Month: May 2013

Dave Painted Our Walls

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To be precise, Dave painted our living room walls in 1996. If we purchased this house in 2005, how do I know?

That is how.

It was behind the big mirror that has been mounted over our fireplace since presumable 1996. The big mirror that reflected nothing but the ceiling. For many years, I have wanted to take that mirror down. Finally, I got my wish.

Dan and I got a good laugh out of Dave’s signature and the garish pink paint.

Mr. Elliott, the husband of the couple that built our house, must have been a loving and tolerant man. I don’t know too many men who will allow their wives to paint their living room pink.

Before the day was through though, I had painted over it with a primer. I can tolerate a lot of colors, but pink is not one of them. Sweet Elly will have to live her entire childhood without pink walls.

Hopefully, relocating the huge mirror that once hung over the mantle into her room will make up for the lack of pink paint.

Though I would love to claim that moving the mirror into Elly’s room was my idea, the brilliance came from her Grandpop. He saw how Elly lit up in front of the wall of mirrors in her aunt’s house and promptly informed me that she needed a huge mirror in her bedroom.

Now she has one.

I imagine a lot of time is going to be spent in front of this mirror.

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Rainy Day Fun

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It rained almost all day. After it finished raining, it still wasn’t nice enough to venture outside. The temperature had plummeted to a cool 50 F. So, we stayed indoors all day long.

Naturally, we read a lot of books.

We watched Finding Nemo.

Then, it was time to pull out the crafts.

Armed with a used egg carton, 2 bottles of Elmer’s glue, 4 bottles of glitter glue (Elly loves glue. Lots of glue), glitter, bells, pom poms and stickers, I was able to amuse Elly for close to an hour.

 

Every single hole was filled with glue. Lots of glue was needed to hold all the decorations.

 

Verdict: thumbs up from Elly.

Though I don’t think this is a project that will be treasured and kept. It’s a mite too big to fit into her scrapbook and it’s a disaster waiting to happen. The moment someone accidentally knocks it upside down will be the very moment oodles of glitter will be dumped all over the floor. Truly, I’ve had my fill of wiping glitter off the floor.

A Cast Iron Wok

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If I were a kitten, I would purr.

Instead I’ll just gush.

OMG, I love my new wok. Truly, I don’t know how I survived so many years without one. For the first time in my life, I can make fried rice without pulling my hair out. Nothing stuck to the cast iron. Not the eggs. Not the rice. Nothing. To clean it, I wiped it with a paper towel.

The cast iron retained heat beautifully once it was heated up. The trick of pushing up already cooked foods to the sides of the wok so they cooked at a lower temp worked brilliantly. Truly, the wok is an ingenious piece.

Just in case you want your own because I had you at purr, the wok is a Lodge Cast Iron Wok 14 inches. Because I don’t live in Tennessee near the Lodge store, I purchased mine from Amazon and had it delivered free thanks to our prime membership.

Even though the wok comes pre-seasoned, I opted to season it again by deep frying some doughnuts in it. (Really I just wanted an excuse to make some doughnuts).

Elly helped, of course.

But, back to my wok.

It’s big. I have no idea where I am going to store it yet. For now, it is sitting on top of my stove so every time I walk into my kitchen, I see it there and smile. I can see myself cooking a whole lot more in it than just fried rice and doughnuts.

A Dog Rug

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For a very small dog. Think chihuahua.

Jake’s head might fit on it, but nothing else.

Unfortunately, the rug is starting to get too big to fit in my knitting bag. It is also getting too warm to lay on my lap while knitting.

Tonight I took it to my neighbor’s house only to have Elly pull the live stitches off the needles. Then, she proceeded to stab the needles into the rug, informing me that she was knitting and helping me. It was very cute.  But, as you can guess, not a lot of knitting takes place when she is around.

Thus lately, I have only worked on it while at McDonald’s thanks to Elly being preoccupied and to the AC keeping me cool.

Sunday Snapshots (of warm weather)

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Before the recent cold snap hit, there was enough warm weather to pull out the new sprinkler.

With 80’s predicted for at least two days this week, rest assured that the sprinkler will get some more love.

Though if Elly gets her way, “Cookie Monster” will finally be blown up. She hasn’t played in it for about 9 months, but darned if she hasn’t forgotten.

Gahh, look at the chub on her! So cute! Not even a year has passed, but all that baby fat is gone.

