade with love by someone in my life now or in the past.

Have I placed too much value or sentiment on these precious things? What will my loved ones do with them when I'm gone some day? At this point I guess it doesn't matter, I'm still here and the beloved handmade gifts I was given are still here so I think I'll enjoy them awhile longer.
God bless all of you who use your hands to painstakenly, one stitch at a time make a mickle and thanks for sharing them with me.