It all went to her height. My little girl is getting tall.

No doubt she’ll pass me in a few short years.

Elly’s 1st Pony Ride

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A few months ago, Elly had informed me that she wanted a pet horse. As stubborn as my “little mule” is, she was not dissuaded by my excuses of why we couldn’t have a pet horse. Thus, it came as no surprise that the first animal Elly wanted to ride at the Philadelphia Zoo was a pony.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t reach the stirrups. It didn’t matter that the staff woman held the reins for her. It didn’t even matter that she only got to walk slowly around in a big circle.

She was thrilled.

I held my breath after thinking she would ask again for a horse of her own. Thankfully, the zoo was filled with so many other animals to look at and places to run around that I was saved.

Of course, she did ask to ride the ponies again. As I’m sure she will ask every time we visit the zoo now.

Sunday Snapshots (of the May Fair)

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Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers out there, including my dear MIL!

Elly surprised me with a handmade foam ‘Mom’, a beetle pin and a Flinstone card. The best present though was when she ran to me in the morning and wished me a Happy Mother’s Day followed by a big hug. Melted my heart, it did.

Pictures this week are from the May Fair we attended last weekend at our local Pottsgrove Manor.

Elly’s favorite activities included petting the animals, particularly Tuppence the sheep,


Elly’s favorite thing about Tuppence was how she would say “Baah”. It never failed to send Elly into a fit of giggles.

watching an acrobatic show by the lovely Signora Bella,

and pumping water from their well.

OK. So playing in the water that poured out of the spigot was also a huge hit.

 

 

Free Pizza

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The Pottstown Library has a reading program during the summer. The goal is to read at least 20 minutes a day for a total of 20 days. As a reward, Elly gets a free slice of pizza this afternoon.

Meeting that requirement was super easy. Elly is a voracious reader. Which is to say that I am a voracious reader and Elly is an avid listener, since Elly is only 3 and can’t read. Although she is starting to recognize some words.

This is a typical stack of books that we read on a daily basis.

Her favorites are anything by Dr. Seuss, almost anything by the Berenstains (though I donated the one about the moon because I hated it) and Fancy Nancy.

Gone are the days I can change the story up so I don’t end up reading the same text over and over and over again. Even a slip of the tongue draws a correction from Elly now.

New Wheels

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Dan has brand new wheels.

It’s a Honda Civic.
He went back to his first love.

Though the Toyota Camry is still going strong, our 2nd car the Mazda was on its last legs. It needed a new engine. A new engine it wasn’t going to get.

With this purchase, Dan has a new car, well new to him anyway; it was purchased used from Car Sense, to drive to work everyday and rack up the miles on and Elly and I have a reliable car that we can take out of Pottstown without having to hold our breath.

Though Dan and I operated as a 1 car family for many years before Elly was born and we even survived the first year of her life as a 1 car family, after having a taste as a 2 car family, there is no going back. The freedom of having a 2nd car is too tantalizing. Yes, Pottstown has a bus system and Septa can get us anywhere beyond the boundaries of Pottstown, but a car allows us to make our own schedule. Perhaps if the buses ran more frequently rather than every hour and if they actually ran on time, it would be feasible to live without a 2nd car, but they don’t. Too many times we were stuck in downtown Pottstown for an hour because we missed the bus by a few minutes. It’s not a fun scenario when you have a cranky, tired, and hungry child on your hands. A 2nd car is worth its weight in gold.

When Dan got home in his new car, he received a warm welcome.

Why I Fell in Love with Gardening

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This yard made me fall in love with gardening.

In Spring, our yard is filled with eye candy. Here in this picture only 3 dogwood trees are visible, but there is a total of 6 dogwood trees in our yard each one more beautiful than the other. There are more azalea bushes than I have fingers on my hands.

Millions of bulbs pop up every year from tulips to daffodils to crocuses to daylilies. The scent of the lilac bushes can be smelled before your eye locates them on the edge of the property.

Before moving into this house 8 years ago, I hated gardening. It seemed like such a fruitless activity. All that bending and digging and weeding felt like work. All I wanted was a glass of port and a huge ball of yarn instead, thank you very much.

Then, I saw the beauty that a garden can bring. Add in fresh tomatoes and I came crashing to my knees.

Yep, I could spend every waking hour in my garden. Elly has less dedication. There are swings to be ridden and ice cream to eat.